Ryan Gosling

Once upon a time my family lived in Tucson, Arizona. We moved to Sandy, Utah and a couple years later some friends from Arizona came to visit. I was in 6th grade at the time and my friend Christiana was in 7th grade. We went to the Utah Fun Dome and ran into... Ryan Gosling. He was 17 or 18 years old then!! This was before he was even famous my friends. At the time he was on a TV show called Breaker High, and coincidentally, both Christiana and I watched the show. We recognized Ryan and being the giddy little girls we were, we had to meet him. Christiana's mom took pictures and filmed a bit of our chance meeting. Christiana just recently came upon these jewels and has been posting them to her facebook. They are hilarious. I think we are both pleased that now, he is a HUGE celebrity, not to mention, ridiculously attractive. Oh... celebrities. I still have his autograph, which says, "To Carly: Thanks for asking for this - Sean, RG." Enjoy the pic. For now, the video is on my facebook so check it out there. You don't want to miss my awesome/awkward hug from Ryan ;)

Gratitude

This Thanksgiving I have gratitude for many things. I would love to share all the things I'm grateful for, but I'll spare every one the long list and keep it simple. I'm always extremely grateful for my family and friends. They are the most important things in this world. Dave and I are lucky to be able to spend Thanksgiving with both our families each year. Dave's family eats early and my family eats later in the evening, so it makes for a busy day, but it works out. My mom asked me to be crafty this year and come up with some cute place settings for my family. I felt up for the challenge and of course, turned to Martha Stewart. I found some of the cutest projects and ended up making paper turkeys with a Thanksgiving trivia. I also found name cards but didn't want to have assigned seating, so I swapped the name with a quote about gratitude. It was so fun to find great quotes and ponder them during this holiday. At dinner everyone really enjoyed the fun facts for "Thanksgiving trivia" and everyone read their quote aloud. It was a really fun way for my family to interact and remember what Thanksgiving is all about. My favorite quote, that I find fitting for myself, is "Learn to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want." - E. James Rohn. I am really great at wanting wanting wanting. Looking to the future impatiently and waiting for all that it brings. There are some things that I wish were different right now, but I need to remember to try to live more presently and have faith that all the things I want will come eventually. I really am grateful for all that I have now. Dave and I have accomplished quite a lot this year, and we always have a lot of great things to look forward to. We, along with our little family, are nothing but blessed in every way possible. I'm grateful for good quotes that resonate within us and help us take on a new perspective. I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving :) 

Fall hiking.

Fall is the most perfect time to head up the canyon and go on a nice hike.  Although, since Dave and I have been married, we have not gone hiking much, like, at all. Sad. But the last two days the boys and I have found some pretty great company to join us for some lovely hiking.

The trees are beautiful. The air is crisp. The weather is perfect. And Trey and Easton hike like champs. They love it. Makes me wonder why we haven't taken them hiking sooner. They had too much fun running, throwing rocks, and feeding squirrels and ducks. Enjoy the pics of trees, and leaves, and fall like things :)

Our first hike was with Chelsea on the trails near The Draper Temple.

These two are such boys. They could throw rocks forever. 

 Our second hike was with Grandma Lori at Silver Lake at Brighton.

 Easton found a walking stick!!

Trey, very excited to learn about Moose.

I know this post has way too many pictures. With two cute boys and such beautiful images to capture, how can I help myself? Hope everyone is enjoying fall.

September

September has been busy as ever for us. To start off our month my family spent Labor Day weekend at The Little America. After graduating I couldn't help but feel that graduating from college was a little anticlimactic so I told my mom I felt the need to celebrate, and we did just that. We stayed at The Little America for two nights and we ate out, swam, watched movies, and played games. It was so much fun and I'm so glad I have such a great mom who takes the time to provide such fun outings  for our family.

We then had the opportunity to go to Disneyland with Dave's family... FREE of children! I experience such anxiety when I leave the boys but it's always nice to catch a break. Huge thanks to my sister-in-law Jenny and my brother who helped out and made our trip possible. We went for 2 days so it was short and sweet. Dave's grandma treated everyone... I'm talking air fare, hotel, Disneyland park hopper passes, and more. It was insane. We ate lunch at the Blue Bayou, stayed on the concierge level in the hotel, and ordered room service. It was so much fun to be spoiled. But it was even more fun to hang out with Dave's entire extended family. Not everyone made it, but we had a big group of 24. So much fun to run around Disneyland, swim, and stay up late with cousins. Lots of us have kids now so it was nice to have some time to actually have a conversation and PLAY with everyone without having to take care of our kids. Sadly, I did not take as many pictures as I should have. The new Cars Land and Cars ride are to die for! So much fun!

 

Lastly, my nephew Carson turned 2! We had a nice, low key celebration with family and it was so cute watching Carson blow out his candles and open his presents.

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 Aren't these three the cutest? We love that they are so close in age :)

I'm always grateful for the families that we have. We love spending time with everyone. Aside from our fun September activities Dave is busy with school this semester, his LAST ONE! And I am loving not having to go to school or do homework, but I am definitely adjusting to being at home so much. I often find myself feeling bored and without any ideas as to what to do to entertain Trey, Easton, and myself. Even so I know one day I will be grateful I sacraficed so much of my time for my children. I am so excited for October and all the fun things October brings. I've been planning what we'll do for weeks now! Can't wait :)

Quarter of a century!

Alas, I turned 25 last week. Crazy, right? My mom told me I've officially made my way into "serious adulthood." Meh, I think I made my way into serious adulthood at 21, when I got married and instantly became prego. Who knows... when does serious adulthood arrive??? Anyway, my Birthday was a nice, laid back day. Dave fortunately had work off so we spent the entire day doing our thing. We ate breakfast at Eggs in the City, a place I've been wanting to try for quite some time. And then we ran errands, which doesn't sound like typical Birthday fun, but it was. Because having someone to run errands with me and assist me in chasing two two year olds around is much nicer than doing so by myself. Dave was sweet and we made a stop at Sego Lily where he bought me a massage and facial. I am definitely looking forward to that! Later that evening Dave's family and some close friends came over for brownies and ice cream. Yum. The following day my dear friend Jessie took me out to lunch at The Corner Bakery AND she even took me to Victoria's Secret afterwards, where she gave me a "free underwear" card that she received in the mail. Yay for free undies!! You know you've got a good friend when they get you underwear... for your Birthday ;)  Later that weekend some friends went to The Westerner, upon my request of course, and I was far from disappointed. I have seen a lot about The Westerner on facebook and I'm so glad we finally went to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about. No wonder everyone loves it. Dave and I were finally able to get our country dance on, which we haven't done forever, ride a mechanical bull (it was bikini bull riding night, too bad I forgot my bikini, I was way bummed I didn't know ;)), and play pool. Great times! And it doesn't stop there... on Sunday my entire family got together up Big Cottonwood Canyon to celebrate all the August Birthdays in our family! (There's a lot.) It was fun to hang out, eat good food, and catch up with everyone. I always feel incredibly spoiled and loved on my Birthday. A big thanks to everyone who made my day special. Here's to 25! I know it will be another great year filled with lots of great stuff :) 

 

At long last.

A day I have been looking forward to for a long, long time has finally arrived. On Saturday, August 18th, our little family returned home from a fun week at Bear Lake. As we made our way to our apartment, waiting at the door was my college diploma. AHHH! I couldn't even believe it. I feel as though I've made graduating out to be a huge deal, not that it isn't, but I feel 10x more accomplished because throwing children into the mix of school was nothing short of crazy. Looking back, I really don't know how I brought myself to do it. When I found out I was pregnant with Trey and Easton I was about half way through college. I just couldn't give up. I knew that if I didn't keep going I would lose my steam and most likely never return. So after the boys were born, I took a short break and kept on chuggin' along. It was never easy. In fact, most often it was hard, stressful, and overwhelming.  It was hard to dedicate so much of my time to being a mom, and then spend just about all the rest of my time being a student and doing homework. I felt like a rarely had free time to do what I wanted to do. I wasn't even capable of keeping our apartment clean! There were days when I felt like I didn't have enough time for school.  Days when I felt discouraged. Days when I seemed to just cry.  Days when I told Dave I think I should just quit. Days when I felt like I wasn't being a good mom because I was trying to focus on school instead of my children. It was simply, exhausting.  Even so, I'm so grateful that I have such an amazing family who supports me in everything I do. Dave was always happy that I wanted to finish. He stuck with me through it all, even when I was so ridden with anxiety that I was a total grump.  He always helped when he could by taking the boys off my hands so I could do homework, or study, or meet up for school projects. I'm grateful for both our parents who always helped and watched the boys when they could. Dave's sister Lisanne watched them on a regular basis and I'm so grateful for her willingness. And lastly... I must thank my mom. She not only helped by watching the boys, but she spent countless hours going over papers with me, especially as I got closer to graduating. I felt burnt out and I was ready to be done. As I worked on final papers my brain seemed to shut down, and at times, I felt like I couldn't even think. My mom was aware of this and helped and helped and helped... and then helped some more. There were nights when she helped me with homework, and I didn't come home until 2:00 in the morning. What a great mom! Now that I'm done I'm just so happy. Happy that I stuck it out. Happy because I feel I'm setting a good example for Trey and Easton. Happy because one day I know that having this degree will benefit me and my family. Everyone keeps asking me what I'm going to do now, and honestly, I don't know! As excited as I am to be done, I do think I'll find myself back at school, eventually. For a second bachelor's degree? A Master's degree? Who knows! There are probably fifty different things I'd love to do. But for now... I'm content being a mom.  I'm looking forward to spending time with the boys without homework lingering in the back of my mind. And I'm excited to dedicate even more of myself to them. I truly feel that being a mom is my job right now, and it's exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Here's to becoming a college grad!!! :)

Three years has been grand.

Dave and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary this weekend. On our actual anniversary my mom was kind enough to watch the boys so we could check out some Parade of Home houses, one of our favorite things to do every summer. Dave's parents joined us and took us out to dinner afterwards. A few days later we enjoyed a night out to dinner at J. Wong's and a stay at The Grand America. Lovely. Here's to three years of marriage and many more to come! :)

Happy 4th!!

We had a great 4th of July this year.  We usually go see fireworks at a park but we decided to keep things laid back and somewhat simple this year.  We went to Murray Park in the morning where Dave drooled over classic cars in the car show, Trey and Easton met Elmo AND got balloons, and we ate yummy food. I made really cute cupcakes for a BBQ with my family later that evening, and then my mom was kind enough to watch the boys so we could meet up with friends for another BBQ.  Lucky for us, our friends have multiple neighbors who provided a really great firework show for us as we hung out in the backyard.  Hope everyone had a great 4th!