Valentine Prom 2011

This Valentine's Day we decided to put together a prom. The concept is as corny as it sounds, but the execution is tons of fun! Most of our past dates have become some of our best memories. So in trying to find a memorable date to create for this V-day, I tried to remember clear back to the beginning.

I realized that we had a date stolen from us...by none other than the military. My senior prom. JT was stuck on ship that week. Thankfully, I was able to still go and have a blast thanks to one of my best high school friends, Mr. Stephen Huyck! We had SO much fun, but I know it probably drove JT crazy that I was at my romantic prom with another guy.

Enter "Valentine Prom 2011"! We decided to take back our memory and have our own prom together! We stole the theme from my prom, "A Night in Paris" and threw ourselves a Parisian affair. Mind you, I went out shopping for supplies on Saturday night for 2 hours and then spent Sunday night and Monday putting together. Did I mention Monday was Valentine's Day? This prom was a low budget wonder done in the twinkling of an eye.

But it was SO much fun and SO worth it! I think putting it together with my hubby was my favorite part. The talking, laughing, stolen kisses, and surprise hugs made it the best time of my life.

Enough of the mushy stuff! On to the details!

I got the idea for the "drapes" from a ballerina birthday party. The table covers and "drapes" were made from plastic table cloths purchased on rolls.

wine glasses were a purchase from our dating years

You can't have a prom without crowning a king and queen!

 

 

Coveting Kina's cricut. It was so sweet of her to provide me with the lettering! I attached the letters to curling ribbon to hang for the picture wall.

My dress was super pretty, although you can't tell. We also hung tulle from the ceiling in a canopy and had gold stars dangling between the strands.

It was beautiful and magical. Definitely another memory for the books!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm so excited that it's finally Valentine's Day! I got up this morning (at 6:30 AM!!!!) to make pink chocolate chip pancakes for my valentine and the kiddos. JT enjoyed them and the kids wolfed them down. Delilah wouldn't even touch her strawberries. All she wanted was some of that pink chocolatey goodness. I'd say she's a girl, hands down.

Our plans for tonight include a little Cafe Rio and a Valentine's Day Prom! Eek I'm so excited! We pulled it off on really short notice too. I shopped 2 hours on Saturday night and we spent 4 hours last night putting it together. It's not done yet, but it's almost there!!! It looks fabulous! Be sure to check back tomorrow when I do the full reveal. It knocks my socks off everytime I walk into the room!

And with that, I'll leave you with a little teaser. Eek!

Happy Valentine's Day!



Sunday Memory

In honor of Valentine's Day, this Sunday's photo memory is from our wedding reception. Our photographer and good family friend took this photo. Bill did an amazing job capturing the moment for us. We had actually gotten married the day before and chose to reduce stress by having the reception the following evening. I would highly recommend this to any other couple. Instead of our wedding and reception going by in a blur, we got to drink in the moment.

That's what this picture is. We drank in the moment. After everything it took to get us to this point, we were finally married and coming to the end of a long day of celebration. We had been surrounded by people who had loved us our whole lives and were perfectly happy. Even though most of the party had gone home at this point, we didn't want to go. It was everything we had ever dreamed of. So alone, we took to the dance floor for one final dance. On the last note of the song JT dipped me back and kissed me. It's one of the sweetest memories I have and I am SO grateful to Bill for capturing it.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

"Egypt is free"

It happened! The Egyptian people have forced their President, Mubarak, to step down. They have taken back their country! I could not be more impressed by these courageous people. Their protests were largely peaceful and continued to be even in the face of Mubarak's thugs. The Egyptian people have won by the sheer strength of their will. Congratulations!

As Americans, democratic revolutions hold a tender place in our hearts. We learn about our own and cherish its history. We are spurred to patriotism by the example of our forefathers. But this Egypt, it leaves us all behind. While we talk of change and the courage it requires, they acted. They poured into the streets and came together as a people to demand their freedom. The unity they found under no common leader is awe inspiring. There must have been an electric current that only they could feel surging through their bodies and spurring them to action with one accord. Today the world celebrates with Egypt!

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I wish Egypt success as they begin to move towards a democracy. The Egyptian people and political analysts seem confident that the Egyptian military will hold true to the people and install a democracy. Not being familiar with the military myself, I must defer to the experts and the people. But I cannot help but worry because a government run by the military does not foster democracy. The longer it takes for the military to set up the government then the greater the risk it runs of becoming a dictatorship once again. But like I've said, I will defer to the experts and pray that the Egyptian people get what they have worked so hard to have.  They have the support of the world.

Congratulations Egypt!

Craft Room

As some of you may have noticed, I have become extremely interested in crafting. In fact, I'm pretty much obsessed! It seems like every month a new cardboard box sits in my kitchen, filled to the brim. JT will walk in, point at it, and ask "what is that?" My response is "my crafts".  I currently count 5 boxes living the life of a nomad in our garage. Last month JT suggested that we make his office into an office/craft room so I wouldn't be relegated to the garage every time I needed something.

My response? HECK YES!

As you can see, I'm only slightly excited. ;)

The Scotts came over not long after and helped to clean and organize our home. As my parents and past roommates can tell you, organization does not come naturally to me. I've grown a lot since then, but it's still a struggle for me. It didn't help that we haphazardly packed up all our belongings and moved to Arkansas 2 summers ago, packed again and moved back 4 months later, and then packed again and moved within Provo less than 2 months later.  To be honest, there were boxes that never got around to being UNpacked. There just wasn't time. Did I mention I was pregnant with twins? Yikes. I wasn't allowed to move boxes and almost all of them were heavy. I found that even if I found a box on the floor that I could unpack without any exertion, the things inside could end up being too heavy or overwhelming to try and place. For example, I wanted to cry every time I found a box full of books because our bookcase wasn't set up yet. Nothing was in its place and I was expecting 2 babies to arrive ANY DAY (everyone assumed the twins would come early as they usually do. Not so in our case).

So when I say that I am grateful to the Scotts for coming and clearing my home of the leftover and piled up stuff, I mean that my entire life and happiness has been changed by that one act of compassion.

So now that the house is organized and I don't spend every minute of the day fretting over it, it is time to set up our craft room!!!!!!!  It will take some time, but I am SO excited to get started. I found some pictures that kind of capture what I'm going for:

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We're thinking we'll split the closet in that room between crafts and clothing. This picture is pretty close to what we're planning...at least for half it.

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 And lastly, here are the craft rooms that ours will most likely end up looking like. EEK! I'm so excited!

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Just try to not be inspired by all that crafty goodness! I dare you!

Happy birthday Porter & Delilah!

I cannot believe that my sweet little babies are now big one year-olds! Ahhh! Not that I am biased or anything, but they have got to be the cutest one year-olds in the WORLD! No joke friends. Be jealous.

I got the inspiration for their birthday party from Ell Belle Creative and put the ol' Trout spin on their "One Year Old in a Flash" theme.

I free-handed those letters! Booyah! My friend Kina cut the green flash out of a plastic tablecloth. The "filmstrip" was made of paper placemats with 8x10 photos taped on top of them. So EASY but it ended up being the coolest part.

Lacie's mom photo-shopped the birthday hats on the twins for me. I remembered reading an easy how-to on a blog once about how to make your own cupcake stand (sorry I don't remember which one). So I cut out 3 cardboard circles, mod podged colorful tablecloths to them, and used cans wrapped in paper to set up the stand. I was so happy with the way it turned out!

For your enjoyment, here is Delilah enjoying her birthday cupcake!

And here is Porter!

Now that the high chairs were permanently dyed pink & blue, it was time to clean off those little munchkins!

The party was a complete success and we enjoyed having so many friends around. The twins are VERY loved and definitely have a liking for sweets. :)

I'll leave you with this last parting photo...happy 2011 everyone!