park days

we have this really nice park right by our house that we have been going to almost on a daily basis. i've been trying to be more active and i want brooklynn to be active so it works out. it takes about 10-15 minutes to walk there so i walk pushing quinn in the stroller and brooklynn rides her scooter. she's getting really good at it. the weather has been really nice lately, cool but not too cold so we have been loving going to the park. it has been so nice living in california. i've got to enjoy these days before we endure a bakersfield summer. i hear it gets pretty dang hot. so for now we will be at the park. probably every day until it's too hot. brooklynn is just learning how to swing on the big kid swings. she will hop on and repeat out loud, "forward and back, forward and back" and she does it with her legs. it's pretty cute. quinn loves the baby swing. she could swing in that thing forever. i think quinn is quite enjoying being outside so much. she is 6 months old now. i can't even believe it. half way to a year. what in the world!? i love these kiddos of mine.

rainy day

i absolutely love rainy days. they are my favorite. something about hearing the rain just gets me. it's so peaceful. like the earth is being cleaned. i love it. especially here in bakersfield where the air quality is not all the great. it's nice to have the rain clear some of that out for a bit. 

today was brooklynns first real experience playing in the rain. it was so fun. she came running over to me and said, "mom! i need my boots, my hoodie, and my scarf on so i can go play in the rain!" so we did just that. except she didn't have a scarf so she ran into her room and got a pajama shirt and used it as a scarf. it was hilarious. she had so much fun! it eventually started raining so hard i had to make her come inside which she was not happy about but she still had a good time.

also, little side note:

 i have to document this because it was just so beyond funny. let me just start off saying that brooklynn was the easiest to potty train. she just wanted to do it and it was done. no accidents or anything. and then when we did it at night there were no accidents either.. not until the other night. it was the first time she ever wet the bed. i was shocked. not a huge deal though, but when i realized she wet the bed it was the middle of the night and i said to her, "brooklynn you peed your pants" and she responded, "no mom, it's ice cream on my pants from when we went to the city." i was literally crying i was laughing so hard! i have no idea where she got that from but i was dying. she is so funny!!

valentines day / / orange county

one of the many great things about moving here to bakersfield is that we are so much closer to my family. orange county is just over 2 hours away from us which means i will get to see them so much more often which i am beyond excited about. 

for valentines day the kids and i headed down there because my mom planned the most awesome valentines day. it started at jerry's dog for lunch and my mom had made the cutest valentines day pouches that looked like envelopes that were hanging on the back of every child's chair. they were to die for! ah. all the kids exchanged valentines, it was so fun for brooklynn since it was her first time really getting into valentines day. plus lunch was yummy!

then we all headed to cinepolis luxury cinemas. this place is awesome! it's a movie theater where all the seat are huge soft recliner chairs and they have servers to come and wait on you and bring you whatever you want. it was so nice for me juggling the two littles to have two huge seats to deal with. it made the whole experience so much easier. we saw the lego movie and if you haven't seen it you should. i wasn't sure how much i was going to like it but it turned out to be so good and so funny. i would definitely recommend it. 

after the movie we all headed over to toys r us because my mom treats every kid to a valentines day toy. so all the kids ran around toys r us picking out their perfect toy. brooklynn had originally chosen the huge $40 bear.. this was what she wanted.. out of every single toy in that place she was set on this bright green bear. since she already has a big bear and a million other stuffed animals i was determined to get her to pick something else. and she did! we went into the art supply area and she saw a esle and she was sold! best choice ever she LOVES it!! 

so i have to say a huge thanks to mimi and papa for such a fun valentines day!

we stayed for one more day which consisted of breakfast with my girlfriend kourtney, she then cut my hair and brooklynns hair and did her hair all cute, then met my other girlfriend nicole and target with her kiddos, then i met my sister janice at the mall for lunch and shopping, and then got brooklynn's nail painted, then just hung out at my parents house for the rest of the day until we headed home that night. it was such a fun weekend! i look forward to many more just like it!

here is a little video of brooklynn dancing at the gap in the mall while we waited for janice to try some clothes on. she's such a nut.

gone girl / / book 2 of 12

okay so this book.. 

i read it because it was on a list 12 books you must read before they turn into movies this year. i love reading books and then seeing the movie.

i can't do it the other way around.. if i see a movie and i find out there was a book, it's too late i won't read it.

this book was on that list and my friend kaitlin was in the middle of reading it and she said it was so good. so i started reading it and i quickly agreed. it was so good! i was reading it so fast because it's a thriller and i just had to know what happened! 

i don't want to give anything away in case you want to read the book or if you are planning to see the movie but honestly.. don't read this book.. unless you want to stop before the last few chapters and make up your own ending.. because the ending of this book straight up sucked. i hated every single thing about how this book ended. like for real. worst. ending. of. a. book. ever. ugh i was so mad.

normally when you go see a movie of a book you read you want them to stay as close to the book as possible. but in this case i pray they change the ending...

please change the ending!!!

on a different note i'm on a great start to completing my new years resolution of reading 12 books. i'm actually half way through the 3rd already! go me!

also, i know i am supposed to weigh in at the end of january but with our move i'm not sure where our scale is and it's gonna be bad.. i did bad in january.. hopefully this month is better. i'll weigh in as soon as i find my scale!

we made it

we made it to bakersfield. 

i think i like it so far. i haven't seen much of the place since i've been trying to put our house together and get everything all set up. one thing is for sure, i absolutely love our house. and so does brooklynn. she loves having a backyard that she can play in. she is in and out all day riding her scooter and her bike and running around. it's nice for me since it's all fenced in so she can go in and out as she pleases and she loves it. hopefully we can makes some friends here soon. 

it's also so nice being closer to my family. yesterday we decided to hop in the car and drive down there and go to dinner with everyone.. we probably won't be doing anymore same day there and back trips.. two and half hours both ways is kind of a lot for one day but it was so much fun! next time i think we'll stay for a couple days! 

but anyway, we're here! loving the warmer weather. 

i do not miss the cold and the snow!

i do miss my utah people though!

we're moving...

we are moving to...

(drumroll please)

bakersfield, califoria

now i have to admit i at first didn't have the best attitude about moving to bakersfield... i just feel like i was born to live in big cities with lots of people and things to do... but i've come to realize that i really know nothing about this place and i need to go into this with an open mind and a good attitude. 

luckily i have a friend who grew up in bakersfield and knows all of the good areas to live in and the areas we need to stay away from so it's nice having her help while we find somewhere to live. we will be moving there literally as soon as we find a place.. it's all happening so fast.. 

i really am excited for this new adventure.. i am so happy to get out of the cold and it will be so fun to be less than 3 hours away from my family. it will be nice for brooklynn to be able to play and ride her bike outside.. and we can start going on walks again!! but it will be so sad to leave curtis' side of the family out here. it has been so nice living close to them and i love them so much that it is going to be really hard to leave them.. it will also be really hard to leave my friends that i have here.. and the ward we are in. i absolutely love it! 

and who am i going to go to dinner with and spend hours and hours talking about one direction with when i'm living so far away from kaitlin? ahhh

so as you can see this is going to be a bitter sweet transition but i am feeling optimistic.

i am ready to start this new chapter of our lives.

my thoughts on mockingjay (spoilers)

i read the hunger games and catching fire while i was pregnant with brooklynn almost 4 years ago but i never read mockingjay. i don't know why i never read it.. it could be because so many people told me it was their least favorite out of the 3 books so i didn't feel a big rush to read it. well in light of my new years resolution to read 12 books this year i figured it give it a go. i'm so glad i did. i actually really liked it despite a few things that really made me mad.

here are my thoughts and yes there will be major major spoilers so if you haven't read the book and are planning to just do not read this post.

• um so peeta is crazy? i really don't like that he is all messed up for most of the book because i always loved how peeta loves katniss and would do anything for her that i hate that he's so mean to her for the majority of the book. on a different note it was nice to see katniss fight for peeta.
• i don't like that katniss is so cold towards gale. ok, now here's the thing. when i read the hunger games and catching fire i was so team peeta so i would not have cared had i read this before the movies came out... but i'm all confused now because they casted liam hemsworth as gale and he is just so much hotter than josh hutcherson who plays peeta that it made me conflicted.. dang movies.
• i liked that finnick and annie got married. that made me happy.
• i liked that katniss and johanna kind of helped each other out, it was nice to see them become sort of friends. but i was sad that she lost her mind again during the test and wasn't able to go into combat although it probably saved her life.
• speaking of that... why on earth did finnick have to die.. i really grew to love hims and it made me so sad that he left annie behind! boo
• i'm glad katniss didn't shoot gale when he mouthed it to her.. that would have been lame.
• I AM BEYOND UPSET THAT THEY KILLED PRIM! i mean hello, remember at the beginning of the series that katniss volunteered to take her place in the games so that she could live???? i mean, yeah katniss sparked the revolution and it all kind of worked out even though a lot of people died but come on.. not prim.
• i was actually kind of disappointed that most of the remaining victors chose to have the kids of those in power in the capitol to be in a hunger games.. really? like what did president snows granddaughter have to do with anything? that kind of bugged me.
• when katniss shot president coin... whoa, did not see that coming... 
• i was sad that haymitch just went back to drinking.. though i don't blame him
• i wanted more interacted with katniss and peeta... i feel like it ended and they were like yeah we like each other?? what?? i need more.
• and what about gale.. so she gets taken to district 12 to live after the whole thing goes down and doesn't say bye to gale.. doesn't talk to gale.. doesn't know anything about what he's doing after everything that he did for her and her family! yeah i know she's made because he helped build the bomb that killed prim but he didn't send the bomb to kill her! i don't know it just makes me mad that after everything they went through they didn't even say bye to each other. i don't like that at all.

okay, i know most of those things are things that i didn't like about the book but i just had to get it off my chest. i really did like the book overall and i'm interested to see how they make the movie. wish it wasn't going to be in two parts..

anyway, anyone else read this book? thoughts?