Alyssia and Dustin

Crave Photography's Giveaway

2012-01-02T23:07:00.002-08:00

Check out Crave Photography's AWESOME giveaway! Win a Nikon 85mm 1.4 lens or a Cannon 85mm 1.2 lens. You choose!! Check it out at http://www.cravemyphotography.com/blog

2012-01-02T23:07:00.001-08:00

2011-07-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

The mural is done!

2011-05-02T21:10:00.001-07:00

Dustin spent the day today painting this darling mural!! Our babies room is almost done!! Good thing, because she is coming this month! Ah! We are so excited!

Do You ever feel like this.........

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or even this.....

or maybe like this........

But then someone in your life helps you see things a little clearer and

suddenly you can't help but realize how blessed you are. (Even if your body is expanding

at an incredible rate, and changes are coming from every angle). And

really you can't help but smile....

Like this.....

This is my beautiful neice, Mya. I love her to pieces! Lately I have

been having major anxiety and OVERWHELMED by the thought that

I'm going to become a parent so soon. Not to mention dealing with

the changes of my body, hormones, and the major change about to

happen in my life. Don't get me wrong I am EXTREMELY excited to have

a baby and know it is a HUGE blessing from the Lord. It is just a lot

to take in. But when I have gone and visited my sister and hung out with my

sweet 3 month old niece I feel like all the anxiety and stress is gone. She makes me

smile, and I can't wait to have another little baby girl in my life, that's my own :)

22 weeks!

2011-01-18T21:49:00.001-08:00

New Blog

2011-01-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

So I know we are horrible at updating this blog, but I have started another new one (I know how many can we possibly have right?! :) I decided I'm finally going to do the 365 challenge, and take a picture everyday to post that has something to do with that day. So feel free to check it out here

Bear Lake Weekend

2010-11-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to help out Dustin's family with moving everything back into their cabin at bear lake now that it's remodeled. Here is a shot of the gorgeous sunset over Logan Canyon we saw Friday night as we arrived. note that it is NOT PHOTOSHOPPED. We had a good time being able to help move and arrange stuff. The cabin looks amazing!! And it will be such a nice place to just get away for some weekends, especially during the long winter we have ahead :)

Never a dull moment with little Sydney "bug"

2010-09-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Just a thought

2010-09-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure anyone really reads this (and I don't blame you considering it's our poor neglected blog :) Anyway as I'm sure most of you know I so easily worry and stress! It's pretty much as natural as breathing for me. Dustin is extremely patient with me, and is always so good at reassuring me IT'S FINE! I think sometimes I am such a people pleaser that the worry of disappointing someone is constantly on my mind. Somewhere down the line I got in my head that I am supposed to be perfect NOW! Anyway before I ramble too much, I will get to my point. Tonight as I am feeling a little more of the overwhelming stress trying to take care of the house, Dustin, get caught up in my editing, improve my photography business, and make time for my other job, my husband and have a little me time. (I know I don't even have kids...right:) Well the thought just came to me that I need to remember that I don't have to worry about doing this all on my own. That my Savior and my Heavenly Father are right there ready and willing to help me in the life I am pursuing. Something even as simple as taking pictures at a photo shoot. If it's important to me, it's important to Him. I know he will help me. It's honestly to the point of KNOWING. Because He always has, of course on His time table:) But in the long run I have always been able to look back and see His hand. Easier said then done, but Just something to think about.
-Alyssia

Enjoying summer

2010-08-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Age and her kids have come swimming at our house a lot this summer, and it is always a ton of fun. This was the first time Dust was able to come, so I figured I should finally take a few pics. I didn't dare get my camera by the water though so I stood outside the fence and stuck my lens through the crack. Hey it worked, right :) As you can see Dust got out his toys to play with the boys. Hence why there is a strange tomato with jaws. Ya I have found that a couple times in the veggi drawer in the fridge. Sydney was taking a nap when I took these pics but she is quite the swimmer too. Even though she just turned 2 and can't really swim she definitely has no fear. She will stand on the steps (without her floaties) and jump without even making sure I am ready. Then she just repeats over and over again "I can swim, I can swim." It's quite cute and funny too. Also I had to throw in the one of Kayden poking out his belly. He loves to show everyone and I always get a kick out of how much he can look like a pregnant little boy :)

Us :)

2010-07-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

My friend Erin took these pics, and did an awesome job! I totally took us on a crazy adventure though. We went up to Silver Lake up AF Canyon. I was told it was only half an hour, but it ended up being an hour drive! Not to mention up the craziest road (Which was actually kinda fun :) But so by the time we finally got up there we had very little light to work with. But thanks to Erin they still turned out great! Dust and I had a ton of fun! It was funny being on the other end of the camera, I'm so used to being in control I definitely think it was good to remind me of what it's like to be the one getting the pics :)

Vintage Photo Collage

2010-06-01T23:51:00.001-07:00

So I know you are all probably sick of hearing of our office that I'm remodeling but I am having a ton of fun! Not to mention it's consuming my nights when I should be sleeping. Any who I am going to be doing a collage of black and white vintage looking photos on the green wall. Here are 3 of the six I will be using. There will be one of us, the above one of our hands, and then 4 still life items that have to do with us. The keys above bring back a lot of memories! Dustin gave me one of those keys and kept the other when I left on my mission, and told me that just as I had to "lock my heart" for my mission he would be locking his as well while I was gone. The book they are sitting on is a journal his mom gave me before I left, that I wrote in on my mission. The paint brushes are obviously self explanatory. I can't wait to get the others done to! I'm excited for the other 3 I'm doing. Although I have to admit still life is not my thing, so it is a bit of a challenge for me :)

Before and after

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note: The green wall is more green than it looks in this picture. In fact it almost looks yellow in these pics.

Any Suggestions?

2010-05-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ok so this week was seriously the craziest week ever! Between tons of homework, a test, 2 family shoots and Lindsay's wedding, plus school everyday, work most days, and dying to get started on the remodeling, I think I am ready to sleep the next month away. But all in all it was a good week. Everything seemed to go well, and I managed to stay up til 2 or three a couple nights and start the painting of the bedroom and get the bookshelf practically done. I consider painting like therapy for me, it helps keep my sanity. I did go with the turquoise and love it! I will have to post pics of it soon. Also we finally got the 21" imac! I'm pretty much so excited about it I can barely stand it, Dust jokes that I have just been trying to get the office remodeled for my "electronic baby" (referring to the computer). I am on the computer a lot because I'm constantly editing and so I can understand why he thinks my camera and the computer are my babies :) But seriously the imac is going to save so much time! My life will be a lot easier being able download more pics on to the computer and edit faster with the more ram. Dustin is also very excited, in fact I had to talk him out of the 27'' because he was getting so excited thinking it could be our computer and TV. I guess you could call us computer nerds :)

Anyway so my next advice I need now that I have the colors all picked out is should I do black or brown. The colors are that green in the images from the last post, white and then the turquoise. So I am torn as to which would look better? Any suggestions?

Also I am recovering the rocking chair. Which may or may not work, we'll see its more of an experiment. But I am wanting this room to feel bright, clean and have a modern feel to it, Almost like ikea style. So here are 2 different material patterns I found on etsy that I like. What do you think? It would be the chair and just a little strip of curtains across the top of the window. Or if you know a better place to find cute material please let me know.

Obviously I would only use one of these if I did the brown. And since they are a little busier the rest of the room will be simple so it won't be too much.

Remodeling

2010-05-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for the opinions! So I am so excited to remodel our 2nd room. I think I finally have it all figured out and I can't wait to get it done. In fact I'm probably a little too over excited about it, I stayed up til 3 AM just priming the book shelf I'm getting ready to paint. And not to mention I think I have like 30 different paint chip samples of green spread through out our house, and find myself constantly asking dust which green he likes better. Who ever thought there could be so many different shades of one color! But here is a sample of 2 pics that have inspired me for how I am going to paint the room.

Opinions needed :)

2010-05-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

Alright so I found a really cool bookshelf for a steal of a deal at DI. Literally it was one of those that the minute I saw it I knew I needed to have it! We are trying to downsize the stuff in our office. Plus I am totally up for a new craft project. Seeing that I have barely had time to do anything else besides work, school and my photography. So I am ready for a break and to do some crafting. Any way before this turns into a novel, I'll get to the point. I am also considering repainting the walls in the office. So with that considering, as soon as I find a desk at DI, I will be painting the bookshelf and desk to match eachother. There is an old brown trunk in the room as well. So brown will be in the room as well instead of black. Alright so I have been having a fettish with turquoise furniture. So the point of this novel is should I paint it turquoise rustic or cream with the rustic edges? These are some examples of what I am thinking about. (Most of these are from allthingsthrifty.com which is like the best craft website ever!)

This ones for you family :)

2010-04-26T22:08:00.001-07:00

Ha I love it! Nothing like matching BYU outfits. I think the best part is that my dad is wearing a red shirt. Go University of Utah- right dad? :) Also check out those bangs on all of us girls. I remember Lindsay and I would always beg Adrien to style our bangs like that.

I really like this one of my mom and dad, My mom is very pretty

When I was five I drew a picture of the bishop at the pulpit and the people sitting in sacrament meeting. My parents ended up summitting it in a contest. It was chosen as one of the pictures to be displayed at a place in Salt Lake. So as you can see I was quite proud :)

Oh the hair, Hello pyramid!! I'm pretty sure I got a brand new perm just days before my baptism. I remember being so worried that It would be ruined, I think I should have been more worried that it wouldn't be ruined

Alright so tonight as I was trying to find a particular cd (and avoiding studying for finals:) i came across a random cd that just said pictures. When I popped it in the computer it was a nice surprise to see over 200 family pictures over the years. I could not resist posting some of these.

really funny commercial!

2010-03-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ok so the first time Dustin showed me this video we were both laughing, but he was laughing probably harder than I have ever seen him laugh. He then watched it four more times and was still dying laughing. So we just thought we would pass it on.

A MUST SEE! :)

2010-03-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

So Dust and I have decided to start a new exercise program and this one seems to be top notch. We saw it on TV tonight (Kell you might remember it from when we were little :)

CHECK IT OUT!

A Tribute to my Grandpa

2010-01-24T11:58:00.000-08:00

So I normally don't really include anything personal or say much in this blog. But I have decided to go ahead and create this post. You probably all recognize this picture that I posted recently, because I just took it shortly after Thanksgiving. Which now I realize was inspiration to take the photos I took of my grandparents. About two weeks ago my grandpa fell at his home and broke the ball off of his hip. They rushed him to the hospital in payson (2 hours from his home in Bicknell) and after several days, had surgery to replace his hip. My grandpa is 92 and was not able to recover from the surgery and had some other health problems discovered. So for 14 days he was in the hospital not being able to move until yesterday (Saturday) morning he slipped away. My family has all spent the last two weeks constantly visiting my Grandpa and were grateful for those last moments we had with him. He truly was an amazing man. He worked hard his whole life, and when he truly commited his life to Christ and the gospel he marched forward and did all he could. My grandpa and grandma were sealed a week before my parents were, and after that served faithfully in the temple the rest of their lives. My grandpa was actually later called to be a sealer and performed many of the sealings in our family. My grandma once said "it took me 20 years to get him to the temple, and when he finally went he never wanted to stop going." Recently when I called I talked to my grandpa for a min. and when I said bye I love you. He replied back. "I love you too lissie, we all do." It was so sweet of him and will probably always stick with me. He was never a man of a lot of words, but truly taught by example. Always reading gospel books, and serving faithfully in his callings, and taking care of his duties. Even this past summer at age 91 he was still working in his garden out back of their house. Well I could go on, but I just want to say that I'm grateful for having him in my life and am so grateful that we will be together again. Losing someone really puts the plan of salvation into perspective. It is no doubt that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be happy, that He has come up with such an incredible plan for us. How true it is that this life is so short. Every day means so much. There is so much to learn and do. Thank you Grandpa for teaching me by your example and the life you lived.

Christmas 2009

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My niece and nephew on Christmas. Kids definitely make Christmas a lot more fun!

I love Sydney's little face expressions. Can you tell she was just loving Christmas

Are we beautiful in the morning or what? :)

A Little Tripod Fun

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A little Weird

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Christmas Eve Program

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Every Christmas Eve my dad will read the story of Christ's birth (with the Kurt Bestor cd playing in the background) while we act it out. As you can tell, due to the shortage of little kids we all have to usually participate. This is probably my favorite part of Christmas actually.

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-27T15:50:00.003-08:00

Ok so Christmas is over but just thought we would go ahead and post our christmas card anyway for those of you who didn't get it.

Grandma & Grandpa Newton

2009-12-12T17:45:00.001-08:00

These photos are actually gifts for my dad for Christmas. He never looks at my blog so I am totally safe to post these. My sweet grandparents live out in no mans land, which is a tiny sage brush town called Bicknell. They are both in their 90's, and still kicking!! Over Thanksgiving weekend Dustin and I got to drive down and visit. It was so good to finally be able to spend some time with them. We got to listen to my Grandpa talk about his stories of growing up and being drafted during WWII. I think since Dust and I have been called to family history now, the stories are becoming more and more interesting to me. Anyway I love how these pictures turned out! I seriously had to beg them forever to smile! Both kept telling me they look better in pictures if they don't smile- Ha :) Then when I showed them the ones of them smiling they were like, "oh that does look good." Dustin says that I am a lot like my grandma in a lot of ways. He is convinced we have the same laugh. Anyway I love these two people! And Grandma if you ever do get internet and look at this ...Thank you both of you for being so wonderful!

Men's Wearhouse Christmas party

2009-12-09T22:11:00.000-08:00

Last Sat we got to go to the Men's Wearhouse Christmas party in Salt Lake at the Marriot Hotel. It was alot of fun dressing up and going out.

Grandma & Parker

2009-11-15T21:39:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from like the 3 posts I have posted today that I am sorting through all our Washington photos. Even though neither Dust or I are in this photo I just had to post this one because I thought it was so sweet of Parker and his great grandma. My grandparents live in oregon and so we were able to stop and visit them for 2 days on our way back from Washington. We don't get to see them very often but when we do it is a treat. While we were there parker wanted Grandma to show him the photos in her little photo albums, and as you can tell in the photo grandma was thrilled to do so.

only in Oregon

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Nathan, Courtney, Haley & Lexi- We miss you!

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These are our cute little Nieces that moved to Texas over 3 months ago. We miss all of you and hope all is well in Texas!

Washington

2009-11-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

I found this photo as I was sorting through our washington photos from our vacation this summer. Maybe a little lens flare isn't always so bad-huh? I believe this was taken in the national park which is technically in Oregon. But these trees cover Washington everywhere. I miss them.

Up Close & Personal

2009-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

The other night Dustin and I were playing with my new lens. It is incredible! Notice how on the one of Dustin the depth of field is so shallow that only half of his face is even in focus. Anyway I am so grateful Dustin is so supportive of my photography and willing to let me practice on him and have fun!

Halloween

2009-11-02T23:02:00.001-08:00

For Halloween Samantha and Jesse had all of our friends over for dinner and games. It was so fun! Not to mention we got a kick out of everyones costume. I still laugh at this picture of all of us when I look at Nick and Dy (the two headed monster) Ha! I especially love how little baby josee is looking over at everyone in this picture and probably wondering who the heck are all these crazies I'm sitting here with. Anyway thanks Sam and Jesse- Dustin and I definitely had a good time!

New Blog

2009-10-29T00:10:00.001-07:00

So most of you may already know. But I recently started a new photography blog. Where I will be posting all my photography I have been doing on the side. The Photo above is from a wedding I did recently. So my new blog is Alyssiabphotography.blogspot.com

Me at the Manti Temple

2009-10-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

So here I am at the Manti Temple. I went by myself so this was my way of taking a photo of me there. And really I was a lot happier than I look in the photo :)

Manti Temple

2009-10-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

As most of you know I sell vintage temple photos. I recently made a trip to Manti and was so grateful I did. I mean I won't lie it was a pretty LONG drive there and back by myself, but the temple was so gorgeous! Obviously this isn't the vintage style of the Manti temple I'll be doing. But I tried to make it more dreamy and soft looking in this photo, because that is truly what the temple feels like, is a gentle calm place unlike the world we live in. It is such a blessing to have so many beautiful temples so close!

Beautiful Fall

2009-10-23T11:51:00.001-07:00

On our way home the other day we spotted this INCREDIBLE tree! I didn't pop the colors at all in photoshop I only added a soft filter. This tree has got to be the best expression

of falls beauty. I love the colors of fall!

Halloween Fun!

2009-10-18T22:08:00.001-07:00

As you can tell we got a little carried away with the pumpkin fun

and all trying to be creative :) We had a lot of fun tonight though!

Dustin LOVES Halloween so he is all about

all the decorating, carving pumpkins, and getting into it

all and I am happy to join him. :)

Choose This Day

2009-10-18T19:23:00.001-07:00

Choose This Day

Shared via AddThis

We just watched this video and it so so good! Anyone that knows us knows that we both are the queen and king of procrastination at times. So this video was practically made for us. But thought it might be good to share if any of you feel like you sometimes too find yourself putting everything off til tomorrow. The spirit of this video is very powerful. I love hearing President Eyring speak! Enjoy!

Snow Patrol Concert

2009-10-15T22:15:00.001-07:00

Snow Patrol was incredible!! Dust and I had never been to a concert together and one day I told him if Snow Patrol ever came we were for sure going. Well the very next day I saw the sign at UVU that said they were coming-How was that for perfect timing. They were so much fun. Plain White T's were way good to but the lead singer was sick so they only did like three songs-lame I wanted more :) I had some really good videos to post to but for some reason it won't let me do it. But you can imagine :) PS don't mind mister big head in all the pictures. :)

Dinosaur Museum

2009-10-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

So when we moved to Provo Dustin had been dying to go see the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. So we decided to take our little nephews because we figured they would help make it more interesting. They have been there so much it turned out they were more so showing us where to go. It was a lot of fun. I especially like the top picture of Kayden and Dust trying to immitate those cave men skeletons. As always Parker was in his own little world.

Bear Lake

2009-10-15T22:07:00.001-07:00

Ok so this was quite awhile ago but I just found these old photos on my little digital camera so I thought I'd go ahead and post them. Over the summer we went and stayed with all our friends at Bear lake. It was so much fun boating, swimming, playing games, and of course hiking to Bloomington lake. Good times!

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Are we beauties or what?!

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Little Syd is so funny. I found this freaky alien creature in Dustins Halloween bin. I gave it to syd and told her to go show her mom the baby and she was so funny. She grabbed it and right away went to go show Adrien her "baby" She even made sure she gave it hugs and was rocking it. I got quite the kick out of her sweet little mother instinct to this freaky rubber alien baby.

New Blog

2009-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Alright well I am finally making a photography blog so that this one can truly be about me and dust and not just my photos. So from now on I'm going to be posting my photos on my new blog called alyssiabphotography.blogspot.com. Feel free to check it out :)

Can I just say I am in love with these new templates!

2009-09-21T00:16:00.001-07:00

Vintage Photos

2009-09-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love vintage old photos and so I have been dying to take "vintage pics" so Dustin was so sweet to be my model and even dress up. It was so fun! The place we took them was incredible. I decided to edit these all using different textures to add slightly diff moods to them.

Family Shoot

2009-09-17T22:59:00.001-07:00

Today i got to go do a family shoot with Kristina Curtis it was way fun! I was just kind a the side photographer so I could get practice, which was really helpful. The kids were all loving getting their pictures taken it was so cute.

The many faces of Parker Robinson

2009-09-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

I reccommend clicking on it so you see it better because they are all pretty tiny on here. Oh the wonders of what you can get when you bribe with one simple little cookie :)

Reception Details (and some really cute kids :)

2009-09-16T00:01:00.001-07:00

Devin and Christina

2009-09-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

Here's more of the wedding I recently did that was Mckenzie's brother. They are a gorgeous couple. It is so exciting to see how giddy people are on their wedding day and share the excitement with them. I absolutely love it!!

Melissa and Chad

2009-09-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

Most of you know my good friend Melissa. She pretty much saved me in Alaska the first summer. Our days consisted of constantly eating and laughing! It doesn't get much better than that :) So I got to take her and her husband's pictures recently. They are so perfect for each other.

Tyson and Natalie

2009-09-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

These are from one of the weddings I recently did with Mckenzie. This wedding was gorgeous! And Tyson and Natalie had such fun personalities.

Just a few

2009-09-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Ok I just had to post a few even though my favorite ones are yet to come. Also the girl in the first picture is the professional photographer I am interning with.

Pink Post-its

2009-09-10T21:26:00.001-07:00

So this and many other pink post-it notes with sweet things on them were what I woke up to Wednesday morning. That day I was going to be doing the wedding and reception for the photographer I am interning with. It was her brother's wedding and so she wanted me to do all the reception pictures and most of the ones at the temple, including all of the family ones (obviously so she could be in them). I was really nervous considering both her and her husband are professional photographers and I would be photographing them, not to mention someone's wedding. Any way Dustin knew I was feeling really nervous and so he posted all these encouraging notes. He is so sweet! He is always doing thoughtful little things for me, and supporting me in pursuing my dreams. Also the wedding turned out so fun! I seriously love photography! And I love doing weddings! I will post pics of it soon.

I Love Life and I Absolutely Love this Man!

2009-09-10T19:51:00.001-07:00

Today Dustin and I were talking about how everything in our life is better since we moved to provo. We are seriously so happy and the blessings just keep falling like crazy! Anyways I just wanted to post and say how incredible life is, sometimes it can be so difficult and you feel like you want to just crawl under the bed and sleep the year away. But I am so grateful for those times that make me appreciate even more the wonderful times that the Lord blesses us with. Anyways that's my little spill for the day :)

I CANT WAIT!.....

2009-07-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

So many of you already know the story behind this picture.
It is actually a drawing done by dustin on a desktop from high school.
Turns out instead of really paying
attention in class of course he was just doodling away on his desk.
Although while most people doodling on their desk consits of
hearts and stars and who knows what
Dustin's consisted of this. The janitors eventually
quit cleaningthe desk he sat at because they liked it so
much and at the end of the school year his (history) teacher liked
it so much she took off the desk top and gave it
to him. It didn't quite look like this by then though
he spent a lot of time besides just in class working on it once
school was over. But wa-la look how awesome it
is I seriously love it! Anyways so what I'm saying is I can't wait
because Dustinis actually going to paint this on a huge canvas
for me in color to go in our office. I'm sure it will be a lot
of months work but it will totally be worth it. He's working on it
now and i seriously could just watch him draw and paint
for hours. sometimes I try and paint with him but mine usually look
like I just stepped out of elementary school :) I'll stick with
photography. Anyway just wanted to brag about my husband
for a min. I am one lucky girl!!!

Crystals bridals

2009-07-21T23:46:00.001-07:00

Dyanna and I got to take Crystals engagements today. These are some of the ones i have took. It was a ton of a fun Crystal looked gorgeous. Although I must say the state capitol building needs to invest in little better of an AC!

More Washington pics

2009-07-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

At the Seattle Aquarium

Boo!

Adrien's cute little family. The boys

sure made the trip an adventure, not to mention

Sydney and her many monkey noises

View from the beach house we stayed at. There was a little trail

we walked down to get to the beach and then could kayak on it.

A couple of the days we had a seal that kept coming up to our kayak and one

time practically jumped out of the water and did a twirl. Other than

that we just saw a lot of crabs and jelly fish in the water and gigantic

star fish.

SEATTLE

2009-07-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

Feeding those crazy seagulls

Seattle Aquarium

This is in Bremerton where I used to go every tuesday for Zone meetings

riding the ferry to Seattle

We just got back from visiting Dustins and my mission- good ol washington. It was so much

fun and so good to see everyone. We got to spend Sunday going bak to Port Orchard and visiting the ward we both served in. The bishop actually had us both come up and bare our testimonies since he knew both of us while we were there. The neatest part was it turned out my convert was speaking that day in church!

While we were in WA we visited Seattle, went to the San Juan Islands, went to Olympic national park and went hiking and then on our way home visited my grandparents in Oregon. In WA we stayed on a beach house which was a beautiful location! I will post more pics soon.

Dyanna's "Bridals" :)

2009-07-07T14:42:00.001-07:00

Dyanna was such a good sport to let me take these of her since she's been married for a year now. I needed the practice for my intern. We seriously had so much fun though! As you can tell we went everywhere from the canyon to the great salt lake.

Fourth of July

2009-07-05T19:20:00.001-07:00

For the 4th Dustin unfortunately had to work from like 9-7:30 but I was able to go have a bbq with my family. Adrien and her kids were there and kept us fully entertained. We had a good time berry picking, swimming, and eating yummy water melon. Later that night when Dustin got off Dust and I lit our own fireworks in our parking lot. Good times!

Our New home Part 3

2009-06-29T00:21:00.000-07:00

BEFORE

AFTER

So as you can see from the before picture the door needed
some major help. My dad spent hours upon hours fixing and putting
in part of a new door frame. It had major issues when we
bought it but now it looks great! You can't really tell
that much in these two pictures but we also replaced
the blinds and they look so much better!

Our New Home part 2

2009-06-29T00:02:00.000-07:00

BEFORE

AFTER

Notice the difference in how far the tile goes out in the before
picture compared to the after picture. Dustins Grandpa chipped
away at the tile for hours! Bless his heart. It seriously makes the room
look so much bigger now.

Thanks to Samantha and Jesse they passed on this entertainment center to us.
It is perfect. It was black and brown when we got it, so I just painted the
brown part black. Oh also to add to my collection of black things I painted is the
plant stand and bench below, and also the mirror above the piano. I tell you a little paint can
make anything look good!

In the Living room we repainted it and put new carpet, light fixture, crown molding, and blinds. Also when we bought it the living room had a lovely popcorn ceiling-UGH! So Dustin's dad re-textured the ceiling, and then ended up re-texturing all the ceilings in the whole condo. Seriously when we say our families bent over backwards to help us we mean it! We are so blessed to have 2 amazing families in our lives!

The bench under the window is an old wooden box my dad used to have in the back of his truck for his tools that he made. He kept telling me that it wouldn't work for furniture and was a rough old box that did not belong in a house. but I love fixing things up so I went ahead anyway. I painted it black, and got some decorative tin that I spraypainted and glued on the front. Then I bought the coushin and some material to go on the top. And wala! It is absolutely perfect for our million blankets and pillows we have.

Our New Home

2009-06-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

As most of you know we recently bought a foreclosed condo in provo and remodeled it. We could not be happier with our new place. We absolutely love it!!!! We owe most of it to both mine and Dustins parents and to Grandpa Shaw for all the long hours and hard work they put into it! We can't say thank you enough! Here is just a few of the before and after pictures. Later this week I'll post our bedroom (which is my absolute favorite!) and the other room and the bathroom. So here is the living room and kitchen.

BEFORE

AFTER

I might add that I pretty much painted everything in the kitchen. Including the microwave table, the paper holder on the wall, the table and chairs, chandeler, and the dish corner shelf. My mom has a joke that anything that enters my house will be painted black, as you will soon see there are many other things I painted black as well. I wouldn't be surprised if I was high off fumes for over a week. I think I have gone through at least 10 cans of spray paint and then multiple gallons of regular paint.

One Year Aniversary came and went!

2009-06-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

I seriously can't believe that we have already been married a year. I know some of you are thinking that's nothing. And I'm glad because I can't wait for the next 50 years with Dustin too! Seriously I couldn't have married a better man. He is pretty much the sweetest most perfect man for me! I love the picture below because it shows Dustin radiating his true hottness

St. George

2009-06-26T22:45:00.001-07:00

Dustin and Hank kept entertained with the 3D chalk. We had
been seeing so many commercials about this so called incredible
chalk and so Dustin insisted we buy it. Really though I think
he just wanted to be able to wear the super cool green glasses
that came in the package.

We recently went with Dustins family to St. George and visited Zions. It was
so much fun!! We went hiking and swimming and
shopping, and best of all just relaxed.

Josee Mckell Cope

2009-06-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics I took of Mckell's little girl. Is she not the cutest little bug ever!

Crystals engagements

2009-06-17T10:49:00.001-07:00

Ok so I always tell myself I'm going to actually post stuff about Dustin and I, instead of just random photography, but oh well I'm still doing it :) Here are some of Crystals engagements I took. Dy was shooting as well and got a bunch of really good pictures too.

Newton Family Pictures

2009-06-14T23:40:00.001-07:00

We were long over due for family pictures! I think the last pictures we had taken as a family were back when I had full on bangs and one poof of hair. So thanks to Mckenzie we can just hide those old pictures and pretend like those days never existed :) Mckenzie is an awsome photographer, check out her blog at photographybymckenzie.com. I have started doing an internship with her and she is seriously so much fun!

2009-05-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today Sam and Dy and I went to Thanksgiving Point to look at the flowers and in Sam's words "get out of the house." As you can tell Dy was the happiest to get out of the house :) Also Sienna was quite the little sport as we were all a little camera happy taking her pictures.

2009-05-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

On sunday we had to go get the rest of our stuff from Logan because the last night we were there we didn't get done cleaning and everything until 2 am. So we left in the middle of the night with the car packed completely to the ceiling. Including around me and piled on top of my lap to the ceiling. I couldn't see a thing and was trying to hold on to everything that was on my lap so that it wouldn't all fall on Dustin while he was driving. There was one moment when I dosed off and one of the garbage cans I was holding started falling on him. I woke up as soon as he screamed as I then joined in that scream as well. Needless to say we made it to our new condo and have been loving it since. I will soon post pictures of all the remodeling and how cute it turned out. Above though are some of the pics we took when we stopped at temple square on the way to Logan. The flowers were beautiful, and not to mention my husband was looking very good as well.

YAY! Spring is here!

2009-04-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

These were out front of our yard.

Family picture

2009-04-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

I've been asking Dustin to paint our picture forever......this wasn't exactly what I had in mind :) He actually had to do it for one of his classes. It's an imitation of the painting of Judith and Holofernes by Gustav Klimt.

More temples....

2009-04-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Ok so as you can tell I've been trying a million different ways of how to get the textured temple picture the way I want it. Perhaps your all sick of seeing them but this is probably the last ones I will post. I mainly just post them so those of you that have asked me for one, can see which style you prefer. So here is a few more. I also decided to do some with color for change.

2009-04-07T23:34:00.000-07:00

well theres still a lot of changes i need to make to these pictures but just thought id post them anyway

2009-04-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

2009-04-03T22:25:00.001-07:00

oh and of course I can't forget my cute little nephews kayden and Parker!

Sydney

2009-04-03T21:08:00.001-07:00

I had a ton of fun taking Sydney's and Jackson's pictures. Thanks adrien for your help!

Jackson

2009-04-03T21:06:00.001-07:00

2009-03-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

Perhaps my favorite so far

2009-03-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

2009-03-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

So I have always wanted those vintage looking temple pictures from deseret book. So as you can see I have been having fun making my own. Its alot cheaper that way :)

2009-03-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

So these are what I call happy little campers! Please tell me you can totally picture them as a little old grandma and grandpa just sitting there thinking bout their cows and canned pairs.

2009-03-08T00:13:00.001-08:00

So Dustin and I decided we would pay good ol old Navy a visit tonight. Talk about a good idea! we found killer deals for ourselves in the kids clothes section. So here we are showing off our new kids shirts that were super cheap.

2009-03-08T00:08:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel like your in the right place but for some reason no matter how hard you try to keep moving forward you just feel stuck?

2009-03-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

YAY! I love secret hiding places....except I guess this isn't so secret anymore

2009-03-02T18:23:00.000-08:00

oh the good ol days of sunshine where wearing a dress outside didn't mean wearing 5 coats on top of it just to stay alive :)

2009-03-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

I took this picture of my niece and she's pretty much the cutest thing. She kinda looks like a deer in the head lights in this photo.

2009-02-27T11:25:00.001-08:00

Little People Experience the World differently

2009-02-24T17:22:00.001-08:00

Ha I just found this drawing by dustin and wanted to share it. He titled it computer+nerd. And seeing how we both seem to be addicted to our computer right now, me- with photoshop, and him with the news we kinda feel like this at times :)

2009-02-24T16:49:00.001-08:00

Normally I really don't like taking pictures of just things, they seem boring to me if there aren't people in them. But Yesterday I found the coolest photographer and none of her pictures even had people in them. So I decided to go take pictures of the "ordinary" and see if I could make it more interesting. These are some of what I came up with. The yellow one is a dandelion that I wanted to make look more like a design than a plant.

2009-02-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Alright so last of all I just wanted to post some pictures I've been having fun playing around with. Photoshop has become my best friend lately, that is besides Dustin :) The top photo Dustin took in Hong kong, and then I just added texture and changed the coloring

2009-02-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

For valentine's day I wanted to give Dustin something personal and he had been really wanting a sketch book. So after racking my brain forever I decided to make a collage of Dustin's random and personal stuff. I took this picture and then put it on the front cover of a sketch book with a glaze over the top so it looks like it's the front cover. Note the little weird monsters spread out across the picture. Dustin has this thing with carrying a couple of these in his pocket. Particularly on Sunday. We'll be sitting in church and all of the sudden he'll randomly be pulling them out of his pocket and trying to get me to take them, which I usually rufuse, and try to get him to hide them.

2009-02-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

So lately I've been on this jewelry making kick. Also I just love painting or making things. This picture of the frame isn't very good, but just thought I'd post it for fun

2009-02-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

While I was on my mission Dustin painted several mural paintings for the parade of homes. He also did one for his Aunt and Uncles mansion. This hallway is actually a lot bigger than it looks in the picture, but just wanted to share with you how incredibly talented he is :)

2009-02-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

For christmas Dustin gave me a tripod that I absolutely love! These are some of the pictures we've been having fun taking with it. Dustin is so good about coming along and be willing to do whatever

2009-02-22T17:29:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time we set up a blog..... The end. or so it may seem since we haven't touched it since we pretty much set it up. So we've decided to be better. Than maybe we'll feel more connected with all of you, instead of feeling like were trapped in a cave up here! Alright so first of all Dustin and I are getting uber goober excited to move to utah county. We have made a calender to count down the days kind of like counting down to Christmas. Ok not really but probably in our minds we have.
Also this semester has been one thousand and ten times better than last semester. Dustin stepped down in his job so he could focus on school and I'm not taking my insane photography class. And my 17 credits this semester is a breeze compared to my 12 art credits last semester. So we are just loving life right now!

2008-11-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

Also I almost forgot, Nick I just wanted to extend a special thanks to you for coming......it just wouldn't have been the same without you