Jake comes in the morning!

I'll be driving to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up Jake! I'm hoping that there isn't another blizzard while I'm trying to get up there. It's Jake's fault for wanting snow when he comes home!
I am getting suuuuper excited about Christmas! This year has been so fun to shop for people even though I ended up out shopping for 5 1/2 hours by myself yesterday. Yikes! I can't even count how many times I got in and out of my car...I went just about everywhere! I have finally gotten everything I need and almost have everything wrapped!
So, I guess everybody has heard the news about Washington. I am soo excited! Washington has sounded the best to me from the beginning and I am glad that that is where we ended up. It is the perfect place for Jake and I to be. Plus...it's 3 hours from Forks! I was thinking that maaaybe our girls trip could be a trip to Forks! I don't know if that could be a possibility but I'm just throwing that option out there! If I don't end up going with a bunch of girls that love the books like I do then I'll have to drag Jake along. Poor boy. ;) I think he would be a good sport about it though! Washington looks so beautiful and I can't wait to get out there and start photographing!! There will be tons of landscape shots for me to capture. So exciting!
More good news...I ended up with a B- in my photo 2 class this semester! I should have been pushing for an A like I got in photo 1 but I struggled this semester and a B- is well over what I probably deserved! I felt like I hit a wall in my photography and wasn't really feeling the same passion for it but I'm getting it back! But thank goodness the semester is over. Here is one of the pictures that I took digitally when I went out photographing with Candace! It looks kind of like one of my final photos that I printed from my film camera.

We decided to go out for a treat for our FHE on monday so we went to Thanksgiving Point! After eating a delicious brownie sundae, my family wanted to see a movie of some sort. We ended up going to watch the 3D sea monsters movie at Thanksgiving Point. I couldn't resist getting picutres of our amazing 3D glasses! We were being rowdy and having fun all by ourselves in the theatre until this couple came walking in so we had to calm down. ;)
It was a fun FHE night! We watched the house that has all the lights and music to go along with it on the way home. I love it!



I forgot to tell everyone that I picked out the wedding cake! It's from Cakes by Dawna! Here's a picture of it! It's the buttercream icing. Just imagine it with flowers that are our colors. Lots of green and white flowers and accents of deep purple Callalillies! Sooo gorgeous.

Today is my photo 2 final photo critique! Pretty stressful but I'm so glad to have it over with. My mat boards that I had to cut myself didn't turn out so well. I cut the opening a little too big for the pictures so you can see some of the white paper showing through. What a pain! Oh well. I'm happy with the pictures though!

Jake will be home in just 9 sleeps! ;) I can't wait!

Also, for the women, my sister is throwing me a bridal shower while she is here for Christmas! It's going to be on the 29th at 2:00. You all will be getting invites to come but also know that Candy will be doing one for the Hansen side too! If you can't make it to this one then it's alright! It's going to be fun to see everyone for Christmas!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my parent's 24th anniversary! They went out to eat at the Chef's Table on saturday night. I'm so jealous! They have been such amazing parents to me and to my brother and sister. I am especially grateful that they have raised us in the Gospel and been so faithful in the church. My dad was a convert when we was 19. He used to be a big partier and never had much religion in his life until he ran into the missionaries one day. It just so happened that his landlord was having the missionaries over for lunch at the exact time that my dad was going to pay his rent! So, he took the discussions, was baptized and served an 18 month mission in Boston, Mass. He has been a faithful member ever since he joined the church. My mom was raised in the church but wasn't super active considering the fact that her mother was constantly getting married and divorced, sometimes in the temple, sometimes not. So, my mom came back to church just as my dad was about to come home from his mission. They knew each other back in their high school days because my dad was best friends with my mom's boyfriend at the time. My mom was at the airport when my dad came home (along with a bunch of other crazy girls that were hanging all over him) and they began dating after that and were married in the Salt Lake Temple on this day 24 years ago! My parents have been such a strength to me and I appreciate everything that they have ever done for me and our family!

*sigh*

I can finally breathe! So, last week I had a meltdown because I realized that it was the last week of my photo class and I had hardly done anything for it! All my pictures are due on wednesday and I have to put 3 of them in mat board to present in class that day. Yikes! I don't know why I couldn't find the motivation to do much of anything for that class this semester but I have barely put anytime or effort into it until these past few days. Thanks to Candace, I went out photographing on tuesday night and got some good shots and had lots of fun hanging out with a friend! I took some more pictures the next day and yesterday. I was suuuuper worried that I wouldn't be able to develop all my pictures and get the mat board cut for them in time but I did it! I had until 5:00 today to get pictures printed and cut my mat board and I got it all done with 20 minutes to spare! :) I'm not super excited about the pictures that I printed but they'll do. I'm just too much of a perfectionist! So, now I just need to press my pictures to make them flat and pretty and tape them into the mat boards! *sigh* I can finally breathe!!
Also, I forgot to tell everyone that I saw Enchanted!! Suuuuch a cute movie. I loved it! I'm going to make Jake watch it with me when we own it! I'm sure he's thrilled. ;)
I'm so excited to have Jake home soon and see everyone during the holidays!

Families are forever.

My family decided to get dressed up after church today and go take our family Christmas card picture today in the beautiful snow. It was gorgeous driving up the canyon and seeing everything covered in the white snow! Here's our favorite shot!

Happy Holidays, everyone!!