I'm Turning 29...again

I used to love my birthday.  The attention!  The gifts!  The excuse to lounge in bed and go out to eat!  But now that I am single, I hate getting a year older. I have been back in the dating pool and I am finally going to bring y'all the dating posts you have been begging for.  Stay tuned for that.

Thanks for coming out of the woodwork to enter my contest for the maxi-skirt.  It was so fun to read what posts you liked and see who is out there reading my blog!  I was flattered and happy and it made my day.  I was hard to decide but I picked Molly!  Molly, send me an email with your address and the skirt will be on it's way!

If you didn't win the skirt, don't despair.  I am doing my annual Hapari swimsuit giveaway this week as well.  I will be using Random.org to pick that winner so check back and make sure to enter to win a fun swimsuit.

I was going to do a Birthday 36 of 36 more things about me..but I didn't have the energy.  How about 10 things you probably don't know about me?!  Here goes:

1.  When I was about 10 (and totally not cute) my mom decided to get me and Ashley involved in modeling.  I had a face only a mother could love.  Of course, she thought we were beautiful and talented.  Ashley and I had to perform a skit for these ad execs to see if they wanted to cast us in commercials.  We did a scene from Peewee Herman's Big Adventure.  I was Pee Wee and Ashley was Francis.  It was horrible and obnoxious and all I remember was the blank stares on the ad execs faces.  My brother Rex still begs us to do it to this day.  Glad someone appreciates it.

2.  I hate sushi.  I don't like Anthropology clothing, and I have never been on Pinterest.  It's amazing you all still talk to me.

3.  My biggest fear in the world is being called as the Primary chorister.

4.  There are people from high school that I still feel like I am not cool enough to be friends with on Facebook.  I have all kinds of thoughts about Facebook.  This probably deserves it's own post. 

5.  If I was getting married right now, my wedding colors would be pink and grey.  My wedding wouldn't be elaborate but I do want a nice dinner for close friends and family and no gifts.  I hope I remarry before pink and grey go out of style.

6.  I hate the moustache craze.  Is it over yet?  Please say it is.

7. I love grocery store birthday cake.  I might have to go buy myself one.  Forget the ice-cream.  I could eat the whole cake myself..standing over it--with a fork--straightening out my lines.

8.  My least favorite thing in the world is when you are at a restaurant and a guy with a guitar is walking around and he comes to perform at your table and you have to stop and listen. 

9.  My mom gave me this gorgeous Coach handbag for my birthday.  I am scared to death to use it.  I have a history of being hard on handbags.  Right now, you could find a bunch of used kleenex, matchbox cars and a rock-hard protein bar with no wrapper stuck to the inside of my purse.

10.  I only wash my hair every other day and I no longer take my make-up off at night (I know--it's awful!) but I will always floss every night until the day I die. 

Maxi Skirt Giveaway

The Nest on Main recently did a giveaway on Facebook and I won this skirt!  In my comment, I said I wanted to win this so I wouldn't have to shave my legs and I could sit like a man at church.  I had already ordered the skirt when I won this one so now I have two. 

It's your lucky day!  I am giving one away on my blog.  The skirt is junior sizing so I knew I had to get a size Huge. (Large.) It is super stretchy so I think it could fit anyone between 5'6 and 5'10. For reference, I am 5'9 and I usually wear a 6 or 8 in skirts. My mom, who is 5'6 tried the skirt on and it fit her too. The waistband rolls up or down so the length can be adjusted. I will announce the winner on my birthday (Monday!) 

Here are the rules...because I love rules.

Leave a comment and tell me your favorite blog post I have ever done.  I know it is narcissistic and a little vain but the name of my blog is "i wanna talk about me" so just go with it!

That's it.  Let's do this!

Pirate Pizza Party

I am regretting that I already used the title "Black, White and Red All Over." It would have been perfect for this post!

Ry Ry turned five this weekend and we threw him a pirate pizza party.  Ryan has had an obsession with pirates for years.  He has been a pirate for Halloween the last two years so a pirate party seemed like a no-brainer.  The only thing he cared about doing at his party was playing the candy bar game.  He loves to eat. (He is very big for his age.  He weighs 8 pounds more than Sammie and she is three years older and three inches taller.)  But he makes up for it in sweetness.  He is my big teddy bear.

Anyway, we invited 13 little boys and only one didn't show. Sam came and helped and the whole thing went off without a hitch.  The kids were really good.

Ryan had to have this door cover for the bathroom...potty humor is huge at five!

Sammie and Luke dressed up and were my big helpers at the party!

We had pizza (BBQ chicken is Ryan's favorite):

We played the candy bar game:

Ryan opened presents:

We hit a pinata:

We kept this little boy happy with lots of Diet Coke:

I made this fabulous cake...isn't it impressive?  just kidding, I bought it all Walmart. I have had some disastrous cakes in the past (here and here) so I got smart this time and bought the cake.

And we ran out of the time or the kids would have gone on a treasure hunt to find these hats and swords.  They just got them on the way out:

All four of my kids were born in the spring.  My b-day is in March too so it is birthday craziness this time of year.  Glad the first b-day is over with!!  Happy Birthday Ry Ry!   Mama loves you more than the whole sky.

Sunday in Spring

I had a really great weekend. It was our stake conference and I made it a point to get to the adult session Saturday night and I took my kids to the regular session Sunday morning. The Sunday morning was a total bust because Mitchell was out of control and we left early. I forgave him because it was his birthday and really, who doesn't want to sneak out early anyway? The adult session was so good though. I have been feeling a little spirtually disconnected lately so I made myself go to it and it turned out being so worth it.

When we arrived at Stake Conference this morning, I had to parallel park on the street. I am terrible at parallel parking. I have no faith in the way they taught us in driver's ed so I usually reverse and pull up about 10 times to get in.  My kids were laughing at me. When we came back to the car to leave, Luke said, "Mom, I'm just walking home because it's going to take you like 15 minutes to get out of that spot!" It made me laugh out loud. Sometimes that kid cracks me up.

This afternoon, I took my kids down to Temple Square to see the tulips. I had to parallel park again..twice in one day..what are the odds? My kids thought it was hysterical. The tulips were out of this world. If I ever get married again, I am doing it in the spring! I am done with winter weddings! It was so nice outside and fun to walk around with my kids and enjoy the flowers.  Mitchell was napping at my Mom's house.  Here are some of my favorite shots:

It is also Buster's birthday today. My baby is two!!! Yes, I made that cake...continuing the tradition of the world's ugliest cakes. Don't forget this one.

I wish my Grandpa Warner was here to see it. He loved my ugly cakes! I think I really took it to the next level with this one. The cake kept flaking off as I tried to frost it. At some point, I had to stop frosting or the whole cake would have come off on my spatula. And yes, I shamelessly brought it to a family party. I have no dignity!

This little guy didn't care. 
 

Happy Birthday darling Buster!

I Turned 35

How is that for an exciting title? When you're a mom, and it's a Sunday, birthdays are just another day. That's why I believe in celebrating all week..heck, all month! I have always loved having a March birthday. It feels like the promise of Spring is in the air. Here is what I have done to celebrate:

I went to lunch with some girlfriends on Saturday to Food for Thought. I have known Mandee for several years but I just met the rest of these girls over the last few months. It is really fun to make new friends as an adult! They are the most stylish girls ever..and I need help in that dept!



Ashley gave me a gift card to my favorite store White House Black Market and I had to have this skirt. Have you seen it on their commercial? I wore the skirt Sunday to church. My bday is the day after St. Patrick's Day so I usually wear green on my day!



My neighborhood girlfriends took me to dinner at Zupas tonight. Apparently I am the only one who thinks it is Spring...yes it is freezing.



My mom made me my favorite dinner at her house. This picture is sooo my life:



My boys helping me blow out the candles (because Sammie was sulking because she pushed Ryan off a bar stool and I had to give her a beat-down.)



My mom gave me two adorable swim suits from Hapari:





and these shoes:



And a knife set, and workout tights.

A friend sent me fun gifts in the mail:



I bought myself two pairs of fun earrings at Rodworks of all places:




I got many more birthday wishes and gifts from friends as well. All in all in was a good birthday..and it keeps on giving. I am getting a hot stone massage on Saturday!



Aaaaah!

Finally, last but not least, a good friend made me a Top Twenty loves and hates about dating after hearing my dating stories...check it out here:

Brooke's Birthday Top 20 -

Sammie's Teeny Tiny Party

Sammie turned six last week and I threw her a teeny tiny party. Before any of you get all crazy and actually think I came up with all this myself, I must give credit to Jennie at Focus Jennie. I stole all of her ideas.

We sent out teeny tiny invitations:


My friend Carolyn got me tiny white cone shaped water cups from her work that I forced my poor mother to make into tiny party hats (Look how cute they turned out!) My mom also came and helped with the party. She took care of Buster and did whatever else I ordered her to do:


We served the girls a lunch with all kinds of tiny foods:


I even found these tiny glasses at Zurchers:


I made Sammie a teeny tiny cake:


The girls painted these tiny treasure chests and then went on a treasure hunt for tiny prizes. All of the clues included the words "small" or "tiny":


Here are the cute girls in their tiny party hats:


Listen to how similar all of their names are (these are not in order) Sammie, Sophie, Brynn, Brinley, Baylee, Kate, Kate, Kadee, Katia, and Naiah. Stella and Ella were taken off the list at the last minute because we were getting too many. Needless to say, I was tongue tied for the whole party. I called everyone the wrong name.



Sammie had a great time. I'm glad the party is in the rear-view. She reads my blog now on the ipad and has been hounding me to get this post up. I'm wondering if she turned six or sixteen. Sheesh.

It's My Day--It's My Time a.k.a. the Birthday Extravaganza

I had to channel my inner Michelle for a minute. I've never said "It's my day" on my birthday but I do believe in planning my own birthday celebration and spoiling myself and I'm never disappointed! I've probably never said "It's my day" because I believe the birthday festivities should last an entire week!

This year, my birthday fell on a Friday and I told Sam, I didn't want gifts. I just wanted him to do some kind of blog post for me and I wanted to have Saturday off. Ashley was coming into town for the day and we made plans. Here is how I celebrated my 34th birthWEEK!

Monday night was the Bachelor party. This kicked off the binge-fest that was also lasted the whole week (post on Club-Phat still coming...)

Tuesday night, I went to dinner with my neighborhood friends. I love these girls. Three of us have birthdays in March and we hit Rumbi's for some good post-Bachelor discussion:


Thursday, my friend Heidi came over for lunch and somehow, I didn't get a picture. We had Hagermans and she made me the world's cutest wreath. I've been coveting her's for over a year. I am soooo happy with it.


Friday was the actual b-day and I got a massage in the afternoon. Javier did not disappoint. I always go to Sanctuary and I think it might have been my favorite massage ever.


Friday evening, Sam and I went to Market Street for dinner. I didn't order the Lobster this time. The funniest thing happened though. After dinner, I went to use the women's restroom. As I walked in, I notice that the W and the O was burned out on the Women's sign so it just said "men's" if you weren't really looking at it. When I was in the stall, I looked down and noticed the feet in the stall next to me. They were huge and wearing gnarly man shoes. Then I noticed they were facing the toilet and the person was peeing. It hit me IT WAS A MAN!

I walked out of my stall to wash my hands. The guy was peeing with the door open!! I waited for him to turn around and see me. He looked surprised. I said "Dude, you are in the women's restroom." He looked totally embarrassed and got the heck out of there (didn't wash his hands.) As I was walking back to my table, I passed his booth and gave him a little finger point. He was embarrassed. Funny stuff.


Saturday, I woke up and went on a run. I listened to the Beatles. Did you all know The Beatles are now on i tunes? It brought back major memories of high school. Back then, I always listened to the Beatles greatest hits in my car on the way to school.


I met Ashley and my mom for lunch at Food for Thought. I have decided it is my all-time favorite place to eat...yummy soups, salads, sandwiches, mint brownies, lemon bars and big diet cokes...all in a little house in Draper. I'm telling you--it is the BEST! We were the only ones in the restaurant.


Ashley's darling Bennett came too:


Then my mom took Bennett home and Ashley and went for pedicures--I was the one in the nasty foam flip flops:


Then it was off to Nordstrom Rack where we both bought cardigans and jewelry and tried on tons of dresses that were all too short.

Then we went to Old Navy and Ashley spent the next 20 minutes telling me how much she hates Old Navy clothing while I shopped. Notice the matching handbags:


Then we went to South Town Mall, Tai Pan, Fashion Place Mall--Macy's, Gap, White House Black Market and Nordstrom. Someone better ban me from WHBM. I don't need any more black and white church clothes. I love that store---don't ever let me go in again. At Nordstrom, Ashley began her holy grail search for high waisted jeans. She is tired of showing crack every time she bends over.

Ashley don't hate me for this but after trying on the high-waisted Joe's and Citizen's she moved to the old lady dept. She blew through the Davin Kahns and went to the ultimate mom jeans--Not Your Daughter's Jeans!!!! She doesn't even have a daughter. She loved them. But decided they were too formal so she is still hunting for the perfect high waisted jeans...any ideas out there?


We were starving at that point so we headed to Mrs. Fields for huge diet cokes and a brownie for me and then we headed to Smoky Mountain Pizza and Pasta for dinner with my parents and sister in law Katie.

Sunday, I busted out the Easter clothes because they are long sleeved this year and Easter is really late in April. I want my kids to get there wear out of them. It did my heart good to go to church in coordinating clothes.


Sam left on a plane for Dallas and we headed up to my parents house for a special dinner.


Buster and Bennett finally got to spend some quality time together:


I got to eat my mom's delicious chocolate cake and open presents from my parents and kids. I look at this picture with my kids around me and I realize I don't need to wish for anything! I am one lucky girl--how cheesy is that!


It was a great birthday! If anyone is still reading this...come back in a day or two. I am doing my first-ever give-away. I recently bought the world's BEST swimsuit. So I approached the company and they agreed to let me do a give-away for my blog readers. I'm not kidding these swimsuits will change your life (think underwire!!)--See you soon!