Introducing...

Mac Alexander Helm.

he's not our helm, but close enough.
we weren't sure if there could be babies as cute as the shipley's, but mac proved us wrong. look at that little face!
love you baby mac mac.
also known as mac rib, macbook pro, m.a.c., big mac, etc, etc, etc.
between zach and alex, these will never end:)

maybe it's the awesome weather...

I am on one of my crazy cleanouteverythingandselleverythingthathasn'tbeenusedinthepastsixmonths sprees. so... let me know if you want to buy anything from me. i'd probably sell it to you for like $10. Seriously, every time i go through my closet i end up di-ing like, 2 bags of clothes. and then there is that 1 bag of clothes that i very rarely wear but just can't give to di... if you know what i mean. 

i guess to the second hand shop it goes, but i would rather see them go to someone i know who will take care of them for me. am i the only one that goes through this?

on another note. i've started watching downton abbey. by "started watching" i mean i watched the whole first season in one night (guys calm down it was technically a night and a half and there are only 7 episodes:)). 

zach thinks it's boring, but i like it. one of those easy shows to have on while doing other things. my kinda show.

and for someone who thinks it's "boring" he asks a lot of questions about it and watches a lot of episodes of it... 

and one more thing. kels (that's my sisterinlaw) could have her baby any day now. 

do you want to see what she looks like pregnant? trust me, you don't. it's so annoying how cute she looks:) alright i'll show you.

right?

well, i'm excited for the babe. it's probably the closest thing there is to zach and i having a baby of our own... not happening for awhile, my friends... so we are pretty excited about it. 

and excited for them. kels and alex. they are already good parents and love that little guy. 

and you guys, get excited for the name.... it's a good one. and boys names are HARD, but i think they've nailed it... or jess did since she's the one who handed it off to kelsey.

even zach approves. which DOESN'T HAPPEN. 

mainly because he refuses to like any names that are cool and awesome. 

which is why we won't be having kids for 10-40 years. 

love you guys!

Shebs is gone. i know it's not a forever type of gone, but still.

this is just a note to my friend shelly who is on a mission. i wrote it like a week after she left... and kind of forgot about it and never posted it. but now i miss her again... so here you go shells. even though you can't read it:)
i actually don't want anymore of my friends to go on missions please! k thanks.
i'm only kind of kidding about that.

shells a bells has been my friend forever.

and she will always, always be my friend.

i know sometimes people say this, but with shel, it's different. and it's not just because she knows me and i know her inside out, and it's not just because we can tell each other when acting weird or bugging, and it's not just because we are very different... yet the same in so many ways, or because half the time we're together we're cracking up at the each others' retarded-ness.

i think it's because shelly is one of the most real and sincere people i know... and I feel like I could tell her anything, and I know this can sometimes be a bad thing, but oftentimes, well, with most people, i can't say how i really feel at the moment, i can't tell them that they are bugging me or that i don't want to go there for dinner. and with shel i can, and she still likes me. and i feel like she won't judge me when i tell her things, like, she knows me and doesn't care what i say. did that make sense?

the night i met zach boy, shel was the only friend i could get to "go over to this guys house" after we already went to this ridiculous comedy thing with these silly boys.

she came with me then, even though she really wasn't dying to and felt a little uncomfortable at a party where everyone knew each other and they were literally ALL from davis high, except us 2 bountiful girls. but she went because she could tell i wanted to go. like really, really wanted to, and i didn't even really know why...

then we met z.

and as we were leaving i told her, "shel i think he likes you, you should go for him," all annoyed because i had a crush on him and genuinely felt like he was into her because he kept going on and onnnnnnnn about her hair. to which she responded, "um, no, because you like him."

she was right.

and i was wrong (although I wouldn't have blamed him one little bit).

and i want to tell you one other thing that makes shelly a good friend.

i can count on her.

and that, to me at least, is the number one thing that makes a good friend. when they are there. just there.

i think i am struggling with this fact lately becase sometimes i feel like there are like 4 people in the world i can count on. so, 1. i know that's not true even if it sometimes feels that way and 2. i just really like this chick.

i love the girl because she isn't perfect. did i say that? and because she is crazy and would any day of the week do anything for me (except, you know, when she's like on a mission or something:)).

she's my missionary.

and sometimes i miss my girl.

could please none of my friends go on missions anymore?!

geez. thats what i told her. but then zach followed it up with some great advice and getting her all excited again. because it's the people that make missions so amazing. that's what i hear anyways, and shebs loves the people everywhere, and they will love her.

i know she's having fun in shy town and i'm kind of jealous she gets to live there.
it's perfect for her.

oh high school us. haha. i look a little different.

miss you moron.

i hate my husband sometimes

like when he becomes chums with people like, say, KATE BOSWORTH.

you need details, right?

so z was asked a couple days ago if he could help out on the set of some movie, no big deal right?
wrong.
turns out our girl kate bosworth is dating the director of said movie. so of course she's just hanging out on the set.
and of course zach starts chatting it up with her.

no big deal, it's just kate bosworth.
i only have blue crush or 21 recorded on my dvr pretty much AT ALL TIMES.
but whatever.

i seriously asked if he was joking like 7 times in a row. and then this was our texting convo:

z: I just chatted with her for a minute. she is cool.
me: what the freak? ask her why she wasn't at the globes? are you going to tt her again? (tt is how we say "talk to" because it's super hard to just write that out, duh).
z: ya. we cool.

ya, cool dude, peace out.
ALL MY TEXTS would be in ALL CAPS if i was chillin' with KATE.
that's all I have to say about that. for now.
but if they talk again, you bet you'll be hearing about it.

in the year 2011

i have really enjoyed everyone's year wrap up posts, and i know i'm a little late, but it's fun to look back and remember what happened this past year. we liked 2011.

here we go!

first we have Wendell, saving our lives one day at a time. i still feel guilty about how we left things with him. i am not kidding when i say that once i found out we were moving he avoided us. we literally never saw him outside his house. i guess he's not good with goodbyes. i still feel bad about it though.

Having friend time before mags left... 6 more months!!

a couple sg trips. one with smoots. one with the helm girls.

i graduated.

and then he did.

we celebrated anniversary #2
and still haven't grown out of this phase. (but i have another goal this year. one meal a week people. not even kidding - that really is where we are starting).

watched jimmer leave byu and head to sac town. and became kings fans.

went to the stadium of fire with my fam, for the first time.

bought a house!
and began the never-ending projects that come along with it:)
but i love projects. i love them. i could be in my house all the time doing little projects. and i also love our house.

z turned 27/is now an old man.

z sold his truck. and one of his best friends.
(thank heavens).
and now we are those people.

and we enjoyed christmas in florida with my fam.
while helms enjoyed christmas in mexico (but we got to catch up with them via facetime - which was awesome).

and do you want to hear about one of my 2012 goals?
i'm getting a REAL christmas tree this year! and it's going to have big fat lights like the one pictured below. i haven't told zach yet... but turns out i have awhile to warm him up to the idea.

happy new year to you! it will be a good year, we'll make it be.

christmas 2012

we went to florida with my fam for xmas this year. 

we left christmas morning right after the usual christmas breakfast. 

it's this egg and white sauce thing that you put on these homemade (usually) pastry things. and an exotic fruit salad. with hot cocoa of course.

it's so good, sometimes i wonder why we only have it one time a year.

traditions are funny like that.

and another thing, i never really think about my family's traditions until zach came into the fam. like, we have a super weird christmas eve dinner meal, but i never thought about it before. i mean, it's kinda cool, fancy, and definitely unique, but the first time zach had it, for christmas eve, i can imagine that it seemed pretty random. haha. but to us it's totally normal and wouldn't be christmas without it! 

it's called roquelette (i'm not actually sure how to spell it...). it's swiss. and my mom went on her mission to switzerland, so that i suppose is what they do in switzerland as well. it's this delicious cheese you melt on this special little cheese melting thing and then you put it over your little red potato. and we''ve added brawts to meal as well. mmmm.

i like tradtitions.

anyways, back to christmas day. after breakfast we took off for FL. and once we landed we headed to downtown disney and ate at the T-Rex restaurant. 

it was about 10 at night and we hadn't eaten since breakfast but it was gooood. especially to jer. and i quote, "those were the best onion rings i have ever had." there you go, onion ring crowd.

animal kingdom was incredible. i am going on the record saying it was my favorite park. and we only spent like 2 hours there! really though it was so well done. disney just goes all out. and this was some of their finest work, if i do say so myself. we loved seeing all the cool animals and they just made the experience so awesome.

there's a giraffe in those trees!

oh and in the below pic are my little brothers rivals.
yes, we found these two fellas, with their under armor hoodies, tube socks, and all. and had to take a pic to show the boys. zach spotted them. we couldn't stop laughing.

so of course the boys just HAD to find the "zach and liz" rivals. haha, this is the pic they got. but really, this looks like a much better version of us! i was dying though, the vneck and the sunglasses - totally zach. i think the leggings and headband is right on though for the chick. touche little boys.

now, for the moment you've all been waiting.

harry potter world!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you guys, it was everything i dreamed of. i loved it all. i felt like i was in hogsmeade and i seriously am so glad universal took this world seriously. it did not disappoint.

we ate in the three broomsticks.

drank butterbeer and pumpkin juice.

ate chocolate frogs and every flavored beans.

and went on a ride inside of hogwarts.

i felt like a little kid, and i really felt like we were in harry potter's world. i loved it!

the theme parks were so fun, and my friend at work (joelle) saved us by going into detail on what we've got to do while there. she used to work at disney world and has been many, many times, so she made a list of things we cant miss at each park, the best places to eat, the coolest things to see, what to pass on and her personal favs in each park (including universal) so i feel like we covered all the awesome stuff and skipped all the waste of time stuff and made great use of our time. but still we left exhausted every day (and honestly we were far from hardcore, by 6pm we were DONE with parks).

it was nice to have a few days to unwind at the beach for a few days after the parks before heading home.
me, tj, my mom and dad went to nasa. which was sweet and quite informational. it's amazing thinking and learning about space. it's insane what is out there.

and we also went to mission impossible with the fam.
and it was AMAZING.
we highly recommend it. it's definitely my fam's type of movie, we all loved it. but who wouldn't, come on.

all-in-all it was such a fun trip and so fun to spend time with the fam. and i think almost all of us would agree that the best 2 parts of the trip were 1. seeing alligators all over on the side of the road! (and having zach spit off facts about gators nonstop and having swamp people marathons on the bed with the boys. he's obsessed). and 2. watching jimmer on tv (woot, woot! we are jimmer fans and we're going to the jazz kings game! thanks parents!).