Fun night!

The other night my friend Emily and I got together to shoot for one of her school assignments. I have watched her grow as a photographer and love her work( HELLO !!! I have her picture of the Salt Lake Temple on my wall, and she did our family photos this year)What I love about Emily is that we get along great- we pick up like we have known each other for years and its refreshing to have a friend like that. Beyond that - that girl has talent.

The idea of her shoot, was that she wanted to photograph individuals that if looking at them - you would never guess they have / or are dealing with struggles in life, be it a divorce, mental illness, a disability etc. So of the things she was thinking about-- I chose divorce. I guess I could have chosen headaches too, but ....

Check out the other photos here.

It has been so long since Ive actually been the ONLY one in front of the camera that I was slightly uncomfortable. Weird eh? Like, okay this body has changed and how I would stand before, or look a certain way has to be different and I know that I have to think about how big my eyes get because without my glasses I tend to open them wider THINKING Ill be able to see better. Haha. Doesnt make a great picture with bug eyes. LOL.

Anyway lots of laughs, lots of fun, and Emily's daughter Hannah is the cutest thing on the planet, I'd definitely be okay taking her home with me....:)

CA Trip

Had a great weekend! Jenna was having an open house in Lodi to celebrate her and Barnabas wedding. So instead of flying - we decided to drive and spend the time catching up( jonathan and I) in the car. We had a lot of fun getting to our destination...date night with Mariann and Ethan, a little shopping, and hanging out with Jenna and her family. I also made the executive decision that because we were close enough to my home town to take Jonathan out to the house that my parents built and where I grew up. However it was slightly heartbreaking. The house literally looked like it was going to fall over, the barn, fence and rest of the property was so over- grown and unkempt that it brought tears to my eyes. Especially since I knew how much work and effort that my parents did to make it a beautiful place. What to do eh? We had a lovely time while we were there and so glad we made the effort to go. Well worth the drive!

A quick stop off near Tahoe.

Ethan and Jonathan

Mariann and I

We had a lot of fun staying with Mariann- Dinner and a Movie and hanging with the kids. Saturday we were off and made it to Lodi Saturday afternoon to help get ready for the evening event and spend a few hours getting to know Barnaba, and family....

Jenna's brother and wife

Bride and Groom

Thanks Jenna for the amazing time and hospitality. Hopefully it wont be too long before we take you up on hosting us in Italy! Love to you both- and CONGRATS!

Cory's Homecoming

Cory's homecoming was great. I have to say that I was so impressed by his talk at church, the messages that he shared. My brother amazes me. Not only because of how much hes grown these last few years, but by his testimony of the gospel and the eloquent way he can share his feelings. I wish everyone in the family could have been there to hear him. I tried this time to run around and snap some photos at the luncheon, but I still managed to miss a few folks. O'well. Still a lot of fun to visit with family and friends and it turned out perfect!

Siblings sans Raegan

Mom and Ann

Dad and Nancy

Halloween fun

Sometimes I think that the pictures depict a better time than actually had. Case in point- Thanksgiving Point Halloween activities. This is the 3rd year that we have gone, and the first two years, the weather was cooler, and there were significantly LESS people. I dont know if it was the combination of a CRAZY morning in our house, but I went through the motions of this event wishing it was over. We even skipped the corn maze. The idea of being with crowds of people chasing after the boys in cornstalks seemed liked torture.... However its become sort of a tradition of sorts- this little jaunt...and I think that while the parentals may have not loved it....the boys sure did.

Tristan became stuck as you can see-- which made it so mom had to rescue...

Pumpkins were chosen at the end of our excursion and we were off!( I did get in some retail therapy with my mom and sis later in the day...that was much needed!)

Early Christmas....

The amazing Casey Oconnell painted this for us- of us- and we love it. Its an honor to have another piece of her work in our home. I cant say enough amazing things about Casey, her art, her talent. I love the fact that she took the time to talk to us, hear our story and paint something that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

Piece titled " modern knight " which is exactly what Jonathan is to me....

Welcome home Elder Devenney!

So much family and so little pictures. Meeting Cory at the airport was actually pretty cool. He was dead tired after traveling non-stop for 40 hours, but it was great to finally see him. I wont share the photos of me and him as really- they were terrible.

I guess he was released a few hours later and he and one of his BFF's headed out to skate- so my brother.

Sunday went over to Mom's to chill before the entire family( cousins, aunts, uncles- 60 or so people) showed up. It was great. Missed you Raegan!

I love having him home.

Elijiah soccer

Soccer season is underway. Saturdays are so fun! I love spending the fall mornings hanging out and watching the boys play. Yesterday Whitney came into town for a funeral- her friends hubby had died, but it was also a surprise to be able to see Cory come home tonight as well. So a bitter sweet occasion.

Whit and Tristan--LOVE IT!

Go #10!!!

A little soccer on the side with Grandpa