4: Fun, Friends, and Fancy

What do you get when you combine 11 little girls ages five and under,

enough boas to dress an entire Vegas show,

and more glitter than you knew could even be purchased?...

A fun, fabulous, “Fancy Nancy” themed 4th Birthday Party

and a very, very happy little Jayda Grace!!!

THE FANCY GROUP

THE CUPCAKES

THE FANCY DECOR

Upon arrival, each guest had their nails painted super fancy.

After manicures, the girls all made personalized tiaras and cute mirrors!

Once the tiaras were on their fancy little heads it was time to get super glam!

All of the guests visited "Jayda's Fancy Boutique" and

were outfitted with boas, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and sunglasses!!

What do you do when you are glam and fabulous?...

You go on a Fashion Parade around the house!

DANCE PARTY TIME!!

(Requested songs included Poker Face and Single Ladies...very impressive).

Please notice Jayda's incredible pirate face (arrrgh matey).

No dance party is complete without some ring-around-the-rosie.

Even though their presence was present enough...the guests all gave Jayda some very fancy and fun gifts....and she had a blast opening them all up!

She felt very special. It was soooo cute to see

each little girl get so excited about giving their gift.

Giving a Thank You HUG for one of her presents.

Time to sing and have some cupcakes!

Saying goodbye to her friends at the end of her fabulous party!

HOORAY FOR GOOD FRIENDS!

I know this sounds a bit like an Oscar speech, but I have to take a minute to say thanks...this party DRAINED me! It was quite a bit of planning and elbow grease and Russ and I had some great helpers!

A big thank you to CAMILLE, DANA, MARY-JO, VICKI, AND RAINY for helping with the party. You guys did nails, helped with crafts, played with the girls, and kept me sane! Thanks.

Thanks to Heather for letting me borrow her camera so I could take these great pics! Jayda will love seeing these in 20 years!

Big thank you to Kerri for staying up with me late (on the eve of her 30th birthday) to decorate and bake cupcakes. The decorations were fantastic---thanks again!

Huge thank you to sweet Suzanne who made the most amazing birthday party invites ever created! They were super cute and Jayda talked about them every day for about a month! Super fancy and fun...thank you/thank you/thank you!

But lets face it - the one thing that makes a party truly fun is the good company! Jayda had a great cast of characters at her special event.

Introducing...

Fancy Jayda

Fancy Natalie

Fancy Bella




Fancy Abbey

Fancy Abigail

Fancy Belle

Fancy Ella

Fancy Madigan

Fancy Margot

Fancy Natalie

Fancy Ruby

Fancy Ava

Happy 4th Birthday Jayda. You Bring A LOT of Fancy to our lives!

Now Accepting Applications

Seriously...my brothers are like the most handsome, sweet, loving, caring, smart, funny, and cool guys I know (with the exception of my bearded hottie of a husband who is the best guy on the planet).


I am now accepting applications for girlfriends for these two studs.


Minimum Qualifications:

18+

Some college courses completed and a goal to graduate (if not already achieved).

Must be pretty (I know it's superficial but I don't care).
Super pretty is even better.

Must make them laugh and enjoy laughing often - even if its at herself.

Must like kids...especially mine because babysitting my children so I can have a date night with my husband is going to be part of the interview process.

Must have a job, a car, and a good relationship with her own family.

Must be independent and strong-willed, but not a feminist (seriously - those are lame. let the boys pay for dinner and get your door, dammit).


Qualified candidates should also be adventurous, enjoy the outdoors, and enjoy being goofy.

Position requires someone who will never go psycho or stalk them, must tell Austin or Dallas when they are wearing too many accessories or are pushing the fashion limits far too much for a straight man, and must be okay with their involvement with MMA. Position also requires someone willing to deal with occasional farts, belches, and dumb statements (they are boys you know).

Compensation includes handsome, sweet, loving, romantic man-child who will also be a good friend.

Please keep your application to these open positions confidential. My brothers would kill me if they knew I was doing this. So, if you are interested - or know anyone who would be fantastic - please reply to this posting with who it is and why they would be great. And no, you don't get a placement fee (unless they get married...they I'll send you $100 and a bag of Fritos).

...but seriously...they're too cute!



Dallas (21) - Austin (24)

Man-oh-Man it’s been too long since I’ve updated the blog. I don’t really have anything interesting to say so I’ll just share some snippets and quick photos so I can remember what we did this past Holiday season.

We're back in VA and are happy to be in our own beds in our own house. However, we are seriously more homesick than ever. Jayda is now old enough to really miss her extended family. She can often be found with very real tears in her eyes as she mumbles about missing her "California family." She's laying in on pretty thick and often asks if we can go back there right away. Russ and I both hope to eventually move back to CA, but we are so blessed to have great friends in VA that make this place our home. It's nice to be loved on every coast!

So, without further-ado, here's a quick recap:

Our girls are cute!! (this isn't so much a reacap as it is a factual statment (at least in my biased opinion) :)




Russ’ friend Max got married on December 5th so we flew to California, drove to Lake Arrowhead, and helped celebrate at the wedding. It was fun to see Russ’ friends from high school all growns up. They are such a cool bunch of guys!





On the 18th of December I joined the Dirty Thirty Club. I was dreading it and had planned on spending the day crying in my wrinkle cream. Russ had other ideas and made it the best birthday ever! Overnight stay at a beach side resort sans kiddos, steak and lobster for dinner, flowers, balloons, sparkling cider in our room, and diamond earrings as we watched the sunset. The next morning we saw a beautiful sunrise, enjoyed a walk near the beach, and had a delicious and quiet breakfast while overlooking the water. It was soooo fantastic! Well played Russy - well played! I love ya!







On the 21st of December we welcome my baby brother home from his mission. We were all so excited and it felt great to give him a huge hug. Please notice in one picture how my mother completely bypassed the “do not enter” security signs and she ran into his arms. We were all supposed to be holding signs and yelling for him when we saw him but apparently mom couldn’t wait. She ran faster than I imagined she could…it was quite impressive. We are sooo glad he’s home. He’s sweet, handsome, funny, well-adjusted, and smart ---love love love having him around!











Christmas was awesome…so awesome that I was having too much fun to even pick up a camera and take any pictures. I’m such a loser. We had a fantastic time spending the holiday with our families (Russ’ side and mine). Our girls were spoiled rotten with gifts and we were spoiled rotten by being with family and enjoying the nice So Cal weather. The pics below are from Christmas morning and Christmas afternoon. Jayda had fun playing “duck duck goose” with Uncle Dallas and Uncle Daustin (Austin, but she still adds the "D"). I had a great time being with my “baby” brothers. We all enjoyed being with family! (soo bummed I don't have any pics of the fun stuff we did with the Roth side of the family. I was enjoying gabbing and catching up with my in-laws, brothers & sisters-in-laws, nieces and nephews, etc so I didn't take any photos--insert frowney face here).









We are excited to welcome 2010 and can't wait to see all of the fun memories it will bring! Happy New Year!!