Jones Girls

Not that I am ready to have kids anytime in the foreseeable future, but I have always wanted a little girl with blonde hair. I just think they are so dang cute! I have come to grips with the fact that the likelihood of this happening is pretty slim considering that Jordan and I both have dark brown hair. You always want what you can't have! :)

I was able to live vicariously through my friend, Julie, when she asked me to take pictures of her three ADORABLE little girls who all have beautiful blonde hair like their Mama. :) Julie was a senior when I was a freshman and we played volleyball together at Whitworth and have remained friends ever since! Our lunch dates are few and far between now that she is a busy Mom of 3, but every time we hang out it feels like we just pick up where we left off. Julie is one of those people who is just so REAL and you can tell when she asks you questions she really cares about the answer. It is so fun to see her as a Mom -- did I mention that her three girls are all under 4 years old?! SHE IS AMAZING!! And she also happens to be one of the best volleyball players I've ever played with. Seriously. Anyway, she is surprising her husband, Brad, with these pictures for Valentine's Day so keep your lips sealed! :)

Anyway, here are a few of my faves from our picture outing with the Jones girls! Olivia (on the left) is almost 4, Isabelle (on the right) is 2 1/2, and baby Emi (not in the picture below) is about 8 weeks old. Remember you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger if you want...

The girls were a little cold so we wrapped them up in a blanket!

And of course I had to bring some balloons for the girls... what's a photo shoot without balloons?!?

I'm not usually into the "black & white with some color" pictures, but this one just seemed like it fit.

I LOVE this one below of Olivia and Isabelle holding Emi's foot... so cute!

All four of the Jones girls!

Beautiful baby Emi! I've always told Julie that she makes really pretty babies. :)

This one below is my FAVORITE of the whole bunch!

Another black & white with color pic...

Beautiful mom and baby...

Balloons and suckers... what more could a girl want?! They were even nice enough to share a sucker with me -- maybe I should start requiring a sucker from my clients after every photo shoot? :)

The New Wine Cellar

I love when my parents go through their garage because it usually results in us getting some pretty cool stuff. :)

About a week ago, we inherited an almost-brand-new wine refrigerator that holds up to 6 bottles and chills wine at the exact temperature it's supposed to be chilled at... please don't ask me what that is because I have no idea. Well, one thing led to another, and Jordan decided to rebuild our wine rack in the storage cellar in our "basement" as well as some better storage shelves. Not only did it turn out AMAZING, but it also forced us to organize and get rid of stuff down there, which I LOVE doing. :)

Here is the big reveal...

Our wine collection is slowly growing! Believe it or not, a few of these bottles are still leftover from our wedding!

Jord was so proud of how the doors to the glass storage turned out... and I'll have to agree with him, they look awesome! For whatever reason we have been saving all of our wine corks over the last few years and he finally decided to put them to good use. Don't worry, we did have to borrow a few corks that my Mom had... these aren't ALL ours. :)

This is one of my favorite parts because it frees up so much space in our kitchen cabinets... the glass storage, ta-da!!

Jordan finally agreed to let me take his picture in front of the new wine cellar. Good job, babe!! :)

I am still doing a bunch of editing for my last two photo sessions, so stay tuned for more posts soon!

Blog love! And life...

The last couple weeks have been a little nuts, but in a good way... for the most part.

Jordan started school this week, the beginning of the END! He has one semester left, thank God. I know the end is officially in sight, but for some reason it still feels so far away. His schedule this semester does not help one bit -- he has three 7am classes a week and three night classes that end at 8pm. Seriously, not right!

I, on the other hand, have been way in over my head with photog stuff! :) I started a photography class that I think will really help me improve in a lot of areas. Did I mention this happened to fall on Monday nights, the one night a week Jordan doesn't have class? Of course. I was also able to be the second shooter for a wedding last week, which was SUCH a great experience. Don't get me wrong, I did have a couple freak-out moments, but I survived and learned so much! I shot with Keri Doolittle, who is an amazing photographer and a HUGE inspiration and mentor of mine... not sure that she even knows that, but she is! She has been so incredibly helpful and willing to answer so many questions I've had in the last few months. I am surprised she hasn't blocked my email address from her inbox after all the emails I've sent her. :) Anyway, she posted some pics from the wedding on her blog and put some of mine up too -- so exciting to see some of my pics on another photographer's website! I included my pics from her site below, but click here to see the full post.

Another blog I follow, Wheat Blossom Weddings, just featured my 'engagement' photos and our Photo Booth on their site! Lindsay, of Wheat Blossom Weddings, has been a friend since middle school and we have had fun reconnecting now that our future career paths have crossed. :) Anyway, click here to check out Wheat Blossom Weddings and the blog love they gave me and Flat 4 Photography.

All of the above are the good, crazy parts of the last two weeks.

Not that the rest has been bad, but just a lot of feeling like I'm taking one step forward and two steps back... with everything. And I am left feeling overwhelmed with life and simply unable to keep up. There are so many things I want to focus on and devote time to lately that I haven't been able to do any of them well, or in some cases at all. Working out, the dogs, every facet of my photography business, the house, MY MARRIAGE...

I know, I know... that's life. But sometimes it just swallows me and I hate that.

With that said, Jordan and I have decided to go to my lake cabin for the weekend, just us and the pups. We never go to the lake this time of year, but we decided we really needed a weekend together out of Spokane -- it feels like it's been FOREVER. It's a catch-22 because we have so much we could get done at home this weekend, but I hope going up to the lake will give us a chance to relax and recharge a little bit and simply spend some time together with no distractions. At least that's the goal...

I can't take credit for this picture -- I think my Mom took it last winter at the lake. Granted there is not as much snow this year, but this is the view I will be looking at all weekend. So if I don't answer my cell phone or my emails, you'll know why... :)

A Year Ago Today...

We left the good ol' USA and landed in London...

I can't believe it's 2010 and that our London trip began a year ago today. It really doesn't seem possible that it's been that long. I have a feeling I'll have a lot of "a year ago today" moments this year. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

I have been pretty absent from the blog the last couple months. My pictures are here, but I haven't been. As much as I hate this lame, five-word sentence, it's really true: I have been so busy. Actually, scratch that, WE have been so busy. Here's a quick re-cap of the last couple months:

• Raising a crazy puppy! I almost made the title of this post "Pee and Poop" because I keep telling everyone that our life consists of those two things. :) I swear that the majority of Jordan and my conversations in the last month have revolved around Max and his pee and poop... clearly the foundation of every marriage. ;) Max is incredibly smart and SUPER feisty, but we love him nonetheless!
• Jordan endured his two weeks of law school finals. He was literally out the door by 7:30am and usually wasn't home until 10:30pm for the two weeks before finals and during finals. Let's just say we are BOTH glad he's done!
• I had multiple family photo shoots in December as well as my first company Holiday Party shoot -- lots of fun! I also finally got my Flat 4 Photography website up.
• We celebrated our 3rd anniversary! We went out to dinner at the Sho Gun restaurant (which I would highly recommend!), got my favorite dessert at the Mustard Seed, and then came home to watch our wedding video, drink some champagne, and sit in the hot tub. Overall a great night... and an even better 3 years! :)
• Our good friend, Marc Grow (Nicole's boyfriend), moved in with us! Even though it's a full house, Marc is a great roommate and he deals with our craziness really well. :)
• We got to spend a lot of time with our families during Christmas, which was awesome, as always. My parents got us tickets to the Gonzaga vs. Oklahoma basketball game on New Year's Eve and we had a BLAST at the game -- oh, and did I mention we got to see a player break the backboard in real life?! :) Pretty sweet!

Unfortunately, I have been horrible about taking pictures of our lives lately. That is one of my million resolutions for 2010, to get more pictures of us instead of just everyone else. :)

With that said, I did manage to get some shots of our "kids." :) Honestly, I take more pictures of our dogs than anything else... I realize I am "that person" who shoves pictures of their dogs in peoples' faces and expects them to think they're the cutest dogs they've ever seen. Sorry about that, but it's probably not changing anytime soon. :)

Look how much Max has grown! Here are Maggie and Max in their Christmas sweaters... haha! They were both pissed at me the whole time I was taking these. Seriously, how annoyed does Maggie look?!

The rest of these pictures were taken with my iPhone, so forgive the poor quality. I forgot to mention that my Mom got our family a ping pong table for Christmas -- totally random, but so much fun! We have already had a few intense ping pong tournaments in the garage...

Maggie and Max LOVE going over to grandma and grandpa's house! I love this picture because it gives you a good size comparison of the two pups. Max is now about 12 weeks old and about 7 pounds (he was 5 1/2 weeks old when we got him and 3 pounds!)

I got to see a few of my best friends from high school when they were home for Christmas. My friend, Adriane, discovered that Max has an outrageous amount of loose skin that he needs to grow into! By the way, I promise this didn't hurt him. He didn't even make a peep! Truthfully, I think he has so much skin that he didn't even feel it! :)

We were SO LAZY on New Year's Day. We had good friends over for brunch (waffles and mimosas, yummm!) and then just laid around and watched football all day in our pajamas. I think we really needed a day like that after our crazy couple months!

As you can tell, our lives have been consumed by our dogs, law school, photography stuff, and the holidays. Totally glamorous, I know. Try not to be jealous. ;)

As hard as it is to say goodbye to our amazing 2009, I think I am ready for a new year and new adventures. Nothing seems to compare to living in London, traveling around Europe, and skydiving, but I'm sure we'll think of something... :)