welcome to the world abby graff

Congratulations to our friends Nate and Alicia who just had their very first baby early Sunday morning, a beautiful little girl named Abby! We are so happy for the two of you and can't wait to meet her!

For the occasion I figured that I might as well post a few more of the maternity pictures that I took for the two of them back in May. Don't worry Alicia, I will let you keep the good ones to yourselves.

[[ a few more pictures from nate & alicia's maternity shoot. ]]

my week in pictures 24

monday 9/23 - sunday 9/29

I don't have too many pictures for you from last week since we were really focusing on packing everything up. On Saturday Pats parents helped us get everything moved over to our new place, and the unpacking and setting up began. We are now officially Bend natives! We have a ton of work to do before I start posting a million pictures of the house, but it is slowly coming along. Sorry this weeks post is a little boring...

[[ dressed for some serious fall weather. all packed up, drinking wine out of coffee mugs. emptying out the living room. our beautiful stormy moving day. loading up the truck. endless amounts of clutter to find places for. ]]

my week in pictures 23

tuesday 9/17 - sunday 9/22
(We were still in California on Monday)

The past few weeks have looked a little like this: work, new house, clean, home, sleep, repeat. Over the past weekend we finally got a chance to stay over at the house (on our air mattress) with the goal of getting the bulk of painting and "remodeling" projects completed. With a little help from Pats dad and step mom, I would say that we were fairly successful. We cleaned, painted, removed screws and nails left behind, spackled, painted some more, and re-did two closets. Not too shabby, although we have quite a bit of work to go along the lines of finishing touches and new projects. Don't worry, I will post real Before & Afters later on.

[[ work award. pat ripping all of the awkward built-ins out of our closet. getting ready to paint away the ugly green. khaki found in the garage. my painting face. our ugly pastel yellow bedroom (before). relaxed khaki bedroom (after). redistributing the built-ins from our master closet to the guest room closet and painting everything a neutral color. tools. rickie wanted to help. dinner break saturday night. breakfast break sunday night. the most epic bloody mary of all time at the vic. an early dinner at 5 fusion. ]]

san jose :: sneak peak

In lieu of a "My Week" post I am just going to do a picture preview from my most recent trip to Cali since before heading out on Thursday all we did was work and work on our house.

Per usual, here are the pictures that I posted on Instagram while I was away. I will do a full post of our trip within the next couple weeks. After that I will tackle Vegas and Seattle.

[[ instagram photos: pdx. me and my little at the rehersal dinner. my wedding date. the beautiful bride. santa cruz. photobooth pics from the wedding. ]]

year three.

Johni,
I can't believe it has already been three years since you have been gone...

Its crazy to think back to where we all were as people then. So much has changed, yet, I still think of you often as little things remind me of happy memories we shared. Sometimes the correlation is pretty silly, like when me and Pat were at Velvet and a ridiculous Flight of The Concords song came on. I am sorry that I don't write to you/about you as much, thats time I guess. But it doesn't mean that you are any less important in my life. In fact, your influence was crucial to me becoming the person I am today, and for that I am thankful.

[[ i know this picture is super ridiculous, but she looks so pretty in it and its silly so i like it, circa 2007ish. my first attempts at a johni tree painting tonight. ]]

Last year I debated finishing our book but decided against it for the time being, even when another was added to the series. I just feel like I need to do something to commemorate you before I can cut that tie. I also started a painting for you a year ago today, but didn't get further than the background at the time. I guess I was afraid to start and mess it up (I never was as skilled as you were), but tonight I picked up the canvas again and went for it. I am not positive where I am going with it yet, but hopefully it turns out.

I am not really sure what I am trying to say to you today. I guess I just wanted you to know that me and Pat are doing great and that we both miss you and thank you for being the person that you were. I wish I could have known you longer. I think that we could have had some grand conversations in the future about wedding planning and the importance of hanging paper lanterns and pretty lights in a backyard.

((( more johni posts. )))

♥

going going, back back, to cali cali

(Ridiculous title, but I couldn't help myself...)

Tomorrow me and Pat are off to California again, this time for my favoritest cousin Ashley's wedding!! I am really excited to see everyone, go to the wedding I have been looking forward to all summer, and spend some quality time in San Jose, my original home town! My goal is to even take Pat to Santa Cruz for a day. Fingers crossed that we have time.

[[ me and ashley circa 1990ish. i can't believe this girl is getting married!!

The only issue with yet another out of state adventure is that I still have pictures from Seattle, Las Vegas, and various hikes around Central Oregon to finish editing, write up, and post!! Man, I am a real slacker this year... I know I don't have a ton of time yet, but I am thinking getting all caught up is going to need to be an end of the year goal. So, there you have it, by 12/31/2013 I WILL have all of my Photo Adventures up on the blog.

my week in pictures 22

monday 9/2 - sunday 9/8

Last week we got keys to our new place and started cleaning and exploring. Most of our after work hours were spent there in fact, so I don't have too many great weekly photos to post. However, on the weekend we headed for Corvallis to watch the OSU vs. Hawaii game which was a TON of fun! We even got to play a round of beer pong in our old place with our old roomate Adam and some of his friends. It was great meeting up with everyone and I am looking forward to the next home game we will be attending (Stanford or USC, not sure which one is first). As usual we had to hit up Block15 before we skipped town, and I even talked everyone to heading over to my favorite gelato place for dessert. Oh yea, and Go Beavs!

[[ exploring out new place. heading over the pass. nostalgia. ooo sss uuu. sunday fun around town. ]]