just a couple of babes.

Girlfriend at the Park

Girl bonding all day with this kid. Here are a few shots from the park. 

the highlights: kitchen dance party//clifford marathon//park adventures//"silly spider" hunting//burnt popcorn

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday was absolutely the best. 

A really edifying day at church was followed by lots of fun with the family, and by fun I mean Mara eating 6 small truck loads of egg and bunny shaped candy and then tasmanian-deviling around the house making us all laugh.

Everyone was looking insanely cute and donning their most festive spring colors PLUS we had great weather (the snow is nearly gone!) so I ceased the opportunity and took some shots of the girls. 

As Mara is getting older and sassier her repertoire of animated and crazy faces are utilized the most, so capturing how adorably energetic and hilarious she is: EASY. Getting a still picture that captures how lovely and pretty she really is: more rare but really rewarding. So I was thrilled to catch her in a few calm and reflective moments, in which I can only presume she in deep thought contemplating all things Dora related.

Girls Day In

caterpillar making + little sis helping + pillow igloo building + whistle blowing, all to the power of Dora and chocolate. Laughing with and at these kids all day long.

Engagement Photos

Even though it SNOWED all day today (thanks a lot Ontario), and I have a mild self-diagnosed case of strep throat and I missed tonight's episode of the Mindy Project, my mood is at an all time high. Why you ask? We got our engagement photos! And I am honestly so thrilled with them. We were so lucky to have had such a wonderful and talented (and not to mention beautiful) photographer who also happens to be my lovely sister Sara Bell. (find her here!and here!) 

Dallas and I really wanted our pictures to feel natural, candid and just capture how much fun we have with each other. We had a  strict "no balloons, bow ties, suspenders or picnic baskets" policy. Essentially we wanted to stay away from contriving a scene with props, and just keep it real instead. 

I didn't know how easy "trying-to-be-natural" would be and how attractive that would end up looking, but D immediately had me laughing and then it just snowballed from there. So it was easy. Attractive? I guess that's subjective. We can all be our own harshest critics, but I honestly wouldn't change a thing. The cracking up squinty-eyes, giggle double-chins, laugh lines and overly-animated storytelling faces, it's us. And it makes me truly happy inside to look at.

So here are a few...more to come

fun with frosting

I love icing. I really do. LOVE. ICING.

And those people who just don't really like icing.? Huh? What?...that I do not understand. (cough Dallas cough.) But I accept you anyways. and it actually works out, because it just means more icing for me. (insert John Bender fist pump here)

So I found this color chart which has drop-for-drop instructions on how to create really adorable cupcake icing colors using a basic box of food coloring. Fun right? So today I decided to have some fun with it using a really great buttercream frosting recipe I nabbed (thanks Maureesa!)

Recipe:
1 c butter softened and beaten
3 1/2 c icing sugar
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

I chose to try out the colors "mint chip" and "strawberry shake". They both turned out a little brighter than expected which was likely because I halved the frosting recipe.

How it went: 

VOILA. Yummy and pretty treats for FHE! Happy Monday everyone. 

MiPhone dump.

Dallas was here this week so I wanted to quickly load up some pictures that we snapped while he was here. We had so much fun playing games with the family (NERTS got out of control competitive), making yummy pizzas on the pizza stone, playing party playoff and making ice cream sundaes with good friends, checking out the art gallery and baking together aka me bossing Dallas around with a recipe in hand. 

And so they got engaged

DALLAS: "I cant wait for our life together to begin"

AMANDA: "Dallas! It already has!! It began a while ago!"

This is an interchange we have had a few times. Now D is in the healthy habit of referring to our life together as the present.

And although I don't like the idea that there is some milestone that we are looking forward to that enables us to "begin life", our story on this blog needs to begin somewhere, so I will start with the engagement.

THE STORY

Dallas and I were visiting Dallas' parents in Wylie Texas. I arrived Saturday night, and the following night was a BIG meet the family gathering at their beautiful home. Like, BIG. Probably 50+ Packards' came over. Dallas introduced me to grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews, second cousins, cousins of those second cousins, cousins of those cousins of cousins. It's like, a lot of cousin. Way too many cousins for me to keep track of. I'm bad with names, and also kind of bad with faces, so I kept quizzing myself in my mind to keep track.  Which sort of didn't work.

But the night was a total blast. I loved bonding over southern Alberta with Grandpa Packard, hearing about the blackmail Christmas home videos, talking Jimmy Fallon with Camber and Scott, watching Dallas give words of advice to his adolescent cousins. I loved playing with all kids in the game room, giving piggy back rides and pinky swearing we would go to the waterpark. I loved hearing "how we met" stories and telling ours. It was a lovely evening.

It was a big day so I was ready to hit they hay after we said our last few goodbyes. I slept soundly through the night and woke up on Monday March 17th (st patricks day, by sheer coincidence) to a knock at my door. Dallas came in and knelt down beside my bed. I was so excited that I completely forgot about how horrific I likely looked. He asked me to marry him and opened up a small white box which held the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. I

And so, they got engaged. Call it crazy, call it luck of the Irish, call it whatever you like. Me? I think I'll just call it perfect.