My 23rd Birthday

I'm 23 years old...how in the WORLD did that happen? How is that even allowed? I think I still feel very much 19 so its super weird to me to be this old. Of course, then I spend time with a bunch of 19 year-olds and realize there's no way I could be that young haha.

My birthday was GREAT! It was definitely one of my favorite ones I've ever had. I went home on Thursday night for a long weekend, since I only had one class each on Thursday and Friday. I'm glad I got to spend such a long weekend at home with my family! I absolutely love spending time with them and the older I get, the more that's true.

Friday I picked Gracie and her friend Katelyn up from school, and Sidney found out she didn't have class that night so I picked her up from the frontrunner and we all went to the Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolate factory tour! I read this post and thought it would be fun to go do, because a chocolate factory! Need I say more??

It was pretty fun! I guess on Fridays they're not as busy but we had a great time and got a bunch of really good chocolate samples and also bought some more afterward. I think we all had a fun time and it was cool to see the history of the place and also find out how chocolate is made!

Friday night we went out to dinner at Settebello's in Farmington Station Park for some thin oven pizza. It was absolutely delicious and they even put extra basil on mine (anything with basil on it and I'm sold!). I was so grateful to my parents for taking me there, they are the best!

Oh and behind the story of Gracie's cute hat...we had like a 45 minute wait before we could be seated, so we went next door to Claire's because they had all their $2 clearance and there are always some fun finds. Gracie really wanted to buy something and I told her I'd only get her something if it was $2 (I seriously am such a bargain shopper and only like buying things on clearance!), but everything she wanted was more and she couldn't find anything she liked. Eventually she was crying because she didn't want to leave without getting something and I probably should have just said no instead of trying to make her happy. But man, I love that girl so much, as frustrated as I was haha. But the really nice Claire's employee tried helping us out and she found that cute hat for $2! So kudos to that employee, she made my day for how helpful and sweet she was, especially since my sister wasn't being the nicest and neither was I. Good customer service can definitely go a long way :)

Also I'm a nerd and took this picture because it was the last one of me being 22 haha.

Saturday was the actual day of my birthday! Yay! It was General Conference so from 10-12 and 2-4 we watched that and it was wonderful! We have fun conference traditions where my mom wraps a present for each apostle and the first presidency and when they speak you get to open them. Usually there are snacks inside which is fun. Gracie especially loves it. We also do fantasy general conference (like fantasy football but gen conf style ha!) and often end up guessing everything miserably wrong. ;)

In between sessions I opened presents from my parents. I got a hard drive, which my dad used to clean off my computer and change the operating system so I could get Adobe Premiere Pro and have more space on my computer--so great!, a cute coat, The Devil Wears Prada, a Marauders Map (came a week later, but SO COOL!), and a bike!! I've been wanting a bike on and off for a while so I'm pretty excited for it. My mom did a fun scavenger hunt so Gracie and I went around the house finding clues and then eventually found the bike in the basement. I'm way excited for it!

That night we went grocery shopping at a favorite bargain grocery store, and then met up with all the girls (my grandma, my aunt Zildy and her kids, and Zildy's friend Leah) since the boys were at Priesthood session and went to Leatherby's for ice cream (it's delicious, you should go sometime), and then went shopping at DI. Those are our normal conference traditions and I love them so I was totally cool to keep 'em going.

Then that night we got home and watched SNL to end my birthday! It was great :)

Sunday we watched more conference and then a ton of relatives and friends came over for the second session and for dinner. My cousin Alex's birthday was on Monday and it was the first time in probably like twelve years that we got to celebrate together! So that was really cool and I was pretty excited about that! My mom made an awesome cake and we had our silly procession and opened presents. Whataday. Twas wonderful.
(fun gifts I got from people--cuz I like to remember!: some delicious ferraro rochers from Alex, a scarf and earrings from Sidney, an old BYU sweatshirt from Carina which I can't stop wearing, candy from my roommate Olivia (sneakily dropped off at my house on my birthday!), a cute sweater from my grandparents, pretzel m&ms! and a scarf from Cee Ryle, CD covers from Jasmine, a scarf--and something else I am trying so hard to remember-- from Zildy and fam, $$ and a card from my WY grandparents, cards from Courtney and my sweet aunt Ruth in Texas, and an amazing Ford Anglia replica with Harry and Ron inside made entirely of legos from my friend Andre! Gah! People are the best and so so nice!)

If all of that was really long for you...sorry! I have a habit of writing a lot. But below you can see my whole 23rd birthday in 23 seconds! woot!


As a last afterthought, do you ever look at yourself and think how much you've grown? Obviously other people do it all the time.. "I can't believe how much you've grown!" "Wait, you're how old?! That's crazy, I remember when you were in diapers!" But looking at these pictures and writing this blog post I can't help but think the same thing of myself. I'm 23?! What? I definitely don't look it, but I still see myself and think how much I've grown, probably because I know myself the best. It's weird, I have grown a lot. I don't really know where I thought I'd be when I was 23, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't where I am now. But here I am, and boy am I pretty happy with it.

I'm 23!

[A Carnival Themed Party]: Music Playlist

Oh my goodness, I have so much to blog about! I've had work a lot this week and suddenly I was going through blog posts and realized how much I need to catch up on...I never finished blogging about the carnival party (which was over a month ago...oops!), I had a gazillion friends get married about two weeks ago, I have to tell you about my California trip I took with my roommates, and you definitely will want to hear about the Taylor Swift concert I went to on Saturday (it is a story worth hearing, I promise you!). Lots to do, but don't worry, I'll get to it all.

I threw a carnival themed party on April 24, and we all know that when I throw a party, I put a ton of work into it. Everything is important--decorations, games, food, guests, and music. I feel like sometimes music is one of the most important parts because it really creates a mood for the party. I always like having a playlist that people can dance to, especially when the parties are outside, so that's what I tried to do with this one. I loved this music and everyone else really did too, so I'll probably use it for future parties I throw.

You can download most of this music from iTunes or find it on youtube or Spotify. I just ordered it alphabetically and put it on shuffle, but you can always put it in an order that you like, if you want certain songs to play at a certain time during the party. If you want more tips on playing music at your party, you can read this post of mine. Enjoy!

Oh and for any of you wondering, this playlist will last about 4 hours, which could be longer than your party, but I like to have my playlists a little bit longer so you can start them early and have them going a little later, just in case there are any party stragglers or it goes longer.

A Carnival Themed Party!

Throwing parties is one of those things that keeps me alive, as ridiculous as that may sound. I love the planning and the preparation. I love the stress the day of the party, and the relief when people come, and the happiness I get from people around me being happy.

Never did I ever think I'd end up being a party planner type of girl. In high school I was insecure and scared. I wasn't some girl who could throw a party where people would have fun and actually show up. Never. I guess now that I'm in college--almost done with college, crazily enough--I've found this confidence in myself that I didn't know I had. It comes from a lot of good friends who I'm totally myself around and who I have fun with. It comes from amazing roommates who are my best friends and my soul sisters. I thank God every single day for them in my prayers because I'm so lucky to have people like them in my life. And it comes from the fact that I really do like myself right now, and to an extent, I don't care what people think of me. Especially not as much as I did in high school.

I've realized that doing what makes me happy is the best feeling in the world, so I try not to stop myself from doing those things.

This party was a fun one. I loved planning it, down to the details of the food, games, and decorations. I had a difficult time finding any carnival-themed printables on pinterest, so I made my own using Picmonkey, and they turned out fabulous. I set up a photobooth, complete with props like hipster glasses, speech bubbles, and mustaches (as much as I am tired of the mustache trend, they make for excellent and hilarious photo booth props). People that I knew and didn't know came and went. We had loud music going with some people dancing the whole night, some of us talking and then dancing, and others just enjoying being there socializing by the fire pit, the games, the photobooth, or the concessions. I wish I had taken more pictures of them, but we had carnival games lining the wall, like a ring toss (water bottles and bracelets), a clothespin drop (trying to drop a clothespin into a thin vase), and a fortune teller (magic 8 balls). If I hadn't been hosting the party, I definitely would have done face painting too. It was a delightful night and everyone who came had a good time.

See, that's the thing about parties, is that they make other people happy. And making other people happy makes me happy. Therefore, throwing parties make me exceptionally happy. See for yourself, and next time I throw one and you're in Provo, you should definitely come. :)

*If you want any copies of the printables, feel free to email me and I will send them to you!

**And if you want to read about any of the other parties I've thrown, the links are below:

Harry Potter Party

Hunger Games Party

Halloween Party

Hey Provo/Orem People!

As many of you know, I LOVE throwing parties. It's like one of my favorite things ever, only second to fashion. I've thrown Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Halloween themed parties, and this Wednesday I'm throwing another one! It's gonna be totally great.

Above is the invite, and here's the link to the event page on facebook if you would like to come (which, of course you want to come..it's going to be awesome!). You can bring friends and invite whoever you want. I would love to see you there!

(ps. this is the reason blogging has not been happening for the past week. I've been working a ton and when I'm not at work, I'm party planning and preparing! But no worries, regular blog posts will resume shortly).

Kelsey's Bridal Shower

As some of you might know, I currently have two engaged roommates. And actually it's a lot of fun because I love weddings, so we have all kinds of wedding talk around here. Pretty great. We threw Kelsey a bridal shower last night (Talya's future sister-in-laws threw her a bridal shower. Don't worry, we don't love one roommate more than the other haha).

Us single roommates (me, Katie, Meghan, and Heidi) all planned the shower and were each in charge of something different so I got put in charge of decorations, woohoo, my favorite part! I put streamers around the room, made a cute banner, made a "date jar" for people to put date ideas in, and made some tissue paper pom-poms. For food, we had cupcakes, fruit pizzas, spinach dip with crackers, and italian sodas. Mmm...it was good. We mostly socialized for it but did play the typical bridal shower game where you ask the groom questions beforehand and then have the bride answer them as well and see how well they know each other. And every time the bride gets a question wrong she has to chew a piece of dubble bubble gum. We opened presents too, and for favors we put two chocolate covered strawberries in a bag tied with a ribbon and a fake engagement ring. It was lots of fun! But you're probably tired of hearing me talking about so I'll just post some pictures, yeah? Ok. :)

They were blue, I promise! But the picture kinda makes them look green :/

Hey look, I'm engaged!! Oh wait...jk I'm just April foolsin' you ;) But I will be keeping this ring in my pocket to ward off crazy men in the future.