Annual Halloween Party

It is that time of year again and as you can see,
we went all out!

I had so much fun sewing and putting these costumes together. There were a few stressful moments especially when my dress ended up being ginormous on me, but I kept telling myself they were just costumes so it really didn't matter how they fit or if they turned out perfectly. Thankfully, my mom came to the rescue Saturday afternoon and fixed mine so it fit much better.

As you can see, Mitch acted his character perfectly! I tried to be an onery queen but all i said was 'off with your head' lots but I just sounded wierd.

The Cox Crew

My favorites were the Avatar, Medusa and the little Princess!

The Anderson Gang

Obviously, we were my favorite but let's be honest, we all look great!

The biggest surprise of the night was my dad. Normally, he doesn't dress up so that those who don't come in a costume 'don't feel bad' at least that is what he always said. Well this year, he really shocked us when he had two costumes! We all got a good laugh with his Scottish man.

Donuts on a String

This is also a great tradition. We always break up into kids, men and women. I even put a donut on a string for Addy but she was very hesitant to eat it! It really made me laugh because she just stood there looking at everyone else. By the time she finally took a bite, someone else had already won so I just took the string off and gave her the donut and she downed it!

The best part of the whole night was that we won the
Best Costume Trophy!!
Okay it wasn't really the best part of the night and it might have had something to do with the fact that Mitch told everyone I would go home in tears if we didn't win- which wasn't true- but we still won!

It was a HOOT!!

Last Saturday, my neighbor and I threw a baby shower for one of our friends. I did some searching online (its where all the great ideas are!) and found myself drawn to the darling little owl things I was finding so that ended up being our theme.

I realize this is a horrible picture of me but it is the only one I got.

We played 'whooose the baby' and had everyone bring a baby picture of themselves and then we'd guess who the baby was.


Another fun game was digging in a bowl of rice for safety pins. It was way harder than it sounds.


Then we played the messy diaper game. Apparently the key is to taste the chocolate???


We really confused this little girl. I think she went home thinking all babies poop chocolate!

And the whole reason you have a baby shower so you can shower the mother to be with gifts, and she was!


These were part of my gift, I think they turned out so cute.

Check out these awesome cupcakes we made. I found the idea online which was one of the reasons I went with the owl theme.

These were another reason:

I was really happy with how it all came together considering it was my first time being the host of a baby shower. Hopefully people had a hoot!!! And if anyone else wants to throw a owl theme baby shower, just let me know I have some cute stuff!

More Birthday Surprises!!

For Mitch's birthday present, I surprised him with a quick little trip to Utah. I picked him up Friday afternoon from work with the car all packed and then we drove to Logan where my sister met us to take Addy. Then we stayed the night at the Hampton Inn where my brother works so he got us a family discount!! We went to the Olive Garden for dinner and it was sooo nice to just be the two of us without trying to fight a two year old at a nice restaurant :) The rest of the night we just relaxed. We went to the pool and then watched the Braves play.


The next morning we drove down to Park City and did lots of shopping at the outlets. We were there for almost three hours but it felt like only one. Mitch got his BYU hoodie and some new pants and then we got Addy quite a few little things and I also got myself some stuff so it was a very successful shopping trip. After shopping, we drove to Provo and went to the BYU game-hence Mitch needed a new hoodie to wear! We met Ted and Elise at the game and were lucky enough to sit by them through the whole thing so that was nice to spend a little time with them. It was a good game and lucky for us the Cougars even won.

Mitch after the first BYU touchdown!! I think he had a fun time because the next day he told me he wished he would turn 30 every day. Surprises are always nice :)

Mitch's Totally Awesome Birthday Party

For Mitch's 30th Birthday, I threw him a surprise 80s party. It was so much fun to plan and put together. I tried to keep it a secret from him and I did a great job because when he came home from work, he totally collapsed and rolled around on the ground because he was so shocked. Or was it because Addy and I looked so drop dead gorgeous!!!


I am very thankful to people who share their creative ideas online so that I can copy them and use them for myself. Such as these painted cassette tapes. They were the perfect decoration and I never would've come up with the idea on my own.


Here is another example of someone else's great idea. A pacman cake. Mitch loved it.

More decorations- I just got some candy that was bright neon colors and ninja turtle card that I tossed around.

I found these slinky's at walmart for cheap.

Remember the slap bracelets and 80s sunglasses. I found both of these online and couldn't resist purchasing them. They were a big hit. Apparently in most elementary schools, the slap bracelets were banned because they were being used as weapons. I don't remember that, but I do remember the big T-shirts with the clips.

Anyways, so the party was tons of fun. We have such terrific friends who came and supported us. Here we have our classic 80s nerd look, including the rolled up pant legs which you can't see and her hair clip changes color!

And since she is about to pop any day we cut her a little slack with the limited wardrobe options :)And just look at these three- total flashback, right? Even little L is rockin' the jumpsuit!!


He came right from a meeting so we cut him a little slack also. At least little A is sportin' the jean jacket!
To start things off, we took a little 80s trivia quiz to get our minds thinking back 30 years!! Then I put together a playlist of hit 80s songs that were in movies, so by listening to the song you had to guess what movie it was in. I was quite impressed with our nerds knowledge of the 80s. We then voted for the best outfit- which Mitch won, but truthfully it could've been several different people.

Onto cake and ice cream. This is a better picture to see our full outfits including leggings, fingerless netting gloves, sequins belt and florescent pink skirt which equals a disaster. Maybe this is why Mitch collapsed on the floor when he came home from work!! I was stunning. Mitch was sportin a shiny red jacket, skinny tie, cuffed up pants, really ugly plaid shirt and a handle bar mustache. Throw Addy in with her neon outfit and we were quite the sight!


After eating our pacman cake :( a few people came prepared with a little poem to share for Mitch on his birthday. One poem even included giving away that ugly plaid jacket as a gift to Mitch, isn't he so lucky! Good times.

It truly was a fun night and I'm so glad that people showed up, isn't that always the fear when you throw a party? So thank you to our awesome guests- hopefully we didn't scare you away and you will still be our friends. And to Mitch- Happy 30th Birthday to you.

What a Mess

Addy was helping me do a paint project last week for Mitch's birthday party.




Obviously, I wasn't watching all that closely. She was a mess from head to toe! Luckily I had at least remembered to strip her down to her diaper or else this would be all over her clothes :)

Cousin Week

While Gracie was here for a week in September, we did lots of fun things. We went to the zoo on the busiest day of the year because it was free!! Sadly I left my camera in the car so we didn't take any pictures of that.

One evening we took the kids to feed the ducks. I am always amazed at how quickly the ducks gather when they see bread being thrown.


I tried to get a picture of both girls in the tree but that didn't work because they both wanted to sit in the same spot. I quickly learned that things had to be even between them. This is a cute picture of Gracie and notice the feather that she found and carried everywhere!

We spent many hours at the park. They would either ride their bikes to the little park by our house or they would ride in the stroller to the big park. I was really happy that the weather stayed nice all week so that we could get out and let them work off their energy.


On this occasion, even Mitch was feeling the kid spirit!

They had fun dressing up. Although Gracie was quite disappointed when she found out I didn't really have dress ups like at her house.


One afternoon we made princess hats. Apparently, Addy thought the markers tasted pretty good!


I think the highlight of the whole week, at least for Gracie, was riding the horses. They both were very brave and rode all by themselves. Although Addy had to go first to show Gracie that it really wasn't too scary.

(Jamie- this might be why she wanted to be a cowgirl for halloween!)

It was such a fun week and Addy still asks me on occasion where Gracie is. We will definitely have to make this a yearly tradition!