Snow Day

Matt and Tempe have such a wonderful time together!

Enjoy the snow day!

Moving

    We're moving and I could not be more thrilled. I have gotten used to moving about once a year since we got married and I guess I've fallen in love with the new start we make every time we move. It has been a stressful year and I'm hoping to leave that stress with our current place. We have been through massive bouts of anxiety (on my part), the birth of a preemie niece (which is now so wonderful, but truly scary at the time) and the wedding of my aunt this last week (that one was fun). 

    We have also had wonderful times in our current place, this was the home we brought Tempe to when we got her last year. We have grown stronger as a family in this home, we now know how to breathe and keep moving on.

    So, with this new home comes new possibilities to learn from each other, gain a stronger love for one another and paint. I'm really looking forward to painting! I have big plans for this place, including horizontal striped walls that Matt is not totally on board with, yet. It is an apartment, but it feels a lot like a house - it has a fireplace, garage and terrace/balcony area for barbecuing and what-not. The master bedroom is humongous and the cupboard space in the kitchen is insane! We have not been given a move in date, so for now I will start the packing and cross my fingers that we're in by the end of the month.

    On a side note, we are so proud of our Aggies - they beat the Utes 27-20 on Friday! It was a fantastic game, one that we will never forget!

photo by Eli Lucero of The Herald Journal

Life via Instagram

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but Instagram is the absolute best thing to happen to me since Facebook. Now we can take photos, not amazing photos, but photos to show our families our daily lives and upload them directly to Facebook for everyone to see. We do not have kids, so the majority of our photos are of our dog, she is our baby right now - and she will be a year old in two weeks! It's been awhile since you've seen us, so here are a few shots from our lives the last month, or so.

These are what I like to call, 'Tempe adores Matt.'

And now, I went to Houston last week for a conference and had a great time! I had never been to Houston, now I think I want to take Matt there to explore!

Now the photos I have titled, 'Tempe tolerates Erin, doesn't really love her as much as she loves Matt.'

Have a wonderful weekend!
Erin, Matt & Tempe, too!

My girl and me

    Tempe and Matt were out playing last night, she loves chasing her Frisbee. So, I thought I'd bring the camera out and get some shots. I had been editing photos, after coming home from my cardio workout, and looked amazing, not. But I wanted Matt to get a photo of me and Tempe together, we have tons of Matt with Tempe and almost none with just me and her.

    He did a fabulous job!

 
 We have a busy weekend in front of us, including a baby shower for my cousin, Mindy! So, here's to an amazing weekend for you and yours!

    Erin

A Year of Change

    This last year has been a year of change. We have seen the birth of two new nieces and the passing of one wonderful grandfather. I took a bit of a hiatus from photography just to simplify life, it helped and I now feel energized and ready for wedding season. I will, however, only be taking one wedding per month. I already have one for May and one for June. 

    First I want to say a few words about my Grandpa John. He passed away at the beginning of February after almost 83 years on this earth. You can read his obituary here. My mom asked me to write his obituary and I was so honored. Grandpa was so fun, I always remember baking, playing or just being silly with him. He always cared about what we were doing, he genuinely wanted to know how our lives were going. As it says in his obituary, his family was his life and we always felt loved. Grandpa will be missed, but I know we will see him again. He was a fun grandpa, I will always remember how upbeat and enthusiastic about life he was - and how he called me his Erin Ann :)

    Our nieces Charlotte and Ivy were also born in the last year! We love our nieces and nephew so much! 

    Here's newborn Charlotte, I can't believe she's almost a year old! She is such a sweetie!

    Here's Ivy, she was born Nov. 20 at 25 weeks gestation - she was 1lb. 4 oz. and is now over 6lbs!!

    Happy Tuesday!
    Erin, Matt and Tempe

Where does the time go?

For those of you keeping count, we have three nieces and one nephew. Our adorable nephew Ezra is three today! I can't believe how big he is getting, and so smart! I love talking to this cute boy, I can't imaging having greater conversations. My sister Allie and I were telling him how cute he is one time and he said in return, 'you tell me I'm so cute, but really I'm just a boy.' Kills me every time! I love modern technology that allows us to see him all the time through iChat and Facetime. This has been such a crazy year, I don't really know where the time has gone. It's so wonderful to get a chance to watch our nephew grow up and measure time based on his life, it helps me to simplify my life - if that makes sense. I hope that Ezra knows how much we love him, how much we miss him when we're not together and how much our lives have been enhanced because of him. We are so blessed as we watch our family grow and change. I look at Ezra and I can't wait to have kids and hope they are just like him!

Someday we will tell him stories of what a silly boy he was, we will always treasure the moments we get to be his Aunt Erin & Uncle Matt.

So, a happy third birthday to Ezra. We love you so much and can't wait to see you!

Why we adventure

Matt and I love to go on  adventures. When we say adventure that means that finding a particularly complicated address can be an adventure. None the less, whether the adventure is big or small, we love them! This weekend we went to Boise for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl where our Aggies played Ohio for the bowl title. We lost 24-23, but the trip was still so worth it. 

This little weekend getaway was just what we needed. We went to the game, saw 'Sherlock Holmes' and enjoyed the nice drive to and from Boise.

We took our little digital camera, but forgot to put the battery in the camera - yep, we're awesome. So, we just took a few photos with my camera phone. It's a beauty ;)

And We're Back

    It's been a tough couple of months. Changes, changes and more changes. I really wish there was a button we could push marked, 'Everything is great, keep it just the way it is,' but as always we must push on and learn from it. I don't want to bore you with the details, but since you last saw us on the blog we've moved, had big changes at work, bought a dog, and found out we're going to have another niece! Now, these are all the fun changes I'm talking about, but that's not to say that they don't bring a little stress and strain - minus the new niece part, we're extremely excited about that one! Stress from moving, I never knew how much stuff we had. Stress from changes at work, don't get me started. Stress from buying a dog, we looooove her so much, but it's like living with a newborn and a toddler with really sharp teeth in the house (don't forget that I said we love her, she's our little baby!). 

    Tempe is our puppy, she's now 4 months old and so full of energy. I just know she looks at me and thinks, 'you are so boring.'  But I try to stay as exciting as I can in her eyes, she already thinks that Matt is the greatest thing ever (well, I don't blame her). I find myself talking to her like she's a person, yesterday I asked her what she did all day ;)

    This photo is about a month old, she is so much bigger now.
    We're also slowly getting our film developed from our trip to New York. Here's me with the Manhattan skyline behind.

    Here's to lots more blog posting now that life is getting back to normal.

    E

Easter and Then Some

   We had quite the busy weekend! I went out to dinner with my loverly friends Allison and Jessica on Friday night - I love them! Matt went off golfing with dad on Saturday morning, so that left Allie and I to have a sister day! We took graduation photos of Al's cute friend, Jalene - I shot film for the first time in three years :) We got lunch from Jimmy Johns (um, I love them) and yummy cookies from Rubysnap, then went to a bridal shower for my friend Cyndi!

   Matt and I also got a fabulous Easter gift - a new niece! This is Charlotte!

   Yeah - so cute!

   We also got a new cousin!

   My cousin Jim proposed to his girlfriend, Kasey! Yay for family!

   We had a way fun Easter egg hunt and Kasey got the best, ring-filled egg! I love being with my family - they are so wonderful! Life is so amazing!

   More photos of the egg hunt and other things coming! I'm so excited to get my film developed from Jalene's grad session, I can hardly stand it!!