The Princess and the Pea Party

"Mom, today was the best day of my LIFE!" exclaimed Avery after all her friends left her 

Princess and the Pea party yesterday.

Hearing those words made the MANY hours spent in preparation so SO worth it!

The idea stemmed from one of Avery's little nicknames she has had since she could talk.

We call her our "princess and the pea" because, um....let's just say she's super particular about most things.

And we love that about her :)  

Luckily for me (and Avery) my mom is a natural born party planner and we worked 

together to throw this little shin dig together. My mom is over-the-top talented! 

There isn't anything she can't do.

I had all these ideas and she brought them to life!

She flew down to be here for the big day and we had the best week working side by side together.

The favors:

a green gumball necklace

and

a set of 8 fluffy little mattresses.

Oh my word.....aren't they the cutest things you have ever seen?

My mom sewed the most darling table cloth. It looked like a bed with 6 mattresses.

Most little girls aren't familiar with the story so we created a whimsical canopy where Clint read them the book and they LOVED it!

Since it was a pajama party breakfast was on the menu:

crown shaped pancakes with chocolate chips

fruit skewers

bacon

yogurt parfaits 

The activities:

played "hot potato" with a Cinderella's glass slipper.

glittery tattoo's.

made princess wands and crowns.

glued strips of paper to make a pile of mattresses

Avery loved every minute of it and my mom and I had so much fun planning this party. 

A WIN WIN for everyone :) 

Happy Birthday my little Princess and the Pea!

I can't believe my miracle baby is turning six!! 

This is where THE change happens....

Yesterday started out like every Monday morning.

RUSHED...... UNORGANIZED........FRAZZLED.

I really wanted to make the early morning kick boxing class at the gym. But getting us all ready and out the door at the crack of dawn is near impossible. After realizing I'm already missing my class I started to talk myself out of going because everyone hates that girl who strolls in 15 minutes late taking up the already crowded space. But I knew I had to go, even if I was going to be that girl.

There was a girl who was subbing for the instructor and she was FANTASTIC! She worked us over!! In fact, I can barely walk down the stairs today. Ouch! But she kept saying something that I can't get out of my head. For example, she instructed us to do 20 "runner lunge then jump as high as you can in the air" moves. At 15, I was getting uncomfortable, at 10, I was about to die, and then this is what she would say:

"This is where the CHANGE happens! This is where your body changes! You can do it!"

It motivated me to dig deep to finish that difficult set. I really thought I couldn't do it but I did it because I do want to see a change in my body! She repeated that saying a couple different times throughout the workout when it was getting really tough.

I've been thinking about what she said since yesterday and realized she is so RIGHT! If we want to see change in anything in our lives than we have to get out of our comfort zones and dig a little deeper in order to see a different result!

If you want a better relationship with a family member, than you need to reach out more than you have in the past or be the one to forgive even when you think you can't.
If you want to be a better wife, than go the extra mile in making your spouse feel special and important. More so than you have done in the past.
If you want to have more friends, than be the one to initiate rather than sitting back waiting for them to approach you.
If you want to be a better mother, deliberately be present even if you are sacrificing other important things.

I have been trying to think of a word or phrase for the year as many other people have done. I think the idea is brilliant because it gives your year a mission statement. One thing that you can really focus on. For me this year, I am going to focus on this statement "This is where the change happens". There are so many things in my life that I want to change in a good way for the BETTER. I am one of those people who likes to stay in my comfort zone but I know in order to make the things that I want better in my life I need to step out of that comfort zone and put more effort into it.

Because change for something better is a good thing.

8 Months and 1 Day Ago

I had one of the best days of my life!
For my birthday Georgia SURPRISED the heck out of me when she called and told my she
arranged for me to have 2 tickets to Oprah's second to last show!

Happy Birthday to me!!

You don't understand, I LOVE Oprah! 

I know some people don't care for her but I am a HUGE fan.

I can remember watching her show with my mom since I was a little girl.

I've been through all the weight loss journey's, set changes, and hair styles throughout the years.

So this was so exciting to me.

I did have one little issue.....
who to give the second ticket too?
The first person that popped into my head was obviously my mom!
She is just as big of a fan as I am.
In fact, one of our dreams was to go to Harpo Studios together for a taping of her show.
However, Clint really wanted to go and make a vacation out of it.
We never did anything fun after graduation so this was kinda like our graduation present to ourselves.
I was so torn having to pick between my mom who I love so much and my eternal companion :)
Well, eternity is a long time so Clint got the ticket :)
My mom was so sweet about it, she even flew down and stayed with the kids while we went.
But I really wish she could have gone too.

So why has it taken me 8 months and 1 day to record this amazing event?

In perfect "Brandy fashion" the camera situation didn't go in our favor. 

I brought my nice camera to Chicago.

But as we were leaving to the show we read in our instructions that big camera's were prohibited.

What the heck???? 

I get to go to the coolest event of my lifetime and I don't get to bring my nice camera?

Unfortunately, we left our point and shoot at home so my 

mom could take pics of Avery's preschool graduation.  

Yes, we totally missed her big day and I felt terrible about it.

Oprah or a preschool graduation????

So on the way to the show we stopped at Walgreen's and picked up a disposable camera.

I honestly didn't know they were still selling them.

 I was so annoyed knowing that I wouldn't be able to take clear, nice pictures.

But it worked out. It's better to have a picture even if it's dark and grainy than to have no picture at all.

Then once we got home.....

the girls had never seen a camera like it before and had so much fun shooting pictures 

to take up all the space on the camera so I could go develop it at Costco.

During their fun photo taking adventure they lost the camera! 

Now, I was seriously sick to my stomach thinking I lost all those grainy, dark photos.

After a couple months I finally found the camera in a play bin.

Phew....better late than never.

Clint had to push his way through thousands of excited women to get this shot. I

 am sure no female there was slightly interested in this statue!

We waited in the wind for hours before we were let in. It was fun to see all the news crews interviewing excited fans!

We made it in and had FANTASTIC seats.

Every seat had a O Magazine and a box of tissues....which came in handy :)

My handsome date.

The show was amazing!! Many of you probably saw the show on TV but that was the condensed version.

Beyonce performed twice and that girl can shake it!! 

Jerry Seinfield stood up for 30 minutes cracking jokes.

 I thought Clint was going to pass out when he saw Michael Jordan, his idol, walk onto the stage. 

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were really cute together and she is SKINNY! 

Will and Jada did a good job hosting. 

I remember when Maria Schriver walked onto the stage everyone quietly gasped because it was the day after her whole Arnold fathering the maid's child drama came out.

Then there was Dakota Fanning, Gayle, Steadman, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Tom Hanks,Alicia Keys, Tyler Perry, Kristin Chenoweth, Simon Cowell, Nate Berkus, Rosie O'Donnell, Dr. Phil, Jamie Foxx, Rascal Flatts, Halle Berry, and MADONNA.

The show was amazing. Something I will never forget.

Above the seats they put up pictures of moments from the show. Surprisingly, I had seen most of the episodes that were on display. 

It really was night to remember and I am so thrilled that I was able to be apart of it.

Bachelor Re-Crap

Can we take a time out from my usual postings about nothing and talk about something that needs discussing?

The Bachelor.

Last night was episode 3 in the Caveman Bachelor Season (don't you think Ben looks like the cavemen from the Gieco commercials? eewwww.) and I can't believe how ridiculous this show is. I love it though. I am a faithful fan, don't hold it against me!! After Ashley's season I swore that I wouldn't watch Ben's season but I must admit and got sucked in thanks to all the crazies in the house! Where do they find these ladies? This show is like a really bad car crash that you just can't look away. I totally enjoy watching the Bachelor with Clint because together we have some pretty funny commentary. Do you watch this show? Does your significant other watch it with you? Just wondering.

Let's talk about Ben first. Really?!? Are you telling me he is the MOST APPEALING MAN IN AMERICA? Ummm, no. He is so unattractive I just can't get over it! I find it so funny when the girls are like "he's so sexy". Are we really talking about the same person here? Have you seen his hair? Why does it go from bad to worse in the course of one episode. Okay looks aside, he is more boring than my statistics professor at BYU. Oh my gosh. It pains me to listen to his conversations. All I can say is SCRIPT READER.

Next, let's talk about these women! Holy smokes, they are seriously from crazy town!(forgive me for not knowing all their names yet) From the chick who is a model with a weird mouth to the girl who has a lip tattoo! Crazy town...I tell you. I'm kinda bummed that the blogger didn't get a rose last week because she could have brought A LOT of drama to the house :) And the girl who admitted on national television that her bf broke up with her via text?
He wrote "Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: you." That was kinda sad but I still laughed about it.
Shouldn't Ben confess he has done the same thing to his past girlfriends? I can't imagine him having more than one girlfriend though. Oh, and the girl who is a VIP cocktail waitress? Come on....she is just wanting her 15 minutes of fame!

Then those sneaky producers are at it again! To bring more pain and agony to their contestants. In this case, past contestants. We were really surprised to see Shawntel return! All I remember about her is that she was passionate about dead people and how insistent she was about having Brad lay down on her cutting table. Oooooohh, gross. I do have to had it to her. That was pretty brave of her to enter the lion's den! Those girls are mean!! And the model chick is insanely insane. and insecure. and incredibly rude. (but she makes for good tv, right?) Poor Shawntel didn't get a rose which I was kinda surprised about but I bet they date after the show is over!! Ha!

The show is going to my old stomping grounds next week...can't wait.
Let the craziness continue........

Please chime in!

There is no stopping this kid.....

and now HE is the boss of ME.

Coach D figured out to put on foot in front of the other and balance at the same time.

He had been working on it for awhile so we knew it was close.

Clint and I sat a few feet from each other with marshmallows in our mouth 

trying to entice his little legs to walk towards us. And it worked!!

(Yes, I feed my children like a mama bird would feed her babies. I love it!)

Anyways, he would go from one mouth to get a marshmallow to the next mouth.

It was so cute and he had his cheering section on the sidelines.

I didn't have my camera handy and I didn't want to miss out on any of the action so

a couple days later Izy and I tried to "reenact" the scene using the self timer.

Heaven help me.

Here are some cute shots we got with the little patience I was having with the whole situation.

Getting a baby to do what you want when the timer is supposed to go off is near impossible :)

Aww, he is my little crush.

I can't believe how big he is getting.

Someone PLEASE stop the clock from ticking!

Ringing in the New Year

Photo taken January 1, 2012.

If this picture is any indication about what is in store for me in 2012.......I'm STOKED!

If so, I picture some down time with good friends while relaxing poolside as the pool boy delivers me bottomless diet coke's! A girl can dream right?

Last weekend my darling bestie Georgia came to town for business from Cali. Her "business" requires her to stay at fancy schmancy resorts, live it up at fun parties while wearing sequin pants (I saw them and they are amazing), and this time around, attending the Fiesta Bowl. Amazing life that girl has.

After church we headed to the resort to get some loves from Auntie Georgia. The girls think she is the coolest person ever! Because she is. After we got a bite to eat, we headed to the pool! It was fantastic. Nothing like swimming on the First of January! Well, the kids and Clint swam. Georgia and I just so happened to "forget" our swimming suits....

I live in AZ and now that I have seen a Scottsdale resort, I now know why people come here to stay. It's not just for the weather :)

Thanks Georgia for squeezing us in! We loved spending the afternoon with you! Love you.

Come on 2012......bring on good friends, relaxation, and a new swimming suit!

2011....

Oh, what a YEAR you have been! My most stressful year to date. But you also brought growth, happy memories, and perspective....so you weren't too bad.

In January, I went into a deep depression because we had just returned from our Christmas vacation and I went through friend and family withdraws. In the middle of the month we had Clint's parents and his sister's family in town so that made my mood happy again. They came from snow and freezing temp's so we spent much of out time enjoying the beautiful weather. Our little miracle baby turned 5.

In February, we loved on this little guy every chance we got. He was such a happy baby. I wrote a few things we loved about Coach D here. My bestie Georgia came to town for work so we caught up with life over dinner. I cherish the time we get to spend together in person since we only get to see each other every now and then. Valentine's Day was a hit. I tried really hard to get caught up with Avery and Izy's scrapbook but failed. Hopefully this year. Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles became gluten free. Breakfast's got a little easier and yummier.

The girls hosted many tea parties with their furry friends.

Avery rode her bikes in style. She cracks me up!

In March, I loved on Damon some more. The most exciting thing that happened all month was that we finally got rid of our NASTY, old, ugly, despised green couch that I couldn't stand and replaced them with gorgeous leather couches. It was one of the happiest days of my life :) Went on a few lunch dates with the hubby. Invited my best friend over a few times for a cleaner house. And hurt my foot while trying to loose my gross baby weight. I felt defeated.



In April, my mom and cousin Brea came for a visit and I put my mom right to work :) Our favorite movie of all time, Tangled, went on sale and we snagged it the first day. That movie was played over and over and over again to the point the girls know every word to the movie. I went on a cooking dinner strike so we ordered take out more than we ever had before. I also discovered my new favorite Mexican place, Tia Rosa's.

In May, we visited a city I had never been before, was in the audience for one of Oprah's last show, had the worst 4 days of my life,  never been more grateful to my Heavenly Father, said good-bye to the best year of Joy School with Izy's friends

Started up swimming lessons again. Oh man, it was drama with Izy everyday for 3 months straight. SHe cried the entire class time because she was so afraid of the water. Finally, by the end of July she started to like it.

Little Izy Bizy turned four.

I turned thirty something :)

And it seems with my new 30 something age, I have forgotten how to spell. (proof in the picture below :)

My best friend Melinda flew down to boost my spirits after Clint's ordeal.

In June, Clint and I remembered how easy life was when you only have one child. The girls spent the month with family out of town so we could recuperate. We took a day trip to Sedona. Ate lots of chips and salsa. I got my hair highlighted...the first time in 6 years. It was a huge deal because I am the queen of hair color horror stories. But it turned out good...phew. The girls performed for the first time on stage.
Izy's first stick figure. Oh my word, it is the cutest thing you have ever seen.

Decided that Damon is the worst travel companion. He made the trip to St. George almost unbearable from his constant eating (we had to stop the car every 30 minutes) and his crying. He doesn't like road trips.

I participated in a fundraiser for a lady who got attacked by a bear in our ward. It was a great effort by many and I was glad to be apart of it. I made rainbow cupcakes to sale.

The return of Izy's "Ellie" who had been missing for weeks. Talk about one happy girl.

In July, I wished I was anywhere but the scolding oven of Arizona. The heat was obnoxious this year. We swam a lot. I cursed every day for having to be Clint's personal driver while dragging three kids in tow. Spent each Friday morning in a cool movie theater with the kids. Introduced myself to ZUMBA. I'm a huge fan.

This picture is deceiving because this hair style is the source of much contention in our home. The girls absolutely HATE their hair in a bun but I absolutely love it. So on this day I won.

In August, Chris and Audrey got married which lead me back home to family and good friends. My baby turned one. I got a lot more free time due to the co-op group I put together. Relieved that my relief society lesson on the Law of Chastity was over :) Went and saw The Help with friends. I think that was my favorite movie of the year. Avery and I went on a mommy-daughter date to the mall to pick out new clothes for school. The whole time I couldn't believe Avery was about to hit the biggest milestone in her life so far. She was the prettiest little Kindergartner that day. And I cried like a blubbering baby. Yes, I'm one of those mom's.

In September, Avery got to bring home the coveted classroom elephant, Teenie. You would have thought she won the lottery she was that excited. Teenie lived with us for a day and became part of the family. We started soccer and it ruled our lives. The schedule was too hectic for me but they loved every second of it. Revenge has become our most favorite TV show. After a lot of thought, Clint started his own law firm and Damon loves to visit Dad at work. I got to help in Avery's classroom for the first time and it was like a dream come true for me.





In October, we found ourselves back in Utah for fall break surrounded by the ones we love. My sister in law introduced me to  The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery and I crave it everyday. I discovered Pinterest and become quickly addicted. Halloween did not disappoint. We went to the zoo one last time before our membership expired so the riding the camels was a must. I really loved October this year.

In November, I went to Time Out for Women with my good friend Erica. It was a great weekend. Definitely, the time out I needed. During one of our lunch breaks we ate at the cutest little place, The Arrogant Butcher. As I was driving home from TOFW I accidently rear ended a car. My anger towards myself lasted for DAYS afterwards. Clint celebrated his birthday, it was pretty low key. Next year will be much better. Gave thanks with friends and came up with the best thankful tree.  We had a lot to be grateful for this year.

In December, Damon was into everything. The toilet water, the toilet paper, sock drawers, tupperware drawers, my make-up cupboard. He keeps all of us busy chasing him around. Came to terms that even though I've lived here for a year and a half I still don't feel like I fit here. Had the best Christmas to date. It was full of miracles. Clint and I celebrated another anniversary with Tom Cruise! Love you babe.





So 2011, you were really good to us. Can't wait to see what is in store for 2012!