Twenty Three

Yep, I am now 23. Well I have been for eight days. I started a list of what was going to be 23 things I want to do/accomplish this year, but I have only come up with about nineteen. I figure that's still a pretty good list, and I can always add more if I want.

1. Go to a drive in movie
2. Make a quilt
3. Take more pictures
4. Practice editing said pictures
5. Make a meal calender and follow it (possibly throw in some healthier dishes)
6. Get real family pictures taken
7. Start learning a new language
(I really want to learn Italian, so one day when I'm a world traveler I'll be able to communicate with one whole other country!)
8. Get in a workout routine- still have about 8 baby lbs to loose.
9. Do more outside with my family- camping, hiking etc.
10. Get together with extended family more often
(we live so close to all of Greg's family but see them only once ever couple of months! lame.)
11. Read the book of Mormon start to finish
12. Read my Ensign every month
13. And the Friend with T
14. Try to embrace the winter this year- attempt to learn to ski
15. Be braver- I am such a chicken. I am honestly afraid of the dark. I don't know what to do about this, but I'd really like to get over it.
16. Make more of an effort getting ready for the day
(i always feel so much better when i think i look nice)
17. Do my visiting teaching.
18. Get on a good sleep schedule. As much as I hate getting up in the morning, I really have a better day when it's early to bed early to rise. Plus Tate likes to wake up with the sun. Better to have slept enough the night before and enjoy my mornings with her then to fall asleep on the couch watching Baby Einstein and Tatum pulling my hair.
19. Be a better friend. We have some really great ones!


Back to my birthday. This year was pretty much a month long celebration. First we three August girls (Me, T, and my sister Hannah) and Mom went to the Annapolis mall. It was huge! There were all these really great stores that I had only seen catalogs of, and we we're there for 8 hours and didn't get to go in half of them! We got Tate's birthday pictures done there at the Picture People. Then we went shopping. I got a few little things at H&M (love) and then found a new store called Garage (it's Canadian) where I got an awesome leather jacket that I CAN NOT wait to wear when it gets cold! This jacket will seriously help me with goal #14 :)

Next was Tatum's actual birthday, then her birthday party day. Both of which I was so excited about they totally overshadowed my own b-day.

Then was my birthday lunch day. I had a Dr Pepper theme. You know, Dr Pepper has 23 flavors, I have 23 years under my belt. Plus it is my favorite drink in the entire world. I am pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea.

Finally my actual b-day rolled around, and I was already b-day'd out. Mom and Sierra took me out to lunch at the new Red Robin. I read. Played with Tatum, the usual. I think I went to bed at 9 o'clock I was having so much fun. Ha.

Anyway, here are some pictures that very poorly document my Dr Pepper party:




Got the recipe online. I made the whole thing from scratch, even the frosting. It was amazing, very rich and chocolatey.


Mom made hawiian haystacks, and we each got a Dr Pepper candy that I bought on our historic Williamsburg trip. They really did taste like Dr Pepper!

I had DP chapsticks to hand out for prizes to a playdough sculpting competition we were going to have, but we were in a rush to get to the pinewood derby and never ended up playing. I wonder where those prizes are...