Welcome to the Blogging World

My sister Robin finally gave in, and joined the blogging world. Please visit her here. Since she is new she would love to have some comments!

Plus... Robin's turning 22 tomorrow. In celebration, here are 22 reasons you should go see her blog.

1. She is new to blogging, and would love to see lots of comments at her cute new blog.
2. It's her birthday.
3. She just graduated from BYU.
4. In 3 1/2 years.
5. She's super cute!

6. Robin leaves the best phone messages ever. For an example, please see here.
7. Robin has decided to stay in her apartment and continue to pay rent even though she's graduated, just so she can meet more boys. Which makes her the dating maniac, and way more social than I ever was when I was single.
8. Robin is super funny, although sometimes you may wonder if she's slept lately since she says some crazy stuff.
9. Robin talks super fast... Her blog may be the only way you will know what she's actually saying.
10. She eats sandwiches on tortillas when she runs out of bread.
11. She went to Las Vegas with me on a whim.
12. She has an awesome nickname.
13. For those who have cute male friends in Provo, she's single!
14. Did I mention she's super cute?
15. She likes to go to concerts with me. In fact, after seeing the Fray last year (her first concert), we were driving home and she asked, "So who else is playing soon?"
16. She doesn't stress about calling me at 2:30 in the morning.
17. I can call her at 1:00 am, when I realize I can't comment on her blog. (That's been fixed.)
18. She went surfing with Will & Mark when we were in Hawaii, while all the other girls went shopping.
19. She is the cutest & youngest of all my sisters.
20. She looks way better in a swimsuit than I do.
21. She's not afraid to try something new.
22. Rob-Rob is one of my best friends, and I love her tons & tons.

Have a great birthday Robin... this may be the only present you get from me! :)

My brain is full... can I go home?

My favorite sister, Robin (sorry Lissa & Becky), graduated today. She has spent the last 4 years at BYU and today she walked in graduation. Now that I think about it, she started school in August of 2004 and she finished classes in December of 2007...

Robin YOU ROCK! You graduated in 3 1/2 years!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last 2 days.

This is Mom, Robin & Dad. Mom wanted to make sure I got the Y in the background. After the obligatory pictures, we went to the Marriott Center for Commencement. For those who don't know, it's a pretty big building (max. capacity: 22,700), and when the graduates file in, it seems a little willy-nilly. You have no idea where your family member is, and even if you have an idea when they come in, finding them is a different story. After everyone was sitting down, I pulled out my longest telephoto lens, and started a grid search. Luckily I found her, and took a bunch of pictures so I could show everyone in the family where she was sitting.

I've labelled Robin's location (look to the left of the label), and the commencement speaker was Elder David A. Bednar, so I labelled him too. She had a much better seat than us (she earned it), and we were directly across the building from her.

After commencement, she showed us what she learned at BYU.

We took some pictures.

And Dad put his best face forward. (Mark, is there anything you can do for Dad's snaggleteeth?) :)

Then today we met Cecil O. Samuelson (President of BYU).

Robin waited in line to go into Convocation (when they read your name & give you your diploma cover).

She got her diploma cover (the real diploma came a couple of months ago when she finished classes). Sorry for the blurry photo, I was moving kinda fast so I wasn't in anyone's way.

After Convocation, Robin gave Mom & Dad her Stole of Gratitude. This is part of the graduation robe, which she was able to write a sweet message on, and gave it to the people who helped her most through her education.

Then, when all was said and done, we took a family photo! Some students say their family is what carried them through college. We took that to heart!

Spring has sprung!

I'm feeling better about the weather now. It's been warm for the last few days, and I got a little surprise when I walked out my door.

My tulips are blooming! There are only 2 right now, but I can see about 100 more blossoms that are ready to come out. I'm really excited!

I was also excited when my friend Mandy called me yesterday and said she needed a sitter for a couple of hours for today.

For those readers who don't know, my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for over 4 years now. Last October our prayers were answered when I got pregnant. However, just after Thanksgiving (I was 10 1/2 weeks along) I started having some problems and when we went to the ER they did an ultrasound and there was no heartbeat. So, right now, we've been struggling to get pregnant again (yeah for fertility meds), and since lots of my friends got pregnant around the same time I did, there are lots of babies around now. Which is good & bad for me. Good because I get to have lots of time holding babies, but bad because the babies aren't mine.

Anyway, today I got to babysit Treson (Mandy & AJ's 1 month old adorable son), and he was tons of fun. He only got fussy when he was hungry, but after a bottle, burping and a diaper change, he was wide awake, and curious about everything. Particularly about the noisy dog in the other room.

Thanks again, Mandy, for all the time I got to have with Treson! He's adorable!

Isn't it supposed to be Spring?

Yesterday the high was 75 degrees, the day before was 66, and the day before was 56. I was pretty excited for some warmer weather. In fact, the weather report from Saturday was predicting highs in the upper 70s all week.


I guess no one thought to look up at the sky when predicting the weather.


This was about 10 minutes ago. I was more than a little dismayed to see SNOW!!!!!!! You can't see it in the air, but it is snowing. Not much, but enough to make me more than a little upset. I was hoping for a little warm weather, and some possibility of some color for my pale skin (I did get sunburned Saturday working in my yard), but no luck.

Will someone please remind me why I live in Utah? I know, I know... Will's education is important.

My dog Stupid

The title of this post may appear grammatically incorrect. It's not. My dog's name is Cupid, but more often than not, we call her Stupid. Mostly because she is pretty dumb.

Here are some reasons my dog is stupid.

1. She chases a laser pointer like a cat. Except my dog weighs over 60 pounds, so it sounds like an elephant chasing a laser pointer.


2. She thinks that any light that moves is a laser pointer. Hence, no flashlights, candles, reflections from mirrors, etc, unless you want Cupid to stare at the ceiling/wall/floor for the next 20 minutes waiting to "get" the light.


3. My camera has a focusing light, so I can never get a good picture of my dog since she immediately goes into "pounce" mode when I try to snap a photo.

4. Occasionally we think she is attempting to talk because she yawns & whines at the same time.


5. If anyone says the word "outside" Cupid immediately jumps to her feet and runs so fast to the back door that we have nose marks there from the times she couldn't stop fast enough.


6. She rolls around in the snow.


7. She barks at nothing.


8. She gets so distracted by things she runs into walls.


9. She doesn't chew on her toys, she eats them.


10. If I throw her ball into the area of the back yard where she does her business she actually tip-toes through the messes to get it out.

Despite how dumb my dog is, she is pretty cute (when she's not doing something disgusting). Here is video we made for Will's family of Cupid playing in the snow last winter. Enjoy my husband's narration... that may be the best part of the whole thing.

Overall, she's pretty much okay, but when we have kids the dog might have to find a new home.

This is Cupid right before she stood up to try and get the camera.

Happy Birthday Ari!

Today is little Ari's birthday... literally. She was born at 2:20 this morning! Ariana's mom and dad are my good friends Mike & Michelle.

I did some maternity photos for them on Monday evening. This is one of my favorites.

Here is the whole family today at about 2:30 pm... Ariana is just over 12 hours old.



Since my cold is gone now (thankfully), I got to have a little baby time. Makes me wish for my own even more!


Welcome to the world little Ari!

Ariana Marie
7 lbs 1 oz
20 1/2 inches long
Born April 10th at 2:21 am.

She learned quickly that I love to have people smile when I take their photos!

Sick of being sick

I hate being sick. What's worse, is when I don't look sick, or feel all that sick, but then I try to talk and I sound like I've had a bad smoking habit for the last 30 years. Which would be physically impossible since I'm only 28, and I can't stand the smell of smoke. Anyway, between having a booth in another bridal fair, having a house guest for over a week, getting sick, and anything else that could happen, I haven't blogged in a while.

Although I have taken the time to read & comment on plenty of other blogs, I haven't looked at my own in a while. I pulled it up yesterday just before bed and realized it has been over 2 weeks since my last post, and it is overdue!

So here's my post... and I'll get back and post something more substantial soon. And since I figure I can't post without a picture... here is a random picture from last 4th of July... I call it my self portrait.