prettiest baby in the universe.

{i love her sweet little lips!! so pretty!}

a little piece of my heart.

resides at bear lake.

so so so many good memories.

as a kiddo:

so excited when i get my first glimpse of that blue blue water.

playing in the water and the sun until my skin is fried and mom makes us put on a t-shirt. i hated swimming in a t-shirt.

playing and digging and sculpting in the sand.

swimming all day long.

gathering a bucket full of seashells.

playing mermaids with my sisters.

driving home, totally exhausted and drained from the sun, falling asleep to my mom's favorite lullaby cd.

coming home with a bathing suit full of sand.

as a tween:

riding with all of my friends in my mom's mini-van.

subway sandwiches on the way.

{what would a day at the lake be without a subway sandwich?}

feeling awesome in my sister's hand-me-down, green plaid, 2-piece.

floating in the lake all day.

so proud of our tans {sunburns}.

as a teen:

driving with my girlfriends.

listening to dashboard confessional and the all-american rejects on the way.

laying in the shallow water, working on our tans.

scoping out the beach for any cute boys.

lots of diet coke.

lots of laughs.

with sean:

beautiful drive.

kisses on the beach.

kisses in the water.

happy as can be.

sunburns.

today:

serena's first trip to the lake {many more to come}.

lovely drive with mom.

subway sandwiches.

gorgeous clouds.

attempting to create a shelter to shade my baby.

wind... and therefore a short stay.

calzones at fredrico's.

a lovely drive home.

husband vs. wife.

the challenge:
while hanging out with anthony & gina one night last week, the conversation turned to a debate: who would win in a 40 yard dash, anthony or gina? each is convinced they would win. so to settle the debate, they will be racing. date/time/location are yet to be determined, but we'll be sure to let you all know. in the meantime, cast your votes. who do you think will win? here are the athlete bios:

the challengers:

when asked why he would win both challenges, anthony is quoted saying: "i'm a male and i'm fast". anthony will not be training before the races.

gina has won first place medals in track & field competitions. she was the fastest female athlete on the jr. varsity and varsity basketball teams in high school {1999-2001}. she is currently training for her 3rd 1/2 marathon, which will take place in 2 weeks. she has been doing speed work at the end of each of her trainings.

the events:
1. 40 yard dash
2. quarter mile run {one lap around the track}.

vote:
vote on the polls on the sidebar. we'd like to know who is favored to win each event. {my votes are for gina!}

pioneer day.

woke up super super early to sing at the Days of '47 sunrise service. it was awesome. how firm a foundation gave me goosebumps.

went to breakfast with mom, dad, annette, brad, lindsay, jesse, sean & serena bean. veggie omelet, no cheese. wheat toast. yummy.

searched high and low for one of these. no luck. everyone's out.

went home, watched sytycd. cried. loved it.

went to visit the inlaws, watched harry potter 5, fell asleep on the couch, had a bbq, watched the family swim.

went to visit kim at the hospital. asher liam arrived this morning!

came home to a disastrous, 82 degree house and found the sweetest gift on my counter!! thanks mom & m'lindsay! sorry you had to see my house in that state.

polyester.

why are all the softest blankets & toys made of polyester? if you know where i can find some cute, soft, cuddly cotton toys, do tell.

confessions.

1. i wear these shoes every day. i love them.
2. i record so you think you can dance and watch it at least 3x a week. and i often get choked up and/or cry while watching. who knew i would be so moved by dance? i am the farthest thing possible from a dancer. in fact, i'm probably the most uncoordinated person you know.
3. i secretly am kind of sad that serena sleeps so well in her own bedroom. doesn't she miss me????
4. i have a spicy chicken go-wrap and a diet coke from wendy's for lunch a few times a week :)
5. last wednesday i really really didn't want to go to choir rehearsal. so i went, checked in, and left.
6. i love picking serena's nose and eye boogies. somebody's gotta do it. and it's not going to be sean.
7. i am very much looking forward to watching the new lindsay lohan made-for-tv movie, labor pains.

heather + russ.

almost forgot.

{this photo of serena sporting her awesome sunglasses. she didn't like them much, but she sure looked cute!!!}

asher.

we had so much fun spoiling kim & baby asher yesterday. can't wait to meet this little guy. and i love love love my friends :)

my mom and i went to the deer valley music festival to see frederica von stade with the utah symphony on friday night. the music was lovely. the atmosphere was fun. the sky was beautiful. the people were.... interesting. apparently we didn't get the memo that "bring a picnic" means bring plenty of wine and cheese. we brought subway sandwiches and diet coke. this is what else we encountered:

lots of ladies in their 60s wearing extremely unflattering halter tops... and trying to walk around on grass in heels.

a few men in their 60s who yelled inappropriate remarks at frederica. i think they had a few too many glasses of wine.

who knew such a thing as THIS existed??? i love the description: "Nothing ruins a picnic faster than to watch your glass of 1994 Merlot tip over and spill into the grass." oh he's right isn't he, friends??

some guy next to us reading a text book for entertainment.

a bunch of snooty weirdos. i felt very out of place... which is weird because it was outdoors on a grassy hill, not at some fancy theatre. good thing the music was lovely. and good thing it got cold when the sun went down so all of those gross halter tops were covered up with shawls.

water baby.

yesterday we had our family reunion at cherry hill and we decided to get serena in the water. aunt lindsay gave her the CUTEST swimsuit & hat {as you can see!} and she looked adorable.

the reunion was a blast. i hadn't been to cherry hill in ages. we had so much fun on the "adventure river" splashing around with annette, brad, heather, russ & little jeff! i only wish i had applied some sunblock. my shoulders are paying for it.

thank you soooo much, mom, for watching serena so we could go swimming for a while.

summer fun.

somehow all of my events/appointments/commitments for july fall into a 5 day period {doesn't it always seem to happen that way???}. don't be surprised if you don't hear much from me for a few days! i'll be at:

choir rehearsals.
a family reunion.
the deer valley music festival.
a baby shower.
a bridal shower.
my sister's wedding.

it's killing me that i have NOOOO time to see harry potter in the foreseeable future!

mommy brain.

i walked around with my underwear inside out all day.

i double book myself all the time. i planned to drive my mom & sister to the airport at the same time i was supposed to have lunch with my other sister. i agreed to cover for heather at work... only to realize later that it was serena's doctor's appointment that day... only to realize LATER {after other arrangements had been made} that the doctor's appointment really was the following week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously i can't keep my days straight.

i walked around with two different earrings all day. completely different. one dangly, one not.

i started turning left at a red light {there were no cars coming and i thought it was my turn to go for some reason...}.

i woke up in the middle of the night and told sean to burp the baby. huh? she had been fed and burped an hour earlier.

i forgot to put DIAPERS in the DIAPER bag before i dropped serena off at her grandmas. ironic, right?

sometimes i feel a little bit like i'm losing my mind :)

two months.

somehow serena turned two months old today. i don't know how it happened, but it did. she's getting so big and cuter and cuter by the second! here's a little bit about serena at two months:

she has discovered her tongue and makes funny faces all the time.
she likes sucking on her hands.
she has the most sensitive skin.
she sleeps pretty well at night {sometimes}.
she hates being swaddled.
she looooves to sit up {with help} and look around. no more cradling unless she's super tired.
she has the chubbiest cheeks ever :)
she smiles like crazy!
she loooooooooves the swing.
she loves being in her car seat.
she loves her "soothie" from the hospital and won't take any other binky.
she talks and squeals and even does a short little laugh once in a while.

we love our baby s. she keeps us smiling and laughing and makes my heart grow bigger and bigger every day. what a sweet girl!

loves.

cake with strawberries.

summer skirts.

gold sandals.

books on cd.

smiles from my baby.

kisses from my husband.

randi & evan.

melissa & ade.

serena's chubby cheeks.

and her chubby fingers.

and her pretty lips.

and her funny noises.

pretty heather.

my dear sister heather had a bad hair day for her bridals, so she asked me to help her with a re-do. this is my amatuer attempt at taking some bridal portraits! i had so much fun playing florist, hair stylist and photographer. but i really felt like a huge dork because there were two other REAL photographers using the same location... with all of their REAL photographer equipment! i was walking around with a cooler to use as a step stool :) anyway, it was fun. heather is beautiful, as you can see. hope you like them, sister! and yes we did take some smiling pictures :)

my favorite part of the fourth.

{thanks for the show, anthony & gina!}

{we had a wonderful day that included crepes for breakfast, a parade, perfect weather, a bbq, and fireworks. a perfect 4th of july.}

four years ago today.

{sean slipped this beauty onto my finger and asked me to marry him. on my favorite holiday. after fireworks. one more reason why the 4th of july is my favorite.}

observations.

there is a man in my neighborhood who is constantly out working in his yard. and i mean constantly. his wife must be the breadwinner because he is out there all day every day in a wife-beater and shorts, watering and trimming and weeding and landscaping. and his yard is perfect. his grass is emerald green. what's really great about it is that he lives between 2 vacant lots. there is no fence, so his perfectly manicured yard is surrounded on all sides by dirt, rocks and weeds. it's like a little oasis in the middle of a really ugly, weed-infested desert. this man seriously takes pride in his yard.

just down the street from immaculate lawn guy lives foreclosed house. foreclosed house's yard is overgrown with weeds taller than me. it makes me wonder if once upon a time there was grass? or if they never put a yard in? and why in the world the neighbors haven't done anything about the jungle of weeds next door???? foreclosed house has neighbors on both sides who take care of their yards. if it were me, it would drive me crazy to live next this house. i would have taken my weed wacker to that yard long ago!

and somewhere in the middle is my postage stamp of a backyard. we water the grass once in a while, cut the grass once a week {usually}, and try to remember to water the flowers. but mostly i'm just glad i don't have much of a yard to take care of right now. someday, however, i will bring out the inner wife-beater guy in sean and he will keep our huge, shady, beautifully landscaped yard perfectly manicured :) {if not, i'll have to hire wife-beater guy to do it.}