January 2014: girl magic.

one of my very favorite moments in the bleak month of January was walking in on Alice putting on a ballet recital for her dolls. i mean! seriously? this stuff is what my dreams are made of.

the next cutest thing was that Ellie saw one of these pictures of Alice doing ballet for her dolls, and so later in the afternoon, she set up her dolls for her to put on a private violin concert for them. can i just say that these dolls are like the luckiest EVER? a private ballet performance AND a private violin concert IN THE SAME DAY? man, these little girls were killing me dead with their cuteness this day.

and then, LATER THAT SAME DAY, Ellie put on her Anna dress, grabbed a stack of books, and snuggled on the couch where she read for a good hour. seriously! she is in that idyllic land of reading discovery - it's basically my favorite learning stage of all.

man, having kids is so awesome. but having little girls is magic.

xoxo

mani/pedi combo

{imagine hot pink on those nails instead of the awesome bright orange ones you're seeing....weird how cameras and screens can distort color....}

i think there are few things that make you feel more relaxed and more girly than the mani-pedi combo. yesterday, mother-in-law, Lynne treated me, my sister-in-law Carrie, and my niece Annabelle to go out for this relaxing-girly combo and some lunch. man, my little hands & feet were in heaven. i have to admit...i'm coming to terms with how wonderful it feels to be girly. i used to laugh at girls who wanted pedi's and loved to wear pink, and had cute high heels and purses. my favorite color was blue and i liked my jansport back pack and that was it. but let's be honest....getting your nails done in hot pink makes you feel so legally blonde, you could just bend and snap. l-o-v-i-n' it. and because it was so fun and cute and made me feel so girly, i had to come home and paint little El's toes too.

{it's much harder to get a picture of a crazy baby's feet than you'd think}

i just can't wait till i can bring little ellie with me on all these fun, girly things.

thank you Lynne, Carrie & Annabelle, for such a fun day!


we can't wait for you Massachussets Chapmans to move here so we can do these girly things more often.

and to my sisters and mama:
missed you like crazy. can't wait to enjoy some girly days in October when we come! just 26 more days...but who's counting???

xoxo

this one's for the girls

on this mother's day, i'm thinking of all the girls in my life who have made me the person i am today...and more importantly the mother i am today. so, i'd like to say thank you to all my girls out there.

thank you to my sister for being my little sister..and for putting up with my teasing. and for putting up with my mothering instead of sistering. and for loving me. and for being so you and so unique. you were the cutest baby in the whole wide world and i always wanted a baby because of you.


thank you to my sister-in-law, Courtney...for being so sweet to your new little Rosalie. it has made me want to be a better, more patient mommy. thank you to my sister-in-law Carrie- for being so thoughtful and sweet to our little girl even though we are so far apart. you always make me want to be more thoughtful and loving to others.



thank you to my aunts. and to M's aunts. you always have filled in the gaps and filled my life with love and laughter. thank you for making me feel special. thank you for being a part of my life. thank you for loving my feisty baby.


thank you to my girlfriends. my friends from high school who i've been able to watch be mommy's before me...who have paved the way and given me someone to get advice from. my college friends who always encourage me and love me and share these most wonderful of life's events with me. my provo friends- who share it all- from snotty noses, to eating dirt, to walks, to birthday parties, to advice, to yoga, to tv-nights, to dinners and bbq's....thank you for putting up with my flakiness at times and for always inviting me to do things. i love you all for that. to all my other friends- including all of you - who i know from teaching school, other jobs, wards, knowing M, and several other places- thank you for enriching my life and giving me people to look up to and be inspired by (p.s. if you're not pictured below, we need to hang out more. and with our cameras....i was saddened by the fact that i don't have many pictures of all of you, my lovely friends).




thank you to my grandmas (including M's grandmas). you've given me my parents, and M's parents...which are our greatest blessings. thank you for serving us continuously. we wish we could be closer to all of you.



thank you to my cousins. you ladies are LOVELY in every way. i wish we all lived closer to share more of our lives together.


thank you to my mother-in-law for raising such a wonderful man for me to share my life with and be the daddy of my baby girl. thank you for opening your home to me- and your family to me..and making me feel so welcome and loved./


thank you to my mama. for being my best friend. for being so generous. for serving my little family so willingly and lovingly. for laughing and talking with me about every detail of my little life...and for loving me with your biiiggg heart. i love you to the highest mountain.


and thank you to my baby Ellie. thank you for being so sweet...for giving me hugs. for giving me sweet slobbery kisses. for being so excited to see me every morning. for snuggling me. for laughing at my sillyness. and most importantly, for making me a mommy! the happiest mommy in the whole wide world. i love you, lovely sweet Ellie.



happy mother's day!

it's the end of the world as i know it.

i'd like to take care of five items of business, please.

a-hem:

1. wowsers. thank you SO much for all of your comments about my new 'do. it was like year-book day receiving all of your lovely notes (minus the "call me" and "stay cool" and "U R HOT" messages). made my lil heart swell. how did i get so lucky to have all of you in my life?

2. it's March 30th. THE END OF MARCH. what happened to March?

3. i reeeealllllyyyy realllllyyyy despise April Fool's day. so please...pretty please with a cherry on top...don't try and trick me on Wednesday.

4. last week was teacher appreciation week. being a teacher is awesome, but being a teacher during teacher appreciation week is THE BOMB. lots of sweet notes, flowers, little surprises, yummy food.....and lots of treats. which leads me to #5

5. i'm laying off the sugar till Easters. really. i am. my poor lil Abs are in there somewhere...hiding behind all the sugar and junk i keep consuming. and while i'd like to blame it on the nursing, M and i made a deal last night: no sugar till Easter. i mean that's only two weeks. right? i can do it. so, this morning, i put away all my delicious treats in this little box:


and now i need to find a really high place to hide it.

my question: how do you convince yourself to lay off sugar? it's so hard. and addicting.

i got some of this sugar-free gum:


which hopefully will help.....because i'm already craving sugar and salivating over it and it's only 9:34 am. i reallllllly want some of those cadbury eggs.

BUT NO.
even though it's the end of the world as i know it, i won't back down.

maybe after one bite.
of one little egg.

i need therapy.
s.o.s.

bangeriffic.

i learned 3 important things about hair this week.

1. us women love to talk about it. because we are passionately opinionated about it.
2. our hairstyles define a lot about who we are...our age, our style, if we are conservative or daring...etc etc.
3. it's not so hard to make a change as you think it will be. in fact, it's harder thinking of making the change than actually making the change....which leads me to this:

i took the bang plunge.

and i LOVE it.

it's amazing that cutting a few hairs around your face can make you feel new, fresh, and lovely.

thank you for all of your thoughts and input and encouragement and cautions about getting the bangs. now that i've taken the plunge...i'm dying to know...


you like??

p.s. i'm having a blast in Kaysville this weekend with my family... my lil sis is such a sweetie. and seriously, who doesn't love a wicked mac photo-booth photo OP? guaranteed laughs and good times.

a little hair help, please.

i'm very excited.
because i'm getting a hair cut on Friday.
which doesn't seem like a big deal.
but i haven't gotten a cut since the beginning of August.
yes, you read that correctly.
AUGUST.
that is almost 8 months. what the!?
craziness.
SO, i'm obviously in GREAT need of a snip snip here and a snip snip there.
AND...
i want to do something different. i'm considering bangs. (gasp!)
dun dun dun.

i've actually been considering bangs since 2007 when Reese Witherspoon showed up to the golden globes looking like this:

{she is gorgeous. plain. and. simple.}

and then i considered it again when Alexis Bledel starred in the final season of Gilmore Girls looking like this:

{she looks so authentic and chic! i'm loving it!}

but, i mean, i haven't had bangs since the seventh grade...and i got my hair layered to look like that classic Jennifer Anniston flippy thing:


(someday i'll find a picture and show you what i looked like. while Jen made it look all sleek and chic, mine had bangs with it...and it was caked in hairspray...and it had that curling-iron line. you know what i'm talking about, ladies).

so, the question is,
it's now 2009...over 13 years since 7th grade.
can i pull of bangs?
are bangs worth the hassle?

all you pro-bangs peeps, help me out. convince me they're worth it. and that i can take the bang plunge.
all you bang-haters out there, tell me i'm crazy. and that i will hate the bobby pinning hassle i have to go through for the next 6 months while my hair grows long enough to put behind my ears.

thank you in advance for your opinions.
i need them.
desperately.

p.s. i'll be sure to let you know what i decide.
unless i get it cut and i hate it, of course.
then, i will hide under a blanket and a hat and hoodies for the next 6 months, and then, once its grown out, i'll take a picture of it and show it to you.
xoxo

feelin' girly.

i don't really consider myself a "girly girl." no offense or anything to all of you out there...it's just never really been me to choose pink, chocolate and shopping above any and everything else.

however, i do have moments of extreme girlyness. today, for instance, i neglected all edges of my responsible self (laundry, cooking, cleaning) to watch my two favorite girly movies: You've Got Mail and Pride and Prejudice...i did this while giving myself a manicure, blogging, and eating my very own bowl of popcorn. (very girly)

i adore you've got mail. i remember watching it for the first time in high school with a bunch of my girl friends at an 80's sleepover. i remember it brought out everything lovely, romantic and girly in me then. it did the same thing to me today. except now, i quote the whole movie as i watch it. i seriously wish i was as witty as kathleen kelly. and as adorable. "i love daisies...they're so friendly. don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?" sigh.

and then there's Pride and Prejudice...what a treasure. a book i've read countless times, and a movie i never tire of. i recently read on Nie Nie's blog "I left the theater...thinking how lucky I am that I have my very own Mr. Darcy. I hope you have one too." everyone deserves a Mr. Darcy. i love my Mr. Darcy...so much. (mega girly).

confession: i have loved feeling girly today. i think every girl should embrace some girlyness every once in a while. in fact, to all my girly readers out there...how do you celebrate your girlyness?