Life in 2015.

Well, here is my project I've been meaning to start for over two years. Can I keep it updated? I guess we will see! 

2015 has been a year to remember! Here are a few of things that have gone on.

Pregnancy... boy... that was a rough 9 months.  But Brittany Cascio sure captured beautiful maternity photos of me at 30 weeks and I think back and just feel so blessed my body made such a big, healthy baby boy! Oh and Tia with Celise Artistry sure made me feel so lovely! I love getting my hair and makeup done by here! She's one of my faves!

We welcomed our second little boy, Finn Ace Weston, on Aug 9th. He weighed 9lbs 15oz! Ya, he was huge! It was definitely the toughest pregnancy and labor. Which I should just share my birth story so I can remember how empowering and quick it was! I'll post about that another time. Anyway. we are so blessed to have Finn in our lives! He's the happiest and easiest baby so far! He'll be 4 months old this week and I'm already baby hungry! And if you know me, that's just crazy because I'm not the biggest fan of babies but Finn changed that for me! Knox is obsessed with Finn and he's the sweetest big brother! From day one Knox has loved him.

Knox, where to even start?! He's now 2 and throws tantrums left and right but I still love him so much! He has such a sweet, funny spirit! I don't go a day without laying in bed looking at photographs of him and just laughing and realizing how lucky I am to have him in my life. He loves trucks, dinosaurs, oreos, Finn, Dad, and movies! He still is allergic to dairy but we are figuring it out for the most part. I'm just a paranoid mom when I take him to nursery since they have snack time. I often worry what I'm going to do when he goes to school. He's reactions tend to get more severe as he gets older. Hoping to get allergy testing done soon. I just don't want to put him through all those terrible pricks and pain. It'd hurt my mommy heart seeing him hurting but it's what is best for him in the long run.

In April, we started building our first home. It was the best experience ever! Trent designed our floor plan and built the majority of it by himself. He really impressed me with all his creativity, knowledge and dedication. Every day he'd spend hours working on it so he could have me moved in by Christmas. Turns out, he's plan was to really have me in by our 4th anniversary on September 30th. And it was the best gift he's ever given me... besides my two boys. ;) I'll have to do a blog post on our cute home when it's all decorated and cute! As of right now, it's a little bare but I'm still loving every square foot of it. And thanks to Trent's parents in letting us live with them while we were building. Barbara and Dan were such a big help to me during that awful pregnancy and the transition to having two kids. We love them so much for opening their arms to our family.   

In May, Trent was promoted from a loader at UPS to a driver! It's been such a blessing. The reason we were able to move into our house sooner was a huge part of this promotion. While he was in training, if they didn't have his route in they'd give him the day off which allowed him to spend it slaving away at our house. Everything just has seemed to work out great! And it's nice knowing he'll always have work. He loved doing construction with his Dad and misses it from time to time but really enjoys where he is at now. Except this busy holiday season has stolen him away from us and we never see him anymore.

Trent and I have now been married for 4 years since Sept 30th! I can't believe how fast time flies. I love him so much and every day that love grows. I love watching him be an amazing Father to our two boys and of course our Maddie (English Mastiff). I am so grateful for him in so many ways.

My photography, well lets just say I am so blessed! I doubled my original goal for this year and it was so great! It was a little busier than I planned on it being but I couldn't say no because all my 2015 clients fit my style and personality. I fell in love with them all and gained so many new wonderful friends. I have big plans on rebranding when I find the time.

One of the roughest things this year.

I don't typically share things like this with everyone but I feel I need to share this with everyone to know that no matter how young you may be you need to still be cautious! Since I am only 24! So young! After having Finn, I was talking with my mom about a lump I had in my stomach that was bothering me and she lifted my shirt to look at it (which was nothing by the way.) but she saw a mole that really concerned her. She asked me how long it had been that way and I explained to her it wasn't like that before I got pregnant with Finn and she told me I needed to have it looked at. I just explained to her that I wasn't worried. It was just a mole that changed shape and color from being stretched. Finally, after a couple weeks of my mother bugging me, I went and saw a Dermatologist. It was sent in to be biopsied. Conference weekend, I received a phone call with my results and was told it was cancerous and would need to come in first thing Monday to have surgery to try and remove all the cancer. I asked for more details but the lady could not give me details. It was the longest, most emotional weekend of my life. I still remember leaving the room a few times while watching General Conference because most the talks were about accepting death and that there is life after death. They discussed losing their loved ones and ways they find comfort. Trent was getting flustered that I was acting as if I never got the phone call. I couldn't show my emotions. I wanted to be strong. Sunday afternoon, I went in my closet and just lost it! I didn't want Trent to see me this way. I called my mother bawling. Telling her, this is God's way of telling me to prepare to die. My life was ending... Cancer?! Sunday evening, I asked Trent to look at the areas I couldn't see for moles that were dark and didn't have even borders and we found an even bigger and darker one on my back. Trent and I broke down in tears. How did I go so long without noticing these? We prayed a lot. Both received blessings and those blessings really calmed us both so much! We all cried and it was just a wonderful reminder how blessed I am to have the priesthood in my life! Monday came, Trent and I arrived to the doctors office where they gave me the news I had melanoma skin cancer. They discussed how lucky I was to have found it so early on. They let me know of the concerns of me conceiving again because pregnancy hormones tend to speed the process of multiplying cancer cells. So, when I do have another baby I will need to take pictures of all my moles and do month comparisons to watch for changes. Anyway, after a pretty unpleasant surgery on my left abdomen and them also removing the one on my back they sent them both in for a biopsy. If anyone has had to wait 2 weeks for results, you know how terrible and nerve wrecking it is! I received a phone call and I was cleared of melanoma of my abdomen! Yay! However, cancer cells were found in my back. We scheduled another appointment for surgery. The positive thing about this one is that it was not as worrisome as the one was on my abdomen. I was scheduled for a full body mole check, blood work and chest X-ray. They did send another biopsy in for another on my stomach they found. Finally, results came in... I am completely cancer free! Both moles that I had operated on are cleared and the other was just a regular mole. Life isn't going to be very fun constantly worrying about wearing sunscreen and going in for several visits a year but I'm so thankful we found it in time! So, please everyone go in for yearly checks! Age doesn't matter! Melanoma is not anything to mess with.

Anyway, that's all I can think of to share that's happened this year but we are so excited to celebrate Christmas! Knox loves all the lights, Christmas tree and snowman we have at our house! It's such a joy finally having a Christmas where he's as excited as we are!