First

I had my first family/maternity photo shoot on Saturday. It was AWESOME to say the least! I am excited to get the pictures edited and I'll make sure to give you guys a little sneak-a-roo. Thanks to Josh, Carly and Kaius for having such a cute little family, people like you are fun to photograph!

Hello

I feel like I've dropped of the face of Blogger world. Well, rest assured I'm back.

I've been so busy lately. Could I tell you what I've been doing? No. I have no idea why I'm busy, miscellaneous stuff I guess. What I can tell you is that Drake is potty trained! No thanks to my doing though, it was all CJ. I have no problem with changing diapers, my check book does, but I don't. I would change an 8 year olds butt if it was socially acceptable. Changing a diaper was such a rhythm in our house that is became habit. Drake is so smart and has picked it up very fast. He still wear pull ups to nap time and bedtime, I'm not sure what to do about those times.

I'm taking a photography class every Tuesday night and I'm learning SO SO SO much! I really want to be a great photographer! I don't want people to think I'm just another wanna-be photographer. It is my mission to be great and INEXPENSIVE! I think photography is over priced and I'd like to offer an alternative. I will be taking my first engagement session at the end of March that I'm extremely nervous about! I'm not very confident yet but I'll post some pictures because I'd love for you blogger's to give me some consumer feedback. Thanks, in advance.

We are rounding the corner to Drake's 3rd Birthday! Wahoo! He'll be one year older and more independent too! Oh how I love love love him!

I've joined the brunette's team. It's a mix of emotions to lose all contact with blonde hair but I'm enjoying the transition. I'll get used to the dark hair in a couple weeks and a few tanning sessions later. I'll post a picture after my tanning sessions :)

Mr. Grumpy

This is Drake's new angry face. I tell you, he's hard to stay mad at for very long because he's just too darn cute!

Awesome

So, my cousin Ashley has a new website and you guys have to check it out! She's an awesome photographer! http://ashleythalmanphotography.com/

Sorry, I've run out of Title name ideas.

Well, December went by WAY faster then I thought it would. I thought I would be able to enjoy Christmas but it felt kind of rushed and hectic this year. CJ was working a lot of overtime so maybe that's why I feel like we missed out on the whole "feeling of the season". We still had a great Christmas though. Lots of great food and lots of even better family.
Drake got spoiled (again) this year. Not by us, but by his Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. I realized after Christmas Eve that I should return the few items that we got him and get our $50 back. I thought about telling Santa to do the same. Instead we watched Drake open his Dinosaur books and Disney movies on Christmas morning. He had a lot of fun, and he got a lot of great things.

I bought CJ some new camo and a Coyote call and CJ bought me a camera. He won "Husband of the Year" award! He had been saving up, on his own, for about 8 months now in order to surprise me with it. I love him! CJ is not the romantic or thoughtful guy so this was very awesome of him to think of something like this on his own. Way to go babe! It's so dang cool, and I have been doing a lot of reading to figure out all the manual settings. YAY! Next item to purchase: Editing software.

CJ had me open my gift first because he knew I'd want to start taking pictures right away, so all our Christmas pictures are on the new camera and I'm still playing with it so I'll upload the pictures as soon as I get around to it.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and a fabulous New Year! I'm excited for 2011 and I have some very important goals to look forward to.

Fun Filled Weekend

Can you believe Christmas is right around the corner? I can't! We've been busy and I feel like we still have so much to do. We still have Christmas parties to attend and gifts to think of, buy and then wrap. Drake now believes in Santa, so me and CJ no longer get to talk about what we're going to get him in front of him. We end up texting each other while we're sitting on the couch. LOL.

This last Saturday we went to Temple Square to see the lights with my parents and some of my siblings. It was fun and not too cold either. It was not as impressive as it has been in past years, we were all a bit disappointed by the lights, or the lack there of.





Before the lights, we stopped by the Grand America Hotel to see the Gingerbread House display. They were so cool and very elaborate.




Not a surprise to find out that Drake's favorite Gingerbread house was the barn. He kept telling me that the horses were in there sleeping. What a kid!


Before we left the hotel we stopped by the Teddy Bear Suite on the 23rd floor. The room runs anywhere from $2500 to $5000 a night. RIP OFF!



The only thing impressive in the room were the bathrooms, they were so NICE! Me and CJ got a better view and a cooler room in Jamaica for our Honeymoon for that price, and we were there for a week!

On Sunday my dads good friend stopped by my parents house for a bit to play Santa for the grand kids. We, along with some of my siblings were there for dinner. It was so fun to see Drake's face! He LOVED Santa! As soon as Santa came in the door Drake kept saying "I want presents, I want toys" It was funny.






My mom and Dad even got to sit on Santa's lap :)

Life Goes By Fast

I feel like life has been zooming by me and I can't grab on tight enough. I have so much to do around my house and so many projects that I'd like to complete. I've only started a couple of these projects but I have lots planned! I try not to think of them very often or else I just feel overwhelmed. Not to mention my work load at work has been increasing, but not my pay check. mmmm weird. I really like my job though and I'm very grateful that I have one so I won't complain too loud.

CJ and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary! YAY! We didn't do anything very eventful and we wanted to stay close to home because Drake came down with a runny nose and a bad cough. We're so lucky to have lots of family that are very willing to watch him for us whenever we want/need to get away for a bit. CJ and I went to dinner at Bucca di Beppo. DELICIOUS! Real, fresh, and authentic Italian food. It's CJ's favorite. Before dinner we went and saw a movie, it was CJ's first time in a movie theater in 3 years, wowza. We enjoyed ourselves. After dinner and a movie we picked Drake up and went to Cold Stone for ice cream and a carmel apple from Rocky Mt Chocolate Factory. The ice cream and apple were wonderful but not $18 wonderful. I about died when the dude told me how much my total was. No wonder we never go out for dessert anymore. What a rip off.

I forgot to take a picture of our food before we ate it, so here are our leftovers lol It still looks so dang good!

apple pie carmel apple

Raspberry cheesecake ice cream

I truly love CJ, and dinner and a movie was a perfect night out for the two of us. I don't want to sit and type a bunch of stuff on here about how "perfect" my husband is because he's not and quite frankly I hate it when people do that. CJ is perfect for me and would not be perfect for anyone else. Lets be clear, no other woman on this earth today would let their husband go hunting as much as I do. period. Oh and he's not romantic, that part about him sucks sometimes. A short list of some great things about him are:

He's funny.
He's quiet and I'm not, so we even each other out.
He has a very kind heart and looks for something positive in everything/everyone.
He's a great hands on dad.

Bottom line is that I love him. You know who else I love?

THIS KID! (and his turkey that he hasn't let go of for the past week)