Today is my best friend's birthday, and all he wants is pineapple upside down cake. Well, and a steak dinner later this week at our favorite Texas de Brazil {but that's neither here nor there.} After 2.5 years of marriage and 3 tested cake recipes...I think I finally found the one. It's fluffy, light, and oh so delicious. Quoting Ryan: "It's probably the best cake I've had...ever."
Ryan & I are not keen on being super sappy on social media, but for his birthday I'll make an exception ;) When I look back at our time together so far, it seems likes we've always been together. We were like two peas in a pod from the moment we met, then everything after that just fell so perfectly in to place. I love how we are such a complement to one another, and working as a team towards our dreams in life. I'm so grateful to have such a sweet and thoughtful best friend to try out more pineapple upside down cake recipes on for many more years to come. Happy birthday my darling.
This past Saturday was my 22nd birthday! I feel so young when I think about how much life I still have ahead of me, but also feel proud for what I've accomplished in my 22 years here. I conquered skin cancer, been married almost 2 and a half years, have held down 3 awesome jobs, am working on improving my musical talents, will be a college graduate in April of 2014, and have awesome relationships with friends and family. I am pretty blessed if I do say so myself.
On my birthday eve, Ryan took me out shopping and I found some amazing bargain pieces at Loft and American Eagle! {I'll share soon ;)} Then we ate at Firehouse subs before we went over to watch Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. Ummm, cutest movie ever & definitely just as fun as the first movie. I'm so glad it came out on my birthday weekend, it just had to be fate!!!
Saturday was a busy day, I had dance practice at noon followed by a choir retreat from 1-4pm. I quickly ran some errands then went home to prepare for the small party I was having! I just wanted something low-key with cake and some of my favorite people. It was a blast catching up with old friends and having an excuse to see them all!
Allll the way back in 2009, I graduated high school and left 2 weeks later for college. Best decision ever. I met some of my now closest friends that summer, and love that I was able to share the "college experience" with them! So of course we had to take a "Freshmen summer reunion" picture to commemorate :)
Well my friends, that just about wraps up my birthday post. We all know how much I love birthdays, and I'll admit I love having the attention on me and getting fun presents....but what I love the most is having my closest friends and family nearby so I can share how grateful I am to have them in my life.
Guess what...my birthday is NEXT SATURDAY. I finally get to run around singing: "I don't know 'bout you...but I'm feelin' TwEnTY TWOOOOoo!" And yes, I make it a big deal every year by texting out a countdown to my family. I'm sure it's not annoying or anything ;)
Friday Ryan will take me out for food and to scour the outlet mall for any fun goodies, then after a choir retreat on Saturday I want to have a 'lil get together with some of my favorite people for a night full of cake & games. I'm so stoked!
You know what this time of the year also means? HALLOWEEN. I've already taken out the decorations and started dusting them off to prepare for some Hocus Pocus-watching and Halloween decorating this next week. Hmmm, ya. You could say I'm pretty happy right now.
As a belated birthday/mission present, I'm making Evan a little picture book to take with him for his 2-year mission in Mexico.
This way he has pictures to show the people he is teaching who his family is and where he is from.
It's also to make sure that he remembers what we even look like when he is out there!
These are only some of the collages and pictures I pulled together of friends/family & of Evan's projects or adventures. Can't wait to see what he thinks of it all :)
Evan goes into the Provo MTC two weeks from tomorrow, so excited for him!
He'll be there learning the language for 6 weeks then he is off to Villahermosa, Mexico {down south, near the Guatemala border}.
So be expecting some creative missionary packages to be featured here on the blog :)
{Blaine, Alayna, myself & Ryan being the bomb dot com on the ice}
This past Friday we went out ice skating for our friend Alayna's birthday!
This was Ryan's FIRST TIME EVER ice skating...ohhhh boy.
We went to the 7 Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, when Ryan and I finally showed up {fashionably late}, the Zamboni was out on the ice doing his work for almost a half hour.
{What the deuce!!}
When it was finally done, we see this couple skate onto the fresh ice...
then he proceeds to get down on one knee.
Do you know what our 'lil group paid attention to when this guy was proposing?
The back of his shirt, which said "Sex Wax" on it.
Referring to a surfboard wax...but still.
That's what you chose to wear when proposing to the love of your life?!
Ummmmm, ya.
I'd tell that guy to try re-proposing.
The newly engaged couple finally got their bums off the ice so the rest of us could skate!
Ryan refused to hold my hand for fear that if he biffed it that I would be pulled down to my almost certain death, so romantic :)
We skated the night away until we went back to Blaine & Alayna's for some delicious Mississippi Mud Pie Brownies & Funfetti with Strawberry frosting cupcakes {made by Erin}.
YUMMMMMMMMM.
Then the group spent the rest of the night watching Pitch Perfect....HILARIOUS. Anyone who doesn't think Pitch Perfect is funny, definitely has a problem. We didn't get home from partying up a storm and actually go to sleep till 1 am {which is late for us old married folk}. Oh I know, we are living the life ;)
One of Ryan's friends went down to UNLV {Las Vegas} to check out the dental school and he asked Ryan to accompany him.
I, of course, being the amazing wife I am, gave the stamp of approval for him to have a fun couple of days so I could have the house to myself :)
The picture above is a birthday package I got in the mail from my best friend Sam.
She modge podged glitter onto a Martinelli's bottle for my 21st b-day!
A good start to my weekend :D
Last night I had time to decorate the front of the house with spider webs and glittery spiders!
Then I ran into a real spider and it's real web and almost fell off the chair I was standing on.
I met up with some of my favorite peeps after work today.
Kyla, baby Hunter and I hit up Ross in search for shoes andddd we came out with sweaters & pants.
Funny how that works out.
Then we talked each others ears off at In-N-Out which wrapped up an awesome afternoon!
After such a busy day I went home and lounged around, talked to the husband, and fell asleep.
Then I woke up and realized that I would be late to a blogger meet-up that I had been invited to.
I was him hawwwing, thinking that it would be over or that I would be too late, then the husband texted me and said:
"Honey it will be fine. Come on, you look hot and need to strut your stuff."
I read this text and my heart melted {mostly because he is such a dweeb}, so I decided to get my buns out of bed, get ready and go.
Which I'm so happy I did!
I was a little quieter than usual, but it was because I wanted to get to know everyone by asking them questions. I had a super fun time and was glad that I was encouraged to go :)
Then I grabbed a CPK pizza from Smiths, ate the whole thing and now I'm catchin' up on some Modern Family...
and it's just hitting me how much I miss the husband.
Good thing he is back tomorrow and then it will be time for the PUMPKIN PATCH.
With all the ridiculous amount of posts about my birthday, I am just now getting around to posting about the actual party, and it turns out that I only got a few pictures of it! {And since it was at night, the pictures are not the best quality, but who really cares. It happened and that's all we really care about.}
The picture above is the set-up we had in our backyard. We pulled our big comfy couch outside, put up some of those globe twinkle lights, set up the projector screen in front of the garage, watched Just Friends {with my fav Ryan Reynolds} and talked over a fire while making s'mores.
This birthday party was definitely in the top 5 of favoritest birthdays. It was a small group of the people I care most about, and we had a BLAST. {Plus I got to meet one of my favoritest bloggers, Kyla and her adorable family in real life. Seriously SO AWESOME.} We had my favorite funfetti cake, laughed our faces off, and finished the night off with more s'mores and hot chocolate :)
And my beautiful Funfetti Birthday cake. SO DELISH.
If any of you were wondering, I pretty much had an awesome birthday. Don't you just love how the people make the party? I have amazing family & friends. Just sayin'.
As you all know, September 28th was my 21st birthday!
And we all know how excited I get about my birthday.
On the 27th, after a looong day of classes, Ryan told me to get all glitzed up cause we are going out!
We started driving up towards Salt Lake and that's when I had an idea of where he was taking me....
a place that absolutely BLOWS the Brazillian Steakhouse, Tucanos, out of the water.
Texas de Brazil.
If you look up the reviews online of this ammmmazing restaurant, you will find everyone complaining about how expensive it is and how you can find the same exact thing at Tucanos.
WRONG.
So wrong.
First of all, we all know that Utah peeps are cheap.
Second, there is absolutely no way you can compare Texas de Brazil to Tucanos.
The meat melts in your mouth, the fried bananas are delicious, the service is amazing, the atmosphere is sophisticated, and the experience is unforgettable.
I guess people don't know a good thing when they see it?
We were put in a quiet part of the restaurant, were practically waited on hand and foot, and we enjoyed Every. Single. Bite.
It was the perfect setting for Ryan & I to talk about anything and everything.
We had such a great time, that we were there for almost 2 hours.
Gosh, time flies by when you are having fun!
At the end of the dinner when they brought the dessert tray, we decided to try one out and Ryan reminded them to also bring out my birthday dessert.
I was expecting a little scoop of ice cream, the typical free birthday dessert.
Ummm, nope.
They let me pick from the ridiculously awesome dessert tray...
For free.
So I picked the Brazillian Cheesecake with caramel.
Yummmmmmmmm.
Pretty much a perfect start to my birthday weekend :)
<3 Bri
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If you have any concerns or issues with it, shoot me an email!
Another holiday I love almost as much as my berf-day?
HALLOWEEN.
I'm so excited for the air to get cooler so I can continue to deck out my house in spooky decor with no judgement, even though I started decorating a week ago...which is no where near October.
Obviously I don't really care about this so-called "right time" to decorate for upcoming holidays.
PSH!
On the birthday party front...
I got a white sheet that will substitute as a projector screen, and have picked up some twinkle lights.
Still trying to figure out where to hang those up, and seeing if I need more...we shall see!
Plus, I'm thinking some kind of cute wooden sign to guide people to the backyard?
If you don't follow me on Pinterest, you shouldprobably start, cause I'm a pinning maniac when I have a goal in mind!
I'm absolutely horrible at keeping a secret or holding back a surprise.
I just get way too excited and start jittering and can't WAIT to see their expression when...
SURPRISE! AWESOMENESS! I LOVE YOU!
So of course I was just dyyyying when Ryan & I had Evan's birthday surprise planned
A MONTH IN ADVANCE.
Evan's 19th birthday was this last Friday, February 3rd 2012.
I made him his favorite funfetti cupcakes and got his favorite drink Sangria to go with it.
Ryan and I got off work late that night and headed on over to the roller rink where Evan was at, enjoying a joint birthday party with another friend.
Then on Saturday, we picked him and his friend Ashton up and started making our way up to Salt Lake City to eat at Tucanos.
{You get a free meal if it's your bday!}
{Ashton, Evan}
Sooo Evan pretty much thinks we are just eating at Tucanos, then going to wander around the mall, then head home. Which he is actually pretty excited about.
When the case ACTUALLY was:
We had, for the past MONTH in our possession, 4 tickets to the Jazz VS. Lakers basketball game for that night.
Ryan, Ashton, and I knew what was going down the whooole time and Evan didn't have a clue.
He was saying comments like:
"Why is it so busy up here? It's because the Lakers are in town, huh! That would be really cool if we would have had tickets! Can we just watch it on tv here?"
{Energy Solutions Stadium in SLC}
Oh gosh. It was hilarious to listen to.
We stuffed our faces at the Brazilian Steakhouse, then started walking over to the sports shop.
I tell Evan that we wanted to buy him and his friend Lakers shirt for his birthday.
Evan is STILL not suspicious.
He is trying to get us to stay in the sports shop so he can watch the game.
The kid is freaking KILLING ME cause I'm trying to get his butt out of the store to watch the game LIVE.
We buy the shirts, tell him that we are heading back down to the car to move it farther down the mall....
{You can fast forward through the first 30 seconds}
And thennn Evan proceeds to have a heart attack.
It was the best EVER.
We went to the game, unfortunately the Lakers lost :/
But it was still wayyyy fun!
Got 7-11 hot chocolate on the way home, had awesome conversation, then we crashed in bed!
Hope you had an awesome day, happy birthday Evan :)
