How fun..

So every month the girls and I get together for an evening of dinner and a game of BUNCO. So fun. We all look forward to it every time. This month was my night to host. I went with the "Girls Night Out theme". We had a menu of "chick food" (as Jacob calls it) that consisted of soup in bread bowls, salad, cheese and crackers, shrimp, and fun pink and black cupcakes (which I forgot to take pics of...darn it... :( Instead of paying $6.50 a month for prizes, we just purchase the prizes when it is our night to host. For prizes, I got a gift certificate from a super cute shoe store in the mall (of course!), a gift certificate for a pedicure, movie tickets for a "chick flick" and a Mary Kay eye make-up remover, mascara and eyeliner package. For the tables, I had black tablecloths, pink plates, little shopping bag place savers filled with chocolate and a nail file along with martini glasses in the middle filled with yummy chocolate. So fun. Everyone should have a girls night out once in a while...

A little blogging game...

So...a little blogging game...This one involves getting free stuff. I got this off Katie's blog. She owes me a handmade gift. The first three people to leave a comment on my blog will receive a handmade gift from me. You will not get it tomorrow and probably not even next week, but you'll get it within the year. Here's the catch...if you want to get free stuff, you have to pay it forward and make the same promise on your blog. (You must have a blog to participate.) So if you want to get something from me, you have to give to three people. Who's it gonna be? Since I'm not the crafty type (unless you are in the area and want a cake...) here's what I'm offering...You can send me a cd or e-mail me a bunch of your photos and some song requests(from a fun trip, birthday party or whatever...) and I can make you a fun video of it so that you can watch it from time to time instead of opening a scrap book.

St. George is great...

So we are up in St. George on a business trip with Daddy. Ryan loves going to the job site with his Dad and we are having a great time hanging out in the hotel, going to the pool, using the gym and going out to dinner. Yeah! A whole 2 weeks without cleaning, cooking or doing dishes! We even saw the St. George temple. It was gorgeous. I'm sure there will be more to come. (It's raining now so I'm couped up in the hotel. I'll be online a lot...) If all goes well, we might even be able to visit Cali for about 5 days or so. We'll have to see how Jacob's job is going though.

For Namma...

Here is Lizzy opening her present from you. She loved it & loved wearing it to her party. Thanks Namma.

I can't believe she's 5 !!!

Lizzy had a birthday so that means birthday cake, of course! This one is acutally out of fondant (but of course, I don't like the taste of fondant, so I iced it normally underneath.) Jacob is my "muscle" and kneeded and rolled out all the fondant for me. (It was Wilton Fondant so it was hard to roll out, of course) Everything except for the pearls at the bottom of her skirt and the "sea weed" behind her is edible. Lizzy & I had fun making all the shells and flowers the night before out of gumpaste and then painted them with food coloring. I think the clam with the pearl was her favorite. Anyway, hope you enjoy the cake pics Brittany. Lizzy loved it.

Daddy took the day off of work to be with Lizzy on her birthday. We started the day with the traditional "Blueberry Bannana Pancakes", then gave her a new bike complete with a basket and streamers. After that, she went to Wal-Mart to pick out the Barbie for her cake. We also rented the "Barbie Island Princess" movie (from wich the cake was inspired) and came home and watched that together. She helped me finish decorating the cake then we went to Wal-Mart again because we forgot the graham crackers (to smash and put around the cake as sand) and stopped of at McDonalds for a birthday lunch. She then took a very long, very late nap so she could stay up for the New Year's Eve party that we were going to later that night. We got up, got ready in her new birthday dress from Namma and took the cake with us. She had a blast with all her friends and we got to sing Happy Birthday to her. She told me this morning that she "loved her Birthday." Thanks so much everyone for all the birthday wishes and Birthday cards!

Oh yes... it's Ladies night....

This is Lizzy & Ryan doing their "cool moves". Just thought it was hillarious! Thanks Grandma for the musical card! The kids have obviously had a blast with it!

Happy Holidays!

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a generally stress-free holiday. We got about 4 inches of snow on Christmas eve! Talk about a white Christmas! It was awesome! I think the best part was that the kids were finally old enough to really understand the true meaning of why we have Christmas. It was so fun to set up our nativity scene with them and have them ask questions. Lizzy even make Jesus a birthday cake with her new felt cake-decorating set. Hope everyone had a good Christmas too!