Life Dream... Accomplished

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to be a professional photographer. I have always been enthralled by the whole idea of photography, and especially portrait photography. I have taken little steps towards becoming a professional photographer, like experimenting with my awesome Pentax (which is little more than a point and shoot), taking photoshop classes, taking a photography class, searching the web for awesome pictures, creating my own idea file of pictures that I like etc...

David has been so good to support me in this dream. He helped me turn it into a goal instead of a dream. Owning my own DSLR and running a photography business was something that I wanted, but deep down I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to actually accomplish it. There are just so many other things that I could see taking priority in my life. However, David knew that I would regret it if we didn't make every effort to realize this dream. We started saving to purchase a camera. We developed a plan and my dream seemed to become more and more realistic. Then I received an e-mail from Mindy Black, the amazing photographer who did our wedding pictures. (See her website here!) She told me that she was selling her camera and that she remembered I had been interested in buying a camera. It didn't take very long for David and I to realize that this was the perfect opportunity for us! So this weekend we met up with Mindy and now I have my very own DSLR! It is everything I have ever hoped it would be! A special thanks to Mindy who sat down with me and taught me the ins and outs of the camera and her little tips to making shooting with this particular camera a bit easier.
Here she is! She is a Nikon D70 and she came with a 50mm lens and a 18-70mm lens.

I played with her all weekend, and then yesterday I went out on my first photo shoot! One of my best friends, Hayli Dickey, is leaving on her mission November 4th (She is going to Argentina! I'm so happy for her!) and we decided to go and take some missionary pictures for her. I haven't uploaded them onto my computer yet, but I will post a couple of them soon. They turned out really well!

I am not going to start a photography business for a while yet, I have my hands full with the graphic design company that I am starting! But I am SO excited to be one HUGE step closer to my dream. Now that I have a professional camera, NOTHING can stop me! I am so excited for the opportunity I have now to start developing my skills and developing my photographic style.

The moral of this story is: Marry someone that loves you more than anything and will do anything to help your dreams come true. Because if you do that and you work hard enough, pray hard and are determined enough... the two of you can do anything you set your mind to.

ps. There are three new posts beneath this post! (The Big Party, Taushas Baby Shower, & Davids Birthday.) Sorry... I decided to take the morning and catch up on all the blogging for all of the pictures that were on my camera. Just thought I would let you know, because I don't want you to miss out on any of it!

The Big Party

This last weekend was a crazy weekend for David and I. I feel like we drove all over the northern part of Utah, multiple times. Which is probably because... we did. I had a teaching conference in Tooele, so we drove from Logan to Tooele, then from Tooele to WJ to spend the night, then I went back to Tooele in the morning for my conference, then BACK to WJ. Then we went to Sam and Wendy's new house (which is about a half hour drive from the Peaden house) to watch the BYU game and have a Big Party to celebrate their new house. Then we drove back to WJ, then we drove to Mountain Green for Hayli's farewell (that we missed because we thought it started two hours after it actually started), then we drove to Morgan, then back to Logan. Then to top it off, yesterday (Monday) I drove to Ogden to take a pre-test for the Praxis, then to Mountain Green, then back to Ogden, then back to Mountain Green then back to Logan. I realize you all don't really care about where I was driving and how many times I drove there... But I am hoping for some sympathy about how much driving I had to do this weekend! Whew.

Now on the the Big Party with the family! The football game was a bummer, so i'm not even going to talk about that. But on a happier note here are some pictures that leave a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. :)

David and I in our matching "Peaden" Jerseys. This is what I gave David for his Birthday. I had them custom made. I love them! One of my favorite songs is by Reliant K, and starts out: "We should get jerseys, cuz we make a good team." David sings the song to me often, and I thought they were the perfect gift! This was the first opportunity we had to wear them for a real event! Whoo-hoo! (Also, do you like my hair? I just got a new haircut and really like it.)

Here is the fam playing games. Pretend like I am sitting on that vacant spot of carpet right in the middle of the picture. We had 7 people, which isn't enough people to play two-four player games, and is too many to play one six player game. So what did we do? Bruce played BOTH games. He was playing a game of Canasta with David, Sam and I.... and a game of Ticket to Ride with Wendy, Amy and Jeff. It was hilarious. Only Bruce would have been able to pull it off! He is so smart, and so good at both games. I think that it actually put us all on a level playing field, which was nice. :)

Here is another shot of the Ticket to Ride Game.

I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of David. He is just so cute!

Isn't he adorable? I love this boy so much. If you look close you can see his poor eye though. I found out later that he was only wearing one contact the whole time because his other contact was bothering him! Crazy boy!

I did not take these pictures, because as you can see... I am asleep. David and Amy conspired against me and took these pictures after I had fallen asleep on Davids shoulder. I was tired! It had been a long day and it was late. The only reason I put these pictures on here was so you would know what a wonderful husband David is to let me fall asleep on his shoulder while the Ticket to Ride game was finishing up. And ALSO so you would know what I have to deal with. David and Amy are quite the conspirators! They come up with all sorts of tricky things and put their plans into action without giving you the chance to object. (Just kidding, I love you Ames!)

A closeup of my nap. You can see Davids hand on my shoulder, making sure I didn't fall off. He is so great!

ps. Wendy- we decided to pretend like we didn't ACTUALLY have the first party at your new house (Seeing how it is tainted by the BYU loss and Sue couldn't be there etc...) So we are going to have to have another "Big Party" there soon to make up for it!

Tausha's Baby Shower

On October 10th one of my dearest friends, Tausha Bentz, had her Baby Shower! I can not believe what a beautiful pregnant person she is! Tausha is someone who is beautiful whether she is wearing a beautiful gown competing for Miss. Utah or whether she is in her exercise clothes doing a workout video! This day was no exception. Taush is a wonderful person and I am so grateful to be able to count her as a friend (a sister really!). I am so excited for her and Steve to finally have their new baby girl!

This is a picture of the wonderful lady herself! Doesn't she look great?

I knew that I wanted to make something cute for her bridal shower, and I knew that I wanted it to be personalized and practical. This is what I came up with!

I think that it really turned out well. You can NEVER have too much storage space, and this is cute and fun!

Tausha's sisters are amazing and they really went all out when decorating for the Shower. These paper orbs were awesome! I made them teach me how to make one before I left. So adorable.

Here is the closeup of one of the paper orbs. They were darling. If you want to see more of the adorable decorations, you can click this link and look at Tausha's blog-post about her shower.


Tausha's sister's (sisters-in-law, I suppose, but it's all the same right?) not only had incredibly cute decorations, they also had really fun games. One of the games was called "Baby Bum Gum" or "Baby Gum Bum" or something like that. You had to stick a piece of gum in your mouth and try to form a baby's bottom out of it. Then Tausha chose three winners. Haha. I was one of them!

This is my "Baby Gum Bum" and gift I got for winning. So cute! (Sorry... I realize it is sideways, but I really don't want to go back out of blogger, change the orientation, and re-upload it.)

The closeup of my Baby Gum Bum.

This cake was amazing for sure. Markell made it, and I am amazed. She did such a great job.

This is a picture of all of the sisters. Markell, Steph, Taush, Lindsi and Kayla. I am amazed at how beautiful they all are. It's not really fair for so much beauty to be in one family!

Me, Tausha and Bekah (Bekah is also expecting a baby girl soon!) It was so good to be reunited with my friends for an afternoon. I have no idea why Kayla is not in this picture though. She should have been! Love you Taush!