. since we last met .

. it's been busy and then a little less busy . i've enjoyed the slower time and am using the time to refocus and set some goals for this year . very excited about some new business ideas .

. i've been to vegas, twice .

. chicago, i don't know how many times .

. fell in love with and watched all of downtown abbey, most of the while with a cup of tea .

. attended wppi for the first time ever .

. moved .

. started recycling .

. really enjoying cooking with lots of fresh veggies .

. establishing family night with people in my life that might as well be my family .

. doing my best to be fully submitted to what God has for me .

. drank loads of bubble tea, mostly with my tracy friend .

. met nate and jaclyn kaiser and jasmine star .

. got my hair cut shorter .

. then grew it back out a bit .

. considered growing it back out all the way again, but decided to hold off because jasmine and nate both told me i had cool hair . (this is always subject to change)

. built stronger relationships with some .

. not been what i should to others, will be working on that .

. reconnected with old friends .

. having fun hanging out with these 2 every so often .

. having fun decorating the new pad .

. causing me to think about rebranding my photography, so that's in the works .

. overwhelmed by loved ones, the good kind of overwhelmed .

. enjoying that with every twist and turn in life there's always room for change and better yet, improvements .

. getting dressed up all fancy and stuff .

. for a big party, that was a bit of a let down, mainly because i'm not into the kind of parties where you have to yell in your friends ear just to chat . :) fuddy duddy, i know . getting all dressed up was my favorite part . oh and taking fun snapshots with friends .

. rang in the new year by watching and photographing a beautiful home birth .

. and then had photos from the birth make the front page of the cedar rapids gazette .

. resting outside in february barefoot (not in iowa) .

. braved getting a tattoo . i'm tougher than i thought . it says 'it is well with my soul' . always a good reminder .

. frequenting goodwill, stuff, houseworks, salvation army and all those great places to see what treasures i may find .

. i've gotten involved in a great connection group through my church, the ladies in this bible study are great knitters, i love watching them do their thing as we discuss God's word .

. i'm sure there's more, but i'm going to let that do for catching us up . hopefully more to come soon .

. life in instagrams .

. seriously, the iphone has changed my life . photo life for sure . i love being able to whip out the thing and grab a quick pic . i'm going to try to get some of these photos printed just to see what they look like . anybody done that with instagrams ?

. but, the phone changing my life . okay, words with friends, this game is addicting and sometimes i just have to quit playing, so i can STAY ON TASK ! :) super fun to play though, except this game . it was hard ! i loose a lot, but i still like to play .

. empty water bottle .

. yes, i wrote the date, not my name, on the tag of my pants . okay, i'm not weird, at least not for this reason . i did this because i had bought different brands at different times and wanted to see how fast they faded . anyway...it does seem kinda dumb now, BUT the best part about this story has nothing to do with my faded yoga pants and everything to do with the fact that the faded yoga pants that haven't fit in a while, fit now ! and i wouldn't have remembered how long it had been since i'd worn then if i hadn't dated them like they were corn going in my freezer at the end of summer !

. ry took this pic of reed running from him . typical .

. the boys are obsessed with anything fun on my phone so they think my scrabble game on my phone must be wild fun because it's, well, on my awesome phone, so they wanted to play the game in real life . let me just say, not so fun .

. getting my hair done at salon rage .

. visiting my friends em and gibbs . this picture melts my heart .

. em's cool home .

. em's cool dining room decor .

. let me just stop a moment and say how brilliant gibbs is ! this kid can say just about anything . he's so verbal !! he's not quite 17 months old and can talk like i've never heard a child do before . so, he's a genius, for real !

. whipping up some stir fry .

. mixed with a little quinoa . my new favorite grain .

. me and brooke, instagraming together .

. at a horse sale . we choose this over pedicures . why ? we decided it was because we are maturing and family is more important than our nails getting done . that didn't stop us from whining to family the rest of the time together about not getting our nails done .

. tiny towns have the coolest stuff .

. morning coffee .

. getting ready to go trail riding .

. good times .

. and more to come after bit, this just gets me up through sunday .

:)

weekend in photos

. at the studio early for an appointment, warming the place up for a photo shoot .

. on the road again .

. loved this pillow . i passed . don't need everything i think i do .

. me and tracy friend .

. becca came and stayed overnight . this was us, not yet ready on sunday morn .

. getting ready . wearing my new necklace and her bracelet . love that thing . want that thing !

. steve snapped this one of us . i'm afraid this is what we look like 90% of the time we're together . she's chatting and i'm listening .

:)

. back at the studio, waiting for it to warm up .

. this is my kleenex box .

. and...well, the floor you've seen a million times .

. my friend, he lives at the studio .