I'm Just Kind of A Halfway Person, I Guess

I know, its been awhile. Again. Shoot me.

So last year, I made a list of 30 things to do this past year before I turned 30. I tried pretty hard to stay on top of it, but I'll admit I'm a bit of a procrastinator so it was hard to do things when you think you have a year to get it done, and then all of a sudden there's only a month left and you have a bunch of stuff on your list not done! :) Really, I would have done a lot better if the buying a house/moving part of our year wasn't so crazy, it was a lot of off and on, stop and go and I was pretty stressed and during that point I was like who the heck cares about this stupid list?! :) There's a few things on the list I'm really sad I wasn't better about, and there's some that I think I'll still get to even though I didn't do them during the "30 year", and I'm okay with that.

                                                            30 before 30

 1- Learn to play the guitar: Didn't want to cross this off because although I've tried to self teach myself, and I did help play some music for a primary activity, I still am learning and can't really play a whole song myself. :)

 2- Exercise 3 times a week or complete "Insanity": I was doing really well exercising earlier this year, and then the whole moving thing happened and I didn't have a treadmill anymore and I tried to do Insanity but dude, it sucks. So this is sort of half way.

 3- Finish 1 craft project a month 

4- Buy our first house:  YAY!!

 5- Go to Forks: I'm really kind of sad that we didn't get to do this, but like I said, its still something we're going to try to get to doing.

 6- Run a 5k : I did this and was pretty proud of myself, I'm not a runner and I tried really hard to become a better one, I thought I was going to black out a few times (no seriously though), but I did it! :)

7- Watch 30 classic movies : I'm crossing this one off even though I'm a few short because I'm still planning to watch a bunch more (can I tell you how in love with Cary Grant I am?!).

 8- Go to VooDoo donuts 

 9- Homemake everyone's Christmas presents 

 10- Donate blood (plasma maybe?): still planning on this!

 11- Grow hair out--no cutting at all! 

12- Paint 3 paintings: I did a ton of painting this year--of walls! I think I should be able to count it! haha I'm planning on doing some paintings for my house but haven't gotten there yet.

 13- Decorate a cake for each birthday 

14- Take the kids hiking this summer 

15- Find a waterfall: planning on finding one this summer

 16- Go on a date once a month: this is one of the ones I'm sad about, unfortunately we didn't get out for a date every month and it wasn't as big a priority as I should have made it.

 17- Go to the Temple once a month: ditto above.

 18- Be a 100% visiting teacher 

 19- Advance my "photography business"/ get paid for a big event 

 20- Do 3 photography trips/creative shoots/ outdoor shoots: I had some fun ideas to do for this, but unfortunately I just felt like I didn't have time, I did do ONE photography project, just not three.

 21- Yell less / be more patient: I tried. Really I did. (Have you met my kids though?!)

 22- Keep an organized calendar & dinner menu (no procrastinating!) : I wasn't perfect at this, but I really did work hard at it most of the year, got thrown off after the move and have gotten back into it, so I would say it was mostly successful.

 23- Have an all girl's themed party: I wanted to do a fun dress up party, but I'm going to count the baby shower I hosted and call it good. ;)

 24- Go to a concert: I was DYING to go to the Neon Trees/Maroon 5 concert that came through here but at $200 a pop, it wasn't going to happen. :/

25- Make a slideshow/movie for each kid: I just...suck.

26- Get new family pictures taken: Will do that this year for sure.

27- Stick to a budget: This is my husband's fault. ;)

 28- Make more friends / have more playdates 

 29- Decorate new house on a budget / document it on a blog : blog here: The Mint Cottage

 30- Have a big birthday bash!: We did a Roaring 20's theme and it was so fun to dress up! Huge thanks to my beautiful sister for helping put it together!

So what do you think? Do I completely suck for not doing everything? Would you make a list for yourself? If you did, what would you put on it??

The Fancy Party

It was my lovely gal's 10th birthday yesterday and although I'm worn out and still wanting to recuperate from it today, it was a lot of fun! We did a small friend party for Bethany this year--just six girls (and that includes herself, her sister and her cousin), it had been awhile since she had a friend party (I think she was five last time) and since she's at the age where I'm pretty much the worst mom ever (seriously, I just can't win with this child), I figured I would throw her a bone and also throw her a party while I was at it. ;)

We talked about a few different things, like going bowling or roller skating, but it was a little too expensive to take even just a few kids and, well to be honest, I'm cheap. So then I came up with this brilliant idea of doing a fancy lunch and doing fancy hair and makeup and painting fingernails and it would be like a tea party, spa day kind of thing. :) She was on board so we went with it. First up, was the invitations:

(HA! I just looked at this and realized I didn't actually have cupcakes! haha Oh well...)

And then, we got ready for the day! I asked my sister if she would come help, because I wasn't sure how well it would go if I was trying to do hair, and makeup and fingernails for six girls all by myself. ;) She very kindly agreed. I like her.

And we decorated.

And the girls came, so we ate.

And then we did all the fancy stuff, but I was busy then, so no pictures!

And then we opened presents.

It was a good time had by all (thats what I'm hoping at least), they were good girls and all very sweet, if all friend parties could be this nice I would do them more often (maybe). :)

(Don't they look waaaaaaay too grown up?! Yeesh! She's becoming a mini-teenager already!)

2012 Is Just Swell

Okay, I KNOW. I was told today its been pretty much two months since I posted last and I KNOW. I suck. Christmas was pretty rough for me this year and I was so stressed out I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel in my brain or something. And now this last week I've spent basically doing nothing except trying to recuperate. So, the kids went back to school today and I guess I've had enough time to get my act together. But at this point I'm not even going to blog about the holidays, I am just going to do my annual "favorites" post and call it good for now. :)

Favorite Song:

honorable mention:
Anything by Fun. or Maroon 5

Favorite Movie:
Gonna have to be The Avengers because my boys were so obsessed with the cartoons and characters, we had so much fun with it this year! :)

honorable mention:
Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises


Favorite TV Show:

We just got in to How I Met Your Mother this year, how have I not watched this before?! I'm a little obsessed...

honorable mention:
Once Upon a Time-- LOVE this show!


Favorite Book:
The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima

honorable mention:
The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning


Favorite Vacation:
Since the only real vacation I went on was with my sister-in-laws and mother-in-law to Oregon, I will choose that! ;)

Favorite Outfit:
uh, I guess my favorite outfit would be these turquoise jeans, with that button down jean shirt and the bubble necklace. :)

Favorite Project:
This wall:

Most Drastic Change:
We bought our first house!! Moved across town and the girls switched schools (without uniforms!)!

Highlights:
~My baby sister got married!

~My brother had his first baby!! Love her!!

~Got a guitar!

~Holiday fun:

~First drive in movie :)

~Summer fun:

~Did my first 5k

~Camping:

~Baby Ava!!

~Finally got our house! YES!

~New school for the girls!

~House projects:

~11 years of marriage!

~My niece was baptized, and the other one blessed in the same weekend! Nice!

~Nutcracker with friends :)

~Happy New Year!

Lowlights:
~My Grandpa passed away, love and miss him so much!

~Crazy stressful year with the whole short sale process--waiting almost five months to get approved and into our house. Sheesh.

~Trying to deal with the holidays a few months after moving, gosh this Christmas was so stressful. Plus, procrastinating is bad.



Well, in a nutshell, that sums up our year! Truly its been a great year full of blessings and changes. Sometimes changes are scary and hard, its only after the fact that we see how grateful we are they happened. Much love to you and here's hoping 2013 brings much joy and happiness!