California trip, week 2

And...our second week of vacation in California for Christmas: 

When we were in California we were lucky enough to go to the baby blessing for one of the four great-grand babies born into the family this year. We got three of the four babies together, too! It was so fun to see the newest generation of the family together in one place. 

Grandma Corine Hurst at the party after the blessing, rocking baby Brody, sitting next to napping Mercedes. I have the most beautiful grandma, do I not?!

Allison's Visit

My former college roomie Allison came out to visit us in December. We were so glad to have her! Mercy and Allison just loved each other! We can't wait for the next time we can all get together again.

Always,

Mercy's First Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we were able to spend a few days in Lubbock with our family (and a few friends!). We had such a good time spending time together, and we're grateful we live so close to family now!

The grandkids with their Aba!

Family Portraits

We took family portraits in October. Taken by our sweet friend, Sara! We took them in beautiful Palo Duro Canyon at sunset, and we love how they turned out! 

One of my very favorite shots!

Mercedes' Blessing Day

We blessed our baby girl, Mercedes, this weekend at church. During a baby blessing, men from the church give a priesthood blessing to the baby as a way to formally give the baby a name, present them to the church and bless them in the name of Jesus Christ. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a blessing is a joyous occasion to celebrate the new baby with family and friends. It was such a day for us!

Our beautiful girl!

California Baby Shower

My mom and her girlfriends threw me a baby shower in California at the end of June. It was so fun to go home and celebrate the impending arrival of our baby girl with family and friends. The theme of the shower was "vintage" and it was absolutely beautiful!

The table in the entrance. The little dress to the left is the dress both my mom and I wore when we were blessed at church. Baby girl will be blessed in it, too! The quilt was my mother's when she was a little girl — one her grandmother made her. 

Oklahoma Baby Shower

Some sweet friends from church threw us a co-ed baby shower/going away party this weekend. We were grateful for the chance to celebrate with our friends and say goodbye! Sadly, I was a bad picture taker and didn't take a single one myself and thus, missed a lot of photos with friends! Thanks to Andrea, one of my hostesses, for snapping these ones for me.

 With my wonderful hostesses Sandra, Andrea, Amy and Ann!

Dana's poster

My dear friend Dana recently commissioned me to create a poster for one of her friends, with the saying "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." The quote is something they use to encourage each other at work. At first we envisioned the poster with color, but after completing it, we both felt maybe the design would be stronger in simple black. And thus, two posters were created.

The two final products, both created with ink. The color image is purple with gold leaf on the bottom.

Always,

I'm a model, you know what I mean?

I can officially add "model" to my resume. The results are in for our jewelry fashion shoot. Check it out:

2013: Highlights

For me, 2013 was a year of many ups and downs. There were a few heartbreaks and also a handful of triumphs. Read on for a recap of my last twelve months.

January:
The year started off with a bang when I found out I was pregnant. I was shocked, thrilled and absolutely terrified.

February:
February started off without a hitch, and I felt incredibly lucky on Valentine's Day to be celebrating a new chapter in our lives — I even made a card themed around how big our baby was supposed to be that week: an olive. Unfortunately, a few days later, I was devastated when I was blindsided by the beginning of a miscarriage.

Disney World 2013

We headed to Florida the week before Christmas to enjoy some time at Disney World with our families. And when I mean family I mean like Nathaniel's third cousin and their best friends, totaling up to 20 people at some points. It was loud, crazy and totally awesome. Sadly, we did not get a group photo. But at least we have the memories!

My parents with Pooh and Tigger, and me and Nathaniel with Pooh and Tigger. Once we noticed both Nathaniel and Tigger were "wearing stripes" there were a lot more shenanigans going on than just smiling and posing!

Halloween

We were invited a friend's Halloween party this year. We literally agonized over what to dress up as, seeing as how the host wanted all couples attending to be coordinating. We first joked about going as Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke, considering my hair is short and blonde now. But we ditched it. I then landed on a puppet and puppetmaster, quite simply because the costume was going to be cheap and so easy to execute. And comfortable. We knew we were going to be doing a scavenger hunt so we needed costumes we could easily run around in. Our costumes were definitely a hit — something we'll have to revisit in the future.

You can't really tell, but Nathaniel is even wearing black eyeliner!

Visit from Dana

My dear friend Dana came to visit recently, just for fun. While she was here we shopped, ate a ton of food, enjoyed Norman's art scene and cleaned — yes, cleaned. Dana's crazy and loved cleaning out my closet. Always good to have a visit from an old friend!

Me, Caitlin and Dana at the 2nd Friday Circuit of Art in Norman. Photo credit to my freelancer, Doug Hill!

Always,

Halloween photo shoot

When we were brainstorming ideas for the October N-town Halloween edition we realized we didn't have anything that touched on costumes. I didn't want to write another text-heavy story, and I got the crazy idea that maybe we could pull of a full on fashion shoot. I got busy contacting a local costume shop, to see if they'd be willing to furnish some costumes. From looking at their costumes, we thought about where we could find free locations to shoot that would match the costumes. We then contacted one of my favorite photographers, Benita with BRC Photography, as well as a hair and makeup team. I recruited some of my friends to act as the models, and a shoot was born!

It was wild coordinating all the different pieces to make the shoot happen but the day of was quite simply a blast. All the talent we had on board were creative, dynamic and excited to work together. We all brought our best to the board. The finished product was just outstanding!

My dear friend Caitlin dressed up as Marie Antoinette. We spoke with a local bakery, Crimson and Whipped Cream, about shooting in their space. They even let us purchase a few cupcakes to shoot with. Andrew Freeman Creative Studio provided the amazing hair and makeup. 

How this final spread turned out:

Belton's First Birthday (and art)

We recently went to Dallas to celebrate the first birthday of Belton, the baby of my sweet friend Laura and her husband Matt. We had so much fun visiting with our friends and celebrating their sweet boy!

The big guy!

I also gave Laura some art I had recently worked on for her and Matt. The first is the "You are my sunshine" song for Belton's nursery. The second refers to Matt and Laura's anniversary.

Always,

Girls' Night Art Night

I had the girls over tonight for some snacks and art. We had a blast visiting and being creative.

Here's what I came up with:

Detail shot

I wanted something that reminded me of how I felt shortly after my miscarriage in February. I chose the word "peace" to remind me of the scripture D&C 6:23 that sustained me through that time: "Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have then from God?" I liked the laurel wreath as a symbol of victory and triumph — over death, over sorrow — but also as a reminder to "not rest on my laurels." Or not let my faith rest on one experience. 

The other girls did various phrases, some with color, some without. I should have taken photos!

Always,

Salon de Cruz

My dear friend Kathleen came down from Tulsa for the day to have a "hair party." We sat around talking, ate lots and lots of fruit and pretzels with hummus and did hair — well, Kathleen did hair! It was good to have her down and I had a blast being girly and visiting with her.

Always,

Lake House

We had the pleasure of spending the weekend with our friends in Tulsa at their family's lake house. We drove up Friday night to meet Kathleen, Brandon and their family. We stayed up until 2 a.m. just visiting with them and their family. I felt so satisfied just from our visit we could have turned right around and come home and I would have been content.

All day Saturday we spent the day off and on the lake. We cruised around in the boat. Tubed. Swam. It was simple and perfect. The whole family invited us back...we took it as a good sign. Definitely grateful to have wonderful people in our lives!

Always,

Hard Hat Society

I went to lunch today at Molly's house for my first ever Hard Hat Society meeting. They swapped stories, told dirty jokes and even cried about painful memories and family drama. I told them about Grandma Valli's lucky coin and that my dad told me it was my "destiny" to be in Oklahoma. They all agreed and said it was my destiny to have them as my mentors. What a fabulous group of gals!

It was also Molly's birthday. She made us smoothies and we ate cupcakes -- I'll pretend like mine wasn't stale! Molly said she tells people it's going to be her birthday for months and months, then when they celebrate it she feigns surprise. She said it's like having a surprise birthday party every year. 

Always,

24th Birthday

For my 24th birthday I took the day off and spent the day with my sweet college friend, Laura, and Nathaniel. We of course spent plenty of time visiting and enjoying great food, in between seeing "Monsters University" and wandering Bricktown. It was a beautiful and relaxing day. I'm grateful for Laura's friendship and feel blessed to have her in my life. Thanks for making my day so great, Laura!

In Bricktown