Photography Post

 

This beautiful Mama is on the blog today and also in labor. Click HERE to see all the shots. I cannot wait to meet her little one in the next two weeks! Good luck Camilla!!!

A little something to love

This maternity session. Amy is beautiful, her baby bump is adorable. She has the sweetiest little girl and an amazing little family. You can find the some of my very favorite shots on the photo blog.

Well… Hello there

So it’s been a little while… 2 months and 1 day (but who’s counting) since I’ve been on here. You can go ahead and give me the worst blogger award right now, but I’m back… at least for the day.

I’ve missed writing and I’ve missed all my amazing readers. For those of you who know me in real life or follow me on Facebook, you know a lot is going on. I figured, I’d catch everyone up on here in a bulletin point type of post… as I’m writing this while I eat a late (very late) lunch.

• We finally have a start date for the hub’s job… April 9th. This means that we need to be living in Tucson by then. That sounds fine right? WRONG. The hub’s has to work the 2nd through the 6th of April here in Denver AND report to his new position on Monday the 9th. Leaving us with just the weekend to drive down.

• We didn’t get the house we initially wanted, the builder sold it two days before I called them to put in our offer. Instead we got the bigger version that’s right next door. More space = more money to spend :-/. We’re not crazy about this, but we needed a place to live and the builder’s offer was fantastic. We close on the house on the 26th of March… a week from today. Great right?! It really is fantastic, BUT we have to be there in person, which means we need to leave Denver on the 24th to drive down there. No biggy! Aside from the fact that hub’s doesn’t get back from Baltimore until the night of the 23rd…

• Speaking of the hub’s being in Baltimore… well he’s there for 2 weeks, he’s been gone a week already, leaving me to pack everything on my own. While this is no fault of his as he’s gone for work, it’s stressing me out to the max.

• Oh and packing?! I thought we had everything boxed up, and it would be a breeze as we’re getting rid of almost all of our furniture… well, turns out we have more crap then I thought. We’ve already got my in-laws Wells Cargo full with a couch, book shelves, boxes of books, clothing and shoes. Sadly, there is still a ton of stuff in my parents basement, including all of our kitchen junk (dishes, pots and pans, small appliances…).

• OHHHH, and the fact that we have to buy appliances (just a fridge, washer and dryer) drives me insane. I can’t find anything I like in the price range I want.

• In addition to the appliances, we need window treatments as our windows are bare, we need to seal the tile throughout the house and the garnet counter tops in the kitchen.

• To add the cherry on top, I found the perfect pup that we’re adopting… and we have to get her on the 25th of March… the day we get into Tucson and before we close on the house (I’m a genius … I know). Thank GOD for pet friendly hotels!

The newest addition to our family, Lilly the Doberman

• Then we’re in a shamble about a car… do you remember my little hot rod?! Welllllll… that was suppose to be a truck or an SUV with 4 doors and a back seat. Instead, we got another two door car with no back seat. You’d think that between two adults we’d be smart enough to figure out that we need something that seats more than 2 people. Well… now with the pup, and me having to drive back to Denver every 6 weeks for work… I need a different car. Except that hub’s isn’t willing to give up the Camaro, and I don’t wont a higher payment.

In short, we found out 6 weeks ago that the Hub’s work papers and clearance went through and started the house processes then. Between the realtor, lender, builder and title company, we finally got the paperwork worked out and all set. 4 weeks ago, hub’s start date was April 22nd to May 6th, 2 weeks ago it turned to the 9th of April.

Between working full time, going to school, and dealing with this move, I’ve had no time to take care of myself or sleep. BUT, we’re almost there. In two weeks time, I should be sitting in my beautiful house in Tucson stress free!

Well, my lunch break is over and I hope to get another post up for tomorrow. So many things to share with you all!!!

Do you have any moving tips for me? What about cars? What are your favorite SUV/Crossovers? I am trying to decide between the Tucson and the RAV4… thoughts?

Tuesday Travels: Tucson, AZ

Our trip to Tucson was mainly for one reason… to find a house. BUT I was hoping that we’d get some sight seeing done, and get familiar with the city. We were successful in the first goal, but failed miserably in the second.

We spent all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday looking at houses (a post about this later this week) and only got Thursday evening to explore. So here is our Thursday in pictures:

We got to Tucson around 2:00 PM local time, and were greeted by the first of many “man cactuses” we would encounter. We figured a picture in the airport was appropriate, as this is our first time in Tucson.

We got our rental, and I decided to take pictures even though I should have been navigating. The Hubs GPS decided to poop out and we were a little lost, until the stupid thing found the signal again.

The drive was pretty. We have mountains in CO, but it always seems like they are so far away AND they are only to the West. In Tucson, the mountains were everywhere.

This is a portion of Downtown Tucson that we only drove by, and did not have time to actually visit.

After finding our hotel and checking in, we decided to head out to explore and have dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a friend. Blanco. The food was decent, but more California Mexican which we are not huge fans of. However, the Blood Orange Margarita more than made up for the okay food. HOLY YUM!!!!

We had spotted a gelato shop in the outdoor mall where we had dinner, but were so stuffed that we had to walk around to digest before stuffing our faces again. The Hubs decided he was going to “pose” for my picture and did a little James Bond look. He’s hot. I know. I tried to copy him, but failed.

We also ran into a little cactus palm tree. This guy was little, but cute. 

This is the only sunset we got to witness, since we were looking at houses the other three days. I was hoping for better pictures, but these will do until November.

We enjoyed some Italian Ice cream with this view.

I was slightly annoyed, since I was hoping to do a lot more than this little sightseeing, but what can ya do?!

I was also a little annoyed, because I dragged my DSLR all the way out to Tucson, and forgot to bring the charger or the spare battery. #epicfail

Tuesday Travels: Tucson for the Weekend

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while, and I figured it’s time to get back into the swing of things.

I have to admit, we are in desperate need of vacation and unfortunately will not have one until we figure out the house ordeal. We have decided to reward ourselves with a tropical vacation as soon as we close on a house. SOOO within the next 4 to 6 months… Depressing!!!! Especially when you it has almost been a year since our cruise.

There’s a lot more coming your way in regard to travel in the next few weeks, including a few posts about planning, spending and of course saving for the perfect vacations. But for now, we’ll talk about our little 4 night, 5 day trip to Tucson to check out our new town and find a house.

Our itinerary looks something like this:

09/29/11 around 2:00 PM – Arrive at Tucson International Airport

09/30/11 – Touring neighborhoods

• Since neither Husband nor I have ever been to Arizona or Tucson, we’ll be checking out some of the neighborhoods that our Realtor recommends
• Then we’ll maybe see a few new build homes, and talk about time frames and costs
• We’ll explore a few places such as the malls, entertainment and so on based on recommendations from friends who have lived in Tucson

10/01/11 – House hunting begins

• We’ll spend the day looking at a few re-sale homes that we have picked ahead of time
• Taking lots of pictures and hopefully starting to narrow down neighborhoods

10/02/11 – More of that house hunting crap joy

• We’ll see a few more houses…
• I’ll take more pictures…
• We’ll fight… become stressed and start emotional eating. This may also lead to us instinctively booking an overly expensive vacation and blowing our down payment on new shoes, twin turbos and a new transmission for the 3000GT…

We will be fling back to Colorado on the 3rd… hopefully with a better idea of what we want, where we want and what we are willing to spend on a certain type of house.

One thing we are going to try and do is visit the Gates Pass, since it’s located right outside of downtown Tucson.

Gates Pass

 

The Gates Pass is located off of the Speedway and along the rout to West Saguaro National Park. It is said to be a very popular sightseeing area, especially when it comes to viewing sunsets. According to TripAdvisor there are many pullouts and two overlooks where you can stop to view the surrounding scenery.

Have you been to Tucson?! What would you recommend doing? What is your one-must see/do in a new town?

I know we’ll be testing out a few Mexican restaurants, since the Hubs is OBSESSED with tacos, and the closest Barnes and Nobel.

Curiosity killed the cat

They say that you should keep your curiosity in check, after all it did kill the cat. Well, in our house hunting endeavors I avoided looking at several communities knowing that the houses would be amazing and the prices way out of our budget. 

Let me give you a little backstory. We are trying to buy a house at the half amount of what we will be qualified for. We want to make sure that we stay about $100k to a $150k under what we qualify for. This is so that if we have to move within the next 5 years, and can’t sell the house we can still make payments on it and keep it as an investment.

Now… back to my dilemma… against my better judgment I clicked on one of the communities that I’d been avoiding for about a month now. I clicked… and it was LOVE at first sight.

The builder is the one that built the house we live in right now. They do a fantastic job, and we would love to own one of their homes. In fact, we are considering a smaller model that is within our price goal. However, let’s take a closer look at this, almost 4000 sq. ft., beauty.

Note the the HUGE walk in Pantry on the way to the kitchen. HOW amazing that?! Now if that doesn’t have you sold, look at the Butler’s Pantry connected to the dining room and the other HUGE walk in pantry. I’m so in love with them you’d think I store enough food to feed a small army. And you know what… if I had these pantries I would store enough food to feed TWO small armies.

Alright, enough drooling over the pantries. Let’s move on to the kitchen and that little thing called a morning room. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d like to have my morning rooms, afternoon rooms and of course evening rooms. SO the fact that this house has a morning room and not a NOOK is awesome. Moving on… there is an outdoor room… which is phenomenal AND comes with a built in outdoor kitchen. That right!!!! OUTDOOR kitchen. Can you tell I’m a little obsessed with kitchens?! I mean, c’mon, who wouldn’t want two HUGE kitchens. I’m also loving the two sided fireplace and the mid-level library!

Now, if the kitchens didn’t have you sold, lets take a step into this large courtyard. WHAT IS THIS?! Built in fireplace and all, with the privacy provided by the garages, this is a dream come true. Hubs and I are in love.

As an added bonus… how perfect is this Master Suite?! HUGE bedroom with a private balcony. TWO…did ya get that?! TWO huge walk-in-closets. AND a five piece master bath.

The sad part is… that we could afford this house, but really, really, really shouldn’t. Really. TWO kitchens!!!!! TWO closets… BOOO.

Lesson to take away… stay away from things you know you don’t want to look at, because then you start trying to find excuses as to why you need 4000 sq. feet, two kitchens, and 5 bedrooms.

I think tomorrow… I might show you the other one… a little smaller but totally drool worthy!

Lots and lots of things to love

It’s Wednesday, and I don’t know where the week has gone. I’ve been so busy trying to finish up a last few things before I go back to school mid-September that I’ve lost my mind. Work’s also been super busy, and I missed blogging.

So today, I’m linking up with Jaime from this kind of love to share what I’ve been loving these past week.

First and foremost I am loving my amazing hubby, who has been everything and more to me. He’s the most hard working, dedicated and handsome man I know.

I am loving that I finally ordered my 50mm f/1.4 and it will be here TODAY. It is out for delivery and will be in my little hands by this evening. I’ve heard so many amazing things about this lens and cannot wait to get my hands on it. Especially since I’m helping a friend with a shoot on Sunday!

I am loving that today is the last day that I have to worry about the accounting freelance work I was doing, and in about 3 hours I will be done with it forever. No more accounting papers to write. This also calls for a celebration. So I may be heading up to Castle Rock to reward myself with a new Coach purse… well maybe not… since I just bought the above lens for a good chunk of change.

Love, love, loving our new bed. The latex mattress is really well worth the money. I’ve been sleeping like a baby lately, and waking up with no back issues. Thanks again to my amazing Husband who did all the research to make sure that we get the right matrass.

I’m also loving that it is now completely official that we will be moving to Tucson, and that the process of hiring the hubs for the new position has officially begun. We should know in a few weeks time when the approximate move date is. We’re both hoping that we’ll have until May of 2012 before we move, so that we can spend another ski season and Mammoth season here in Colorado.

Loving that we decided on buying a house in Arizona and spending a few years there before moving to Texas. And loving that in two months time we’ll be heading down to Lubbock for the wedding and then spending 10 days in Arizona to look for a home, check out ASU and the area in general. We’ll spend our second anniversary in Phoenix or Flagstaff, just the two of us.

I also wanted to let you all know that I am loving every single one of you, and appreciate you so much. I know I’ve been on and off here, but you have all stuck with me. I know I promised a whole bunch of new material on the blog… and it is coming, once I catch my breath which should be after today!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!!!

The BIG news…

 

As many of you know, from my constant ramblings regarding moving to Texas, Husband and I have been pretty much dying to move out of state, simply because we need a change. AND we’d like to start our family in an area where there is a good school district, low cost of living and so on. I love Colorado, but living here is expensive, and we could never afford the type of house and lifestyle we’d like.

So the news is that we’re NOT moving to Texas, instead we are moving to Tucson, Arizona. It was sprung on us last Thursday as Husband was leaving work. He was offered a promotion and a position he’s been really wanting to get since he started at his current job. We talked about it, and decided that it’s better to accept the position then wait for another one to open up. Plus the raise is pretty nice.

We don’t have a move date yet, and wont know until he official accepts the offer this coming Monday. However, we’ve already started to look at where we’ll live, what there is to do and so on. The biggest con to this situation is that we literally do not know or have anyone in Tucson, which is both exciting and depressing. I’m hoping that I can keep my job since I actually found something I LOVE doing, if not I have a few good friends who do have connections in Tucson and can set me up with something.

I could go on and on about this, but I think I will start talking more details once we actually have a move date. For now, I leave you with a few pictures that make me really excited to move out to the dessert.