jm

excited to see this guy tonight

this is me.

I am my own person.

I am not perfect, nor do I want to be.

I have my faults, but who doesn't?

I could be a little nicer, be a better friend, be a better person.

I'm trying. really.

I have had my ups and downs and learned alot from them.

I still have a LOT to learn.

I am going to make mistakes, I am going to mess up.

I will have regrets,

but I will learn from them.

I need to not be so hard on myself and embrace my faults.

I have learned that time heals all. (or most)

I just need to learn how to be patient...

I need to show my gratitude more.

I need to not worry so much about rumors or what people say.

Because it only matters if I know the truth and know myself and know what makes me happy.

So love me for who I am...because this is me.

don't judge me.

yes, I know...this is the second post about underwater photography...but I can't help myself--this stuff is so rad! The last image is unbelievably stunning.

Blonde Redhead

I may or may not be extremely excited that these guys are coming to utah in November....
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and I may or may not have already bought my ticket....

trailers...not so trashy

Lately, I have been in LOVE with vintage trailers. I would love to get one in the future and just take it everywhere and anywhere I want. Camping in a tent is fun..but after taking Ellie on a camping trip with some friends a little while ago, I quickly realized that a trailer might be a little easier to work with when taking her with me. Two of my friends brought their trailers that they had fixed up and they were so rad!

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I must say that most of this inspiration comes from a dear old friend who amazes me everytime I read her blog. She bought a trailer, fixed it up, packed everything up, left everything at home and went on the road. She is experiencing some pretty cool stuff and is having so many adventures. What a woman! (i hope she doesn't mind me talking about her... but I just think everyone needs to know about her awesomeness)

Check out her adventures in her "Happiness Bus" HERE.

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This trailer is awesome. Someone opened their own bakery business and makes her yummyness right here in the trailer and travels around catering at different events. How cool is that?

Read more about it HERE.

here are some other images that caught my eye...


this last one is my favorite...

Ellie's room

so...I was bored last night and realized that I haven't really taken many pictures of Ellie's room. So I thought I would share....

You know when you work so hard on something and think it's the coolest thing ever, then 2 weeks later you are sick of it and wished you would have done it a different way? yup. That's what I think about Ellie's room. haha but I need to give myself more credit than that, I think. I sewed her crib bedding all by myself and painted her room and picked out all the furniture, so I should be happy with the finished product. That is just me though--always wanting to change things up. So until next time, this is what her room looks like:) and forgive me for the crappy pictures....Her room is in a very horrible-lit basement.

This is a shelf that is next to her window. The picture on the left is one that Jessie took when Ellie was just over a week old. I LOVE it. In the back is a metal tree with birds on it that I found at a garage sale. (another man's trash is another man's treasure, right?) and those letter train blocks I got at Sundance.

An amazing lady made this cute mobile and was selling it at Soel.
I had to get it! (as you can tell, I like owls for some reason.)

I used to work at Soel Boutique and the girls there were so crafty and creative. One girl made this display and put it in the store- she used paper doilies, coffee filters, and cupcake liners, then used gold push pins to keep them in place. I LOVED this display and thought it would be cute in Ellie's room. So I attempted to recreate it and I think it turned out pretty cute. (I wish the lighting was better in the picture!)

Rememer Mode Boutique in Provo? Loved that store. They would have silent auctions every now and then where local artists could come and sell their work. I bid on this picture and won it- I loved the colors, but mostly liked the hot air balloon. (I am obsessed with THIS picture and this painting made me think of it.)
The colors in this painting match Ellie's crib bedding pretty good.
I got this mirror at the "Finer Consigner" which is another store
where you can find awesome stuff!
I used this rocking chair all the time when Ellie was a newborn. My favorite thing was to rock her to sleep in it. Time goes by too fast....she won't let me rock her anymore! :(
Blanket was made from Ellie's great grandma. What a sweetheart!
Lamp on the right is from Ikea.. ahhh that store kills me!
and Letters above are from Thanksgiving Point.
These cute flashcards are my fav! I got them at Anthropologie.
That place has the best kids stuff-
I don't know if they sell this set there anymore, but here are some similar.

I love this purchase. I found someone on Etsy who makes cute baby books. People think i'm crazy for spending that much money on a baby book, but it was something that my parents had for me and it's fun to look through it now. You can get your own HERE. There are different styles, colors, and you can personalize it any way you want! Makes a great baby gift too-

just a look inside of mine...
and another..

and here is her crib- I wanted a modern looking crib, but man, most of those are pricey. I actually found this one at Walmart! who would have thought?

I made her crib bedding, like I said. And I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever make crib bedding again. ha it was so stressful! But then again, it was probably my fault that it was so stressful considering I was sewing my little heart out the NIGHT BEFORE Ellie was born. I have obvious procrastination issues ;)

Lately trying to get Ellie to smile for a picture, (let alone even look at the camera) has been quite tough. I think she is doing it on purpose just to make us look like idots for whisteling, clapping, and making rediculous faces, just to get her attention. Here are her best attempts for the weekend... I think we finally got one of her smiling.
Great-Gramma is in town and Ellie is loving all the attention!

Saturday morning, I ran my 6th half marathon- The Hobble Creek. (this was my third time running this specific one...i love it) It wasn't my best run...but what was I expecting when I didn't train for it and ate nothing but fast food and ice cream the past week? blah.

I came in 8th in my age group out of 55. I was hoping to beat my time from the Bryce canyon half..but I think I did it close to the same time.

As far as the future...Kristy and I are planning on running the Dirty Dash in September (a muddy, obstacle 10K that will definitely be worth getting some pictures of) and I want to run a Halloween 1/2 marathon that goes down Sundance Canyon.

Someday I will stop being a wuss and actually train so that I can run a full marathon!
maybe next Spring?

Dear tomorrow,

I do not like today. I am in a bad mood and I want you to come.

as of late

My favorite time of day...right when she wakes up.

I couldn't ask for a happier baby! comin up on 10 months..

Epic Sundays: consists of jumping in the river, eating, and watching Dexter.

i love my kels! on our way to see Matisyahu

in love with grampa

Home

blurry picture, but hey- you get the point. i'm so happy that my twin brother Russell is home from serving an lds mission in Australia! We are really close and I am glad he is home to hang out with me. (that is, if he doesn't get married right away!:)
Just a quick story to tell about my awesome bro...so him and I ran cross country for Orem High school our senior year and fell in love with running. (He is alot faster than i am) but we ran the Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon together a few years ago and loved it. Anywho, we decided to go on a run this morning. now, Russ has only ran TWICE in the past 2 years and so I figured we would just take it nice and slow and easy because he would probably be a little rusty and out of shape.

I was SOREly mistaken...(pun) He didn't even sweat a drop or seem like he was the least bit out of breath. He was jumping over things, taking trails, speeding up and down, and he kept smelling the air and saying "I love the smell of utah". The best was at one point he said to me "I just got the urge to go really fast" hAHA i loved it. so of course we raced to the bridge.

I absolutely love my brother and am so happy he is home. :)

Ellie is officially BLING'ed out. I went and got her ears pierced and she looks so cute! hopefully she won't be mistaken for a boy anymore... ;)

ellie oops!

Leave Ellie for 5 minutes without a diaper and this is what happens! Of course she makes her guilty, "UH oh" face...

I'm gonna be in trouble when she gets older and is a little rebel...because there is no way I can get mad at this face. She's just too darn cute! :)

Lovely photo of the day

My new favorite blog to stalk:)

Check out my little Beethoven HERE.

I love how she throws in a little "dance" every once in a while :)

catching dreams

There's something that I love about dreamcatchers...maybe it's the memories they bring from looking at them. My family used to drive through the Indian reservation a lot when I was young, and we would stop at the trading posts where I would collect dream catchers. The past few years, my dreams have been sporadic and random..but I hang a dream catcher in my room that comforts me and I believe it helps catch my bad dreams. The bad ones that slip out, seem to send me a message and help me in some strange way.
Not only do dreamcatchers filter my dreams, but they let me be a kid again and daydream about everything that I want in my life and everything that makes me happy. Dreamcatchers to me signifies happy, carefree, positive times that we all should strive to have.

Check out my new favorite song...."Dream"

Lyrics:
I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home for me.
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my houseguests bark and leaves, and laughed in my pretty bed of green.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest swing.
I had a dream.

Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park, I asked God who I'm supposed to be.
The stars smiled down on me, God answered in silent reverie. I said a prayer and fell asleep.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest tree.
I had a dream.

Now I'm old and feeling grey. I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave.
I lived it full and I lived it well, there's many tales I've lived to tell. I'm ready now, I'm ready now, I'm ready now to fly from the highest wing.

I had a dream