easter wrap up.

my family LOVES easter.

it is as great as Christmas.

this year didn't seem as much like Easter with all the family and wedding things, but it was still GREAT! We are so blessed.

The Easter Egg Hunt...we know all the hiding spots yet still struggle to find them!

We are all older and still look forward to our Easter Egg Hunt. It is hilarious. This year Matson found all of his first again. Brother J* was last. I found all mine for once in my life! The last few years months pass and it is October and our friends randomly find them in the basement and get a buck.

In my Easter basket I got just what I needed! Fruit snacks, a cute tee, cami, my favorite MAC eyeshadow, and a new shaver/body wash/lotion.

Matson was a little sick after the wedding and staying up late. So excuse his just waking up look at 6pm.

Matson's parents gave us fun Itunes gift cards...Matson looks forward to getting probably more apps and games to distract him from school and such.

I made our families these cookies, which I would totally make year round if Cadburry eggs were out year round why don't they sell them year round anyway? I made this cute little tag to go on the outside of the cookies too from these bunny ears.

It was fun to have both sets of grandparents here too!

Grandma H* and Sister A* after Easter Din Din!

tycole

tycole. that is the name of my brother & his new wife meshed together.

my brother got married this last saturday. it was a great eventful day! he married the love of his life and a lovely girl who i am very happy to welcome into the family! 

the day started at 11am at the SLC Temple. After a bunch of pictures we made our way back to my parent's house for a yummy lunch with the family. my favorite=the yummy Edible Arrangement.

after that matson and matt went to help set up at the reception place, Spark, which also has the BEST food. go there this weekend and get the kobe burger, seriously worth the 13 bucks for it.

 while matson cleaned up for some reason my sister and I went to the BYU Creamery to use her dorm money up and got loads of ice cream? RANDOM. then we got ready together at her room.

after getting our bridesmaid outfit attire on we headed to Spark for the reception and took some more pics-family pics, bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc. Then the reception started. Loads of friends, family, food, and my fave part the dancing. But T*'s favorite part probably equaled the driving away in the Ferrari.

(These Photos all from Hayley Hernandez)

The Cool Mocktails

Spark Restaurant in Provo. The dancing crowd!

Matson and I standing on the red carpet before the Bride and Groom came out!

Matson was so pumped that he could take the top down. Him and cars.

Preparing for take off

After clean up, we sat in our family room for a couple hours with the family and chatted. Then my sibs (minus T* & N* cause they were at their hotel..haha) and matson and our friend M* and my bro's friend S* went to Village Inn. We were hungry.

All in all, so happy to have another married couple in the family and especially Nicole. It is always fun to have more girls around!  

P.S. For more pictures of the Temple & Reception keep a look out at Moxie Shots on her Blog. She was the wonderful photographer!

creative

my friend is getting married august 20th and she send out bridesmaid invites the other day! I love the whole bridesmaid invite thing. I did it for my wedding to invite my friends, sister, and sister-in-laws. BUT mine were not as cute and creative as my friend J*'s! I tried to attempt this cute idea for bridesmaid invites, but I sucked and was not good at it at all! J* is way better than me and much more creative.

These are just so fun, cute, and make the whole bridesmaid thing official!

gotta give credit where credit is due. the idea came from this fun site I referenced to during my wedding: Once Wed.

aren't the little paper dolls so cute?

the actual invite

i am so excited about her wedding! and so happy for her! congrats J* and S*!

Speaking of creativeness...I want to journalize that is so not a word my blog. I have heard of people doing it, but does anyone know how to? 

do i just copy and paste into Microsoft Word then print?

i need YOUR advice.

look forward to a post about something that I created.

it's actually pretty cool...if i say so myself.

===horizontal stripes===

my mother has always said that horizontal stripes are a no in the clothing department. you just don't wear them. they make you look chubbier/wider than you really are. and who wants that?

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usually i take mother's advice especially since according to the movie Tangled "Mother KNOWS Best" ,right? well recently i've ignored my mother's advice and have purchased horizontal stripes a lot.
this high waisted skirt from White House Black Market, a couple shirts, and some shirts for matson.

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i like horizontal stripes now.
especially my new items i was talking about above, that i purchased in Vegas this last weekend.
But...yes there is a but i have come to find that my mother's advice can be true.
KEYWORD: can.
you just gotta pair the horizontally striped clothing item with the right thing.
plus, the thinner the stripes the better.
at least that's my opinion.

CHE-CHE-Check it out!

a little belated...

we got our videos a while ago from our wedding.

but just barely letting you all go check them out.

SORRY!

Anyway...

I would upload them on here but that would take forever.

So my Dad uploaded them to our family website.

Just click right here to see our wedding videos!

Here is the list of the videos on the site:

1. Growing Up Video, which was shown at our reception (my dad cries everytime he watches it)...so have fun either crying or having some black mail on Matson & I.
2. Bridal/Groomal Video, which was also shown at our reception
3. The Wedding Video...Get the whole day experience. The first 3 minutes is us telling about "how we met" which is more like "how we started to like each other". You can skip that and just watch the whole day...
4. This is the longer version of the first dance/daddy-daughter dance...No need to watch that one.

I still love Barbie!

I loved Barbies as a child uh child...more like until I was 12 and it was then uncool to play with them yet I still wished I could. Every time a little kid comes over to my parents' house I still enjoy checking out all my Barbies. I was obsessed--every Christmas came with some new Barbie accessory. Barbie mansion, Barbie house rug, Barbie convertible, Barbie airplane, and every new Barbie commercial on Nickelodeon made me so happy.  More than anything I  loved creating the little scene with Mommy Barbie, Daddy Ken and all their children and friends. 

I'd even make Barbie and Ken kiss and awkwardly hug with Barbie's weird arms and Ken's straight arms.

Enough about my childhood obsession with Barbies.

Last week when we were watching the three kids (who were mentioned in this post) one night we had some time to spare while waiting for the boys to get done with some activity. That left us with the youngest child, A*, and Target.

We went straight to the toys section.

I had to just look at the Barbie aisle.

SINCE WHEN HAS KEN BECOME SO COOL??

Each Ken has a different hairstyle. What happened to the plastic head/hair? 

He has defined muscles, watches, accessories for himself instead of just Barbie.

AND the Ken below TALKS!

Sweet Talkin' Ken?

 Matson and I held this Ken for 5 minutes recording stupid messages.

It took my voice and turned it into a low manly voice! Uh...COOL!

Matson and A* with the Ken doll that A* thought looked the most like Matson.

ANYWAY...Barbies are cool. And getting cooler.

What was your favorite childhood toy?

parenting

Parenting is rough. Last Saturday was the 12th and final day of watching a family of three-D*, H*, and A*. It was fun, hard, energy draining, and enjoyable. Parenting has lows and highs. There were times where Matson and I went to bed exhausted, a little frustrated and happy the day was over. Then there were other days when we were laughing with the children and making forts all night acting childish with them. It was a great experience for us both plus some good money and I would like to share some of our experiences with you. Since I am...no...more like I try to be optimistic I would like to not focus on the lows, but rather I will share some of the highs and things that kept us going.

1. After watching one of the BYU games Matson was so happy and excited! He kept saying, "Jimmer is the best!" A* replied by asking,"Why is he the best?" Matson replied back by saying, "No one can stop Jimmer!" A* replied again by saying her solution,"Maybe he is ticklish? Have they tried that? He runs up to the basket and the other team tickles him!"
2."no girls aloud"...no i am not a bad speller. i know that allowed is spelled "allowed" not "aloud". but H* doesn't and i thought his sign up on the outside of his door was hilarious. I could not help to giggle (inside of course so he wouldn't feel bad) every single time I walked by. I feel bad now, I probably should of told him he spelled it wrong, but oh well!

3. A* said, "My old teacher is nice and all, but she has a hairdo from the 16's." i think she meant to say from the 60's.
4. "the orange VitaRain has too much energy in it to drink...so we aren't allowed to" but really...does one vitarain drink have more energy than another? and enough to make difference on an 8 year old kid? Maybe. I don't know.
5. "MISS MISS MISS MISS!!" this is what A* yelled VERY LOUD at the opposing team at Matson's basketball games. Every single time she yelled they missed except like once. it was hilarious and we all loved it since it was such a close game! Lamest thing about this=the opposing team had a little possy of wives supporting their husbands. One of the women said (under her breath but loud enough so I could hear it), "WOW...shut up!" It made me so mad and I am not even A*'s mom. She was just having fun! If miss poopy possy pants is reading this (even though she definitely isn't) I would just like you to let loose and let a child have some fun cheering at a game.
6. One night we were talking about animals for some reason and with the most serious voice and not one bit of sarcasm we heard, "Unicorns are real. They live." Matson and I looked at each other laughing, knowing that she really did believe that.
7. One night we went to dinner with the kids and the restaurant had TV's in it. The BYU game was on and D* asked Matson why Brandon Davies could not play. Matson replied by just saying he sinned and needed to repent. D* then asked again wanting the real answer, he told Matson that he had had the "Birds and the Bees" talk but A* had not. Matson whispered the answer to D*. A* then got mad and in all seriousness said, "I do not need to have the Birds and the Bees talk. I already know about nature. Flowers grow and animals live there...."

potty talk.

if you can't take a little potty talk then don't read this.

so here we go. 

one word:

POOP

i have been uh...what's the word...lucky(?) enough to of been raised in a family where we are quite open about our bodily functions.

my brothers would often mid-game, mid-dinner, mid-anything say "i gotta go poo."

or often T* would say "i have the funniest thing to say...(loud fart sound)"

or my siblings and i even have a funny little saying we say having to do with it.

it is just the truth, we are who we are.

i try to not be as open about these things.

but i can't help but laugh.

this leads me to this big guy:

 

this was the biggest turtle i have ever seen. EVER.

he resides at Xcaret in Mexico (we were there on our honeymoon).

now picture this guy going to the bathroom.

then him and all his friends dive for the poop thinking it was food?

one of his buddies took a bite of the poop and it POOFED away.

matson and i watched this all happen, we were laughing hysterically.

the turtle ate his own poop? gross!

i swear i don't talk about these sorts of things all the time. just thought I would share a funny story.