Mother's Day

(This photo is extra special because my mom is wearing her mother's dress. My grandma recently passed away.)

Hello, friends! I hope you had a nice Mother's Day. I'm so glad I was able to spend it with my sweet mother.

I'm so thankful for this holiday of celebrating the women in my life. I love each of them and how they have helped me grow. And to me, that's what this holiday is about: we are honoring the women in our lives and are learning to better love and serve them.

And to my mom (though she may never see this): I love you. Your hard work and sacrifice are some of the qualities I love most about you. You are selfless and loving, regardless of other people's feelings and actions. If I become even half as amazing of a mother to my children as you've been to me, I will succeed.

Tulip Festival 2013

One of my favorite ways to welcome in spring is to go visit the annual Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point, here in Utah.

It's so nice to take a long walk outside and finally feel some sunshine on my skin. Not to mention you're surrounded by thousands of stunning tulips and other flowers and plants. It's a beautiful sight.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures. And you can check out last year's visit to the festival HERE.

We're Moving!

Guess what? We're moving into an apartment!

I'm so excited. It's been a blast living with my parents (seriously, that's not sarcasm), but I'm thrilled to be able to move out on our own. And my favorite is that I get to decorate our new space! I've been brainstorming for a few weeks and have a few (see: a bazillion) ideas up my sleeve.

Yay! So while actually hauling all of our junk there will be the worst, once we're through with that, it will be a party!

AND, I get my kitty back! It's going to be great.

And now, for some unrelated pictures:

^^Some of you may have already seen this on Facebook. We did a silly impromptu photoshoot one Sunday and came up with this image. We asked our Facebook friends to come up with the best caption for it. There were some fantastic ones, but this was my favorite:

"Some take the death of Dumbledore harder than others." -my sister-in-law, Sarah

^^Me and my cute nephews.

^^A little outfit I wore one day. Hasn't the weather been SO nice here in Utah? If you don't live in Utah, let me just tell you: it's been gorgeous! 

My Second Family

You may have already seen these pictures on Facebook, but they need to be shared here too.

I had the chance to photograph Scott's side of the family this last weekend. It's been a loooong while since we've all been together to get a photo, so it was a big deal.

I'm really not THAT great of a photographer, but I know how to use my camera pretty well and I really enjoy taking pictures. So that's good enough, isn't it? :)

Also, you should know that lately I've been really into black and white pictures. They really simplify an image. I love it!

So, here is my family, in black and white:

This picture cracks me up. Some kids may not be smiling, but all of them are looking! 

This last picture was on a different day, but I love it too much to not share with you.

Oh, family. I love them.

Valley of Fire State Park

This weekend we headed up to the Valley of Fire for family pictures! It's a gorgeous place. The green plants and the red rocks together are stellar.

I'd never been, so of course I had to take a billion pictures to document it.

My favorite part was scouting out locations for family pictures the day before. It was just me and Scott, my sister-in-law and her husband, and my mother-in-law. 

My sister-in-law Sarah is the best. She's so kind and selfless, and is always inspiring me to be better. And her husband has the most lovely singing voice. I'm so glad they found each other.

I think those two are pretty much our best married friends. I wish we lived closer.

I'm so terrible at writing. I don't even know how to wrap up this blog post. Um... bye?

Easter Weekend in Vegas

Happy Belated Easter! I hope yours was full of food, family, and lots of sugar! Ours definitely was.

We traveled down to the warm city of Las Vegas to spend the holiday with my in-laws.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:

Our Easter Sunday outfits.

Gambled for the first time, ha! I lost all of my $3 in case you were wondering. And I staged this photo so I would look entranced like all of the other people. :)

Sunday dinner.

A little flashback to Easter from the 90's. I wish I had that gingham dress now!

One one of the nights we stayed at the Luxor hotel (the pyramid shaped one). It was terrifying, but awesome being up on the 30th floor.

Donuts for breakfast.

A cool-looking drive-thru in St. George.

All in all, I couldn't asked for a better trip. It was WONDERFUL getting away from work for a few days. And I really enjoyed spending time with Scott's family.

In many ways his family is different than mine. That used to really concern me. But with each visit I'm seeing more and more similarities between us. It's such a fun thing to get to have 2 families. And I love both of mine so much.

It was a perfect vacation.

Don't worry, I have even MORE pictures to come!

A Birthday

My little sister is turning 19! Wowza! Since I'm a terrible sister and will be down in Vegas for her actual birthday, we celebrated a little early.

The decorations were done by myself (with help from mom!), and while all extremely last minute, I thought it all turned out cute!

Hats inspired by the lovely Angela Hardison HERE // Party supplies via Hobby Lobby, Orson Gygi, Partyland, and Walmart // Most Delicious cake in the universe recipe HERE