Thursday, November 12, 2015

30th Birthday!

I cant believe I am a whole year behind on blogging. It is almost my 31st birthday!
My 30th...its a funny thing. I remember being in my teens and thinking 30 seems so old. I don't know how it got here so fast, but it did.
My amazing high school friends had a dinner for me a week before my birthday (sadly I have no pictures) and it was fun as always being with them.
My adorable husband knows how dearly I love these caramel apples.
The eve of my 30th birthday he told me not to look in the kitchen.
I knew he was making something for my birthday but I had no idea what. I ended up going to bed and when I came down he had HANDMADE these delicious caramel apples and cupcakes, and placed them in the shape of a #30.
 
 

Do they not look professional!? For his first time, I think he nailed it.
He may have made a mistake though, because I will want these yearly now :)
 
He also left a gift card to my favorite restaurant from Lila.
We were supposed to meet Russ at his work for a lunch date, but it didn't work out last minute so I thought it was sweet of him to think of this.
We had a super low key day. I cleaned our room (BORING) and had a very quiet and fun date with just Lila and I at Wild Zucchini.
 

When I got home, my sister in law stopped by with a  gift and hung out until Russ got home.
He took me to dinner and it was a perfect way to end the day.
Im grateful for everyone to did so much to make my day so special. It was great, and if I have to turn a decade older, I wouldn't have had it any other way.
The picture I posted a few post back (below) was actually taken on my birthday I just discovered.
So these 2 little babes were this big by then!


Wednesday, November 11, 2015

St George- Girls Trip

Novemeber- 2014
To wrap up my 30th birthday traveling, a few days after I returned home from Seattle, my friend Annie and I had planned a trip to St George.
We planned this for a couple of reasons:
1- We both were turning 30 in Novemeber
2- I was about to have twins and knew we wouldn't be doing a girls trip for awhile.
3- We both have husbands that had just spent all of Fall hunting, and wanted to reward ourselves :)
We left with our 2 baby girls to drive down for a weekend of relaxing, and shopping.
I bought Lila a movie for her tablet and she and Annies baby were both so good on our 4 hour drive South.
 
 
Annie and I have been friends since elementary school. She is the kind of friend that you can 100% be yourself and not ever have to feel like you need to be entertained or do the entertaining. We can talk about anything, share anything and have been there for each other through some hard and amazing times!
Its so fun to have our own little girls now to share in our fun times together.
We stayed at her husbands work condo that they offered us.

 
We got in late, so we just bathed our girls, put them to bed and stayed up chatting and watching a movie.
The next morning we made breakfast and headed for the shops!

 
She can take about as much shopping as me.
I am weird... I like to shop, I like to have new things, browse, and be with my girls, but I only have so much time before I am done.
Annie, on the otherhand, is like my sisters and Moms and literally with close down the shops!!
Towards the end, I actually sat in the car with the babies while Annie finished haha!
 

 
We have another friend named Natalie that we went to high school with. I love Natalie!
In high school, we shared a love of Taco Time and the tv show Friends.
I remember watching episode after episode of friends and taking turns scratching each others backs and sometimes taking breaks to head to Taco Time for a crisp meat :)
She moved to St George with her husband and has 2 adorable little boys and is now a school teacher. She met up with us for some shopping, played with Lila, and hung out with my while Annie was still going strong!


 
We went to Swig for a drink and I got Lila a water. She was playing with her straw and suddenly I felt my lap getting wet and noticed she had punctured her straw through her cup!
I tried to unroll the window but it was locked. I was trying to yell to annie as she was driving to unlock the window so my lap didn't have a tiny little waterfall of water coming out! We had a good laugh and pulled over. As I went to stand up, I had forgotten in all the chaos that my cell phone was in my lap- out dropped my wet cell phone on to the pavement and cracking into a million little pieces.

 
We went to the Pizza factory for dinner that night. Friends, girls weekend, and pizza. Cant get any better :)



The next day we drove home. Lila is such a light sleeper but she had just had too much fun.
I got to hold her through part of lunch and I was ok with that, I love snuggles from her, which are few and far between.

Thanks for the fun girls weekend Annie. I commend you for your shopping endurance. :)



 

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Seattle

Being a stay at home Mom is a hard adjustment. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but that doesn't mean its not hard.
I have worked a long time, and continued working 2 days a week after I had lila, all the way up until the twins were born.
I am on a website for "Moms of Multiples" and someone just asked how to enjoy the day to day of being a stay at home Mom. I of course read through all of the comments, and one of the comments that stuck out to me was a mom who said she enjoys taking time to write on her blog and at the same time using it as a journal. I felt instant guilt and motivation to get to the computer. I loved blogging before and turned all of my blogs into books, which really is my only journal. I feel bad that my babies are already SIX months old tomorrow and I haven't written anything down :( I hope I can remember as I embark on this journey of getting my blog back up to date. I am almost a whole year behind now. Turns out having twins and a toddler is BUSY.
Lila Is upstairs talking in her bed (she supposed to be napping) and I just put the twins in their swings so here it goes.

I wasn't kidding When I said I wanted to get as much traveling in as possible before these babies came!


I flew home from Hilton Head Island on a Monday and had a few days with my cute Lila girl, while  Russ stayed the whole week working and I flew out to see a friend in Seattle just an hour after Russ landed in SLC. I looks swollen and tired, but it is what it is.
I drove the car and was lucky enough to meet him in the airport as he flew in so I could give him a kiss and the keys!

When I was planning all of this, it seemed like a great idea, but when it came time to it I was so sad to leave Lila for another weekend and I had really missed Russ!
As soon as I was on the plane, I was excited again and wanted to make the best of my time.
One of my great friends lives in Seattle and had a fun weekend planned for us! We had to cram it all in as I only had a short weekend!
She met me at the airport to pick me up and took me back to her apartment. She lives right off of a beautiful lake, with an amazing view from her balcony.
 
We met up with her nice boyfriend and went to a beautiful dinner overlooking the bay and downtown Seattle.


 
The next day we decided to drive to a cute little town called Leavenworth. We thought it might be snowy through the pass,  and Em wasn't confident in her car so we rented a really nice SUV and rode in style! Of course, the weather was perfect and not a drop of snow or rain, but we were comfortable anyway :)
We got in to town and stopped to eat our hearts out a cute little pub.


 
It was cold and packed, but so fun to walk the streets, visit a few shops and be with one of my BFF's.
Em is one of those kinds of people that it is nearly impossible not to have a great time, laugh and be silly and just feel super young to be around without a care in the world. Its so refreshing.

 
We had heard about black licorice (yuck!) ice cream that dyes your tongue and teeth black, why not?


 
Ok, ok, I couldn't jump very high, but I tried. Im carrying 2 extra peeps in there!






 
That night, we got home in just time to head to our art class!
A few years ago, Em and I decided to get artsy and sign up for an oil painting class. Every week we would have a girls night, eat candy, laugh and attend an oil painting class.
As a gift for my birthday, she signed us up for a painting class in Seattle. It was so much fun!



The next day I had to fly back home. I was sad to leave my friend but excited to see my little family waiting for me back home.
We headed downtown for lunch and took a ride on the Ferris wheel overlooking Seattle.



 
Em works right down town. Her office overlooks Pikes Place and the whole market. We went and looked at her big time office and a few other tourist spots!




 
I am so grateful for amazing friends.
She made me feel so special and spoiled me on this trip for my 30th birthday.
Love you Em!