my buddy

we hit up the park this last week, sat and talked.
the whole time we were talking this little duck came and plopped itself right by us and sat there the entire time. we got up to leave and if followed us all the way to our car.
i can't tell you how obsessed i was with this little guy.
we bonded. we became friends. and he will forever be my little buddy.
even though i'm sure i would never in a million years be able to pick him out again at the park.

mona and al.

this last christmas me and brad put together a wedding video for my parents because they never had one, or any kind of footage/pictures put together for that matter. i can't tell you how obsessed i became with the project. finding all these treasures in old albums. getting a taste of who they were back then in a snapshot.

i feel like i've become hypnotized with the pictures i found.
the more i look at these pictures of them back then, it makes me so curious who they were.
what i would give to sit those teens down and see what they thought about everything.
the things they loved at the time, the people they thought they were going to become, the kind of life they wanted.

im so grateful they snapped these pictures and kept them. they're gold to me.
its so fun to look through them every once in awhile and remember that they had lives before the kids came along.
before the chaos broke lose.
before life hit them with money and stress.
before the late nights they spent waiting for us to get home.
before family home evenings became essential.
before their entire lives would be devoted to their 6 kids.

sometimes i feel like i get a little piece of those teenagers when we have sunday dances. when we're all joking and laughing together around the table. when my parents plan a trip for the family and they get excited, or when they text us, haha.
i love em both so much.
i thought i would share a little taste of some of these great pictures i get the privilege of looking through.
p.s. both my parents are hotties.

just because...

found these........belly laughed out loud......loved them so much i blogged them again.

up, up and away.

when we were little, one of our all time favorite things was when
my dad would make us fly off of his ankle.
we had to put his monsterous calves to use growing up.

we tried it with coop and reese sunday night and i seriously was loving it.
i'm sure it's not as funny to you, but every time i watch coop, i laugh so freaking hard.
i think it's his hair swishing around.

and i love my mom after both of them, "aallll!!".

tree huggers.

we thought we would strap on a set and finally do some hiking in the mountains. i forget how freaking close they are. down the street almost. and i also forget how fortunate we are to have them so close.
right when i think i'm getting somewhat in shape, something like this (hiking) happens and i'm literally stopping every 5 seconds to catch my breathe. promise on my life i was using excuses like, "let's stop for a minute, that mountain looks cool". brad figured it out by the 7th time i said it in 20 minutes, and stopped stopping when i asked to look at the "cool mountains".

although everything was half dead still due to this fantastic weather utah refuses to rid itself of, it was still beautiful. the mountains are always beautiful to me. away from the world. and thank goodness for that.

did you hear? not wearing makeup is in style.
k jokes, but seriously, sorry for the haggard look so upclose (and yes, i contrasted the pictures to make my eyelashes look darker).

p.s. i haven't said thank you to all of you who left those incredibly nice comments about the aerobics test-even those little one second comments make my day and leave me feeling so lucky to have friends. so thank you for taking the time!

shark mouth.

last night we were insanely lazy. stayed inside, watched thursday night tv. didn't enjoy the perfect weather outside. didn't make dinner. didnt get dressed.

and didn't leave our apartment.

i was in heaven.

p.s. when brad stretches his mouth completely open, it really is the funniest thing i've ever seen. his mouth reminds me of a shark when its open that big. he has a freaking huge mouth.

friends are good to have

i'm obsessed with these girls.
brittany had a little party friday night and i can't tell you how much i love her get-togethers. i secretly wish i could have been friends with all of them throughout high school. stace has not only been an awesome friend but an awesome older sis to let me always tag along with her and her friends. some of the best/funniest people i know were at that party, and i always feel fantastic after i hang out with them from knowing i have had a genuinely good time.

jax was at the house this past week all by herself from my parents and the boys enjoying there hard-knock life on their cruise. so we all hung out after the party friday night, just us sisters and the husbands. i loved it so much. and we had to hang out at stacie's house because my parents basement flooded and it smelled like rotting corpse over there. that house has been through a lot, 6 kids can sure do a toll.
no matter where we're at, i always love me some family time.

im officially an instructor!

i'm so excited!!! i took the test to get certified to be a fitness instructor and i passed!!!
i'm soo EXCITED!!! i never thought i would find something that i genuinely loved-and even though it took me 5 years-i'm so grateful that i did!

now....hopefully i can find a job:)

a really good saturday.

this saturday was a fun one (after work was over).

we got brads parents scooter, and my parents scooter and just cruised around salt lake.

we even picked up some friends along the way (kelley and candice).

the weather was perfect.

i love cruisin around on those things.

we tried to squeeze in a dessert they brought in the seat of the scooter, ha. it worked, and we enjoyed the delicious dessert.

they had this cool, little gadget to roast marshmallows.

it was a little portable fire.

we were obsessed with it.

we went to the park, threw down a blanket, played croquet, and then went to town on the smores.

(for those of you who have mentioned how concerned they are for my health from all the food/sugar i post, well don't worry..most of the time i usually either have small portions, a bite or none at all. it's brad who usually indulges on the good stuff....just to be clear:))

overall, it was an awesome saturday!

a day to make me feel ready and refreshed for a new week.

another day at the grind

i'm so tired today. i feel like i overworked my body yesterday

(yes, i feel extreme pressure to get my body in shape to teach aerobics as a profession-which by the way i'm still waiting to hear back my test results. i'm dying.)

but the thing that i hate the most, is that the harder i workout,

the bigger my bum gets.

go figure.

i was complaining to my parents about that awhile ago, and my dad was so proud that i inherited his big hockey bum. i felt rage knowing that's where it came from.

3 things that i'm ecstatic for today.

1. jax is cutting my hair. my split ends are up to my part. getting my hair cut in general makes the day feel like it's my birthday.

2. me and brad are roasting marshmallows tonight. sugar in general makes me ecstatic when i'm able to have some.

3. me and brad are going to winco. i'm a fag. but i think we've gotten so used to smith's, and we've never had a costco card, that winco seems like heaven on earth.

p.s. i was browsing through my sister's old blog, and i was loving every single picture she had of the beaches. these 2 were my fave. gosh i'm obsessed with them. i crave them daily. the pictures helped me escape from work for a minute.

so you think you can dance

this saturday we went to a bbq with rochelle and dustin davis,
and some other good friends from high school.
they were such awesome hosts.
they made the entire dinner all of us.
it was so great to see them again!
they had the game "so you think you can dance" on the wii and we literally had a hayday with it.
i loved these shots of the guys getting so into the game.

why yes, she is MY mom.

i've been thinking a lot about my mom lately. she unfortunatley wasn't here this weekend for mothers day because she, my dad and the 3 boys went on cruise. i don't even want to talk about how jealous i am. anyways, i've been thinking back to some of the most rememberable times with her.

i remember coming home from pre-school when we lived in california and there was a 60 year old, chinese man just sitting cross legged on our living room floor watching cartoons (we lived in an apt at the time while my dad went to school) and he was eating a bowl of roman noodle. it was pooring outside. he didn't even know english and she let him in, fed him, and let him sleep out in our car that night. and what makes this story even better, is when my dad got home, he didn't ask questions, or even tell her how dangerous it was of her to do that. he got out the blankets and made the car as comfortable as he could.

all of our family was driving to our cousins house, and a man had a sign up leaned next to him that said, "i'm hungry, please help". my mom told my dad to pull over to the side of the road. my mom yelled out to him, "what would you like to eat sir?". he stood up and walked up to the car, "anything, please." so we turned the car around back to the house, and my mom put together a sub sandwich, a drink, and some chips together for him. we all piled in the car and drove back and gave it to him. i will never forget that memory.

after high school, for some weird reason, i went from platinum blonde to pitch ugly black. i walked in the house absolutely hating the decision i made and my mom was sitting on the chair right by the front door. i walked in and she stood straight up and started laughing, and then after she stopped laughing she said, "take that wig off right now." i started bawling. then immediately after i started crying she said, "well, why in the heck did you dye it black??" zero comfort, haha, not even a sugar coat of comfort. i love so much thinking back to her reaction.

bottom line, it's so easy to love her aside from her weaknesses, because she never hesitated for a second to love me with all of mine.

i love both my moms.

i love both my moms with all my heart.
i love getting to know them each more and more the older i get.
i love knowing they are both here for me.
i love girl talk with them.
i love learning from them. each have different ways of living there lives and i'm so grateful for that.
i love laughing with them.
i love crying with them.
i love watching them both raise there families so strong in the gospel.
i love having them both for my moms.

happy mothers day to 2 of the most wonderful woman i know.

i live for fridays.

its a good day, just because its friday.
i feel like i've been so ansy lately, i have this window right next to my desk and it teases me looking out and seeing the perfect weather...and plus there's a beautiful, huge tree right out the window that makes it even more tempting to just go sit outside.

a couple that looked around my age came into the clinic and they were all over each other. they were practically making out on the chairs. i was staring, only because they were drawing so much attention to themselves. i wanted to barf looking at them. then about 25 minutes later, an older couple in there 80's came in holding hands and the man gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. my heart melted. then for a minute i felt stupid that i was so rude about a young couple showing love, but i was lovestruck when an old couple showed there love. i don't get why it's so much cuter when old people show there love.

brad is finally done with his finals this week! which made us both in dang good moods the rest of the day! when we were driving home, we started talking about our trip to europe this summer and got so freaking excited we both started laughing so hard, (i may have screamed out of the blue really loud too) and turned up the music full blast. it's fun when you have something to look forward too. like the weekends....i hope you all have been looking forward to the weekend!

questions that i think about.....sometimes daily.

do zits really have to happen after the age 13?

why do i react like the world is ending when my food order is wrong, and i've already driven away from the window?

do people think i'm doing drugs when i give myself an insulin shot?

why can't scrubs be daily clothes for every. single. person?

why does poop have to smell so dang ronchy? (my job)

how come texting someone back sometimes feels like the hardest thing on earth to do for the moment? (i actually know this answer......it's because im lazy)

why on earth does the good tasting food have to be bad for the body, and the healthy stuff can't taste that good?

is it sad that i feel more productive after writing people back on facebook then i do after a full day of work?

why in the crap does the face have to go red after feeling stupid?

how can after just having a good, simple conversation with someone i love make me feel so at ease?

what else we did in vegas, including the strip.

just some more pics from the trip.
for some reason we were loving the horse shoe game so much.
i don't think i've ever even played horse shoe for more than 5 minutes before.
we played for about 3 hours.
like i say...it was all about the sun!

and the strip-i can't believe how nasty it gets with each year.
and by nasty i mean the people, the shows, the language, the flipping of the nography cards.
it seems like it's all just getting worse and worse with each year.
thank goodness for the gospel.