Sarah's Baby Shower

Both of my sisters recently gave birth to beautiful baby boys. Sadly, they waited until the day after and two days after I arrived in Taiwan. Luckily, I was able to attend Sarah's baby shower because it happened to be the same week I was in town for my own bridal shower. Here are some of the photos I took of it.

1: I did NOT take this photo, but I had to introduce the little man who all this fuss was about! His name is Cash and isn't he just adorable?

2: The food.

3: The dessert.

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5: Nearest to farthest: My cousin Lorie, Sarah's step mother-in-law, my aunt Gail and all the way at the end...prego Sarah!

6: It was ducky themed.

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8: Items used for one of the games.

9: During one of the games in which diapers are filled with different types of melted chocolate bars and through sniffing and eyeing them you have to guess what kind they are.

10: Sarah opening the blanket my mom made for Cash.

11: Ladies in the ward giving approving glances.

12: Ducky cake

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14: My sister, Emily, watched the whole thing through skype. My Dad and Lorie are smiling at her cute little girl, Josie, in this photo.

These are from a little trek I went on with the single's ward in Tulsa. Tom couldn't go and I could only go for one day. For those non-LDS readers, remember how the mormons crossed the plains from Illinois to Utah because they were going to be killed by the people in Illinois? A trek is where you basically pretend you're pioneers and you dress up like them and pull handcarts a few miles every day so you can appreciate what they went through. I only have a few pictures from it.

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A Trip to the Cemetery

One Sunday in Tulsa, Tom and I decided to take a nice walk at the cemetery next to where Tom proposed to me. The coolest pictures I took were of this bird that was on this...odd rock structure. Could have been a mausoleum, but we're really not sure.

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Don't worry, we'll get caught up eventually!

Graduation Day!

This post is from the day Tom graduated from Law School. His Dad and brother, Matt, were able to come down, which, I think, made all the difference for him. It was really quite a nice day. The ceremony wasn't completely boring, we look lots of great photos and went out to eat at a fabulous restaurant afterward.

1: This was taken on my porch while I was waiting to be picked up for the festivities. This plant was originally a bulb from the "mystery bulb" pile at the garden center. Still have no idea what it was, but it ended up probably being my favorite.

2: Matt, showing a signature Armstrong trait.

3: Tom's favorite graduation speaker.

4: Tom listening intently.

5: Tom awaiting his name.

6: Got tired of waiting, apparently, and jumped the gun.

7: Quick photo.

8: Two future lawyers and two law grads.

9: The happy couple.

10: Mmmm.

11: U. Tulsa campus

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13: After many attempts.

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Til next time!

Yes, It Has Been a While

So, it has been quite a while since my last blog post! Basically, once I got engaged my time was swallowed up in a vacuum and I am juuuust beginning to recover it. I'm slowly going to start putting up all the good pictures I've missed from the last few months until I'm all caught up! That means that, if you stay tuned, you will be treated to pictures of Tom's graduation, a trek I went on, Sarah's baby shower, the Honeymoon, Taiwan and, of course, plenty of nature photos. To start with, here are some photos from a walk Tom and I went on at this park in Tulsa. This is also where I went to think when I was trying to decide whether or not Tom and I should get married! Enjoy!

1: I really wanted to take engagement photos at the bench.

2: Horrible, blurry photo, but can you see that it would have been cute for engagement photos?

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Ok, hopefully more soon!

Babies, balconies and lovely food.

Ok, so, to begin this blog post, I have some pictures of one of the kids who I nanny. His mom was in need of a photo for his birth announcement and her camera wasn't treating her very well, so I took over. The first few I just thought were funny and the last couple are just nice. He is so expressive!

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3: Love it.

4: Pretty cute face for me to be looking into all day, no?

5: This is the one that she actually ended up using. She used sepia tone, but I only had the option for black and white on my computer.

Now I have some more photos of....my food! I realize some of you may be thinking it's weird or gross that I keep posting pictures of my food on here, but, what can I say? I just get so excited about it? Who knew having the perfect meal/snack could bring so much joy to life?

6: Clockwise for the top: corn; jasmine rice with tikka masala curry, beef, artichokes, carrots and onions; rice pudding for dessert.

7: Every night before I go to bed I read my scriptures while eating a bedtime snack. I was pretty excited about this one for some reason. Tagalongs and milk. So simple.

8: I was out on my balcony, enjoying the great weather, one day and decided I needed a refreshing snack. So, I took one of those peach jello fruit cups that they sell in packs of 6, stuck it in a bowl and put cool whip and strawberries on top. Best refreshing snack ever.

9: Introducing...my balcony! I LOVE my balcony, and now that it is warm I spend many of my "at home" hours on it. The blue pot is full of bulbs that I got from Merrifield Garden Center, chilled in my fridge for about 14 weeks and then stuck outside. They're doing so great!

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11: Hyacinth.

12: Crocus bulbs in bloom.

13: Strawberries! (sorry about the feet)

14: More crocus bulbs.

15: More.

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17: And back inside. These have already been on my blog. Banana plant in background.

18: In background you can see "B Sanders" the bromeliad.

19: Last, but not least, one of my favorites - "Harvey Unga" the bromeliad.

Life is great!