Sorry. I forgot your name.

Thanks for randomly giving me this sweet little rose today, and saying such nice things.

You must have known that I was having a pretty stressful day, and that roses are my favorite.

Not sure if somebody told you to do it, or you had other roses to give to other people too,

but I don't even care. 

You are awesome, and you brightened my day with your simple sweetness. The world needs more people like you. 

xo

Ivy 

This weekend was so fun! My dad, uncle and grandpa all came up to HANG OUT WITH ME! And go to the football game. Yup, I got to crash the bro weekend. 

On Friday, dad and Uncle Ryan decided they'd come to my geography class with me...why not?!

I think the other people in my class must have been wondering what I was doing sitting in-between to big, older guys, but it was so funny. 

Then it was time for football!

We somehow got to watch the first half from the front row, right at the 50-yard line. How, you ask? I have no idea! But it was so fun! 

This guy is seriously the coolest dad there ever was. He then decided to come sit in the crazy student section with me and all my friends.What other dad in the entire world would do that, I ask you? 

All of the guys we were with thought he was the coolest ever, and they were sad when the game was over and we were leaving. Were they sad I was leaving? No. Just that he was. 

We went to the Pie Pizzeria in downtown Salt Lake. Soo yummy. I have tons of left overs in my fridge if you want to come get some. Notice how I am strategically covering up the "U" on the sign :)

The rest of the time consisted of eating all sorts of yummy food, going to Salt Lake, eating more food and talking about sports. 

Oh and going to battle-of-the-bands. 

Yup, grandpa went to a college rock concert. 

Anwways. I had lots of fun! Except for when I had to say bye again. I DO NOT like goodbyes. At all. 

But Thanksgiving is right around the corner-ish. 

Hope your Sabbath is lovely!

xo

This morning started off with a little trip to the temple, a.k.a one of my favorite places in the whole darn world. 

Lately life has been oh so good, but I am still getting used two the whole I'm-an-adult thing. Trying to decide exactly what classes to take next semester, what emphasis I want to pursue in my major, things that, in the big scheme of things, actually aren't all that important, but right now they seem to be a huge deal.

Like always, I stress and research and ask people and I get so caught up in trying to handle it myself, that I almost forget to do the obvious things that are important, and will bring me an answer.

i.e, go to the temple. 

I love being there, and I love how absolutely calming it is. The second I walk in those doors (or even on the temple grounds), I feel at home, and I know that whatever hard thing is going on, everything will be okay. 

It was peaceful and beautiful and simple and perfect.

And totally worth the walk there and back in heels. 

The temple is always, always worth the walk. 

Later on I went with Renee to the little duck pond near our apartments and fed the ducks bread for part of a biology project thing. Don't ask. 

As you can see, there are no ducks in this picture. I had FREE food, and they didn't care all that much. The ducks on campus are so spoiled.

After that I had my last class, edited an essay over and over 1000x, finished some geography homework and then headed over to the creamery. 

Now me and Ashlin are shamelessly enjoying some nice ice cream in our cute little room. 

It was one of those days where the world is just happy. 

xo

Well now, who doesn't? 

The other day I hit up the clearance racks at Target and found lots of good stuff, including this blue shirt for like 12 bucks. Sometimes I think we really underestimate those clearance racks. 

Also, the leaves continue to change colors and it is just the prettiest thing ever. 

I am probably way too excited about it. I just hope it stays like this as long as possible!
I'm not going to be able to wear capris for much longer...

Outfit total: $40

Have a happy Monday!

xo

 Provo is pretty.

Have a super happy weekend!

xo

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with the post. But it is fall. So hey. 

The thirty-first chapter of Proverbs has always been one of my very favorites. 

Whether you are religious or not, this is something that you should read over and over again throughout your entire life. It is not too often that you find an entire chapter of scripture solely about women (from verse 10 and on at least). 

Whenever I am trying to figure out what I need to do, what I want to accomplish and who I need to be in  life, my thoughts turn to the woman described in this beautiful chapter. 

She is virtuous.
She settles for nothing less than marrying a righteous man. 

She is smart and independent but willingly supports her husband and has his full trust. 

She knows how to work hard to accomplish the things she needs to.

She reaches out to the poor and the needy and "is not afraid" because she is well prepared. 

She speaks kindness, and teaches her children to live a righteous life and to be hard workers.

When I read this chapter my mind goes to women such as my own mother, my grandmothers, aunts, and other honorable women I know, all of whom I look up to, and try to be like. 

Sometimes I wonder how I can ever be like these women...they seem to be almost perfect! 

But today, the world is in desperate need of women like the one in this chapter (my mind also goes to this lovely quote).

Women who are virtuous and pure. 

It needs women who can be faithful and loving spouses. Who support their husbands, build them up, and have their backs no matter what. 

It needs strong righteous mothers who can make a home and teach and love their children. 

It needs women who know how to work hard and contribute to society. 

It needs women who love and serve those around them. 

Look at the world around you. In our world, the woman in Proverbs 31 is very rare. She is not on the cover of magazines. She is not well-known or celebrated. She isn't admired on TV or on the internet, or anywhere really. But she is oh so important. 

If more women were like the woman described in this chapter, the world would be a much different place. Could you even imagine how drastic that difference would be? 

Anyways.
Life has been a little bit crazy this week, finishing up midterms and writing papers like crazy, so I haven't had a whole ton of time to blog. But I was really feelin' this post.
Happy hump day!

xo

This weekend was one of the most beautiful, fun and spiritually uplifting weekends I have had in a long time, which says a lot because the past few weekends have been absolutely wonderful. 

On Saturday, right around the time that conference was through (which I will talk about in a later post), I opened my door to see my favorite people in the world for the first time in five weeks.

Words cannot explain how happy I felt to see each of them! They made the long, this time, 19-hour drive to see me (detours and other things made the drive a lot longer than it was supposed to be. My poor brothers must have been so darn bored). 

We went and stayed in Salt-Lake for the weekend. I kind of felt like I was on vacation or something because the whole Utah Valley is still new to me!

One thing I love about my family is how totally chill they are. We don't need to have stuff planned, we don't really even have rules on vacation. We just do whatever we feel like, and go explore around. Which was exactly what we did!

We drove up the canyon to Park City, and saw all of the beautiful leaves changing color. 

We also stumbled upon some people practicing their skiing-off-a-ramp-and-into-water sport (sorry, I don't know the real name of it) at Olympic Park, where the winter Olympics were at in 2002. It was way cool. 

Gunnar is being blocked by my giant...whatever strange hairstyle I've got going on...poor kid. 

The Mesa temple will always be "my" temple, but i'd be lying if I said the Salt lake Temple isn't absolutely stunning and breathtakingly gorgeous. Oh, and I ran into Chelsi, the classiest sassiest Asian I know. 

They left today, and it was hard saying goodbye all over again. I, like I too-often am, was an emotional wreck for about a good three hours. But I can't wait till Thanksgiving comes and I get to see them and my lovely Arizona desert again (I miss that beautiful warm place).

I am so grateful for families! I feel like they are becoming more and more unimportant in our society today (which I will also talk about in a later post). But truly, they are the happiest and best thing in the world. 

When they are far away from you? Ya, it sucks. Just like it is sometimes hard that Kurtis is gone, that my friends and cousins from home aren't here to hang out with, and so on. But sometimes it is a good thing, because you realize how blessed you are to have something so wonderful to miss. 

I'd give that weekend six stars out of five. 

Here's to a wonderful new week full of studying and mid-terms. 

Please guys, wish me luck. 

xo

Yesterday was a day filled with all kinds of fun things.

I was able to go up to the Skyroom Resturant for a scholarship lunch!
It was so fancy. I had no idea that place was so cool!

I got the opportunity to meet these two lovely people who, without them, I couldn't be going to school. They were so funny! And so sweet. 

Aren't they just the sweetest guys ever? 

 Last night was a pink tights/studying/watching Johnny Lingo kind of night. It was good. 

 Friday night football game in the Wilk. 

Annnnd now it is time for general conference!

And time for my family to come up and visit me!

And for other fun things like that!

Have a happy weekend!

xo

I'm fine if the snow stays on the mountains. It's once it gets down here that we have a problem.

Every day is great around here. But weekends? They are even better!

This weekend was cold. Too cold. 

But when it is cold outside, people don't like to get to the football game very early, so sometimes you end up getting front row seats and having a super fun time.

These girls are the best. We decided it was too cold to just stand there. So we went a little bit crazy and had a mini dance party in line.






The football game was FREEZING.
Is it too late to change my mind about this whole living-in-Utah thing? ;)
But I learned that sometimes, when you're having tons of fun, the cold doesn't really matter.
Also, ESPN filmed us so that pretty much makes me a famous person now.

On Saturday me and Lindsey went to the temple and then went and got some yummy ice cream. Isn't she just the cutest? I missed that girl!! I love that she loves the temple. And that she loves ice cream too :)

Saturday night was the Relief Society General Broadcast.
So good. Everything I needed to hear, perfectly put.
Right after that I went on a date with my friend Devon. We went to a comedy show that was GREAT and then played card games and I won.
Sunday was wonderful, just like it always is. Me and Ashlin made shredded beef burritos for dinner and they were yummy.

I'd say it was a successful weekend.
Lots more to come!

xo