death of a legend

paul newman died on friday of cancer. he was 83 and truly was a legend. not only was he an amazing actor and incredibly good looking, but he was also a philanthropist. look at these pictures and tell me that this is not one of the most beautiful men you have ever seen. that's right, you can't because he is the most beautiful person you have ever seen. he will be missed and i wish that i had been born 50 years earlier so i could have made him fall in love with me.

catching up

i have been so busy and lazy (who knew it was possible to be both at the same time?) lately that i haven't updated my blog in a while, so i thought i would write about the happenings this past month.

at the end of august i got to watch my niece and nephew for five days while my sister and her husband went to mexico. we had a great time (aside from a few breakdowns).

painting their prizes for being good during the day.

you can tell he is having the time of his life based off his serious expression.

at the water park in provo, sarah was very nice to come with us and help me watch the kiddies.

grayson's prize one morning for following the sleep rules.

afton and grayson love their brownie mix.

learning about sharks at the aquarium.

we had so much fun, and did a lot. i am sure brooke is cringing at all of the messy faces/bodies.

other happenings...
-school is back in session. is that a good or bad thing?
-all of the boys from my freshman year are back from their missions and at byu.
-i am a senior in college! i cannot believe it.
-i took a fun little trip home to colorado last weekend with brooke and her kids. our whole family was at home and my grandparents too, so we had a nice little reunion.
-i finally saw mamma mia, which was hilarious because it was so ridiculous, very entertaining.
-fall is starting to set in and i am so excited because it is my favorite season.
-i threw a bridal shower for my friend sarah yesterday and it turned out really precious.
-two of my roommates and i drove up to sundance this evening and it was beautiful with all the changing leaves.
-we watched prom night last night and it was so retarded and incredibly predictable, yet i still shrieked, jumped, and covered my face with my blanket.

i am sure other interesting things have happened, but this post is just way too long.

overwhelmed.

i am overwhelmed. school started two weeks ago and i don't think i have ever been so busy in my life.

why do we do this to ourselves? why do we take on more than we can handle? i am taking 15 credit hours this semester and working 20 hours a week. everyone else takes that many credits and works just as much, if not more, so why am i complaining? i really have no good reason, i just am not used to being this busy. i try to talk to my parents about this and then my dad gives me his standard lecture..."i went to byu and took 18 credits hours and worked full-time and had a wife and child and graduated at the top of my class. so get over it, sister." i just roll my eyes and mumble something under my breath like "yeah, and that was 30 years ago" and then he won't believe that it is harder now. well it is. i just feel like if i am not in class, i am in the sewing lab or at work. if i am not in any of those places i am doing homework in my bedroom or asleep. how am i supposed to have friends? am i just supposed to throw away the funnest years of my life for school? i don't think so. but then i have to remind myself that i am here to go to school and get an education so i can go live in the real world (which is going to happen way too soon). what am i to do? quit my job? i would love to. too bad i am not a trust fund child and would have to live on the streets. the real solution is to just find myself a sugar daddy. i can probably "handle" all of this, but i don't think i will be able to do any of these things nearly as well as i could if i had enough time to spend on them.

can someone please feel sorry for me?

sarah and jason

last thursday i had the pleasure of taking my good friends' (sarah and jason) engagement pictures. i have never taken engagement pictures before and it was a little frustrating for everyone at first until we found a very cool location near some train tracks in provo. once we found it, i was all inspired and we got some pretty good shots.

here are a few of the ones i have started editing out of the millions we took...

disregard the cars in the background, haven't quite gotten around to photoshop yet.

more to come!

oh you know, just a modeling gig

so, i was at work (i work at the shade store in american fork) on monday and was asked to go on good things utah to "model" some pieces from the fall line. after some consideration, i decided to accept the offer. a few months ago, i made a list of the necessities of my life/all the things i want to do, and be on tv was one of them and it's not everyday i get asked to go on tv, so how could i not accept? i got my sister, brooke, and one of my best friends, sarah, to go on the show with me. i was so sure that i would somehow ruin the show and embarrass myself in some horrible way, but it turned out better than expected. for those of you who do not live in ut, or know what good things utah is, it is a morning show here that comes on after regis and kelly. pretty much every stay-at-home mom in utah watches the show, so it was kind of scary. first i'm on good things utah, next thing you know i'll be on regis and kelly and be best friends with kelly ripa. i've got some big plans for myself.

you can watch it here (sorry it automatically plays every time my page comes up, i don't know how to fix it):

who doesn't love a bucket of chicken?

on friday night, we decided to go up provo canyon and have a picnic. almost every time my friends and i are trying to decide what to do, i suggest getting a bucket of chicken and going up the canyon and this time we actually did it. there are few things that i love more in this world than sitting on a blanket in the grass and devouring a kfc bucket of chicken. there is just something so precious about having a picnic. glorious.

for some odd reason, brett refused to pose for pictures with us. i don't know why he wouldn't want to take pictures with a bunch of girls making kissing faces, every guy's dream, right?

lindsey thought that she was getting attacked by bugs and made jen scratch her back; apparently jen was really enjoying it.

lake powell

last week i went to lake powell with my sister shea, her husband ian, and their girls, london and rheagan. baby scarlett got to stay home with nana and bumpa because she is too little. we also went with some family friends--the halls, two sets of halls actually, the tom and kristy hall family and john and laura hall. we had so much fun! i had never been to lake powell before and had always wanted to go. shea and i had a goal to become bronze goddesses, and i'm not gonna lie but we kind of achieved it. i would put a picture of our faces up, but we vowed not to share any pictures of each other from the trip with the internet world. so we'll just have to settle with this awkward one of my tan lines.

here's some preciousness...

i love my babies so much. have you ever seen cuter kids? i miss my family!

stacy jean

last week my best friend stacy came for a little visit. we had a grand time playing around in provo. we watched movies, went shopping in salt lake, floated the provo river, had a picnic, went to the pool, played heartthrob, ate costa vida too many times, went to tucano's, ate shaved ice, the list goes on. and p.s., who knew that the provo river was so treacherous? we definitely did not. my roommate lindsey came with us and we almost died about 15 times. we all lost our sunglasses, lindsey lost her bandanna, and stacy and i both lost one of our flip flops. i can't even count how many trees and rocks we ran into, it was quite the adventure. it was not at all like the lazy river we pictured it being. when we got home and told sarah about our experience she said that she knew it was dangerous because her friend's mom almost died there, would have been nice to know ahead of time.


on sunday night we went up to the parking lot by the y as the sun was setting. who knew provo could be so pretty? we had a lot of fun together and since we haven't seen each other in almost a year, it was a sweet reunion.

4th of july festivities slash trip home to colorado

this weekend i decided to drive home to colorado and celebrate our nation's independence with my family. i met my parents and brother in breckenridge and we had a grand old time.

nash usually doesn't look so creepy...

these two are becoming the same person.

guess i was the only one that got the memo on making a stupid face. we got a little bored waiting for the fireworks to start.

on saturday i got to hang out with my sister shea's family. we ate dippin dots, watched a movie, and played rock band...three ingredients for a perfect evening.

but alas, i had to drive back to utah today (alone, for 7 glorious hours). this is a picture by a rest area in glenwood canyon, the most aesthetically pleasing part of the drive.

happy birthday america!