80's Party

Saturday night was Suzy's birthday party. The theme...80's. We had so much fun! Although it was pretty scary when we went shopping at Ross and had a good selection of 80's clothes to choose from. Honestly, whose idea was it to bring the 80's look back?! We didn't even have to buy anything for Kalianna's costume, she already had the leggings and headband and someone gave us her 80's style shirt as a gift shortly after she was born.

Our cute 80's baby
Stylin' mommy
Don't you just love Matt's ensemble?

Our little 80's family

Uncle Bryan
Me, Suzy and Breezy. Although we were all born in the 80's, we were never old enough to wear these clothes.

Suzy's doughnut birthday cake

Suzy opening presents

Playing one of the funnest games ever! Matt and I won the first time we played. Go team Carroll! Then for the next game we thought it would be fun to put all our names in a bowl to draw partnerships. Bryan and Matt won the second time around. Which means Matt rocks at this game! How you play is everyone gets four pieces of paper and they write down a word or a phrase or something on each of the pieces of paper. Some examples from our game were "Don't drink draino" or "99 red balloons" or "policeman handcuffing Suzy" or even just one word "water". Everyone folds their papers and puts them in a big bowl. Then you go around the circle and each partnership has one minute to get as many of the papers as they can. Round one: You try and get your partner to guess what is on the paper by describing it. No actions and no saying any of the words on the paper. Like Catchphrase. You keep going in a circle, each partnership getting one minute at a time until all the papers are gone. Count how many you got and then the papers all get re-folded and put back in the bowl. Round two: Each partnership gets one minute again, but this time there is no talking allowed. You can only act it out. When you run out of papers, count them up and put them back in the bowl again. Round three: You can only use ONE action or ONE word (can't be on the paper) to get your partner to guess what it is. The fun thing is this is your third time playing with the same papers so you have to remember what a phrase could be by one simple action. This game is so much fun!! If any of you have a party coming up, I totally recommend playing. And if you invite me, I will demonstrate how to play! =-)

Surf n Swim

Saturday was lots of fun! We thought it would be fun for my birthday to go to the Layton Surf n Swim, since swimming is one of the few activities I can still do. Well, it just so happens that my birthday falls in the same week as my aunt, Bonnie's, as well as three of the Shupe kids, Ethan, Eliza, and Coleman. So we invited my family as well as my aunt and her family and the Shupe family to meet us at the indoor wave pool, then go back to our house for dinner afterwards. My sister, Kristine, and Logan and their two boys came up early and had lunch with us. We had a nice visit before going over to the wave pool at 2:00pm. I remember the waves being a lot better last time we were there, but I think the kids enjoyed the smaller, calmer waves too. As time went on, our party grew, until we ended up with 13 adults and 12 kids. It was nice to swim and float and visit and play for a few hours. By the time we left, I was exhausted! We then went back to our house and had pizza and salads and my mom made a cake to celebrate all the birthdays. It was a super fun day!

Sorry there are no pictures. Matt and I brought our camera with us, but are in the bad habit of not actually using it. But if you want to see some pics from the day, check out Kristine's blog.

Happy Birthday Breezy!

Yesterday was Breezy's 25th birthday! (She likes to rub it in that she's a whole 5 days older than me.) I took her to Chilis for lunch to celebrate and then we are having a party tonight. Breezy absolutely loves the beach (who doesn't?) so we are throwing her a beach party. Everyone is wearing Hawaiian shirts and shorts and flip-flops and we are sitting on beach towels. We are going to make fruit smoothies with little umbrellas to drink and eat Hawaiian pizza. I was going to make her a fancy beach cake, but sadly this has not been a very good week and the cake is going to have to be store-bought. *Sniff sniff* We thought about watching a classic beach party movie, but didn't think the guys would enjoy it as much, so we are going to watch Jaws instead. In my opinion, another classic beach movie. Plus it goes along with the whole Friday the 13th theme as well as the beach theme. Perfect! We are also going to play some fun games. I just love celebrating birthdays!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve was a blast!  We had a bunch of friends and family over at our house for a super fun party!  We started with a Murder Mystery dinner and as people arrived, they got to enjoy some nummy appetizers I learned how to make from a Relief Society dinner.  One thing Matt and I learned in preparing for this party is that our basement is an odd shape for setting up dinner tables.  It took much maneuvering and several hours later to get it set up to where we all fit comfortably.  (This was all, of course, the night before).  Once everyone arrived we ate a dinner of lasagna (I totally cheated this time and used the frozen kind), a yummy salad, and garlic bread.  We had a lot of fun with the murder mystery.  It's always interesting and funny to see what kind of situations and questions come up during the game.  After dinner and the revealing of the murderer (bad Breezy) we ventured upstairs and enjoyed all the yummy snacks everyone brought while a few of the guys rearranged downstairs a bit.  Then we played Mafia.  We had a ton of fun and it was full of a lot of laughs!  We ended up playing Mafia for a lot longer than we planned on and never made it to any other games.  Before we knew it, it was 20 minutes to midnight.  So we pulled out the Martinellis and prepared for the countdown.  Most people took off after the coming of the new year, but a few friends stayed for a little longer.  Breezy and Suzy both stayed the night and the three of us had a My Boys (if you've never seen this show, I highly recommend it!  Super funny!) marathon new years day while Matt enjoyed snowboarding with his cousins.  It was a very fun couple of days!  Hope you all had a great New Years!  We didn't get pictures of everyone, but here are a few pics of our guests in their colored costumes.  (Each character had a color name and they dressed to match).

 

Brian and Anna as Barry Black and Becky

Matt and I as Prof. Pete Purple and Penelope

Julie and Seth as Olivia and Oscar Orange

(L to R) Steve as Grant Gray, Breezy as Ruby Red, Suzy as Yellow Yellow, and Bryan as Greg Green

(Not pictured): Kristine as Petunia Pink, Logan as Dr. Waldo White, and Theresa as Brandi Blue.  Sorry guys.  Matt apoligizes for forgetting to take your pictures.  Your costumes were great!