recipes

Signs of Spring

The weather in Utah has been absolutely beautiful lately. Fortunately, all the smog has gone away so the air quality is increasingly getting better and the sun is beginning to shine like crazy! Yesterday felt like Spring and I was able to go on a jog outside which made me super happy. I love those days that feel like Spring is right around the corner!

Last week we babysat TWO DIFFERENT FAMILIES at the same time (9 kids combined, say what?!), plus still worked our 40 hour work weeks, had to fulfill our church responsibilities, and drove carpools like it was our job ? I have no idea how we survived all of it but I like to think that Diet Coke is a huge factor in that survival ? And the fact that Will is always so positive and literally never complains about how insane our life can be is helpful as well.

One afternoon I made these Cadbury Egg Rice Krispies with James and they were super yummy. The recipe is just a regular Rice Krispie recipe with Cadbury Eggs added into the mix afterward. Nothing too special but we loved them!

Recipe

1 cube butter
Melt butter in pan until almost turning brown
Add 1 bag of large marshmallows + a pinch of sea salt
Pour in cereal a little at a time and stir until right consistency. I hate it too dry with too much cereal. Keep stirring and let it cool a bit.
Add Cadbury Eggs!

Oh, James! I just love him.

My friend MaryAnne’s wedding is less than two weeks away and I can hardly wait. We had her Bachelorette party last week in Deer Valley and I loved celebrating this cute bride to be.

I’m still teaching Pilates several times a week and love it. Sometimes that 4 am alarm clock can be rough but my clients are amazing and I really do love teaching. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do so to finally be teaching feels like a dream. Also, your first week is FREE at CoreBody Pilates so come stop by and take a class!

A part of my new little Pilates journey, I was able to get a Dexa Body Scan and found it super fascinating. The Body Composition scan showed me a complete write up of all my lean muscle mass & fat mass and then the RMR showed how many calories my body burns and what my metabolism looks like. It was a great analysis of my health and I’m excited to track my progress as I do more and more Pilates. If you ever want to get scanned for yourself, go visit Dexa Body! If you want a discount use OLIVIA30 for $20 off any scan or package.

Here’s to more days filled with warmer weather, more Cadbury Eggs (has anyone tried the Cookies and Cream ones yet?!), and lots and lots of work this week! ??

-Liv

Details:

Sunglasses: Le Specs

Black dres: Katie Waltman Boutique

Black Leggings: Lululemon Wunder Under Pant (my absolute favorite right now!)

Turquoise striped tank: Lululemon (old, similar here)

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favorites

Favorite Colorful Walls in SLC!

This post is a little silly but it’s one I’ve wanted to do for a while now! I receive texts ALL the time of people asking “Where is a good pink wall?!” Or “Where is that book wall you went to?!” etc. so I thought it was about time I compose a post with all of my favorites.

All pictures were taken by my friend Sarah who just started her photography business! Go give her some ❤️.

RED WALL

Downtown Target: SLC 300 West

Dress is from Zara

Vans are from Nordstrom

PINK WALL

Blue Boutique: 1051 300 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Jumpsuit: GAP

PINK/PURPLE STRIPED WALL

Mischievous (novelty shops tends to have great walls ?): 559 300 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Bag is from Nena & CO

Vans: Nordstrom

(click page #2 to go to the next page!)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

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gochnours

North Carolina!

Last weekend we were in NORTH CAROLINA! I’ve had “Visit North Carolina to see where Will grew up” on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. It was so surreal to see these places he grew up going to and especially the actual house he grew up in!

While we were out front seeing the house, the owner came out and politely asked why we were taking pictures in front of her house ? She let us come inside and see the house and loved talking to us about the memories they all had inside that home. It was a true Mr. Deeds experience and I loved it haha!

Every place we went to in Durham was charming and I loved all the TREES! EVERYWHERE! Literally tall trees were all over the place and I couldn’t get over it.

The main reason we went out to North Carolina was to see a Duke basketball game. Will’s dad went to business school at Duke hence the reason they are all DIE HARD Duke fans. I’ve loved Duke ever since I started dating Will and it was another item on my bucket list to go to Cameron Indoor and watch a basketball game. And holy cow! What an amazing experience that was.

Anyone know how to pronounce that? ☺️

The Duke gymnasium is so small compared to others so the energy was palpable. I literally had chills the entire game! It was also a super close game so I was also sweating at the same time. Luckily, Duke pulled off the win!

Had to buy some new Duke gear at the bookstore of course. Will said anything Duke could come out of his budget this month ?

Duke Chapel

The rest of the trip was spent eating incredible southern food, visiting old family friends of the Gochnour’s, and seeing everything that Durham had to offer!

Gonza Mexican food

Sarah Duke gardens

Ben and Jerry’s Milk & Cookies ice cream.

(go buy it asap)

It was one of my favorite trips I’ve ever taken and I loved seeing a part of Will’s life I’ve never been able to see before! Times I know I will definitely cherish forever.

This upcoming week we’re babysitting two families at once again. As in 10 children. As in 10 children + both working 40 hours a week. As in WHAT in the world are we doing. Wish us luck ?

-Liv

Details:

Gray baseball cap: recent purchase from Lululemon!

Denim jacket(my favorite): GAP

Nikes: LunarEpic Running Shoes

Necklaces: Made by Mary

Sunglasses: Le Spec – Nordstrom

Copper Birkenstocks: Free People

Bandana scarf: Madewell

Dooney & Burke purse is from a secondhand store in SLC ❤️

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i love will

My Valentine

Oh, how I loved Valentine’s day yesterday.

Will and I were able to spend the entire day together. We grabbed some smoothies in the morning, worked together side by side while watching a movie, ate lunch at a yummy new ramen place we found (even though I was on a conference call the entire lunch ? sorry sweetie!!) and then ate dinner at Market Street Grill which is our absolute favorite place to celebrate! Their french fries and Diet Coke are life.

I am so grateful for Will every single day. He is always so positive and literally gives me the biggest hug every time I walk through the door. No joke.. my feet actually come off the floor every single time because his hugs are soo big. I joke that I’ll never need a dog because Will is always so excited to see me even if we’ve been apart for only an hour haha.

He is optimistic, loving, caring, thoughtful, and my favorite thing about him is that he ALWAYS gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. He never talks bad about anyone and I look up to him in so many ways.

So grateful I have this Valentine with me for the rest of my life.

I truly do hope you all had a great Valentine’s day! I hope we all can take the love we felt yesterday and put it back into this world.

-Liv

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babysitting

Little Happenings.

I feel like I start out every blog post the exact same way.. “We have been so busy lately”, “Wow the past couple weeks have flown by”, “This week we babysat”, “This week we did this”, “This week we did that” “This week we ate here”… yadda yadda yadda. I know! I get it! I’m so boring. But once again, this blog is how I love to document my life. I love taking pictures, editing them, curating a blog post and just WRITING about our lives. So I apologize if I bore you to death. I’m sure there are billions of other bloggers with way more interesting lives that you can read about ?

But in all seriousness… these past couple weeks have flown by. And yes, work has been busy. And yes, we have been babysitting a lot haha! Why do I even make this thing public, honestly?

I was on a spring cleaning KICK a couple weeks ago and just cleaned all weekend long. Lu and I went out to Ikea to get more storage bins and it feels sooo good to have a specific place for everything. I even bought a labeler at The Container Store and labeled all of our bins and kitchen jars haha! What can I say, I think being organized is one of the best feelings in the entire world.

I saw these tulips after leaving teaching Pilates the other day and they made me SO happy. I absolutely love those random warm days during winter that make you feel like Spring is right around the corner. Which I really hope is the case!

We had a little Galentine’s party at my house a couple weeks ago with my college friends and it was so wonderful seeing everyone and catching up. Our lives are all going in a million different directions these days but when we all get together it’s like our college days all over again. Minus the staying up until 2am part. I was in bed by 10 pm.

I finally went to get my hair done! Best feeling ever, right?

I snagged these beauties at Trader Joe’s. There’s something about fresh flowers that make my home feel a little bit happier.

In January we were absolutely insane and babysat two SEPARATE families at the same time. Meaning Will went to one family and I went to the other and we slept apart for a couple nights. If we didn’t love these kids so dang much we would never do this to ourselves haha. But this last week we were with the kids for another week and it was so much fun. Jacob and I spent Saturday afternoon together eating at different places in Bountiful and he was the best little buddy.

Side note: I bought these sunglasses the other day at Nordstrom and I am obsessed! Only $59 and you can’t see your eyes through them ?? I have the biggest pet peeve with seeing my eyes through sunglasses haha.

And of course, I have been loving everything related to Valentine’s Day! Easily one of my favorite holidays. Even the year that I was a hostess at a fancy restaurant during college.. I loved seeing everyone out celebrating LOVE. Whether it’s with your girlfriends or a significant other, I hope you LOVE everyone on Tuesday. The world needs a lot more lovin’ these days.

-Liv

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Sunglasses: Le Spec

The only top I wore in all of these pictures because when I buy something I love I wear it every single day for like a week straight: Anthropologie

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about me

What’s up!

Hiii! I feel like I post so many pictures from our experiences in life and hardly ever actually TELL you what we are up to! So after quite a few emails and questions, I thought this post might be a little necessary to tell everyone what we are up to!

So here’s what’s up!

September and October were hands down the hardest months of my entire life. After MUCH deliberation, I quit my full-time job which was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I LOVED my job but I had to take a GIANT leap of faith (and pray, pray hard) to reassure myself that this was the best thing to do for me and my future. Looking back, I have no idea what I was so sad about. I am happier than I have EVER been and love my schedule day to day! I never dread one day.

I now currently work for a company called TILED which is a software company based out of San Deigo. I work from home and am their marketing specialist. If you’re into the tech industry, be sure to follow us on Twitter to see what we’re cookin’ up! Super neat product.

Will’s job actually works from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays so we get to be together almost all day long! I am cherishing all the time we have to spend together because I know it will go away one day.

I also work for Made by Mary doing digital media as well and love it. I still have my other side jobs too including nannying those two families and social media consulting for other restaurants and small businesses. The best part of my jobs right now is that I work from my laptop. Wherever my laptop is, I can work so I have the freedom that I’ve always wanted.

I also am officially a PILATES INSTRUCTOR! I have seriously dreamt about getting certified in Pilates for the longest time but training days were always during work hours so I couldn’t ever go. Quitting my job at a perfect time allowed me to get trained and now I’m teaching at CoreBody Pilates in Foothill Village in SLC! Your first class is free so come by so I can kick your booty ? I teach at 5am and 6am so you betcha I am going to bed at 9pm these days haha!

Will is still actively applying to medical schools while working at Orca Health. He loves the startup industry more than he ever thought he would and is still undecided on which path he will ultimately pursue. I am letting him 100% make this decision and know he will succeed at whatever he does. He is so driven, honest, and genuine about his work and I can’t wait to see what is ahead!

And there you have it!

Our current life in a nutshell 🙂

-Liv

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books

Books to Read

I am seriously so blown away at all of the recommendations I received this week for books to read! Lots of people also requested me to compile some of the recommendations so here is a little list. I just ordered Rising Strong and am so excited to read it. Now I just want to curl in bed for a month and read all of these ha.

Rising Strong by Brene Brown (for sure the MOST recommended book!)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (recommended the 2nd most)
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (reading this currently)
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (read this last year and LOVED it)
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Quiet by Susan Cain
For the Love – Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards by Jen Hatmaker
Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Our Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Scary Close by Donald Miller
The Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
A Path Appears by Kristof and WuDunn
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Author: Kiera Cass
Author: Julianne Donaldson
Author: Colleen Houck
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Author: Brandon Sanderson books

Happy reading! Don’t forget to comment your favorites below.

-Liv

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books

My 2016 Books

The other day while organizing, I started putting books aside that I’ve already read and was shocked to see all my books pile up just from2016! One of my resolutions in 2016 was to read one book a month and since all my other resolutions fell through the cracks I’m glad I could over-achieve on just this one haha. Some of books aren’t even pictured here ?

My favorites from last year were…

One: When Breath Becomes Air. By far my favorite. I finished it in two days and couldn’t put it down.. even at Disneyland. Literally read it while waiting in lines.

Two: A Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines. Okay, I am OBSESSED with Chip & Jo! Their book was easily one of my favorites and I am actually going through it for my THIRD time right now… I love their story and their love for each other and their family.

Three: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. This is the perfect read for January!! I actually read one chapter each month now and focus on that topic the entire month.

Four: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Number 90 on my bucket list was to read all of the Harry Potter books! Number four was EASILY my favorite out of all of them. If you are a big HP fan, which was your fave?

Five: You are a Bad Ass by Jen Sincero. I haven’t finished reading this one yet so if ends horribly, I apologize. However, so far I love it. Very clever read.

I’d love recommendations on more books to read! Let me know if you have any. I am going to start reading the Art of Hearing Heartbeats tonight and I am super excited about it.

-Liv

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california

Girls Weekend in LA

Last weekend I was able to travel to Los Angeles with my dancers followed by a couple nights with my mama. It was the perfect getaway and the sunshine felt so incredible even though it was a mere 60 degrees.

On Friday we went to Disneyland, Saturday we danced at The Edge (I took my first dance class in almost 4 years.. bruises still ?), Sunday we went to church, walked around the LACMA and then went to see King and I.

California Donuts!

I wish I would’ve stayed an extra day just to drive around and look at the homes!

Grand Central Market

On Sunday my mom flew in and we went to ELLEN! Huge bucket list item right here. Number 91 to be exact. My mom’s friend, Rebecca, had 12 tickets and the fact that it was for the show on the day I was in California anyways was the best coincidence ever!

On our last night, we stayed down in Balboa since we flew out of Long Beach. Oh, how I love that island! I could live there in a heartbeat. Going back to the wintery cold was so hard on Tuesday which is odd because I used to be a huge winter person! Maybe that was when I skied more than I do now ha!

Can’t leave Orange County without a stop at Rose’s Bakery! I crave this place on the daily.

See you in March, California!

-Liv

Pink jacket: Anthropologie (in stores only)

White blouse: Madewell

Pink heathered short sleeve: Anthropologie (on sale!)

Teal leggings: new from Lululemon

Sunglasses: Warby Parker

Luggage: AWAY (c/o)

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new york

New York x2!

Flatiron Building

Occulus

Grand Central Station

The Met!

Big Gay Ice Cream

From my run on the Upper West Side

Brooklyn Bridge

Here’s the last batch of our New York pictures!

I still can’t get over how much of this city we saw. We literally walked around almost every single borough and I am already aching to go back (but on a happier note my legs are no longer aching! ?)

I would say my highlights from this trip were the 9-11 museum (quite sobering), La Esquina, seeing Ralph and Abby, Big Gay and seeing snow fall in the city for a couple minutes one night! Magic!

See you again soon, NYC! Hopefully in the Spring or Fall when it’s a tad bit warmer ☺️

Top of the Rock

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Knit beanie: Anthropologie (sold out.. my current fave here)

Gray parka: North Face

Pink bow: Anthropologie

White turtleneck: J.crew

Gray peacoat: J.crew factory (old)

Scarf: J.crew factory (old)

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favorite foods

NYC 2016 // the FOOD!

Bubby’s in Chelsea

Definitely, a trendy place to eat. We waited over two hours to eat here and I don’t think I would ever wait that long to eat there again. It was good though! Their biscuits are amazing.

Momofuku Bar (Milk)

I ordered the sweet potato soft serve with cornflakes. Definitely a different taste to the ice cream but if you love milk and cereal you will LOVE this place.

Levain Bakery Cookie

These are worth all the hype. I suggest ordering one of each cookie and sampling them with whoever you’re with. My favorite I ate this trip was the dark chocolate cookie.

Jacob’s Pickles

We ate at Jacob’s Pickles super late one night (hence the horrible photo) but this place is INCREDIBLE! The atmosphere, food, and service were out of this world. This is another place where you could definitely share the menu items and still leave full.

La Esquina

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PLACE WE ATE THIS ENTIRE TRIP. Best tacos, soup, corn, and chips. My suggestion is to just order tons of tacos. Each one has so much flavor and is so different that you’ll want to try all of them. GO HERE!

Pick a Bagel

Tasty breakfast sandwiches.

Shake Shack

Classic spot.

Laduree

My first macaron experience! This pistachio macaron was soo delicious. I’d go pay for one again any day!

Oatmeals

Darling breakfast spot. I want an oatmeal bar in SLC now!

Juice Generation

Yummy place for an acai bowl or a smoothie in the morning.

Totto Ramen

This place is a must. Especially if go to NYC during the cold months!

Big Gay Ice Cream

Holy cow I wish I could eat at Big Gay every single day. Just order everything on the menu but FOR SURE order the Salty Pimp.

Absolute Bagels

Favorite bagels we had the whole trip.

Magnolia Bakery

Banana bread pudding all day…

The Smith

Scary pic but this is a fabulous brunch spot! Pictured is the Breakfast Pot Pie. I ordered the avocado toast and liked it too!

Juliana’s

And last but not least, Juliana’s! I’ll dream about this pizza every night for the rest of my life. It’s in Brooklyn so just plan to eat there and then to walk across the bridge! You’ll be loving life.

There ya go!

I’m obviously no expert at anything NYC related, but since I was asked several times to post where we ate.. there ya go!

-Liv

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gochnours

NYC 2016

NYC with the Gochnour fam over Christmas break was definitely one for the books. We literally did everything we wanted to do and walked so much. Towards the end of the trip, my legs were begging me to just sit for a day straight.

Glad to announce that I’ve sat for 5 days straight now.