Valentines Party

So Kate decided to do here annual Valentines Day Party this year. A good hundred kids showed up. It took me back to my glory days of cabin parties. The only problem was that all these kids kept thinking I was some freshman at BYU. I mean come on how many times this year is someone going to either think I'm in high school or a freshman? I'm not that immature...right? I decided I really wanted to bake something and it had honestly been too long. So a special shout out to my Aunt Traci who introduced me to browned butter( her rice krispies and the bomb). I made a yummy browned butter frosting and vanilla cupcakes. I helped out my mom with a few other desserts and then busted out the pink cake plates for the occasion.

 Pinterest what have your done to me? It's like cupcakes look naked without a flag now.

 Our friends Trent and Stephanie came up for the party and as you can see we all had a lot of fun, but clearly Mike stole the show.

 That's right everyone Mike has decided to decline Dental School and pursue modeling. I couldn't be more proud.

Valentines love. Too cute right?

Happy Birthday Mike

So yes I am a little late on the post but yesterday was a pretty full day and there was not a lot of time for blogging. My sweetie pie of a husband turned 26 yesterday. It's official he has made it to the late 20's. I just love this boy so much. He is such a fun person to be around. He is always making people laugh. He often comes home and tells me the funny comments he made in class that day( he is just so proud). He is really athletic. I have always loved that we could work out together or hike together or anything active. He is always game for anything. He is such a thoughtful person and is always trying to help me out. He spent all weekend helping me babysit in a home with 6 girls including myself and even watched My Girl with us. He is such a stud. He watches stupid TV shows with me just bc he knows I love them. He works hard in school and has always had a job since I have known him. Mike doesn't have to work but he chooses to so that we can save for school. I admire him a lot for that. He is great with kids. The little girls I nanny just adore him and I love it. This past year has been so huge for him with taking the DAT and applying to dental school and taking his hardest semester yet. He survived and did it with style. He is an amazing person and I am so lucky to be married to him. I hope the next year is just as great!

The Gingerbread House

 2011 Edition

Last year my mom and I made a new pattern for the gingerbread house. We have been making one ever since I can remember. In the last few years the mentality of it all has changed to "Go Big or Go Home". This year we added a few more things and went with a whole new roof. It was a long process and my mom needs a lot of credit on this one. She has been feeling super sick lately and still powered through it all to keep this tradition alive. So here are a few pictures from Saturday. Special thanks go to Mike, Steve, Dayna and Kate. This was a group effort.

Check out that chocolate rock foundation.

 pretty sweet right?

notice mikes satellite dish hahah

 New flower boxes this year

 we attempted to dormer window this year. It was an architectural challenge but we prevailed.

 Max made a soccer ball....

 Steve and Dayna rocked the chimney.

Thanksgiving Crafts

Yes I made more glitter pumpkins and a new Fall leaf garland for our mantle. It was just meant to be though. I was out shopping and got a whole bag of the smaller pumpkins and the 2 glass beaded ones for 3 dollars. That's a screamin deal folks. I did suffer some serious hot glue burns from this project. That is a lot of leaves on there. Mike got me hooked on the new show Pan Am, so I just plugged away while watching all the episodes. It was so easy as long as you have a paper cutter that scores. I did do it over 2 weeks so if you are going to make one of your own be prepared. I have a few ideas for our Christmas mantle, but since we will be gone in Florida most of the holiday, I am going to have to pull that together ASAP. I have a feeling I will still be using glitter. 

I'm Thankful

During this time of year I am so thankful for my family and all that they do for Mike and I. My parents are so generous and my siblings are the best and so ready to help us out whenever we are in a bind. It's a wonderful time of year to think about all of the blessings we have and this is just one of mine.

My Latest Project

So I made a garland very similar to this for our mantle for Thanksgiving. The only difference is I used a lot more green and I had more variety in my colors. I did use the gold ink pad but a lot of my paper was metallic and it didn't show up as well. I still love it. It was so cheap to make and it looks really pretty with my glitter pumpkins. I will get some pictures up soon once I make a few more finishing touches. 

I was trying to find some pictures to post of anything we have done recently. Yeah you can guess it. I had none. But I did find some from about a month ago when  mike and I were going on a date and decided to document it. So I thought I would throw them on for fun.

There we are in all our glory. I'm making more pillows this week for our couch and possible painting a dresser. If I am really lucky I will make some progress on my Christmas skirt that I started over conference weekend. Yeah it's a very time consuming skirt. You will see why some day.

Hocus Pocus and a Lot of Glitter

These are the things that my Halloween season consisted of. Dayna and I got on a serious DIY kick this year and I totally loved it. My house looked so festive. I have now become motivated to do a mantle for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will see how long my enthusiasm lasts on that one. We made our own glitter pumpkins this year which I seriously loved. Clearance pumpkins and half off super fine glitter are pretty much magic words to me right now. We made cute silhouettes of witches and crows. And last but not least we did the cute DIY Halloween banner on Me Oh My Mama. I also  decided to decorate with my fully decked out witch hat from our witches night out at Gardner Village. We also had the pleasure of doing a blast from the past night with Sam and Dave where we watched hocus pocus, ate cookie dough and watched a childhood fav.

Sorry for the very crappy pictures. I ran into the room and took a few in the middle of carving pumpkins

Now for the Activities 

We had our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza ( Doesn't that word make it sound like we went all out) We popped in my spooky sounds CD that my mom gave me my freshman year of college and carved away. Here are some of the results from the photo shoot after. Please excuse the running hair and clothes. It nasty I know.

And of course Dave rocking his sail boat pumpkin

And last but not least our Costumes. Mike found the idea this year. We thought we would go for the theme that has been consuming our lives for the past 6 months... Dental School! So here we are Mr. Tooth and the Tooth fairy.

We might have pulled these costumes together the 3 hours before the Party. There might have been a good amount of hot glue used b/c of the time constraints. We figure we can just reuse the pillow when our kids lose their teeth. I mean who doesn't want a giant tooth to sleep on?