what we've been up to via pictures.

one of our favorite places came to sugarhouse! ekamai. run, don't walk.

i just love her face in this picture. she looks like angry old man.

brads cousin, whitney (who is only 23 may i remind you) opened up her own trendy cupcake shop in the riverwoods in provo. honestly-some of thee best cupcakes i've ever had. not to mention she's one of the cutest girls ever! go in and pay her a visit, and eat a cupcake.  you won't regret it.

her smile honestly lights up my life. period. i live to make her smile. even it takes hours of weird and disgusting noises. 

i hit up a fantastic pizza joint with lisa, brads mom.  it was a wonderful day! we went and put flowers on her mothers grave then got pizza, sat and talked on a bench, and ate cupcakes. food always makes the heart grow fonder.

this is just sexy to me.

leslie and brette came to town!

it's always so nice to be able to see leslie and brette (any cousins actually) and catch up on life and all that's going on in our lives.  we both have little babes that are 2 months apart.  so it's safe to say we had a lot of baby talk going on.  sorry brette, i still feel bad about how annoying that probably was.

to sum up the week, we talked, ate and shopped. one day we literally shopped for 6 hours. 6. it was incredible. the babies were perfect. we both couldn't get over how well they were both doing with how long we shopped for. it's funny how the littlest things totally change after a baby. like sneaking in a diaper change in the dressing room, or having to go pump in the car and duck every time someone walked by, or have a feeding session with les in the underground parking lot while listening to music. and it all felt so natural, ha. like i've been doing those things all my life already.

i took them to some good eateries and stores, and the times we weren't doing those things-we met up with stace and talked and ate some more:). i'm tellin ya, it's what our family does best.

here's some pictures from the week. sorry about the poor quality-they were all taken with my phone.
brette- i cannot believe i didn't take one picture of you or with you. i'm so sorry! thank you guys so much for driving all the way down and hangin with me!! i loved it more than you'll ever know! thank you, thank you!

benjamin francis.

i think it's safe to say this song is playing in our house 24/7 as of lately. 

and if you like this song, then you'll be obsessed with the entire album. 

(pictures and atlas hands are some more favorites)

i have a huge crush on his voice.

i will see him live before i die. 

ivy's blessing.

the whole week before me and brad kept thinking of things we wanted brad to mention in ivy's blessing. such as great hair, really good at the guitar or piano, and my personal favorite-the gift of great style. lucky for ivy, brad decided to follow the spirit and give one of the most touching blessings i've ever heard. of course it was only touching to us, because well...we're her parents. i must say though,  my most favorite thing that brad blessed her with was "the ability to reach out to those who are lonely, and tired from this life and be able to lift them up". i hope and pray this comes to pass.  i hope she is someone that loves unconditionally and is kind to everyone.  not just her friends and family, but everyone. which means, please bless she turns out exactly like her dad.

all in all it was a beautiful day.  and seeing both of our families all sitting together in sacrament meeting was touching to me. a glimpse of the after-life. not to mention having them all over and sitting around laughing and eating. i live for these kinds of days.

p.s. i love how proud brad looks in that last picture.

just some simple things we've been up to that i'm sure no one cares about.

ivy has been a smiling ball over here.  melts me every time i see those gums shine! we can't get her to laugh when she's awake, but she laughs all the time when she's asleep. we live for that.

we did some shopping at city creek over the weekend and only shopped for brad and ivy. i refuse to step foot in any dressing rooms and get depressed about my body. so we kept it positive and had cheesecake instead from cheesecake factory.  something that i'm 100% positive didn't help the body situation.

we had a camp fire the other night and i was smiling the entire time because of how obsessed i was with it. i never sat around one single fire this summer because of my lack of motivation to do anything while be pregnant.  and plus my enormous body was usually in bed by 8 anyways, ha. so we whipped out some smore's and i felt set for life.  we stayed up late talking and huddled with blankets around the fire which was also another added bonus. that whole night hit the spot.

ivy is officially 2 months now! i went in for her 2 month check up and they said it was time for her shots. i was thinking it would be a little prick and be over with. the good part is that it really was over with fast. but it sure wasn't a little prick. she was whaling.  her reaction surprised me so bad that i didn't even dress her all the way.  i wrapped her in her blanket and got the heck out of there so fast.  the second i left the building i started bawling. i was shocked by my reaction too, but seeing her in so much pain ripped my heart out. i called up brad and begged him to take her in for her 4 month check up because i can't handle seeing her like that again. literally. i'm a wuss.