Hey! It's me again. 

I just wanted to say....

I got a new photography website! 

allisonkayphotography.com

I'm pretty excited about it.

Click on the link above, or the picture to see my amazing website  :)

Maybe you should head over and check it out.

And then tell everyone about it!

And then book a session for yourself  :)

Ok, thanks.

Bye!

P.S.  I need to give a HUGE thank you to my amazingly awesome and wonderful husband who is so incredibly supportive and always willing to help and encourage and do whatever it is I need. He is the best. 

And he will probably wish that I didn't put this on here  :) 

Ok, I'm done for reals now.

Crunch Time!

It is crunch time for us to get ready for this baby!

We finally finished the nursery and I love it so much! 

Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to it.

Especially Clayson for his patience and help with all "my" little projects that he did most of the work for.

How did I get so lucky to have him?

Saturday, we went on our last date before our little boy comes. 

We started with going to the Pupuseria El Salvador for lunch and I actually really enjoyed it!

Then we played a round of miniature golf. 

I was in the lead for most of the game, but Clayson made an impressive comeback and I ended up loosing by 2 points. 

I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've ever come to winning!

We celebrated with popsicles and then drove around looking at houses, just for fun.

I loved it  :)

39 weeks

Now bring on this baby! 

Scouts & Laundry Rooms

Ever since we moved into our house, we have wanted to put up a shelf in our laundry room. 

We went to Home Depot and got the shelf, but it needed to be cut to fit our wall - A simple enough task, but one that we lacked motivation to complete.

So it sat in our garage for a while, and life moved on.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Clayson and I have been called to work with the Boy Scouts on Thursday nights. 

Specifically, the Bears (3rd Grade). 

Let me tell you, those boys have energy!

The boys love Clayson! 

They tolerate me because I bribe them with treats.

They refer to us as Brother and Sister Squirrel  :)

I work later on Thursdays, so I usually show up a little after the activity has started. 

This particular night, the lesson was on tools and fixing things.

When I walked into the room, I just had to laugh.

Clayson had all the boys helping to cut the shelf for our laundry room.

They were very into it.

I guess that's one way to get the job done!

I love my shelf  :)

50 Shades of Gray - Searle Style

I have been meaning to write this post for months! 

I visited my cousins house and Clayson says I'm not aloud to go over there anymore  :)  

Her house is so cute and it inspired me to do something with our own place. 

we accidentally matched our pajamas  :)

Mostly I'm a whole lot of talk and not much action. 

Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I finally tell myself I'm going to buy
 curtains/rug/chair/baskets/table/decoration/whatever and then I get to the store and see how much it cost, and I instantly talk myself out of it. haha! 

ready to paint!

One day my parents called and said they were planning on coming to visit us for the weekend.

Because I had just been telling Clayson all my latest plans that would one day maybe be a reality, I off handedly told my parents we could paint my house when they came. Surprisingly, they agreed! And were actually excited to do it! (I think).
So, kind of unexpectedly, all my talk suddenly became reality.

taping.... this didn't last long.
Notice how there is no contrast between the walls and moulding around the doors

We picked up some paint samples from Home Depot.
 I think picking out wedding colors there has scarred Clayson for life, thinking that we will be there for an hour picking between 50 shades of gray
(don't worry, not the movie) but this was much easier than wedding colors. 

We were honestly there for like 5 minutes, tops. 

again, no contrast between moulding and wall

My parents arrived Friday night, we picked up the paint Saturday morning, and the fun began! 

See the color begin to go on! We have contrast!

laying down newspaper

Courtney decided to join the fun! 

However, she conveniently forgot we were painting so she wasn't dressed for it and she showed up just as we were finishing. 

She was good at finishing off our leftovers though  :)

getting above the cabinets was a fun job

We made a last minute decision to paint the kitchen blue instead of gray.

I think I'm ok with it now.

mom and me

me and courtney

After painting mom & dad took us all out to lunch, and then we took a break in the freshly painted living room.

That night we played an exciting game of Mexican Train.

I believe I won  :)

and we went on a walk.

girls in the hood

piggy-back

and played Heads Up

The final kitchen (I promise it's blue, it just doesn't show very well in this light)

Mom & Dad were so generous to help us furnish our living room for our wedding present. 

We love how it turned out!

(one day we will have decorations on the wall....)

Now we just need to decide which arrangement we like.... top, or bottom picture?

Thank you again Mom & Dad for all your help, it would not have happened without you!

We can't wait for you to come back to visit again!

I'm sure I could come up with another project....  :)

That One Time in June....

Remember that one time when we went to see Ryan Hamilton and I said I was going to make a video of it? 

Well, I finally made it!

Staring: Clayson fighting with people and Jana bobbling her head

Supporting Actors: Allison, Abbi & Jared, Carlie & Tyler, Ellen & Brody, Karissa, and Courtney 

(and Ryan Hamilton's ear)

It was really such a fun trip though! Before seeing Ryan Hamilton we went to Cafe Rio and then we all stayed at Carlie & Tyler's that night. 

So, while this may not be that exciting for most people to watch, it was our last big hurrah before we all got married. I love all these people!

Enjoy:

Thanks for watching  :)

Getting Crafty

I am not a crafty person.

Crafts, to me, translates into a lot of money and time that could be spent doing something cheaper and less messy.

Pretty pessimistic, I know.

But, I am pleased to say that my tune may be changing! 

One of our wedding presents was a window frame with vinyl lettering on the glass,
but sadly, the glass was broken, so now we just had the window frame. 

I decided this was my perfect opportunity to get crafty!

I went through a lot of options of what I could do with the frame:

pinterest

We ruled out anything with words pretty quick because we got a lot of wordy gifts - really cute gifts that I love and used them all,
but we really didn't need to add another.

pinterest

The wreath idea meant I had to find a wreathe that I actually liked and then it had to fit in our frame.

It just seemed like more work than it was worth.

pinterest

I liked the idea of hanging pictures, but Clayson said we already had too many pictures.

pinterest

Clayson really liked the idea of a chalk board, 

but to me a chalk board translates into cute artsy pictures and typography, which I lack the motivation for. 

Also, it would probably end up being more words, which was the first thing we ruled out.

So, it looked like we had eliminated all possible options.

It was kind of discouraging.

But then inspiration struck.

We put metal in it!

It sounds weird, but our fridge is not magnetic (Crazy, I know!) so we had no place to put our cute magnets and announcements or whatever. 

Also, did you know that you can write on metal with dry erase marker??

We haven's gotten any yet, but we will! Then Clayson can still draw to his hearts content  :)

fun fact: there are at least 8 wedding presents in this picture

I feel so crafty!

Clayson keeps reminding me that all I did was buy a piece of metal, but baby steps! Right?

I'm so proud  :)

Taking Over My Life

Last year I made a movie of our family reunion and it turned out really cute, so I decided to make one for this years reunion too.

It is taking over my life!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love doing it.
Sometimes I wonder if I love it a little too much.

Here's a sampling of "the kid section" for your enjoyment:

I'm pretty sure I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever. 

And I am not biased at all. Just stating the facts  :)

I'm still having withdrawals from being away from them.

Warning to my family: This years video is going to be long. I mean, really long. Like we could probably make a full length film out of it.
I guess that's what happens when the kids start getting old enough to say funny things, the adults get better at using the camera, and we have way too much fun packed into one week.

I don't think it's such a bad thing.