A 70's Photoshoot

5 am on Friday was a little early for our creative juices to be flowing, but luckily, Meisha, Chelsie, Jessica and I were able to function just enough to pull together an amazing photo shoot! Our group did a 70's theme shoot with a soul funk feel. April and Ephraim were our models and despite the early hours, practice's, cold weather in hardly any clothes and being burned with blow dryer's, etc. they helped us accomplish just what we were looking for!

Here's Jessica and Chelsie working and trying to stay awake. Sweet April- she looks like the only one happy to be there :)

Here's me doing April's make- up.

Here's Meisha gett'n Ephraim all ready

I seriously love my team so much and I think we did such an amazing job. There were a few complications, like always- to make a long story short, we were going to use a vintage car in the shoot (a VW bug) and the night before we went to pick it up and it wouldn't start! Ya! So, needless to say after a few long hours of trying get it to work to no avail, we had to make a plan B really fast. Sarah Jane came to the rescue and let us borrow her husband's scooter. It all ended up working out great and we had so much fun working on April and Ephraim- they were such troopers through the whole thing!

These are shots that I took real fast on my camera, but as soon as we get the real ones back, I'll post them!

And here's some shots from the other groups' photo shoots. Everyone did such a great job!

A WICKED night

My mom surprised me with tickets to go see "Wicked"! We had such a blast. We started our night off with dinner at Chili's (yes we got the molten lava cake... mmmm) and filled ourselves full of diet coke (we had been up the whole night before cleaning my house getting it ready for our moving day and were a tad bit tired) Neither my mom nor I knew tons about the musical- we heard from everyone how amazing it was, and we were excited to experience it ourselves. What an experience it was- it was better than I could've imagined it to be! There were times I literally had goose bumps because the music is so amazing (like during "Defying Gravity" when she's floating in the air) And yes I teared up at the end during the last song, partly cause I didn't want it to end, but mostly because the story is so touching! I loved it! Thank you mom for an amazingly wicked night! I love you!

OUR NEW HOUSE

So- this is it- on April 10th we're closing on our house and it will officially be ours!!!!! We did our final walk through yesterday and it got me more excited than ever! It feels like it's been a long road to find it- we started looking back in October of last year, but every house we liked and put an offer on was usually a short sale and didn't pan out.

People kept telling us that when we found the right one we'd know and everything would just fall into place. ( I felt more like I was dating again than looking for a house :) ) We definitely felt like we saw every single floor plan out there and every single town home in lehi and american fork. We even branched out and looked at The Ranches in Eagle Mountain.

Well, you obviously know the end of this story- we walked through this house, fell in love, went out to our realtor's car and made the offer right then and there, they accepted our offer and we just couldn't be happier!!!!!

So, wanna see the inside??? Here's some more pics...

master bathroom

kitchen

Love is in the air!!!!!

Zeb is going to kill me for posting this picture, but I couldn't help myself! I managed to convince Zeb to do a mask with me by using my mad negotiating skills! He didn't like it very much, he said it was cold and it dried all crusty on his face :) But hey, it got us ready for our Valentine's date!

We had such a fun Valentines Day. For one, I didn't have to work which was awesome. We spent the morning at the Temple doing baptisms for the dead with Don and Faye, Mike, Tanner and Rachel. It had seriously been years since I'd done baptisms and I really enjoyed it, not to mention it was a great way to start out our day!

Our afternoon was a nap, followed by dinner that night. We gave each other a joint gift this year- dance lessons. It's something we've always wanted to do together and we didn't have time to do it before we got married, so why not now? It will definitely help to improve all of dancing we do in the kitchen, and hopefully help so we can rock it on the dance floor in public too! I can't wait!

There's a few different myths about the history of Valentine's day- but I think my favorite is the one about St. Valentine being imprisoned and falling in love with the jail keepers' daughter and sending her love letters ending with "love, your Valentine". I tell you this because that is one of my favorite things Zeb did for me this Valentines, he wrote me a letter. I'm still amazed at how sometimes the small things, like little love notes, make the biggest difference! His letters are something I'll save forever! When the holidays have passed and the chocolates are good and gone, it's nice to have things that will last beyond that- things we can read and re read and dances we can dance again and again. Thanks for a great Valentine's Day honey! I love you!
I love you Zeb!!!!!!!!

BHR girls in Longbeach!!!!!

Tera, Randi, Tanya, JC and I went to California for the weekend to go to the Longbeach Hair show. It was a much needed get away for all of us. Our amazing boss paid for our hotel so all we needed was our tickets and we were off!
We were like kids in a candy store when we walked into the hair show. Everywhere you looked there was platform artists teaching new techniques for color or cutting. There were vendors everywhere for make up and hair tools, nail polish, lotions, new products, etc. We walked around for hours just being handed free stuff right and left and stopping for education shows! AHHHHH it was amazing! Not to mention it was so fun just to people watch there. Hairdressers are... can you say eccentric!!!!! They were so fun to watch!
We also had fun walking along the pier, eating at "The Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaraunt", and you could say we made our own fun in the hotel room! Wait, that didn't sound good- all that meant was Tanya and I were jumping from bed to bed and Randi and Tera were on the floor taking pictures! Yep, we felt like we were 5 years old again!
It was hard to come back to the Utah weather, but I'm excited to try out all the new things I learned!

Hot Items for 2009

In an attempt to share my love for fashion and beauty and still be "in the world but not of the world", I want to share what I've seen is coming (or is here but not going anywhere) for 2009. In my field as a hairdresser I take education very seriously, so since I don't see all of you in my chair at work, I'll just take the opportunity to share it with you here! Are you ready???
- gold gold gold
-purple is huge
-short fringe is coming back
-shorter necklaces
-warm natural hair colors
-balliage technique for weaving
-big gaudy jewerly
-root shading
-flats
-lots of hair accessories:scarfs, pendents, headbands
-whispy up do's
-geometric hair cuts: more blunt lines and bold looks
-shoulder length hair
-lace and frills on clothing and accessories

Hopefully that gave you some good ideas, but before I go, I do need to share with you one of my favorite quotes from Elder Jefferey R. Holland " One would truly need a great and spacious make-up kit to compete with beauty as portrayed in media all around us." Truly words of wisdom.

Respect for the past, hope for the future.... 2009

Well I can hardly believe that 2008 is over and now we're looking at 2009. 2008 had a lot of memories and good times for us, and some challenges of course, but I am excited for what's ahead. We made some New Year's Resolutions- want to hear 'em?

1. Zeb wants to get unaddicted to soda and lose 20lbs
   
2. Buy a home
   
3. I want to do a tri-athlon
4. Zeb wants to keep plugging away at school (with the goal to finish as soon as possible)
5. Go on a cruise
6. And last but not least, I have the goal to not be such a control friek anymore! I sometimes wish I had a magic wand and could control my life so nothing bad would happen to me or those I love- but as we all know that's just not possible. Life is not perfect- so I'm giving up my control, handing it over to the Lord and putting it in his hands!

Who knows what this year will bring with it- lots of change most likely with a new president and a less than stable economy, but I'm still excited for it! Maybe a miracle for my brother, maybe a mission call for my in-laws, maybe an addition to our family :), maybe a diploma for Zeb.... I guess we'll just have to wait and see...