May-July Update

...And I let another two months go by without updating this thing. Not sorry! Here is what we've been up to since the last post in May :)

Imagine Dragons Concert!! SO GOOD

Sunset on Venice Beach. I wish we lived close enough that this could be my view every night! 

An old friend came to visit me :) 

Here's a moment of honesty: What kind of photographer am I?! For all of May, June, and most of July these are the only pictures I took. With my crappy point and shoot. I am completely ashamed haha.

Anyways, we have been SO. BUSY. 

Since Colin got his promotion he has had to stay late at work pretty frequently (which makes for a very grumpy husband.) He is basically boss-less at the moment which is another huge source of frustration for him. My poor guy! That said, he still loves his job and is very happy with Boeing. Also I have to brag about him for a minute. He's had the opportunity to be in charge of quite a few VERY expensive projects at work which shows how well he's doing! Barely over a year into his career and he's working on projects typically assigned to someone at a higher level than he is. I'm one proud wife!

I am nannying for 4 families at the moment (it sounds crazier than it is, I promise) and I am loving every minute of it. Such a good way to keep the baby hunger at bay ;) I'm STILL working on getting my online classes done. I think it's safe to say that if you take a full year to complete 9 credits, then online classes may not be for you... In addition to those things I'm still working very hard at building up my photography business. I went through a little bit of a re-branding process (changing my logo and designing my website), and I'm not in love with the results. Probably because I did it all myself and I had no idea what I was doing!

Last but definitely not least, we just bought our first car last weekend and I feel so spoiled! It's a 2011 Hyundai Sonata that had an awesome price so we jumped on it. I've never owned or even driven a car newer than something built in 2003 so I am loving this change. 

Well that's it for this update! Life is so good and we are very blessed. 

-Taylor

April Happenings!

Sometimes I wonder why I started a blog for us because I'm always behind on updating it! And just being honest here...it's not going to get any better. We're busy people!
Anyways, the title of this post says April happenings, but I'm going to throw a few things in that happened during March. So to start off, I had my first newborn photoshoot with my little photography business! Words can't describe how anxious I was about this because I hardly ever handle newborns. I knew I would have to do a lot of that as I posed them and whatnot. The shoot went so well though, and I finished with some of my favorite shots that I've ever taken. I had another photoshoot that month with another little guy who was turning a year old. Again I was so nervous since I had never taken pictures of a one year old before, but the heavens blessed me haha. He was so cooperative and smiley! A photographer's dream. After all of that I had another boutique show with Burlap & Lace. It was our last one because my crafting friend is moving to Utah :( Honestly we're both a little glad it's over because those shows are stressful. I will miss her tons though!

The last thing that happened in March was Easter. I decided last minute that I wanted to make us Easter baskets since it was our first Easter as a married couple, and they turned out pretty cute!  I also decided last minute to make us a mini two person ham for dinner. Somehow I didn't think to take into consideration the size of the ham when I went to set the timer to cook it, so it came out a little dry haha. The rest of the day we just relaxed and went to church. Couldn't have planned a better Easter if I tried! ;)

Okay now on to April! This month was so busy for us so to make this short I'll try not to elaborate a ton. First off we decided to start a workout program to get in better shape for our vacation the next month. I was so excited about that because I love working out, but we only managed to work out a grand total of 4 times. I was definitely disappointed, but we will try again! During all of that my Mom came to visit all the way from Texas! We went to the Time Out for Women Conference together like we do every year, and I brought a few friends along. If you've never been to one of those I highly suggest you go sometime. It's like General Conference for women, just a lot more...fun, haha. Case in point, the photo below. They don't have photo booths with mustache props at conference, just saying!

While she was here we went all over LA to the fashion district, Hollywood Blvd, Santa Monica Pier, the Newport temple, we visted the Mormon Battalion History Center, and we went to San Diego! I had never been to San Diego before so that was a new experience for both of us. While we were there we went to the Hotel Del Coranado, the temple, and the Gaslamp district. Most of our time was spent in the Gaslamp district. There's a lot of cute stores and tons of places to eat that we had never heard of. I loved San Diego! Poor Colin was only able to come to Santa Monica with us since he was hard at work. Love that guy!!

We wanted to go to the LA  temple, but Colin had something come up last minute so instead we went to dinner late at night. We went after he was off work to celebrate the promotion he had just gotten to a level 2 position! Usually with Boeing you get that promotion after working for the company for about 2 years, but he was promoted after working there for less than a year! I was so stinking proud of him. He works so hard and he definitely deserved that promotion :)

After my mom left Colin's friend came to visit us for a few nights! They stayed up late talking and playing video games every night he was here. I was glad that he was able to see his good friend; we miss everyone from Utah and Texas tons!

During April my normal nannying job changed quite a bit. I only nanny for the family that I started with once a week now which was so sad for me, haha. I loved those little guys. Now I nanny for them as well as another couple in the ward 2 or 3 times a week. This new family has a 2 month old so I'm getting a good look at what to expect when we have our own kids ;)

Lastly, we had our one year anniversary!! That year went by so fast and we have seen so many changes together. We knew it would be tough being newlyweds and having to pack up and leave everyone behind to move here, but now it feels like we have our own little part of the world. I'm just lucky enough to get to share that with my Colin. To celebrate we decided to stay in and cook a nice dinner together since we were about to go on a big trip. Seriously, best idea ever. We had such a fun low key anniversary.

The end! :)

My Birthday!

My birthday this year was kind of crazy! Colin planned it all to be spread out for a few days which was fine by me ;) The night before we went to Ihop for my birthday dinner, which seems lame unless you know about my strange addiction to breakfast food...I can't get enough! I order their blueberry cream cheese stuffed french toast almost every time we go, which isn't often enough! The next day at church I got a surprise from the little kiddos I nanny for. One of the boys decided he wanted to get me jewelry for my birthday so he picked out a necklace and a bracelet for me all by himself! My heart melted when they gave me my present! Now I'm just that much more baby hungry :) After church  I opened presents and Colin attempted to make brownie pudding for my birthday dessert! It went so well until it went so wrong, haha. He accidentally set the temperature to 450 degrees instead of 350 so it was a little overcooked, but I love him all the more for trying to make a complicated dessert for me! Then on Tuesday, Colin and my parents surprised me with tickets to Wicked and dinner at Flemings!

By far one of the best steaks I've ever had, and definitely the best chocolate lava cake!

At Wicked!

I had a couple more presents in the mail from family a few days after which spread out my birthday even longer, hehe. One thing I asked for was a new trash can because I hated our flimsy plastic can. No one would get it for me for Christmas because they said a trash can is lame...I'm just easy to please! I almost just went and bought it for myself, but I waited just in case someone had actually bought it for me. When it showed up on my front porch as a present from my brothers (who probably got it for me because it was a weird thing to ask for) I was SO excited. Judge me all you want, but I'll be a happy camper over here using my shiny new trash can!

So that's that! My birthday was so fun and I felt so loved by Colin and all of my family and friends. I'm glad I can finally say I'm out of my teenage years ;)

The Joneses Lately...

Here's an update to the little things that have been happening around here!

• Colin had a performance review with his job at Boeing and was marked as above average.
• Since his bosses love him so much they're going to keep us here for a little longer!
• I am halfway through my online classes with BYU. They're no fun but at least I can take them in my PJ's.
• I'm almost positive that I'm going to study to become a radiologist which means around 2 more years of school for me!
• We are four months short of our one year anniversary. Time flies!!
• We're starting to implement a new diet around here that consists of as many whole food as I can get my hands on, meaning as little processed foods as possible. 
• I'm looking for a job again, hopefully with better results than my last attempt.
• Our home has become extremely organized. It's borderline OCD.
• My car was stolen while I was at the Lakewood Mall. It was recovered a couple weeks later without my GPS and my BYU license plate cover, lol.
• Colin has become glued to his computer. He plays online games with his friends which is so nerdy it's cute ;)
• I am still obsessed with Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, but I've jumped on the bandwagon with the Downton Abbey craze. I love it!
• I started a little boutique with a friend called Burlap and Lace just for fun and we entered a boutique show back in December. We might enter the same show this March since it was so fun!
• Colin has become obsessed with chocolate chip cookies. Every time I ask him what I should make for dessert he ALWAYS asks for those. 
• Colin turned 25 in December and I will turn 20 in March...finally out of my teenage years!!

So that's it for now! I love how we've settled into married life in the past 8 months and I can't wait to celebrate our one year anniversary this year :) Life is so good to us.

New Years!

The Joneses 2012.........  

 .......and the Joneses 2013!!

The Jones's New Years Resolutions

• Eat better. 100daysofrealfood.com. Visit this website and you'll see why!
• Work out at least twice a week.
• Read the scriptures and pray every.single.day together.

These are definitely cliche goals. They're important though, so who cares! I would usually have a few more things on the list too, but these three resolutions are going to be stinking hard to stick to. So I guess this year we keep it simple!

Happy New Year!

Christmas in Texas!

Colin and I are lucky to have parents that live within 30 minutes of each other. It makes for slightly complicated plans when we visit, but we don't mind since we get to see both of our families. Plus it gives us a good excuse to visit often :) This year we were lucky to even make it back home since airline tickets are so expensive, but we found a good deal for a 13 day stay that extended through the New Year! We were SO happy. We left on the 20th and stayed with my family for the first week, and then we switched to his family for the second week.

This is what Colin and my brother's did for most of our stay. This and being weird together haha. At least they like each other so much! I love that my brothers practically idolize Colin. He's pretty great ;)

While they were doing all sorts of boy things I got to hang out with this cutie!  He makes me so baby crazy. I hope our kids have even half the personality and looks as him!

Christmas morning! I LOVE our family tree with it's mismatched and homemade ornaments from when we were little. 

My babe and me Christmas morning!

My family!

The boys playing with the big family gift, an arcade game. They're spoiled!

Skyping with our missionary, the best part of the day. He has changed so much, it's crazy. And it's obvious from the things he tells us that he's a pretty exceptional missionary!

After all of this and before we left for my in-laws we spent some time in the pool and hot tub my parents just put in. That's Christmas in Texas for ya.

Christmas night at the in-laws place! We opened presents and played games with them after eating Christmas dinner. It was a pretty relaxed night which was nice after the chaos that my parent's full house provided.

Colin asked for a tin whistle for Christmas so he could play the theme song from the Lord of the Rings...an odd request I thought, but whatever makes him happy! I am quickly regretting purchasing this for him though. Haha.

Colin's brother came with his family a couple days after we got there and brought this little angel! She gave me baby fever like no other...it was overwhelming ;)

Especially after I watched Colin hold her. He's going to be such a good daddy. Too precious! 

Setting up the ancient Rokenbok toys for the girls. 2 out of the 3 cars wouldn't work but they still had fun. I think the adults had more fun with it than the kids.

He's still a boy at heart. "The Tower of Taylor, not to be confused with The Tower of Terror." Thanks babe.

Visiting the children's museum. It was an eye opening experience to the realities of having children which definitely suppressed the earlier outbreak of baby fever!

Last but not least...I couldn't not take this picture.

We also went to see the Hobbit and Les Miserables with Colin's family while we were there. I can always count on watching quite a few movies with them when we visit! I love it. Les Mis was something I would love to see over and over, but the Hobbit was beyond boring. Pretty disappointing to a family full of Lord of the Rings fanatics. But who cares, we were on Christmas break! Colin keeps saying it was hard to go back to work after taking such a long and relaxing break. Poor guy hehe. I miss Texas and our family so much already. I'll have to persuade Colin to take me back ASAP!

Christmas Traditions

For some reason I really like the idea of Christmas traditions. By the time we have kids and they're old enough to understand what things are, I want to have a lot of traditions. It sounds silly, even to me, but the things I remember the most from past Christmases are the things we do every year! Now I can't imagine not doing those things. For now we have a handful that we stole from our parents that we grew up with to use for our own family. I can't wait to add to the list with our own ideas!

#1: Buy or make an ornament every year to add to the family tree. We also buy an ornament every time we go on vacation of when we move to a new place. This ornament was made from my bouquet so it represents our first Christmas.

#2: Go look at Christmas lights. There's a really cool subdivision in Texas called Prestonwood that my family always goes to when they look at lights. Each street has a theme like the 12 days of Christmas or Christmas in Toyland. Obviously we don't live in Texas so we'll have to find our own place to continue this tradition.
P.S. Yes my husband is biting his seatbelt. I guess hanging around my family so much finally got the better of him!

#3: Making peanut butter bon bons! SO yummy. We always make these and a few other candies to give as gifts to neighbors and friends. I love how this kills two birds with one stone...giving gifts to others and making treats for ourselves! Haha.

#4: We buy a new pair of Pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve. I know a lot of families do this and I'm not sure why, haha. It seems like a pretty random tradition but I still love it! Christmas Eve wouldn't be the same without a new pair of pajamas. Weird, I know.

#5: Reading about the birth of Christ in the scriptures. I'm sure most everyone does this so it's not a very unique tradition, but I think it's one of the most important! After all, Christmas wouldn't exist without our Savior.

#6: Mexican food for dinner on Christmas Eve! Colin's family usually goes to Pappasito's since it's so stinking good, but we don't have those here. So we'll have to find another stinking good mexican restaurant next year!

So that's that! Next year I am determined to start a couple more traditions to add to the list. What will those be? I have no idea, but I have a whole year to think of something! I can't wait hehe.