Turning 30!

My birthday's on Monday, but a couple weekends ago I got together with my long time best friends, Bre and Anndalyn (as in, we go back to the 7th grade, best friends) and had a girl's weekend to celebrate. We all turn 30 this year, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to PARTAY! 

 On Friday night we lit up 30 candles and tried to blow them out before they all  melted into each other. 

Ya, that didn't happen. 

Watch this if you want a good laugh!

The entire weekend was filled with non-stop laughter :) 

I love them so much and feel so blessed to have them in my life!

 Saturday night after a day at the aquarium with the kids, naps, girls night out at Cafe Rio and Costco, we hit up the mall to find some sunglasses. Both Andy and I had told our husband's that all we wanted for our birthday's were a pair of real sunglasses. When I found the pair for me, I texted Shanam the above picture and said..."with these sunglasses, this will be me in 6 months." He said back, "for sure! get them!" :)

 Here we are in our birthday gifts! We had so much fun picking them out, I almost peed my pants 5 times. The sales guy said we made his night :)

Then, last Sunday, my bestie in Texas, Laura, who's also turning 30 this year, threw me a baby shower/birthday party. 

We had so much fun with everyone who came!

 One candle was a lot easier to blow out :)

 Who says you can't still act like goofballs when you're 30!

Love her to pieces :)

New Camera Lens!

For my birthday, my family got me a 50mm f/1.8 lens...so awesome!!!

Great shots of Annabelle

Great shots of food

Great shots of flowers

And great shots of dogs :)

Can't wait to use it more! Thanks Dad!

Princess Crown

As I stood staring at my dull hair for the umpteenth time, trying to figure out what to do with it, a beautiful vision came into my head. My old Florida roommate, Gentri :) For the month of January, she has posted a new hairdo on her blog every single day and a vision of one of those styles popped into my head at a moment of crisis. So, I thank her for inspiring me to do something I have never done before. Check out her cute blog! [Gentri Lee] She's got some great ideas on there, so check them all out!!

It was actually quite easy, if you know how to french braid, already. Thanks Gentri! Love you!

Homework #1

So, I'm taking this AMAZING online photography class from an AMAZING photographer named Brooke Snow. She is actually one of my AMAZING friends from college and she has developed an AMAZING talent! Here is her website if you want to check her out www.brookesnow.com. I am so ready to learn all I can from her. It's going to be AMAZING! :) Our first lesson was about aperture and metering. During this assignment, it was really fun to experiment and really see a difference in my photos already! I, of course, had to do at least one photo session with my favorite subject :)

SINGULAR THEME

f/4.5, 1/30, ISO 400

I entitle this picture... "Spit Bubbles." That's the obvious focus of the picture :) I love how clear and distinct they turned out.

f/8, 1/8, ISO 400

Her whole head is now in focus but the background is still fuzzy

f/22, 1s, ISO 400

You try getting your baby to hold still for 1 second! If she had, though, everything would have been in focus.

STORYTELLING THEME

f/22, 1/80, ISO 400

I entitle this picture..."West Texas Sunrise." Gotta love the pump jack :) I only had to drive 3 minutes from my house to get this shot, beautiful, eh? :) Anyway, I wanted to try and capture the sun rays, like Brooke taught. It's neat to see the difference!

f/11, 1/400, ISO 400

The rays are a little less sharp

f/5.6, 1/2000, ISO 400

Here the sun and it's rays are just a blob of light

WHO CARES THEME

f/8, 1/3, ISO 400

I entitle this picture..."Jar-O-Beans." I thought the subject fit the theme name :) Here everything is on one plane so everything is in focus.

f/5.6, 1/4, ISO 400

The onlt difference here is that the fabric closest to the camera is out of focus

f/18, 2s, ISO 400

Nothing really too different here

So, there we have it! One question I do have, is that I noticed that my ISO never changed from 400. Do I have to change that manually, too? Thanks Brooke! Looking forward to the next lesson!

We Are Never Alone

Throughout my life I have had experiences that have shown me that I am never alone. That someone is always watching and listening to my spoken or unspoken prayers. And that I never have need to feel afraid or deserted. One little experience happened a little over a year ago, right after I had just married my husband. As soon as we moved to Texas, I was immediately called to work with the youth at my church and they had a huge camping trip that week that they invited me to attend with them. Even though I was a grown woman who had been on my own in new situations many times before, the first night away from my husband was really hard. I barely knew anyone and I was feeling very lonely in my little sleeping bag in the corner of the tent. During my restless sleep, I got up to use the restroom and on my way back I looked up and was struck by the beauty of the night sky. As I was admiring the stars in the cold, crisp, silent air, a gorgeous shooting star shot across the sky, directly where I was looking. Some people may look at that as a coincidence, but I immediately felt the warmth of my Heavenly Father's love as I was given the comfort that I was not alone.

A second, more recent experience happened this last weekend, when again, I was away from my husband. He had left for the weekend for a business trip and I was home alone with our two new 8 week old puppies. On Friday night, after running some errands, I returned home to find that one of my puppies was extremely sick. She was showing all the symptoms for a fatal puppy virus called Parvo and I was really concerned. I called the vet emergency line since the office was closed and he said to just make sure to keep fluids in her all night and bring her in in the morning. He recommended Pedialyte or Gatorade...I had neither. After I hung up, I started crying. I was alone and scared and I didn't want my puppy to die. I tried to think of who I could call that would have some Pedialyte, since the small, local store was already closed. As I held the phone in my hand sobbing like a little girl, it rang. My friend Alex was on the other line, who just so happened to be in the next town over at Target, on the baby aisle, right in front of the Pedialyte. I almost started laughing because it was such an obvious answer to my prayers! Luckily, through some TLC and lots more prayers, my puppy made it through the night and was completely her old self by morning! All the symptoms were gone and I didn't have to bring her into the vet!

I know God hears our prayers and watches over us. I also know how important it is to recognize that his hand is in the little miracles that happen in our lives every day. The more we recognize his presence, the more present He will be :) Which is why I've chosen to share these experiences with you :)

Dutch Babies

Does everyone have a special childhood food memory? I have a lot, but this is by far one of my favorites! I remember standing in front of the oven, watching our masterpiece grow into amazing shapes and sizes. The best part was taking it out to see what the final shape was! I loved it! Dutch babies are kind of like breakfast soufflés. I've heard some people call them German pancakes, but they will forever be Dutch babies to me...even though it is kind of a weird name now that I think about it :{ Here's the recipe for making a personal-sized Dutch baby.

2 eggs

1/2 c milk

tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tb butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Beat together eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt. Add flour, stirring constantly, until all lumps are gone. Add cinnamon. When oven is preheated, place butter in round baking dish and melt in oven. When melted, add mixture. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

My favorite topping is fresh squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar. Yum! Try it! You'll like it!

How to stay ahead of the game!

Have you or your husband/wife ever said the words, "Where does all our money GO?!" I was hearing these words exclaimed every single week as my husband looked over our bank account and shook his head. Then I found Bottomline Budgets :) (Did I do a good job sounding like an infomercial? Hehe :) I'm not getting paid to advertise this site or anything, but I do want to let you know how awesome it is and how much it's helped us! After looking at a bunch of budget templates online, this is the one that made the most sense to me and what I knew would help us the most. I've never enjoyed making a "budget" per say... allotting certain amounts of money to each category and trying to stay within that amount. That's too much effort! But I do enjoy keeping track of our finances. With this template I am able to set aside money week by week for things that we are saving for without having to physically move money from one account to another, I can enter in all fixed expenses that I know are coming up that month, and I can enter in expenses as they happen so that we know how much money we have left to work with before we get paid again. I love it and my husband loves it! Especially when I tell him how much money we have left over that week :) He thinks I'm a genius, when really...Bottomline Budgets does it all! But don't tell him :) I like being a genius :)