I think I'm ready...

... to start my own photography business. I've always been interested in photography and lately become a little obsessed (my poor family). So now I have a new camera (THANKS COLBY!!!) and I need new people to be my models... that way my fam won't resent my new baby. If you want some fun portraits taken, for any reason or event, let me know! I'm here for you.

Milestones!

Tyler is doing amazing things nowadays. He's 7 1/2 months old now. He cut his first tooth yesterday! It's been coming for forever but he's been pretty happy through it all. You can't really see it yet, but you can feel it with your finger for sure! He's also ALMOST crawling too. Last night he was up on his hands and knees, rocking back & forth for a while and would scoot both knees forward at the same time. It looks kinda silly and it made me laugh so hard. He still moves a lot more while sitting though. The other day he scooted about two feet on his bum to try and get a new toy. He's turning into quite a character. He'll laugh to get your attention and he is always looking for Marshall's approval. Some of his favorite things to do are play in his jumper that hangs in our kitchen and play upside down. It's funny, he's always liked anything that makes him feel like he's falling or flying.
These two pics were taken up on Kolob Thanksgiving weekend. There's no dirt in sight now... TONS of snow fell during this last storm.

What a cute, silly boy.

He even stands pretty well by himself when there's something to hold on to. You're growing so fast little boy... You're so much fun!

Journal moment

I made taquitos and homemade salsa and guacamole for dinner and Marshall is basically shovelling the salsa into his mouth. After a while he looks up at me and says, "It's not too good, Mom." I ask, "It's not?" And in all seriousness he responds with his mouth so full, "It's much gooder! I LOVE it!" You had to hear his cute little voice. It was seriously the cutest thing.

December 3. Special.

Look! We're still so happy! Colby and I have been married for 4 years now and I can't believe how its flown by. At the same time, it seems like we've been married for forever. Not in a bad way, it's just hard for me to remember what life was like before "US." Colby has been one of my greatest blessings. Our life together has been more than I could have imagined with so many things I never would have thought to ask for. Heavenly Father surely had a hand in the beginning of our story and has been present every day since. I guess I have to share the story (shortened version), but just scroll down through the pics if that's boring to you :) For me, it began when I accepted a calling to be an umpire for our stake for Church Softball. What was I thinking, right! Well, it may have been the first game I umpired for that Colby's mom was playing in the game and I was the only ump. She called home and told one of the kids to wake Colby up and make him come up and help me because I was all by myself. He got there and didn't help me one bit. He just sat behind home plate and harassed me the whole time. You'd think that would have warned me for what was to come :) But I hoped and hoped he'd ask me out, which he kinda did... (Those details are for the long version.) We ended up going out (hehehe, Colby, I know you're laughing and are a little embarrassed) and the rest was history.

Colby tells me that was the night it started for him too. I was wearing jeans, a Tshirt, and a baseball hat and he fell in love! Little did he know I never wear hats... that was the flukiest fluke of all time.

We dated all summer, I moved to northern Utah for school, looked for a job and couldn't find one and got very discouraged. One night I was talking to Colby on the phone telling him how it was impossible to find a job and just hoping he'd say "Well then, just come home." I would have jumped in the car and driven all night but he only encouraged me. I should check with Colby, but it may have been the next morning or probably the morning after that he showed up early in the morning (5 hours away) to wake me up and take me out for the whole day. Little did I know I would end up more speechless that afternoon than ever in my life. We went to lunch, went shopping, then went to the Salt Lake Temple and walked around temple square. This is where my intelligent little brain should have yelled "Yoohoo!" but it didn't. We walked around and talked and Colby eventually ended up on one knee and I gasped for breath for a good 30 seconds (Colby says it was more like 30 minutes or 30 hours) before I could barely exhale, "yes!" So, then we asked a sweet old couple to take our picture and...

Well this is us when we got engaged... when we were still babies. I think we look so young... I can't wait until it's our kids that are getting married and then we'll really seem young in this picture.

It's definitely hard to act the way we did when we were first engaged. Kids change things a bit... but I think we've still got time to show each other how much we care... every once in a while... if we're sneaky.

And all the changes have been more than worth it. We love our little boys. To either of us, FAMILY is what its all about. We love our little family AND our big family that lives near and far. And our future family that is probably getting a kick out of watching us learn how to do this and prepare for them to come.

I can't believe it! Today is our 4th anniversary. We've had so much fun! I can't speak for Colby (haha), but it's so much better than I ever could have imagined. I love you Colby. I love you so much!