We had an amazing 4th of July, celebrating with family! We woke up and ate some breakfast, laughing and hanging out with family, and then were off to the parade! We went with Candace and Thomas, our niece and nephew, and they had an absolute BLAST. Well, Thomas was asleep nearly the whole time, but Candace was just enchanted by all the floats and people! She was so quiet and just had really wide eyes, taking it all in! She loved eating an Otter Pop that got thrown her way, and was DOWNING kettle corn as fast as she could, in between giving us all a piece or two. We saw my sister in the parade with her lacrosse team, and it was fun!

Once the parade was over we went back to my parents house for some delicious food! We had corn on the cob and steak and bread, and of course, tabouli! Gotta add some international flair to American classic, that’s what makes America awesome!

After dinner we headed over to Randy’s parents house for some Mario Kart and time with our other niece, Charlotte! We had a blast talking and laughing for a few hours. Then it was back to my parents house to see Candace swim in the kiddie pool! She was cracking us all up, splashing and pouring water from one bottle to another, it was the best.

That night we headed up to the Davis High Fireworks, which was awesome. I absolutely love spending the 4th in my hometown, I personally think it’s the best place in the world. We played card games and ate popcorn and peanut butter M&M’s and then our friends joined my family to watch the show! After the show ended we hustled to our car to get home.

It really was one of the best 4th of July’s ever!

Six years ago on the 4th, Randy and I went on a date to the fireworks. It was just a month later that we would start dating. In some ways, it was the beginning of a lot of things for us. I thought Randy would hold my hand that night. He didn’t, but there was something there on that date that made me realize how crazy I was about him. For a few weeks before that, and then for the rest of the summer, we spent a ton of time together. Running to Wendy’s before he went to work and after I got off, him visiting me at Cherry Hill, with friends at first, and then more and more often he would come alone. There’s a lot of little things about the 4th of July that make me so happy, and those memories are a few reasons why!

Another thing I love about the 4th is spending time in my hometown. Some people really hate the place they grew up in, and while Kaysville/Farmington weren’t perfect, the older I get, the more I absolutely love it there. I have a million memories with my family and with Randy, the people are wonderful, and there’s just something amazing about that small little town that’s getting bigger every year. I absolutely adore it!

The last thing I love about the 4th, is that tug I feel at my heart about the country where I get to live. I’ve spent a bit of time traveling outside the US and I loved my time traveling, but I will never, ever forget the feeling of walking back through customs to get my passport checked, and having the officer look at me and say “Welcome to the United States of America, miss. Welcome home.” It brought me to tears.

I feel like right now it’s really cool to point out all the horrible things about where we live, and yes, America isn’t perfect. Because the people here aren’t perfect. And that’s OK. It’s great to always want to improve. But I love the chance I get to think about this country and all the absolutely wonderful things about it. I am so grateful for all the people who give their time, and their lives, to defend my freedom. I am so grateful for men and women hundreds of years ago who lived their lives in the pursuit of something amazing. I am so thankful that I get to go to school, that nobody tells me who I have to marry, and that I have people who spend their careers working to uphold laws and keep me and my family safe. We are so blessed. So, so, so blessed. And we need to remember that!

Hopefully you all had a happy and safe 4th of July! God bless America!

Last weekend was a BLAST full of lots of awesome, fun things.

First, puppies showed up at my office! Cutest little golden-doodle puppies and I was in LOVE with them! It was a great way to kick off the weekend.

Friday night we went to Get Out Games with our friends and had a great time! We did the “Zombie On A Chain” game where an actor dressed as a zombie is chasing you around the whole time while you’re trying to figure out the clues. It was CRAZY fun and we were exhausted by the end!

Saturday we spent time with our families before heading out to the Stadium of Fire! Our parents were so nice and bought us tickets for Easter (I mean, the Easter Bunny brought them) and we had SO much fun! We ate kettle corn, listened to Hunter Hayes (who was awesome!) laughed with Brian Regan, and then JAMMED to Little Big Town! The fireworks show at the end was amazing, really long, but amazing!

Sunday we went and watched our darling niece Charlotte get blessed, it was wonderful to be with family and celebrate her.

Monday (not the weekend but still) we went to work and school, and then started off the Fourth of July by going to a Bees baseball game with our good friends Corinne and Kade! We were in the outfield and chatted, ate some treats, and watched the Bees win! We then saw their incredible fireworks show, which was awesome.

We are having an amazing summer, loving every second, even though it’s so hot we’ve had to move our mattress into the living room so we can get some air from our window AC. But still, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I listened to The Magnolia Story for the first time a few months ago, and decided I needed a second listen before I could give it the attention it deserved in a blog post.

This book, to put it simply, changed my life. It’s changed the way I think about things, the way I hope for things, and the way I look at my future.

I fell in love with the show Fixer Upper a few months before the book came out (thank you Netflix) and was utterly in love with Chip and Joanna, their family, and their outlook on life. After finishing some other books, and finding myself with an Audible credit, I decided to listen to The Magnolia Story.

In this book, Chip and Joanna tell the story of their lives, pieces of their childhood and family stories, how they met and fell in love, and their journey to becoming two insanely popular reality TV personalities.

Now, people always say “You have to be looking for fame and fortune to agree to going on a TV show. Those people on reality TV aren’t real, they’re not genuine, and they’re probably not that nice.” But I have to believe that Chip and Joanna are absolutely everything they say they are. Real people who talk about fights they got in, their financial hardships, silly mistakes they made, who happened to end up on TV even though they have never had a TV in their home (and still don’t!)

They represent what I can only hope to be like one day, genuine people in the middle of whatever life has handed them, praising God while they enjoy their lives, and work hard with whatever opportunities they are handed.

I first listened to this book when Randy and I were making some decisions, when I’d been feeling lost in my purpose and path, and when I wasn’t, as Joanna talks about, “thriving” but simply “surviving.”

There were so many passages of the book that made me weep. It was like there were words written right for my heart and situation, they were everything I needed to hear and recognize and believe.

None of it was new philosophy or things that I hadn’t ever heard before, but the way the story unfolded and the conviction behind the words made all the difference. The way they were written, the timing with which I listened to each chapter, all of it lead to me feeling like I could be a different, better person thanks to a book.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“Don’t quit, and don’t give up. The reward is just around the corner. And in times of doubt or times of joy, listen for that still, small voice. Know that God has been there from the beginning—and he will be there until . . . The End.” 

“It was such a blessing to find myself thriving in the middle of the pain. Unless you find a way to do that, there’s always going to be this fake illusion that once you get there–wherever “there” is for you–you’ll be happy. But that’s just not life. If you can’t find happiness in the ugliness, you’re not going to find it in beauty, either.” 

“I realized that my determination to make things perfect meant I was chasing an empty obsession all day long. Nothing was ever going to be perfect the way I had envisioned it in the past. Did I want to keep spending my energy on that effort, or did I want to step out of that obsession and to enjoy my kids, maybe allowing myself to get messy right along with them in the process? I chose the latter – and that made all the difference.” 

“It’s up to us to choose contentment and thankfulness now—and to stop imagining that we have to have everything perfect before we’ll be happy.” 

“Have you ever looked at the bud of a magnolia flower? It’s a tight little pod that stays closed up for a long time on the end of its branch until one day, out of nowhere, it finally bursts open into this gigantic, gorgeous, fragrant flower that’s ten times bigger than the bud itself. It’s impossible to imagine that such a big beautiful thing could pop out of that tiny little bud. But it does.” 

“I always said, “When things come against us we can either turn on each other, or we can come together and turn on it.”

“I finally believed it was actually a beautiful thing to be unique and to be different.” 

“…sometimes second chances lead to great things.
All of my doubts, all of the things I thought I wanted out of a relationship, and many of the things I thought I wanted out of life itself turned out to be just plain wrong. Instead? That voice from our first date turned out to be the thing that was absolutely right.” 

“I came to think of God as more of a gracious friend who was accompanying me on this journey, a friend who wanted to carry my burdens and speak into my life and shape me into who I really was and who I would become.” 

“I mean, that’s life. Life is never predictable. Life is never really manageable. If your mind-set is always, “I’m just surviving”, it seems to me that would wind up being the mind-set for the rest of your life. You’d just get stuck in it.” 

“It is no easy thing to trust in God, to walk away from a career, to give it all up not knowing if you can ever get it back or even come close. But I did it. I heeded his voice, and somehow I found peace about it.” 

“Whether you are in an eight-hundred-square-foot home or living in a dream house on a lake, contentment is found on the way.” 

“I felt good about having made the decision to walk away and lock that door. It’s funny, though, looking back on it now, because one very simple concept in life never occurred to me as I was walking away:
Even locked doors can be unlocked in time.
I simply never could have imagined just how much God had in store for us, and I certainly couldn’t have dreamed just how many keys to other doors God had already placed in our hands.” 

“life is found in the glass of spilled milk and in the long, narrow hallway filled with socks and soccer balls.” 

“One thing I learned there on that beautiful front porch was if I wanted to be successful, if I wanted to do important work one day, I would have to increase my capacity. I had to learn to manage disappointment. I needed to learn how to make the most out of those “opportunities” Chip seemed to keep finding.” 

“It’s difficult to put into words, but there was something about that experience that helped me find myself. I would go home every night and write about my experiences—what I’d seen, what I’d done, and sometimes just about whatever I was thinking or feeling. And as I did that, something shifted in me. I started owning who I am, realizing that I was unique and that God had a unique purpose for me. I’d spent my whole life worrying about what people thought about me or whether I was good enough or thinking about what I should be doing instead of really digging down to find out what I wanted to do.” 


I could go on forever and ever about these quotes and pull a million more. Basically what it came down to was that reading this book opened my perspective about what happiness can mean, what I’m doing day in and day out, and about trust. This entire past year has been a giant lesson on faith and trust for me, and the fact that this book helped me grasp that concept even more is just another example of how aware Heavenly Father is of us, what speaks to us, and what we need.

So here’s to spending less time watching TV (except for new episodes of Fixer Upper, of course) and spending more time in my journal, more time in nature, more time discovering what I’m passionate about and what makes me thrive. More time on the simple things, more time with Randy, and more time with God.

Here’s to opening up that tight little magnolia bud, and blooming.

We spent the weekend hanging out in Daybreak at the Oquirrh Lake, skipping rocks and enjoying ourselves.

We spent a ton of time with family, Randy’s brother is in town for a few days so we spent lots of time laughing and hanging out with them.

I taught 2 Church lessons on Sunday, Sunday School and Relief Society, so I’m officially lessoned-out.

Randy mentioned how much he wanted to track down the ice cream truck, and even Googled how to find them. With no success. During our rock-skipping adventure, we heard the music and BOLTED up the hill to get some ice cream. A summer success story.

I took roughly one video and zero photos, so no documentation was made. And that’s just fine.

I’m SO excited to share this collaboration with you! I found Stay Warm In Style and I instantly became OBSESSED. I was thrilled when we decided to do a collaboration, and I may have gone a little picture happy (thanks to my cute hubby and little sister who are great photographers).

My clothes shipped really fast and the fit was perfect. I give Stay Warm In Style a total thumbs up!

I got the Boho Hollow Blouse in olive green, and it is SUPER different than most things I buy, but I’m absolutely obsessed with it. It’s really lightweight which makes it perfect for summer, and it can go into spring and fall too. It’s actually on sale right now too, so you should head over and buy it right away!

We’ve been pretty busy this weekend, we went to Yellowstone with my family and we’ll be posting a whole thing on that soon!

But, we also escaped to the woods to snap a few photos, and I need to give my dad a shout-out for Father’s Day!

My dad is absolutely amazing. He has overcome some difficult things in his life, and is all the stronger for it. He is so kind, loving, has an amazing testimony of the Gospel and taught us all to have one too. He has always provided for our family, has taught me so much about working hard and also enjoying the work you do. He answers my millions of questions about “adulting” and during all my time growing up, never failed to come to a performance or buy another doll that my sisters or I wanted. He showed me what to look for in someone I would marry, and loves my husband like his own son, which I love seeing. Happy Father’s Day to the man who made me who I am, I love you dad!

I also recently got the SPLASH VOXBOX from Influenster and I’m LOVING it! Last night I immediately ate the Mike & Ike Zours, SO GOOD. Randy loved them too, just watch my Instagram story hahaha. I tried the Maybelline Liquid Lipstick which I actually loved, and I don’t wear lip color that often. It stayed OVERNIGHT while I slept and didn’t stain anything. I’m a fan! I then put on the Tree Hut Charcoal Mask while we watched some TV (it was an amazing mask, totally recommend). I’m excited to try the rest of the stuff from the box!

With our trip to Japan and then posting a MILLION times about it, I have gotten off my schedule! So here’s just a couple updates:

We filmed this cool video with all our travel tips and tricks, so check it out!

This summer we have:

Gone on a picnic
Seen Wonder Woman at the Drive In (SUCH A GOOD MOVIE)
Had “mega-bad” in our living room to beat the heat
Taken a ton of photos
Had some awesome Church lessons
Made a few trips to the Baked Bear and Culver’s
Tried new recipes (pineapple chicken was BOMB)
Spent time with our friends and family
Worked (Maddy)
Gone to school (Randy)
FaceTimed or visited with our nieces and nephew
Gone to the temple
Listened to lots of vinyl records
Gone on lots of walks

We are having the best summer so far, and now that things are calmed down a tiny bit, I’m going to get back to regular posting schedules!

Crazy things have been going on in my family!

Here’s a couple updates:

1. We added a niece to our family! She came while we were in Japan which was a bummer, but we got to meet her and we just love her! Her name is Charlotte and she’s just a doll.

2. My brother graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School! We couldn’t be more proud and happy for him, his wife, and their little family! We are so excited for them to move to Utah for the summer before my brother takes the California bar!

3. My law school graduate brother and his wife added a baby to their family! Just a few days after he graduated from law school (and just a few days after all the family who were visiting went home) our first nephew decided to make an appearance! His name is Thomas and he was a whopping 9 pounds, 15 ounces, and is just a joy. Our niece Candace is so excited to be a big sister and we can’t wait to meet Thomas soon!

Happy birthday to my darling sister Olivia! She is finally 20 years old (no longer a teenage bride!) and we had so much fun celebrating with her! The day before her birthday we got to get sushi and go shopping with her, and then after her birthday our family all got together for a BBQ and games. We had such a blast! Liv is so optimistic and fun, she’s an absolute joy to spend time with. We love you Liv!