a day at the farm

Last week on Johnny's day off we took Ivy to the petting zoo at thanksgiving point. Despite Ivy's facial expressions....she had a BLAST! I cannot believe that I just learned about this place. Thanks Tara! I am sure that we will be taking many trips there in the future.

getting settled....again

I cannot even tell you how nice it has been to have my husband back! We have been able to spend A LOT of time together in these past couple weeks. His classes are pretty easy at this point, so I have seen a lot of him. Best part about it, he only has school 3 times a week. We have definitely been making up for lost time. At first it was feeling like a dream that the summer is over Now, the summer itself is seeming more like the dream. I can actually hang out for hours at a time without his cell phone ringing off the hook! SO nice! Although his text messages are pretty boring these days, not any fun drama for me to secretly read (shh don't tell!) I love that he is able to come on all of our little daily adventures. We have been taking ivy to the park like every day, and going out to try all of the new "fro-yo"' that have popped up while we were gone! (there are seriously 5 new "pink berry" taste-a-likes in provo but NONE of them compare to Berrychill in Chicago:( We have also been spending a lot of time at the gym. 1. because we are both trying to get our groove's back, and 2. Ivy is obsessed with playing at the gym day care. Tomorrow we are taking Ivy to the petting zoo and then off to gateway to let Ivy play in the water fountains (anyone know of a water fountain closer to provo?

Anyway, It is great to be home-well not home but back to Utah...which brings me to my next point. I am really starting to miss AZ. Last year when we moved to Provo, I was nothing but excited. It ended up being a great year. We met a lot of new friends, we loved our ward, and had a lot of fun. This year we moved into a new place... AGAIN- love our condo, but hate the area. Also it seems that all of my friends who were in provo last year have peaced out. I am pretty sure that I am the only one that will be here after Johnny graduates. I dont mind it here, but the fact that I dont have my family (except for Ash...whom I love hanging out with:) and my friends have all moved home, is really starting to set in. And to make matters worse, I now have to pay for Ivy to fly. It now costs around $500 bucks for us to fly home. As glad as I am that the summer to be over, I miss having the girls at the tip of my fingertips and instant friends for Ivy. OK! I think I am sounding a bit like Debbie Downer "whaaaa whaaaa." But anyway, We have just decided that we will probably buy a house in Utah-- a little scary bc I never thought that we would be here longer than school... but because with this crazy job we are moving every 8 and 4 months. This year we have moved 5 times! I am thinking that moving somewhere a little more permanent would be good for us...what do ya think!? We haven't got the first clue of where we want to live though!

On another note... I bought a new lens for my camera! I am SO excited! Johnny lets me pick out one rather large purchase at the end of the summer for "enduring" so that is what I chose. Well I am hoping that I will end up getting it... I am pretty sure that I got scammed on eBay today. I won the auction, and then received all of these wacked out emails supposedly from the seller, but still not sure...too bad I already payed him for it!

Well enough rambling ---I guess I am finding it pretty therapeutic tonight:)

more az

all of us were home (except for johnny boy) so we decided to take a pic



can she get any cuter!?

doobie sistas!

While I was home, Carli. Kelsee, and I were able to hang out. I cannot even tell you how much I love these girls! We have so many memories together, and no matter how long it has been since we have been together, we ALWYAYS have the greatest time! We went to Red white and brew and to that sisterhood movie. We laughed so hard that we about wet our pants... Thanks for the fun time girls!

girls day!

us girls at sprinkles cupcakes
ash, tara, and kip all go in for their first bite like a bunch of barbarians- but what were you guys thinking!
then this happened...kippy got a little too aggressive trying to get the biggest bite, that she ran into the stairs and totally fell! (at least she got the whole cupcake though!) SO glad I had my camera out documenting her! we laughed so hard...and so did everyone else around us! You know I love you kip!

We went out to lunch and had a little baby shower for my SIL tara- who is due in 30 days, but is tiny as ever! Then that night my mom and dad offered to take parker and Ivy to the d-backs game...so us girls set out for a night on the town and boy did we have ourselves a good time! Thanks kip for the good laugh!

bryan + sally

LOVE THESE GIRLS!
haha this is the only pic I snapped of them...woops:)

I had planned on flying over to my cousin Bryan's wedding, and then heading back to Chicago for a week to help johnny pack up, but the day before I was suppose to leave we figured it would be stupid for me come back up and pay for two more flights a week later. Anyway...I had to literally pack up our whole place in one day so that it would all be ready for Johnny to put in the car. It made up for one crazy/stressful day! Ivy and I had so much fun being with my family and all of our Duffin side at the wedding. I thought I would have found a place to live while I was there, so that I could have stayed in Utah and got settled in, but I did not. So... I ended up driving back with my fam to AZ.

AMY! Its Beautiful!

Ivy's new word for the week is beautiful! I am not sure where she got it from, but I about die every time she says it! We will be walking outside and it will go something like this. "OH AMY! The flowers... its beautiful!" It is the cutest! The other day we were walking in the mall when she says... OH AMY!... that dog...its beautiful! I was like Ivy where is the beautiful dog?? And of course she points over to the pink dog in victoria secret's window! She then pulled me over to it and made me put her up on the dog so she could ride it. BIG mistake! She started trying to rock back and forth, and it about fell over. So then I try and remove her from the dog, and she starts flipping out and making a huge scene over the beautiful victoria secret dog! I laughed so hard...people probably thought I was crazy for letting her ride it in the first place!

a day at the park

loves to swing!
love her stance!
laughing at a dog who was barking at her through a fence!

shoe fly don't bother me!

A few days ago, Ivy woke up rather early. I got up, gave her some juice, a bowl of fruit, and put her in front of "peter hand," and went back to bed. As I was lying in my bed I hear Ivy doing the funniest little girl screams. I layed there for a couple minutes listening, and then I hear " DOOOONNTT!!" and then " STOP"! So I walk in there and notice a fly hovering over her head. I watched her for a minute as the fly kept landing on her, flying away, landing on her, flying away. The last time the fly landed on her it flew off with no intentions in coming back, and Ivy said " Thank you!" Maybe you had to have been there but it was the funniest/cutest thing I have ever seen! Ivy is seriously so polite. She always says her please and thank yous. I love her!!

seriously mom! Get that thing out of my face!
I need a haircut!

simsuit

YEEEEEE!!!!!!

It all starts tonight, and I CANNOT wait! Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with the Olympics! The schedules are pretty confusing, bc of the time difference but if you go on NBC.COM you can set up alerts to come to your phone right before your fav events come on! Genius! Also, if your like me and cannot wait until Sunday to watch the gymnastics, you can view their first practice in the Olympic floor here !

April and I at the Olympic trials 4 years ago

Also, April Steiner Bennett, whom I got to train with during the 2 years that we were both training at Paradise Valley, made the US polevault team! For any of you who might be interested in watching her, she will be vaulting on a the 18th around 9:00 p.m.ct

a much needed blog!

So have any of you seen the blog seriously SO blessed??? I don't know... maybe I am the last person to see this, but I think this is the most hilarious thing I have yet to see in the blogging world!... I love it!

Missy Moo is TWO!

2 weeks ago was little missy's b-day. We invited all of the kiddos over and had a little princess party. She got princess blocks, a princess bike, and we went and built a princess bear. She is completely obsessed, and I love it! I really cannot believe how big she is getting. It makes me so sad:( She is getting so fun though! I love hearing new little sentences pop out of her mouth. I did a little birthday interview with missy. Here were her responses.

fav color: BROWN! ( what little girl who is obsessed with princesses says "brown"!haha)
fav animal: "Lion" ( I tell her about a scary lion that hides in the tree when she wont come inside... apparently she is not scared:)
fav food: Ummmmmmmm....BISHYS!! ( gold fish!)
fav friends ( the "KIDS" and Clarky...her litle buddies out here:)
fav movie: Ceeeerella ( Cinderella)
fav toy: monster ( her ugly doll that aunt ashie gave her)

We are so grateful for our little princess, and we wouldn't trade her for the world!