Katy's Senior Pics

My little sister, Katy, will be a senior in the Fall and wanted her senior pictures taken while she was out here last week. I don't have much experience with photographing people professionally, but I thought I would give it a shot. (Pun intended.) Here are some of my favorites.

I Was Asked to Speak On . . .

I have to give a talk on Sunday for the first time in over 8 years. Some how I managed to sneak under the radar through all my BYU wards and years beyond. At least I get to spend most of my time introducing us. I'm still terrified though. Every talk I have heard here in Spanish Fork have mentioned either hunting or farming and I don't know anything about either one of those. I don't know how I am going to relate to my audience. Wish me luck!

Celebrating Freedom

Fourth of July Weekend was a blast. Here are a few pics from our many festivities, including Patio of Fire, Stadium of Fire, my Dad's birthday party and the Layton City Fun Run that my family ran/walked. Most of them are of my nieces and nephew because they are the cutest!

Kevin and I enjoying the Patio of Fire.

Cool formation at the Stadium of Fire

None of my pics of Carrie Underwood came out, so here is a pic of Kevin and me and instead!

My family decided to run/walk a 5k on Monday. Kevin pushed my niece and nephew most of the way, he was excited to finish.

My dad pushed my almost 90-year-old grandma. She loved it.

Nephew Liam loved the race.


We finished, phew!

Warming up after swimming in the pool. Check out those blue eyes!

Jessica is ready for a swim!

Isabel not crying for once.

Kaylee is just too cute!

The Last Two Months

I know I have been horrible about blogging. I keep thinking I need to write about the wedding and the honeymoon and it just seems so daunting that I have been avoiding it. So, I'm not going to write about them, for now at least. I posted pics on Facebook, so you can check them out there and get a feel for what happened.

As for playing catch up, here are a few adventures we have had since we got hitched over two months ago:

Philadelphia! It was a lot of fun. Kevin had a meeting with some people at QVC, so we made a drive up to their corporate offices and I just hung out in the lobby. It was kind of cool since that is where they do all the filming. I wanted to get my picture in front of the sign, but I didn't want to look like a fool, so I opted to just take a picture of it.

The hotel was a little boutique hotel close to lots of shopping and within walking distance of most of the historical sites. This made it convenient for me since Kevin worked the whole time and we didn't have a car. The first room they put us in smelled like vomit, so they upgraded us to a suite that smelled like Indian food. The rooms were still tiny and the bed was only a double, which felt tiny compared to the King size bed we were used to sleeping in while in Cancun the week before.

Being in Philly, we had to go to get cheese steaks. We tried both Geno's and Pat's and I liked Geno's better.

One of my best friends took a bus from NYC to spend the day with me and we had a blast! Tony and I always seem to find great food when we are together. We also visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and did a little shopping. Thanks to Tony for coming to see me!

Kevin also had is 30th birthday while we were in Philly. He had to work most of the day, but we did manage to make it down to the Liberty Bell again and then the LOVE statue.

Later we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and got frozen yogurt. I felt bad that I couldn't do more for his birthday, but I guess there is always next year.

After being home for a little less than two weeks, we drove up to the Seattle area for our Open House. It was quite the drive, and when were were about 45 mins or so from his parent's house, the sun roof of Kevin's car shattered. Luckily there was a shade inside that caught the glass so we were protected, but the sound scared us to death. The Open House was a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for Kevin's family for all their help. It was fun to meet people from Kevin's childhood and to hear how much he was loved. It was nice to have my parents and little sister there too. And once again, absolutely no rain while I was there. I don't know how it happens, but it always stops raining while I am in Washington.

On a more depressing note, a week and a half after we got back from Washington, my grandfather got really sick and passed away. To make a long story short, he had global bleeding in his brain and we decided to take him off life support. It was incredibly sad, but he was so lonely without my grandmother who had passed away in 2003. He had been depressed ever since, so we are grateful that they can be together again. My grandfather had been in the same house for 45 years, and wouldn't let us touch it after my grandmother passed, so we spent a week going through their stuff and trying to clean the house. They were both smokers so it was quite the project. It looks like my younger sister Heidi and her family will be moving in once they can get it fixed up enough. It will be nice to keep the house in the family. I have a lot of childhood memories there.

About two weeks after the funeral, Kevin had a business trip in Las Vegas and I got to tag a long. The drive seemed short compared to our drive to Bremerton the month before. We stayed at the Vdara, a new hotel right next to the Bellagio. The hotel was so nice and smoke free!!! There is no casino and I just liked the feel of it. We were on the 36th floor and our view was kind of nice. We would stay there again in a heartbeat. The location is perfect and the rooms were so nice, and I can't tell you how nice it was not smelling like smoke every night.

I've been to Las Vegas more times than I can count, but I have never been to the Coke store, so I begged Kevin to go with me this time. I'm not a huge fan of Coke, but I have always wanted to taste all the Coke products from around the world. I have to say, most of them were pretty gross, but I'm glad I finally got to experience it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

New posts are coming, I promise. I am working on one for the wedding day, then I will get to the Honeymoon. We got home late last night from Cancun and leave tomorrow morning for Philadelphia, so we are running around crazy today trying to get things done and unpacked/packed. I will have lots of time in Philadelphia to catch up, so look for some updates later this week.

Love you all!

Stress

Pretty sure if Kevin and I can get through planning this wedding without killing each other, our marriage is going to be just fine.

I have no patience anymore, and poor Kevin has to dealing with my breakdowns everyday.

It can't come soon enough!

Counting the Days

I had my final wedding dress fitting today and the dress if officially in my possession! It’s been a long 3 months, but so worth it. I love it so much! It just makes me that more anxious for the big day. I should be doing bridals in a couple weeks, so I can post pics then. Kevin will be taking my bridals, so I won’t care about hiding the dress from him after that.

The invitations are in the final design phase, and should go to the printer next week. Can’t wait to get them out of the way!

We have signed the contract with the florist and I’m so excited to see how everything turns out. I am doing mostly hot pink lady roses, fuchsia spray roses, white lisianthus, white stephanotis and white roses. Should be pretty!

Our engagement pictures turned out so good! Thanks to Ashley for doing an amazing job. I still have to get the edited ones from Kevin, and then I will post.

I can’t believe April 10^th is getting so close. Some days fly by while others seem to drag, but I’m trying to enjoy every moment.