One more thing done!

The invitations are printed! All 300 of them.
I dropped off the envelopes to a printing place yesterday to have them print the return address on the back flap of them and have them print out our temple cards! I'll be picking them up at about 3:30 this afternoon and then it's on to lots of addressing! So, I was thinking that we could have an addressing party tonight at about 6:00. If you girls are interested and not busy tonight then your help would be greatly appreciated! Give me a call or text me to let me know when you can come over tonight and we'll play! If I don't hear from you, I'll probably just call to make sure no one gets left out! We're wanting to mail them out tomorrow so we'll be up until they are all finished!
Bridal portraits are next week sometime and I need to get the rest of my temple stuff and try on my temple dress again to make sure I don't need to hem it. It is super loong! There's just a few other minor details to take care of but pretty much everything is coming together!
Jake told me all about the luncheon and it sounds amazing! I am very excited!
Photography news.. My friend, Mari, that was at the bridal shower has a younger sister that is a senior in high school. Her sister asked me to do her Senior portraits in 2 weeks! It should be a really fun time with her because she's goofy and will be great to work with! Very exciting!
Thank you for keeping my family and I in your prayers. This has been the hardest on my mom but she is doing very well. I've been keeping her as busy as I can with wedding stuff and just spending time together.
I love you all!

update.

Well, life has been interesting and quite crazy lately. Where to begin?!

My grandma (my mom's mom) passed away on monday from Lou Gherig's disease. We had her funeral yesterday. (on my sister's birthday) We had the viewing and funeral service in the morning at her church up in West Valley. It was really hard to have a non-LDS funeral service. I could feel my muscles tensing up as I sat there listening to the Pastor ramble on about things that were so close to being good and right but he had no idea what he was talking about. I didn't realize the comfort that I normally feel at funerals that are LDS until this one. Our immediate family gathered in a room so that my Uncle Kenny could give a family prayer and that was the only time we felt the spirit. They fed us some lunch after the service and then we all got in our cars and drove to Delta where my grandma would be laid to rest. She was originally supposed to be buried at the Camp William's cemetery because my grandpa is a retired Army guy. Well, we found out that he had started drinking again about 2 years ago, when we first found out about my grandma's illness. He wasn't taking good care of my grandma because he was drunk all the time and was even abusive towards my poor grandma. When we found out about this, we took my grandma and moved her into my Uncle Dave's house to be cared for. We found out that there was an extra plot that we owned that was next to her parents in Delta and we felt better about having her there. We all got to the cemetery and my Uncle Sid dedicated her grave. It was good to be with all of my family and my sister was even able to fly in for the weekend to be there with us. It was hard to see my grandma but I am so grateful that she is free from that body.

This one older looking lady came up to me at the cemetery and held onto my arm as she looked at the casket. I didn't recognize this woman but I still comforted her. She turned to me and said that she was her next door neighbor and that they went to first grade together. She told me some stories about her and asked how I was related to Carolyn. I told her that she was my grandma and she said that she could see the resemblance. It was good to think of how I would like to always remember her.

I'm truly grateful for my grandma's example. She has taught me so many things just by the way she lives her life. It was her that taught me to always look my best. She taught me how to clean and to keep my house looking nice. She taught my mom how to properly set a table and my mom has passed that on to me. My grandma always looked beautiful and took such pride in her appearance. I know that she is healthy and beautiful again and that she is with our Heavenly Father and her parents.

There's the story! Sorry to go on about this but I think this is theraputic.

Also, my Uncle Reed (he's on my mom's dad's side of the family) has been going through tough times with his crazy wife. She got a protective order against my uncle and he hasn't been able to go home or to see his two youngest girls. He went to court yesterday morning and now has visitation rights and his wife finally filed for divorce. What a mess. So, we are praying that everything with turn out well for him.

Okay, lets move on to HAPPY NEWS! The wedding is in just 35 days! There are only a few details left to get done and then it's time for the big day! I am so excited. I'm ready for it to be here already so Jake and I can be together! No more waiting! Bridals are next week, invitations should be printed next week, we have our video filmed...things are great! My last day of work is February 5th! I'm ready to be out of that place. People are just too cranky and demanding and expect me to fix everything for them. Boo.

Well, that's about all the updating I can think of right now.. I hope that everyone's new year is amazing so far! :)

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!!