donuts

New York / THE FOOD!

My Poppy always said, “There are some people who eat to live and some people who live to eat.”

Luckily for me, I have a family that LIVES TO EAT! We seriously love trying new restaurants, eating a good meal, and then of course talking about our meal until we are sitting down at our next meal… hahaha.

For our first meal on Thursday we ate at Rana inside of Chelsea Market.

Rana was a little too pricy for my liking so I shared some pasta with Will. However, my mom’s cauliflower appetizer was by far the best thing anyone ordered! It was crispy and I really am so curious how they made it… anyone have similar recipes?

On Thursday night before we went to Wicked we ate at Totto Ramen in Hell’s Kitchen.

We were all really tired from only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before and I had a pretty bad sore throat so ramen really hit the spot for us!

(How good is ramen when you’re feeling under the weather? Honestly the best!)

Will ordered the Chicken Paitan and the Char Siu Pork Bun and I ordered the Vegetable Ramen.

The restaurant was teeeeeny tiny inside but I thought it was amazing how quickly they got everyone in and out. Super quick dinner that I highly recommend!

Early Friday morning Will and I woke up and walked to DOUGHNUT PLANT!

We shared the coffee crumb cookie.

Yes it tasted as good as it looks.

For lunch on Friday we hit up SHAKE SHACK!!!

Shake Shack is always a great go-to while in NYC! They are popping up everywhere so they were easy to find. Even inside Grand Central Station.

I have yet to order anything there that I didn’t like.

Anyone have a favorite item?

Also inside of Grand Central Station was MAGNOLIA’S BAKERY!

I’ve always really wanted to try Magnolia’s and I must say… it exceeded all expectations!

I ordered the caramel sea salt chocolate chip cookie and will dream of it until I eat one again…

And of course the most popular item at Magnolia’s…. their banana cream pudding!

I am not a huge pudding fan but I will admit… that’s a pudding I’d eat any day.

Friday night dinner was at our favorite restaurant we had last year in Germany… VAPIANO’S!!

We ate at Vapiano’s every chance we could in Europe so when we found out NYC had one we had to go. Think Cafe Rio… Italian style.

You go up and order and they make it all right in front of you with fresh ingredients!

After our race on Saturday morning we hit up Pick A Bagel!

I LOOOOOOVED IT. They have a lot of locations in NYC so if you just Google it lots will pop up.

Why does NYC do bagels SO GOOD?

Saturday afternoon while everyone watched the BYU vs. Utah Football Game I went by myself (big loser) to some food stops I wanted to try! I hit up sweetgreen and the ever so popular… Levain.

sweetgreen’s salad was oh so good. I would love if Utah could get one of these. It just has extremely fresh salads and a lot of food for the price you pay which is nice!

And of course… Levain.

I was waited BY MYSELF for 40 minutes in the cold for this dang cookie…… sooo does it get more nerdy than that?

Aaaannd our phone’s data plan cycle was ending Saturday night and we were SO CLOSE to going over so I couldn’t use my phone at all. Meaning I literally stood and stared at the sidewalk and froze my tush off all alone hahaha.

I tried making small talk with the people in line but they weren’t having it haha.

Sunday after church we hit up Sarabeth’s! The wait was long especially because Sunday brunch is such a huge thing nowadays.

And to be dead honest… I don’t know what the huge hype is about.

Maybe people love the idea of drinking alcohol at breakfast in a cute setting so that’s why it’s so popular?

But to be honest it was just like any other breakfast to me. Probably not worth the hour wait! But I probably think that because I don’t drink alcohol haha.

And before we left town I really wanted a cupcake so I tracked down the Sprinkles ATM!

Will admitted this was the first carrot cake anything he’s ever liked. Their cupcakes really are so delicious. Even out of the ATM..

And there you have it!

Yes, I will be in sweat pants until February.

-Liv

(Hat from Gigi Pip)

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diederich

New York, New York!

Late last night we arrived home from a family trip to NEW YORK!

Over the break I will find some time to work on a post of what we did, ate, saw etc. but for now you can watch this little vid I made of our trip on our flight home!

New York New York from Olivia Gochnour on Vimeo.

(note: I am NO professional. This video is just to reflect on for fun! I am sure I am every videographers worst nightmare lol)

Enjoy my families insaneness.

-Olivia

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baking

CINNAMON ROASTED ALMOND RECIPE

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds are hands down my favorite holiday treat.

I used to make cinnamon roasted almonds ALL the time while I was in college, and now every time I have 10 minutes to spare at home around the holidays, I love to make them! We also make them for neighbor gifts every year and drop them off warm on their porch.

Not only are these almonds SO delicious & easy to make, but they also make your house smell like heaven, which I’m never mad about.

For the almonds you’ll need,

1 cup sugar
1 TSBP cinnamon (I like to put a little more cinnamon, personal preference)
1/4 cup water
3 cups of almonds (raw)

Instructions

Combine the water, cinnamon and sugar over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved, add the almonds and stir constantly with a spoon or spatula, coating the almonds with the sugar, cinnamon and water mix.
Keep stirring for about 8 minutes until the sugar crystallizes. It’s super important to never stop stirring! If you do need to stop, try to not leave them unattended for more than a minute.
Remove the pan from heat and scoop the almonds onto wax or parchment paper.
1. tip: I put the pan immediately in cold water to help dissolve the sugar so I can quickly use the pan again
Let the cinnamon almonds cool for a couple of minutes before putting them into bags

My kids can’t seem to keep their hands off of these almonds while they were cooling. They really are the best! They are also a darling Christmas gift for friends or neighbors. You could also bag them up with a “reindeer food” tag on them.

Enjoy,
Liv

Don’t forget to check out all of this years gift guides, here!

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crafts

HOLIDAY MART CRAFT NIGHT!

I’ve been helping my Mother in Law with a super fun project:

HOLIDAY MART CRAFT NIGHT!

Jeni really is such a talented artist and a hard worker. She’s been wanted to do one of these for so long so I loved finally seeing all of her hard work come to fruition.

Everyone made one of these cute Christmas plates!

I didn’t even TRY to attempt it. Me with a paintbrush is equivalent to giving a monkey a marker.

Be sure to follow @jenibeemarket on Instagram so you can join in on the next one!

It was definitely a night to remember….

-Liv

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collaboration

a black dress & brunch

I must say….

being able to work in SLC the last little while has been a dream!

If I’m working a late event I don’t have to come into work until later in the day… and you know what that means.. BRUNCH!!!

Will & I went to Blue Plate Diner the other day and loved it. I can’t believe I’ve never been there before! I’ve driven by it my entire life but had never actually gone.

Of course there was a great wall out front of the diner so a picture was necessary.. .

I’m such a sucker for cool walls! And SLC is definitely stepping up their game.

I’m also a huge sucker for a solid modest dress!!

I become OBSESSED with a dress when I try it on and can move freely in it. If I don’t have fidget or adjust anything to make it “work” it’s immediately a 10/10 in my book.

This black dress from Brass Clothing is one of those 10/10 dresses.

The neck isn’t too wide, the length is perfect, and the material is straight from a heavenly cloud (don’t judge… if you get one you’ll understand where I’m coming from on that one).

It has become one of those dresses where I am in it multiple times a week and am becoming slightly embarrassed about it haha!

My cousin said the other day “You sure do love that dress, don’t you?”

Whooooops. My bad haha.

Side note– SLC people.. where do you love to grab a good breakfast? We are loving our breakfast dates lately.

-Liv

Outfit details:

Dress: Brass Clothing specifically the The Pencil Dress

Floral Sweater: Urban Outfitters (last season)

Black velvet loafers: Can’t remember for the life of me so watch how cool this link of Google’s is

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st. george

red rocks

A couple weekends ago we decided we needed some warmer weather.

SLC was SUPER cold that week so on Friday after work we grabbed some Cubby’s and headed down to St. George with Sam & Emily.

This is Will being super deep….

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t significantly warmer.. but it was still so nice to relax, watch football, eat food and CHILL OUT (sound familiar?)

They boys got some golfing in which they loved. I seriously want to get good at golf SO BADLY but there are SOOOO many things you have to try to remember while golfing and I just blow it every time.

Towards the end of our bucket of balls I really did get a little better! Practice makes perfect I suppose. But wow… who knew golfing was seriously so difficult (for me.. probably not for everybody else haha)

ADMIT IT LOOKS LIKE HE IS GETTING EATEN HAHAHA

Here’s to being freezing cold until May. But hey, Snowbird is now open so I’m not mad!!

-Liv

Outfit details:

Will’s sweatshirt: Vooray

Cream sweater: Roolee

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fall

MY FAVORITE MONTH

I know I know.

All my posts start the same! Time is flying.

Which is exciting, intriguing, and frightening all at the same time.

I absolutely loved this past October.

For some reason it will always be my favorite month!

Here are some highlights-

It’s so crazy to think that Lu turned ONE YEAR OLD! Watching this little babe grow up the last year has seriously one of the biggest highlights of my life. We love her with our whole hearts.

She was such a happy little bean at her party UNTIL the cake was brought out and we sang to her. Then she was like, “Why is everyone screaming at me to eat this thing?”

October also tends to be one of the absolute prettiest months in Utah.

One night Will and I drove up the canyon to see all the leaves before going to dinner. When I asked him to turn around & smile for a picture he did that ^^^ but then he quickly did a very graceful…

Arabesque?

Hahahaha.

IDK.

I married SUCH a goon and I’m happy about it.

Another highlight of October was the marriage of my beautiful cousin Amanda!

It was such a wonderful celebratory week with a beautiful wedding dinner, sealing, and reception up at Memory Grove.

Memory Grove was where our grandparent’s wedding reception was so that was pretty special.

Mmm for visiting teaching in October I made one of my favorite treats. The recipe I used is here – Gooey Sweet Coconut Chex Mix.

Another reason October will always be my favorite is because of our anniversary! We wanted to make it a tradition to go to Cactus & Tropicals (our wedding venue) every year on our anniversary to pick out a new arrangement or something special for our home.

Since we were babysitting the kiddies that weekend we decided to take them with us. We left empty-handed without a keepsake but more importantly we left with two happy boys who LOVED the water fountains.

(please note the woody character, hat, boots, and toy story DVD)

I was reunited with my dream ice cream at Harmon’s Grocery store this October too!

I’m so frightened at the fact that the jig I did in the aisle of the grocery store is on film somewhere.

Remember this face everybody. Jensen was born to be a STAR!

Olympus High pulled off Mary Poppins flawlessly. We loved going last week and cheering him on as well as dropping our jaws at how much talent there is at Olympus.

Why can’t I sing for the life of me?!

And of course October was filled with us eating good food.

Will’s schedule is rough these days. He literally is gone daily from 8 am – 9 pm so dinners together just aren’t an option for us anymore. I miss actually eating with him after work but I’m grateful for his hard work and attitude about it all.

Our new things are breakfast dates!

We will go somewhere around 7:30 am and eat together before we’re both off to work and school.

We went to Rose Establishemnt last week and LOVED it. If you are a Utahan you gotta go try their avocado toast.

Here’s to a new month and Christmas season I guess?!

Am I the only shocked at how many Christmas trees are in people’s windows these days?!

-Liv

Outfit details:

Will’s gray sweatshirt: Vooray

Black dress: Brass Clothing

Taupe bridesmaid dress: Lauren Conrad Kohl’s line

My donut: Dunford Donuts

Caramel Peacoat: Land’s End

Orange beanie: Anthropologie (last season)

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babysitting

TRULY GOOD AND WITHOUT GUILE

Last Sunday I gave the lesson in Relief Society at church (yes, on our 2 year wedding anniversary haha).

The lesson was based on the conference talk by Elder Michael T. Ringwood titled “Truly Good and Without Guile”.

Prior to that Sunday, I was trying SO hard to get someone to cover the lesson for me because I did NOT want to teach on our anniversary. Will and I were planning on staying the night somewhere to celebrate our two years and to be honest I just didn’t want to stress about teaching that day.

However, no one I asked was able to sub the lesson for me & I also decided I didn’t want to spend the money to stay the night at a hotel. AAAND on top of all of that we ended up taking a babysitting gig with these cute kids.

As much as all of that should’ve bummed me out.. I’m SO glad everything worked out the way it did. Teaching the lesson that Sunday truly changed my life.

The entire topic of being “truly good and without guile” was something I was able to research in depth and learn so much about.

Some questions that jumped around in my head the weeks prior to the lesson were…

Where did the phrase “truly good and without guile” come from?

What does guile even mean?

How can I develop a personality that is truly good and without guile?

First off, Elder Ringwood began his talk explaining where the phrase came from.

He explains that in October, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said: “Over the course of my life, I have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the most competent and intelligent men and women this world has to offer. When I was younger, I was impressed by those who were educated, accomplished, successful, and applauded by the world. But over the years, I have come to the realization that I am far more impressed by those wonderful and blessed souls who are truly good and without guile.”¹

The more I read that quote from President Uchtdorf the more I fell in love with it. Nowadays, it’s so incredibly easy to only look up to only those that are successful and applauded by the world. However, I believe it’s far more important to be impressed by those truly good people that focus their lives around serving others before themselves.

Secondly, what does guile even mean?

Online, guile is defined as: “insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity.”

I find guile to be defined as doing something with ulterior motives. Doing something for the fame and fortune. Deliberately trying to beat someone just to watch them lose. Going visiting teaching because you feel stupid saying “no” at the end of the month rather than going to visit sisters in your neighborhood because you genuinely care about their well-being. Only looking out for yourself. Hardly ever looking for ways to serve.

When I posed this question in my lesson, a darling elderly sister in my ward stated that the first thing she thinks of when it comes to being “without guile” are little children.

How true that is! Children that have an innocent heart and no thoughts of how they can bring another down.

And thirdly, how can I develop a personality that is truly good and without guile?

Oh man. I wish I knew the perfect answer to this one! It’s something I’m trying so hard to develop for myself.

From everyone’s contributions in my lesson on Sunday- I’ve concluded that in order to develop a personality that is truly good and without guile one should try to…

serve more

care less about yourself

pray more

gossip less

look up more

look less at your phone

focus on being present

be more genuine

and erase all ulterior motives in your life.

Aaaand there’s my blurb from my thoughts on my lesson last week. I learned so much from preparing/giving it and feel like it’s changed my outlook for the better.

Also watch this video: Unselfish Service if you’re interested!

-Liv

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holidays

HALLOWEEKEND

This year we decided we really needed a relaxing getaway over Halloween weekend.

With babysitting and work and school and work and this & that… a relaxing cabin weekend was exactly what we needed.

Late Friday night we drove up to our friends cabin in Driggs, Idaho with Sam & Emily. It was seriously SO beautiful up there in Idaho!

On Saturday we pretty much just relaxed, watched football, took naps, went into Jackson Hole to eat some BBQ, nap some more, eat shakes and then eat some more.

For dinner we went to a hamburger joint in Driggs and started chatting about Yellowstone. I took out my phone, mapped it, saw it was only an hour and a half away, and we all decided we HAD to go the next day!

Because why not, right?

I think the last time I went to Yellowstone was when I was 3 years old. I obviously don’t remember a thing so I was so excited to go.

On our way there we stopped at Mesa Falls which was definitely a sight to see! You could walk on these bridges RIGHT next to the waterfalls.

From the second we entered into the Yellowstone National Park I was like a giddy school girl. Everything was seriously unbelievable.

After driving into the park for only probably 4 miles we looked to our right and saw ~200 buffalos just relaxing by the river bend!!

We were all stunned by how many they were. We also saw swans, an elk, moose, so many birds and MORE buffalo!

In all honesty, I think Old Faithful was probably the least appealing thing to me in the entire park. After it went off at 1:12 pm I looked over at Will and went, “That was it?” haha!

The other geysers all around the park were so much neater to me.

I loved walking around to see them up close bubbling and the prettiest blue hues. Did you know that HALF of the worlds geysers are all within Yellowstone? Pretty remarkable.

Just a super casual buffalo walking next to our car.

And then this was our traffic leaving the park! Seriously unreal. I am so happy we went!

All in all it was a wonderful Halloween weekend. If you ever feel stressed I highly recommend grabbing some road trip snacks, driving far, listening to good tunes, and just relaxing. It was just the medicine we needed!

-liv

Outfit details:

Gray puffy coat: North Face Metropolis coat

Cream hat: Gap Fit

New Balances: Urban Outfitters

Joggers: Anthropolgie

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cabo

DISNEY CRUISE PART 2!

One of our stops on the Disney Cruise was CABO!

Will and I absolutely love Cabo. Especially after we came last summer together!

We woke up early to watch the sunrise come over Cabo. It was seriously breathtaking. I know Cabo as an extremely busy town so it almost felt like this was the “calm before the storm”.

You had to take little boats from the ship into the city and as soon as we got into the city we were swarmed by so many locals asking us to go on excursions with them.

Will immediately started speaking in Spanish to them and they said,

“Ohhhh you from Utah? Did you serve a mission?”

Funny, huh? They must see a lot of Utahns speaking fluent Spanish in Cabo! Haha.

Luckily Will found us the best deal and we were able to go see all the neat rocks on a “glass bottom” boat and then SNORKEL! (my absolute fave)

The rest of the cruise was filled with seeing the plays, watching movies (NO ONE told me how incredible the new Cinderella is!!! It’s my new favorite movie!), relaxing, playing Shuffle Board, reading our books and of course EATING.

The ship docked Friday morning in San Diego and after we got off we drove straight to the beach.

Three Arch Bay in Laguna is seriously one of the most breathtaking beaches I’ve ever been too. It was a gloomy day but those can sometimes be the best beach days.

And to top off one of the best trips ever… WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND on Saturday!

It was easily one of the most PACKED days at Disneyland I’d ever seen.

We waited 45 minutes just for our lunch!

Luckily Will’s mom has Disneyland down to a magical science so we didn’t have to wait in too many lines. She is so good at knowing which fast passes to get and when. So we were able to do a lot more rides which was fun!

I am SO obsessed with that Toy Story ride it’s almost scary. I was SO close to beating Will this time ah! One day I will again… Haha. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Disneyland! The line is soo worth it. Hands down my fave ride.

Thank you again Jeni for one of the most magical trips of my life! It was one I will cherish forever.

Outfit details-

Heart Swimsuit– NO IDEA. I am seriously racking my brain haha stay tuned.

One Piece Black Swimsuit– Raising Wild

Green romper- Eva Jo Rompers! Seriously the comfiest thing evaaaa.

Floral Dress- Roolee

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anniversary

HERE IS TO TWO

It’s hard to believe it’s been two whole years since I married this guy.

How is it that my engagement with Will seemed like it went by so incredibly slow yet our marriage has flown by?

The past year has been filled with some highs and some lows but boy am I grateful to have Will as my sidekick.

Since our last anniversary we’ve….

ran a donut 5k

babysat cute kiddies a handful of times

both had awful sicknesses

picked out a fresh Christmas tree

skied on great snow

skied on awful snow

held our first annual 5k fun run for autism

ate delicious food

visited costa rica

Will took the MCAT

I watched a lot of Netlix

attended probably 50 weddings

welcomed his sis home from her mission

said goodbye to my poppy

and had so many cherished memories I will never forget.

Anniversaries are a great time to whip out the journal and jot down all the memories this past year has brought us.

I wish I could say it’s been all fluffy rainbows + sunshine + unicorns (that’d be sick!!) but I’d be lying. We definitely have our highs but we also have the times where we disagree.

But we’re human.

We are young and in love and love figuring out our life together.

Will teaches me so much and is the perfect person for me. If you know both of us you know I married wayyyyy up.

#IFeelBlessed

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family time

DISNEY CRUISE PART ONE!

Last week was spent with Will’s family on the DISNEY CRUISE!

Will’s mom is an incredible artist (see @jenibeemarket) and spends almost everything she earns on her children. Luckily, even though I married into the family, she still treats me like I’m one of her own.

For almost two years now, she’s had this cruise planned and we were all so excited the day finally came.

The ship left out of the San Diego port so we drove to California early Saturday morning, watched the Utah football game in our hotel room w/ some Chipotle Saturday night, attended church on Sunday, saw the San Diego temple, then boarded the ship!

I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see the San Diego temple so I was happy as a clam!

It was more perfect in person than I could’ve ever imagined.

I’ve only been on the Disney Cruise when it left out of Florida so boarding the ship right in San Diego was perfect for us Utah folk.

It’s funny because growing up I was never nervous to go on a cruise but now as adult I was a little frightened I’m not going to lie.. Luckily, I had a good book to distract my thoughts if I was ever stressing a little bit.

No words can truly describe how grateful I am for Jeni and the type of Mother-in-law she is to me.

She is always so thoughtful, spontaneous, selfless and I love how much she loves DISNEY!

One night, we left the musical on the ship and she was standing there handing us clues for a SCAVENGER HUNT. We were split up in teams and were literally running ALL over the ship trying to find her clues. Even the staff was loving it! They were all helping us and we were huffing and puffing trying to beat the other team haha.

Shuffleboard for the win!

It was definitely interesting being on the cruise ship as an adult vs. being on as a little kid.

When I was little, I literally had to be pulled away from that yellow slide. But as an adult it was SO nice to avoid all the crowds, read my book in peace, grab an ice cream cone or fresh fruit WHENEVER I wanted to, go see a movie at 3pm and then another one at 10pm and just CHILL OUT.

Much needed for sure!

Our first stop on the cruise ship was Ensenada, Mexico.

There wasn’t much to do in Ensenada… so after we mooched off Starbucks for some wifi we grabbed an Oreo cone from Mcdonalds and headed back onto the cruise ships because… free food!

One night while on the ship, Will and I went to the 4th floor which had a walking track around the perimeter of the ship.

We started talking about our future which quickly turned into me feeling SO overwhelmed about what we have ahead of us. I’ve never been in debt and love saving money so the fact we’ll be pulling out huge loans soon for school leaves me completely stressed. It’s also tough to think about when we want to have kids, how many we want, if it’s okay I continue working throughout motherhood etc etc.

I started tearing up and panicking a little bit.

Luckily, Will was so calm and reassured me that we just needed to take life one day at a time. Life takes it’s own course no matter what so even if we planned things out there’s a great chance those plans could change.

I’m grateful for Will and his sensibility to always say what I need to hear.

I’m nervous for the future but I know that together we can do hard things.

Outfit details:

Floral dress: ROOLEE

Floral hat: Vooray

Will’s gray hat: Vooray

Grey coverup dress: can’t remember for the life of me

Forrest green romper: Eva Jo Rompers!

(another post coming soon when I have more time!)

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