"When I Get Where I'm Going"

Life is... needless to say, very crazy and busy. I have had at least 3-5 photoshoots a week since September, and it is just getting busier and busier up until middle of December. Grateful? Absolutely... I just wish I had some time to clean my house :). I think I am on top of things and then it's just dirty again. Moreso, I think between our jobs, Dan and I would just love a free weekend but that doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon. My mom has always said it is good to be busy though. I completely agree with that, it forces you to be productive and stay on top of things. In all the business of life though, when you are wrapped up in everything that needs to get done and you have to do... it's good to have a week like we just had. My dear friend, Brittney, lost her dad quite unexpectedly. He had liver cancer and they found out a week ago. He was a wonderful man and loved his family so much. Watching my Aunt Kim suffer through cancer, it is hard to say what is better. Brittney didn't see her father struggle but at the same time it was such a sudden goodbye.

This started my thinking that although our lives are so busy right now, Dan and I need to stop and have moments where we force ourselves to just stop. Just be and enjoy.

Then after the event of Brittney's Dad, Dan was in a wreck on the freeway in the Acura. He had turned his head for a moment and the traffic had suddenly stopped. I was so grateful that Dan was alright. So grateful. Although we laugh that we had just paid a couple hundred dollars on the Acura that morning, I am so glad I decided to get the brakes fixed when I found out how bad they were the day before (I never drive the Acura anymore, Dan does.) I really think that's what saved my husband from it being something so much worse.


This week has been a reminder to slow down. Enjoy life and not get caught up in the craziness. I love Dan so much and am so grateful to have him in my life. I am so grateful I could be there for Brittney at her Dad's funeral yesterday. For that reminder that things do not end here on earth. I can't get this Brad Paisley song out of my head. It makes me think of my Grandpa and My Aunt Kim and visiting with them again one day. Love it.

Sweet Sweet Memories

I LOVE animals... wow sure glad to get that out there. :) Really, everyone already knows this. It is amazing to me how animals come into our lives and our homes and they leave such a great impact. I have had so many wonderful pets and I still find myself crying when I think of them or remember the day I lost them.

Jamie's one cat FooMan has been missing since Sunday which is strange for him. He is always out at night hunting but his schedule is like clock work. Jamie had some new neighbor's move in and they put a chicken coop in their yard. This unfortunately would bring wild animals that might have not wandered their direction before like cougars, coyotes, bobcats... etc. It is hard not to fear the worse and Jamie and I had a good cry today on the phone. He isn't even my cat but I still love him and I know how much he means to Jamie's family.

After work today I drove around looking for him. Jamie and I had talked earlier about how it's almost worse not having a clue. That at least if you found him, you could have some sort of closure. We keep hoping he will turn up. Jamie's neighbors cat showed back up 4 months later so I guess you never know.

All night I have been thinking about FooMan and worrying and feeling so sad. In the midst of all that worrying, Jamie sent me an email from her hotel room (she is working out of town tonight) of pictures of Figaro when he was a kitten. We were gone for two weeks during Christmas when we found him and took him in so Jamie watched him for us. He was so adorable and Brinlee LOVED him. He was her baby and she would carry him everywhere. The video's Jamie has are awesome. I need to make sure to get them from her.

The trash can picture is the funniest and shows that he is the same little kitty. So curious and ALWAYS searching for food. So anyone that knows this straw loving, curious cat will get a kick out of that.

Bubble, Bubble

Look at these bathing beauties. T was sick so Brin wanted to give her a bath. T loved it and is so lucky to have such an awesome big sister.

We are a Rugby House

Anyone who knows Dan, knows that he is all about Rugby. It isn't too often that I find him wanting to watch really any sport, but with the Rugby World Cup going on right now, we have lots of Rugby playing at the house. I will say that I love it. I love seeing Dan get so excited and so involved. Of all the sports out there to watch too, I will say that Rugby is now my favorite (Megan Settles would agree with me on that one).

Meeting Dan, I hadn't known anything really about Rugby except they wear shorter shorts :). Rugby was one of my favorite things about Dan when we were first dating. I LOVED going to his games and watching him play. I loved traveling with him to his different tournaments. His last year playing, they went to Nationals in California and got 2nd place! It was awesome.

Here is my Rugby Buddy at one of Dan's games... Megan pretty much went with me to all of them which makes her the best roommate/friend ever.

When I first met Dan, he had longish/messy hair. They were all growing it out to look "tough". Once the season was over Dan cut it, but I still laugh and forget that Dan once had longer hair when we were first dating. Here is a picture of Dan when we were first dating and he had long hair :)

Things I learned about Rugby. There isn't really a sport out there that is as intense. No shoulder pads, no pads at all (I was nervous every game when Dan would play. Especially because Dan tended to get in fights). They tackle, punch, the whole works. Pretty much everything is allowed. Dan's position was the "Locke" (there were two guys on the field at a time that played this position). During the Scrum they were the power house (had to have really strong legs) to drive the team forward to get the ball. Dan also told me that if they messed up and did it the wrong way, you could break your neck.

We LOVE the New Zealand All Blacks. That's who we are rooting for. They are amazing. Here is the Haka they do before every game. Pretty intense when you, as the opposing team, have to just sit and watch. In this case though, Tonga (who also does a form of the Haka) did one as well so it was fun to see them battle it out.



Here are the good old days from when Dan played Rugby in College.




This is when Dan busted his head during a game. We took him to the ER and he had to get 17 stitches. Of course he wanted to go right back to the game after so here are some pictures of that and of course a picture of the injury. He has an eye brow scar now.

Here are the New Zealand All Blacks



This picture below is called a "Line Out". Dan used the be this guy that they would throw in the air to catch the ball. It basically is a throw in when the ball goes out of bounds. It was Megan Settles favorite thing to watch at the games.

Rugby is something that I have completely embraced. I know that if we have boys, they will certainly play if they love it. It is one of my favorite dating memories and still one of my favorite things about Dan. I love his passion for the sport. He is looking to join a Rugby Club and I am so excited for him to do that. I love spending Saturday's at the field and the smell of grass, blood and sweat ;). Really though, I am excited for him and for us to spend our Saturday's doing that again.

New Couches!

Can't believe it but we finally bought new couches. To be perfectly honest, I felt bad getting rid of the old ones. Inanimate objects have feelings too you know? :) At least that's how I felt as a little kid. I can still remember when my Dad was selling our boat because he was buying a new one and I felt so bad for the old boat. Now really, I'm not crazy and I don't really think the couches are sad :) BUT for sentimental reasons it was kinda sad to see them go. They were our first couches as a married couple. In our first apartment, we lived in the basement of a house and it was tiny, and except for our crazy landlord, it was so fabulous and so happy even though we were in such a little space. I told Dan at the time it was silly to buy nice/new or even more expensive used couches when we wouldn't be staying there forever. I think this part of me surprised Dan initially in our marriage. I have just always felt strongly against thinking you need to have "EVERYTHING" nice and new and perfect the first couple years of marriage. You aren't. You get to work together and slowly acquire things as you can. It has meant SO much more to us to work for everything we have and purchase our own furniture slowly over time. Makes us appreciate the effort it took to get them. So sadly our cute/old little green couches were starting to break and we had been setting money aside so we could pay cash for new ones. It happened at the perfect time and we got a great deal on them at Ashley Furniture. We love them, our living room is now the "couch room." It was such an exciting purchase, and they are totally me and my style, Leather that has an antique look to it.

McKensey

McKensey comes every summer to Utah for a couple weeks. I was so happy that Dan and I live in Draper now (practically around the corner) from my Aunt and Uncle that I was able to see her lots! Amy and I decided to have a fun pampering/make over night and end with a quick photo session for darling McKensey. I have the greatest cousins in the world. All of them. Honestly. I don't think most people can say that their cousins are their best friends. I know that I could call any of them up, in Colorado, Texas, Utah, Idaho, Vegas or Washington and they would help me with anything. Truly blessed and so appreciative to have the family I do.

So No Big Deal... it's only been a Year and a half :)

So let's be real here... I suck when it comes to a personal blog. My photography blog here stays up to date and current. Mostly I feel like I never have time to worry about a second blog, but realizing that writing in my journal typically never happens, and realizing you can publish your blog into a book, motivates me a little to have a document of our lives. (Scrap booking is definitely out of the question in my case.) So here goes my second attempt. Here are some fun things that kept us busy this past year and a half :):

Christmas 2009- This was so MAGICAL for our very first christmas married... it snowed and snowed and SNOWED christmas eve... in TEXAS! I know you utah people think big whoop but for us Texas people this was a true gift and I never had a snow like that all the years I lived in Texas :) So it was fun to share that with Dan.

Love little miss Brin. I can't believe how much more grown up she is now than in this picture :) In March 2010 (when I took this), I started nannying her during the day since it was really the only job I could do that didn't take away from my photo stuff. Let's just say there is never a day I don't want to go to "work."

For my Birthday, Miss Brin went with Dan and I to the zoo! It was so fun!

I got to go to Texas with Jamie and Brin for a couple of weeks in 2010. This is my favorite picture of Jamie from our Zoo day... that was really her expression when the birds jumped on the stick :) Classic Jamie Face.

The gorgeous painting of Christ walking on water my hubby gave me for my birthday 2010. I absolutely love it. It's beautiful.

My Family came to Utah for the summer because my Dad and Stetler went on a week long white water rafting trip. They came back looking like mountain men. :)

After, my family drove with Dan and I to Colorado where I was shooting a wedding. We got to stay with my grandparents and went to the Air Force Academy where my Dad went to school and met my mom. It was so fun!

In July 2010, I went to Girl's Camp with the Young Women from my ward. It was so fun and the memories I made there will last forever. I miss those girl's so much!




Dan and I also had the amazing opportunity to go with the Youth from our Church to Trek in Wyoming. It was so amazing and so hard for the kids but they loved it. 70-80 mph winds everyday, rain, cold. But so worth it. To see more images from the Trek go here .

In the Fall 2010, we went the the lovely State Fair in Utah with our friends and cousins. Let's just say that it was a blast and we laughed so much.

For Thanksgiving, I went to Texas to do a bunch of Client Photoshoots so Miss Brin got to fly there with me. We stayed for Two weeks at Grandma Cricky's (Dan joined us the second week) and had Thanksgiving with the lovely Roses, Kearns, and Eppley's. My Grandma Mammie surprised us too and she even came down! The first night there we got to go to the last football game of the season and watch Uncle Stet play his drums. Brin didn't love the loudness of it all (because everything is bigger and better in Texas) but she had a blast. She especially loved baking in the kitchen with my mom and Mammie.










Every year my girlfriends or "Schister's" from College have "Sisterpalooza" at Christmas time and exchange gifts. This year we stayed at a cabin in park city and it was a BLAST. Even though there was crazy snow that made getting there quite confusing :).









At Christmas Time (2010) we went to Salt Lake City Temple Square to see all of the Christmas lights with Brin and The Kearns Clan. It was so so COLD but so awesome.

Here is Amy, leading the train in Carols of Course :) Because that's Amy. :)

CHRISTMAS 2010 - Here is our second Christmas together. So fun. I had a LOT of fun decorating our Christmas tree this past year. Let's just say that anyone that knows me knows that I'm a tad obsessed with Christmas and decorations. Here were some of our Decorations last year. :)










Christmas Eve/Day 2010: We spent at Jamie and Tyler's house. My family flew up from Texas so it was fun to all be together.

DISNEYLAND 2011- This was such a blast. We drove with Jake and Court to Cali and met up with Amy, Courtney, and Becca at Disneyland. It was so fun to be there with Dan, I loved it.
















Telly Award: Dan was so excited that his show that he edits won a TELLY Award! It was such an honor and I am so proud of him. He works so so hard.

My furniture I painted and antiqued... I wanted it to look like old, rustic barn wood. I have to say that after all the work I love it and have since then bought other pieces of old furniture to paint and age because I am mildly obsessed now :)







This past summer (2011), I had a new niece born, Tegan. She is beautiful. Here are some pictures I took of her.




My nephew Wesley was also born. I'm still waiting for Sham to take pictures of him. :) I LOVE my nephews and wish so much that they lived closer. I miss them so much!




This past summer (2011) I went to Texas with Jamie, Brin and Tegan. We had a blast on the boat and here of course is my rad Brother, Stetler. Here are some other fun pictures from this summer.

Whew!! Made it... hopefully that taught me a lesson to stay up to date on life :).