Halloween Photos

To all my local devotees:

My friend Brooke Reeves is offering an awesome special for Halloween photos. You go to her house and get Halloween pictures taken and for $30, you will get a CD with 5 edited pictures and for $50, you will get a CD with 10 edited pictures and that price includes the sitting fee!

She is amazing. Check out her photography blog for the details and her contact information at http://www.brookereevesphotography.blogspot.com/.

Shower Power

I promised pictures of Nat's baby shower forever ago and never delivered. You thought I was a liar. You were wrong. Let that be a lesson to you.

So Brooke, Jenn and I threw a baby shower for Nat and Hayley a few months ago. Jenn was mostly responsible for the delicious food and photography and Brooke and I handled the decorations, which basically meant Brooke came up with a bunch of really cute ideas and I helped her execute them.

The food table.

These were the napkins, with individually made pom-poms. Over the top? Maybe. Insanely cute? Most definitely.

Our "cocktails"

Possibly the best thing that I have ever put in my mouth. Jenn's famous cucumber sandwiches.

This is what happens when Brooke does decorations. People get personalized water bottles.

My girls.

Oh yes we did.

I love this picture because Jenn is so happy to be a part of us acting like idiots.

Me thoroughly enjoying the aforementioned cucumber sandwich.

My co-showerer and I.

Whale Watching is Equal to Water Staring

The title has nothing to do with my post, I didn't go whale watching. At least, not since my 4th grade field trip to Catalina Island. I just love Demetri Martin. He is a genius and the top contender for father of my children.

The last couple of months I have done more photography than I have in a long time. Brooke (One of my bff's) and I shot the engagement pics of my brother Jacob and his wife-to-be, Laura.

Here are a few of my favorites. Thanks to Jenn for her camera. She saved the day...again.

Then, my friend Celeste asked me to shoot a few pictures of her since she hasn't had any taken since her senior photos. Brooke is the one who worked her editing magic on Jacob & Laura's, but I thought I would give it a go with Celeste's so here they are. Shout out to Brooke for her camera and her magic machine. Sorry I am such a mooch, okay?

Brooke, Jenn and I threw Nat a baby shower a couple of weeks ago. Pictures of that to come. That same day, Brooke. Nat & I snuck out for pedicures. I branched out a little and decided to get a design on my toes. Of course I am not cruel enough to tell you about this without any visual accompaniment. You're welcome.

It was also Nat's birthday. And what do we do to celebrate any occasion in our lives, big or small? We head to Claimjumper to spend it with our favorite server, Ben. He did not disappoint.

While there, Brooke showed off her newest piercing, and the only one I can post a picture of without it being inappropriate for a respectable blog such as mine..

There were also 2 birthdays in my family. Cadence turned 4. I can't believe she is getting so old. I don't have any pictures of the wild party at Chuck E. Cheese, but just picture the cutest girl you have ever seen. Multiply her by 46 and put Chuck E. Cheese in the background. It is like you were right there.

My Mikey turned 18!!! I seriously can't wrap my mind around the fact that he is an adult. He starts UNLV in the fall. What the? And just for clarification sake, I am the only one that can call him Mikey. You can try, but chances are that he will cut you. Here he is with some of his birthday loot. You will not see my present among the lot. Why? you ask. It is because my present to him is taking him skydiving when it cools down a bit. I am thinking September or October.

That is all for now. Go on as best you can until you hear from me again...

Did You Miss Me?

Because I have a ridiculous amount of things to catch  up on, I will be posting pictures and doing a brief synopsis to catch you up on my life.

I guess the first thing is that I had the laproscopic band surgery the end of February.  It has been 3 months and I have lost 35 pounds so far. It is definitely an adjustment, but it has been good so far. 

So I asked the nurse (right before my surgery) to take my picture so that I could blog it. I don't think she has ever touched one of these contraptions we call a camera because the picture on the left is hers. I ended up taking a pic of myself. They are both extremely flattering.  I guess they make good before pics, right?

A few weeks later it was my birthday. I turned 28 and I am not going to lie, it freaked me out a little. So far though, I have really enjoyed being 28. For my birthday, I went to Claim Jumper with Nat, Brooke and Jenn. We have a server there that we LOVE. His name is Ben. He is amazing. If you go to the Henderson Claim Jumper, you should check him out. Natalie was really hungry so we just put dessert in front of her face and she just went at it. 

The next night I had my annual birthday dinner at the Paez's house.  As usual, the food and company were delightful.  Following dinner, we watched Twilight in celebration of the fact that it had come out the day before.

I also had a lovely birthday celebration with my family. I got phone calls, texts and emails from my family and friends.  Jess sent me a cool vinyl Elvis sticker for my car. Pretty rad, huh? 

In April, I spent 3 weekends in a row at my dad's condo in California. The first weekend I went with my ward to Magic Mountain. I was fairly disillusioned. The last time I had gone was with Nat. I think we were 20 or 21. It was super fun. This time, it was too hot, the lines were too long and I was ready to bail after a few hours. I had driven up the night before with Nic and Amanda and we decided to leave early and hang out at the beach with a few of Amanda's friends. That was the highlight of the trip for me.

The next weekend I went back and went to Disneyland with my friend Tracy and a friend of hers. I freaking love that place. 

The weekend following,  Seana and I headed to California to hang out and relax. Childcare was taken care of thanks to my vast knowledge of character actors and Jason's willingness to bet on things that he has no chance of winning. It was a super fun weekend. We hung out at the beach, went to the movies, ate delicious food and just relaxed. My cousin Melissa was there that weekend visiting her boyfriend so she crashed there with us. She also went to Disneyland for the first time in her life. I felt like a proud mother when I sent her off to the magical kingdom.

 Here are some pictures of my dad's condo. It is the cutest place ever. He gets all of the decorating credit.

May has been equally busy. I had some mission companions and friends come out for a weekend. It is always really great to see them.

On the 14th, I flew out to Chicago for Zach's law school graduation. The way the plane/train schedules worked out, I ended up spending the night at the Midway airport Baggage Claim. I wasn't quite comfortable enough there to sleep, but I did lay there for a few hours before I had to catch my train.

It was fun to spend the weekend there with Zach and his family. I am very proud of him. 

That Monday I flew to Lousiville to see my friend Monica. I met her my first Sunday in my first area on my mission and we have been friends ever since. I spent a week with her. It was awesome, we went rollerskating, to the batting cages, got pedicures, went to Marengo Caves (snooze), saw a grip of movies and just had a fantastic week. We also went to an amusement park called Holiday World. This place is awesome. The different sections of the park have themes based on major holidays. It has some pretty rad rollercoasters too. They also have these soda stations set up throughout the park for complimentary drinks. How cool is that?

So I got home this week and am enjoying finding a more relaxing routine after these last crazy weeks.

Gingerbread Smackdown!

Last night, my friends and I got together for our first annual Gingerbread Smackdown to see who could create the coolest gingerbread house human eyes have ever seen. I would like your assistance in seeing who succeeded. Please follow this link and vote on your favorite. Also, please only vote once as we would like to preserve the purity of this competition.

Through the Ages...

So I discovered this fun site a couple of months ago and it has taken me this long to show the results. If you want to play, go to www.yearbookyourself.com

Here is what I would look like if I had lived back in the day:


1950, 1952, 1960



1964, 1966, 1968



1974, 1978, 1982



1984, 1986, 1990



1992, 1994, 1996

My Month(s) in Review

Okay, so it has been awhile since I updated. What's your point? Maybe I have had other things demanding my time. Here is a brief synopsis of my life these past couple of months.

My brother Michael got his Eagle Scout in June. He is cute. My brothers love each other.

I went to Denver for my mission president and his wife's homecoming. Please don't leave me any comments about how it isn't called a homecoming anymore. I don't care.

This is my last companion, Catie Dunn. We made part of the lovely 12 hour drive together.



These are some sisters from my mission. We ate at a mexican restaurant. Right behind us is where the performers were diving to their almost-deaths for our entertainment.



This is me with President and Sister Brimhall. I seriously love them so much. Aren't they cute?



President and Sister Brimhall with all the sisters that made the trip.



For Nat's birthday, we drove out to Mt. Charleston and had foil dinners and watched a movie.


It was very fun. I heart Natalie Kennedy.

Well, that takes us through July. Someday I will catch you up with Audrey's bridal shower, her reception and my rad trip to Disneyland.