The Party of the Century

So my BFF #1 (apart from all of you other BFF #1's too!) has an adorable one year old named Siena.  Siena doesn't understand it for one minute I'm sure, but she LOVES Sesame Street. She'll sit and watch it for hours!  (Well, Natalie is an amazing mother, so of course she doesn't LET her, right??) So, Natalie prepared an incredible First Birthday party for her, in a Sesame Street theme.

I told Natalie that although I have no clue how to use Jordan's camera, that I'd do the pictures....good thing I know a few things about Photoshop, since I could only use the darn thing on "auto."  I'll learn how to use his camera soon enough though...

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Siena Street?? :)

Natalie MADE this cake.  Can you believe her talents????

It was my idea to do pipe cleaners rather than fondant for the curls.  Let's simplify life, right??

Natalie really wishes the Sixlets would have stayed stuck to the cake...but it's GORGEOUS anyway, Nat!

Siena in all her cuteness!!  Should I have Photoshopped out the ketchup on her chin?  Maybe....maybe not.  It's authentic, right?

Candy galore!!

I painted that.  Very proud :)

There was a bouncy house (being the party of the year, and all!)  Notice how Claire has her "purse-o-panties" with her, her "Baby Jaguar" (You know, from "Go, Diego, Go!"), a plethora of necklaces, and another purse (behind the panties one) with Cinderella princess shoes.  She is also wearing some princess shoes.  Natalie and I decided that she is the epitome of a child-version of "The Bag Lady."  Sad!  LOL LOL

Just love this shot.  This is Natalie's niece, Brooke.

Love my cutie!!

Cutie :)  (I mean you, Nat!)

Kids got a goldfish and crayon for their "goodie bag." Natalie is so creative :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE little Eli with his super cute mom, Jenny

Natalie's sister, Alex, and her cute little girl, Bella

Such a cute picture!  (Next time I'll have to watch out for that harsh light!)

Leslie and her little monkey

Drake:  What a cutie! (And Amberly too :)

Jonny and his bundle of Sloane, I mean, Joy!

Rachy looks so cute in this picture!!

Sloane wouldn't cooperate but she's so gorgeous even when she is not wanting to be smiley in front of the camera!  Focus on her eyes would have been awesome, but I'm not that good :)  Oh well!!

ELMO visited.  Can you believe Natalie's mom wore that costume in JULY????  She's crazy!!  And awesome!

Autie Katie painted faces.  She's so good!

Just such a cute pic of Daxton.

Check out the tat on Claire! Cookie Monster rocks.

And check out the cute face painting (and all of Claire's necklaces and panties...sigh...)

More cute pics of Sloaney-Pants

Connor and Abbey.  Connor was in HEAVEN.  Abbey--can you tell she took out her clippie?? Naughty naughty!  Must have learned that from Anya, jk :)

Cooper and Sydney.  What a cute expression, Cooper!

Can you believe Natalie painted a frame with an S just for this occasion? That's dedication!

And of course, at the party of the year, there HAD to be a pinata!  This one, you take turns (in a single file line, as shown above...OK well supposedly shown above :) pulling on strings until one of the strings actually breaks it open.  Yeah, Claire got to her turn and grabbed a clump of 5 or 10 strings.  It was classic Claire. (It's like in Sacrament Meeting with the bread.  We keep having to tell her "just one!")

Like bees to honey...

Unsure at first...

...but she got into it soon enough.  They always do.

Happy Birthday Nenners!!!  Can you believe we were going to take a picture of her cute onesie Natalie made with Elmo on it...AFTER this?  What were we thinking....

Brazilian Party!!

Rachel (the "baba") & Claire & Me...

On June 12, my parents had a Brazilian party at their house. It was SO FUN! Our dear friends from Recife, Brazil, Ana Marcia and Cleto Oliveira were in town on their way to serving as Mission Presidents of a mission in the central part of Brazil--I don't even remember the name of it, but it's near the capitol of Brasilia :)

I went with one of my best buds, Rachel, as her husband is in Iraq and mine was at work :) It was really funny though because when we came in, she was holding Claire...and anyone who would take Claire for a few minutes would always give her back to Rachel...so Rachel figured they thought she was the NANNY! :) (Which in Portuguese is: "baba"-accent on the last syllable)

Kika, her cute baby, Olivia, me, and Ana Marcia

We had so much fun reconnecting with the Oliveiras, and with the Jacksons, Carol Thomas, Elder & Sister Hillam, and the Jacox's we knew in Sao Paulo. And then one of our missionaries, JB Richards, in Recife, with his wife, and of course, Kika and Trevor - Kika, we knew from Recife, but she now is married and lives here and is one of my best friends in the world :)

My mom made "Feijoada," the typical black beans and rice dish, and we had mousse de maracuja (passion fruit mousse), pao de queijo (cheese rolls), and of course, Guarana to drink! It was heavenly!! Oh, and Kika made the best pudim (Brazilian pudding/flan type thing)...yummm...if you don't like the texture of flan, you'll like this kind! (in fact, Kiquinha, will you post the recipe on your blog??)

It was so fun!!! I told my parents to do it again...actually, make it an annual thing!! I'll be sure to bug them about setting a date next year!

Happy New Year!

This year, we had the "Second Annual New Years Eve Party" at Natalie's house :) Natalie and Rob are our wonderful neighbors and such good hosts! She made a big pot of chili, I did twice-baked potatoes and mint brownies for dessert, and everyone brought sides. We had so much food... (leftovers!)

And we played the best game ever...."Catch Phrase" like a million times until midnight. It was SO FUN!!! And this year, Garrett didn't win the whole time! :) Yes!

Natalie & Rob Lund

Brittany & Garrett Best (Garrett doing his "Edward" pose)

The new move-in's, Britton & Aubrey Howell!

Gillis & Megan Sessions

Rachel & Jonathan DenBeste (Jonathan being a total dork in the photo, as usual :)

Jordan & Me

Another nice random shot

Some of the night's highlights:

* Janessa is losing her mind. Due to the sheer volume of items she was bringing to Natalie's house (walking there...she's just a few houses down the road) she decided to slip her cell phone into her...bosom :) TOTALLY forgot it was there, used Natalie's phone to call Jordan at one point, because she couldn't find it (although she heard a text message at one point, was looking around...it seemed so close by!! STILL didn't pick up on that) until during dinner when someone texted her again, and she looked down. Yes.

* Natalie calling the language "Afrikaans" "Africonics" haha... it was just really funny.

* Garrett pretending to be a HUGE fan of Twilight, and us gullible girls TOTALLY believing him...he was simply regurgitating what his wife had said (in the most convincing way!) about the books and the movie (yes, I also hated Bella's prom dress in the movie!)

* Janessa calling Ryan Seacrest's dumb earmuffs "ear mufflers..." yes, Jordan looked at her really weird.

* Rob STALLING during his turn in Catch Phrase so that Natalie would run out of time!!

* Natalie, Rachel, and Janessa talking about ovulation cycles and Rob accidentally getting stuck in the conversation :)

OK I can't remember any more...we just had so much fun, and that's all there is to it!! AND, I didn't have a baby!!! YES! That means cheaper delivery here I come! I think maybe this weekend....we'll see!