My Mia- Well, Kindof

Are you tired of all the photography lately? If you are, you can quit reading:)

Tara asked me to take some photos of Mia in dress up for her room. I was super excited to do it! Mia is just gorgeous and photos so well. And I'm going to share just a few.

It's so hard for me to share just a few too! :)

Mixed Up

I've been meaning to post this for some time, mostly so that I won't forget the funny little things my kids do that make it all worth it. Which truly was the WHOLE reason I started a blog in the first place, but I suppose like everything else, things change, get sidetracked, or evolve. This blog is no exception. Or I kid myself, and this has happened quite frequently in my life, that "Oh, I'll remember. This one I surely can't forget." But alas, I do.

Here's what I want to remember:

Andon came home with his homework one day, and as I was going through it I noticed that on his spelling test he missed all the words. All 6 or ten, or something. (see, this is why one should right down these things as one thinks of them.) I was confused. He usually either gets them all right, or he misses one. He's a pretty good speller:) I asked him why he missed all of the words. I showed him the test as he didn't seem too concerned about the fact that he got EVERY SINGLE ONE wrong, and though I wasn't overly concerned either, (as he is just in first grade), but I was curious. He says, "I mixed up the words."

What? Still fairly confused, which isn't necessarily anything new for me, but still.

"What are you talking about? Why would you mix up the words? Aren't you supposed to spell them the correct way, as best you can remember?"

He says, "Yeah, but Ms. Buback told us to mix them up."

And again, HUH???

I stared at him a few more moments, and then, cause it takes me just a minute:), the light bulb went off and I realized that what she probably said was that she was mixing up THE ORDER of the words. And here my son thought she wanted him to mix up the actual word.

HAAAHAAAAHAAA!!!!

And no, I didn't laugh at him, I held a straight face and stifled my chuckles until I could burst out with them later in the privacy of my bathroom.

But here's what I think is so cool. Andon had enough knowledge of the word that he could actually mix it up and not spell it correctly. I mean, these words were seriously scrambled!!

Oh heavens, my kids make me laugh. :) And then the next day, they're making me irate and I'm learning a lesson in patience.

Life just keeps coming at you:)

She's Done!

Yes! I'm done with my kids' photos! And she really was a great sport. It wasn't nearly the revenge I thought it was going to be:) Guess I'll have to try something else next time.

Coleen, I'm almost ready to send the photos to you so you can do my christmas cards!

There was so many that turned out so darn cute but I am only going to share my favorites of Britt.

Shoot- I would just love to have her hair.









This is truly Brittnee:)

School pictures #3 Andon

My sweet Andon. My sweet Andon who is suddenly fully aware of his vocabulary. Not in a bad way of course, but in a funny child-who's-growing up way.

For instance: We were talking about his Christmas list, and he was saying how much he wants Legos. I'm thinking, "Sweet! Cause we bought a big ole tub of em!" Of course he doesn't know this so he says, "I think I only put LEG-O. I better add an 'S' to that so I can have MORE." Can't disagree with that logic. Today after church, he sees his old primary teacher Bro. Beale and says hi to him. Bro. Beale stopped to talk to him for a second, after which Andon turns to me and says, "That's my old primary teacher." I said I knew, (after all, I'm his mother and as far as he should be concerned, I am ALL KNOWING) and then I said that he is so sweet. Now in my defense, this really is a compliment. I love sweet people! I really do. So he cocks and eyebrow, (which he's so good at), looks at me and says, "Mom, he's a man. You don't call him sweet."

Really?!?! When did he turn sixteen! Sheesh.

Andon adds so much joy to our home. Especially lately:)















One more left! And she's the hardest one to let me take her pictures. Should be fun:) Bwaaahaahaaa! This is my form of revenge:)

Black Friday

I've been so caught up in photography lately, and editing said photography (that takes the most time) that I have completely forgotten to document the fact that my husband actually went with me shopping at midnight on Black Friday.

Side note: For the longest time I wondered why it was called Black Friday. I figured it was because of all the craziness that ensues on these sorts of shopping excursions, thus making it "Black" for some people, especially the ones that got trampled, but alas, I was wrong.

I detest Walmart normally. As a general rule I avoid it, but when they have some stellar deals, well... even I like to save as much money as I can when out spending it. Seems somewhat ironic I suppose. But when I saw what WalMart was selling on Black Friday, we just couldn't pass it up. It's really true that money talks, cause my money was saying, "you'll save yourself over a hundred bucks if you suck it up and shop at WalMart." So we did. We headed over there at midnight, took turns standing in line and shopping until 2am, at which time we got our bracelets to reserve our items. At this point the employee says that we have to be back between 5am and 6am to pick it up or they're going to give them to other people. WELL... that ain't gonna happen. I didn't stand in line for two hours for nothin!! (Yes, my redneck tendencies/grammar pop up now and then.) So Doug and I thought that we'd just go home, sleep for a couple of hours and come back. So that was the plan. Until we got in the car.

The reason I am documenting this is because I have never heard such words coming from his mouth.

EVER.

IN MY LIFE.

He says, "Let's just go shopping. There's got to be a bunch of stores open, then we'll just go back at five and pick up the other stuff."

SWEEEET!!!

So we ran up to Citrus Heights as we knew the Toys R US was open, but first we stopped at Denny's. Um, HELLOOOOO, it was incredibly packed. When has there EVER been a line to eat at Denny's??? But we had time! :) Doug and I had pancakes and hashbrowns. MMMMM...I love me some good pancakes.

But here's the thing that was so surprising. People were actually really nice! Even at WalMart of all places. I was really truly surprised. I thought I was going to have to do some take-downs, ya know? It was almost like being part of this exclusive club that only few people know about. A club where great deals happen, where people talk to perfect strangers as if they've known them for years, where the hustle and bustle is actually quite fun. Who knew?!?

We hit Toys R Us for a couple of items. One of the items was the last one so I was glad we got it. Then I overheard someone say that the mall was opening at 4am. Well why not? We had time! :) We ran over to the mall which opened promptly at four. Lots of teenagers there by the way. Fortunately we made it to Teaghan's favorite store quickly because the table with the $10 hoodies went in a matter of minutes. I grabbed a bunch, Doug grabbed a bunch, and we sorted as we stood in line. Mega deals we got there too, along with some freebies for spending over $100! And we are just having so much fun! There were a couple of times I thought Doug was getting a little green around the gills at the amount of money that was being spent, but he actually did pretty good. The man likes to save too.

After that, we headed back to Wally Mart (yes I did that typo on purpose), picked up our "prizes" and headed home. Got home at 5:30. The kids didn't even get up till 10am so we even got five hours of sleep out of it. The Christmas miracles just keep coming:)

But most importantly, I got to hang with my best friend. And he actually liked shopping this year! Wonders never cease.

Teaghan School Pics

Two kids done, two to go. How come this is taking me so long!? I'm planning on using the kids photos on the christmas cards so I suppose I need to kick this into high gear.


Teaghan and I had so much fun taking these pictures!

McCall Family Photos

This is the cutest little family!! Jessica, who is a friend of my sister in law, asked me to take their family photos. They were such troopers in the 48 degree weather! I was a little concerned that it would be too cold to take photos but Jessica assured me that her children wouldn't even notice. She was so right!!

And WOW...the energy level. These two keep their parents at a run. But what was so great is that Jessica and Jeremy were so calm as they ran after these two. They didn't even seem to be fazed. :)

Jessica and Jeremy, you guys are AMAZING. Your children are beautiful! I hope you enjoy your sneak peak.

Brittnee turns 11!

My ever enthusiastic cheerleader Britt turns 11 today. It's hard to believe that she's getting older, but the proof comes year after year. I will always see my beautiful red headed baby. In fact her hair was so pretty that I had hair stylists telling me that they wish they could bottle the color. She was just a darling baby with a spunky spirit! Even then.

Brittnee has thought for this last week that she was getting Barbies for her birthday gift. Doug and I didn't buy her Barbies, but as we joked about it, she became convinced that that was what she was getting. A day didn't go by without her telling me that she no longer played Barbies and it wasn't a good gift for her. She became progressively paranoid as the days went by. It was so hard to not tell her the truth. We had many good chuckles at her expense:)

Heavens but it was fun. Usually Britt is the one pulling the jokes on us.

Little did she know that she got the motorized scooter that she'd been asking for. Plus, she is a big fan of the Wimpy Kid books. She has all of them and the latest one just came out a week ago so I hurried and snagged that too. (Side note: I got the book for $1.24 because it was 20% off and I had $10 in Borders Bucks. A DOLLAR AND 24 CENTS!! I could hardly believe it. I love love love getting good deals!)

We charged the scooter for 18 hours. Yes, 18 HOURS. But it was worth the wait. She loves it! She picked BJ's for dinner tonight. Then we'll bring home fixings for banana splits. All in all, I think she had a great birthday!

Love you Britt!! Your humor and zest for life never leave us bored. The mold was broke when Heavenly Father created you.









She was even gracious to share her new scooter with her siblings who now want scooters for Christmas. (sigh)



Thanks also to Grandma for going in on the gift!

Stocking Stuffers

I can't believe I just wrote stocking stuffers! Good grief. Is it that time of year already? Didn't we just do this???

I love Christmas. I really do. But ALREADY?!

Another fundraiser came home with the kids. I wasn't even going to look through it. (We did the last one.) But I gave in cause curiosity apparently got the better of me, and I am so glad I did. Because I found this. Yeah!!



What in the world is this selling? I know you're asking. If you look close you can see the model holding a bag. On the bag is a round ball attached to a clip. It's lip balm that clips on to your purse, or for my use, the girls' backpacks. That way they never lose their chapstick! I know, it's genius.

These are just some of the kinds they have.





I was so excited to see that they were in this fundraiser the kids brought home. And the exact two that I wanted even! How crazy is that?? The only problem is that you can only get Twist and Pout in certain stores. Dilliards for instance, and Amazon has some. Twist and Pout doesn't sell off their website so I was going to call my sister in Utah and have her ship me some but now I don't have to. YIPPEEEE!

Good thing the girls don't read my blog:) They'd know I am throwing these in their stockings!

To see more Twist and Pout you can go here.

I just love fun stuff like this! I may have to order myself one for my stocking:)

Serendipity

So this whole photography "thing" comes and goes in spurts. At times I think, "No, I don't think I want to pursue a side job in this business," but then I love it so much to give it up which then makes me think, "Yes, I do think I want to see where this goes." I'm thinking of taking some courses next year when Zak hits first grade. I need some tips on lighting, and staging, and how to REALLY take photos. Just bump up 'my game.' But at times it can be very stressful so I've been back and forth with the inner debate for quite some time. But lately I've had some inquiries about taking photos of different families again, so I'm thinking maybe I SHOULD see where this whole photography thing takes me. Next year that is. I can't take any classes this year:)

So to those of you who have expressed interest and are reading this cause you know my blog address, I will email you:)

I want to share some photos of my "other children." My good friend Tara asked me to take some photos of her kids. We actually have only had time for the smaller two, the other three we'll get to soon. She was such a good sport when I called her spur of the moment and said, "Hey, I'm taking Zak's pictures right now if you want to hurry over and meet me." She said she would and so we knocked out a couple in the 15 minutes that I had. I hurried and edited them a couple of days later. I was somewhat nervous to show her. It's always a little nerve wracking to show the client what you've done with their family, but I'm so glad Tara likes them. Whew! Either that or she was just trying to spare my feelings. :)

Teaghan teases me that I like "weeds." Okay, it's true. I like natural settings, old fence posts, all kinds of roadways whether they be new or broken up, rolling prairies.... though I know I wasn't born in the wrong era, (I know this because I WOULD NOT HAVE MADE A GOOD PIONEER), I just am naturally drawn to these things.

ANYWAY.... these are my favorites of Mia and Ben. Mia, by the way, is GORGEOUS!!!



Oh my gosh I love this face!!! And his cheeks....oh my goodness.













There was just a little drool and a little bugie that needed to be removed. Just one more reason why I love Photoshop.















I just love shoes on little feet! I just love shoes! :)



At the beginning of the post I was thinking of putting a disclaimer that the post will be somewhat lengthy, but since I can look at photography all day (if my time would allow me to do so:) I just figure everyone else is as interested as I am. So if you got all the way to the bottom...nice job. Thanks for being interested. :)

Wait!!

I forgot to post my other favorite photo of Zak!! I can't believe I didn't get this one in the last post. He was being so silly and running around with his arms in the air while I was trying to take his picture, so I was happily surprised when I got one that worked. So I am going to share this one as well cause I absolutely love it. :) This one and another one will probably be the ones I will put on the wall.