Storybook Fairy Tale Princess Baby Shower

My dear friend is expecting her first baby girl around the same time as me! In fact, our due dates are only two days apart from each other! It has been fun being pregnant the same time and looking forward to seeing who has their baby first!

So a mutual friend of hers and mine decided we should throw her a Storybook Fairy Tale Princess baby shower on May 4, 2013!

The Baby Shower Invitation

The darling baby shower invitation was made by my friend Peggy Johns.

The Storybook Fairy Tale Princess Decorations

 Credits: For my decorations and games, I used Kate Hadfield's happily ever after doodles and pink alpha from The Lily Pad. The papers are by Eva Kipler and Megan Farrow (Studio Flergs). The baby feet stamp is by Shabby Miss Jenn.  As for the fonts, I used love ya like a sister, hello chalk talk, Princess BV, and grumble. I saved some Little Golden Books and used a book template to make tiny books. I made a princess diaper cake and pink diaper babies.  I used the following FREE templates: onesies, scalloped circle, book template, purse, diaper storybook decoration and (circle, star, and heart are by Semana Maluca).  The framed girl word art is from Simple Scrapper.

The Food

We had chicken salad sandwiches, veggies and ranch platter, chips, and sugar cookies with pink frosting and sprinkles for dessert. 

The Games

What's in your diaper bag?
What's in your purse?
Can you guess how many M&M's in the bottle?
Baby Name Scrabble
The Party Favors

The party favor bag said, "Thank you for the gift from the Mamba to be!"  It contained a princess wand, pink and white candy cane, pink Frooties strawberry lemonade candies, and Mamba candy.

My Recent Trip to the Local Library

Sadly, it has been a while since my last trip to the library or when I last read a book to be honest.  On a dreary rainy summer day, I went on a quest to the local library and searched for books from authors I have never read before that were on my "to read list" from my Good Reads on my iPhone (a very handy application right at my finger tips, while away from home).  A couple days later while suffering from a terrible head cold and lack of sleep, it was the perfect time for me to get engrossed in fictional lives! The following books below, I highly recommend that you read them when you have the time or able to reserve them from your local library!  They were all fabulous books that I thoroughly enjoyed very much and thankfully they made my life more bearable while sick!  

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

My thoughts: Along for the Ride is the first book that I have read by the popular New York Times Bestseller young adult author Sarah Dessen who has a collection of other books that I look forward to reading in the future. To my surprise, I read Along for the Ride in less than 24 hours!  I was very sad when I reached the last page of the book because I fell in love the all the characters and wanted to read more about them!  Each character in the book had some flaws and by the end of the book they each transformed realistically into something better.  There were characters you will love and hate in the story. The main character Auden made the biggest transformation of all and it was truly inspiring to watch unfold!  Auden never experienced life beyond her academic studies and she was socially awkward. She discovered more things about herself after spending one summer in Colby with her father, step mother, and baby step sister near a beachy board walk.   Along the way, Auden made friends, discovered her strengths/weaknesses by taking some risks, explored new experiences by setting aside logic, and allowed herself to be free to an open mind.  It was an easy and fantastic read that you will not be able to put down!  

Mr. Darcy's Diary and Mr. Knightly's Diary by Amanda Grange

My thoughts: If you are a huge fan of Jane Austen's books then you must read Amanda Grange's books, they will enlighten you!   Amanda Grange retold the classic stories Pride and Prejudice and Emma from the leading male character's point of view (Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightly) through journal entries!  Darcy was a devoted brother and friend, yet a stubborn and arrogant gentleman. In Darcy's eyes Elizabeth was intelligent and witty, but he struggled with her less agreeable family members and lower rank in society!  It was funny how he battled against his affections for Elizabeth! I absolutely loved how Mr. Darcy's Diary included a couple months after his marriage to Elizabeth Bennett.  I always tried to imagine what married life was like for them and I was satisfied with her take on the "happy ending". As for Mr. Knightly's Diary, I find it interesting that he struggled to admit his true affections for Emma until somebody pointed it out to him.  The depth of his love for Emma was obvious in the beginning since he had such high expectations of her of being a proper refined lady and became extremely jealous when he saw Emma interacting with Frank Churchhill.  Also, Mr. Knightly was annoyed by some of her character flaws of silly matching making and arrogance, but at the same time he still saw lady like greatness in Emma too. Both books are simple and enjoyable reads!  After reading these two books, it made me want to re-read Austen's original classic stories all over again! 

2012 Reading List

Best Books for Little Sis:

David Shannon Books

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Conner

Fancy Nancy Books by the way there are some fun Free Fancy Nancy Activities for little girls!

Jamie Lee Curtis Books such as Today I Feel Silly and I Am Going to Like Me.

Meg Cobot's Allie Finkle Series

Big Sister's Fave Books:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My Thoughts: I bought this hardback series in March 2011 from Costco.  They sat on my shelf for months collecting dust.  Big sister finally got around to reading them during the summer and begged me to read them too. She absolutely loved the series! In fact, she liked The Hunger Games series more than Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.  She was dying to share her thoughts with me, but could not without spoiling the story for me.  When I finally got around to reading them this fall, I was hooked!  I read all three of them in a couple days!  What an incredible thriller book series filled with action, friendship, love, fashion, and survival. I loved the characters especially Katniss and Peeta!  Even my husband read the Hunger Games in one day but did not get the chance to read the two following books.  The last book Mocking Jay lost my interest a little bit in the beginning of the book but it got better in the middle and I was satisfied with the ending. I am looking forward to seeing The Hunger Games  film in a couple weeks with my oldest daughter!

My Future Reading Picks:
I cannot wait to read the following books!  I bought them a couple months ago and they are on my list to read this year!  I will write a book review later!

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks 

Matched by Ally Condle

The Help Book and Movie Review

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My thoughts: The Help is an incredible book definitively one of my favorite books in my top ten book list! There were a couple times when I laughed out loud while reading this story! It broke my heart how cruel some white people in the South treated the African American people in the early 1960s!  If you are a fan of the classic novel To Kill of a Mockingbird then you would enjoy The Help!  It is a witty, humorous, and well written book.  I loved all the characters in the book especially Skeeter's courage to write a book about African American experiences working as maids for white families in the South, Aibileen's precious relationship with a white child Mae Mobley, and Minny's fearless spunky personality! You would never regret reading this book!

As for The Help movie, I finally bought the DVD in December. Surprisingly, the movie measured up to the book in every way!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film and even my hubby liked it. If I watched it in a movie theater, I would have stood up and applauded once it started rolling the credits!  It was one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time!  I love the message from it, which we all can appreciate.

January Book Reviews

I am so proud of myself! I read three Nicholas Sparks books this past month! Each day I tried to have a healthy balance of exercising, cleaning my house, organizing my recipe book, helping my children with their homework, spending time with my family, making nutritious dinners, reading scriptures with my family, and reading some Sparks books. I am so excited to cross out three books off my New Years resolution list! Yay!

Nights in Rodanthe

I absolutely loved these characters in this love story! They were older, wiser, been through a lot in their lives, and were able to help each other overcome their grief. I was amazed how quickly these people fell in love in a matter of days and through letters. Sparks never leaves me emotionless. I cannot help shedding tears for that couple! I need to rent  Nights in Rodanthe DVD.   I have never seen it before and glad I read the book first.

A Walk to Remember

This book is definitely one of my top five favorite books of all time! I love that it is safe/clean for my 11 year old daughter to read. It is a beautiful tale about young true love. I bailed my eyes out from finally figuring out why Sparks named the book A Walk to Remember. I didn't get it when I saw the A Walk to Remember  movie and now I do after reading the last few pages of the book, duh! It was a bitter sweet story that confirms to me what true love is! After reading the book, I was extremely dissatisfied with the Hollywood version. The movie only took little pieces from the book and didn't tell the story correct! Grrrr, how frustrating! I loved the movie by itself but it didn't measure up the written pages from the book at all!

The Lucky One

This book was slow to read in the beginning for me due to the military lingo and different character development style, which Sparks started doing in the last couple books. In the middle of the story, it finally took off for me! It was okay to be honest not one of my favorites at all from him. I did not cry reading this one due to the fact I didn't feel convinced about the couple's love for each other in the book. It wasn't Sparks typical sappy love story theme. It was more like a mild thriller and suspenseful novel for me.  It could be a okay movie since it has some action in it!

Jane Goodall: The Famous Chimpanzee Scientist!

September 30, 2010

May I present to you, Mrs. Jane Goodall! She is an amazing scientist from London, England. She is an animal lover and her favorite book is Tarzan of the Apes In 1957, Jane traveled to Kenya to study chimpanzees, monkeys, and apes in the African jungles. While observing chimpanzees, she discovered they were a lot like humans. The chimpanzees like to hug, kiss, hold hands, tickle, and when they were mad they would kick, punch, and pinch. In 1962, Jane went to Cambridge University to study animal behavioral science. She married a wildlife photographer and had a son named Hugo. In 1965, Jane was on TV and was on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Today she loves to encourage young people to be kind to animals and keep our earth clean!



This past month's book report assignment was a lot of fun for my oldest daughter! For the month of September 2010, my daughter had to research and read a couple biographies on a world hero. In addition, she had to dress up like her hero and present her book report in front of the class! Last year she had to do an American hero, which as you may remember was Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was very excited to do a world hero this year because for a couple years she has admired Jane Goodall because of all the great research she has done on chimpanzees, monkeys, apes etc. We video taped her book report and would like to share it with those who were not there to see it! She was the first one to present her book report and did an outstanding job(full credit)! Way to go, girlie!

Eggciting Weekend and Spring Break Monday

We had a terrific time this past weekend. We enjoyed General Conference with my in-laws, niece, and nephew. Saturday was extremely busy day! My first grader woke us up around six o'clock in the morning. Grrrr! We watched conference, my girls went four wheeling with their cousins, we dyed easter eggs, made a birthday cake for Manoel, we had lunch with Matt and Chiaki's family and went shopping. We ate the traditional easter weekend lunch: ham, cheesy funeral potatoes, green beans, bread, and a Waldorf salad. My mother in-law made an amazing cheese cake for dessert! While the guys were at priesthood session, we went to Cedar City to Walmart. Audrey and Savannah got to pick out their birthday presents from Granny. Nani got Manoel some missionary essentials for his birthday. Then we went to Ladies Night at Desert Book. We were all entered in a drawing to win books. We all got a free stationary set for coming to the store that night as well as some light refreshments. My mother in-law had us pick out some books since there was a major sale. I got The Remarkable Soul of a Woman by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The other book was a Jack Wayland book which I read over the weekend. Days later my niece found out that she won a free book from the drawing during Ladies night! After priesthood session, we celebrated Manoel's birthday. We are eagerly waiting for his mission call to show up in the mailbox any day now!







On Easter morning, we went across the street to the park for the Easter Egg Hunt. The girls found a lot of goodies and met the Easter Bunny. Audrey was hesitant to sit on the Easter bunny's lap. She rolled her eyes at me when I told her to do it, lol! I suppose she is too big for the Easter bunny's lap! We continued our spritual feast by listening/watching general conference. I made Audrey's fruit pizza which is a sugar cookie base, cream cheese frosting/cool whip for frosting, and fruit toppings. We had lunch and celebrated Audrey's birthday. She opened her presents and ate her cake! After conference, John requested a father's blessing and I got one as well from John. We both have been discouraged lately and was glad we decided to receive a blessing.











As for the first day of Spring break, it was a dark rainy day on Monday. Mother nature is not ready for spring yet. It was my oldest daughter's birthday on Monday. She was disappointed that we had no plans since we celebrated it a day early. So her Aunt Karen (my sister) called me and we all decided to do a "girly" movie together. Karen surprised Audrey with some Sweet Pea Bath and Body lotion and body wash for her birthday present! Since Audrey and I read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks, we decided that would be the perfect chick movie. So I stuffed my big purse with water bottles and candy. We bought a huge popcorn to share among us. The movie was amazing! We absolutely loved it. Both of my daughters were crying during it as well as Karen. I was touched by it too but I didn't cry even though I wanted to due to the fact I hate showing emotions in a public place. I was impressed how it touched my daughters though. It is an example how sensitive my girls are and they are not afraid to show it. I would have to say The Last Song is one of Nicholas Sparks best book of all time. It is a beautiful story about love, forgiveness, and heartbreaks. My daughter and I totally recommend the book and movie.

The Book and DVD