Beauteeeful Fairies

I think my ward has some creative people in it! I love the parties I get invited to - this last one being a Fairy Party!! A real nice lady I know LOVES fairies and dragons...which, coincidence!!!, so do I!! When she found out I wanted to do a girl's nursery in fairies, and then my baby boy's nursery in dragons, she told me about her fairy party and I got a cute little invitation not too long after!





A lot of work goes into a little party like this, there are so many fantastic details, such as her table and all the flowers, fairy quotes, china and party boxes.






It was so much fun watching all the different fairies arrive. Our hostess had pretty dragon fly wings and a homemade costume to match. As you can see from the fairies below, there is a Japanese fairy in her kimono, a punk ballerina fairy, a flower fairy (who won the Best Costume prize! - if you look super close you can see all the flowers in her hair and on her wings) and a stylish fairy in turquoise:



The only wings I could think of that I had access to were my sisters black fairy wings from a Halloween costume several years ago. So I borrowed them and dressed my eyes and hair up rock n' roller style, grabbed my studded heels, 'leather' leggings, a skull n cross bones tee, my long black feather earrings and some hardware on my wrist and I went as.....something. I dunno. Naughty fairy, Punk fairy, Evil fairy...whatever works. But I had a lot fun with it. It's been a long time since I have been able to get dressed up - and I love dressing up!!!





My wings are kind of hard to see but the curl up at the tops and also down below. I like them:

When the party got started we all had to sign into a guest book and then pick up the 'program'. Inside was some trivia games, a fairy search game, insturctions to awarding the best costume and making fairy crowns. The fairy search was really hard!! She had figurines like this places all over in her garden and flowers and we had to try to find them. Not. Easy!! I don't know how some people found so many!!! The most obvious ones weren't even on the list to find!!! LIke this knight:


And some were very camouflaged or very VERY tiny and very well hidden!:

After a fine feast of a delicious spread of food, our hostess read a fairy tale.

And when the sun finally went down, it was the perfect setting for chatting and laughing with good friends! I had so much fun sitting with the girls at my table. Jill and I played with some camera apps and we came up with some silly pictures:

You will never see a sexier lady than me:


And me and Teresa (who went as a shimmery little elf with awesome purple eyelashes) looking a little twisted:

See!!! Told you I get to go to some fun stuff 'round these parts. I love it!!

Hawaiian Luau

Paul has a high school friend in the military (who flies helicopters and teaches how to fly hellies) and he's home in Utah for a two-week leave. His family threw a big luau party for him and I thought I'd share some fun pics.

This tiki bar was homemade! We got the whole story on the warrior posts and all that but I won't bore you with it:


This little warrior guards the alcohol. It's my favorite:


They have some polynesian neighbors that roasted them a pig with real yams and everything!:


As you can see, Paul and I each got leid ;)

New Years

I don't have any fun pictures of New Years Eve, unfortunately. But I did just want to jot down a few things we did around that time that were very fun:





1. Paul and I hadn't made any plans to go anywhere to bring in the New Year. I wasn't feeling well and we have spent more NYE's in than we have out so it's kinda just what we do. Becky and Judd joined us last minute - lucky for us that their plans fell through! - and so we had Paul's homemade enchiladas, some random snacks, and Becky and Judd made nummy cookies. We played card games and then ended up having never-ending Tetris competitions. We were so in to it, in fact, that we noticed there was less than a minute left til Midnight! We hurried and switched the tv over to a station to watch the ball drop - just in the nick of time with only 15 seconds left! - and then went right back to Tetris :) It was seriously fun for me!

We also had some fab friends in the hood throw a pre-New Years Party (sans children). They rented out the game room at Noah's and we spent the night playing all sorts of stuff and watching football on the big screen. It was super cool.

2. We went out to dinner with Amanda and Spencer, something that we haven't done in a long time. It was so nice to get out and we went to Tepanyaki and enjoyed fantastic food! I had a lot of fun laughing together and I wish I had ten bowls of that salad with the amazing ginger dressing to take home!





3. The following night after Tepanyaki, all of my siblings met at Bonzai - the exact same food and type of restaurant as Tepanyaki. Our cook was especially funny and with 9 crazy kids we had a blast. I stole my husbands salad so I was able to eat 2 ginger dressing salads!!! We also pretended that it was Amber's birthday. At Bonzai they bring over a gong and - somebody please help me out...what's the name of the little round thing that has bells all along the outside and you smack it while you sing?? I can't remember!!! - to play as obnoxiously as you want and we sang to her in the very same fashion we do at home - ha ha ha....I think people thought we were crazy! - and then they take your group photo, print it out and you get to write on it and hang it up in the restaurant. Oh, and everyone gets a little cup of very good ice cream. It was a fantastic night.





4. We had a fun night with our friends Teresa and Paul and a new couple in our neighborhood. We had cheese fondue, great appetizers, a fantasticly yummy warm drink and Teresa made us little desserts to top it all off. We played a game called Wits and Wagers and had a blast getting to know our new friends...all thanks to Teresa's wonderful planning!

5. As a family, we attended the latest Chronicles of Narnia. The funny part of us going to movies is that when it's over, someone goes and refills their popcorn bucket and we stand around eating it and goofing off for awhile. :) We also sort of make a mess.

My nephews found this poster quite fun and here's Aiden pretending he's Rango:

Temple Square

Paul and I hadn't been to see the light at Temple Square in a few years and we had some friends who happened to be heading down there and so we made it a group date. We took Trax down (barf!! I hate riding Trax!) and enjoyed some hot chocolate once we reached the square.

My favorite part is the Reflection pond...always so pretty, especially at Christmas time. While we were there I discovered an awesome trick I can do with my point-and-shoot:

Pretty cool, eh?? Yeah....I made that up...on accident. Paul and I then had lots of fun seeing what kind of images we could come up with but none so cool as the one above there of our friends.

We continued to walk and I snapped pictures of all the Nativites. I hadn't seen all the different ethnic nativities before and I found them quite awesome:

But none as cool as the one on the water with all the pond lights...it's amazing:

Off in the corner of the Visitor's Building I found someone else's work of art...these miniatrue snowmen that were only a few inches high! Ha ha - I loved them:

And when we just about frozen through, the square started closing so we booked it to the Trax before it got slammed....and then ended up getting on the wrong one headed up to the U. Annnnd then we backtracked and had to try that again. Needless to say it was too much time on that thing and I couldn't help the fact that I puked once we finally got off. Motion sickness blows.

Fondue with Friends

Sunday night after seeing Bronsynn off, we headed to Chet and Cheryl's (acquaintences from high school that have now become good friends - although Chet and Paul were very good friends in H.S. already) for some fondue!!

Rachelle, Chet and Cheryl enjoying delicious Swiss and Cheddar fondue:

Paul and I:

After we ate ourselves fat, we sat in the living room talking, laughing, and reminscing for HOURS!! It was so fun to laugh til you cry while reliving good times. So much fun.

Panna Cotta Numiness

Look what I was gifted with last night!

Teresa made these for our ward cooking class. I forgot all about it, unfortunately, and I was at home with a friend. Teresa thoughtfully, and thankfully, brought over some for us, my friend included - how great, right?? I know - she's fab! They were sooooo good. I love Panna Cotta and these were made with super yummy pomegranate berry jello...mmm mmmm mmmm! She da bomb!

Birthday Fondue

This past weekend one of my dear friends, Teresa the Fabulous, celebrated her birthday! She and I have talked several times of getting together for Fondue and I figured it would be perfect timing to finally have that get together with her birthday coming up!

While trying to decide which of the fabulous fondue recipes we wanted to try (and it was a very hard process!) she had a brilliant idea to take me downtown to see some of her favorite spots. How very Teresa to treat someone else to something on her own birthday!!

Saturday morning the first stop on my 'tour' was....a place that I can't remember...but it has tonz of unique and beautiful things for your home and outdoors. The best part was their garden outside. It was small, peaceful and very beautiful. I want a garden like that of my own to retreat to.

Next on our tour was Tabula Rasa at Trolley Square. She loves fun and unique stationary, invitations, and wax seals, etc. Plus they have so many fun and unique things like glass work and little jeweled statues plus lots of books...I love books!

We stopped by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the way out and I grabbed an Apple Pie Apple (my favorite!!!), a Peanut Butter Bucket (which I didn't even get to try....HUSBAND!!) and we each had some yummy flavored truffles.

Onward to the Salt Lake City Library...which I can't believe that I have never been there before now. I love the architecture and the design and the cool stores inside. The roof has an amazing view of the city and the stair case and fountain/waterfall was pretty inspiring. Loved this stop!

Next she took me to my new favorite place: Gourmandise. Ho. Ly. Hannah!! I couldn't believe all the fantastic french pastries and yummy cakes and cookies. Heaven!! We shared a frittata and each bought some fabulous pastries to take home...they were soooooo good.

Next we hit up Tony Caputo's - I love this place! Unique chocolates and every cheese you can think of. The Primadonna cheese Teresa bought was top notch. We also got to taste test a variety of Balsamic Vinaigrettes and Olive Oils. They were so good and I snatched one up for myself! Tony Caputo's inspired my inner cook...I think I need to sign up for some more cooking classes!

Leaving Tony Caputo's we went next door to Carlucci's Bakery for a Black & White cookie (very good) and some fabulous baguettes for the fondue. They too have some great things to choose from. We walked across the street to check out the Farmer's Market after that...and found ourselves spending most of the time at the booth for The Soap Lady. Her soaps are fantastic! My mom has dabbled in making some of her own soaps and it sure is a fun hobby. This lady's soaps are pretty and smell soooo good!

Alright!! That was my tour! I loved each place we went and felt so happy to go and try something new and unique to Salt Lake. So very fun. And all because of my fab friend!

Later in the evening, the fondue party began! We made two cheese fondues, The Traditional and Feta & Walnut:

Had an entree fondue of broth called Mojo:

Two chocolate fondues, the Flaming Turtle and an Almaretto:

It was definately an experience, right Teresa?? It's going to take a couple of sessions to work out all the kinks but the fun part was being with friends and Teresa is an amazing cook so it was perfect to have her along for the ride :) We had a bit of trouble with both of our cheeses but the important part is that they both tasted really good!!!

The most trouble free part was the entree - easy and delicious. We both made a sauce for the meat, one Horseradish and one called the Green Goddess. We ate chicken, beef and shrimp!

Paul and Teresa enjoying my nummy Mojo:

Did you notice my fondue pot?? I love that thing...I can't wait to do more!!

Lastly came the chocolate. We had a bit of trouble with the white chocolate but we salvaged it and it was delicious anyway!! The Flaming Turtle went much better except I forgot to mix in the cream before we set it on fire. No pictures unfortunately but that's okay. We enjoyed our chocolate fondue outside with the fire and stuffed ourselves on strawberries, bananas, mangos, and marshmallows and good conversation!

Happy Birthday to one of the most interesting and brilliant women that I am priviledged to know!

Pioneer Weekend

I am very late in reporting...my bad.

Our pioneer weekend was very fun and very busy. Paul and I had Friday off so we spent the day hauling rock and mulch to the backyard. It was an exhausting day but it felt so good to be nearing the end of the yard remodel.

Later that night, we went to go see Eclipse. In keeping with tradition, Lou and I went and dragged our poor husbands along - ha ha!! Sucks for them! We decided to change things up a bit though and we went to the drive in. It was a trip back in time and super fun. We were naughty though and we jumped ship. Becky and Judd parked in Depiscable Me and Paul and I parked in Eclipse. You aren't supposed to switch theaters but we figured we would watch what we would want to watch...and we actually got caught!! Couldn't believe it but luckily, I can be an incredible liar when I want to be and I made up a fabulous fib and got us out of hot water :) We then enjoyed mushy smushy, corny, kissy, and somewhat decent film.

Saturday, more yard!! Booooo!! But after that, we were invited along with Lou and Judd and we went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. It was great!! We sat outside, right under the misters, it was perfect weather and the food was awesome!! Then we battled the entire Salt Lake City population for parking spots at Liberty Park for some crap fireworks. At least we have a memory from it :)

Along came Sunday and Paul and I headed to my parents to celebrate the holiday as well as my dad's birthday. Xanni's birthday was the week before so we threw a couple extra candles on the ice cream for her as well. No cake for my dad - just the good stuff :)

Again, we're for hire if any one wants. I know you have never heard anythings so fantastic in your entire life!

Baby Shower For Karen

As I was writing that title, one thought led to another and soon after I had a mental of image of umbrellas and raining babies. How odd...

Anyhoo!! This is my college roommate, Karen, and she is expecting her first! They are naming him Weston. That's her opening my present:

Isn't it cute??? Yeah, yeah I know - I'm fabulous! I have sorta kinda made my trademark baby gift for my closest friends a hooded towel with the babies name embroidered on the bum, with other baby bath stuff. She is decorating his room in jungle babies so there is a little monkey hanging off a branch next to the 'W'. I thought I was pretty clever.

I thought this shirt was AWESOME - I want my baby to wear famous Michael Scott sayings!!!:

My friend, Lou (ha ha ha - she'll either kill me or laugh at this...if I'm not here after nextweekend that it obviously wasn't the latter):

And the three of us - Becky, Karen and Me!:

I'm super excited for her! She is such a great person and I love her to death.

Bunco Night wit da Gang

Last Friday, I was really excited to get together and host Bunco for our old Bunco Group. It's been nearly a year since we rounded up and played and we always BUTTLOADS of fun!

Monica, the original Bunco hostess and planner, left us to start a new life in Colorado and since then we let Bunco die with a few feeble attempts to start it up again. But she was here visiting for the weekend and we made sure to have it happen!:

(Rachelle got really happy with the fingers in the lens.)

(And then it started a trend.)

Monica, me and Rachelle:

Of course, the sexiest guy on the planet:

We ate super nachos, spent time talking and catching up, chilling out on the patio in the awesome weather and, of course, getting loud and crazy with dice :)

WingNuts

After my awesome boarding adventures, I hustled home to shower and get ready to meet friends at WingNuts in Draper. I had plans to meet my awesome friend Rachelle:

so that Paul and I could meet her boyfriend. He didn't get off work until 8:30 and so we decided to hang out together while I helped my friend, Britney, promote her new business Klub Knarley. Britney's good friends just opened WingNuts a few weeks ago and one of the services Britney provides is providing models for whatever you need. So basically, our job was to go around to tables, ask them how they were diggin the place, how they heard of WingNuts, ect. ect., and get refills on their drinks if they wanted. The owner, Melissa is super fantastic and lets us have free food and drinks and we just hung out all night. It's really laid back and we ended up having a LOT of fun!

That would be my sweet husband punching me in the face here:

My sweet husband being a doink as always:

And the three of us together:

Yeah, the flash highlights a certain area so my friends Britney and Brooke helped me out with that:

We headed home to our place with Rachelle and Orlando once he met up with us and we played some D.J. Hero and great time.

Surfin' The Snow

Friday I scheduled myself to be sick from work and relied on the good clean mountain air to make me better again.

My great friend Shannon goes to Snowbird all the time because her mom works and there and she got a killer deal on a season pass - hooch! - and so they scored me a half price day ticket. I have never been to Snowbird and thanks to Shannon, I got to experience the BEST snowboarding EVER.

Here we are on the top of the backside of Snowbird:

I can't believe how much space there is up there and how many runs you can find. The day was amazing - I had to dump my coat finally cuz I was working up a sweat. The snow was fantastic and the runs made me work for it. I have never had so much fun on a slope!

On the way up, Shannon was telling me about this guy who is always there and he dresses in leopard from head to toe. When we stopped for lunch up the middle of the mountain, I spotted some woman dressed head to toe in zebra. I thought how bizarre, what a coincidence. And as I was showing Shannon, we both spotted the man in leopard.


Apparently the man paints his stuff himself (we found this out from a guy at a nearby table). I HAD to take pictures of this stuff - where else would you find a man and woman dressed like an African safari...complete with capes??

We saw people dressed in the weirdest stuff. One guy was even wearing his cowboy hat, trench coat, in his jeans with his holster and gun strapped on. So weird.

It was such a fun day and I don't do all-day boarding but that was fantastic. Shannon and I had a great time remembering the rodeo days, all the fun things we did together on our horses like running through the trees in our neighborhood like they were poles, running the poles at the same time from the opposite direction (very tricky) and running bareback through our speed events - at full speed - at out of town rodeos while the arena was empty. I had forgotten how much fun I have with her so I'm very happy to have had her as my Snowbird tour guide...and now I feel much much better. I must have not been sick after all :)