Christmas W/ The Valantines

Christmas this year was really new for me. I wanted to jump on the same track that my sister was on so we decided this was the "In-Law Christmas". Christmas is a big deal to me so i was a little nervous about letting go of my traditions and set ways of ule tide celebrations and open up to a WHOLE new way of celebrating Christmas. Turns out (like usual) I was in panic for no reason. It was REALLY fun to have something different, especially with my new family. My favorite part was on christmas eve they drive around and see all the best lights in town! I had no idea that people could set lights to music and sink them to your radio in your car!!!

Here are some pics from Christmas morning. 

( my blog is being retarded so i have to do it this way. sorry for the inconvenience)

#1- brandon opening a gift from me... it's one of the many movies he (I) have been wanting :)

#2- I was very surprised when my puppy came and jumped on my lap with this new due.... i guess Charley kept taking off with the new hair moose that matt got so he decided if she wanted it SO badly he'd just go ahead and give her a mohawk

#3- because the crime rate in cedar city utah is SO HIGH brandon found it necessary to get a "Glock" for Christmas. ( for those like me, thats a gun) and for some reason his dad agreed... so this is brandon on christmas shooting his new gun lol ... boys....

New Bridal Session!

Hi everyone! I put up a new bridal session on my photography blog! go check it out!

 mirabellophotography.blogspot.com

Bargin Shopper!!

So for our wedding we got A LOT of Target gift cards, and Brandon just so happened to work at target. So after we got married he saw this HUGE grill that he was just dying to get so he watched it at work and realized there was a dent! DISCOUNT! then he was told anything that was on our registry that we didn't get it 10% off! so (even though we were already married) he went and registered for it! DISCOUNT! Then he realized he also had a employee discount! DISCOUNT! THEN he found out that employees get and EXTRA 10% of f in august for "back to school" stuff! DSCOUNT! So... this $200 grill he got for a grand total of $98!!! He was so excited to get it! Here is brandon and his brother carey on his grills maiden voyage :)

Distractions

Whenever I stop playing with Charley and start to do things I actually NEED to do she'll do the funniest things to get me distracted again. This is what she does when i do laundry. She'll lay on top of the pile I'm working on and refuse to move! 

CHRISTMAS TIME!

I am one of those people that dust off my Christmas Albums in October and watch the same Christmas movie once a week for 6 weeks. I have had to physically stop myself from putting Christmas stuff up before Thanksgiving but now it's fair game! So I decorated the house for christmas the other day!

This is our little tree :) In my family we have a tradition where we collect an ornaments from the big things we do in a year and Brandon and I have started to do that.

This ornament is from us getting engaged. Brandon asked me to marry him in a hot air balloon that looked just like this!

This is our ornament for Charleys first Christmas :)

This is when we went to Florida with my family for our vacation this summer.

This one is from our trip to Hawaii with Brandons family.

This is the wreath I made with my mother in law Jody. We had a lot of fun putting it together! I think it turned out pretty good!

OUR NEW PUPPY!!!! (and thanksgiving)

This is our new puppy!! her name is CHARLEY! Brandon and I got her on our way up to SLC for Thanksgiving break!! She's 10 weeks old, a Wheaten Terrier, a BIG snuggler, and CANNOT (for the life of herself) figure out how to go potty OUTSIDE!! but she is SO SO SOOOO CUTE and we couldn't be happier with having her around!

CHARLEY

VALANTINE

This is me and Charley getting ready for Thanksgiving Dinner :)

We have an annual Turkey Bowl game with the

Fondas Harris's Krolls and bennions every year. It gets pretty competitive. I don't play because only the good people can play but i'm happy to run the camera and sit with the dogs.

Charley took off with one of the sideline cones and started running with it. ha ha ha ha it was too funny!

Natalie, Mom and I snuck off to the gateway for a few hours and had some fun shopping together :) I'm getting this coat for Christmas Shhhh.....

The weird things my husband does...

Brandon and I dated for about a year and a half before we got married and i honestly thought i knew EVERYTHING about him. But since we've been living together i've been starting to learn more and more new things about him i had no idea he did. 

So this post i'm going to keep adding on to. It's going to be about the weird, funny, hilarious things that my husband does.

heres the first....

this morning i woke up after brandon did (he gets up early to study & i get up early enough to get to school (some what) on time.) I told him goodbye and left for school, I got home from school before he did and when i walked in a realized the pants he was wearing when i left that morning were on the middle of the living room floor?... I texted him

Me: "so... i've been meaning to ask? why are the pants you were wearing this morning in the middle of the living room?"

Brandon: "cause i changed my clothes out by the tv.... 

i was watching ESPN and CSI miami ha ha ha"

ha ha ha ha ha ha

I think i'll keep him :)

Extra Credit

So Brandon one day asked his O Chem professor what he could do for extra credit in his class.

his professor said he could wear a zebra gum tattoo on his forehead for an entire day on the day of their next test . So this morning i walked in the bathroom to this...

ha ha ha ha ha ha he's by far the most ambitious person i've ever met.

HALLOWEEN

I had the BEST Halloween of all time! (minus my husband was absent :(  that wasn't the best)

but I went home to shoot some engagement photos and really had so much fun with my family!

We woke up and carved pumpkins! 

Then we went to the Salt Lake Real soccer game! I've never been to a pro soccer game before and it was SO FUN to go with my brothers! We got some awesome "Ice Cream Nachos" and regular nachos as well 

Mom & Dad

WE WENT TRICK OR TREATING!!! Me & Jared & Ryan & Dad all went trick or treating! It was SOOO much fun! Me and Jared were running from house to house and I'm SO glad Ryan came with us! It was the most fun I've ever had trick or treating!

GO BYU!

The FAM went to a

BYU 

game a few weeks ago! My dad bought tickets for our family and his brothers family came.

this is the group.. 

my uncle dean and his family are behind us watching the game

(well... my uncle doesn't look like he's watching the game cause he's blind but he's listening to it i promise lol)

Me & My Man

Ward Halloween Party

We had our Ward Halloween Party tonight. We did a Pumpkin carving and Chili Dinner. It was a lot of fun.

ours was the best pumpkin there!

My newest calling is the ward photographer so I went around and met a lot of the couples in my ward by taking their photos for the ward directory.

these are our friends Tyler & Laura McAllister. They are Brandons cousins who live 3 doors down from us.

These are our other good friends, McCall and Jared Park with their ADORABLE baby Ryan. She's probably my favorite baby at this point :)

Since I had to take photos brandon carved most of our pumpkin and it turned out so cute! He had to go to a study group smelling like pumpkin but it was so worth it.

HAWAIIAN VACATION!

Our Trip was AMAZING! We went with brandons family for the Dental Convention and really had a good time!

This is us at the top of a mountain over looking the valley! It was such an amazing view!

You've GOTTA go to the Polynesian Cultural Center while your there too! We spent the whole day here and i think it was one of my favorite days. Brandons sister Aubrey had never been there so it was fun to take her :)

One day brandon stayed home and studied like a good student and me, aubrey, cary and Jody went and hiked diamond head. It was more of a stair climb than an actual hike though...

We also hit up the Dole plantation and got some of that famous AWESOME ice cream!

This is brandons favorite sushi. It's called Genki and it's fun because you sit at a table and tons of different types of Sushi comes by on a little moving track. (like that baggage claim)

you pay by what color the plate is. it's so cool! great sushi too!

Overall we had a REALLY fun trip! We're payin for hard for missing so much school but it was so worth it!!

The Great Indoors :)

one night we got invited to go camping with some friends of ours but we couldn't go cause brandon had work :( we were way sad cause we wanted to try out all our new camping stuff we got for wedding presents! so while brandon was at work i set up the tent and air mattress and we watched The Office all night :)

(and in an unrelated note)

Here is a picture of both our rings! I really wanted to get one of Brandon's cause i like it so much! It's got this sweet black weaving in it! and mine is just fantastic :)

Web Design Class

I'm in a Web Design class and in honor of my brother Ryan i made a web page for Marilyn Monroe. i'm still learning how to make web pages but it is REALLY taking some time! It's way harder than i ever thought it was going to be! That- and i have the attention span of a gold fish and this class is 4 hours long and extremely hard to sit through!

WORK WORK WORK!

So this semester I am taking 15 credits and i work 2 jobs. One of which is Editor of Art for a newspaper which keeps me INSANLEY busy! Brandon is taking O Chem and Physics and a few Business classes as well. Also, we both work part time at target in St. George so we have pretty much put our Marriage on hold until things can calm down a bit ha ha ha. I was kinda sad watching everyones blogs be updated with fun things they do as a couple and places they travel so i've decided to post some photos of what we do all day :) (even if it is just boring work and homework )

This is my Desk at the Journal. We have a pirate theme here and my pirate name is Shudder because i'm head photographer and i never stop talking :)

This is the news room- well part of it anyways.

(you can't see the whole pirate flag but it's up there. )

Since i'm the only one who takes photos i try to get in them, also my legs being in all these photos is a photostory i'm doing of sorts. i've got TONS of em.

Here is a picture of all my News Room tags. Press Pass, Editors Tag, Pirate I.D, and Our 2009 Theme. it's latin for "Neither rashly nor timidly" (My editors tag says "i'm an editor! sorry but the newspaper is just more important to me than you are!" ha ha ha Captain is so funny!

I try to come home at the same time brandon does for lunch. i don't see him till about bed time and if i don't see him till then i keep him up all night trying to talk ha ha ha

This is my poor foot again. I had a Cyst removed a year ago and i just tore a bunch of the cartilage around the surgery sight. so i am back in this blasted boot for 4 weeks!!

For my spare time (when i'm at brandons parents house waiting for him to get off work) i like to take my camera out and experiment with long exposures. here are some of my favorites