Deck the Halls

... or maybe I'm decking my bookcase. It's about the only thing that got holiday decorations this year. I was excited to finally be able to afford a tree this year and to decorate, but with our extended Thanksgiving travels and our upcoming Christmas travels, it just didn't make sense to buy a Christmas tree (which is normally a Christmas must for me, contrary to what our Provo life may suggest). Fortunately I have a beautiful Nativity set to display and we now own our very own Christmas Village. It's the Charles Dickens Oliver Twist village, which we inherited from Joseph's grandmother. These are simple things, but it has really helped it feel like Christmas in our house. Fa la la la la la la la la!

Thanksgiving and Love

We didn't think we'd go so long without posting, but things have been a bit crazy for us. We headed off to Portland November 24th to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with Joseph's family. We had a great time hanging out with his siblings and their kids. Even though the kids can be a bit wild, it still made us excited that we'll have a son of our own soon. As luck would have it, after we bought our plane tickets to Portland in the early fall, Joseph's brother in Utah planned to marry his sweetheart the weekend after Thanksgiving. So, we took a family road trip with Joseph's brother Gordon and his wife and kids from Portland to Utah County. There were 8 bodies in the minivan plus 4 car seats. We were packed in, but it was a surprisingly comfortable ride considering the circumstances. I don't know that I'd ever volunteer for a 13 hour road trip while 19 weeks pregnant again, but it was lots of fun to be together and we all survived.

Joseph's parents rented a house that all of the family could stay in while we were in Utah that week. It was really fun to stay together like that. The wedding was lovely and the weather was surprisingly good for a December day in Utah. We were all a bit chilly when we took our coats off for pictures, but there was no snow, so that helped a bit. Here are a few pictures of the happy couple from their happy day.


Oh, and I just can't leave this out. Our little niece had that craziest static loaded hair we've ever seen every time she was on the sofa in the rented house. The sofa is microfiber, so it holds a bit more static than normal anyway, but her hair was amazing, especially when it caught the light just right. It kind of reminds me of Thing 1 and Thing 2's hair from Dr. Seuss' book The Cat in the Hat... or a dandelion.
Also, while we were in Utah my female in-law's threw me a surprise baby shower. It was a small gathering but so much fun. I was completely surprised! We had lunch at Kneader's (my favorite sandwich place in all of Provo) and then the shower at my sister's apartment. Thanks to everyone for your love and support. We are so excited for our baby boy and it was so much fun to celebrate his coming with you!

It's a...

Joseph and I have been thinking about names a little bit since we found out I was pregnant, but we mostly just thought of girl names we both liked. We were struggling with agreeing on boy names and decided we might as well just wait until we know what the gender of our little peanut really was. Well, on Friday Joseph and I went to the doctor for an ultrasound and found out we are having a little boy! The nurse said that's pretty much a guarantee if you only have girl names you like. So, we're back to the drawing board for that, but we really could not be happier. Here's a picture of our little guy at 17 weeks, weighing in at a whopping 7 oz. I can't believe he's going to gain at least 7 pounds before he arrives.

Trunk-Or-Treat

For Halloween this year we participated in our ward Trunk-or-Treat party. We haven't done much for Halloween other than carve a pumpkin since we've been married, so it was fun to have a party to go to. Joseph and I did have to dress up for our mutual activity the week before (Joseph was a hippie and I was a 50's girl), and although we had intentions to dress up on Halloween night, I wasn't really feeling up to it so we justified our way out by saying we had already dressed up this year. We didn't get a picture of our costumes this year, but here's a picture of Joseph in his costume about 2 years ago. (One of the beauties of costumes as an adult is you don't grow out of them like you did when you were a kid.)
(Pretty hot stuff huh? And yes, I am the person cut out in the photo, not some "other woman"... it's just that my costume there was irrelevant to this post.)

We teamed up with some friends in our ward to decorate our trunk. We went shopping the night before and got some great stuff for it. We wanted to find a pumpkin to carve, and unfortunately we found out that shopping for a pumpkin on Halloween eve (not a baking pumpkin, but a pumpkin large enough to carve) is about as impossible as trying to find a Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve. We honestly went to at least 5 grocery stores looking for one... everyone was out! Finally, at our very last grocery store, without much hope I asked a worker if they had any left. She said no, but then her face got an excited look and she said, "Wait, we do have one, follow me." So we followed her over to the flower cooler where amid the bunches of bouquets there sat one lonely pumpkin. It was the perfect size, and though it had a scar on one side and what looked like warts on the other, we bought it and took it home to carve. It was so nice to have success after all of that looking! Our pumpkin was carved by a rather large group effort, and it was the perfect touch to our Halloween festivities. The trunk was complete with blood drippings, spiderwebs, large spiders and caution tape.
I guess things just aren't quite as scary as an adult, but we threw an MP3 player in the trunk playing a Mannhiem Steamroller's Halloween Monster Mix to add some life to our trunk and attract people down to the end of the parking lot where we were. Our friends told us at one point the music was so scary that some of the kids were afraid to reach in to get the candy from the bowl. I guess that means it was a success! It was a very fun Halloween celebration.

Family Fun

Last weekend my siblings and I all congregated in Provo, UT. You see, over the years we have all attended BYU but we were never all in Provo at the same time. We are also all big college football fans, so we thought that it would be fun to get together and watch BYU play TCU.

We spent the weekend hanging out and enjoying our favorite local places. We stopped by J-Dawgs, Cafe Rio, Iceberg (this was new for me, but they have great shakes!), BYU campus, the "Y", and Lavell Edwards Stadium. We also stayed up way too late rekindling childhood rivalries of Mario Kart.

We had a great time despite the fact that TCU appeared to be the only football team that arrived at the stadium.

What at the beginning felt like it would be a classic game that we would be able to look back on and gloat about being present,

turned into a game from which everyone was fleeing by the end of the third quarter and already trying to clear it from their memories.

We, however, stuck it out, and even took a picture to help us remember; because after all, the weekend was not about BYU football, it was indeed about family.

The Best Surprise

Five years ago today at about 9:00am a really nice guy with blond hair and blue eyes picked me up for a blind date. It was a cool Saturday morning and we were going to have breakfast at a park. I remember one of my roommates begging me to let her be the one to answer the door because she wanted to see what the mystery guy looked like, which I consented to. We had muffins and orange juice at a picnic table first, and then played a little game of frisbee golf. Either I'm really cute when I spill juice everywhere or I made a good enough impression otherwise because not only did Joseph clean up my whole embarrassing mess, but he also decided to ask me out again. But don't worry, he did make me wait over a week before calling me again. After all, he shouldn't look too eager, right? The rest, I guess you could say, is history. He was wonderful from the beginning. I'm glad I got to be the one to win his heart.

Welcome Fall!

I'm so happy fall has finally decided to make an appearance here in Phoenix. No, the leaves have not begun changing colors and decorating the sidewalks like confetti. It is currently 55° here in Phoenix though, with an anticipated high of 59°. I know I'm not living in Provo anymore and I have to re-adjust my fall expectations, but the cool crisp air is something I'm glad I didn't have to give up... at least not entirely. I'm sure it won't last long, but I'll take what I can get. I had some hot apple cider with breakfast today just to celebrate. I will neither confirm nor deny the presence of a few instrumental Christmas songs during the cider celebration. Welcome fall, I hope you stay a while.

July Miracle

On Thursday, August 27th Joseph came home to this...

... because earlier that day I saw this!

Then, about 4 weeks later, we saw this:

That's right, little baby Wilde is in the oven. We couldn't be happier. Thank you for all of your support and prayers. We've had a bit of a rough ride these past 3+ years but our little miracle is finally on its way!

Happy Birthdy to me!

Well, my birthday was over two weeks ago but I think it's still worth blogging about. Joseph made the day so fun for me. He surprised me with breakfast from Einstein Bagels, well parts were from Einstein Bagels, anyway which I had totally been craving for weeks. He made his incredible egg sandwiches and bought me some orange juice (which is like gold to me... I love it, but I always seem to talk myself out of buying it since it's a luxury not a necessity and I'm trying to stick to the grocery budget). It was heavenly. Later, we headed to the park for a picnic lunch and a leisure game of Frisbee, which was perfect since Phoenix decided to only get into the low 80's for the first time since we've lived here. Then it was off to the movie theater for Fame. After that, Joseph made one of my favorite childhood dishes for dinner - heavenly hamburger. If you don't know what it is, you're missing out, because it really is heavenly. Yum... I get happy just thinking about it. :) Joseph tricked me into thinking there wouldn't be any birthday candles because he didn't get a birthday cake, but he got something better. He got me a strawberry rhubarb pie from Village Inn. Talk about delicious. I had probably been craving that longer than the Einstein Bagels. It was oh so delicious, and such a wonderful way to end my very happy birthday! Oh and not only did Joseph do all of the cooking that day, but also all of the dishes. My hero. Thanks, Honey!


My mom also came out the next weekend to take me to Time out for Women to celebrate my birthday. It was so much fun. I had never been before, and I loved it. It is just a time out from real life to get some spiritual rejuvenation. If you ever get the chance, I highly suggest going. It was so much fun to spend that time with my mom. I don't get to see her as much as I would like to... not living in the same state does that I guess. Thanks for the gift, mom... you are the best!

Catch up

I just thought I'd catch up on our August happenings. I took a trip up to Utah for my sister's graduation ceremony (she's officially graduating in December but walked in August). I flew up there on a Wednesday, helped her pack and clean up her apartment on Thursday and attended her graduation ceremony Friday. Packing and cleaning overflowed into Friday and Saturday, and it made me remember how happy I am that I don't have to move every 4-8 months anymore... the packing and deep cleaning stinks! (My parents came up for the ceremony too, and my brother and his wife moved to Provo that week so we got to spend lots of family time together. We had lots of good food and lots of fun. It's always so great when we all get together.)

The cute little graduate.

Saturday my sister and I took off on our road trip to California. We stopped to stay the night with family along the way, which was so much fun, and drove the rest of the way Sunday.

Yay for graduating and yay for sisters!

The whole family (almost). First time together since the wedding.

Road tripping!

That Sunday I got to see my dear friend Kellie. She was one of my bridesmaids and I haven't seen her since my wedding day. She was one of my very best friends in high school and it was so great to get together and catch up. Then, Monday morning Sarah and I headed off to San Diego to stay with family down at Pacific Beach; possibly my favorite place in the world. It was a short stay, I was there for about 24 hours. I enjoyed being cold for a little while (I don't think I used a jacket the whole summer until then) and it was so nice to just relax on the beach a little. Unfortunately, Joseph had to stay in Phoenix and work, but such is life I guess.

This is Kellie, in case you haven't guessed. She's one of the best people in the world in my opinion.

Sarah and me at the beach! It was overcast that last morning, but still wonderful.
Trust me, I'm happier here than I look. :)

Since then we've just been hanging out and enjoying life. I got a new calling to serve in Young Women as the Mia Maid adviser. I've never had a calling like this before, but I'm excited for it. It's also fun because Joseph is over the same age group of the Young Men, so we get to see each other a little while we serve.

Wicke-fied!

Last Saturday we saw Wicked, the Broadway musical, right here in Phoenix. We went with high expectations after all the hype we've heard from family and friends, and we were still blown away. It was incredible! We will definitely see it again if we have the chance. We went with our friends Jen & Jay, and Joseph's brother Spencer and Ashley. We had dinner before the show and thought reservations at 5:00 would be plenty of time to eat and make the five minute drive to the theater, and be seated before the 7:30 curtain. However, the service was so slow that we narrowly succeeded to sit down before the show started. We literally ran through the theater to make it to our seats, and sat down with about 15 seconds to spare.

Here we are in the car on our way to see Wicked!
This is the stage. Joseph took this picture during the intermission. Nothing is going on, there are no actors who might be blinded by a flash and fall off a prop or anything. Still, as Joseph was taking the picture he was approached by the Wicked Witch of the Ushers and was asked, "You're not taking pictures with that, are you?" Enjoy the contraband:

What do you do in the summertime... when it's 800° in Phoenix?

Laura and I went camping this weekend. We decided that 115° was just a little too hot to stick around in the city. We took a little trip with our friends Jay & Jen to the mountains. We went to Payson (Arizona, not Utah) to camp, and then to Fossil Springs for a hike and some swimming.

For all of our family that has told us how ugly Arizona is, we must say that we disagree. This hike was beautiful. There was the Mogollan Rim, ponderosa pines, cactus, and lots of other beautiful plants, we just do not know what they are called. Give us time, we will learn them. There are even mountains. As a matter of fact Arizona is the second most mountainous state. The springs that we hiked to come right out of the ground in the valley and form a good sized creek. Someone that we met down there told us that it is one of two springs in the world this size that come out of the ground in this manner. (We have not fact-checked this, so take it for what it is worth.) The springs generate about 20,000 gallons of water per minute. Cold, refreshing and breathtaking. And yes, that is fact-checked.

We had a wonderful time, despite being stuck in our tent for forty five minutes while a thunderstorm rolled through. Before the rain started we experienced some of the loudest thunder of our lives. It seriously sounded like repeated cannon fire.

Our friends brought their cute dog along. This dog was so cute in fact that Laura was willing to pet and play with her. For those of you who do not understand the significance of this, let me explain. Since I have known her she has claimed to be allergic to all things with fur (except for donkeys), and so I have always gone to great care and concern for her when visiting houses with pets. We have made our friends lock their pets as far away as possible, so as to avoid a reaction. So, this is very big. It is in fact now making me question whther she is really allergic or not, because we did not hear one wheeze or sneeze from her all weekend. She is now even dreaming of getting a puppy of her own.

Here are some pictures of our wonderful weekend:

New Website!

I am excited to announce that I now have an official website!

laurawildephotography.com

Check it out and let me know what you think!

A Welcome Addition

Unfortunately our blog posts are going to be a little less visually pleasing for a while since our camera died and is on it's way to the Canon repair facility. We probably won't see it for quite a while, so please bear with our plain text posts for a while.

Joseph and I are excited to announce that we now own two cars with air conditioning. We've been living with only one, and Joseph was kind enough to use the non-A/C car for his commutes, since it is only about 10 minutes each way, and he let me keep the A/C car for running errands. Well, on Friday we found a deal we couldn't pass up, and now we are the proud owners of a 2002 Toyota Corolla. It's shiny and black, and looks fifty times better than our Honda did. It is a bit of a down grade in some aspects: no cruise control, no automatic locks or windows, and a tape deck rather than a CD player. However, the air conditioning and the fact that it is 11 years younger than our last car and the low mileage on it makes it worth it to us. Yay for two reliable cars, and not having to live through a full summer in Phoenix with the car without A/C! There is a part of us that misses that old Honda though, it took Joseph half way across the country twice, and it's the car he picked me up for our first date in. It lived a long and happy life. Here's hoping our new Toyota will do the same.

Easier To Be...

... without my husband for the weekend. So, Joseph was away at scout camp last night. I thought that was really bad timing because earlier in the week I heard an ad on the radio that after Saturday night's baseball game Lifehouse (my favorite band since high school) was putting on a free concert in the stadium for anyone who went to the game. I was sad when I realized this was the same night as Joseph's night at scout camp, and thought I might have to miss this incredible event. Fortunately, I'm making friends in my ward, and 3 other girls thought it would be fun for us to go as a "Girls Night Out"... two of the girls even left their husbands to hang out with each other while we went out on the town. We had such a great time and the concert was AMAZING. The only thing missing was my sister. She loves Lifehouse almost as much as I do. The only other time I've seen them in concert was with her six years ago to celebrate her high school graduation. She almost made it here in time for the concert too... but her trip to Phoenix is this coming weekend... so close! Too bad BYU couldn't have worked it out to have Spring Finals the weekend before the Phoenix Lifehouse concert or something. :) Anyway, it was the best ever and I'm so glad I got to go. It really did make it easier to be without Joseph for the night.





Oh, and the title of this post is the title of one of their songs from their most recent album, Who We Are... and it's probably one of my favorites. You should check it out. And don't be fooled by the close up pictures, they were pictures of the big screen. (We were only a few rows behind home plate) but the stage was in the middle of the diamond. Thanks for coming with me girls! I had a great time with you all!

Hooray for the Newlyweds!

My brother and his previously mentioned fiancée, Tracy were married on May 30th in the Redlands California temple. It was so fun to be there and share their day with them. It was particularly neat that they were not only married at the same temple I was, but also in the same room and by the same sealer. In a way it was a little flashback to my own wedding day. I am so grateful for eternal marriage and families.

Here are a few pictures I took on the big day. Congratulations Davey & Tracy. And Tracy, Welcome to the family!