lifestyle family photos

We had the talented Duston Todd do a lifestyle family photo shoot for us recently and they turned out so awesome!!! Duston is by far our favorite photographer! He also shot our wedding and  1 year anniversary photos.

Here are some of my favs of the lifestyle shoot:

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

You too can have an amazing photo shoot! Check Duston out at:

http://www.boxonfire.com/#/portfolio/portfolio/murmur 

http://www.dustontodd.com/ 

Duston is so fun to work with, contact him now!

is there anybody in there?

Anyone else singing Pink Floyd now?

So, I've been non-existent! It's really not my fault though. It's life's fault.

I've been beyond busy and tired and stressed and brain fried.

1. We've still been doing fertility treatments to get a bun in this oven. I'm now upped from just taking pills to giving myself shots. Let me tell you the first time I had to inject myself I was shaking and sweating and it may have took about 30 minutes. It feels something like this except in the stomach....kinda.

2. We've also started the adoption process...you know as a back up. My stress levels from work may be too high to get a baby in me. We've always planned on adopting, we just thought it would be the last baby instead of the first. Pretty much we just want to be the next Brad & Angelina.

3. I bought a new car! My car was on it's last leg so it was time to get me a new one, but for anyone that knows my husband knows he is an uber tight wad and doesn't do anything quickly. Pretty much we shopped for months before finding the right price and car...it was very tiring! But look how pretty my new car is on the right! It's a 2010 Subaru Forester that had only 36K miles! It has a door that really opens, a CD player & auxiliary jack (instead of a broken tape player), no dents, hubcaps, and it actually goes when you push on the gas!! Yeah I"m a happy girl!

4. We went on an Alaskan cruise!! I will post specifically on this later, but I highly recommend it. It's so beautiful...well in the summer it is. I'm sure people have different opinions in the never ending winters. Plus it was the hubs work retreat so it was For Freeeeeee!!! Free trips are the best yo! I know Scott has a frowny face below, but don't worry he was loving it! He kept saying he was home and wants to move there. This is just his picture taking face.

5. Lastly we've been house shopping. I thought shopping for a car was a pain, but this is even more stress!! We've deciding that townehome living is no longer for us. We're tired of sharing a wall with terrible neighbors, plus I'm dying for a puppy!! So now we need to sell our place and find a new one that won't  break the bank. We can't seem to find an older home we like enough to fix up so we're leaning towards a new build, but I'm not sure we can afford the house we will want to stay in forever and why build a house if it's not our end all house?? Maybe I have too high expectations?? I just feel like I super need a front porch and a library and a bright yellow front door...I don't think that's too much to ask for.

So yeah.....a lot's been going on.

i think my ovaries hate me

I never knew that getting pregnant would actually be a hard thing to do, but apparently it is...at least for me. I suppose waiting until I'm 34 to have babies could be a factor and may not have been my smartest decision. I know what your thinking, "Wow you're 34!?!", it's true I am. I have great skin and an immature personality so it hides my age, but back to the task on hand...."trying" to get pregnant sucks!! I know it's only been just under a year since I got off the pill, but I kinda just expected it to happen within months. I mean teens and crackheads accidentally get pregnant all the time! Which is crazy that they have these accidental babies, cause there is only like a 36 hour window that you can get knocked up in each month!

So back in December we decided to see a fertility doc (I know people usually wait a full year for that step but these ovaries aren't getting any younger & we don't have time to waste), I'm super glad I didn't wait though! It's been months of tests and uncomfortable check ups of the who-ha and come to find out my progesterone level is low (meaning my body doesn't like to ovulate). So the likelihood of us getting preggo on our own was not looking too good. Now I'm on Chlomid (to help me ovulate), aka crazy pills. There was really only 1 day that I was super crazy and just wanted to beat my husband though...but sometimes he deserves it so that's probably normal. :-) Cross your fingers that taking crazy pills pans out!

Also, this happened last month!
I went ginger!

And then I got pulled over for not even speeding that much.
Seriously who gives a ticket to a girl with amazing hair?!?
A jerk face cop that's who!

some things i've learned

My whole one year of married life has taught me a couple things about myself, and here I thought at 33 I pretty much knew ALL about me! I guess there's always something new to discover.

1. I talk in my sleep sometimes. Which is super cool!! I hope I only say awesome things like:

"Aim for the head!"

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"

or maybe

"You remind me of the babe"

(I guess all super cool things said are said in movies...)

2. Apparently I don't know how to close things. Doors, drawers, cupboards, ect.

I never knew this was a problem until I got married and the hubs pointed it out to me. I blame my "raccoon-itis" (which is totally a legit medical term for getting distracted by shiny objects). I mean something must catch my eye if I'm just walking away from an open cupboard right!?!? You would think an overly organized girl who likes everything in it's place wouldn't have this issue.

(This may or may not be an exaggeration)

Ps- I'm going to Portland this weekend for my bff's wedding!! Check back next week for some (hopefully) awesome pics (I'm still trying to figure out how to work our Cannon). Also, you can follow some of the happenings on Instagram.

poo

We got our first pet together!

His name is Poo and he's a Beta Fish.
Scott teasingly said we should name him Schapoopy...so poo is what stuck.
Plus really all fish do is poop.
So it just fits.

I got a red one cause I thought he would match our red wall in the house. 

Which is totally what people do, right?!?

What we really want someday is a kitty (and a dog too)!!
Yes even Scott wants a kitty.
(he's a sucker for em and it's super adorbs)

Our dream cat is a Savannah.

They're house cats bred with African cheetah type killer machines!

How cool is that!!!

So pretty and big!

Too bad their thousands of dollars!

Someday...

Be Mine

I don't think I'm a mushy type person.

In fact I hate when people post mushy, lovey crap on Facebook.

I just feel like what you and your significant other have is personal.

You don't need to tell everyone how in love you are and how lucky you are to have found the "one". You should be living that way and showing and telling who your with those things...the rest of us don't need to hear it.

Now with that said lets talk about Valentines.

Haha!

Scott and I started a new tradition this year that instead of doing all the typical Valentiney things like presents, Hallmark cards, and expensive restaurants, we are going to make each other Valentine cards with our own written poems or reasons why love each other, then stay in for a special dinner of a homemade meal or take out.

I thought it was pretty funny that both of us made cards with kitties on them for each other.

Scott said he put his kitty on because he thought it looked like it had down syndrome. 

He's so romantic! :-)

All in all, this was the best Valentines, because I got a love letter from my husband!

 

 Oh and flowers...those aren't required, but they do make  me feel special! :-)

First Steele Christmas

This was my first Christmas away from my parents and siblings....I may have cried once or twice. It's not that I was sad to be with the Steele family, it's just that I've never not been at my parents home for Christmas and I missed our traditions and the way their home feels during the season. Christmas Eve is a big hullabaloo at the Van Hoose house! We have Christmas dinner Fondue style with lots of sparkling cider to go around! It starts with a cheese fondue appetizer, then onto eating as much steak and shrimp as you can manage (cooking it yourself with the fry daddy in front of you on the table), and lastly we have a chocolate fondue dessert! To end the night my parents always teach us something or tell a story that has to do with the Christmas season and Christ. All of it's really special and dear to me.

Even though I knew I was going to miss my side of the family I was really excited to be in OUR home for Scott and mine first Christmas together. We got to sleep in Christmas day...well as much as I could. I had to wake up Scott so that we could look in our stockings and see what Santa brought! It was just awesome to have some alone time and to enjoy each others company on our first Christmas together. I made my mom's traditional Christmas breakfast, we drank sparkling cider & OJ mixed, opened presents, played with our awesome new Cannon 60D camera, watched a Christmas movie, took a nap, then met up with the family in the evening. It really was a perfect Christmas! Honestly I loved all the quality time I got with Scott over this whole Holiday. We shopped together, delivered presents together, went to the temple, lounged in front of the TV, and were pretty much just being an awesome couple!!

He's so talented! We sang Christmas songs he played  on the guitar (and Beatles songs).

 

I really did enjoy the fun times with the Steele Clan this Christmas as well! They made me forget about not being at my parents and we just had good times! We played dodge-ball on Christmas eve! How awesome is that!?! I tried super hard to get Scott, but that boy was too good (or I'm not as good as I think I am), so I had to hit him with the balls after the game at close range..with his back turned. :-) Along with the dodge-ball there was lots of yummy food we ate, more games we played, family chatting, plus the kiddies acted out the Christmas Story (which was so super cute)! All in all, I'd say it was a successful good Christmas!

Seriously how cute is this baby!?! Half of my pictures may or may not be of this little girl.

  I love being a Steele! This family is serious awesomeness!!

Christmas Cards

Want to know another reason why the Christmas season is so awesome??
The Christmas cards!

I absolutely love getting Christmas cards!! 

Seeing all our friends & families personalities in the different cards is my favorite!

This is Scott and mine FIRST ever Christmas card!! It really shows our different personalities and how we perceive the Holidays perfectly.

 

I just love my little Scrooge :-)

Here's an extra pic just cause I love it

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

our first Halloween

I forgot to post what we decided upon for our costumes.

I must say I feel like we could have done so much better!

We had some pretty cool ideas, but didn't try to put it together until the day of the party.

Big mistake!

Next year I vow to plan ahead!

For pulling it all together last minute though it worked out.

I was wanting 300, but found Roman/Gladiator instead. 

Also, side note, Scott's sword was real!

He was pretty proud of that, and showed off by cutting food at the party with it.

Below are our awesome pumpkins we did as well.

Scott's is The Punisher and I did the starry night.

Love em!