CATCH UP

I know it's been a long time. Between the end of a school year, moving out of our home of nearly 5 years, and moving into a house practically still under construction...blogging has been low on the priority list. I am typing this from my phone while I wait for Andrew in the Home Depot parking lot.

I promise that once our life (and Internet connection) settles back to normal I'll have so many fun things to share with you: painting tips, cedar siding, bamboo blinds, our leaky skylight fiasco, wood pallet ceiling diy, concrete countertops diy, wood floors, and the building of some new wood furniture! But here's a sneak peek of the gorgeous kitchen I spent all day wiping down. I LOVE our kitchen. I promise photos with a real camera in the near future.

KATIE'S SENIOR PHOTOS

I was honored when my lovely friend, Katie, asked that I take her senior pictures. She has such a soft, natural beauty that my camera loved to capture. With her permission, I'm sharing a few of my favorites. 

The lighting was delicious.

And she has an easy, ready smile that I am envious of. 

Love this!

Pretty blue eyes.

She played the violin through high school. 

What a beautiful instrument!

It was a special treat to shoot in this orchard, at sunset, while being serenaded by the violin...

It almost makes me think of a Thomas Kinkade painting.

Southeast Idaho is all in bloom right now.

She felt that an important part of high school for her was a love of reading and writing. This inspired these next few.

This makes me want to back with my own book. So serene!

This sun flare may be a bit dramatic...but I love it all the same. Doesn't she kind of look like Taylor Swift?

I had a blast taking these pictures and learned so much from the experience. Thanks, Katie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.

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The brownie pan to end all brownie pans. Andrew won't come home anymore to find every single edge piece carefully carved out with only the gooey middle left behind.  

Ha! Who am I kidding...now there'll be nothing left!

My purse exploded with a strange sound on our way out for dinner. What I found inside was Andrew's cleverly hidden gift to me: my very first smart phone. 

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I hope to learn to operate it in the near future. Keep me in your prayers.

I received the sweetest, homemade birthday card from my little sister. I labeled it for you so you would understand the story. Cute, huh? Her likenesses are impressively accurate.

In case you're wondering, this is not from one of my 5-year old twin sisters. Or the eight-year old. It's from my twenty-four year old sister in grad school. But it tops the list as one of my most favorite birthday cards ever. 

Did I tell you Lane is living with us right now? Well, he is. And he enthusiastically announced that his gift to me would be homemade gyoza. 

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Even if I didn't LOVE the stuff (which I do), I never would have argued with him. He and Andrew lit up like Christmas trees discussing all of the Japanese ingredients they would need to purchase. 

Deep concentration. Lane and I are filling the won ton wrappers and sealing them shut with water. The insides consist of cabbage, pork, mushrooms, and a whole lot of spices and herbs I've never seen before.

Gyoza...pot stickers...mandoo...about the same delicious thing. We ate lots and lots of them with sticky rice and chopsticks while I tried to follow Andrew and Lane's story swapping about their crazy experiences in Japan. 

Anyway. It's official. I am 27 now. I suppose I should start feeling like an adult sometime soon...

When did you guys start feeling "adult-like?"