Merry Christmas!

We are having a wonderful time at my parents house with all of my family. I have always loved this time of year because I really enjoy spending time with family. We are so very blessed. This has been an incredible year for our family. Jared was able to start PA school and is really enjoying it. Truly a blessing for our family! I am always busy taking care of our sweet boys and I have been loving spending any extra time I have learning about photography and taking pictures. It's such a fun hobby for me! Caleb turned four this year and is beginning to look so grown up to me:) He began Primary this year and has enjoyed that. This has also been a wonderful year for Kyson. He had a heart catheterization in August and we were pleased to hear that he is still doing great. We are preparing ourselves for his upcoming surgery on March 7th. We are so grateful to have him doing so well. He is a joy to have around.
We hope all of our friends and family have a very Merry Christmas! Here's a few pictures of our kids with Santa at a wonderful Hopekids party we had the opportunity to attend.

Burrell family

A couple weekends ago I had the opportunity to take family pictures for our friends, the Burrell's again. I think everyone had a good time except poor baby A.! She must have been cold or something because we just couldn't squeeze a smile out of her. She is the most adorable little baby anyway...she doesn't have to smile to be super cute:)
The fam









And here's a fun collage I put together of all the fun expressions I got from J.

Christmas tree

It's a tradition in our family to go out in the woods and cut down our own Christmas tree. We didn't make it to Show Low this year so my family cut one down for us! We love the tree they got for us! I love having a Christmas tree up to remind me that it's Christmas time! Here's a few pictures of the fun we had putting up the tree...




Our boys love to turn out all the light and look at the tree. I love it too!

Thanksgiving week

***Just a quick warning that this is LONG post! Feel free to skip if you don't want to take the time to read it all!***
I have been wanting to blog about all the fun times we had the week of Thanksgiving but I have been spending so much time on the computer editing pictures! I have many more pictures to share but that will have to wait for another day!
The Friday before Thanksgiving Jared took his last final of the fall quarter. We were all so excited for him to finish and be able to spend time together as a family. Friday afternoon we headed to Show Low to spend the weekend doing wedding pictures for my cousin Rebecca. It was a fun weekend I was just so grateful to have Jared around to help me!
Sunday night we had to drive home so Jared could go to jury duty bright and early Monday morning. Gratefully they let him go after a few hours and he came home. We spent the afternoon crossing things off my "honey to do list."
Tuesday we headed to the zoo. We had a great time! Our boys ask almost every day if we can go to the zoo...they love it! I bought a zoo membership last March and we have used it so many times it was definitely worth it. I brought my camera along this time since Jared was there to push the stroller. I had fun taking pictures of the animals. Here are my favorites.

My boys compared to the size of an elephant...

This picture just cracks me up! These have to be some of the ugliest, stinkiest animals at the zoo! I just couldn't resist taking a picture of his "hair do" and white "beard."

This was one of the first times I have seen the Tortoise up walking around. They were moving to a new area and they were waiting to feed them so they would follow along. They believe these animals are over 100 years old!

These monkeys are always one of our favorite stops. They are fun to watch!

The LION!

The TIGER!

A funny shot of a giraffe:)

Me and my boys!

Our boys were very lucky and got to ride the carousel twice!


Funny story. We were standing there watching the Orangutan's and one girl leaned over a little too far and dropped her pencil. The Mother orangutan came right over and picked it up and started eating it. The mother of the girl who dropped the pencil was freaking out! She just KNEW her daughter was going to kill that orangutan! She was searching for a zoo worker to tell them what happened but couldn't find anyone. That orangutan sat there and chewed on that pencil for a good ten minutes. We ended up leaving so I'm not sure what happened but I felt sorry for that poor girl. She was feeling horrible!

If you look closely you can see that half eaten pencil. The mother even shared some of it with her baby:) It's kind of interesting how something foreign was so intriguing to those orangutans!

I love this last shot of the Mommy giving her baby a hug...so sweet!

Overall, it was such a fun day at the zoo!

Wednesday was a fun day as we hung out at home and watched our niece and nephew, Kate and Max. They are so cute! I wish they lived closer so we could do more together!!!

Thursday was Thanksgiving! We ate our Thanksgiving meal (which of course wasn't a traditional Turkey dinner but very yummy prime rib instead) and then enjoyed letting the kids play while we visited for a while.



That night my sister-in-law came over so we could go shopping together. I had so much fun! We went to two CVS's, Walgreens, and Walmart. The first two actually make me laugh but CVS and Walgreens had a lot of great deals and we got a ton of stuff for almost free! We got to Walmart early (we drove by Toys R Us and just kept going since the line was wrapped around the store twice and was starting the third time around). We found what we were wanting at Walmart and just sat down and visited right by it. As midnight got closer we had to stand up and stand guard because more and more people were showing up. Once midnight hit, I couldn't believe what a mad house it turned into. This was my first Walmart experience and it was C-R-A-Z-Y! We got everything we wanted but if it weren't for being with Steph I'm not sure it would have been worth it. We did have a great time overall and I'm so glad we have such a fun memory together!

Friday and Saturday we headed out to Queen Creek to be with my family. My grandparents have their yard set up so everyone from out of town can camp. They have four wheelers, tons of bikes, games, horses and just a ton of fun things to do. Our boys were loving life while we were there!




It was such a fun and memorable Thanksgiving week. I couldn't make a list long enough to say all of the things I am thankful for. One of the things at the very top of that list is my family. I LOVE being with family. It just makes me so happy! That is why I love this time of year. Now it's almost Christmas and I am very excited! More family time and a lot of time to think, ponder, and study about our Savior. We are so blessed!

Snowflake temple wedding

A few months ago my cousin called and asked if I would take pictures for her at her wedding. While I was really excited, I was also super nervous! I knew how important this day would be for her and I was a little overwhelmed with the responsiblity of it all. Plus, the Snowflake temple is well known for being a very difficult place to take pictures. There isn't much landscaping and its on top of a hill where its always windy! When we arrived at the temple to take a few pictures before the wedding the wind was definitely blowing and it was COLD! Just to show you what it was like...

Poor Rebecca. Her veil just kept flying away and her hair and dress were flying everywhere!
Gratefully, with the help of my assitant (poor Jared was forced to stand out in the freezing cold helping me!) I was able to get a few pictures I am very happy with. Enjoy!!!

Where's Waldo?

I recently took pictures of my cousin's wedding. I've been editing them and every time I come across this picture it just makes me laugh. It looks like one of the best family pics until...Do you see Waldo (aka my husband:) in the back?





In case your still searching...



Ha! So funny!!!

I'm almost done editing the hundreds of pictures I took at her wedding. I'll be sure to share my favorites (besides this one:) soon!!!