Monday, February 28, 2011

Oscar (Wild) Night

It started as a normal Sunday night...

I invited my best girlfriends over (Mallory, Ashley, and Gaby) to watch the Oscars with me.

To make us feel more glamorous, we wore tiaras and high heels with our jeans.
And then we pigged out on sweets...LOL!
That's something those skinny actresses can't do!

This is one of the treats Mallory brought over. Brownie bites with cream cheese icing and fruit.
Ashley got a little creative with hers.
Is it a happy face? Or something else...?

Ashley brought her dog Roxy over. Yoda thinks she's his girlfriend and try to make love to her ALL NIGHT! (They're both fixed.)
Roxy likes to play hard to get!

I had all my friends fill out papers with their Oscar pics.
I only got TWO wrong! But that's mostly because I watched the Oscar pre-show and knew what all the predictions were.

All that is pretty standard Oscar night stuff right?
Well, since my celebrity crush, James Franco, was boring the heck out of us hosting the awards show, we had to spice things up ourselves.
So here's where things started to get a little crazy...

Since we were feeling glamorous, we started taking GLAMOR SHOTS with my camera.

Here's my glamor shot with my tiara and sparkly earrings (and crimped hair).

Here's Ashley showing off her tiara.

Ashley's real glamor shot. She has the preggo glow!

Gaby's glamor shot! She's being all coy by not looking at the camera!

Mallory was the first one to really start CHEESING it up. She was lying all over the couch for her poses!

Then Gaby surprised us by pulling out a shinny silk curtain out of her bag for us to use as a red carpet dress!!

Isn't it fabulous! Ashley looks better than a preggo Natalie Portman!

And like Natalie Portman, Ashley cried during her acceptance speech.
(Pretend the Christmas tree is an Oscar.)

This is Ashley's Vanity Fair cover shot.

Then it was Mallory's turn with the Oscar dress!
She "Mormon-ized it"

Even when Ashley was tailoring the dress, Mallory kept on posing!

"Who are you wearing?"
Ashley's a natural with a light sabre - I mean, a microphone.

"This old thing? I designed it myself!"

Mallory's modest acceptance speech with the Christmas tree.

And here are my unflattering photos.

Those are some acting skills!

Gaby isn't in nearly as many photos as she should be! How did we let her get away with not trying on the curtain dress!
Next time, Gaby...Next Time.

And you know it won't be long until there's a next time, because the party was SO MUCH FUN!!
Let's do it again next weekend!!
(Taco night! Woot woot!)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Letter Photo Shoot

My sister-law-law wanted photos of her family making the letters of their last name.
I was up on a ladder, they were on the hardwood floor in light-colored clothing.
I love how they turned out!
(I wish I could say it was my idea.)

Here are a few of my favorite letters.

And here's the whole name!
(Click to see it big.)

After the letter shoot we were able to go snap a few cute photos outside.
It was really foggy, but I think it adds a really cool effect.

Mama's boys.The Hecklinger men.
The boys started running down the street followed by little Mac.

He is too cute in this picture! I love his little vest.

The happy Hecklinger clan walking out of the fog.
Little Mac was sooooo done at this point.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Hubby's Surprise Party

This weekend I threw a surprise party for Tom!
His birthday was on Friday, but he had class until late that night, so he thought we were going to celebrate the next day.
Little did he know that all his favorite people would be waiting when he got home at 10 pm!!

This is Tom's "surprised" face.
The theme of the party was "gun-totin' rednecks, so I made Tom put on his camo shooting hat as soon as he got home.

For Tom's birthday cake we made a giant shotgun shell. (There was icing sugar everywhere!)
Thanks to Mallory from Livin' Sweet for helping me put it together.
My friend Gaby did the writing for me.

I should also mention my friend Ashley (who's three months' pregnant) did all the cleaning and decorating for the party. Seriously. She was standing on chairs and doing everything I ran out of time to do.

Yay for preggo prictures!

So basically, this party wouldn't have happened without my amazing friends and family to help me out.

Here's Gaby helping make some dessert wontons. (Recipe from Studio 5.)

They're seriously super yummy and super easy if you want to make them.
They have cream cheese, raspberries and white chocolate on the inside.

This is Andrea's stamp of approval!

Me and Tom admiring the birthday cake.

Tom blowing out his candle.

So as part of the theme, I told people to dress in camo, plaid, overalls, or anything that said "I eat rabbit for dinner".
So here are my friends, Gaby, Mallory and Ashley showing off their redneck behinds!

Take a closer look at Gaby's butt.
She totally stuffed it!
I almost died laughing!

Some people really got into the theme.
I captured this shot of our friend Chris and just HAD to Photoshop in the straw. It was the perfect pose!

Here's another great outfit! This is my sister-in-law Andrea. Notice the front of her shirt.

And here's the back.
But my favorite part of her outfit was definitely the white trash nails!

Love them!

In an equally appropriate outfit was her husband Chris.
No, that is not his real hair.
Chris won third prize in our costume contest.

Second prize went to my sis-in-law Ashley.
This is Ashley and her husband Aaron doing their "redneck prom pose".
Take a closer look at Aaron's teeth.

First prize in the costume contest went to my brother-in-law Neil...For obvious reasons.
Check out the redneck tattoos on his arms!

The Nerf shotgun he's holding was one of the main attractions of the party.
We used it in a shooting contest to see who could aim the best.

This was our target. You can see by the names on it, the girls were doing WAY better than the boys.

Gunslinger Andrea WON the shooting contest.

Here are the other shooters:
Gaby, or should I say the "Hunting Princess".

Mallory, who would have would have hit the target no problem if she was shooting with a piping bag.

Chase, who you'd think would have an advantage since he's from Emery County.

Ashley, who's baby bump gave her super strength. She kept shooting both "shells" at the same time.

Thomas, the redneck with style!

Chris G, who showed off by shooting from the hip!

Can you even see Chris H in this pic? He's so camouflaged!

Don't let Holly's purdy outfit fool you! She's VERY experienced with a shotgun!

Ashley barely had to try. She has it in her genes. She's Tom's sister.

I don't have a picture of Nick shooting, but this one is just as good.
Him and his wife were the perfect redneck couple.
They were making out all over the place!
(Just kidding. I made them pose for this pic.)

I also don't have a picture of Tom or Robert taking their turn with the shotgun. Sorry guys!

Here's me getting ready for my turn.
(I didn't even hit the target.)

The reason for the whole "redneck" party was due to Tom's main gift.
I bought him a .22 rifle complete with a scope, a cleaning kit and a carrying case!

The hat on Tom's head was one of his gifts from a friend.
He got lots of cool things...
Including one present wrapped in toilet paper!!
(It was a banana clip.)

He also got a spy kit!

And tons of ammo!

But I must say the weirdest gift he got was this:
As my friend Mallory here so beautifully demonstrates, it's a tool for butts.
It's called Butt Out.
Go ahead and read the directions if you dare.

"Butts" was kind of a reoccurring theme of the party.
This was one of the prizes I gave away.
It's called "Anti-Monkey Butt".
It's a powder you use when you've been sitting on your butt all day waiting for a fish to bite or something like that.
It absorbs sweat and helps with friction.
Best line of the night was when Ashley said "We could have used that in Hawaii!"
Over all, the party was a huge success and Tom loved it!
Thanks to everyone who came!
Happy Birthday Tom!