For our 7 year wedding anniversary, I surprised Will with the most beautiful wedding book from Artifact Uprising!
I have wanted a wedding photo book for SO long and the Artifact UprisingLayflat Album was the perfect solution. I chose the color navy for the fabric book cover because that was the main color of our wedding! ☺️ Wills suit was navy, my bridesmaid’s dresses were navy, and we used navy envelopes for the invitations, etc! They have 12 other beautiful colors to choose from online and guess what… they are made using plant-based fabrics instead of plastic! Isn’t that incredible?
I also love how many different layout options they had for photos. I used a different layout and almost every page because I loved all of their different options (you can even add text below the images on some!)
Be sure to check out all of their other incredible gifting options online. I’ve always loved buying gifts for my loved ones on Artifact Uprising. I love that they are gifts that last a lifetime and can be so sentimental!
If you want to create something special for someone this holiday season, use code OLIVIA15 for a discount sitewide until 12/31!
-Liv
Thank you Artifact Uprising for sponsoring this post.
You guys will LOVE this salad! I seriously can’t get enough of it. Whenever Will and I travel somewhere with a Sweetgreen, we immediately find it and cross our fingers they are selling the Harvest bowl (I believe it’s seasonal).
I use similar ingredients in my variation of the salad but I added the Trader Joe’s pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds and it was the PERFECT addition for a fall salad. Or bowl. I don’t know what the heck makes a bowl vs. a salad… The amount of lettuce? I digress… here is what you will need to go buy!
Ingredients you’ll need:
Roasted/shredded chicken breasts (I used 4 medium-sized chicken breasts)
Bag of Kale (massage kale with 2 tbsp olive oil for about 5 minutes to get it nice & soft!)
Baked sweet potatoes (I cooked 3 of them)
Wild rice (I usually do 1 cup for a big salad for a party!)
Goat cheese (I usually do one half goat cheese from Costco)
Apples (I used Honeycrisp)
Trader Joe’s pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds (if making in the fall! Or use any candied nuts… but these were the perfect addition & crunch, in my opinion!)
Balsamic vinaigrette dressing. My favorite thing is to make your own! Here is the recipe I use:
In true recipe blogger rookie-ness, I don’t really measure out any ingredients but I pile it all together until it looks nice and full. It is soo good! You can add more/less of anything. Just do it to your own liking!
I’ve been a lover of cleaning my whole life and up until I found my friend Amy’s cleaning account (@bleachhpleasee), I thought I was doing a decent job…. turns out I know nothing and can be doing a lot better! Haha.
Here are the products we used in the Cleaning Expert Series IGTV and some of my personal FAVORITES that we use all the time!
(clicking on the image will take you to the retailer’s site)
Folex – this stuff is what dreams are made of! Removes stains like a champ.
Cleaning gloves. Like Amy said, gloves help you get after things way more than you normally would!
If you want a personalized version of the chore chart for you and/or your family, I can make them this week for people! Email me at oliviagochnour@gmail.com and I’ll send you details!
Ah, the post that I’ve neglected writing for so so so long.
Why? I don’t know…
Is it the (sometimes snarky) comments I get about still working when I have kids to raise at home?
No.
Is it the I fear I will look like I have all of this figured out and know exactly what’s right/wrong?
Perhaps…
I am not quite sure what it is exactly but here it goes…
I hope this helps even one of you!
Here are some of my top asked questions when it comes to working full-time as a mom!
“WHERE do you work and what do you do?“
I work at Tiled. It is a software start-up company based out of San Diego and I have been there since 2016. I started out in social media, then transferred into more of a traditional marketing role, and now (since returning from maternity leave) I am managing all of our community efforts, both externally and internally. So I manage our creative community that has free access to our platform as well as manage all of our employees experience working at Tiled. Making sure they love their job is my job 😏 I love my company, my boss (nicest person ever), my coworkers, and I love that there is literally no drama between any of us ever. The dream situation for me!
I also love how accepting the Tiled culture is at having kids around. I am on Zoom calls with CEO of Tiled quite often and he LOVES when my kids are around, loves talking to/about them, and is never bothered when I have them with me. Even just this morning, my son wouldn’t sleep because he’s teething so I had him during our meeting together and he gave him a shout out in our company-wide call and told everyone my son was teething as a company update! 😂 This makes a HUGE difference (maybe all the difference) and more work cultures need to be more cognizant of how helpful this is for working moms.
WHY do you still work after having kids?
I think the people that ask this question don’t really know me well at all. If you know me, you know I am a HUGE busy body. I thrive being busy and working hard has always been a huge part of who I am. I got my first jobs right when I turned 16 (tried to get one at 15 and they caught me after one week and made me come back at 16 ☺️) at both a boutique in Holladay AND at the snow cone shack across the street. All summer long, I would work at the boutique from 10 AM – 2 PM and then walk over to the snow shack and work from 2 PM – 10 PM. That was a normal day for me in the summertime and I genuinely loved it.
I worked throughout college as a hostess (even though jobs were discouraged while on Cougarettes) and have had a full-time job ever since I graduated from college in 2013. I don’t think I will ALWAYS have a full-time job (maybe a couple more years.. my stock options are still vesting so we’ll see haha) but I do believe I’ll always have a job of some sort. I enjoy solving business problems, helping a team achieve something great, and feeling accomplished which are all things I get from having a job (in addition to being a mom which accomplishes those as well).
It also works logistically for us right now financially. A lot of people don’t realize how personal this is… but have you ever thought, “Maybe they don’t exactly have the option to work or not.” I could totally stop working and we could do without my income but things would definitely be tighter/different. So here is just a friendly reminder to not judge others for working as a mom because maybe they don’t even have the option not to!
“WHO watches your kids when you’re working?“
Luckily for me, I really do have the most helpful husband in the ENTIRE world. If anyone knows Will, you know that NONW of this would be possible without him. He is 100% why I can do all that I do. With him working from home right now due to COVID, we co-parent 50/50 and he is always willing to hold a baby or lend a hand. Without even being asked. He is so naturally hands-on and it helps immensely.
I have a nanny come (Wills sister!) twice a week for most of the day and that is my saving grace! It took me a long time to realize how much this actually did help and I’m so glad I don’t get stressed out about the cost anymore. The cost is soo (SOOO) worth it when I realize how much I get done when she’s here. Lucy teaches my daughter soo much (it’s like she’s in school!) and they are obsessed with each other which definitely eases the guilt but she also helps with things around the house which is a LIFESAVER! I’ll also have them do things together that I would normally do with my kids on any given day like the laundry, dishes, errands to the post office, Costco, etc. So when I’m done with work, the housework is done for the day and I can just be with the kids.
Lucy comes on Mondays and Thursdays (from about 10-4 usually) and I really do try to crank out as much work as possible on Mondays so I don’t feel as stressed/distracted the rest of the week. On the days that Lucy doesn’t come, I still manage to work about 4 hours during the day (mostly during naps) and about 3 hours at night after they go down to bed. If I am busy at night during the week, I’ll make it for it a couple of hours on the weekend. I am not a stickler with my hours but definitely work as much as I feel good about. I know when I feel behind vs. when I feel caught up.
HOW do you not have your kids addicted to the screen?
I am a pretty big enforcer when it comes to no screen time. For some reason, it freaks 👏🏼 me 👏🏼 out 👏🏼 so I really do try to limit it as much as possible. My daughter didn’t watch any TV until she was about 18 months old and now she only watches if it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. a meeting comes up or I just freaking need a break! haha)
I try to keep my daughter busy with activities that don’t involve the television or the iPad (she can only color on the iPad… never watch a show on the phone or iPad.. because once again, screen time, ESP. on phones freaks me out… also we have this coloring app for the iPad and love it) and I have all of the toys she plays with daily linked on this blog post. Her sensory bins in her IKEA table keep her busy for a long time too! Teach your kids to be okay with being bored! That’s where imagination comes from. I feel like so often as moms we feel like they need to constantly be entertained when they really don’t.
“HOW do you manage your time working, being a mom, running Utah Grubs, your blog etc.“
This is the question I get the most aaaaand I sometimes try to avoid it because I never want people to feel like they aren’t doing enough. Like I said above, I am a complete busy body but I am also not perfect at any of these things I do. I could probably always be a better employee, a more hands-on mom, or put way more time and effort into Utah Grubs and my blog but I just can’t. And I accept that and am fine with it because there’s literally no way I could do it all perfectly.
Something that has really helped me is prioritizing the importance of TIME MANAGEMENT! BECOME A MASTER AT MANAGING YOUR TIME WELL!
Set timers to get things done and work FASTER. I will start doing the dishes at 8:44 PM and challenge myself to have them all done and put away by 9 PM. It makes it a fun little game and challenges yourself to work fast so you can get more done. I set timers with so many other things (finishing a work project, folding all the laundry, etc.) and it seriously helps me fit way more into my day because I am not doing tasks mindlessly and nonchalantly. Every minute has a meaning! Haha.
Analyzing my screen time report that comes on Sundays on my phone (if you have an iPhone) helps me understand where I’m wasting time and where I can do better. Towards the end of my maternity leave, I started looking at how much time I was sending on my phone and on WHAT so I could gauge what was sucking up the most of my time. If you look at your screen time report and it says you spend around 3 hours a day on Instagram, that could be 3 hours you are working from home and don’t even realize it! Since I need all the time I can get now that I have two kids, I dramatically decreased my social media consumption (hence the horrible responses to DM’s now 😭) and deleted my Twitter and anything else that sucked even a little bit of my time. For me right now, it’s either being with my family or working and I don’t have much time for other mindless things on my phone to take my time away! So that’s a great thing to be aware of/keep in mind.
While interviewing Kimberly and Elizabeth from Establish Design for my Expert Series, right before we started filming I asked them how they managed running such a successful company while raising all their kids! Kimberly said something really profound. She said that by working full -time, she sacrifices other things like personal care, quality time with friends, and going on trips, etc. And I totally understand/get that! Sometimes in order to still work while also taking care of our families, we just have to make sacrifices in different ways that others don’t. We need to be okay with that and accept that. I miss out on plenty swim days with friends and now don’t even have time to get my lashes done or nails done… but I am choosing to be with my family vs. go do those kinds of things now. If I’m not working, I’d rather be spending time with my family. And if there’s a random time I can to fit some other fun things in, that’s just the cherry on top.
If you are a working mom out there, please be easy on yourself! Some of the best advice I’ve ever received when it comes to working as a mom was a comment I got on an Instagram post and it was from Caitlin Creer from Caitlin Creer Interiors. She said, “Working and being a mom is so hard. There are days you will feel like you were a good mom and bad at your job, and days you will feel like you were great at your job but could do better as a mom. In my experience, you just have to do your best day by day and know in the end that the unfinished tasks and people being impatient with you will not matter in the long run.”
Don’t you love that?
Take it all day by day.
Give yourself grace.
And drink a lot of caffeine in the process 🤪
Love you guys so much! ❤️
-Liv
Here is some advice from other work from home mamas!
Focus/prioritize getting your kids to all nap at the same time!
Have a daily goal list to get 3 things done each day for work
Buy a sandbox!
Have toys they can only play with during work hours. Makes it more exciting.
Work FASTER.
Limit all distractions when it’s work time. Leave your phone in the other room.
Turn off text/email notifications while you’re working so you don’t constantly check other things
Teach your kids to be self resilient and to be okay being bored while mom works. It’s so good for them!
Outsource housework if you can afford it. Makes a huge difference!
Let go of the guilt.
Cosmic yoga TOGETHER. Gives us a minute to reset and connect before naps.
Work where you can’t hear them. Have a designated office area.
Here is the recipe my sister Eliza gave me for the BEST banana bars! You will seriously love these. Serve them with some vanilla bean ice cream and BAM! Perfect treat.
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
Stir the wet ingredients first and then add the dry ingredients.
Be careful not to overmix!
Pour in a baking sheet that you wipe down with Crisco.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes
Frosting:
3/4 cup butter melted & slightly browned (make sure you brown it! it’s what makes it so good)
3 tbsp milk
3 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Mix well until smooth & pour over hot bars.
You will absolutely love these! Tag me if you make them! 💛
I do NOT mess around when it comes to sleep! I seriously find it SO important to have everyone in my household get good, quality sleep.. especially my babies!
Here is a list of things we LOVE and use on a daily basis. If you have any questions about any of the products, feel free to comment down below and I’ll respond!
clicking on any image (besides the Newton mattress) below will direct you to the retailers site to purchase!
HAPPY SLEEPING!
Hatch Baby Rest+. Make sure you get the Rest+ and not just the Rest! The Rest+ plugs in better and can run off of a battery so you can use it on the go!
Halo Sleep Sacks. Our daughter still sleeps in a Halo sleep sack to this day! If you are looking for a good weighted one, we have been using the DREAMLAND BABY CO. one for our son lately and have totally noticed a great difference!
Owlet Baby Sock. I promise I sleep 100% better at night when my baby is wearing an Owlet. I have my babies wear them until they are about 6 months old!
Dockatot. The perfect sleeping companion for (parent observed) naps at home or on the go!
Humidifier. I love having a humidifier going in my kid’s rooms when they’re sick or stuffy!
Baby Bjorn Travel Crib. This crib is a GAME CHANGER if you travel or have your kids nap in other places often. Folds up so small. I’ll do a tutorial on my Stories tonight!
Swaddles. I love putting light blankets like this over their car seat when they nap in the car.
Wyze Cam Pan. This is the only camera we’ve ever used with our babies and love it! You really can’t beat that price.
Bunny Soother Blanket. I love giving my babies little soft things to hold if they are having a hard time falling asleep. These Jellycats are great.
Dreamtown Pillow. When I asked my sis-in-law how her toddler napped so well, she told me to get our daughter a pillow! I bought this one for her and it really has been a game-changer. She naps longer now and I totally attribute it to a pillow.
Slumberpod. You know my love for the Slumberpod… it goes DEEP! We use it for traveling and I have no idea how I ever lived without it. Use code OLIVIABETH for $10 off your Slumberpod on their website!
Blackout Curtains. Can’t beat this price! They aren’t the most beautiful option but they get the job done.
Newton Mattress. A safe mattress is SO important to me! I sleep so much better knowing our son could sleep on his belly and still breathe okay with a Newton mattress. (get $50 off when you use this link!)
Potty Training is one of those parts of parenting that feels so daunting and unknown! After successfully potty training three kids, I wanted to share the method I used, the potty we have, and some tips and tricks! I am by no means an expert but it has always gone somewhat well for us and my kids have all picked it up quickly.
Method
Book: The book I listened to/method I’ve used isOH CRAP. I bought the Audible version when I potty trained my first and when I’m about to potty train each kid, I listen to it on 2x speed as a quick refresher. I love how she divides it up into blocks so you know where to go back to if something doesn’t seem quite right. I also love that she doesn’t do any kind of reward system. Going pee is a primal behavior and something they shouldn’t be rewarded for doing. She compares it to giving a gift because they learned how to walk… Why are we rewarding a behavior that they should be doing naturally? I really do love her entire approach!
Age: Jamie suggests potty training between 20 and 30 months. I did both of my girls right at 24 months and my son at 30 months and it went great! She believes anytime after that actually makes it harder in the long run. If your child is over 30 months old, I’d start sooner rather than later! Actually, just listen to the book. I will let Jamie explain why haha!
Products
Potty: Here is a link to THE POTTY WE USED. The first couple of days, you want the potty to be as close to the child as possible so you can sprint over when they start to pee. We will even take it on walks and just put it in the bottom of the stroller.
Portable potty: If you are on the go often, I suggest ordering this PORTABLE OPTION. We have a couple of road trips coming up and I always have this on hand in the car in case she can’t hold it.
Sippy cups: While potty training, SIPPY CUPS are on us at all times to keep liquids going in her. We did Body Armour and water the first couple of days to try get her body going!
Tank tops: With the Oh Crap method, you actually don’t put underwear on them for the first week or so. The feeling of something on them will urge them to pee to so they are pantsless for a little while.. With my daughter, I bought THESE TANK TOPS and ordered them in a size up so they cover her bum. It’s almost like she’s not just wearing a tank but not fully a dress (dresses can be hard for them to pull up on their own when they’re learning!) so I’ve loved this long tank top hack.
That’s all I can think of for now! Like I said, I’ll let Jamie from Oh Crap! take it from here 😉
We seriously had the MOST incredible time down in Bryce Canyon a couple of weekends ago! Bryce Canyon has never even been on my radar as a place I’ve wanted to go and now I have nooo idea why I’ve waited so long! I’ve lived in Utah my entire life and still have so much of Utah left to explore. Capitol Reef National Park is next on our list!
Lodging:
We stayed at Ruby’s Inn (it’s a Best Western) and we loved it! There aren’t many places to stay in town but we loved Ruby’s Inn. There is breakfast every morning and both an indoor/outdoor pool! Which is a game-changer for the kiddies after going hiking.
Hiking:
We did Mossy Cave, Queen’s Garden and the Peekabo loop trail and loved all of them! Both had scenery that will leave you speechless and were fairly easy to do with kids (Queens is easier than Peekaboo). Mossy Cave is more a stroll up to a little waterfall and is SO doable for kids. The only one kind of bummer with Peekaboo is the lovely smell of horse manure the entire loop since it’s also a trail you can ride horses on haha 😅 so just be prepared for that. You don’t have to do the entire loop too! Just going down and up Wall Street is INCREDIBLE. That was my favorite part!
Food:
As with lodging, there really isn’t a ton to eat down there either. We ate at IDK BBQ and Showdown’s and they were good! Not places to write home about but they were both up there on Yelp. We didn’t have time to try The Pizza Place (literally its name) but we heard great things about that place! There’s always good ol’ Subway too! 🤪
We truly did have SO much fun and I can’t wait to visit more National Parks! What is your favorite National Park you’ve ever visited?
-Liv
Everything we used and loved on the trip is linked right here!
I have been talking about doing a movie night in our backyard pretty much since we bought our house… or maybe before.
I did some research and ended up going with THIS PROJECTOR (hi, best size ever) and THIS MOVIE SCREEN and we have loved both of them!
I also highly suggest buying THIS OUTDOOR BLUETOOTH SPEAKER (hi, look at those reviews) and it has been awesome as well. Super loud and you can’t beat that price!
I also added some other things above to make your outdoor movies even more special!
Another fun idea could be to grab real movie theater popcorn (they’re delivering in Utah!) and get the full experience! With the added fresh air 😅
Have so much fun! And be sure to tag me in your pics so I can see you guys having fun in the backyard!
After several requests, I finally put together a list of some of my favorite swimsuits right now! I realize this summer might look a little different than any other year before but hopefully, we all get to still have some time outside and in the water. My favorite thing about summer is easily the sunshine and pool days.
I love finding suits at Albion Fit and Kortni Jeane, of course! Two great local Utah companies to love and support!
Here are some other favorites below.
(clicking on the image will lead you to the retailer’s site!)
I also put together some poolside/beach favorites! I can’t get over THIS HAT! It’s literally perfect.
(clicking on the image will lead you to the retailer’s site!)
I get asked quite often if I have any favorite sensory toys that I used with our daughter so here they are! I am now using all of these toys with our son.
It’s to say for certain if these are a direct correlation between our daughter and her speech, which is what a lot of you ask. If our son has an advanced speech at a young age maybe we’ll know haha… but I think so much good comes just from simply TALKING to your kids a lot (no matter how young they are) and limiting screen time as much as possible. We didn’t have our daughter watch any TV until she was about 20 months old. So maybe that helped?
I know that’s easier said than done though. My fourth kid will have probably watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy 50 times by the age of 2 and all of these toys will be long lost/broken. We’re all just doing our best!
We actively use and love all of the toys listed below.
Clicking on the image above will direct you to the retailer’s site
I hope that helps some of you! The Wimmer Ferguson toys are the most impactful when it comes to visual and multi-sensory development, in my opinion.
I am also finding a lot of fun sensory activities for her to do in her new sensory table (we have THIS ONE from Ikea! with THIS STOOL) so I will be sure to share them as I find them. The SINK pictured above fits perfectly in the sensory table!
I will be sure to add everything I use for our sensory table on my AMAZON STOREFRONT! I just made a new section for it 🙂
