Hey girlfriend!

Seriously, let's all take a minute out of our day and call a girlfriend and say "HEY! I LOVE YOU!" Female friendship is one of the most wonderful things in the entire world, and I've been lucky enough in my life to be surrounded by amazing girls throughout all 27 years I've been on this earth. From my Mom to my sister, my aunts, my grandmas, my childhood friends to my friends from high school, dance friends, soccer friends, college friends, sorority sisters, teacher friends, the list goes on. How lucky are we all to have even one lady in our life we can count on!

I'm a total girl's girl, and I value women so much. I have always thought it was so sad to hear my fellow ladies bash girls, doing the whole "I just don't get along with them" routine. In no way is it possible to like every woman on the planet, but we should at least try to support each other instead of cutting each other down from the get-go and playing that game. By nature humans are competitive, and I think many times girls see each other as competition and through a comparative eye, rather than seeing inspiration or alliance. I've written on this topic before, and my position has always been the same. Women need women in their lives to understand all the things that men just can't grasp. I feel such a sisterhood with my best girlfriends, and the amount of support I receive from them is paramount. Each girl in my life has such a different, unique role. Some of these friendships have been cultivated since I was very young, and others I have met along the way. I see some of my friends everyday, some a couple weekends out of the month, and others go years between visits. However, it feels like no time has passed when I am with these girls. As we grow up, it's just not possible to chat everyday on the phone, to spend hours hanging out each weekend, or even to get together once a month. But we make it work, each in our own way that defines that particular friendship. In healthy relationships, there is no resentment. There is simply love, and no matter how often I see or talk to these certain people, our love runs deep. I feel grateful. The older I get, the more I realize just how important it is to have real relationships in my life. Wouldn't you agree?

So, with that said, do you have a best girl in your life that means the world to you? I'd love to hear about it. One of my most favorite things about this blog is input from all of you fabulous people, so thank you in advance for putting yourself out there.

So much (girl!) love.

Baby Shower!

My best friend Autumn is due to have her second baby in just about two weeks, so today we had a baby shower in honor of her, and her soon-t0-arrive son, Carter! It was such a great afternoon, spent with some of my very best and oldest friends. We've all been peas in a pod since college (starting about ten years ago, wow!) and I feel very lucky to have such amazing women in my life. We're each incredibly different, but that's what I love- I cherish each of those amazing ladies.

The shower was held at Autumn and Jason's new home, and hosted by her sister Jeremee. We enjoyed delicious salad courtesy of Pita Jungle and it was really just the best. relaxing afternoon.

Here are some photos-

Jeremee, Autumn, me, Alana, Erin, and Shirley




The "Brandts" - Jeremee, Autumn and their mom Libby



my beautiful goddaughter! :)


salads from Pita Jungle


lucky charm from Arivaca friends


reading one of Carter's books


2 weeks to go!


Carter's in there!


happy baby


Grammy and Chloe time






beautiful Alana




The Loops




just hanging out in an orange tree, no big deal!

Wednesday

love my darling girlfriends, originally uploaded by daniellehampton.

Our house is full of sleeping friends, so this will be very short and sweet. I'm excited to make a super big, proper update tomorrow night, full of words and photos and flipcam videos and 2010 goals and answers to questions and so much more! Tonight was a perfect evening full of fun and silliness, and laughing until my cheeks hurt. I'd love to say more, but I need to get some sleep so I can get to the gym tomorrow morning before brunch!

Goodnight friends!

My weekend in pictures

This weekend was such a wonderful three days. I headed down to Phoenix to get tattooed on Friday and I was really surprised with how much my thigh didn't really hurt this time, it was almost strange, but I definitely can't complain! We got as much done as we could, but I had plans and it was getting late, so we decided to save the last hour or so for the week after next when I finish my ribs. Not looking forward to that, by the way. So I left Immaculate and I went back to my parents and got ready with my sister, and we headed over to Kelli's house in downtown Tempe, where her and Mike were already hanging out. I absolutely adore Kelli, Lauren and I grew up with her and she's one of the sweetest girls in the world so I was so happy to spend the night out with her and friends. So we hung out at her home for awhile, and once Monique got there we walked down to RA to meet Sarah and say hi to her boyfriend Andy who bartends there. The entire night turned into such a fun night of dancing to really awesomely cheesy music so I was happy of course. What's really ironic is that I ran into the younger siblings of one the girls I wrote about in my post about choices/paths in life. It was so strange, because I hadn't seen either of them in years and years and I had just reminisced a bit about their sister so it was just funny to me...but good to see them for sure. We ended up staying out until about 5am which is not my favorite thing to do whatsoever, but it was so fun and totally worth it. Plus, I finally got to hang out in Sarah's neck of the woods with her! Here are some photos from the night- more at my Flickr.

freshly done, one more session to go, yay!


my sister and me, driving out to Kelli's


Kelli!








Lauren and me, hopefully they will both be done by the end of this month!


Kell and Mike









Saturday Rhonda did my hair (love her) and then I headed back up to Prescott to watch Hank's band play and hang out with Amber. It turned into another crazy late night, but still so fun. We started the night at Coyote Joe's eventually made our way to Sundance's around 11pm to watch HOTW. It was a super fun show as usual. Afterwards Amber and I decided we wanted to dance so we went to one of the ridiculous bars on Whiskey Row and had an insane time dancing to rap music all night. After the bars closed at 2am we went down to Mama Edda's Pizza to meet up with the guys and walk back home to our house, where we all hung out for a couple of hours. Another late night, but super fun.

Hank and I, outside of Sundance's before they played


Amber and me




silly bathroom photos, of course




bit of their set


We decided to take tourist photos at 2am, so here we are on the Courthouse steps. I love Prescott.




This morning Hank and I tried to sleep in, but our room was too hot so we ended up waking up and going to get an early lunch and spend time outside. We did some errands, then ended up cooking a delicious dinner (bbq tofu steaks, quinoa with corn, sweet potatoes) and had root beer floats for dessert. One of my friends posted a Twitter photo of her root beer float and it caused Hank and I to run all the way out to the store to get stuff to make our own! So thanks Bree! Our original plans were to go see Bruno and then go late night bike riding, but Amber had to stay in tonight with her puppy so we pushed the movie until tomorrow night.

Tomorrow should be a wonderful Monday though, Amber Joy and I are riding our bikes and meeting at Cuppers early in the morning, then Sarah is coming back up to Prescott! Overall it was such a wonderful weekend. I got to spend time with some of my very best friends and I feel like my heart is so full right now. What could be better. Stoked on this week, stoked on life!

tea party

i really cannot wait to have another tea party with the girls. the last one was for elisa's birthday and it was one of my favorite days ever. mini sandwiches, mini pastries, all sorts of delicious tea. it was perfect.

what better excuse to put on a party dress and get together with your girlfriends?