My "to-don't" list

I love making lists. Too much, maybe.. I make one for everything. I have SO much to do, I thought I'd take a moment to reverse it. This is my "to-don't" list:

-don't forget to pack a lunch
-don't say mean things [in my head] to other drivers
-don't compare myself to others
-don't let my husband forget how much i love him
-don't waste time on the computer [heh...]
-don't demean myself
-don't forget it's okay to make mistakes
-don't use "lol", "thx" or "g2g".. ever
-don't shrug off the Spirit
-don't go a day without laughter
-don't take myself too seriously

Cake Wrecks

I've started to have a somewhat recent fetish with food blogs.. I really don't know what's come into me. Must be the fact that I actually have to cook things now.. huh!

Regardless, I stumbled upon this blog that cracks me up.. I only got a few pages back in it, but they've got some fun cakes. They focus on, like their name implies, cake wrecks, misspellings.. and cakes that just shouldn't exist. However there are also some pretty fun cakes, like Harry Potter and Transformers tributes. They're very clever (their captions are wonderful), and I'm a huge fan :)

Cake Wrecks: When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Fourth of July Weekend

[Sorry folks, this is a little out of order, I know]

The fourth of July is definitely my favorite holiday! Even before last year, when Nick kissed me for the first time (not to mention his first kiss EVER) after we fell asleep watching a John Adams documentary.. I know, romantic, right? We spent all of last 4th together, from watching hot air balloons in Provo at 6 a.m. to watching Stadium of Fire fireworks up at the Y and then sitting and talking 'til 1 a.m. Anyway, we were able to do some fun things this time, too, and celebrate our first actual holiday as a married couple.. woo hoo!

Thursday, July 2

Nick happens to only work Monday through Thursday, ten hours a day, so our weekends start a little early. Jacob and Nicholas came on over and we all snacked on some pizza, visited with Nick's cousins and played video games.

Later in the evening, we headed to the SLC airport. My cousin Richard came home from his mission in England! Richard and I are two weeks apart, and all of us cousins on my dad's side have always been pretty close :) So it was fun to see him again!

Friday, July 3

Nick's parents bought us all tickets to go see the Utah Symphony up at Sundance. You get dropped off at the bottom of a huge hill and then take a nice.. or steep.. stroll up to the top. There's a gorgeous amphitheater up there and the performance was really fun. They played Star Wars, jazz, and various patriotic tunes.. it was a good time!

Friday, July 4

We actually spent the whole DAY part of the 4th running wires through conduit. If that's not a fun way to celebrate, I don't know what is! Nick always gets these really fun ideas of how he can make things better so that's what we generally spend our weekends doing :) Luckily he lets me tag along as his handy assistant!

Anyway, after that escapade, I took off to the kitchen to attempt some fun patriotic pastries. They LOOK fun, but much to my dismay, the crust was a little too thick, so they tasted kind of dry.. oh well! They made for good pictures.

After our long wiring project, we didn't have time to make it up to Kaysville to see my family, so we ended up eating dinner down here and then heading down to Springville to light off the "good stuff" with some friends much later in the evening. It was fun to just kick back and laugh with friends. Mostly just having time to spend together.. weekends are the best!

Surprise!

Yesterday was Nick's 23rd birthday, so naturally I threw him a surprise party! I started planning it a few weeks ago, by letting all the friends and family know. I really wanted to make it somethin special for him. Luckily, we all managed to keep it on the down-low and he was thoroughly surprised!

(and was apparently very pleased!)

The plan the whole time had been to pick up Nick from work at 5:30 in Draper, meander around a little.. blindfolded.. and then have him back at the house a little after six. I took him out to Rumbi's that afternoon for lunch, when he informed me that he'd be getting off at 4 instead! I tried to be excited with him, but inside I was thinking.. "well what do I do with him for two hours?!" Luckily I convinced him we couldn't go home, and we kind of wandered, went to Wendy's, etc. At about 5:30 I stuck a blindfold on him, much to his dismay, and we drove ALL over the place, finally arriving home. Luckily, he was clueless as to where we were, insisting his manly instincts told him we were heading north (and I encouraged those "manly instincts"). Needless to say, he was very surprised.

It was really fun to have all the family and friends there! There was food (I made four "party-sized" subs, which worked pretty well: turkey, ham, meatball and philly cheesesteak). Nick had been wanting to do a "luau" for a while, so I went and got a ton of hawaiin-style decorations, and Lisa and "Brenanny" went to town on the deck, it looked wonderful! We played with a pinata, blew out candles, opened presents, sat around and talked, and played games with friends. It was a really fun night, and Nick had a great time :) Happy birthday, sparky!

Here are some photos of the event:

Nick & Zekie (Zekie and Squeaks were quite a smash.. everyone at the party was smitten by their wit and charm)

Nick opening presents: he got a fun lantern and several gift cards.. we love those!

Nick blew out all twenty-three candles in one foul swoop.. good work!

Garn going to town on the pinata! All the kids got a turn, from youngest to oldest. Garn made sure to spin them around the number of their age. Everyone softened it up, and then Garn gave it a few hits so the kids could dash after the candy!