Easter Finery

*Random passerby holding a dog took these fabulous pictures.  I am too lazy to crop.  Most looked like this:

*Luke told me this morning he was going to wear his BYU tie.  As I started to bark at him about coordinating with the fam, he laughed and said, "I'm kidding Mom."  He knows how to push my buttons.

*Ryan whispered in my ear at church "You look pretty Mom."  Swoon.

*I love Buster in the back of this shot.

*Buster looks like an orphan.  He needs a haircut in the worst way.  Tuesday at 2 it is happening.

*Sun was a little bright (open your eyes everybody!) 

*Sammie is darling as always.  We discovered this morning her ears are infected (from getting her ears pierced.)  If you know anything about Sammie's sweet disposition, you can imagine how changing out her earrings went down.

Happy Easter! 

Hapari Swimsuit Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner of the Hapari Swimsuit Giveaway.  Random.org pulled up #10 which is Linde!  Linde said "I'd love a new suit--does it come with the flat stomachs and thin thighs they show with the suits? ;)"  I wish Linde! 

Please email me your contact information and I will send you the voucher for your new suit!  Congratulations!

Thoughts on Facebook

1.  I have become more into Facebook now that I am getting lazier with blogging.

2.  I feel like I am more personal with my blog.  I will put anything on here.  But Facebook feels more public to me.  I know..makes no sense because my blog is public.  I think it is because men are involved on Facebook and blogging is mostly just the women.

3.  I love being able to go look up who someone is and cyber stalk them.  So what?

4.  I don't love when all of some one's photos are private...see #3.

5.  When someone posts nothing but uplifting quotes--I assume they are depressed.

6.   I have "friends" on facebook who I want to pull aside and tell them they are making a fool of themselves.  Stop posting everyday!  Stop posting all the self portraits!  Stop "liking" all the photos where it is a soldier holding a baby and it says "like if you have a heart..ignore if you are a horrible person."

7.  Facebook is very important in the dating world.  It is the #1 marketing tool.  If you are single, you don't have the option of not being on Facebook.

8.  I still feel like there are people from high school that I am not cool enough to be friends with on Facebook.

9.  There are people from high school that I barely knew then and now think I they are hilarious because of Facebook.  Why didn't I know this about them back then?

10.  There are so many etiquette questions with Facebook...Is it rude to untag an unflattering photo of myself?  Can I defriend someone quietly?  Is it rude to ignore a friend request? 

What am I missing?  Is Instagram killing facebook?  Do all of your Crossfit friends talk about it incessantly on FB?  What are your Facebook pet peeves?

Hapari Swimsuit Giveaway!!

I think we are all ready for Spring right? What better way to kick the winter blues than to win a new swimsuit from Hapari?! I did this same giveaway last year and I decided I needed to do it again. I love Hapari and I think they make a great product.

After gestating and nursing four babies, the most important thing to me is support for the "girls." Under wire in a swimsuit is the gold standard. In the past, it has been extremely hard to find. Ashley told me about Hapari two years ago and when she mentioned under wire, I stopped listening. I said "take me to their store!"

The store is in American Fork, Utah and it is absolutely adorable (the dressing rooms look like cabanas). For the local girls, I recommend running down there because you can try on all the different styles. But online has everything as well.

Last year, I got this one:

This year, I will be buying this one:

But I love this one as well:

The best part is, they have these darling skirts to wear over the swimsuits and everything is mix and match with the tops and the bottoms.




This year, they added shorts as well:

If bikinis are your thing..they make those too.  Look how cute.  I love this emerald color:

And guess what else? Their suits actually have pockets to slide in silicone inserts (that they sell) if you want to enhance what you already have (this concept is completely foreign to me but it may interest some of you.)



So let's get down to business...The give-away is for a $90.00 gift card to their site.

To enter, link to one of the following on your blog, Twitter or Facebook:

http://www.hapari.com/

http://www.hapari.com/womens-swimwear/

http://www.hapari.com/plus-size-swimwear/

http://www.hapari.com/modest-tankinis/

 

Then come back here and comment on my blog with the URL where the link to Hapari can be found.  Once that is done, you are entered into the giveaway!

 

You can receive up to two bonus entries for each different place you share the link (like a blog, Facebook, Twitter.) Each link will count as one entry into the contest. Leave a separate comment for each time you shared the link.

The contest will end on Monday, March 25th at midnight. I will pick a winner using random.org. Please leave your email address with your comment so I can contact you if you win. Good luck!

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. 

Practicing Our Way Back

Last night, we had our Relief Society Birthday Celebration.  (a.k.a. Enrichment, a.k.a. Homemaking.) This was the extent of my amazing decor:

I was in charge and had a great committee to help me:

I think it turned out nice.  My motto is "do nothing until the last minute."  No.  Just kidding.  My real motto is "Make sure the food is good and don't worry about decorating."  We had soup, salad, and Fazoli's bread sticks and ladies in the ward shared temple experiences. 

As I came home last night and fell into bed, I remembered back to twenty years ago when I was 16 years old.  The Relief Society in my ward was doing a fashion show of antique dresses and outfits for Enrichment.  The lady in charge (who shall remain nameless but I remember her distinctly to this day!) decided to have the young women in the ward be the models.  We were all asked to come to the church the day before and get fitted in outfits for the show.

At 16, I was the same size I am now.  5'9, decent sized chest, long legs.  Do you see where this is going?  The antique clothes were made for ladies 100 years ago who were five foot nothing and probably flat as a board.  To say the clothes were short and tight on me was an understatement.  They had me try on outfit after outfit and they would sit and snicker and whisper about how inappropriate I looked.  Finally, I burst into tears and told them I wasn't doing their stupid show and ran for my car.

When I got home, my mom asked me what was wrong.  I explained what happened and I couldn't even finish before she was in her car heading to the church.  She marched in and told those ladies off and reminded them that the church is about people not programs and told them she wouldn't be coming to their lousy fashion show.  Boo-yeah!  And for those of you who don't know my mom..everyone loves her.  She was the toast of the ward.  So that was a big deal!

My darling mom:

To this day, I try to think about that experience when I plan things for church.  But I also know that people aren't perfect..in any organization.  We all make mistakes.  We all get caught up in trying to make our event perfect.  We all want to succeed and we offend people along the way. 

Recently, I attended a testimony meeting where a woman spoke of God's grace.  Grace isn't a term we often use in the Mormon church but it basically means we all get to return to His presence because the Atonement.  She reminded us that the Atonement is a gift.  We are not EARNING our way back to Him--we are PRACTICING our way back.  I loved that. 

So as I go forward in the future, my goal is to put people first, events second and forgive others along the way.  Oh, and thank the Lord every night that I am no longer in cub scouts!!!

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.