My Hot Date

Since I'm working all the time, it's hard to make time for all of my siblings! Luckily, I didn't have any plans for tonight and went out on a date with my little (taller than me) brother Shayne. We went and saw Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D. It was great!!I even gave him a kiss goodnight!

Oh Baby Baby

So all of the planning is done with and we finally had Rachie's shower!! It was a huge turn out- over 50 people! It was such a success thanks to Natalie Hanson, Gloria Harding, Sarah Durrant and all of the other people who helped out!!
Julie Marriot did this beautiful flower arrangement!

The theme was "These are a few of my favorite things" so as a favor, everyone got brown paper packages tied up with string filled with chocolate covered cherries
Natalie made this amazing diaper wreath!
Mamma's posing with the bubblegum "pearl" necklaces everyone got


Gloria made another adorable diaper wreath!
The great-grandmas
The crown and banner Fletch made for Rach

Some of the tastiest desserts ever!!
I had to get a picture of the mommy-to-be!

Rebekah Wisniewski made little towel animals!!
The grand present was the quilt that Fletch had a bunch of us contribute to. I made the Jack and Jill square! Also included: Marry had a little lamb, 3 little pigs, Old woman who lived in a shoe, Twinkle twinkle, Rain rain go away, Rock a bye baby, Hey diddle diddle, and Mary mary quite contrary

Presenting some of the mother's favorite things to Rachael
It was so nice to have Muzzie, Aunt Nancy and Taylor come!
Muzzie and her Grandaughters (minus Brookie!)

I Love Late Christmas Gifts

Tonight I went over to my friend Bess' house (just as a background- Bess is the ideal mate. She is super cute, funny, GREAT cook, and will be a great mom! Think modern day Disney Princess. We bond over cute clothes, martha stewart and weddings) Well it was a great reunion since I haven't seen her since winter break and she traipses down the stairs with my Christmas present!!This little baby was just attached to my gift, but it really stole the show.

For any of you who know me, you most likely know about my obsession with Harry Potter. I felt so cool opening up a chocolate frog of my very own; complete with Potter Family trading card!!

Thank you Bess!!!

Kiddie Time

During my winter break from school, I've become a babysitting extraordinaire. I babysit for the Martinis' and Goldman's every Monday Wednesday and Friday and the Axley's every Friday night and I pick up some Saturday jobs. I've got my hands full of children.
Today was one of those days that reminded me why I love Maryland so much. Amidst 40-something degree, blustery, overcast days, we managed to have 2 sunny days in a row with the temp peaking around 75!!! So I pulled out my flops and summer tops!
Finn and I had to take advantage of the weather so we played outside for a while!! He got this amazing Christmas gift last year called a Plasma Car, but for some reason the kid opted for his undersized car and I hopped on the Plasma car and raced him around the driveway- what a blast!!!

I HIGHLY recommend this baby to every mom for their kids!


We also drew a picture of me and cut out the mouth- it freaked Finn out a little though...

Paula Deen is Peachy

Due to my lack of schooling in the past 3 months, my vocabulary is slowly beginning to diminish, so I actually had to look up synonyms online for great. Other options:

slap-up, gravid, majuscule, cracking, neat, capital, great(p), owing(p), enceinte, swell, spectacular, expectant, heavy(p), keen, nifty, with child(p), bang-up, smashing, prominent, not bad(p), corking, groovy, striking, salient, big(p), undischarged, large(p), bully, dandy, peachy, outstanding, great

On second thought, maybe I shoud've gone with something like Paula Deen is salient!!! But I'm a fan of alliteration so that's that.
Speaking of words- what's up with the new acronyms? I had a mini convo with my BFF (there's one) Elle about it...

why must americans create the most pointless abbreviations for things such as shaking their head?

can't they just use a ... ? i think the point will get across

12:27am

theres an abbreviation for that now too?

12:27am

smh

12:27am

thats stupid.

12:27am

i used to think it was some cuss words and such until I urban dictionaried it.

so is ftw

no one even SAYS for the win

Long story short, americans are lazy.

ok back to Miz Deen... I was at the craft store getting some stuff for Rachael's quilt square (pictures to come) when I happened across a Paula Deen collection of little cooking trinkets. There was one specific piece that I absolutely needed.Since Rachie has adopted the phrase "I kiss better than I cook", I figured this little gem was the next best slogan.

The Magic Hat

I honestly can't wait until spring/summer rolls around, and today's 60 degree weather was a much needed break from the FREEZING COLD. I didn't care how windy it was, my windows went down as soon as my car turned on.
Now for what this post is actually about... for years I've always really wanted to buy a sunhat, I'm not really sure why. Probably just to say that I have one since I don't even belong to a pool and I'm not fancy enough to wear it casually. It's like my cowboy hat all over again (may it rest in peace... It attended many a country concert with me). Well I was shopping around Christmas time and I happened upon the lone, most perfect sunhat ever! It was $10 so I could totally justify the purchase. Was it worth an hour of babysitting? You bet your buns it was!!I was sticking my hand in to make it look normal, but instead it looks like 50% 10 gallon hat, 50% sunhat but it's not!please ignore the sleep deprived look, under eye circles included.

I got bangs!!

To be a kid again...

On one of the longest babysitting days I've done...ever, I decided to try and be a kid again and make a fort! We built it in the basement and then watched Toy Story 2 on their iPad. I felt like a kid again!
It may look a little ragged- but it was surprisingly spacious!

More more more

So my last blog post was in the middle of December... this is embarrassing.
Leave it to me to wait 2 months before I even consider updating. Sorry about that.
So what has gone on since I got home?
Christmas!!!!This year we had the christmas party at my Uncle Frankie and Aunt Nancy's BEAUTIFUL house that I plan on having my wedding reception at.
I got some great gifts from my family!! Rachael and John got me this book called True Prep. It's so funny and so me. They're so good at picking out presents!
I had a George Foreman grill on my wishlist, so Muzzie and Pawpa gave me this Cuisnart grill that has a grill AND a skillet side! Although I think my mom might steal it from me.
My parents bought me an America's Test Kitchen cookbook which I absolutely ADORE!
I got a bunch of other things as well but just a few Highlights!
NEW YEARS
My new years was a little bland. I babysat until 10, then met up with Maggie and Jayson to watch the ball drop. Jayson had just gotten his wisdom teeth out so he was still a little swollen and loopy, which made it a little entertaining!Speaking of babysitting... since I'm home until APRIL, I picked up 2 part time nanny jobs as well as one every Friday night. I've been so busy with that, but I have a feeling I'll make a great mom by the end of my break! (either that... or I won't ever want kids, which is very unlikely)
NEW YEARS BIRTHDAY LUNCH
My grandma decided to start a new tradition with the women in the family where she treats us all to a fancy lunch for our birthdays on new years day. This year we went to a place called Lightfoot Restaurant in historical Leesburg, VA. It actually used to be a bank, so there is a huge safe in the center where the bar is. Our waiter was so funny and all of the food was phenomenal! I have a feeling I'll be coming back there.Oh! and in case you didn't notice in the above picture, Rachie is super pregnant!!! She's due in early April. I can't wait to be an aunt!!!
DC
Bess and I made a trip to DC to head to the Holocaust museum. It was pretty cool! But when you have 2 women in the city, we obviously got lost... more than once. First we went about 3 blocks in the wrong direction after getting off the metro, then we wanted to catch these buses to get to Georgetown and we ended up on the wrong bus... twice. We finally got to Georgetown cupcake (AKA the happiest place on earth) and scarfed down (in the most ladylike way possible...) our adorable cupcakes.
Then we had to find Vineyard Vines, which took about 2 tries. We passed this one homeless guy with a foam VV whale hat about 3 times. It was mildly embarrassing.
Once we made it there, though, it was totally worth it :)
SUPERBOWL
Since I haven't had the chance to be around people my own age much since winter break ended, I decided to head on over to University of Maryland to visit the wonderful Kelly Jackson.
It was so fun to see her beautiful face and to live vicariously through her college experience. It's just so different from BYUI, and I don't blame her for loving school so much! I had an amazing time and can't wait to go visit again!

Well there you have it... just a couple of highlights from what's been happening in my life. I'll try to be a better blogger, I promise!!