Party Extravaganza

We attended the most over-the-top, whimsically-enchanting birthday party/tea-party last weekend for my friend Alpha Smoot. Her family lives in her ancestor's historic home here in Provo, which made all of her extensive baking and beautiful creations that much more magical. There was attention to paid to even the smallest of details. Every tea cup and pastry had a handwritten tag attached and there were beautiful vintage hats around just in case anyone felt so inclined. The party was very well attended by guests who were in full costume. The whole event was straight out of Alice in Wonderland. I told Lucy to take a good, hard look because she was never going to see a party like this again (I mean, let's be honest, I couldn't even make the frosting for sugar cookies yesterday). Did I mention she created a photobooth? This was a shin-dig not to be reckoned with. It was truly a work of art and Jared and I were quite honored to have been invited.

Here are some photographs that I took from Alpha's Facebook account:

Birthday Girl

She made these out of meringue.

Lucy totally enthralled staring at the table.

For this is Halloween.

We had a cage-free chicken for Halloween. Fittingly, she would not sit still for a photo the entire night so this is all we've got. We did, however, get some awesomely-posed pictures of my brother and his wife in their costumes that they each made that day (Project Runway-style).

Jared and I were lame and didn't dress up. This was mostly because my only idea was Barack and Michelle Obama, which we didn't know exactly how to execute and Jared's ideas were much, much worse. First he wanted to be Patrick Swayze, but he had no ideas for me. Then he wanted to be my 4th great grandmother Vashti Vann (part Native American) and "the white guy that married her", which made no sense and then he wanted to be Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, (which also made no sense) and again had no ideas for me. So...I wore a black and gray striped shirt for a little while that seemed "Halloween-ish" and then changed after about an hour. We did have a fun family part at our house, though.

Jared found this sneaky, little goblin in the trick or treat pumpkin early Sunday morning. (Luckily, she couldn't get anything unwrapped.)

Goodbye leaves.

Seems like all of our pretty fall leaves have pretty much gone south for the winter or into enormous city compost piles so I wanted to post these before they seem too outdated. These were taken just down the street. We were so grateful that our neighbors didn't rake these leaves so they covered the sidewalk and lawns for three houses right in a row. Lucy was quite entranced.

This is my mother as a little one in Alabama. I don't think it was Halloween. I am pretty sure this was just for fun, but I think her outfit is better than just about any costume I've seen this year. What a doll.

This one takes a close second for creative reasons. This is my older sister Marie in the late 1980s. Half girl, half boy. So hilarious. Her proud, almost smug, smile is my favorite part. (No, she is not adopted. No, neither am I.)

I'll probably have a few more Halloween pics before the week is out and we both know at least one of them will be of you-know-who in you-don't-know-what costume.

We made it.

"Grow old along with me! The best of life is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made." - Robert Browning

(No, I didn't google "romantic quotes", though I might have used google to make sure I quoted it correctly.)

We have made it three years now. It seems like just yesterday Jared was terrified to use the restroom within a mile of me and I was crying in the grocery department at Target, "I know your mom uses white corn instead of yellow, but I cannot cook like your mom, Jared. I barely know how to make peanut butter and jelly."

I am very grateful to be married to someone who sees the potential in me and loves me today too, is disillusioned enough to believe I am "so much prettier" than Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, and every other person on People's Most Beautiful People list, always gives me one of his cookies so I can have four instead of three, claims all of my gas (even when we are alone), is verbally abusive to girls that hit on him, goes all over the county attempting to find me peonies for our anniversary even though they are out of season, bikes over ten miles twice a week to school so I can have the car "just in case I want to go somewhere", spends his birthday money on a pair of desperately needed jeans for me instead of for him, has remembered family prayer every day since the day we were married (in today's prayer he prayed that we would have a "romantic" day), and is unselfish, loyal, intelligent, energetic, compassionate, charismatic, serves God, and so full of love you'd just think his heart would burst.

When he picked out his ring it was white-gold. The jeweler told him that if he didn't get it recoated then it would eventually turn gold. He immediately turned to me and told me how excited he was for that day. He said that when it turns gold it will represent all of the experiences we've had and trials we've overcome together. Most people could not get away with saying something that melodramatic to a girl, but Jared can because he is so sincere. Just for the record, I am just as excited.

Runaway Note

Although I must say I have written some pretty decent papers in college, I am prouder of this piece of writing than any other. I think I wrote this when I was eight or nine. My mom found this in a box when she was moving to DC a few years ago and framed it.

As I have told you before, I am quite the list-maker and evidence like this proves that I was born this way. Please note that the letter at the bottom to my parents was a "rough draft" so clearly I left in the heat of the moment. I also like that I wanted to take a gorilla and lipstick with me and of course the "p.s. mom its your fault".

And in case you are wondering, I did run away to the dog pen. This is when my family lived in Texas and we had a lot of land behind our house so the dog pen was in a semi-obscure place (though not more than half an acre away). I did in fact bring grapes and oranges (as you can see by the check marks), but it was in the middle of the summer in one of the hottest, most humid places on the earth so I didn't last very long out there. I remember eating my last grape about a half an hour into it and then realizing that I did not have enough rations and I was very afraid of alligators coming from the swamp in the back of our land so I went back inside defeated. No one actually noticed that I left nor did anyone find the note until my mother went through that box when she was moving. I think that runaway notes have a bright future, though. I feel quite sure that they will be read much more now thanks to text messaging and the internet.

Lulu Bird and more.

Ever since Lucy started crawling, most pictures I take of her end up like this:



Nevertheless, I was pretty determined to get a few good photos this week of her in this little jumper I made her. My friend jokes that mommy-blogs are really just "bragging"-blogs and that is just what I am doing, but only because I am pleased that I have had semi-successful sewing projects lately (i.e. - within three sizes of the right size and doesn't cut circulation off to any major artery).




Here are our token pumpkin patch photos at Thanksgiving Point. It was more like a pumpkin pile.

There were quite a few pumpkins that were quite a bit larger than Lulu.

One more. Is it a pumpkin or a baby? I've been saving that joke all weekend for this post although Lucy decided to nuzzle the pumpkin all on her own. Anne Smoot, a very talented friend, created this adorable beanie and I won it. Lucky girl, I know.

Ate this incredibly divine creme brulee last night at my sister in-law's birthday party. She made it. To die for. Let me say it one more time: to die for. Recipe is coming soon on the recipe blog.

Party-time.

Birthday girl.

Party animals.

Party animals responsible for the partying. We partied more today at my mom's house. We love parties.

This is our dear friend, Sister Terry, that lives across the street from us. She is a really good neighbor to us. She lives alone and so we try to stop by when we can to visit with her. Every time she sees Lucy she says things like, "I just don't know who wouldn't be so pleased to have her as their baby." So, obviously I really like Sister Terry.

Jared has been learning to play the violin for the last year or so. Today was one of his first "concerts". Sister Terry said that her two favorite things are music and babies so we think we were meant to be good friends.

I think we're done here going over the minutiae of my life for today. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve for this week, though, so get ready for some trips down memory lane, Halloween style.