1847.

14 year old girl living in my parents neighborhood: "omg. you must think utah is like so boring compared to new york... like... it's so fun there... right?"

me: "well no.... your home is your home. new york is fun, but utah will always be my home. utah will always the place i go to relax and breathe..."

so yes. in 1847 good ole brigham came charging into the valley, popped up his tent and stated "this is the place" with great enthusiasm (or relief, depending on how you think about it). and for me, it's still the place.

it's the place where my family still resides and i will eagerly visit every chance i get.

it's the place where on the way, the entire way, my child cozily sleeps like this:

it's the place where she wakes up BEAMING.

it's the place where grandma and her chat for HOURS while [R] just kicks back... haha

it's the place where we like to dress up.

it's the place where snow cones are taken to a new level, becoming the go-to treat of summer. who can resist some coconut ice cream topped with passion fruit flavored ice? apparently [R] can.

it's the place where grandma buys balloons just because she knows how much [R] likes them.

it's the place where uncles take you to lunch and share their pizza with you. muchos gracias, hunter...

it's the place where grandma continues to dominate.

BUT also the place where cousins make feeding time so much fun! get in my belly!!!

it's the place where the county fairs are... strange.... but entertaining. and where the highlights are the bunny barn and the mini pony party.

 it's the place where we go for morning walks with this face staring at me.

the place where grandpa teases her with real milk.. one day, my sweet, one day.

oh and of course, it's the place where we travel 2.5 hours to go to a dinky diner in brigham city, then continue on to the golden spike to be a little educational.

and naturally,  it's the place where we take the BEST selfies...

AND it's the place where people feel the need to bring their pillow pets to watch the trains come in... we've all done it- don't deny it.

 it's the place where the great salt lake resides. cannonball!

it's the place where you find huge chunks of salt that actually taste like salt.... i know from experience.

AND THAT, is my story in a nutshell/series of pictures. SO 14 year old "valley girl" who lives in my parents neighborhood, even though i may live in a city where the population is 3 times the population of the entire state of utah, it will ALWAYS be my home. (cue the tears..... bingo.)

it's 6am.

turned over to fall back asleep and i hear that "ping" that without fail makes you (or maybe just me) curious enough to turn back over and check your phone.

new email: [R's] photos. (BINGO.)

well that got me out of bed real fast! i've been excited all week to see these photos and i am so thrilled i just had to blog about it! (but after this, i really am going back to bed... only an hour until this peach wakey-wakes) (spoke too soon! i hear her little grunts...) (shhhh, sweet thing, you're still tired...)

(change of scenery and outfits, because that's only necessary when you're having a photo shoot!)

(and although [R's] first emotion is happiness, she does have some others that are worth documenting..)

"you wanna smolder!?? oh, i'll give you a smolder..."

"not the bucket!!!!"

"oh, that's not so bad..."

"but not the crown!! not the itchy crown!!"

S/O: thanks to ma mère (pictured earlier), for making [R] smile and for entertaining another little one at the same time. 

thanks to ma sœur for being my extra set of arms and for holding the reflecty photographer thingy. 

and thanks to kathryn for doing these beautiful pictures! newborn pictures are not easy and she was very patient with us. she did a great job helping us "simba style" show off our little one;)