It's a new year!

New Years is a month behind us now, but I think that 2014 is going to hold some great things for Mr. Logan and I!!
Let me clarify for a moment, we are not pregnant. I was not insinuating that with the first line by any means and I don't want that to be taken from that.
This year we will each do our thing with school, hit our one year anniversary, I'll turn 21, he'll turn 25, go to some photography workshops and make memories every day along the way. That's our plan!

This semester I am on track and Logan is off. My school schedule is set up so I don't have classes on Fridays and that has been so nice, but I am taking a couple online classes and those are definitely a new experience for me. I'm taking a couple classes that are just for fun that I have really enjoyed- Jazz dance (which I'm being taught how completely out of shape I am) and a children's sewing class. In my sewing class we have already sewn booties, caps, and sleepers. Our next project is shirts and pants (all our of knit fabric); then we are making blessings dresses and coats. I've really enjoyed sewing because before this the extent of my sewing was fleece blankets and one Christmas stocking.

Logan is back working away at Olive Garden full time again. I'm really so grateful for everything he does to help put us both through school and to have a home. He's the best!! :) Logan also got called into the Elders Quorum presidency as the 2nd counselor. This kid is awesome, I'm telling you. While he was in school he had to work most Sundays and we had church from 1:30-4:30. He usually had to work during that time so I went to church by myself, but it is the best thing ever to walk into church holding hands and to sit next to him during sacrament meeting. Oh happy day! Sometimes you just need to be reminded of how much better your life is when the people you love are part of all the little moments.

2014 has brought some exciting things to us as well. My favorite photographer is from Virginia and I have dreamed of going to one of her workshops, but let's be real, that wasn't going to happen for quite some time because of the cost of flying, workshop, and other expenses. Well, turns out she is coming to Las Vegas for WPPI and she is hosting her own little "Coaching Huddle" while she is there. And guess who's husband said she could go!!! This girl!! At the end of this month we will both be going down to Las Vegas to celebrate both of our birthdays, Valentines Day and our anniversary because when all of that is 18 days apart you might as well just smoosh it all into one thing. Our plan was to go down for that and come back on March 2, turn around the following weekend for an engagement and bridal session in St. George until I found out more great news.. As a student I can go to WPPI- Wedding & Portrait Photographers International- for wait for it.... $25!!! That is so much cheaper than a regular admission fee. It starts the day after my other workshop. Logan and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and now we will both be attending WPPI to learn more about photography! I'm telling you I have the best husband, he was so supportive of this crazy idea when I told him. I was worried he would say no and not want to spend time in classes and shoots, but he was so gung ho for it! After the conference, we will then drive up to St. George to meet up for some sessions and only have to make that drive once in two weeks!

This year Logan and I have quite a few weddings to look forward to shooting together and I can't wait to see what will come with this! And drum roll..... we booked an Arizona wedding!!!!!! WHOOO!! We will be flying together to shoot a wedding; this is my dream come true!!
I can't wait to see what the rest of 2014 has in store for us!

Our first married Christmas

I really have been awful at blogging. But, you can look forward to weekly blog posts now because I have a project for the whole semester and I chose to blog. I just want you to be aware that I will try to be posting those blog posts on every Friday. I am learning about the family unit and each week there will things that I have learned and ways to apply them to our own lives. Hopefully each week I will be posting a challenge and I encourage you to do them with me. I will give you a little spill on how I did the next week!

Anyways... Let's not talk about school right now.

December flew by. January flew by. Time really does just get faster and faster. December was fun and filled with family time.
We had our first Christmas together!! It was fun to decorate our little apartment. My parents got a new Christmas tree and let us use their old one. While I was in Colorado, Hobby Lobby had an awesome sale on ornaments and so I got some royal purple and gold ornaments. I used burlap ribbon to make some bows to put on the tree as well. Our tree is going to have a few more additions next year and I am excited to work on those this year. I just didn't have time this time around.

 I made this stocking last year because I was so excited to be wifey and have our own Christmas... Well.. I still haven't finished mine. This year it will get done!

 Logan's awesome African nativity fit perfectly on this shelf!

 Trent and Lindsey gave this little tree to us for Christmas! It lights up too!

 Boy do I have a story for you about how we got this snowman. I love snowmen for Christmas decor. Logan and I had a gift card from our wedding to a home decor store, the only catch was that we couldn't get anything on sale with it. Anything we bought had to be bought at regular price... I was so sick of having this gift card that one day when we went in, I was determined to not leave until we had used it all. I wasn't super interested in anything except a $120 lamp and this snowman. Any guesses on how much he was? It was $40!!!! He is kind of tall and cute, but not $40 cute. But we got him and the lamp (it was a good amount on the gift card). Thankfully that gift card is used up and I probably won't ever go back to that store. But we got a cute snowman.. for free!

 Logan finished his semester of school really well and I'm always so proud of him and how hard he worked. Because he was in school, he had a teacher that would not let him take a final early so he could shoot a Salt Lake wedding with me. That made me really sad because not only was he missing a wedding, but it was our friends wedding. Cody and Kinzie were going to be home in Idaho when I was going to go down and I asked them to go spend the night in Utah with me and drive back home so I didn't have to go alone. Well, I'm a wimp when it comes to driving in the snow and the day I was supposed to drive down, it was a CRAZY storm in Utah (the bride's family was from WA and had to drive because their flight was cancelled). I didn't feel super great about going and neither did Kinzie. I cried and cried not knowing what to do (I'm an emotional person, have you figured that out yet?). I called other photographers in Utah to see if they could cover it for me because I didn't think I would make it down; Jessica (the bride) called and told me they had some friends going down the next morning and I could just ride down and back with them. Hallelujah! A solution I felt good about.
The next morning I went down with their friends and was able to go into Ryan and Jessica's sealing. It was a beautiful sealing and that was my first time in the Salt Lake temple other than for baptisms.
Their wedding day was BEAUTIFUL!!

On Christmas Adam (does anyone else call it that?) we were with Logan's fam and we did our sibling present swap via facetime with Rachael and Davis. I got a super cute slouchy beanie and Big and Sxy hairspray! Logan got a video game, so of course he was happy! For Christmas we were with my family and it was great. Everyone was there on Christmas except the Colorado Fowler family, they came a few days later. We were spoiled for Christmas and are so thankful for everything we were given. On the Fowler side sibling gifts, Trent and Lindsey gave us some awesome Christmas stuff! They gave us our present in the beginning of December so we could use it throughout the season. They gave us Elf, a Christmas tree scent wall flower plug in and the cutest Christmas decoration.
Thanks everyone for everything!
On Christmas evening Logan's fam always goes out to a movie and this year we went to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was really good and was super good for the creative side of me.
Two days after Christmas, Trent and Lindsey had their second little boy. His name is Carter Richard and he is adorable. So sleepy and cute! Logan (not my hubby) loves his baby brother.

Honestly, I was terrible at taking pictures over the break. I was just happy to be with everyone and to have everyone home. Cody and Kinzie were home from PA, Troy's fam came up from CO and we were all there together. It was so great to play games for hours and eat way too much food. One night we played Mario Party 9 on the Wii and I have to write it down that on the football mini game I made it past both Cody and Jared to score, twice!!! It felt great! We played a lot of Cover your Assets (get this game, it's awesome) and Tenzi (get this one too!). Logan and I only came home for a few hours to go to church and that was about it. We stayed out of Rexburg for most of the break. It was a nice break!
For New Years Eve we were with my family and Katelyn and Kylie were pumped about staying up until midnight... until they got tired. They didn't make it to midnight, so before the kiddos were falling asleep we lit off a couple big fireworks and let them pull the balloon drop that we made. If you watch the video watch Troy's face during the balloon drop, he was a little confused!
It was a great holiday season filled with gifts and fun things, but I'm most grateful for the reason for the season. Our Savior Jesus Christ was born in a lowly manger so he could understand all of our hardships in this life. He suffered, bled, and died for us. I know that the Christmas season is to celebrate him, and I'm so grateful for that chance. I love my Savior!

I was terrible with pictures, but I did get enough video footage to make a cute little video of our holidays. You can watch it here!

Oh and that super awesome blog post that I was going to write that was on my mind for a really long time, well it might be coming up next week!! Check back soon for my class blog posts!

November

Well hello December, I didn't see you sneaking in on me. But here you are.. almost halfway over and I don't even know where November went.

I hope someone else feels the same way about November because I literally have no idea where it went. It came and went so quickly, but it was filled with a lot of wonderful things.

Logan was busy with school and still working at Olive Garden. Right now he is taking some generals and prerequisites for a bachelors in health administration. I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked. Some days when he gets home from school I am so excited and it's about all I can do to let him sit down to do more homework. I'm always ready for some fun adventures with my hubby, but I know his education is important!

I had a lot of photo shoots with seniors, families, and weddings that kept me busy. I had two weddings to shoot and besides those being my favorite things to shoot, having Logan come with me and shoot them with me makes them even better and more special to me. He is right there by my side giving me confidence and helping every step of the way.

After shooting at the temple

 The first wedding we did, was one of Logan's good friends from high school and she was marrying someone I knew from Shelley (Rigby/Shelley marriages are pretty great). We had the opportunity to go be there for their sealing. I have still yet to make it through a sealing without crying. The feeling that is in the temple during a sealing ceremony is so beautiful. As I have sat and watched and listened to other sealings, I am taken back to February 23, 2013 as I knelt across from my best friend and we were sealed together. Sometimes I sit in awe of the life that I have with him. He's wonderful, but I will save some lovey-dovey things for a post that I have been writing in my head for 3.5 months now that I will be writing in the next few days.

Sorry, I got a little distracted... Along with those photo shoots and weddings, I had the opportunity to go down and second shoot a wedding at the Salt Lake temple with another photographer. It was awesome. I learned so much and am grateful for the chance I had to do that.

Logan wasn't able to go down to Salt Lake with me so my mom went down with me and I'm so grateful that she did. It was fun to spend time just chatting with her and being silly. I have been blessed with a great mom; she is always willing to help me!

And yes, I pose all the time now. Just ask Logan, I'm always practicing couple poses in the mirror!

For our wedding I grew my hair out so I could have it up, but it was an agonizing process. When I cut my hair short after my junior year of high school, I loved it and never really grew it out again until our wedding. After the wedding I chopped it back into the a-line and decided to start growing it out again. Why you ask, I ask myself that all the time. It was a love hate relationship because I could put my hair into a ponytail, but I just don't like my hair long. So finally after debating it out in my mind and with Logan's encouragement, I whacked off my hair. Even shorter this time. And the verdict...

I LOVE it! Now I'm just dreaming of cutting it shorter. It's tempting, very tempting!

For Thanksgiving, we spent the day with the Peterson family with all of Logan's family. It was fun to have everyone there and to have his nieces (Rachael and Davis, too) come back from Arizona for a few days. They got here on Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving) and we met up with them at the mall to help some of them get clothes for family pictures. We snuck up on his nieces and it was the most hilarious thing ever. They were riding one of the mall rides that sucks quarters out of every parents wallet and we came up on both sides of the ice cream truck to give them a good fright. Leighton was on my side and she screamed, while Logan scared Finley to the point of almost crying before breaking into a big laugh. Those girls love their Lo, Lo. Fin really is so cute. She would come to me and want to be picked up just so she could ask me, "Where Lo Lo?"
For the feast on Thanksgiving, I made a raspberry pretzel salad and my Grandma Clark's hot fudge. And yes, to me it is the best hot fudge around. She makes it better than me, but I sure enjoyed it! It was really fun to be wifey and bring things to the dinner. I am looking forward to many more big dinners that I get to help with and be part of!
On Thanksgiving we took family pictures in the afternoon before stuffing out bellies full and it turned out AMAZING! I am so happy with our color choices and our location and everything about them! It was awesome. Here's a little peak at them until I do a full post with lots of them.

 Aren't they the cutest?!

 And I just plain love this of us

You know, I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that all the stores opened at like 6:00 on Thanksgiving for the Black Friday shopping. Hello, it wasn't even Friday!! Anyways, Emily (my sis-in-law) and I decided to go shopping around 11 hoping that it wouldn't be super crazy anymore. It wasn't and we just looked around at the mall, Target and Michaels. Michaels had some good deals on some decorations I wanted so I got stuff there and of course Target was amazing. I can't go into that store with buying at least 2 things from the dollar section and whatever else great I find. That night was no different. But hey, at least it was all cheap! :)

Well, other than that, I got a calling as the secretary in the primary presidency. I am counting my blessings that the week before I was sustained was the primary program and I did not have the stress of that. But I am excited to be part of this presidency and to get to know these kids. We have 10 kids in primary and two nurseries.

November was a month full of gratitude and I am so thankful for my family, the gospel, and Logan. I really would not be the person I am today without them!

Be looking forward to my next post. Now that I've told you about it, I have to do it. I have had some things on my mind since September and I have still yet to blog about them. Let's hope that in the past 3.5 months I have come up with something makes sense and means something. 

October

Two blog posts in one week.. it's a miracle! I'm finally catching up on this (possibly falling behind with pictures stacking up left and right... but sometimes you just need to write and express yourself)!

October is the month of ghosts, ghouls, pumpkins, and haunted houses. This year Logan and I went to The House of the Seven Gables in Rigby. That one definitely had an eerie, creepy feel to it. As you walked through you relived scenes from some classic Halloween/scary novels.

 

Logan's sister Amanda had a birthday on October 22; to celebrate we went out to eat at Blue Hashi and Logan filled his craving of sushi. I can eat sushi, but it's not my favorite thing to eat, but he loves it! After we ate there, we headed over to Dr. Slaughter's where Tami (Mr. Logan's mom) and I screamed the whole way through. I like haunted houses because I know it's fake and I can get spooked and have my husband hold me the whole way.. possibly carry me at times too. I had Logan wrap his arms around me as we walked through that one and some of the times when I would get scared, I would jump and pull my feet up. It was great and everyone got a good laugh at Tami and I so at least I know that I'll be invited to entertain!

I  mentioned in an earlier blog post that Logan was playing on a soccer team with his buddies; they only lost one game during the "season" games against my brother Jared's team. During the tournament, they won their first game and lost the next. That put them out at the quarter finals, but it was fun to watch them all play together. Mr. Logan has enjoyed soccer semester during his soccer class and his team so hopefully in the spring they will play as a team again!

I'm surprised this didn't make me fall over with how my back has been.

When I was in high school, I took time with some of my friends for granted. Now when one of my best friends from high school texts me and asks if we us girls want to go out to lunch or dinner, we all jump at the chance. It gives us much needed girl time and a chance to hear about each others lives. We met up this month for dinner at Texas Roadhouse and it was so fun. Rylee has a little pregnant belly that is adorable. Kelsey just got back from a trip to Europe through BYU-I. Janie is a working woman and she and her husband are going on a cruise this month... lucky ducks. I loved catching up with them and just talking. While we were eating, I sat and looked at each of them and thought of the memories they have blessed me with. We decided to try and make this a monthly thing, hopefully all of our schedules will allow it!

This past Sunday my parents had a Halloween party for our family at their house. It was really fun to get together with everyone (we sure missed Cody, Kinzie, Troy, Carrie, and the other kiddos) but we ate, played some fun Halloween games that Pinterest helped us with, and carved some pumpkins. We played a game called Witch Pitch. You buy little cauldrons from the dollar store (set of 12) and put them on a drawn witch hat on a poster board. There are different levels that give you different points- make sense? And you each take a turn trying to throw candy corn into the cauldron. We also played Halloween Bingo! 

Chelsea's sunshine pumpkin

 Halloween cookies

And sometimes I'm pretty sure some of the funniest things happen when the party is winding down and Jared decides to go hunt through our old Halloween costumes. I wish I would have taken pictures of all of them. He tried on the bee costume that I'm pretty sure each of kids wore when we were about 5. The next look he modeled for us was an Irish man wearing his kilt; he made it in high school with all of his buddies and they all went to school in their kilts one day. But this one made us all laugh as he gave us his cackle and flew on his broom.

Logan and I love to play a video game called Fuzion Frenzy together. It was a game I got when I was younger and I would play against my brothers, but Logan is champ at video games and I still have Fowler in my blood so I'm competitive. We each have our turns winning, but one day when the end came, WE TIED! Neither of us had ever see someone tie and we played in a tiebreaker round.

 Logan ended up beating me, but it was really cool!

This semester Mr. Logan goes to school every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. He works Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. He is taking a couple online classes and he works on those on Tuesdays. Because of this we decided to start a new tradition, every Tuesday we will make breakfast together. No cereal, no Pop-tarts, no Eggo chocolate chip waffles (I sure love those though), we will make something to eat together. When we were eating I talked about how this easy right now because of the way his schedule it, but I would like to continue it for the rest of our lives. I think as a kid it would be awesome to know that at least every Tuesday you get something other than a store bought breakfast. I know that life won't always be easy and there will be lots going on, but I know the importance of traditions and we hope to carry this tradition on with us.

Logan's sister Emily also had a birthday during October. We celebrated her birthday a week after Amanda's; we ate at Olive Garden (hooray for Olive Garden employee discount) and went back to Paul and Tami's for cake and to carve pumpkins. We carved one at my parents party that was Logan's pumpkin and then at this one we carved one that was my pumpkin. I really really wanted to carve something that had to do with photography but I didn't know how. I had a rough idea and I kind of just went with it... so here's our pumpkins!

If you can't tell... Logan is Batman. And mine is a camera! The MPP stands for MicPetey Photography and the arrow is a new symbol I like. 

That was our month of October... but just to share our happiness that the Christmas season is coming

IT'S BACK!We saw some Chocolate Nog at Broulims the other day and had to buy it!

That's it for our month of October so for now.. Happy November!

The wonders of Colorado and sisters

At the beginning of this month I too a plane to Colorado to visit my brother and his family for a few days. It was an awesome trip filled with photo shoots, mosquitoes, Hobby Lobby, and lots of fun, but I need to tell you the whole story.
On Monday, September 30, Logan and I signed papers on our new apartment and we moved all most of our stuff up. We loaded Logan's car full of stuff in the morning hoping our manager would call us and give us the OK to come sign our papers and we could move in. Logan called me around 11 to tell me we could move in and we would be signing papers at 3:30. Spud Harvest was in full swing that week so my mom helped me and we loaded my car and her car to take up more when we went to sign the papers. We signed the papers and started the move in process. We unloaded everything and headed back to Shelley to load the big stuff up in the truck and to stuff all of our cars one more time.

We got to Rexburg and some of our awesome friends and siblings came and helped us unload everything; about fifteen minutes after we had finished getting everything inside and we were all chatting, my mom and sister-in-law headed out to leave. A few minutes later they came in to tell us that the booting company had gotten their cars with boots. They weren't parked in the visitor parking, BUT our apartment is one of the back buildings, how are we supposed to carry beds, dressers, tables, etc. from the front of the place? Let's just say, my brother called the company and they ended up coming to take them off.  Stressful and it was around 11:30. Sleep and stressful ended with me in tears after all of our friends left.

I was supposed to catch a Salt Lake Express at 3:30 am that morning to get to my flight to head to Colorado. I decided I wasn't going to sleep and I would try to put some things in the house together before I left. Around 1:30 Mr. Logan got sleepy and wanted me to come snuggle and lay by him. He told me that we could set both of our alarms and the alarm clock for 2:30 so I could make sure I have everything. We woke with a jump as what we thought was our alarm going off. What we didn't realize at that moment was that it was the Salt Lake Express calling to see if we were coming. I told Logan five more minutes because I thought it was 2:30. He then proceeded to tell me that, "No Michelle it's 3:45." And I told him, "Oh my gosh honey, I'm going to throw up." We looked over at the alarm clock to find it unplugged. We had no idea how that happened! I changed my clothes grabbed my suitcase and the last minute things I needed and we were running out the door. We double checked the location I was supposed to meet them at and we started speeding on our way to the Idaho Falls Shaka shuttle location. Logan was driving a little fast... we were very lucky that we didn't get pulled over and that on the other side of the highway there was a car already pulled over so we were able to slow down and be OK. The entire time we were driving my only thought was that we missed a shuttle that we had just paid $55 for and Logan was now going to have to drive me to Salt Lake. We were really blessed because when we got to the gas station, we pulled in at the exact same time as the shuttle. Logan and I had a good laugh about everything once we were parked and getting all my stuff on the shuttle. I hugged him and giggled to myself as I boarded the shuttle about how absolutely ridiculous our morning was.

I love flying. I think I found a new love for it and I would love to be "rich and famous" and travel with my husband. It would be amazing.. and if we through taking pictures into the mix, it would make it 10x better!

When I got to the Denver airport, I was beyond lost because it is HUGE! When I finally found where I was supposed to be and Mason saw me, he came running toward me to give me a big hug and kiss. By that time Carrie had pushed the stroller over towards me, Tyson was wiggling and squirming trying to get out to get to me. Ty guy and I became best buds while I was there.

 That first night I was there, we took pictures of Troy and Carrie's family, except our location was completely infested with mosquitoes. So we got a few shots, but not a lot, you can see them here. Because we didn't get a ton of images that night and a session I had scheduled down there got cancelled for Wednesday night, we went back out with the kids of a second session with the kiddos. Those shots are also on the other post.
On the first night when I went to bed, I wasn't itchy at all, but when I woke up, I found plenty of evidence from the mosquito bites. In this next shot there are 7 bites. The one under my eye got super swollen and I had another bite on my hand that made it hard for me to use one of my fingers.

 Do you see the bite on little man's forehead?

While I was there I had the opportunity to have another session with a family that my family knew. I decided that it is my goal to one day I will be a traveling photographer. It was awesome to be able to travel somewhere new, meet new people, and share moments and memories with those people. And I truly hope that one day this dream will come true and that Logan and I will travel for weddings, family sessions, and just to capture different places. Sorry that was completely off hand.
Other things from when I was there is that we went to have lunch with Troy on the roof of the hospital. To be completely honest, it was really strange for me to see my brother in the setting of being a doctor. In my eyes he is and always will be my brother. That is who he is to me and he is great at it, but he is great at the doctor stuff too.

All week long Carrie and I crafted, had sister talk, and just enjoyed being with the kiddos. We learned to make super cute headbands that we would try on the little guy just because it was funny.

We played Halloween Bingo from Target's dollar section, went to the park, played with cars, and played Simon Says Drawing.

 And let's just say that Katelyn and Kylie are much better at drawing than me.

Carrie also does a preschool group with some other moms and it was her turn to do it while I was there. It is for a group of 7 three year olds. Holy cow, that was enough birth control for me for quite some time.

It was beautiful while I was there.  I was there to watch the leaves change and see the bright, bold, beautiful fall come to life.

Two years ago, the fall of 2011, I flew out to Iowa to spend time with this same family. While I was there, I had time to think of the changes that have taken place in my life in the past years. Carrie and I are very close and I loved the time I had to spend with her. 
My trip went so fast. And every time Carrie and started to mention me leaving we would get teary. Before I left, I was scheduling the whole month of October for photography and I was stressed and busy and we were moving and I was going CRAZY! Colorado was good to me; it calmed me down and helped me feel so much better.
I was the only girl growing up and I never wanted my parents to have another baby, but I was always looking forward to having a sister. Carrie was my first sister, she came into my life at the age of 12. To even think about that age, that was an awkward weird stage, but she was always so happy and willing to spend time with me. Carrie was the first person I told that I felt like something was different with Logan and she told me I sounded different, happier. She was always happy to lend a listening ear and be there for me. And she still is; this trip we talked, laughed, cried, and really enjoyed our time with each other. I am so grateful that I have four great sisters and that I got to spend time with Carrie.

Being with these kids was great. I can't wait for my next trip out!

 I sit here and have tears stream down my face as I think about Troy, Carrie, Katelyn, Kylie, Mason, and Tyson. I love these guys and I miss them. I'm grateful for the chance I had to see them and spend time with them. I am also grateful to have learned from this family's example to me. Also, I would like to thank Carrie again for her hospitality, kindness, and love, she has shown to me.

Love ya sis!