hello.

Oh, dear.  It's been a while hasn't it?  This is been probably the craziest summer of my life.  I photographed 22 weddings in 16 weeks.  It was a lot.  But it was also amazing.  It is such an amazing thing to have a confirmation that you are doing something you love AND make money for it.  The madness has settled down and I finally have had time to reflect.

This summer has been so wonderful with work, but I am feeling somewhat emotional about how unexciting our life is.  Our life is not glamorous.  Not even close.  The days I am not shooting, I still at my computer (usually in my undies) alllllll day.  Before I know it, it's 5:00 and I try and find something for dinner.  Then we usually watch TV and go to bed.  Except I don't fall asleep for at least three hours because for some reason I've had some weird insomnia come into my life. 

You know how when you're in high school or college, friends are your life.  At least they were for me.  Being basically an only child, I spent a lot of time with friends.  Once you're married, you still spend time with friends, but not every day like in college.  We have some pretty awesome friends who we love spending time with, but with schedules and babies making their way into this world, our time together is getting sparse.  Other couples like us probably spend their time with their families as well.  Well, we see my parents every week or so, which is great.  But every member of Lincoln's immediate family is living in another part of the county/world. 
I'm not going to lie.  I miss them.  A lot.  It would be so nice to just pop in for Sunday dinner and hang out for a couple hours.  We have been very fortunate to see them often, but it's not the same.  Even though we haven't moved away from the places we grew up, we kind of feel like we live "out of state," away from our family.  The time between visits seems to last forever.  I'm excited for them to come home.  (And for Chase & Leah to move back... that's soon, right, even though you just bought a house in Kansas...)  Since Lincoln and I have been married, his parents and younger siblings have been serving a mission.  When I think about all Lincoln and I have experienced and how we have had two years of marriage, it feels like they have been gone for a looooooong time.  And out of those two years, I've spent a collective 30 some-odd days with them when we have gone to visit.  We are so blessed to have them serving in Oklahoma and we love it there, but we really miss them.  *sigh*... less than a year left.  I suppose all of this I'm feeling is my constant battle with that thing called "balance."  It is so hard for me.  If any of you have the answer to this, please share!

Basically, the time between seeing family and us being so wrapped up in life (work, school, laundry, grocery shopping, busyness) seems to go by so fast, yet so slow.  Nephews and little brothers grow up so fast, don't ya know?  And all I feel like I do is stare at a computer screen the majority of my days.  It just feels so underwhelming and lonely.  And it's kind of annoying.  This is why I am going to attempt to blog again... To take the time to reflect and think.  Something I haven't been doing a lot of lately.  Writing can be an incredible outlet.  Especially when lonely (for me).  And there are so many people in the blogging world that I feel particularly attached to and connecting with them has been a very enjoyable part of my life (past and present).

Sounds like I need a good vacation, right?
In about a week we will be flying to Oklahoma to pick up Lincoln's little sister, Abby, from the airport from the return of her mission in Chile.  I am sooooo excited to see her.  I think our family has felt a little incomplete since she has been gone.  It will feel so good to all be together again for the first time since December 2010, even if it's only for one and a half days.
About three weeks after that, Lincoln and I will be traveling to Poland for 12 days.  Lincoln served and LDS mission in Poland and holds a very special place in his heart for the country and people.  It will be a wonderful trip to take together and get to see the place he talks about daily.


So hello, again, dear blog.  Nice to see you again.  I can't make promises of anything glamorous or exciting, so don't expect much, but I'm glad to have you back in my life.


And what kind of photographer would I be if I didn't include a photo... even if it's a ridiculous one:

thanksgiving in okc.

we spent thanksgiving with the taylor fam in oklahoma city.

it was a short, but sweet trip.

for some reason i came home without a family picture and without a single picture of lincoln and me.

say wha?

i know.  crazy.

anyway, here are some photos i did take.

most are of my sweet little nephew, beck.

i just love that little guy.

we arrived late wednesday night, so we didn't get to see beck until thursday morning.

my favorite moment of the whole trip was when he saw us in the hallway and we said, "hi beck!"

and he looked at us, pointed, and said, "ooooohhhh!"

so cute!

we began the morning with a turkey bowl tradition (with the missionaries).

sister missionary totally schooling the elders.

my fabulous mother in law, who ended up fracturing her finger in this game... oops!

team shot:

the cute family we miss so much:

 (expecting numero dos boy)

then eating time!

and then some cute pictures of beck i couldn't resist posting:

counting the christmas ornaments

"two, two, two, two"

don't tell grandma!

hope all your thanksgivings were lovely!

little beck

i haven't seen this little guy since the end of august.

it was fun to shower him with kisses and hugs this last week.

tell me he is just the cutest little kid you've ever seen.

i can't get enough.

more thanksgiving to come...

heartbreak.

gosh, where do i start?

we had to do something terribly sad today. 

something i hope i never have to do again.

remember how lincoln's family lives in oklahoma?

well, we have been taking care of their cat, allie, while they are gone.

yesterday we went over to their house to check on allie, but we couldn't find her.

she's an outside cat and sometimes is off hunting.

so we went back today to check on her...

lincoln found her in the garage laying there moaning.

he called me in a panic.

luckily, i was just getting off work when this happened, so i called the vet, ran and got lincoln, and we took her right in.

she couldn't walk and we were terrified.

i thought she may have gotten hit by the car.

luckily our vet is a good family friend and he was right there when we arrived.

he examined her and thought maybe she had a back injury and that's why she wasn't walking,

so they did an x-ray.

nothing, 

structurally she was fine.

so he did a blood test...

he came back and said he's never seen a blood test like her's and said it was completely full of white blood cells.

leukemia.

heart break.

basically, we could treat her and make her comfortable for a while longer.

or let her go.

she was getting old and the decision was made to let her go.

keep in mind, lincoln and i are the only ones in our family left here in utah.

allie is 13 years old.

same as rusty.

in a matter of three hours, we found out she had leukemia and said our final goodbyes.

we are so terribly sad.

it's absolutely devastating to lose a pet.

lots of tears and swollen eyes over here today.

she was such a sweet little lady.

we sat with her for the last half hour of her life, petted her and kissed her head.

and we were there when she passed.

we buried her in the backyard and marked her grave.

love her.

and she will be deeply missed by our family.

oklahoma!

today i bring you a documentary of our trip to oklahoma last week.

it was so wonderful to spend time with our family and relax.

i also took a lot of photos of beck and not so much of anyone else...

so basically these are just really cute photos of beck in oklahoma. :)

the first day we got there, the weather decided to give us a break from the heat.

we went shopping at a new outlet mall and i found some black skinny jeans i've been searching for forever for $23 at the gap outlet.  score!

lincoln also bought another pair of basketball shoes which he somehow convinced me he needed.

we stopped for lunch and i snapped a few photos of this adorable guy:

 

we also did a lot of swimming in the neighbor's backyard:

and then we attempted a family photo in the backyard one evening.

i swear i was slowly melting.

bangs plastered to sweaty forehead.
lovely.

so insanely hot!

somewhat of a refuge in the shade.

the couples:

the best in laws in the world:

little bros:

and then they boys did a lot of this...
what they do best...
watching sports:

we had some really hilarious rounds of charades and pictionary:

and one of the highlights of the whole week was visiting the oklahoma city bombing memorial.

 

i was fairly young when this happened and i learned a lot i didn't know as a 7 year old little girl.

this gorgeous tree survived the bombing.
it has great significance in the memorial.

it was an eye opening experience for me to visit the memorial and also a very somber one.





we love our family dearly...

it is crazy to think every single one of us is going to be in a different part of the country/world starting this week.

mom, dad, preston and quinn in okc.
leah, chase, and beck in kansas city.
sister abigial serving in chile.

and lincoln and i here in utah.



near or far, we are happy to know that our family is eternal.



some more fun pictures soon,
news about our weekend,

and some big changes in our lives.



and thanks to leah for snapping the photos of lincoln and me.  :)