A Birthday and Galentine's Day

March is about halfway over I better catch up on some things that happened in February. First there was Debbie's birthday I offered to throw a real birthday party after her not so comfortable roast birthday party but she just wanted to spend the day by herself they meet up for dinner with the family, which we did.

We got her some pretty books, Les Miserables and Jane Eyre.

Also in February we remembered to celebrate the most awesome holiday ever.

Some people don't get Galentine's day they think it is an anti-valentine's day, but it is not it is just a day to celebrate your lady friends. Debbie and I invited our best ladies to meet up for dinner at The Olive Mill where we ordered pizza at candy and enjoyed an evening in each others company. Debbie made bracelets for everyone and I made rice crispy treats in the shape of hearts and little cards to go with. It was great and I hope we keep up with this awesome holiday!

The 50th Anniversary celebration

Did you guys know that my mom also has (I should say had) six brothers and only one sister as well? Her sister, my aunt Earlene and her family live in Idaho but they came down for Christmas every year while I was growing up. Needless to say we became really close with our Porter cousins and a lot of them were able to come for the anniversary so we had a small Porter/Huston reunion before the family dinner & reception.

We sat around telling funny stories and looking at pictures, it was very nice to laugh and remember fun times.

And like so many other times when they came to visit they were a huge help in helping set up. 

Do you remember how I told you I asked my aunt about my parents wedding reception? Well one of the things she told me was that they had an aluminium Christmas tree with turquoise ornaments. Debbie was able to borrow one and when my mom saw it she got teary eyed and asked how we knew. My aunt was able to give her a sly smile and tell her she had. 

Here is a dress from one of my moms formals and my dads letterman jacket that we had on display. 

 Party favors CD's that look like records and a playlist of some of parents favorite songs. 

After we finished setting up and getting ready for the family dinner/program. 

My parents original cake topper. 

We did a bake potato bar

The smoked meat was particularly good!

 I didn't have a lot of time to eat as we had to get going on the program. First we had the grand kids get up and sing Lollipop which was pretty adorable if I do say my self.

My brothers Clint & Mark along with a family friend Dusty played my parents song Sleep Walk and did such a good job and when my dad cried of course I cried. 

 We took some quick family pictures and then it was time for the real party to start!

We had a soft serve ice cream machine along with cones and root beer for floats. 

 We of course had to dance The Twist.

And it was so nice to catch up with old friends. 

It was a lot of work and a long day but to see my mom glowing like she was a new bride and see me dad chatting away with old friends made it all worth it. What I really loved about the whole thing was how there was so much that needed to be done and I never had to ask. Like when I was last to get my food some of the toppings were running low but before I had time to even look for someone to get more there is my brother Kent bringing more food. Our cousins cleaned up the food while the program was going on and my aunt spent all night in the kitchen washing dishes. I also went in to were the kids had been playing knowing it was a disaster and I don't think I mentioned this but I was sick and just exhausted so when I went in to the nursery and saw that the room was spotless I almost cried with relief. My dad told me my other brother Brett had cleaned it. I told my parents the next day to me that is the biggest testament of what great parents they are is how we work so well together as a family.

We did get my aunt out of the kitchen long enough to take a picture and I just hope some day I can be like these amazing women, they are my heroes. 

Watercolor Books & A Wishbone

My birthday buddy Lauren was in town so we last minuet decided to do a little get together. Debbie came up with the idea of dressing up like a book character & having water color and paper to paint on. 

 Gracie helped me paint a little. 

We got pizza from Le Grande Orange and Lauren made Salt River Bars.

 Lauren dressed up as Arya Stark from Game of Thrones

 I dressed up as Madrigal from Daughter of Smoke and Bone for the party. I had a hard time deciding between Karou & Madrigal and my mom brought me the blue wig from the kids costume box.

 I had been saving the temporary tattoos for a year, I had gotten them with the book sampler. 

We didn't take any pictures till the party was over of course but others dressed up as well. I wish we would have gotten pictures they were great and it was fun to see so many friends. 

Birthdays

July is a popular month for birthdays around here. Debbie's friends discovered that all their husbands birthdays are in July. So naturally they had to throw a party and of course it was off the hook. If you have read my blog for any amount of time you know that Debbie's parties are amazing. Now add her friends Jessica, Angela and Kayleen and you have a rocking party! 

On Russ's actual birthday I watched the kids at my place so Debbie and Russ could go to dinner after we did cake at my place. 

Monday was miss Gracie girl's birthday and I can not get over that she is 5.

She told me that she will always invite me to her parties and Debbie says I am always first on her list. Her love fills my heart till I am sure it will burst!

Sisterhood

Before Lauren left I brought over the Margo dress we have been sharing for almost the last ten years. I found it funny that Lindsey also returned a pair of jeans that her and Debbie had shared in high school. 

While looking for the pictures of Lauren and I wearing the dress I found the following picture taken at Gilbert High's graduation in 2001.

Out of the eight girls in the picture six (plus Mimi not pictured) were at Debbie's Cinco De Mayo party. I have been so lucky to have these amazing girls in my life. Speaking of the Cinco De Mayo party I only got pictures of the pinata. 

30 Rocks!!!

I was not feeling so good about turning 30, every time I would think "30" my heart would get a little tight. But thankfully I am very blessed to have people in my life who helped me completely forget about my twinges of anxiety.
My birthday was Thursday, I started off the day by receiving Hey Tell messages from William & Gracie telling & singing me happy birthday. I took the day off of work & spent the day with my mom & sister. My mom picked me up and we met Debbie, Gracie & Joseph at Liberty Market for breakfast.

Then we headed up to Last Chance to do some shopping. After we went to Le Grande Orange for lunch. Other than the heat the day was perfect we all found some clothes, ate good food and had fun just being with each other. Debbie also gave me my own personal Library Kit, thank you Pinterest! I have always wanted to be a librarian & now I get to! It was also the start of my "book birthday party".

Saturday night Debbie threw me a book birthday party. It was such a fun & cute party! I should have taken more picture of all the cute things but I did get a picture of my food. Which was a huge hit!

And my friend Jenny Bradford, made the most awesome birthday cake EVER!!! Those are all my favorite books, and I am still just so amazed, thank you Jenny!
My other friend also named Jenny but Whipple is her last name made me these paper cuts of pictures from my trip to Europe, again my mind was blown.

When Jenny got to the party she told Chelsea she would have to apologize to her later. I was confused since Jenny had never met Chelsea, but then we understood she had taken Chelsea out of the picture. Not that she hadn't tried, poor paper Chelsea just ended up looking like this...

I can not even begin to explain the laughing that went on over poor sad paper Chelsea. Then Chelsea said she looked like a death eater & you couldn't have a death eater in the picture. Which only made us all laugh more.

Debbie throwing a book party was pure genius, I mean look at all the pretty books I got!

I have to tell you about the book Melissa got me. It is a fifth edition of Pride & Prejudice Volume II printed in 1902 in London England! I just can't get over how pretty it is, I showed Debbie and she said the same thing, it is so pretty. It has pictures and can you see how uneven all the pages are? Melissa swears she did not spend a lot of money since it was only volume II but I love it, it starts with Darcy's proposal, just when things start to get good!



Mimi got me these adorable Jane Austen pocket pads, they are so tiny and perfect. I always carry notebooks to write notes in. Each book is after a dance in a book & each have a little dance card in the front. I always wanted a dance card.

When I got home I tried to decorate with the new HUGE London & Paris books Chelsea got me. They are so pretty and I stuck my cake topper in a bowl filled with black beans until I can get a shadow box to put them in to go besides these...

                             

One of my friends named Jen wrote in my card that I was going to rock the 30's, and I have to say so far 30 has been pretty amazing! We had planned to make some book crafts, but once we get talking, there is no stopping us. I really had such a lovely time and felt so loved and grateful for such amazing friends. After everyone was gone and Debbie and I were relaxing on the couch after kind of helping clean up (thank you Russ you are made of awesome) I said to Debbie "I love all my friends".