sharing a bedroom. pigs. swimming pool in the backyard. BYU. Seattle. matching dresses. baths in the puke green tub. boating. sledding. pumpkin patch. piano lessons. voice lessons. football games. Disneyworld. Hawaii. London. California. dancing. the ranch. modeling for mom. clogging. everything in our closets.

We’ve shared so many things. I love you.

Kelli Nicole is here through Sunday and we’ve got some big plans. Shopping, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, our family pictures, a wedding to photograph together, lots of laughing and catching up…

See you on Monday!

I rented the 5D Mark III for the wedding this weekend and took it out last night for a test-run session with T1 for his two year pictures. Wow! I’m in love.

I have a large chest (news to everyone, I know) and sometimes I get tired of wearing undershirts. I went out to dinner with TH and some friends a few weeks ago and thought I could get away with wearing this dress buttoned up.

mind the gap

Looks like undershirts are one of my “things”. Or clothes designed specifically for well-endowed women. What brand does that? This dress is from Target. I do like my bright pink tights, school girl heels, and aqua bracelet though. Next time I wear the dress, it’s going to be unbuttoned (since another breast reduction doesn’t seem likely).

I woke up with a birthday hangover yesterday. Not the kind induced by alochol. The kind that makes you realize “My day-to-day life is kind of uneventful and my birthday was AWESOME.” It was my favorite kind of day from beginning to end.

We ate breakfast together, something we almost never do, and certainly not on Sunday mornings (we’re always running late and feeling harried about church). I bought my favorite sausage at the farmer’s market and ate cheesy eggs.

I wore my new dress from TH (it’s from Kohl’s and I’ll have a Style Files post about it up soon!)

We were going to walk to church but it was windy and my skirt was blowing up like crazy, but I was able to walk home with camera in hand and take some pictures of the neighborhood between church and our apartment. I love one of the streets in particular and we might take some family pictures there. The house on the left is for sale, will one of you please buy it?

Hello little bird!

We spent the rest of the afternoon party prepping which for me included arranging cheese and making chocolate ganache. I like that kind of prep work.

We started the party with some guitar playing and dancing.

And then it was time to eat! I was so happy with how everything came together. I bought some flowers at the farmer’s market and picked up almonds, crackers, grapes, and a variety of cheese at Whole Foods.

5 minutes before everyone arrived I put together these slips with names and pictures to help people know what they were eating. You are also supposed to arrange your cheese from mildest to most pungent so that guests don’t taste the blue cheese first and have their tastebuds overwhelmed.

The highlight of the night was the (nearly) flourless chocolate ganache cake. I plan on posting the recipe here soon because it’s the kind of thing that makes you feel like you’re eating at a fancy restaurant.

Total we had 8 adults and5 kids. It was sufficiently crazy.

I like that we’re all wearing blue. I did not plan this.

Isn’t having happy birthday sung to you simultaneously embarrassing and mortifying? What am I supposed to do while the singing is happening?

The version they sang had guitar accompaniment and was faster and much more fun to sing than the slower version I’m used to.

Does your family use the You Are Special Today plate? It’s so fun to bring it out and hear how your friends used it in their family growing up.

After putting ourselves in a bit of a sugar coma with the chocolate cake we broke out the Playstation and did some American Idol karaoke revolution. We used to play karaoke revolution on a weekly, if not nightly, basis in college and it made me so happy to have friends willing to look like fools scream-singing to Total Eclipse of the Heart with me.

While we acted like college kids, our babies tried to figure out why no one was paying attention to them (and apparently plugged their ears like the little girl on the right). Every so often you need to have some time for yourself though, you know?

I don’t want to leave this group of friends. We are really going to miss them. Thanks for giving me a fabulous time on my birthday!

Today I’m doing a portrait session with T1 (my first ever, how sad is that?), and next weekend we are having T1 day. We’re going to have a pool party and go to the park and eat his favorite things and do everything he likes to do all day. I’m not sure if I’ll make him a cake this year, or just dress up some fruit again (might as well take advantage of him not being able to ask for dessert yet!) but whatever we do, I know it’s going to be just as fun as TW day. I’ll always be sad that TH doesn’t want a day devoted to him as well…

Thanks for all of your birthday wishes! I’m officially sad I only get to have a birthday once a year.

Welcome to TWLC3 everyone! You can still join us by signing up here. Feeling hesitant? Maybe the knowledge that the winner is going to get $500* will help push you forward. Join us!

I already mentioned that I’m setting up a little challenge for myself. If I do the following things, perfectly, I get to train with my best friend at the gym she works at in Provo this summer. If I don’t do them, the training is not an option. I feel confident that I can do all of these things.

1. Run 3x/week
Shouldn’t be hard to do with my half-marathon training.

2. Strength or cross-train 2x /week
I’m going to try out P90X (a friend loaned me a DVD to try it out), and I’ll also keep using Ripped in 30 as well.

3. Three carb free days/week
My own personal definition of this is a day where I have no rice, no bread, no tortillas, no quinoa. Minimal lentils and beans. What I really want to get out of this is three days where I eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, and a little dairy to keep me sane (maybe some meat if I happen to have some, and I’m also allowed to eat these vegan veggie patties from Costco that I keep in the freezer, even if it does have some sort of flour in it).

4. Dessert 1x/week
Once a month is too restrictive. But I am going to start turning down dessert, because dessert is always there. It’s always coming at me, and I’ve got to remember that turning down this cupcake doesn’t mean I never get to have a cupcake ever again.

5. Unlimited fruits and vegetables
Heavy emphasis on the vegetables of course.

6. Weigh all cheese
Doing low-carb and low-meat makes me love dairy like I never have before. It provides the satisfaction I need to stay happy (I don’t know how raw food vegans do it) and is a quick snack to grab when I”m preparing my vegetables. Therein lies the problem, I snack and fill up on it and feel sick! So I’m going to give this “weighing” idea a try to see if it helps me cut back.

7. Zero white flour
Excluding dessert once a week. If I want a croissant made with white flour I guess that will be my once-a-week dessert treat.

What are your goals for TWLC3? Writing them down is necessary, but sharing them publicly is even better. You can see my goals from TWLC2 here. I failed pretty badly, and my new goals reflect that, but what matters most is tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Yesterday can’t be changed.

We’re going to do this!

*Conditional on everyone who signed up sending in their payments when I ask for them within the next two weeks.