Holiday Cake Pops

I didn't think I'd make these again, but I couldn't resist baking a batch of Cake Pops for the holidays. 

Moab

Having a great post-Christmas vacation with the family in Castle Valley. These pictures are from yesterday when we went to Arches National Park & hiked to Delicate Arch. The hike was less busy than it is in the summer, but was still fairly crowded. I have never done that hike before, so I was excited to see it & the arch exceeded my expectations.

Today we hiked up to the Morning Glory Bridge with my sister and Dad and it was really beautiful. After the hike, my husband made some homemade chicken tacos for dinner & we played a new board game, "Galaxy Truckers".

Great vacation, but I hope that the cats are doing alright without us!

Helping with the laundry

Torturing the cats for the sake of Christmas.

Trout looking miserable.  I have to torture these cats for at least 15 minutes for every holiday.  The collar didn't piss Trout off as much as the hat did...

The little jingle bells tied to the end of the ribbons really bothered Inku.  She seemed less miserable about her costume than Trout. 

Our gnome became Christmas Cat Toy gnome.  Trout's thinking about destroying him.

Eating

They are eating side-by-side now.

Wish I was home

It would be nice to be home cuddling with cats and resting on the couch with the book that I am currently reading, 1Q84, instead of working the day away.

Decorating the Christmas tree

Mischief

These two were up to something, I'm sure of it.

Mmmmm, Ham Sandwich

Found a delicious ham & swiss @ Caputo's my sister would love this.

Ouch

Too crazy.

Jell-o Shots are hard

Collar

Sleepy girl

She looks so cute in pink.

Sunshine cat taking a bath.

Decorations

Put up the tree & decorations today.

She's going to be trouble with this tree...

Thanksgiving

I had a pretty delicious Thanksgiving; I'm still eating leftovers!

 After dinner, my grandpa challenged the family to a game of Chinese Checkers. 

Squeaker

She doesn't meow, she just sort of squeaks a lot...

Inku is a squeaker

Cake Bites

 

I got the idea from my sister-in-law, Emmi.  First, I made a chocolate cake from scratch and chocolate butter frosting from scratch.  Then I crumbled the cake into a bowl & mixed in the frosting by hand.  Then, I rolled balls of cake and coated them with hard vanilla candy coating & topped with gold & silver sprinkles. Bakerella.com makes this look incredibly appealing & effortless, but she has had a lot of practice.  I don't know if I'll ever make these again, due to the considerable effort & resulting mess. 

Made some chocolate cake bites today.

Getting along

Two cat balls, cuddled @ the top of the stairs.

Inku likes to look in on Daniel when he's using the computer.

& then she falls asleep up there...

Love it.

So far...

Trout & Inku are starting to play together with less hissing and growling than before! Inku really likes sprinting at & around Trout. Trout is too fat to keep up with her & she is able to hide in small places that he can't reach.

While I was @ work yesterday, it they grew even more accustomed to one another!
Inku is so much fun when she sleeps. She is very different than Trout in that she lays in all sorts of different positions & she is not easily woken. In fact, you can rearrange her paws if you like!
Last night, they both slept with us on the bed. :)

Uh oh!

What's this?! It's a new kitten! Meet Inku. Aka Ink, Aka Ink-a-binks, Aka Missy-Miss, and I'm sure there will be plenty more nicknames to come.

 

She is 8 weeks old, and we adopted her yesterday from the Humane Society of Utah. My husband had worked for over a month trying to convince me to adopt a cat. I wasn't giving in until we went to the shelter yesterday and saw this sweet little girl. We adopted her on the spot and now we're working to get her and Trout acquainted.






So far she is very sweet, very playful and has an incredibly adorable, squeaky meow.  She does not like being left alone for too long, and will start to cry without some attention.  We have put her in a room upstairs with Chilla and blocked the door with baby gates so that she and Trout are able to sniff, hiss, and swat at each other, but not kill each other (a very important detail). 

Friday morning, no work.

I have the good fortune of being able to spend this beautiful fall morning lounging in bed with the cat, taking my time before finally stumbling out into the cool, late October air.
Halloween is everywhere. I will be making a trip down to the fabric store today to pick up some simple materials to make capes for my husband & I to wear to a Halloween Party tonight & a Real Salt Lake playoff game tomorrow night.
Let the festivities begin!

Hello

Every day that I am at work, my husband takes a picture of our animals and sends it to me.  I intend to post these pictures on this blog every day. 

His name is Trout, and he is feisty.  He's about 5 years old now.  

Here he is, hard at work.  

We also have a chinchilla named Chilla.  He is about 5 1/2 years old now.

Here he is enjoying his new cage.