Archives for 2017

It’s a…

We are so thrilled to announce we are both having girls! Brooke has thought all along she was having a girl, while Sam and I were pretty sure we were having a boy. Surprise! Both girls. Of course, this just means we can start shopping 🙂 The moment when you find out during the ultrasound is pretty special. There were a lot of happy tears shed. Eventually, the ultrasound tech asked if we needed tissues and double checked to make sure we were crying because we were happy, not sad. It was a rush of emotions and happiness I’ve never felt before. Everything seems to be much more real now. Truly the most important part of the appointment was knowing that our baby is healthy and we were so happy to hear that she is doing great.

Our parents keep saying they are thrilled to be having twin girls again. Our dad loved to buy us matching clothes when we were growing up, so we can only guess he will do the same with our little babes. We both had little gender reveal parties with our close friends and families after we found out. Brooke and Parker had everyone pop black balloons and pink confetti popped out, it was really cute! Sam really wanted to involve golf somehow (of course) so he found exploding golf balls on Ebay and luckily it worked. He wanted me to hit one as well, but I chose not to embarrass myself 🙂 I posted the video below, if you want to watch.

Brooke and I have been so overwhelmed with the kindness of others. Thank you so much for all of the sweet calls, texts, messages and gifts! We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. Everyone is making this whole pregnancy thing a lot more fun.

Neither of us have bought anything for baby yet, so we need your advice! What are your must-haves? Anything we should start buying right now? We are both making plans for our nurseries right now. Brooke is thrilled she will be able to go with the girly ideas she already had and I am going a little more neutral. All ideas and advice welcome! Thanks for coming on this fun journey with us!

Surprise! Baby Haslam & Baby Hackett coming soon!!!

Surprise!!! Baby Haslam is coming in August and Baby Hackett is coming in September! We couldn’t be more excited. We have been keeping this secret in for what seems like an eternity. We wanted to answer a few common questions we have gotten recently.

Q: Did you guys plan this?!

A: Actually quite the opposite, we were trying not to have babies at the same time so that we would not have to take time off from the show at the same time. However, the big guy upstairs definitely had other plans!! It was a shock at first but we both could not be more excited for ourselves and for each other.

Q: When are you due?

A: Britt is end of August, Brooke is beginning of September.

Q: Do you know the genders?

A: Not yet, we both find out in the next couple of weeks and we will be sure to announce it. Britt is leaning towards boy, Brooke is leaning towards girl. We are both probably wrong!

Q: Are you still going to host your show?

A: Yes! We absolutely love our jobs and plan on returning full time after we take some time off on maternity leave. Our search for a nanny has officially begun! Let us know if you know of anyone that loves babies! We will both be paying them so that should be a helpful incentive 🙂

Q: Will you be going natural, breastfeeding, eating your own placenta, etc.?

A: We have no idea. Honestly. Neither of us has taken any classes or anything at this point so time will tell.

We are just so excited that this news is out in public now and we no longer have to try and hide our growing bellies. We have many more pregnancy posts coming your way and would absolutely love to hear any advice from all you moms out there!

Girls Trip to Arizona

Believe it or not, we have never been on a trip with just our mom, sister and sister-in-law. We’ve talked about doing a girl’s trip for a very long time, but it just never came together. Well, we decided 2017 is the year! We coordinated everyone’s schedules and decided on a location – Phoenix! We came to the conclusion that all we really wanted to do was relax, eat great food and shop. Phoenix is the perfect place for that! So instead of giving you a full minute by minute breakdown of the trip, I’m just going to share some of our favorite spots!

Where to SHOP:

LAST CHANCE: if you haven’t heard about the legend that is Last Chance, well you’ve got to visit in person. I would compare it to a much rougher version of TJ Maxx. The thing is, you can find absolutely amazing designer clothing and shoes deeply discounted. Brooke bought two dresses that are amazing and they were each $20. Just beware, long lines and you have to do some digging.
BILTMORE OUTDOOR MALL: this is just a beautiful outdoor mall that is fun to browse and wander through. We loved all of the gorgeous flowers.

Where to EAT:

SNOOZE: if we could adequately describe our love for Snooze, I think you would be scared. Let’s just say this – we happily went there for brunch two days in a row. It’s just that good. Plus, we all tried something different each day and I truly don’t think you can order anything bad. Favorites: Eggs Benedict, French Toast and any and all of the pancakes!
The STAND: Goooooood burgers and fries. A total hole in the wall that knows what it’s good at. Deliciously seasoned fries and Stand sauce (or fry sauce as we call it here in good old Utah). The best part may have been the Dulche de Leche milkshake. Never in a million years would I order that flavor, but we tried it and it blew our minds!
PIZZERIA BIANCO: Travel + Leisure just named Phoenix the best city for pizza! It’s largely thanks to this restaurant and its chef. They make incredible pizza in fun and different combos. Jimmy Kimmel is a huge fan and has even had them on his show before.

Where to STAY:

KIMPTON HOTEL PALOMAR in downtown Phoenix. It was beautiful and was in the heart of the city. The rooftop pool was the major selling point and we spent several glorious hours there basking in the sunshine. I think our pasty white skin might have burned a couple eyeballs, but it was worth it! We also got to do a fun workout together because your stay automatically includes a membership to the huge gym next door.

Now we want to hear your Phoenix faves because we can hardly wait to plan a trip back to the sunny desert!

{the most heavenly peanut butter chocolate pancake ever}
{i love nothing more than a good eggs benedict}
{quite possibly the prettiest Pottery Barn ever}{thank you Linds for convincing us all to order Dulche de Leche shakes at The STAND}{perfection in a burger at The STAND}{tell the truth, have you licked your screen yet?}{photo courtesy of Phoenix New Times cuz mine did not do Pizzeria Bianca justice}
{slumber parties are the best. we laughed A LOT}

The Week of Extreme Nice

Hi friends! We’ve told you before, but we are huge fans of author Gretchen Rubin. Many of you have probably read her book, “The Happiness Project”. Well, we picked the book for our book club on The PLACE for the month of November. For those of you that haven’t read it, Gretchen created a year-long Happiness Project for herself. She creates a theme for each month and then comes up with a few concrete goals to work on. This time re-reading the book, I loved the February chapter focused on marriage. One of Gretchen’s goals is to do a week of extreme nice – meaning that she picks one person to be extremely nice to for one week. She picked her husband and she made the goal to not criticize him, nag him, or snap at him. I decided to try it. Oh my gosh! What a great week! The trick is that you don’t tell the other person you are going to do it. I have since challenged all of my friends and even my poor Sunday school kids to try it out. Here are a couple of observations:

When I wasn’t immediately trying to get my way in every situation, I was able to see Sam’s side much more clearly. For example, we were buying decorations for our Christmas tree and I thought I really wanted white lights. Well, it was the week of extreme nice, so I let Sam pick. He went with rainbow colored lights. This probably would have bugged me a few weeks ago, but after coming home and putting them on the tree, I love them! It also made ME happy to see something make Sam so happy.
Attitude is everything: when I began each day with a positive attitude towards my spouse, the little stuff (like forgetting to cap the toothpaste) didn’t bug me as much.
Looking at things from your spouse’s point of view is healthy – I realized that Sam and I are so different and look at many things differently, but that is why we are so good for each other. Many times Sam is a lot more logical than I am and in most cases, he has thought through decisions much more extensively than I have, so it’s good to give him a chance to share his ideas (because they tend to make more sense in the long run).
I loved Sam so much more by the end of the week. I was able to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. I am so lucky to have a loving husband who truly bends over backward to make me happy.
We had more fun! I realized I can be very bossy and stubborn, especially when it comes to our evening plans. When I let Sam choose what we were doing, we had tons of fun!
I give my kindness to everyone before I give it to Sam. I spend all day trying to be kind to friends and co-workers and by the time I am spending time with Sam, he often gets the tired and grumpy version of myself. Putting him first in my happiness expenditures really made a big difference in my happiness. He is the center of my world and it felt good to make the effort to make him realize that.
I tried to come up with one kind thing to do for him each day. Most days this just meant that I made the bed or cleaned the kitchen. He didn’t notice everything, but I could tell our lives ran smoother when I consciously thought of something kind to do for him each day. This was a lightbulb moment for me because these simple acts usually take under 2 minutes and I am normally so slow to do them.
Sam never asked why I was being so nice. Ha! I think this is a good thing. Hopefully, it means I am not a terrible person because he didn’t notice a huge change. He was pleasantly surprised to hear about it when I told him I got the idea from Gretchen’s book.

For our book club on the show, we got to interview Gretchen a few weeks ago. It was so great – except for the dozens of technical difficulties that came up. Many parts of her book are about maximizing your time, being responsible, etc. – I felt the opposite of that explaining that we were having issues with a brand new audio board. I shouldn’t have worried because Gretchen was so kind and understanding. She was a joy to talk to. It was fascinating to hear from her perspective what sticks out to people most from her book. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly suggest you do! Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

We don’t need to be perfect, but we can all try to be a little better! If you try the week of extreme nice, let us know how it goes!

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