Birthday Girl

I cant believe my beautiful baby girl is 1year old! Man oh man the time has flown!! Friday was her official birthday and we were super lame and didnt do anything. Both Ty and I had to work so we just celebrated Saturday and it was a lot of fun! We had so many people over in our little appt for a party. We were a little squished but it was fun to celebrate with so many people who love Lucy. Here are a few pictures to commemorate.

I know my cake frosting skills rock

Opening an awesome gift from the Stewarts

Our girl is spoiled already!

Once again on the cake decorating

Its funny to see just how big her cupcake is compared to her
Mmmm YUMMY!!!

Miracle

So a couple of months ago I tried putting our video camera's SD card in our laptop to post a video. Low and behold it got stuck inside our computer. Like REALLY stuck, eventually ending up inside by and inch or so. I found out yesterday my hand-man husband got it out somehow and so I wanted to find it to get all the stuff that was on it. This was SO precious to me as it had everything on it from Lucy's first hours/days born and her first pictures, everything. We couldnt find it!!! It was no where to be found. I almost had a serious panick attack. We put our current SD card in and it just had stuff from the summer-current and nothing from when she was born. I was searching frantically to find the other SD card that got stuck and then unstuck. Then suddenly Ty put the current card in the computer AGAIN just to see if we over looked what was on it and all of a sudden they all popped up!!! MIRACLE!!! Here is just a little video for your enjoyment, I cant believe how little she was!

So here i sit awaiting my wonderful husbands return from work so that I myself can go. And how I wish so badly that I didnt have to go. I actually want to clean my house, like really CLEAN it, and look for a new vacuum, take Lucy's 1-year pictures and just hang out with my buddies. I also wish that I can work from home. Not doing what I do now of course, but doing what I love!! Like going to D.I and buying something ugly and turning it into something cool (pictures to come) or make greeting cards, or go out and take pictures, and the best part, doing it on my own time and in my own way! I dream of that day quite often. But I am so grateful for the job that i have and that I DO have a job when so many people dont. I am so grateful for my boss and my coworkers too.

So I am going to attempt to take Lucy's one year old pictures in the next couple of days and I a little hesitant. The last time I tried taking her pics she was about 1 month old flailing and screaming and peeing all over the place and I wanted to pull my hair out. Thats when I hired a professional. But I am hopeful that I can do these myself and not have to spend oodles of dollars to get the look and feel that I want. Lets face it, I am a picky picky picture person, I cant just go to JcPenney or target and have someone take yucky, stuffy, forced, no-fun, ugly pictures! Yep I said it, and Im not taking it back! So hopefully in the next couple of days I can get some pictures up that are public-worthy.

On that note, my lovey is back and now I have to go. Ta-ta!

Greetings one and all! Today is a great day. This actually was a great week! Last week Ty had surgery on his nose. He had a deviated septum among other things that needed to be fixed. So under the knife he went and 2 hours later he was all fixed. High as a kite, but fixed non-the-less. It was awesome I went in the recovery room and he was just happy as a clam. The five questions he would ask right in a row were "where is Lucy, is she sleeping?", "is my nose huge?", "do I have black eyes?", and "your so pretty". He honestly said those things at least 5 times right in a row. I said "buddy can I get you anything?" and he replied "just a Jody sandwich" or something to that affect. So that weekend was a LONG weekend, draining, and hard. But he is doing great and finally being able to breath again!

So today was a great day. Not just because it was Sunday and we got to go and praise the Lord, dont get me wrong, that is cause enough for a great day, but today, today we have peace of mind. Last night after I put Lucy to bed and while Ty was at work, I sat down and filed our taxes. Last year we got HOSED with our tax return, but not this year!!! After every page of questions I was so worried to click submit for fear that the amount of the return would vanish. But instead it just kept going up and up!! Finally, FINALLY we get a real savings started. Finally we can buy a vacuum, one from a real store, not one from the 1960's that weighs 50 lbs, squeeks, stinks, and makes me think about swearing every time i use it, ("use" is a loose term). And we get to buy Lucy a big girl car seat!! Gosh now I know why Ty's brother and his family have a baby every year, because its like winning the lottery without sinning! To bad we didnt buy a house too.

So speaking of Lucy getting a big girl car seat, I cant believe she is to the point where she gets to have one! My little baby girl is basically in college now and it makes me want to cry. Not just because she is getting so big so fast and soon she wont be my "little" shnookie bear but because the vast realization of having to start thinking about getting pregnant again will be soon upon us. Ya, ya say what you want, the fact of the matter is, I dont LOVE being pregnant. Im not even going to get into this topic because I could go on for years about loving/hating pregnancy, but I wont. I just wont. I love my baby like nobody's business, and that wont stop me from having more kids, and yes we had to use fertility medicine to get her here, but that doesnt mean I have to love every second of being pregnant! I dont HATE being pregnant, but I dont love it either. Ok here i am getting all worked up...

In other news... Our home teachers today gave us a challenge to bare our testimony's or share a part of the gospel in our cyber world on a weekly basis. So here is mine for today. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I do. I KNOW it. It is as simple as that. Those times that are ridiculously hard, shape our lives and make us better, stronger and bring us closer to the Lord. This year Tyler and I have put that to the test for sure and here we are, we have more blessings than we can count, and we love each other and the Church more than ever. The countless things that have "gone wrong" this year has made us more strong than I think we thought we ever could be and made us realize that WE CAN DO HARD THINGS. The Lord isnt going to leave us hanging he will help us, to where he see's fit. This i know is true!

Photos, Christmas, and new beginings

Well first thing is first. So remember how I was STRESSING so much about this wedding I had to photograph the other weekend ago. Well, it came and went and I havent even blogged about it. I have to say first off, the wedding was AWESOME!! My good friend Jenni and her lovely new husband "E" (his name is a little hard to pronounce so he goes by E) were as gorgeous and darling as ever as they tied the knot. Everyone was dapper and sparkling and there were lots of lit Christmas trees, awesome African inspired food, dancing, AMAZING African wedding garb and the most adorable little kids around. We had a lot of fun. However, my fears did come true. I was SO nervous that the lighting was going to be horrible and the pictures would therefore suffer immensely and it happened. I could salvage them a little and get some good shots but the quality of the actual image is not the best and for this it makes my heart break. I am so nervous that she is going to be upset with them and forever remember her big day as grainy and low quality when she looks at these pictures. But unless I rented studio lighting and all this fancy equipment to help out with the lighting, I think this was as good as it would have gotten. Honestly, there wasnt anything else I could have done. But I still kick myself for it. But here is a little view of the "better" ones that were taken .

First the wonderful cake made my by old roommate Brittany, she is the Martha Stewart of Utah

The first moment together as they venture on their new lives. I loved the look on E's face

A little moment of the bride getting ready

A shot outside, it was FREEZING and windy

This one is my fave. The look on Jenni's face is priceless!


The grooms sister and niece, aren't they GORGEOUS!

As for my next item of business. Christmas! We had a great Christmas season. It came and went faster than ever this year I swear. We went to the Kings and enjoyed the great traditions and family time that we had. My in-laws, I cant remember who actually, got the Wii game Wipeout, SO FUN!! We love this t.v. show and the game is hilarious, if you have a Wii we recommend it. Also Just Dance 2 was a blast as well. We all got matching pj's and this years theme was Moose. I will have to get Catherine to send me some pics of us, especially Lucy, she was adorable and her pj's were so funny! She got a mini Kitchen thing from G&G King and she LOVES it, that was a major hit. Oh AND I finally got a pair of boots!!! Here is a picture of them, in brown. They are even cuter in real life.
http://www.dsw.com/shoe/bare+traps+trystine+boot?prodId=207536&cm_mmc=GPS-_-all-_-BareTraps-_-207536&mr:trackingCode=9968A0FD-A99C-DF11-904F-002219319097&mr:referralID=NA

So all in all we had a great holiday and I CANNOT believe the New Year is basically here. I complain about the time moving so fast that Tyler always tells me "your going to be fifty and not even enjoy the years you have had because your so worried that the time is going to fast". Which is true, BUT IT IS!! I cant handle it. My baby is almost 1 whole year old!! This just simply will not do! I am bracing myself for that day so i dont have a total meltdown.

Which reminds me, so Tyler and I have found ourselves on a path this year that has lead us down so many twists and turns, forks and T's and in and out of the woods and traffic more than our whole lives combined. We have now come to the conclusion that more school is in the cards for us. Everything we have come up with, every career option, life goals, you name it, all seems to be pointing toward more schooling. As much as Tyler is so nervous for doing this, we have decided to apply to Grad school for next fall. We are a little gun shy as the last debacle over this didnt quite pan out the way we had imagined and were denied to ALL 5 grad schools all in the most stressful and difficult week of ours lives. But we feel really good about this direction and the "current" path we are on. He has decided that the sports world is where we need to be and that is what he loves most. So Sports Communication is what he will get his Master's in. We are so far applying to Weber, SUU, Utah, U of Denver, and ASU so keep your fingers crossed for us, we need it desperately!

Lucy Lu

Well its been a bit since I have put any pictures in here of Lucy, well good ones anyway. On Sunday Ty and I decided that it is hi-time we get some good pictures of Lucy before she is in college. So we headed over to the Riverwoods before church and snapped a few photos of our cutie-pie. Here is a bunch of our fav's.
So this coming Saturday I have a wedding to shoot. I am pretty nervous. Well, really really nervous actually. I am doing the whole she-bang, the ceremony, after ceremony pics, dancing, cake cutting, everything. I am so nervous. If I mess up, they will never get this moment back. My pictures are all they have to remember this blissful event. Oh boy. I think I will need a few prayers.

I need help AGAIN!!

Ok thank you all for your thoughts on my dilemma on skinny jeans and boots. Well I have a new dilemma. This doesnt have to do with fashion though. So my family drew names for Christmas just like always except this year we changed it up a little. Instead of each person (spouses included) drawing out a name we did it as families this time. Great idea, because instead of spending $90+ on presents for two adults and one kid, we only spend $50 on the whole family. So here is my problem. I drew my eldest, or I shall say most wise sister and her family. Love my sis, love the fam, but what on this earth do I get them?!! She is just recently married and now they have a mixed family. The kids range from 10-23 and none of them really like the same things and there are a total of 7 people that I have to think about. I NEED IDEAS!!! PA-LEASE

In other news, Lucy is dangerously close to crawling, dangerously! Im nervous because now she will be into everything! But excited because a new stage is always exciting. Also my dreams have finally come true and we can now do Lucy's room! I cannot WAIT!! I have been waiting for this since before I was pregnant. Anytime I can decorate or dream about decorating is like a big breath of fresh air in a floral shop, but outside, maybe in the mountains on a beautiful spring day, just after it rains. Literally. I just refinished her changing table, found it on KSL for $25. And I we are currently looking at paint samples and deciding on a style. Dont your worry yourselves, pictures will come!