MeRrY ChRiStMaS EvErYoNe!

Thanks to my friends little sister Makell for the amazing card design. Check out her blog thepetitepear.blogspot.com Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas :)

Some Girls Have All the Luck...

I am talking about Samantha. I mean, look at her parents, no wonder the girl is gorgeous. I can't get over her eyelashes! Thanks again Liz, it was my pleasure :)

Dear Liz,

Being a mom has only made you even more gorgeous. Thanks for letting me take pictures of your beautiful family! More to come...

Carter Brett Barkdull

This sweet little guy was born on October 20th at 5:15 pm. He was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 21 inches long. By the way, you guys were right...Little boys are so fun :)






PS. Jen Herem, if you ever decide to do a photography class, I am SO there :)

Baby Boy!

No, I am not pregnant...and let's be honest, I show WAY before 20 weeks. So there is NO way I would know what we were having and you wouldn't know I was pregnant :) But, my sister is having her baby today and I couldn't be more excited...or more nervous...what do you even do with a boy? We have been drowning in barbies and princess dress ups for as long as I can remember. I guess we will have to learn about trucks or this little guy is going to end up playing dolls until he gets a side kick :)

Summer fun

HaPpY BiRtHdAy MaCeY!

This is a little late, but Zacc's entire family has been in town all week and we have been extremely busy. Macey's birthday was on the 20th so we had a big family get together. We had cake and ice cream and she got spoiled rotten. It was so fun to spend her big day with family. I can't believe my baby is one :)

Busy Summer

We have had a busy summer and I have been a major slacker when it comes to blogging. We have been camping with friends, ran in the wasatch back relay and have been to lagoon at least once a week (Macey loves it). Her are some pics to catch up...

Too blunt? Maybe...

So, I was watching the news today and I saw a story about a family whose mother had been sent back to Nicaragua. She was an illegal immigrant living here. Her husband is also an illegal immigrant and might be sent back as well. The story was about how this family was being torn apart and was questioning the governments stand on immigration laws.

First off, I can't imagine being separated from my family, it would be horrible and I hope I never have to experience it. That being said, why is it the governments fault that this family (emphasis on the parents) chose to come to America, fully knowing that the were living here ILLEGALLY and could be exported??? I HATE that the media makes the government out to be the bad guy in this situation (I know, I know, I am totally close minded). I also get plastic sacks at the grocery store and will most likely never own a Subaru outback :) If the logic holds true that we shouldn't export illegal immigrants because they have a family, then we shouldn't arrest criminals who have families either. We certainly shouldn't put anyone in prison that has a family and surely shouldn't give anyone the death penalty that has children.

I realize there are a lot of flaws in the judicial and government systems, but I think the world would be a thousand times better if people started realizing that they are RESPONSIBLE for their own actions!!!

Sorry for venting, but come on!

Grace and Ava

My older sister Lisa was kind enough to let me take pictures of her two girls. It's hard to get a bad picture of these two cuties. I probably took about 100 pictures total, but these are a few of my favs!

St. George

We spent the BEST weekend in St. George! It was a much needed vacation and I enjoyed every minute of it. A special thanks to Jon and Tracy for hosting and to all of the families who fed us and made us feel more than welcome in their homes. We ate way too much and stayed up way too late (two important ingredients in a good vacation if you ask me). I can't wait for next year :) More pics to come...

Daddy-Daughter

There is something so special about the relationship between a Father and Daughter. I love watching Zacc and Macey interact. Zacc is such a good dad and so involved. No wonder Macey's head pratically explodes when Zacc comes home from work everyday. Enjoy :)

Quarantine

What could be more fun than Macey getting the Rotavirus and being quarantined to a room at Primary Children's...?




Being quarantined to a room at Primary Children's that does not have it's own bathroom and having Zacc and I both get the Rotavirus and become violently ill in the middle of the night.

When we first were admitted because Macey had been vomiting and had diarrhea for two days, I was okay with the fact that our room didn't have a bathroom, after all we were just staying overnight. About one in the morning, Zacc started to get really sick and I told him to go home so he could at least be vomiting in the comfort of our own home, instead of the public bathrooms at the hospital. Zacc decided it was a good idea. I decided it was a bad idea when I started to get really sick at about 1:30 am. After about my 11th trip to the bathroom the nurses asked me if I wanted to move to a room that had a bathroom. They told me they had some available. I told them "No thanks, I don't want to wake my baby by moving rooms," but in my mind I was thinking, why didn't you give us a room with a bathroom in the first place if you have some available?

We are back among the living now and hopefully done with the plague. I hope none of you get it...it's awful stuff.

The experience did make me EXTREMELY grateful for modern medicine and that I wasn't wondering if my baby was going to die. We have things so good and I need to remember to be more grateful for little things...like good health :)

Calling all Moms ! ! !

I am in desperate need of your help! When we first had Macey, I tried several different binkies with her to see which kind she would like. Lucky for me, Macey liked the Circo binkies from Target (they are fairly inexpensive), NOT SO LUCKY for me, Target discontinued their Circo binkies and Macey WILL NOT take any other kind. So, as gross as this may sound to some of you, I am willing to take your unwanted Circo binkies. I will just run them through the dishwasher or something. Please, just let me know if you have any that you are not using. I will even trade you for some cute Mam ones...Macey hates those! I realize some of you are totally disgusted by this, but I am at my whits end and we only have one binki left...please help :(

Is it Spring yet?

Got Talent?

Okay, so I don't really have that many talents and am always amazed when people are super crafty or talented, but I thought I would share some of my friends and families talents with you (because if you don't have talents of your own, the next best thing is knowing people who do...right?)

My cousin Annie used to make up stories to tell her younger brother and he absolutely loved them. Turns out that a publishing company loved her stories too (as well as Barnes and Noble) and she is now a published author. Her husband illustrated the fun book and it's AWESOME. It's called "Harold the Duck" and it's about all these cool things that Harold does, like surfing, snowboarding, etc. Anyways, check it out!





In my last post there is a picture of a wedding present that Zacc's friend did for us. It's called scratchboard and it's amazing. I have seen him do it with various pictures, and they all look incredible. It takes forever to do one, but he has some for sell and I am sure he would do one for you if you gave him a picture. I have seen some of children and they are so detailed. I am hoping he will do one of Macey for us. Check out his artwork here

Oh yeah, and my other cousin, Heidi Mount, just replaced Claudia Schiffer as the new face of Chanel. Yeah, she is a big time model in New York and super successful. There are some talented people out there...some seriously talented people.

Looks like I need to start working on my talent...whatever that might be :)

My Favorite Vinyl Vixen

I have been meaning to post these pics for ages now and am just finally getting around to it...sorry :(

So, often times I will go over to other people's houses and love how they have decorated and I often times find myself loving vinyl lettering that people have on their walls. The only problem with that is that I am REALLY specific about what I like and I don't want to have the exact same thing that everyone else has. To give you an idea, my mom made the bedding for Macey's crib and Zacc and his mom made the wall hangings in her nursery. It's totally unique and I absolutely LOVE that no one else's nursery looks like Macey's. So as much as I love vinyl lettering, I really didn't want to have the same thing everyone else has in their home. I wanted something unique and customized (this is where my cute friend Gretchen totally swooped in and saved the day).

I told her that I had been wanting some vinyl but wasn't exactly sure what I wanted.

Gretchen: No worries, I have a whole binder you can look through. (no kidding, the options seemed endless).

Me: Well, I really like this one, but I want the spacing to be different and I need the layout of the words swapped because it needs to go above this picture that Zacc gave me for a wedding gift.

Gretchen: No problem, just tell me what you want and I can make it for you :)

Me: Really? Also, I want this one for Macey's nursery, but I want the colors of the letters to be green and the butterflies to be pink.

Gretchen: Perfect, that would be way cute!

Me: Thinking to myself (Are you serious, you are really going to let me pick EXACTLY what I want, and make you change it all around and you are really going to be this nice about it?) Done, I am buying all of my vinyl lettering from you from here on out.

Not only was she AMAZING to work with (and quick might I add), I absolutely love the way they turned out. The lettering in Macey's room is adorable and the "icing on the cake" in her cute nursery.

Here are some pics to prove it:





To check out more on her website click here

St. George

We went to St. George this last weekend and stayed with the my mom's sister Karen. For those of you who don't know her (which is most of you), she has the most amazing house and it's pretty much like staying in a fabulous hotel...only way better in so many ways. I took my new camera and tested it out a little. I am very new at this and am just learning, but I liked a couple and I thought I would share them with you :)

25 years young?

So tomorrow, I get to start "rounding up" to 30...at least that's what my brother-in-law says. That's right folks (both of you who read my blog), I am half way to the big five O...which seems weird since I still feel 21.

Banking 101

I started working at a bank (most of you know which one, but it will remain nameless on the blog) the summer before my sophomore year of college. I was a teller for 2 years, moved to new accounts for 1 year and for the past 2 years have worked in a division of the banks private services department. It has been a wonderful job and even now that I have Macey I work two 6 hour days and am very lucky to have such a flexible part-time job. There are a lot of things that I have learned about banking since starting over 5 years ago, but since I began as a teller, I quickly learned that banking is not for everyone...especially old people.

Here is one of my favorite examples that happens at least once a week:

Tellers have cash drawers. They stand behind the teller windows and are in a fairly secure location. New account representatives DO NOT have cash drawers at their desks. The money wouldn't be very secure in a desk, so obviously anyone sitting at a desk does not have cash. New account reps can run transactions, they just can't do any that either take cash in or give cash out...seeing as how they don't have a cash drawer. That being said, here is the scenario:

It's lunch time and the line at the bank is getting lengthy, I walk over to the line and say

"I can help anyone who has a non-cash transaction."

(This is where I usually get 6 blank stares, because I am obviously speaking a foreign language). I then say, I can run your transaction if you are just depositing a check or making a payment, just as long as your transaction doesn't involve cash.

"Oh, you can help me then."

As the client hands me their deposit I glance down to notice that they would like $30 cash back and have signed acknowledging that they would like cash back. I look up and say,

"Do you need cash back from this deposit?"

"Yeah, a 20 and a 10."

"You see, I don't have a cash drawer, so I can only run transactions that don't involve cash."

"Why did you say you could help me then?"

Aren't us bankers cruel...we are always trying to trick the clients, because we think it's just so much fun when they get upset with us :)

Also, banks are required to hold checks, we don't do it to be mean. If you have a $100 in your checking account and that is an average balance for you, you can't expect to deposit a $5,000 check and have the funds released to you the next day, especially if your account hasn't been opened that long. It takes a while for our bank to send the check you deposited to the bank it's from and then receive those funds in return, so if we immediately release those funds to you and you go out and blow $5,000 and then 4 days later, we find out that check is no good, we are out $5,000 so obviously we are going to hold your check until it clears...we aren't trying to be mean, we just have to make sure your check clears. I know, it sucks for the honest people out there who don't float checks, but trust me, it happens all the time. If any of you saw the movie "Catch Me if You Can," Leonardo DiCaprio is floating checks, so that is exactly why banks have to hold some deposits. And just because someone has a check that says "Cashier's or Official Check," doesn't mean it's actually guaranteed funds. We see fraudulent Cashier's checks all of the time (crooks are pretty smart, so while printing up these counterfeit babies, they decided why not throw some extra wording on there and make it look super official).

Sorry to vent, but next time you are at the bank remember to be nice to the employees :)

Holy Boob Job Batman!

Okay, okay, no one got a boob job, but I don't have the most exciting blog and I needed to catch your attention somehow...(I know, kind of weaselly huh?) I actually need your help and am hoping that if you were interested enough to read my blog based off of the title, that you might help me out. I entered a contest on Jen Herem's blog to win a photo shoot for Valentine's day, but I need you to send an email to jenniferherem@yahoo.com and vote for #5 (that's Zacc and I), before February 5th. Jen is really talented and has a fun photography style, so I really hope we win! To check out the lovebirds and see some of Jen's work, go to jenheremphotography.blogspot.com

Not a photographer

Zacc's dad got me a really nice camera for Christmas. When I say really nice, I mean extrememly nice. It's one that the Deseret News used to have their photographers use. Not only is the camera nice, but given the fact that I am a novice photographer, it's definitely way out of my league. I have always really enjoyed photography and wished that I could take good pictures. Zacc's dad has been helping me with photography basics and I am getting better. I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you. By the way, the boots are something that my sister Lisa got Macey for Christmas and I HAD to post a picture of them. Aren't they the cutest shoes ever? They are too big for Macey and I have her wear them anyway because I am so afraid she will out grow them too fast.