Year Three in Review

It's been 3 whole years since Andrew and I got married. And even though it's cheesy and cliche, I have to say, these have been the best years of my life. In this one year alone so many exciting things have happened so I decided to do a little recap.
Year 3 in review (March 2013-March 2014):

-finished up Winter 2013 semester (I was sick and tired and didn't find out why until April 18th)
-found out we were having a baby
-worked our tails off during the summer to save up money
-celebrated our birthdays in June and announced to family that a baby would be joining our family in December
-I was served court papers to be sued in a lawsuit for being involved in a three-car accident in the summer of 2012 (this is currently still going on by the way)
-went to the doctor more times in my entire life combined (over the whole nine months of pregnancy)
-got to see our baby on ultrasound 5 different times (one of which we found out we were having a girl)
-prepared a baby girl nursery in our second bedroom that was formerly storing art and lots of other junk that I was too lazy to go through and throw away until then
-Andrew got a new job illustrating courses for BYU Independent Study
-started my last semester of college in Fall 2013
-created lots of art (both Andrew and I)
-I finished my BFA show and put it up in the HFAC for others to see (all while 35 weeks pregnant)
-finished Fall semester in December two days before my due date
-spent Christmas relaxing and enjoying time together and with family
-got to meet our new baby girl on December 30th and spend two days of bliss in the hospital just the three of us
-our first night home from the hospital was New Year's Eve
-Andrew started school again in January (weirdest feeling that I wasn't going back!)
-Rosie had her two month doctor's appointment and had to get a few shots which was the saddest thing for me to watch
-currently I stay home and take care of Rosie everyday and continue to work part-time as an apartment manager and Andrew is finishing up this semester of school and still working for BYU Independent Study as an illustrator (he hates leaving home everyday because he says he misses Rosie too much)

Happy Anniversary Andrew
I love you
Here's to year four
Onward and upward (hopefully)

Love the One You Hold

Andrew's younger brother asked to interview us for an assignment in his Marriage Preparation Class. Andrew had many insightful things to say about marriage. I loved hearing his advice. I quickly jotted down this statement in my phone as he was talking.

"You have to love and care for that person because they are yours now."

He melts me.

We took family photos at Thanksgiving and despite the fact that I was swollen and 9 months pregnant, I always treasure capturing moments with Andrew. I am so grateful that I get to spend eternity with him.

This is a little late but, I really want to thank everyone who came to my show opening to support me. There was a huge turnout and I felt so overwhelmed with love and support from everyone.

If you couldn't make it,
don't worry,
I still love you.

I will post pictures of my show soon for those of you who were not able to come and see it in person.

We took down my show earlier this week and a feeling of relief came over me as I can now turn my focus to wrapping up small projects for finals. I still cannot believe that my last week of school (forever) is ahead of me and that graduation is so near. Then hopefully Andrew and I can welcome a new and healthy baby girl into this world shortly after.

Good things are to come.

Sonogram Photos

It has been so special to be able to see our sweet baby girl five times during my pregnancy. At each ultrasound she was bouncing around and wiggling like crazy. I have loved to watch (and feel) her grow and change over the weeks. I chose one photo from each of the ultrasounds that we got at 8, 11, 17, 20, and 26 weeks.

I can't wait to meet her soon...in about 4 weeks now!

I want to officially announce that my BFA Final Show has been installed and will be up in the HFAC on BYU Campus until December 3rd.

Go and take a look anytime if you have a spare minute.
I've worked really hard for the past few months and it would mean a lot to me.

My Opening Reception is November 21st from 6 to 8pm.
There will be lots of food to eat and lots of art to look at.
I would love to see you that night if you can make it.

A Truly Magical Experience

The Spiral Jetty has got to be on the top of my list of coolest places I have ever been. The word cool does not even begin to describe it. It's beautiful, magical, clean, fresh, lovely, sparkly, open, quiet, astounding, and peaceful. These pictures do not even do this place justice but that didn't stop me from snapping a couple hundred while we were there.
I would tell everyone I know to make the voyage out to the Spiral Jetty even if they are not huge fans of art. The location in and of itself is breathtaking. The artwork is an added bonus if you are not that into art. A little background for those who do not know what the Spiral Jetty is:

It is an earthwork piece of art that was created in 1970 by Robert Smithson. He chose this location because he thought it looked so unearthly and kind of alien-like (which I would agree with). The work is made out of basalt rock and is located in the North East of the Great Salt Lake. It is 1500 feet long and 15 feet wide. Smithson did not originally believe that the sculpture would last very long so he documented it with a 32 minute film and was satisfied that viewers may only get to experience it through his documentation. Smithson died three years late in a plane crash as he was scouting out a location for a new earthwork. Since then, his wife and others have worked to preserve the integrity of the sculpture and the land surrounding it for people to come and experience the jetty in real life. The Jetty was constructed during a drought so for about 30 years after it was built it was submerged under water and could not be seen. Due to the differing weather throughout the recent years, it has been exposed in different degrees for people to see. Baby Girl made the trek with me happily.

That One Holiday Called Halloween

This year Halloween did not really consist of much celebration in our home. We did not go trick or treating with my nieces and nephews nor did we eat tons of candy. Don't get me wrong, I was craving sugary treats and junk food like mad for about a week but tried to maintain my self-control as I know the consequences of eating a lot of anything at this point in my pregnancy only results in heartburn. I was on campus that day from 8am to 7pm working non-stop on pieces for my final art show. It was exhausting and the last thing that I wanted to do that night was to go out. I just didn't have the energy. So I sat on the couch and watched a few shows before retiring to bed early while my husband went out and played basketball with his buddies for a few hours.

We did dress up for our ward Halloween party which was the day before. It was a blast. There was a cake walk, chili and corn bread cook-off, donuts on a string and a costume contest. There was a huge turnout and it was so fun to see everyone's creative costumes. I've decided that dressing up in couples/families is way more fun than dressing up on your own. I wish I would have snapped a few photos of the best and most creative costumes from that night but I was too busy enjoying them in person. I also decorated a bit in our house...the day before Halloween. It's never too late right?!

I hope your holiday consisted of eating lots of candy and dressing up and being with family.

Sentimental Documentation

I just had to capture my "last first day of school."

I know my mother personally documents just about everything so it's no wonder that I felt the sentimental urge to document this exciting day. I mean in all seriousness at least I will have this photo to show my posterity. Hopefully they don't think I am completely loony for trying to go to school while 6-9 months pregnant...

One more sentimental/exciting aspect to this post is that it marks
100 posts
for me since this blog began.
So here's to more documentation and memory making for those to come in the future.

Losing Control (in a positive way)

I was listening to a fairly intense and emotional radiolab the other day in my studio as I was painting and I had to stop to jot down this quote:

"To have a child is to embrace a future that you cannot control."

-Yep.

I'm already feeling a loss of control over a few things in my life and she is not even here yet.

-Oh boy!

But in all seriousness, the things that matter most are falling right into place.
I am gearing up for a future of motherhood
and I can hardly wait.

Photo unrelated but I love it so I had to share.

Nesting

Suddenly I have the urge to start preparing for our little woman to join our family.

In the last couple weeks, I have cleaned and re-cleaned (about a thousand times) our spare bedroom trying to make room for the baby necessities. It has been a lot of hard work don't get me wrong but such rewarding work as I see small pieces starting to fall into place and (embarrassingly) our carpet being revealed once again underneath the mess. I am feeling a sense of urgency with school starting in a couple weeks. I want to be finished with her room by then so that I can put all of my energy into my artwork (and some other yucky school work) for the next four months.

As I have been cleaning and organizing I have been pondering about the idea of "nesting" and immediately Sunny Belliston Taylor's artwork came to my mind. She has explained many times in class discussions how much her lifestyle and her artistic process changed after she had her first baby girl. She started making these wonderful small paintings on paper that resemble bird's nests in a metaphoric way of a mother nesting before and after the arrival of her baby. These works are not only about the preparation but if you read the titles on her website they also relate to life's overwhelming days as well as those small precious moments. I love love Sunny's work. You can see more here.

Details of the Party and Reveal

THE REFRESHMENTS:


The pink ice cream floats were a very fun and festive way to announce that we are having a little girl (Andrew's idea) and they turned out so delicious.

THE REVEAL:


Also Andrew's Idea was the giant wonder ball present that we wrapped up for our families. They had a blast passing it around the room until suddenly it burst open and revealed a little pink rattle and a whole lot of pink and red starburst (only the best).