Johnny and Amy Clark

beautiful babies....

2011-08-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

Lately i have been shooting a lot of newborns. Newborns really are one of my favorite things to shoot. I get to cuddle these sweet things for a few hours, and give them back. It is the perfect fix:) This first litte guy is some of my dearest friends Christy and her husband Chris, and their baby. After years of struggling with infertility, they were able to adopt this beautiful baby boy. They have an amazing story, and words cannot describe how happy I am for them. I like to call him my "godson." This was one of my favorite sessions I have ever done. The connection and the love that chris and christy have for this little baby is unreal. It was so natural.

sweet baby bennett...

My cute little cousin/neice Audrey...

cutest little adelaide...

Ivy's notes

2011-06-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Ivy loves to loves to write me notes. When aunt Jamie is around I get really long ones that she has translated from Ivy's mouth to paper. A few months ago she handed me this little gem:)

Here is what it said:

"I love you mom. I love you so much. I wish that we could go surf together. I wish that we could go to the beach together. I wish we could go pick roses together. I wish we could go pick tree's together. I wish that we could have a pet unicorn.I wish that we could have sparkles on our dresses. I wish that we could go on a ship together. I wish that we had a treasure chest and it had dimends and rubeys. I wish that we had a pet dog and a new kid. I wish we had the whole earth. I wish I had errings. I love you so so so so much. Love,Ivy
I love my little random notes from my Ivy Lee:)

My little cougar, hear him roarrrrr

2011-05-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my little cougar graduated. Now he can finally check it off the list and move on. whew!!!! Thank you to all of our family who traveled from afar to support us! We love you:)

Easter 2011

2011-05-04T22:32:00.001-07:00

Happens almost every single time I try and take a picture of the kids next to each other. Without fail, beck will attack her. Good thing she is a pretty good sport:)
So then we decide to kick beck out of the picture...

We were lucky enough to have family in town for easter this year! Half of the clark family is up here in ut working for Johnny, and so we were able to have the whole clan here at once. We even managed to put up 10 people in our condo for a week!!! Oh it was crazy alright, but we had fun!:)

a new chapter...

2011-04-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hello again! Not sure why it has been such a huge task in keeping up this little blog of ours, but it is! I always feel like I cannot blog unless I am totally caught up on past events, but I am totally over keeping life's events in perfect sequence. So, with that said christmas might be posted in july, and halloween may be posted in august, and I don't really care. I am going to be a bit more random, but hopefully that will push me to write more often.

So here is our current happenings as of now. April 11th. We just returned to our home in utah from living in ca for the winter. Johnny was very busy training with his partner the whole time, but the kids and I had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and hanging out with the clarks.Utah is still very cold, and has snowed a ton in the few weeks we have been back. Johnny started a business here in salt lake, which is very bittersweet for moi. When we moved here, it was only with intentions to finish what he had started at byu. By coming up here, he would have finished school a year earlier vs transferring his credits to asu. He was on schedule to graduate in 2 years from the time we moved here. Um well, we have now been here for 4 years... but good news! He graduated this last december and will be walking in 2 weeks! He wont be using his degree, but its just nice to check that off the ole list:) I honestly never imagined that we would be here this long. We had always planned on moving back to az or ca to be close to family. I am still trying to get use to the idea, that we are not going home. When I found out that we would be staying for at least 5 years I cried my little eyes out. I seriously miss my family and friends sooooo much, but such is life. Even though it has been hard to accept the fact, we are very excited and very grateful for the business opportunity that we have here in utah. Johnny's office will be near salt lake, so we are moving to be closer to his office. We will be sad to leave our little cozy condo near byu, but are excited to have a little more room, and to meet new friends! On another note, we are getting really excited for summer to be here! We have never spent a summer in utah, so it should be fun! We were very spoiled in San Diego last summer, so I bought us 7 peaks passes to try and ease the pain:) ha.ha.ha What kinds of things do you utah people do for fun in the summer? I am hopin for a summer filled with swimming, and lots of snow cones. The other day, I was looking on ksl and I saw a million snow shack businesses for sale. I seriously want to buy one, plant it near my house, and throw a high schooler in there. I asked johnny if he would be interested in buying one, and he looked at me like I was retarded. Its such a stupid little treat but i freaking love them. In fact, when I was little, I somehow talked the local candyman into letting me buy snow-cone ice from him so that I could sell snow cones at the ballpark. I hooked up a wagon full of ice and syrup to my little honda 50 motercycle.I was so legit. I would buzz around the ballpark yelling "snow cones, snow cones!" with no shame. i made some pretty good money for a 10 year old. Then I got smart, and talked my dad into letting me sell jambas from our store. He didn't even make me pay for the cost of them! Wasnt that so cool of him!? I seriously made bank. No worries, it wasn't the last thing I sold. Somehow a neighbor of ours talked me into selling knock off perfumes from china. for real!? Some of the things I did, and sold. I cannot even believe that my parents allowed me to do that! I guess times have changed eh? Oh and you better believe I was usually a top contender in selling wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions,chocolate etc.. for my elementary school fundraiser. Dude, I cannot even believe all of the things that elementary schools try to get the students to sell. And remember the motivating assembly's that they would hold to present the products and the prizes!? Can we say WAST OF TIME!? All for one of those darn Weeble things that was basically a 10 cent cotton ball which you got if you sold $20 dollars worth of crap!?? Honestly, I can see if they are trying to get the kids to earn money for summer camp or something, but to send little kids out selling crap door to door just seems wrong. Whoa, not sure how I got to weebles but for real,how did we ever think those were so awesome!? They sure knew how to brainwash us didn't they.

So anyway, here we are starting a new little chapter in our life. We hope its a good one, and hope that we will be able to embrace this little cold beehive state, and what it has to offer:) bye for now:)

the good life...

2011-03-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that we have been living in ca for most of the winter? Oh of course I didnt, I haven't updated in months.duh. Well anyway, we have been out here since christmas minus a few weeks so that johnny can train with his partner in san diego. It has been soooo nice. I am glad we got at least got to skip out on at least one winter bc we will have many more utah winters to endure in years to come.The kids have loved playing outside everyday. It is seriously really sad to me that half of our life gets cut out due to the cold winters in utah, so we'll enjoy it while we can:) Cant wait for summer!!!

can those faces get any cuter!!?
Beck has been to disneyland around 10 times, but this was beck's first time trying out the swings st the park and he obviously loooved it. He pretty much laughed the whole time. I love watching all of his firsts:)

I think they are starting to look alike! What do you thing=k!?

Ivy changes her outfit atleast 3 times a day. 2 of those outfits are usually something frilly or something of the princess sort.

this kid is obsessed with everything ball. HE LOVES THEM MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF.

beck looooves bella. He yells her name all day long. It is hilarious. Oh no, we've got another dog lover in the fam. I am totally out numbered!
i have no idea how she has become such a poser! oh wait..yes I do, she is a clone of me at that age.
what the heck beck! You are 1 years old, pretty sure you are not allowed to razor until you are at least 3! This baby of ours is trying to jump the gun.

christmas 2010

2011-02-19T14:44:00.000-08:00

We spent christmas this year at the clarky's house. We had such a great time. We were all very spoiled. Ivy got her first American girl doll, Laney, which was a huge hit. Looks like we got roped in into this American girl doll business. I was never into them when I was little, so its a whole new world to me, yes..it is a world in itself. My favorite present from the clark's was our shark steam mop. I looooove it. Johnny gave me a new pair of toms and an awesome camera bag/purse that I have been wanting, and a trip to florida!.I gave him clothes, and a signed BYU basketball which he was totally stoked about. A few days after christmas we headed down to az. My mom gave us the most beautiful quilt ever! She made one for all of the married couples. It took her months to make them! We also got a 3 month supply of food storage, which we totally needed!!! Another great christmas:)

The day after xmas while everyone was still in town, jolly's friend took us sailing in the san diego bay! Even though it was extremely frigid, we sipped our hot chocolate and had ourselves a great time.

Beck's little man party

2011-01-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

the invite made by my cousin natalie

AND HE'S DONE!

Birthday's are kind of a big deal in our family. Especially 1st birthday's!I know I take them a little too seriously, but after all, a birthday is to celebrate the day one is born, and that is a big.freakin.deal. Our family is completely obsessed with this little man, and cannot imagine life without him. We were so lucky to be in Az for beck's 1st birthday surrounded by our family and our best friends there to join us. We even had family travel from CA to attend! We are the luckiest. I decided to throw him a "little man party." It was the most fitting theme for our little grandpa beck. I loved how everything turned out. I built the party around 1 thing. Mustaches. Oh how I love them. We had mustache cupcakes and cake, mustache sugar cookies, mustache photo booth, and lets not forget the mustache snow globe-- Leave it up to Urban outfitters on that find:) If it didn't have to do with mustaches, it was anything old man. A HUGE thanks to my graphic design cousin Natalie who made my dreams into reality:) on paper:) she is awesome. and also to my mamma, who just about killed me for being so darn OCD. haha:) And thank you to all of our friends who came to honor our little beck!

Halloweeny 2010

2011-01-13T23:13:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2010 was a good one. Missy decided to be tinkerbell, but not just any tink...she wanted to be the "lost treausre tink, you know..the more adventurous one. Bc she is exactly that. A total nature freak and loves a good adventure. She wore boots instead of princess shoes to distinguish the two, and corrected people that thought she was just tinkerbell:) I tried to persuade her to be something scary like a witch, but there is no talkin this girl out of being some sort of princess. It just wasnt gonna happen. So Tink she was. Beckham on the other hand didnt have much of a choice. I made him a dragon. And omg, he was the cutest little dragon you ever saw. Every time I looked at him, i could not stop smiling. Boy stuff is so funny.

my fav:) That little round face sticking out of that dragon with the two little teeth, will be hanging big on my wall.

sundance with my momma

2011-01-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

My mom came up in October and we had a great time, as usual. One day we went up to sundance and got lunch at the cafe there and had a little picnic out on the grass. oh my goodness it was seriously beautiful. Places like sundance make me proud that I live in the state of utah.YES you heard it....I AM PROUD TO LIVE IN UTAH. ps never ever ever thought I would be capable of such feelings.

I cannot even handle how cute that laughing smile is. finally he shows us his dimples in a pic. so adorable

meeting little julianne

2011-01-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

In October, I finally got to meet one of my best friends first baby julianne. I am still trying to figure out how I got four years ahead of her. Sheesh. One minute we are the same, next minute I have a four year old before my carli has her 1st!? boggles my mind. Anyway, It was a give that she was going to be beautiful, but omg she is just the most precious little baby doll ever. I am obsessed with her.

vegas baby!

2010-12-25T23:09:00.000-08:00

In sep we went down to ca for johnny's class reunion, and on the way back we decided to make a pit stop in vegas. We ended up staying at the palazzo, and had a great time. Such an awesome hotel. Like one of our favorite hotels we have ever stayed it. I actually really really hate vegas, but put me in a really nice hotel, and the hotel brat is happy. Wanna know something hilarious!!? We went to this really awesome mexican resteraunt in our hotel, and as we were leaving, our waitress reccomended that we take our kids, to the pirate show at treasure island that was just across the street. We decided that it would be fun, and thought Ivy would really love it. So...we got there about 20 min early to ensure that we got a nice spot up in front so the kids would have a nice view. Johnny even had ivy up on his shoulders just to make sure she didnt miss a single thing. Oh.my.gosh, this show was full of awful seductive dancers trying to turn on pirates and happened to be wearing practically nothing. It was thee most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Oh and to make matters worse, there were so many people, that we couldn't leave. After johnny removed Ivy from his shoulders to the worst view in house, we just looked at each other and laughed really really hard. I cannot believe that our waitress would have recommended such a show. After we got back to our hotel, Ivy asked if we could go see the pirate show the next day! I told her that mommy didnt really like the pirate show bc of the girls outfits, to which ivy responds "but mommy! their outfits were beautiful! I loved the pink sparkally one! bahahaha. Anyway, If you go to vegas, be sure to skip out on the pirate show. you will thank me later:)

oh becky boo...

2010-12-25T22:39:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite pics of mister becky boo boo boo. I have promised johnny that I will stop calling this boy of ours becky. I am trying REALLY hard, but believe you me, it is hard. Anyway, these pics are from this fall. Yes I know, we are obviously a little behind on life. First one is of him eating his little face after sister decided to share her fudgesicle with him. precious. The others are of his first time sitting on the grass. Lets just say he was not a fan. I think he found it itchy, pokey and totally uncomfortable. He was trying so hard to not let his feet touch the ground... It was so awesome to watch! He soon realized after falling back a few times, that he could only lift one foot up at a time, so that he did. funny kid I tell you.

my little lovies

2010-11-15T22:22:00.001-08:00

Taking pictures of my kids these days can be a difficult task. Ivy does really well by herself...she strikes ultra-cheesy poses all on her own. Beck on the other hand can crawls ridiculously fast. As soon as I put my eye up to the viewfinder, he is already in my face. Then when I try and put them together, Beck has got ivy's hair, or ivy is giving beck a violent hug. Anyway, to say that I am extremely satisfied with my results is an understatement. I captured these in about 10 min. Awesome!

free photoshoot!

2010-10-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Head on over to my photoblog for a chance to win a free shoot!
Also, I have 4 spots available for AZ sessions which will be in the week of Nov 15-22. Email me if you are interested.

finally...

2010-09-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

A photography blog has been on my to-do-list for a couple years now, but some how it never made it to the top until now. I am excited to finally have a place to file away all of my shoots instead of letting thousands of pictures sit on my hardrive. It will be an ongoing project to get all of my recent work up... but I have posted a few shoots, so feel free to head on over and take a gander:) here is the link: www.amyclarkphotos.blogspot.com

question...

2010-09-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

do little boys come any cuter!? Here is Grandpa beck at 9 months. This little boy just radiates happiness, and brings our little family so much joy!

Ivy's sunshine & lemonade party

2010-08-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

On July 14th may baby girl turned 4! Man time is sure flyin by and it is kind of making me sick! She is growing up WAY too fast! Like Johnny, Ivy has had to celebrate her birthday away from friends and family for the last couple of years... so we thought we would throw her a fancy little party. We did a pool party, bc well, Its summer time... and that is what kids like to do:) Plus the Clark's pool can keep kids entertained for quite some time.We had lot's of yummy pink and yellow food, and of course we had lots of lemonade. Our cupcakes were pink lemonade flavor...which were amazing btw..(minus the melted frosting.) it just so happened that it was the hottest day of the summer. not kidding. All in all, It was a perfect day, spent with some of Ivy's best-est of friends.

my little elves! Thanks mom's for all of your help:):)

party favors

johnny's birthday!

2010-08-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

So this year for Johnny's birthday, I wanted to make it really fun since his past 3 birthdays we have been far away from family and friends. Soooo his mom and I decided to throw him a surprise party of course! It was awesome! He had all of his best friends and a lot of family come! It was a great party with great company and great food!! Thanks to all of our friends and family who came and made it a success! The next day (his actual birthday) johnny's family made an amazing breakfast! The weather was soooo nice outside. Nothing better than breakfast outside. serious. Then we went to my cousin's farewell, followed by a lovely luncheon at the carr's. It was a great day!

good morning sunshine!! sorry you cant see yet, but we were taking a picture:)
Ivy's present to johnny.. a picture of him she drew with water:)
the fam
the mexican fiesta!

some of my favorite ladies!
the advice circle for mason who just left on his mission to mexico!

count on lots of visitors when you live in california...

2010-08-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

since living here we have had a lot of visitors stay at hotel clark. My mom and dad are somehow here every other week. With dad's plane it makes it easy for them to zip back and forth! We have seen every member of my family as well as johnny's family of course:)I think that we have done everything that San Diego has to offer! I have kind of felt like a tour guide, but have loved every minute of it! We have loved all of the time that we have spent with them this summer!

summer of swimming

2010-08-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

This has def been a summer full of swimming. With the Clark's fun pool, it never gets old! Ivy has turned into quite the little fish! She actually learned how to swim on her birthday! I can finally relax a bit:) Beck also loves the water. He could stay in for hours splashin away.

Ivy swimming by herself!!! from Amy Clark on Vimeo.

father's day

2010-08-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

When we aren't spending time with our families on sunday, you can find us at the torrey pines gliderport. We love to watch the people jump off of cliffs and paraglide. SO cool! These pics are of us at the gliderport on father's day.

the many faces of grandpa beck!

2010-08-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

This little guy is always making a crazy face. He is pretty good at sucking in his lips which is why he has acquired the nickname grandpa beck! The face on the right is what we call "mean beck." He is such a funny little kid! We get the biggest kick out of him:)

Trip to AZ

2010-08-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

It has been nice to live so close to home so we can zip back and forth. The kids and I took our first road trip together. I was really nervous, but it actually went pretty well..i'd do it again:) Reason for visit: Honeybear's 1st birthday party, and Carli's baby shower. So glad I could attend both of these events.

Lyndi & Beck's newborn pics hung in labor & delivery!

2010-08-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

A while back, Kippy (who is a labor & delivery nurse) told me that they were re-modeling the unit at Banner Desert and were taking newborn pic submissions. So, a few weeks ago kippy walked into work, and guess who was hanging!!? lyndi and Beck! SO exciting right? They happened to hang lyndi and beck side by side without even knowing who's babies they were. So I had to take a special trip down there to see for myself. I took Lyndi's and Holly Brimhall took Beck's. Oh and sometime we will need to take some good pics of the pics:)

kippy came to visit!

2010-08-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

since I have moved away from az which was roughly 3 years ago, kippy has never come to visit me! Can you beleive that!? So I move to California, and all of the sudden she wants to come over. Dont worry kip, I wont take offense:):) Anyway, as crazy as it was toting 3 little kids around everyday, we had a blast!!

A few highlights included:

-Perfect weather. Yes, perfect.
-The San Diego Zoo.
-Witnessing the bulimic apes regurgitate their food so they could eat it again.
-Beck eating the map, and finding evidence the next day!
-Hauling around three kids and 3 car seats, everywhere! Holy Moly.
-Double stroller drama.
-S'mores goldfish. Mmmm. And Ivy requesting "skin" flavored.
-The beach...sandy babies, LOVE it.
-our gormet meals
-Cousin bath time every night.
-Shopping of course.
-San Juan Capistrano! Said that name a million times. And kip reffering to it as SJC.
-El Torito GRILL. Ate about 40 tortillas. And bought some to-go.
Here's the evidence.....

beck got to be the guinea pig for lyndi's birthday shoot
Lyndi's 1st birthday shoot!! never laughed so hard..this girl would NOT smile for the life of her. you should have heard the obnoxious mom in the back-round. Hilarious!

San Jaun Capistrano

we took all of these kids into a restaurant. might have been the most chaotic lunch ever.ha!
These two little girls became instant best friends..so cute!

BEACH DAY!

SAN DIEGO ZOO!

CHAOTIC MOMENTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA:

memorial day

2010-07-23T09:41:00.001-07:00

Nothing better than summer BBQ's with family and friends. seriously.

freshly picked flowers, oh and Ivy is OBSEESED with corn.

This girl looooves to lay on the rocks to warm up!

pretty people:)

it's summer time:)

>

little munchies

2010-06-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

couldn't resist posting this little gem. love my little munchies. This month has been busy,busy,BUSY to say the least! We are on a little vacay at the moment, but will be back soon to post about all of our latest adventures! stay tuned...

happiest place on earth.

2010-05-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

might be living in San Diego, or d-land. not sure. We seriously LOVE our new home for the summer. it is a dream come true. I finally feel alive. I know that sounds weird, but the sun just does something magical to me. It has been non-stop fun since we arrived. It is feeling like one big vacation. maybe not quite that great for Johnny, but i know it feels like that for the kids and I:) When we moved to so-cal, one of the first things we did was buy an annual d-land pass. The clarks go like once every couple of weeks, so we figured we better join in on the fun. A couple weeks ago, my mom came in town, so we went and spent a couple days there. We had a lot of fun, but i didn't think I could have done more than 2 days in a row. The next day was Jeanna's b-day. Jolly john called us up and asked if we wanted to help surprise her and take her to d-land! Hahaha! So off we went for a 3rd day. It was actually a lot of fun. The best part was having breakfast with the princesses. It was so nice to sit back and eat, and have the princesses come up to Ivy, instead of waiting FOREVER at that darn princess pavilion. We went on tues,wed and thurs and never waited more than 20 min. Beck was also an angel all 3 days! He looovved the parade's. Until next time!

W

pics from the outside world.

2010-05-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

These are from April in Utah, right before we moved. We were so excited to finally be able to enjoy some of the warm weather. I think these were the first pics taken outside in 4 months. seriously... what a joke utah is sometimes.

love my little munchkins!

the clarks came down to Utah for a week. Grandma Jeanna and beck

We had a wonderful Easter at Dave and Connie's.

4 months...

2010-04-11T22:35:00.001-07:00

A couple things about our little beck at 4 months...

-such a mellow little guy..hardly ever cries. seriously.

- Has mastered rolling over, goes back and forth between his tummy and back all day long!

-just discovered his feet and LOVES them! He is always holding them. The other day he fell asleep holding his foot next to his face:)

- Sucks on his big toe like a thumb!

- Cat napper- loves to take 20-30 min naps throughout the day.

- is down to one feeding during the night:)

-still sleeps in his mommy and daddy's room:)

- smiles all day long, but it takes a LOT of effort to make him laugh. We have only heard him giggle a couple times, its almost impossible!

-babbles pure boy noises all day long..so funny!

- was just diagnosed with eczema:( that awful curse would come from ME! Sorry becky boy:(

- has a gazillion nick names. becky beck, becky boy, beckster, beckers, becks, the list goes on. Ivy's new nickname for him is "little bumble bee." She is pretty proud of her name for him and thinks it is the cutest thing ever.

We love this little guy to pieces!

saying our goodbye's:(

2010-04-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

So I am pretty sure that I haven't even mentioned that my sister is going on a mission to Sydney Australia! I was in denial that she was actually leaving for a long time, but she went through with her plans. As sad as I am to have my only sister and one of my best friends gone, I am excited for her. She is going to have amazing experiences that will change her life. Yesterday we said our goodbye's to Ashley for 18 months. At about 12:45 p.m we pulled into slot #18 to drop her off at the curb. There were elder's waiting at the curb to greet and take her bags as soon as we pulled in. She was very weepy, as were we. It was really really REALLY hard, but very sweet. We know that she will be an amazing missionary and bless the lives of many people in Australia!

On a funny note, as my mom and I were saying our last goodbye's a police officer walked up, and told us that it was time to get moving, that they had other cars that needed to pull in. So we dragged our feet into our car as he waved us along. We kind of felt like we were at the airport. no joke. So as soon as we pulled out of the spot, my mom asked me to pull out of the mtc, loop around and drive through one more time so that she could watch all of the missionary's again. So I followed her commands. As i pulled in again, the same officer was still hurrying people through the parking lot, and walked up to our car. He totally remembered us from a few min before, and said "What are you ladies doing!?" my mom quickly told him that we were not parking that we just wanted to drive through." He got pretty upset and said "well DON'T drive through." hahaha he was so ticked, but we just laughed..thanks old dude for making us go from crying to laughing in no time. My mom has already made me do an mtc drive by tonight, and told me that we will be doing another one in the morning before I take her to the airport. She also instructed me that I must do a drive-by every single day up until I move. will do mom:)It's only been one day, and I miss her terribly. I just want to shoot her a quick text asking how she is doing! but...no can do. cant wait to get an email from her!! If you are interested in following a blog that I have set up for her head on over here

soldiers hollow

2010-04-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

Last week my fam headed up here for their spring break. I am pretty lucky to see them as often as I do, but one week is just never enough. We had so much fun while they were here. One day we went to soldiers hollow in midway and went tubing. It was a BLAST...especially since there was hardly anyone there. The kids had so much fun! They let us all go down at once, and I am not gonna lie, I wasn't sure that we were all going get to the bottom in one piece.Hearing my mom's scream/laugh was worth it alone. I cannot believe that we have lived here for almost 3 years and had never been. The best part of this place...they have a little tube lift that attaches to your tube, and pulls you all the way to the top, so no hiking involved. def my kind of snow activity. After we were done, we thawed out in the lodge by the fire for a very long time. We don't handle the cold very well.

ebony and ivory!?

2010-04-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its really hard for me to believe that these two kids came from the same parents. I mean look at their skin colors!? I guess Ivy did recently go on a cruise, and beck has seen the sunlight maybe 5 times in his life, but still! I have people come up to me all the time and say "oh she must have your husband skin." WRONG! I know it is really hard to believe, but i assure you, the olive skin actually comes from ahem me. I took this pic the other day, while we were loungin around the house so please excuse my daughters attire.

Coolest baby invention YET!

2010-03-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of Puj Tubs? Seriously,the COOLEST baby bath tub yet. It is a perfect replacement for those big old baby tubs. I just tried it with beck, and it is amazing! It is extremely light weight and stores completely flat. If your like me, and live in a small place with ZERO storage, this tub is for you! I hang it on a hook in my shower. Seriously a dream, compared to the old ones. I remember trying to bathe ivy in a tradiitonal baby bath, having to hold her her up with one arm, and using my other arm to bathe. However, the puj tub supports your baby in an upright position allowing you to use both of your hands. The material that they use is awesome, it forms to his body, so he's not sliding around like a slippery fish. It is also insulated so that it stays warm. Beck loooovves his bath time, and I am pretty sure it has a lot to do with this tub.

Our bathroom sink is tiny and pretty outdated so the tub is a little too big for it. I have still been using it everyday, I just have to clog one of the drain holes (the ones that keep it from overflowing) so that the water doesn't go all over my floor. However, I tried this out over at my mom's (who has new updated sinks) and it worked perfectly. You have got try this out! You will not be sorry.

Check out this video so you can see the tub in action!

I would definitely recommend this tub to everyone with a newborn baby (0-6 months). Would make a great baby gift too since everyone needs a baby bath tub right!?

Check  out the Puj Tub for yourself at the new web site exclusively for baby bath tubs!

Johnny & Ivy's va-cay!!

2010-03-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

I am absolutely DYING over these pics. Johnny and Ivy had a BLAST together on their cruise. I so wish I could have gone, but more than that, I wish that I could have been a fly on the wall!! They are too cute together, and have the cutest relationship. I definitely realize that there aren't too many guys who would take a toddler on a vacation without their wife... so for that I am grateful to my husband for being so kind to take her so that I could have a much needed break!! The pictures actually tell the story quite well! Thanks uncle for obeying my orders (which were to take at least 50 pictures.) well done. I was running late off to az, and packed ivy's bag but sort of forgot to tell johnny what peices of clothing went together, but kind of figured he would be able to tell. You can read my thoughts below each picture:)

All ready to go!!

Pretty sure this is the first thing they got when they walked onto the ship. Johnny said they had at least 5 a day! I am sure Ivy was in HEAVEN!

um must have thought the name was pretty funny?? besides that, they look pretty dang cute!

precious!

Apparently Johnny thought that Ivy was not only suppose to wear this green knit dress everyday, but also to formal night! hahaha i guess he missed her cute formal dress and her cute turquoise flats that I had packed.

attempting to keep her straggly hair out of her face. All ready for formal night! hahaha

Chillin with uncle!

These 2 peices were really not suppose to go together, but hey...he worked it out, he worked it out. At least the hat and pants were the right idea.

love this pic. Can we say Tom and Suri cruise! hahaha totally kiding.

I am guessing that Ivy didnt want her make-up to smear, and johnny did not want to get burnt??

At the Atlantis resort! I have wanted to go there for YEARS. Ever since the newlywed episode where Nick and Jess went there...Seriously still grieving over that divorce.

Oh HEY formal dress, there you are... paired with the creepy face painting! Seriously what are they doing in that kids club!? For heavens sake, she looks like marilyn manson or something. Apparently she was suppose to be a bunny!?? (thanks for clearing that up Kelley!) Oh and gotta love that pony tail! I love that he tried to do her hair!

Dont forget those sunglasses! For real!

Oh and here is beck and I on our lavish arizonian vacation. We had a lot of fun too... wish I had pictures to prove it:) We saw lots and lots of freinds, ate lots and lots of food, and took lots and lots of pictures:) the end.

COME SUPPORT THE FAUST FAMILY!!!

2010-02-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

There is the neatest couple in our ward named AJ and Alissa Faust. AJ happens to be our home teacher, and is such an amazing person! On September 20, 2009, His parents, Damon and Barbara Faust of Mapleton, Utah, were hit by a man driving under the influence of illegal drugs. Damon died at the scene, and his wife was critically injured. Barbara was in intensive care for three weeks fighting for her life. Although she has returned home, she will need continued medical help and time to fully recover. The family has no health insurance and Damon's life insurance had expired just before the accident. This has left the family with mounting bills. Damon and Barbara have ten children; eight of them are still at home. The family is in great financial need as a result of the accident and loss of Damon and the sole income he provided. As a result, the community has coming together to help raise $ for the family. There is a fund raiser this Thursday for the Faust family. Dinner can be purchased, activities to keep the kids busy, entertainment, great auction items, connecting with friends and family and a tribute to Damon. February 18 UVU McKay Events Center. Dinner and silent auction 6-7PM, auction and entertainment 7PM on. To learn more about the event you can go here. Please spread the word to your family and friends that live in the area. Also, it would be great if you could post about it on your own blog or facebook!

AZ Photo shoots!

2010-02-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

So really I was suppose to be going on a cruise to the Bahamas with the hubs this month, but the cruise line will not allow babies under 6 months. bummer. There is absolutely NO way I could ever leave my little becky beck home this young, so guess who is going in my place!? Ivy! Yup that's right, Ivy will get to see the Bahamas- somewhere I have always wanted to go, before me. Johnny is actually REALLY excited to take her. I think he might be a little bit crazy, but none the less I think they will have a GREAT time together. Anyway, while half of my little fam is cruisin away, I will be in AZ in a couple weeks hangin with the fam and doing some photo shoots! I already have a few lined up, but am willing to do a few more. If you have emailed me about sessions recently, and I have not gotten back to you, I will soon. promise. I have gotten SO behind on everything since having Beckham, but I think I have almost got this 2 kid thing under control! YAY! Anyway, email me if you have any questions or are interested in booking a session. I will be there the week of feb 22nd. And because every post needs something besides text, here is a video of a commercial my father-in-law and little sister-in-law did for a friend's company . I am not going to lie, i had tears in my eyes as I watched it, might have been due to the fact that I watched it right after I had the babe! haha! SO cheesy, but I thought they were perfect!!

honeybear...

2010-02-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

Meet my niece Lyndi...aka "honeybear." Is she adorable or what!!? She is so expressive, and has the most smiley eyes ever. She is very good at expressing her feelings with her eyebrows too.. They are always moving:) she and beck are 5 months apart, and I am sure that they will be best buds.

It's true!

2010-01-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

I am 2 months old,and getting SO big! I am 13 lbs which means I am in the 63rd percentile for my weight and I am 24.5 inches long which puts me in the 93rd percentile for my height. I am one big boy! I seriously wont stop growing. I am getting so chubby too. My mom loves that I am chubby bc apparently my sister was so scrawny. I started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks..my mom was so excited. But then, I must have hit a growth spurt because I no longer do that for her, I am back to every 3 hours! HAHA MOM, tricked ya! I am THE BEST baby though, I hardly cry, unless I have a legitimate reason to. Almost every single diaper my mom changes is poopy. I LOVE to poop. In fact, I poop up my whole back AT LEAST twice a day, no joke. My mom calls me "becky beck" and it bugs my dad. He does not like the "becky" part. He likes to call me Beck or the Beckster. As for Ivy, she is still callin me becky beck tootie. grrr! Anyway, that's a little bit about me at 2 months old:)

Beckham's blessing day

2010-01-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday January 17th was our sweet little Beckham's blessing day. His daddy blessed him, and it was beautiful.He got to wear the same outfit that Johnny wore for his baby blessing...pretty special:) Thank you to all of our family and friends who participated in his special day. We are so grateful for this little guy and the joy that he brings our family everyday.

Duffin family pics!

2010-01-22T12:51:00.001-08:00

the whole gang!
Still cannot believe we got this shot! And still looking for the culprit that put ivy's bow on the wrong side!!
So glad I caught these faces!!She was pretty proud that I let her hold her brother:)
Day after christmas we attemped some family pictures. Duffin family photoshoots= recipe for disaster! I am really suprised that we got a few keepers! Thanks Tiffany for coming last second and for dealing with our crazy fam:)You are awesome!!

december 09 in review..

2010-01-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

my besties!
brighton and beckham..2 weeks apart:)

having a little too much fun taunting the ducks!

watching bowl games with daddy

um yes I was as tired as I LOOKED!

This holiday season FLEW by for us. The kids and I flew down to az a week before christmas so that johnny could focus on his finals, and so that I could have a little more help as I was making the transition with 2 kids. I was very anxious to get there so that I could start sleeping in..I was one TIRED mamma! Johnny came down after his finals...we were so happy to finally spend time together, and especially enjoy our little Beckham. We also enjoyed all of the christmas parties and all of the amazing food and company! Besides the fact that I got sick christmas eve, and christmas, we had a lovely time with all of our family in friends:) After christmas we drove over to california to spend time with the clark fam. We watched A Lot of football, played a lot of wii, ate a lot of food, and enjoyed the amazing weather! We loved all of our presents from both sides of our family...we got SPOILED for sure!!! I think I got THE WORST christmas pics EVER! Pretty sure I couldn't think straight at this point. We were definitely sad to leave all of our friends and family and head back to reality.

"becky-beck tootie"

2010-01-06T09:45:00.001-08:00

"Becky-beck tootie is what sister Ivy calls her baby brother. I about died when she first started calling him that..but now it just makes me laugh! Now I am trying not to stress out about how much I have to catch up on. I have a gazillion pics that I want to post, but having a really hard time finding one spare second! I think it is safe to say that having 2 kids is a little bit harder than I thought it would be. I am LOVING it but definitely not getting the hang of things quite yet. So "little by little" is my life motto right now:) Beckham is 6 weeks old now and is HUGE! I m not kidding the kid gains a pound a week and changes every day. At his 2 weeks apt he weighed 8lbs 15 oz..gained almost 2 pounds from when we left the hospital, and was 22 inches long! Then 2 weeks later he weighed 11 lbs! He is definitely making his daddy proud:) He is just starting to flash his smiles at us, and let me tell you... he MELTS my HEART!!! He got his daddy's cutest dimples..they are to DIE for! I am completely obsessed with him to say the least. Johnny keeps asking me if I was obsessed with Ivy like I am with Beckham. HAHA! Of course I was:) These are just some random pics from Beckham's first couple weeks when he was still so sleepy.

In LOVE with this one!
I worked I worked hard for this shot!

fist time meeting brother

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-25T08:36:00.001-08:00

beckham's birth story...

2009-12-24T14:51:00.001-08:00

My oh my...I cannot believe it has been 4 weeks. I have finally arrived to AZ and can finally take a breather! It has been so nice to be here and have help again... Ivy is also happy that she finally gets some attention back:) I am laying in bed sick today and just realized that I hadn't written anything down from the birth, and it scared me because I am already forgetting how everything went. So here it is as I remember.

11-22-09 I got a call around 8:00 p.m from the hospital to set up my induction. They told me that I needed to come in at 6:30 a.m to which I responded really!? You dont have anything a little later do ya!? The lady definetely put me in my place... and told me that was my time, and I wouldn't be able to be induced if I didnt come in then. Really I just did not want to get up that early considering that fact that in my mind it was going to be my LAST good night of sleep FOREVER! Johnny also had a couple classes in the morning that he didnt want to miss. I of course agreed to come in then, and johnny's dad agreed to attend his classes for him. I have never seen anyone SO excited to go attend college classes at BYU again..he was hilarious!

11-23-09 I got up at 5:00 due to miss Ivy wetting her bed! I gave her a bath, put her back to sleep in my bed, and took a shower. Then as I was sitting there in the bath, I get a call from the hospital telling me that they needed to bump me bc they had people come in over the night and didn't have a single room left. They told me to call back around noon to see if they had a room yet. So I tried to go back to sleep but of course ended up laying there for countless hours!

10:00 a.m. I got all my stuff packed and me my mom and my mother-in-law headed to walk the mall, in hopes that I could give my body a jump start on things.

12:00 called the hospital to see if they had room for me and they said that they were ready for me:)

12:30 p.m Headed for Timpinogis hospital for the big day!
1:30 p.m Was dilated to a 1.5 upon check- in and 70% effaced. got all hooked up with pitocin.
2:00 p.m. doctor broke my water (half way)
4:00 p.m dilated to a 3 and 80%

5:30 p.m doctor attempted to break my water again... def worked this time, I was Instantly in a LOT of pain, and decided I was ready for the "happydural."
5:45 anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural

6:00 my legs were numb but I could still feel all of the contractions in my stomach. NOT GOOD! I asked my nurse how long it was suppose to take and she told me that it works within 5 minutes for 98% of women. Great! It had been 15 for me, so my nurse called the anesthesiologist back in and he decided to dump more medicine in.

6:15 my legs were as dead as a door nail, but I could still feel everything in my stomach. Anesthesiologist came in again and dumped another dose of medicine.

6:45 finally moved to a 5

6:55 I started freaking out... I could still feel everything and the contractions were very intense. The medicine that he was adding was not helping at all. He came back in and told me that he was stummped. ( I did not like hearing those words coming out of him mouth!) Finally he decided to insert another one in, but before he did this he wanted to try and adjust it. He ended up pulling it out a little bit, and BAM! We were in business! He figured out that it was in a little too far. Needless to say I was finally a happy camper!

7:05 My nurse checked me, and I was a 7!

7:30 Got checked again and was a 10! I seriously could NOT believe how fast I moved once that epidural finally worked right. It was nuts! Dr Lamoureux came in a couple minutes later, and It was time to push!

7:37 p.m. After 5 easy pushes, our sweet little baby boy was born! He was flawless, I was instantly IN LOVE! He was the cutest thing I had ever seen:)

All in all, (besides the techical difficulties) I felt like my labor and delivery was a piece of cake! My doctor and nurse were amazing! I especially LOVED my nurse( not anymore than you kip:). She stayed in my room almost the whole time and had some pretty amazing techniques that helped me so much when that epidural wasn't working. I actually love being in labor and would do it everyday if I could! I love the rush, but more importantly seeing your beautiful creation for the first time is quite an amazing experience.

40 weeks on the dot!

here we go!

everyone who was present at the birth

johnny thinks its funny to take pictures of me when I am in pain

happy again!

Baby Beckham: 7 lbs 11 oz 21.5 inches long

johnny and the doc which they call "the midwife in a man's body" he was awesome!

my nurse

Here I am:)

2009-11-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to reveal myself, but you see, I was just given my name about an hour ago. I know... aren't my parents ridiculous!? My name is Beckham Wesley Clark. This blog is the only place that my name has actually been written down, so hopefully my mom wont change it on me. The hospital will give 10 days to have a name, so that leaves us with 4 left. we are crossing our fingers that she can commit. Beckham is a name that my parents have loved for a long time, in fact had my sister Ivy been a boy, she would have most likely been Beckham. Wesley is my daddy's middle name as well as my grandpa's. The reason why it took my parents so long to decide was bc they had a totally different name picked out for me when I was born, but for whatever reason it was causing too much drama... so they dropped it. My parents say they will never leave the hospital without a name again. It just keeps getting harder and harder the longer you wait. I weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces, 21.5 inches long, and perfect. My family is totally in LOVE with me!! They love everything about me, but are especially in love with my cute round face, my little button nose, and my lack of hair in the front and my long hair in the back:) I am seriously the best baby. I hardly EVER cry, and am pretty much as sweet as they come:) My mom feels really bad that she was not too excited to have a boy, bc let me tell you, she absolutely LOVES having a boy and would take 100 more of me! my sister Ivy is kind of obsessed with me too. Although.. the other day, she hid my binki from me and then tried to wash me with a dirty dish rag!! That was totally NOT cool Ivy! Maybe its just me.. but I think she might be a tad bit on the jealous side. Anyway, that is it for now, but I am sure my mommy will be back soon to tell more of my story. Bye!

thueson fam

2009-11-20T08:04:00.000-08:00

Yup still here. Just a walking time bomb. I don't have a single thing to post or update on except for a million photo shoots that I have done within the past month. Sometime I will start another blog and put all of my shoots on there..but for now i am too lazy. Remember the thueson's from last year? Well I got to do their pics again...aren't they yummy!? I LOVED the color's + outfits+setting that Tara picked out for the fam. We got a million cute shots it was so hard to just pick a few:(You should see these pics all hung up on their walls...kind of made me want to cry when I saw them. (Tara,please let me be your family photographer forever!!:):)

austin+layla

2009-11-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Boy were these two fun to shoot! Layla has some amazing style and always knows what she wants..which i love:) Austin'siblings also joined us for a couple shots at the end, for a christmas present they are working on for their parents! what a cute idea huh!?

38 weeks:)

2009-11-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, Okay here I am!!! Yesterday I was doing a shoot of my cousin and she decided to take a couple pics of me:) There are cheesy I know! Does my baby not look like it is going to fall out of me as i was hanging on the tree!? My arms still hurt from that!. I really cannot believe we are on the home stretch! This pregnancy has seriously gone by SO fast. Where has the time gone!? I feel so blessed that I had such an easy pregnancy...really.I had an apt today and my doc told me any day now. As of today I feel pretty prepared if he decided to come a little early, but definitely have plenty of things to keep me busy if he doesn't. I am scheduled to be induced on the 23rd if it doesn't happen before then. Woot woot! We cannot wait to meet this little guy!!

And some pics from a couple weeks ago at johnny's year end party:)

maternity shoot...

2009-11-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Can you say pregnant bombshell!? Seriously how beautiful is my friend Melanie!? It was a pretty funny site to see. A pregnant woman shooting a pregnant women. We are 2 weeks apart but of course I am double her size...has to be her long torso right!?:) :)Maternity pics can sometimes be a little on the awkward side for people, but mel and adam were total naturals. They were both glowing! They just had baby Zurie a couple days ago, and she is beautiful...go figure! Congrats you guys!!!

halloween 09

2009-11-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

We had such a good halloween this year. it just keeps getting more exciting as Ivy gets older. She was at the perfect age this year! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the age 3!!! Seriously...she is SO much fun! Kacie and Layni came down for the weekend to hang out with us, and boy did we have fun! The girls had so much fun together... well..that is when they weren't fighting! Holy cow these girls know how to fight. It was pretty hilarious to listen to the things they would argue over. my word!

So Ivy was Ariel this year, if you cant tell:) I tried to get her to be something BESIDES a flippin princess, but there is NO talking this girl out of it. She is completely obsessed. She did look pretty dang cute though! I wish I could have gotten more pics of her, but we were in a hurry yesterday and for some reason my hands were always full.

Johnny and i decided to do a costume together:) We threw it together last second, I went as octomom, and johnny went as my fertility doctor:) Johnny was a little worried that nobody was going to know who we were, but surprisingly everyone totally did. And we totally won "most creative costume" at our ward party! hahahah!thanks for the idea kipper and ash:) I really didnt even have to stuff my belly too much, I am really almost that huge, swear.

aunty+missy

2009-10-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

my sister ashley has been begging me to do a photo shoot of her and ivy together.yes.. she is obsessed. So a couple days ago we decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall scenery and set out for a mini shoot on a farm. Here are a couple of my fav's. Isn't my sister beautiful!!?

babysitting+cougars+conference

2009-10-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I babysat 5 kids for a week while my aunt and uncle went to turkey. Boy was it adventerous! Ivy and I had a lot of fun..we were constantly entertained. Ivy had so much fun with summer who is 2 weeks younger than her and ella who is 5. Later that week was conference. My dad and ammon were able to fly in for the occasion. We of course all went to the BYU Utah game which was a blast. Ivy loves going to the games with us and being passed around to all of her favorite aunts and uncles. For conference we had all of our fellow cougar siblings and cousins over to watch it with us. We have made it a tradition to have a brunch every sunday morning session...and boy are they good! Nothin better than watching conference with good company + good food!

some recents...

2009-09-25T08:55:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple random photoshoots that I have done in the past couple of months... Including Ivy's newest "fall photos." Tell me her owl cape isnt the cutest thing ever! Thanks mom:)If you cant tell... I am kind of obsessed with the apple orchard by our house. The apples and the random deer that prounce around in there keeps kids entertained for quite a while:)I should have room for a couple more fall shoots before I pop! Email me if you are interested... my address is on the top right.

last weekend..

2009-09-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

On sat morning Ivy and I attended johnny's flag football game. After the game he decided to go play a game of tackle bc apparently flag isn't good enough. Well I get a call 30 min later from him telling me that he and some kid collided and he split his eye open as well as his eyebrow. Will someone please tell my husband that he is TOO OLD to be playing tackle!? His dad is still playing tackle every thanksgiving day. Should I be worried!?

So 12 stitches later we were off to our worst nightmare.... BYU VS FLORDIA STATE. Lets just say johnny had one rough day.

some military helicopter that johnny was obsessed with + a 30 week belly:)

Ivy and I also got to get together with some of our favorite friends! Kacie and Layni live in utah right now, so we met up at gateway and had ourselves a grand ole time! I think Ivy and Layni are bff's in the making:)

No you are not imagining things..I clearly could not fit under the table.

What the!!?

2009-09-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Saw this on my friends blog and I have never been so excited!! This was definetely on my wish list for baby #2. Thanks Tris for posting! If you are nursing or think you will be nursing in the future or know someone who is nursing or might be nursing in the future, go to www.uddercovers.com, click on Shop Now. Select a fabric that you like, and then place it in your shopping cart. Use promo code "chatter" and you will get your nursing cover for free (paying only $8.95 in shipping). Not sure how long they will be running the promotion, so hurry! I think it is only one per person..or shipping address:)

"ivyisms"

2009-09-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

I told myself that I would be better at writing down funny things that Ivy does/says. I have been keeping little notes in my phone as they happen, so here are some recents.

Over the summer Ivy and I were out to cheesecake factory for a friends b-day. So me and the girls are chattin away when I get this tap on my shoulder from behind. So I turn around and this women says:

" Um excuse me... your daughter wont stop putting her fork in my hair."
Me: (trying really hard not to laugh) "Oh my gosh, I am SO sorry" I then turn to ivy and say "Ivy! We do NOT put our forks in people's hair.
Ivy's response " Its like ariel."

hahahaha good one ivy. The worse part was that I totally forgot to tell the lady that the fork was clean! woops:) Lets just say we laughed really really hard.

So Ivy and I are walking around target in the birthday isle looking for a card for a friend when she shouts..

Ivy: "um mom you didn't even tell me happy birthday"
Me: looking over my shoulder to see a women standing by us waiting to hear why i haven't told my daughter happy birthday.. "Well Ivy, that's because its not your birthday silly."
Ivy: Ug! Okay... that's fine.
(way to make me look like a bad mom ivy!)

Same day at target:

Me: "Ivy, thank you soooo much for being such a good girl at the store."
Ivy: "Oh mom it was nofin."

Now everytime I praise her for being so good, she comes back with the same phrase "oh mom, it was nofin."

Ivy: "Hey mom, can you please text my friends to see if they can play with me???"
Me: What the!? Kids these days...

We went to NYC during the summer, and Ivy had a lot of funny things to say about the city...

You know how your walking down the street and there are hotdog stands blowin their smoke in your face everywhere you go..well Ivy had this to say about them.

Ivy: "Those guys need to seriously (pronounced as uriously by ivy) stop making hot dogs, it is WAY too hot outside!" i totally agreed with her.

The whole time we were in NYC Ivy was determined to find Giselle from the movie enchanted. So we are walking and she see's a billboard that had a girl with red hair in pink silk somethin and this is what Ivy had to say about it..

Ivy:" Oh my goodness mom! Look at Giselle! She looks beautiful in her pink g's!" (if you know what she really said here than great:)Yes, the obsession still continues. It was hilarious.

The other day Ivy and I were fighting over my cup of Ice. I really really really do not like when she takes my cup away or puts her little toddler hands in for a handful. I of course offer her a little cup that could be her very own, but no.. she insists on taking mine. So anyway, she totally knocked my cup over ( it was my last batch of sonic ice so you can imagine how unhappy I was) and I told her in a stern voice "see ivy, that is why I didn't want you to hold it, now you will need to pick up all of the ice and put it back into the cup.

And this is the response I get...

Ivy" Oh mom, you are a way to serious mom!"

I have no idea where she got that one, but she had me laughing pretty hard. Seriously Ivy,one day you will find that your mom does not know how to be serious. I don't have one serious bone in my body. Its a problem... You just wait.

and we're back:)

2009-09-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

So we have finally made it back to the west coast! GOSH it is so good to be home. Don't get me wrong the east coast is cool and all, but I decided that I could never live there longer than a summer...I have definitely found that i am a true west coast gal. Ivy and I flew home a couple weeks ago but made some pit stops along the way. First stop... Newport beach. I actually dropped ivy off in temec to play with the clark's for a couple days and then met up with my fam. We had so much fun, beachin it up, shoppin it up, and eatin it up! What more could you ask for!? It was a perfect way to close out our summer. Only one prob, I think I took a total of 5 pics:(

yes, maybe we are wearing regular clothes at the beach! Hey, it was 80 deg. WAY too cold for swimsuits:) Then we went on to az for a couple days where we did lots of swimming, BBQ'S, and got to hang out with some of our favorite friends...which btw friends, why didnt we take any pics!!?

ivy and papa rex
parks and ammon
kipster and her new little lovie

me,kels,car at none other than oregano's mmm!
Kelsee and I are only two weeks apart, but i will NOT tell you who is further along. how embaressing. It might be the fact that we did just get done eating not one but TWO pazookies hahaha, love when they screw up:)

what the!?. and here we are at 28 weeks:)

We finally made it back to our current home in good ol provo utah! My mom, ash and andy drove us up to help get us all unpacked and settled again. My mom and I got SO much stuff done. I think we threw out half of my house. It felt great. We also did a lot of "making room for baby #2." Mom, you are seriously a MACHINE! I cannot thank you enough!!!

Last week missy started pre-school. We absolutely LOVE her school as does she. Here are a few pics of our pre-schooler.

We have been loving being back here and getting into a normal routine. We are loving spending time with all of our friends and family here, watching football...so how about those cougars!!? Spending lots of time outside before it starts to get cold, and We have ESPECIALLY been loving having johnny around. I think I was starting to forget what it was like to have a husband:) He is in full time school, but is home A LOT more than we are use to. He graduates from BYU in april..just around the corner:)

My pregnancy is going really well... as long as i have a cup of ice in my hands! Holy cow, I didnt know i could love something SO much!! I also cannot thank sonic enough for selling bags of ice. Greatest thing on earth to go to my freezer and see that lovely bag sitting there. In fact.. its already time to refill my cup! sheesh! I am almost 30 weeks so the countdown is on!I cannot even tell you how fast it has gone by. He will be here before we know it! We cannot wait to welcome this little guy into our family.

clark's came to visit!

2009-08-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last week the clark fam came to visit! We LOVE having visitors during the summer. They stayed for 9 days, and boy did we pack those days FULL. I think we were in a different state everyday. The great thing about living in "charm city" is that we are central to a million different things. I didnt take as many pics as I should have.. but here is a run down of some of the things we did/saw.

Omish country

The omish country was so cool! We got to take a tour buggy style. I don't think I would last a day living their way of life, but it was sure fascinating to watch. oh and get this! They have a costco in their town with buggy parking. so awesome!

And 30 min away from the omish country was Hershey, Pennsylvania! We got go on a little ride/tour and see how all of the chocolate is made, and then then jamie and ivy got to work in the factory and make their own hershey kisses. It was such a fun place to visit!

Hershey, PA

Next stop...DC! We did pretty much everything you do in dc. fun, but I am totally over museums for the time being.

DC

And of course... we had to show them a little taste of baltimore. We spent the day at the inner harbor...my fav part of the city. Fun restaurants,shopping, museums, and boat rides. And I of course introduced them to potbellys..which frequently ate at during our journeys.

Baltimore

i could eat her!

2009-07-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Seriously...do little girls come any cuter?? i think NOT! Jk:) These are her "3 year old" pics that we took took at the park last week. I just love them. and her!

i have a 3 year old!

2009-07-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yup..that's right. Ivy turned 3 last week, and I am still in denial. How on earth did this happen!? It really hit me the other day when she asked me to "text" her friends to see if they wanted to come have a tea party. It made me laugh so hard. She has gotten so big, and has matured quite a bit. I think that 3 is going to be one of my favorite ages. She is getting better at playing by herself, potty trained, fewer and fewer meltdowns, and is "seriously hilarious"...which is also one of her fav new phrases! I am going to make a goal of writing down the things she says, bc I am telling you, this girl is as sassy as they come!

So we had a little bbq/swim party for her while we were in az with my fam and her two best buddies. it was lots of fun! Then on her actual b-day, had another swim party with her little buddies in baltimore. The morning of her b-day she woke up with a swollen face. She had apparently gotten sun poisoning from the beach the day before. It was so sad, but i couldn't stop laughing every time I looked at her. She looked like a completely different little girl. She looked so chubby, something that has never been, and her eyes were tiny and her nose was puffy. Good thing it went away in 2 days bc I was really missin my little ivy girl:(

Here are some random pics from both of her parties, and some of my favorite pics of her growing up. READY!?

my mom insisted on getting a pic of all of the grandkids together...plan failed.
nate and kip got ivy her own bar of soap...she is completely obsessed.

WARNING! You may want to stop right here:)

last 3 years...

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj19/sweetivydesigns/my%20fav%20pics%20of%20ivy/LakeHarveston0961.jpg

I have a 3 year old!!!

2009-07-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

ocean city!

2009-07-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

we took a summer vacation...like normal people do! Actually we took a "daycation" but still...we had a blast! Last weekend was johnny's b-day, so I decided to plan a little getaway for us since it has been feelin a little bit like ground hog's day out here. We went to ocean city which is on the coast of maryland, but still 3 hours away from where we live. It is a regular beach...and apparently where a lot of the east coasters go to vacation. We left in the morning and went to the beach right when we got there and also went on some rides as they had a full on amusement park on the beach! Then as we were leaving, the boys decided that they wanted to find a good seafood place to get crab. Little did Anna and I know that we would be sitting there for 3 hours while the boys ate their "all you can eat" crab! I didn't think we were ever going to make it home. It made for a wonderful day and was by far the most fun thing we have done out here thus far!

love that smile!

she has never been happier!
yup...
collecting sand crabs:)
these two spent most of the day building a "pool"
high five to "uncle" for taking me on rides!
my two favorite people!
"um i just ate so many crabs i cant even think straight."

the 4th... DC style

2009-07-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

We love the 4th of July! We figured that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the 4th in DC in front of all the monuments. My friend Anna and I loaded up our backpacks with food, grabbed our blankets and headed for the metro that took us right to the national mall. We got there around 4:30 and found a great little spot to camp out for the rest of the day.It worked out perfect bc the boys got there right before the fireworks went off. it was the.most.amazing.show. i have ever seen! if you ever get a chance to go there on the 4th, I would highly recommend it! on another note.. I really need to learn how to take good firework pics, or maybe just learn how to shoot in the dark. That would be nice.

lyndi sue

2009-07-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

officially meet my newest neice lyndi. Isnt she a doll!? i am so glad that I was able to get down there when I did, bc she was soooo tiny when I got there and had already changed so much by the time i left. She is the.best.baby.ever. Seriously, I stayed over at her house half the time I was there, and heard a cry maybe twice. Such an angel baby. here are a couple pics that i took of her and her happy little family. More to come soon:)

baby claire

2009-07-09T13:51:00.001-07:00

Before Ivy and I took off to az I got to meet up with one of my fav cousins of all time, kristen. Kristen and I had SO much fun together back in the day! She and her husband were living about 45 min away from us in maryland, but they just moved:( it was so fun to get together with her and take pics of baby claire. Isn't she beautiful!!?

anni+georgetown

2009-06-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent pics that I needed to get blogged away. some are from our anniversary..we went to ruths chris at 10:00pm, and that was about it:)What are you suppose to do with a job like this. haha! the other pics are from a girls day out in georgetown in DC. Gosh that place in awesome. We had such a good time eating and shopping. Cant wait to go back...especially to do a photoshoot of ivy. So many cool buildings and textures!

last month...

2009-06-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

we took a little trip. We went to az for miss kippy's shower, stopped off in cali to see johnny's fam, and finally made our way back to baltimore. We had such a fun time in both places. We had kippy's shower at my mom's and it was the cutest shower of 2009, we are so glad that we didn't have to miss out on this event!We did have a little bump in the road while we were there though. Ivy had a cough for 6 weeks, and the doc in balt told me it was bronchitis and put her on antibiotics. It did absolutely nothing for her, so I decided to take her to our pediatrician in az. When we met with him he decided that it would be best for her to go get chest xrays as well as blood tests, to see what the deal was. After a whole day of appointments, the doctor called me with the results. He said that she had a really bad case of pneumonia, and that we needed to take her to the pulminary specialist right away. We then met with the specialist and he said that she would need surgery. So, next day she went in, they put her out and went down with a camera to see if they could find any sort of object that was blocking her airway. It was so hard to see them take her away:( They werent able to find anything but they were able to suck out a ton of junk that was obstructing her ability to breathe normally. After the sugery, and being put on a heavier antibiotic, she made a quick recovery. In cali we did alot of playing. Jamie and Ivy are bff's and I cannot even imagine what it would be like if ivy didn't have her. It is SO nice that johnny has a little sis close to ivy since she doesn't have any other cousins on his side. We had a great time at disneyland...we had to go one more time before ivy turns 3 next month and we have to pay for her. such a bummer! Maybe its time for us to get season passes, or maybe just move there. That sounds nice:)

and the results are in!

2009-06-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

we are having a....

BOY! just as we thought :)

Tomorrow...

2009-06-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

We find out what we are having!! I cannot wait. Today I am having major boy vibes. I then asked ivy what she thinks (bc she would be the person to ask) and she told me a boy 3 separate times, and when I asked her the last time she said "mom, the baby is a boy and don't ask me again!" haha she kills me! So what do YOU think!?

my newest most cutest niece EVER!!!

2009-06-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Look who's here!!!! Is she the cutest thing you have EVER seen! Who knew she would come out with all of that hair! I love her already and I cannot wait to meet her in person!!!

good fortunes

2009-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

So this week has been very good:)

1. As I went to pack up my little black box full of my life, I decided to try it one last time before I spent a but load in trying to recover my pics. I plug it in and MIRACLE! It works. Happy Day. And holy cow I had a lot more pics on there than I had thought. In fact most of my photo shoots of YOU and your family were on there. FEW!! I promise it will never happen again. I have learned my lesson.

2. Johnny and I have been married for 4 years now:) I can honestly say that it keeps getting better and better. I am so grateful to be married to him. The only thing that is missing is my pretty little wedding band that I lost 3 weeks ago. I am so sad. I loved my ring so much. If you happen to see this little beauty in a pawn shop or antique shop in az, please do let me know. I am pretty sure it was stolen:(

3. LITTLE MISS KIPPY IS IN LABOR!!!!! The plane tickets are booked, and we will be on our way to see her and the little babe in 1 week. I don't think that it could come any sooner. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

ya RIGHT!!!!!

2009-06-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

I wish you were reading the happy fun post I am suppose to be publishing right now, but instead you will get something different. As Ivy is taking her daily nap, I am trying to enjoy a little alone time and decide to organize and add the pics on my external hd, I go and plug it in and CLICK CLICK!!! It is not booting correctly and is my computer is not recognizing. Seriously I am letting my frustrations out on my computer so that I don't commit suicide. Okay I really shouldn't talk like that, but this is the 2nd time this has happened in 6 months! I want to curl up in a ball and KICK!!!!!! HARD!!! What is the deal with these things! I feel like I cannot trust anything anymore. To make the matter worse, johnny got me a new comp and I haven't gotten around to backing my lovely pictures up in another place besides my little faulty ex hard rive!! Kill me now. What to do? I feel like my life is trapped up in this little black box. Someone help! I really do not want to pay a couple grand to get my files recovered, I just want things to work the way they should. I have guarded this thing with my freaking life. Nothing has happened to it at. all. If anyone has any advice on what to do or things to try I would love it. Here is my face right now: my "ammon face" (as johhny would call it) Apparently we look like twinners when I make this face. pretty cute eh? And my " I am going to kill someone" face:)

And here is an attempt at making myself happy again. oh photo booth how I love you:)

our little baby...

2009-05-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

is not so little anymore:( Recently she has hit some major monuments.

1. Fully Potty trained. well except for at night..how do you do that anyway!??
2. Sleeping in her own bed at night. I will blame this one on her daddy who couldn't bare not to be cuddling with her all night.
3. Has finally gained weight!!! She weighs 35lbs and is finally eating like a human rather than a bird!
4. She can count to 19:) and can count to 5 in spanish--thanks dora!

She is talking up a storm, in fact she hardly stops talking. She asks a million questions and has to know answers to everything in FULL detail.

We got these fam pics taken a couple months by jill thomas. I am so happy with them, but we will already need an update come november. Yup. after my crazy episode in march and after all of tests, one test came back conclusive: we've got a baby on the way! Yes, some of you already heard as it wasn't very easy to keep it under wraps! I had half of my concerned family in the er with me who heard the news before I did. Ashley had already called johnny, and andrew had already called my mom to let them know of the news. It was pretty weird to have all of that happen, and at the same time finding out that I was pregnant. I had taken a test the night before,and it was negetivo!It may seem like a long pregnancy considering everyone found out when I was 3 weeks along, but nonetheless we are sooooo excited!!

Ivy and the babe will be a little over 3 years apart. I am thinkin that the age gap will perfect for us. Ivy will be the perfect little helper, at least that is what she is training for in boot camp this summer.

We got our first ultra-sound last week, and thankfully, everything looked great! In 4 weeks we will find out what we are having... we cannot wait!

and here we go again...

2009-05-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well... we are here and finally settled in. Ivy and I had a blast with our family and friends in az...but what's new.I also got to celebrate my birthday with my family, which I haven't been able to do for a while! We were sad to leave az but we really love it out here, it is GORGEOUS! I remember it being pretty but I must have forgotten how pretty. It feels like we live in a jungle..the trees are ginormous. The weather here has been pretty good so far except for it has rained for the past 4 days straight. No wonder it so green here! We haven't really gotten out too much bc I have had to help out in the office, but the oa just got here so we are ready to venture out! Last weekend went and walked around DC.. it has been a while since we have both been there, so it was really fun to see it again. Ivy has already made new best friends here, she is having a ball! Our apartments are really nice, but we are having major problems with fire alarms...again. Worst thing ever... Our 2nd day here the fire alarm (which is by far the loudest most piercing alarm you have EVER heard) went off at 5am! No joke. It was the rudest awakening I have ever had...and poor ivy was freaking out! When it went off johnny was like "oh aim they are just doing a drill"... uh huh, right running a drill at 5am, I don't think so! I told him he had better get dressed quick bc we are going outside! Ever since our little fire in milwaukee, I don't mess around with fire alarms. So we go out our door, and one by one all of the boys poke their heads out of the door to see if anyone else was going outside. So there we all were standing outside in our pj's at 5am. We waited for 30 min while the fireman went through all of the buildings, and of course it is a false alarm. So we go back in and finally got back to sleep and at 7:30 am it goes off again. I was livid! Oh and dont worry it went off at midnight 3 nights ago and then went off 18 times a couple mornings ago. I cannot tell you how much I HATE fire alarms.. well I shouldn't hate them bc they might save our life one day, but fr reals! Bad thing is, if there happens to be a real fire here, we are all going to burn bc we now ignore them. Then, yesterday we woke up to water pouring out of our bathroom ceiling! Not just water,soapy water. We were getting the shower water of the apt above us. Good thing my cousin lives above us.. i would have been so grossed out. Anyway, we finally got that problem under control. I really do love where we live but I am thinkin they just moved us in a little too early bc they definitely don't have their shiz together:) But you know what, I dont have mine completely together either. I do really stupid things...like everyday. Like today for example, I went to target and was walking up the stairs ( bc the elevator is broken:) and I was trying to carry a million groceries as well as help ivy up the stairs, and I dropped one of my bags, so I go down to pick it up and forgot about my icee that I had placed upright in my purse bc I didnt have a hand to hold it. When I bent down, it definitely fell out of my purse and landed on my head and went down my shirt. awesome. I never laughed so hard at myself. seriously it was hilarious. An pile of icee on my head, just picture it.

here are some pics from az and here!

these two cannot get enough of eachother!
My b-day!
I wasnt feeling like cake so me mama made ma a fruit pizza!
johnny stuffin his face at the greatest place EVER
Potbelly's!!! Oh how we have missed you! I cannot tell you how in love I am with this joint. When we went there I got a sandwhich, 2 giant pickes, their oatmeal cookie, and a strawberry shake!! Sure made up for lost time quick:) I am so in love with you potbelly's!!!!

2009-04-17T10:47:00.001-07:00

Hello again! Its been a while! We had been really busy up until recently. We sort of moved out of our house but not really. Johnny's sis and my cousin (who are married) moved into our place in provo. It is an ideal situation bc they dont have any furniture so we were able to leave all of our stuff there. It just involved me packing up all our stuff that went to b-more and then moving all of our stuff that we didn't need for the summer into different places to make room for their stuff. I am sooooooooooo glad that we did not have to move, but for some reason it still took a long time. whatever. So 2 days ago, Johnny and his bro Jeremy took off to baltimore while Ivy, Ash and I jetted off to AZ! We will join him in a couple days, and I cannot wait! I am seriously sooooo excited. Johnny said that our place and the town we will live in is freakin awesome!! Anyway back to az... we are already having so much fun here soaking up the sun! Every time I come home, I hate Utah more and more... I really need to change my attitude, but I think that it may be the fact that we live there in the worst time of the year ever! We miss spring and summer, which is beautiful. Anyway, since I havent busted out my camera yet, here are a couple pics from a few weeks ago of the miss. She is at the most hilarious stage right now, she says the funniest things ever... seriously you would die if you could spend 5 minutes with her.

weirdest day of my life...

2009-03-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday was prob the scariest/weirdest day of my life. About an hour after I woke up, I was in the kitchen doing the dishes, and getting ivy some breakfast, when all of the sudden my vision went super blurry. It got really bad within seconds, so I decided to go lay down on the couch and close my eyes, to see if it would go away. After about a minute of laying there, Ivy asked me to get her out of her highchair... I opened my mouth to try and tell her that I would get her out in a minute, because I totally couldn't see, and 100% gibberish came out of my mouth. It totally freaked me out, so I open my mouth to try and say the same thing, and the exact same gibberish came out. I continued to try and speak, but my brain and my mouth were totally disconnected, it was so so scary. After I realized that I was in trouble, I can see my phone enough press send to call my last call which was my dad, I tried to tell him what was happening, but of course he couldn't understand anything I was saying. I then began to scream, I had no idea what was happening to me, and part of my body began to go numb. I then start having a major panic attack. Within seconds he knew that I was in major trouble and calls 911 for me from az, and sends them to my house. Oh and johnny also happens to be out of town on this day! As soon as the paramedics got to my house, I pretty much checked out from there and didn't remember much until I became alert in the hospital. So while in the hospital they ran some tests to see if they could figure out what had happened, but no such luck. The explanation they gave me was it happened as a result of a BLADDER INFECTION! UM RIGHT. I did not just go from honestly feeling like I was going to die to being told that this happened as a result of a bladder infection. What a joke. First of all, I did not feel like I had the slightest bit of an infection. So as soon as the er finds that I tested positive for a uti, they stop their efforts there and they discharge me later that day. By that time my mom had flown in, and johnny had finally made it home. So the next day I go to my family doctor, and he about die's when I tell him the whole story, and what the ER told me. He told me that there is absolutely no relation between bladder infections, and what happened to me. I knew it. He then tells me that this could have been a little stroke, or some red flags for something more serious. I am now undergoing a lot of tests to see if they can find anything that would have caused this to happen. I am just so grateful that I feel almost completely normal, and that it didn't turn out worse than it did. I also have to give a big thanks to all of my family and cousins who rushed to my side, and took care of ivy and I. I Love you guys!

So the day after all of this happened, Johnny gets really sick, like I have NEVER seen him so sick since we have been married, well turns out he has mono. I wonder where he got that from! I feel so bad for him bc he is so busy right now, and doesn't really have time to be sick. My mom has been taking care of us both for the past couple of days, but now she is gone and our little family is a serious mess over here. Lets just hope we are all good to go in 3 weeks when we make the move to Baltimore:) We have some serious work to do... WHAAA WHAAA

"she thinks it's the greatest place in the world."

2009-03-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

Would be what Johnny tells people how I feel about my hometown mesa, AZ. Ashley and I decided to make a surprise visit down to az last week, and it was amazing. As we stepped out of the car, we immediately feel the "perfect" air temperature along with its amazing smell of orange blossoms.... I knew this trip was going to be the bomb. It was so much fun to see everyone's reactions to our surprise... its a good feeling to be missed so much. We had such an awesome time but like always, the week flew by WAY to fast. I always joke that whenever I come home I automatically slip into this weird coma type thing, i cant explain it, but that is what it feels like. It flashed before my eyes! I didn't even get to see my friends:( sorry friends, next time. Anyway, here were some of the highlights...

- PLAYING OUTSIDE. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect. High 70's.
- Seeing kippy's belly + her 3d ultrasound with the cutest little fetus you've ever seen.
-oregano's...ever been to the scottsdale oregano's?? *story to follow
-witnessing possibly the funniest thing i have ever seen happen in a sacrament meeting. *story to follow
- talk taco's, bbq's.
-hanging out with my sil's..and bro's
-rosas.... something that i miss terribly when I am away.
- going to the zoo
- shopping extravaganza's+ taking FULL advantage of ashley's amazing discounts. i really do believe that az has the best shopping ever!!!
-going out to lunch pretty much everyday ( my mom's daily guilty little pleasure)
-Ivy getting to play with her "parker boy" as she calls him
-playing with little Ellie
-watching lost with the fam, and susan's little comments every 5 sec! hahahaha!
- crafting away with the kipster
- nate and kip camping out the whole week with us.
- kevin teasing old ladies at the nursing home.... man kev I really forget HOW freaking funny you are!!!
-seeing parker do his monkey run
- witnessing ashley and Ivy's girl fight. Should I be worried!?
Here is ashley's side: " I never did anything to her to make her act this way, mind you!
Quotes from Ivy as follows:
"Ash, you be quiet!!" (I wasn't even talking or looking at her at the time)
"I don't like Ash, she being mean to me today." What the heck??!!!!!
Kippy: "Do you like Ash, Ivy?" Ivy: "NO!"
"Ash is NOT my friend"
"Ash why you not married??" ouch. Where did this 2 year old come from!?? And how did she learn how to insult so well. Touche Ivy, touche! I hope you make boys cry when your older. Just a FYI, me and Ivy have made up. I apologized to her... even though I have no idea what I did to make her so hostile. We are totally BFF now.

Warning: I am the WORST at shortening story's, but I like to remember details neway:)

*So after a really long day of shopping, me kip and tara decide to hit up scottsdale oregano's to top off our great day. Well i have been to this location a number of times, and when we got there, there was probably 100 people standing in the "parking lot" drinking away while waiting for their table. I remember parking there in the past so I asked kip to jump out and ask the hostess if we could park in there. Well kip signals me to pull in (mind you i am driving my mom's big ol' suburban!!) and tara is like "no amy! no!!! dont do it! As I proceed to pull in Tara drops to the floor so embarrassed that we had to basically drive through this huge crowd. You could see kippy's embarrassment as she stood outside watching. So as I am pulling through with my lights on, everyone is just standing there staring. Well then I decided to honk my Horn to get these people out of my way ( mostly to embarrass the kip and tara. At this point, tara is crying laughing on the floor of the suburban ( probably nursing her baby at the same time!) and is telling me, that I am crazy for doing that and she is NOT getting out of the car! I cannot even tell you how funny this scene was to see me trying to plow through all of these people, and getting stared at like we were celeberties or somethin. As soon as we finally were able to park, I jump out like it was nothin, and tara takes a whole 5 minutes to get the courage to get out. Maybe you had to be there, but it was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!

* The next day me and the fam were all sitting in sacrament meeting. We had to small rows one behind the other. Lately Ivy has been totally obsessed with stickers...they keep her entertained like nothing I have ever seen. So i bring her princess stickers in my purse and give them to her once she started to act up. Well..somehow little brother Ammon gets a hold of them, and starts lightly pressing them on my dad's back. We were sitting in the front, so who know's how many people saw him doing this. So anyway ammon had put's about 8 stickers on my dad's back when all of the sudden my dad stands up to go play the organ! I guess he totally forgot about his role in sacrament meeting. So all of the sudden ammon starts trippin and tries to pull my dad back down, but he couldn't catch him. The stickers were so big and bright that we were pretty sure the whole entire ward saw as he was walking up. The stickers also had some little encouraging lines like "great job, your amazing, your beautiful... i cannot tell you how hard my family was laughing. We all had our head's down crying laughing, and family by family started to laugh around us. It was the biggest uproar that i have ever seen. Best part was that when he looked out into the crowd, he could see everyone laughing, so of course he starts to laugh but doesn't have a clue at what. Then he realized that everyone was looking and laughing at him!! He said that it was the strangest feeling to see everyone laughing at him and he had not a clue why. When the song was over it dawned on him that Ammon had to have something to do with it, and then proceeded to look at his coat. He looked at us and started crying laughing himself. Afterwards he had about every ward member come up and say something. I think the best comment was from a guy who came up to my family and said "hahaha that should go in the ensign" we all look at each other and die laughing even harder. The ensign? It was seriously the funniest thing ever and of course rex took it like a champ!

And for a million random pics...

good+bad news!

2009-03-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the good news...

We Just found out where we are living in Baltimore and i am so excitied I can hardly breathe! why? Because our apartments happen to be right across the street from a really fun mall and it just so happns that they have a nordstrom cafe. sigh:) and best of all we will have a TRADER JOE'S (one of my obsessions) right across the street! 2 years ago when we lived in Milwaukee, we lived directly above a mall, and had a trader joes in our parking lot. It was amazing... well until my neighbor commited suicide in his apartment, and I swear the smell seeped out into our apartment. Not really...but I sure did play mind games with myself over it... it was awful. The summers are always adventurous, but sometimes they can be long..so having entertainment at the tip of our fingertips this year will be awesome.

Speaking of Milwaukee summer, I just remembered another funny story....Since I wasn't the best blogger two years ago, I wanted to write about it, bc I am already finding that I love to go back and read our blog from 2 years ago.

Before I ramble here is the bad news: MY PHONE= almost completely worthless:( Not sure what happened but I can no longer send/recieve text messages ( I haven't been ignoring you!.) So... if need to reach me, you will now have to use your social skills and call! I also cannot see any missed calls, so a voicemail would be awesome. Hopefully I will get a new phone or get mine fixed soon!

So we had only been out in Milwaukee for 2 weeks, and since we arrived our fire alarms would go off just about every other day, bc they were testing all of the stores underneath us since everything was new. Well one day I was in my apartment nursing ivy, and the fire alarm went off. Typical right? Well Normally it would go off after a minuter or less, but this time it would not go off. After about 5 minutes I became a little concerned, so I called the some of the girls that were in our office, but none of them answered. So then I decide to look out our window. I open the blinds and the first thing I see is a group of people standing below (we were 5 stories up) and what were they doing!? Oh dont worry, just pointing directly up at our apartment with their mouths open wide! So of course I FREAK out, at this point I totally started to smell smoke. So I grab Ivy and head for the door, but before I opened it, smoke started to seep into our apartment. At this point I am pretty sure that I started to cry, I was afraid that if I opened the door that I would be greeted with flames. I wasnt sure if I should stay in our room and wait for the fireman, or if we should just try to make it down the flights of stairs and hope all goes well. Well I just decided to open the door... it was so smokey but we could still see. Right then a fireman showed up and lead us down the stairs to saftey. FEW! When we got down there was all of the other girls and their baby's...we were all so shooken up but so glad that everyone made it out alive. So we ened up finding out that a guy was welding at the bottom of the trash chute (which was right next to our apartment), and someone threw a big peice of cardboard down and it of course caught on fire. Awesome.

little "p"

2009-03-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

I was in Az for a couple days last week, and got to meet up with my dear friend who just had this sweet little babe. He is so so cute and soooo sweet, but he had to be one of the hardest newborn shoots i have ever done. We could not get the little guy to sleep for the life of us.... and he loves to put his hands in front of his face:) Here are a few of my favorites...hope you like them rache:)

the stories she tells....

2009-02-16T09:44:00.001-08:00

Every night Johnny and I tell Ivy stories about a princess named "Ella." I don't know where that came from...but it is her name. She loves loves loves to hear princess Ella stories, and looks forward to them every night. Recently when we go to bed (yes, we usually all go to bed at the same time) she wants to tell the stories. It is hilarious to lay there and listen to what she comes up with. I think she takes little excerpts of all of the stories we tell her, and combines them into one story. The conflict of her stories always include going to the doctor...which has been the story of Ivy's life lately.

oh the places you'll go...

2009-02-10T23:39:00.001-08:00

A couple day's ago we had our draft to see where we are headed for the summer, this year we had a really high pick and ended up getting the city that we wanted the most! We are going to.....................................

and will be 30 min to here:and only a 1.5 hour train ride to here:

We are really excited to go out to this area...we feel so lucky to be able to experience new places, that we normally would not. I have been to all 3 and loved them! Maryland has to be one of the prettiest places ever. Anyway, I cannot wait! I love change....maybe a little too much:) The only downfall is I will miss the birth of kippy and nate's baby GIRL! Yes.... she is now having a girl instead of a boy like they told her!

pics from the past 2 weeks...

2009-02-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

my friend tara and I took our little girlies to see playhouse disney live! The girls had so much fun... Ivy was trippin.

Last week while ash and I were busy surfin the web, we looked over and saw THIS:

possibly the most uncomfortable position to take a nap in.

We had allisa take some last minute family pics for us... a session that lasted all but 10 minutes thanks to missy...jk. more pics to come soon...

And last but not least.... we celebrated ashie's big 20! We had a little mexican fiesta for her at our house. I made fajjitas and they were amazing if I do say so myself. Happy b-day ash! we love you!!

sundance 09

2009-01-26T09:18:00.001-08:00

Wow...talk about nothing to blog lately! Maybe its because I don't have any photo shoots of missy due to the ridiculous weather here!!! Anyway....we went to the film festival a week ago, and got into Denise Richards VIP party. How you ask?? Well if you know me well enough, you know that I just slithered my way on in. Basically you had to be on her list of "friends," and well...we definitely were not on there! My brother and I got in, but of course Johnny is such a fraidy cat! The guy does not have a sneaky bone in his body, and is a major rule follower--not a bad thing right? Well...sometimes. So finally I went up to the girls at the door who were checking people in, and told them that that poor little guy standing off to the side was my husband, and he really wanted to come party with me. So, they made me show them my wedding ring, and finally let him in. Yahoo!! It was a lot of fun, considering the fact that there was free everything--love that! Everyone there was "somebody" whether they were an actress, actor, producer, media, or a the #1 male porn star ( yes, Ron Jeremy was there) and I have never wanted to throw up more! He is probably the #1 most miserable man too! Did you know that he is a really awesome classical pianist? What the!? What porn star is a classical pianist?? That just made me laugh! Anyway, we totally didn't belong there, every girl was totally decked! I probably should have worn some makeup or something, but for all I knew we were just going for a little stroll in park city.Funniest part was when johnny saw that we were going to ask Denise for a pic with her he darted off in the opposite direction SO embarrassed that we would even ask. You see NOBODY was asking for pictures...like not one person. But how could we not?? I was so mad bc right after we got our pic my camera died. At least we got proof though... if you go visit my sister's blog, she will try and tell you that she partied with Sting and David Bowie...but don't believe her! She doesn't have anything to prove it.

me, Ashley's friends and Denise...
I love how awkward she was in this pic!

a proud moment

2009-01-20T09:20:00.001-08:00

The words homemade bread have intimadated me for years! But I am proud to say that I have finally overcome my fear. It turned out sooooo good! And... ashley and andrew told me that I put Carol Soelberg to shame! hahah...not really but I must say that 3 out of 4 loaves were scarfed up within two hours. Mom...you would have been proud!

people are wierd.

2009-01-14T09:21:00.001-08:00

So a couple days ago, I decided that I wanted to sell my laptop. I just hate the fact that I can sit on my couch and have my computer on my lap. One of my new years resolution is to spend LESS time on my computer, so I figure If I get a desktop and put a realy uncomfortable chair in front of it, I wont want to be there for very long...at least I am hoping that will be the case. I think it will be good for me. Anyway, I put an ad up on ksl and craigslist to see if I would get any bites. Well an hour after I posted floods of emails started coming in. Seriously I have gotten about 25 emails, and about 5 calls in two days. I just had to share some of the emails that I have been getting from people.

Call I got last night from a foreign byu student:

me: hello?
byu: hi I am calling about your macbook for sell...
me: OK... would you like to come see it?
byu: yes, you meet me on BYU's campus, or could I come to house??
me: I can meet you on campus, what time do you want to meet??
byu: well....actually.... I trust you, ill tell you what, I just buy it!
me: wait, you dont want to see it first??
byu: no i just buy it! (but doesn't tell me when or where)
me: ok??? well why wouldnt you want to see it first??
byu: well, well I come at 12.
me: what? you want to come over at 12?? ( so confused!)
byu: at night!
me: what??? ( so are you sure you dont want to see it first??
byu: Yes! I AM DIZZY!
me: whaaattt??? You are dizzy??? ( me totally laughing!)
byu: Yes, I am dizzy. I call you at 12. Bye!
me: um, ok. bahahahah

What the??!! That was the most confusing/wierd call I have ever recieved. He tells me that he doesnt need to see it, bc he is DIZZY!

That was probably the wierdest...but look at some of the emails that I got!

1. are you willing to trade for anything and if so what??

Um ya... I'll tell you that... I will trade my macbook if you give me your brand new imac ( as I stated in the ad that i am selling to upgrade to the imac)! What a retarded question....

2. Hey...I saw your macbook. It's almost identical to mine. I originally bought my macbook to use when I was out of town. I wind up buying a nice 24" Dell display and plugging my keyboard and monitor in when I am home, which is most of the time. When I leave home, I just unplug the monitor and keyboard and take it along. My next computer will be another macbook.

Um why is the lady telling me her macbook's life story. The funny thing is she has no intentions of buying my macbook. what the!?

Some people.....

Anyway, I actually have a couple people that are coming to look at it today and both say that they will prob buy it. Ahhhh I hope I dont regret this. What is the best way to clear out your whole computer!? Is there some program that will copy your whole hard drive?? I have got this thing jammed pack! I have better get to work!!

it finally happened!

2009-01-07T23:31:00.000-08:00

On December 27th, My sister-n-law Jenae and my cousin Michael finally tied the knot! So now I guess Mike would be my cousin-in-law??? They have been engaged for about 1.5 years and were suppose to get married a long time ago, but mike went through a battle with cancer. These two have gone through a lot together, but no joke they are the-most-in-love-couple-I have-ever-seen!!! Anyway, It was fun to be apart of their day. It brought back a lot of memories from our wedding. They were married in the same sealing room as we were, and seriously, the natural light that floods into this beautiful sealing room is the most amazing thing ever! Oh I love the San Diego temple! It was funny too bc it was almost the exact same crowd that attended our wedding. special. Anyway, It was an amazing day. Here are some pics that I took of them a couple days prior...

Christmas 2008

2009-01-07T23:25:00.000-08:00

This year we were in california with the Clarks. They really know how to go all out for christmas! We had such a good time with them!