Karren Family Photos

I always have great anxiety when taking pictures, which is why one has to beg and plead for a session. And as I'm NO WHERE NEAR A PROFESSIONAL, I always hope everything goes well so it's usually family and friends who get sessions. And it's because they've requested them :)

 The Karren's are no exception to that rule. I worked with Angela in the Stake Primary presidency and got to know her very well. I can truly say that she is quite amazing! Working with her and the other ladies (you know who you are:) was such an immense blessing. I know it was work, but when you have as much fun as we did, somehow the work just didn't feel like work. Is PARTY to much of an adjective?? LOL!

 Here's the really cool part... When you work with someone closely, you get to know that person and their family. It just works that way. So now the Karren's are now some of my favorite people!! Unfortunately our session was cut short as it was raining, so Angela, I owe you a few more photos of Abby and Leah. They are such beautiful girls and I'm bummed I didn't get more of them. Spring time :)

 I can't leave the boys out...the camera loved them! Their photos are my favorites I think. Especially Luke :) Have I said how much I like that boy :) Here's your sneak peek!

Whew!!  It's December.  If it wasn't staring me in the face I would be in major denial.  As it is, the holidays are always a fun time to spend with our families and I look forward to those times, whether it comes upon me quickly with great haste, or slowly when I wonder when it'll ever get here.  Quickly or not, I treasure these moments.  Maybe that's why I love getting Christmas cards...I can see other family and friends and how much they're kids have grown too. 

Speaking of Christmas cards and family pictures, these guys are one of my favorite families!   Even after I pulled a big photographer no-no by not backing up my battery, they were so patient when I had to go back home and get the other one.  (Serious eye rollage here)  Rob and Sasha are so much fun to hang out with and they're kids are super spunky and let's face it, there is some SUPER cute-age going on here!  

(Did you notice my bad grammar?  Rollage and cute-age.  I make up words all the time to fit what I'm typing.)

Nunley family, you guys made me smile.  Madeline, you're so stinking gorgeous.  No one should be that pretty.... not to mention, she just knows how to pose without any help.  Zander, these shots of you came out better than I was expecting.  I actually dreamed last night that they turned out horrible and your mom couldn't hang a photo of you on the wall and it was all my fault!  But in reality, yours I think just might be my favorite.  Greta, your skin is so great.  You were an amazing model even though you were freezing :)  Eliza, girl, you got it together after having a teeny meltdown, and you'd never even know cause your pictures turned out fabulous.  You rock!

Sasha, I hope you like them.  Here's a few of my favorites!

Yesterday....

Yesterday was rough.  Whew!  Sometimes I wonder how I'll possibly get my children through to adulthood with their sanity still in tact, when it's all I can do to keep my OWN.  Why is it so hard sometimes?? 

It seemed like everything went wrong yesterday.  Zak is becoming a handful so I've had to take him to task for the last week or so, and I'm still unsure how to go about a positive consequences program for him.  The wireless internet in the house has been acting up, well, SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED 3 YEARS AGO.  (roll of the eyes here).  The real kicker is that I spent most of my day trying to get someone with any answers.  ANY!  I would've settled for Big Bird to come over and fix it!!

You can see where I'm going with this.  Life threw me a curveball yesterday, and I kept swinging and missing.  Our life is so scheduled, and it's not even OVERLY scheduled, it's just 4 KIDS scheduled.  So how do you slow down?  It's not like I can cut out the stressors going on right now, otherwise my kids would be living on Mars, recently shipped out yesterday.  I can't cut out church because I have responsibilities and really, you can't cut out church! :)  I need all the blessings I can get!!  I can't cut out Doug's work and make him stay home and destress cause then where would we be?  Sometimes, (okay a lot of the time lately) there is nothing we can do to make life perfect.

I can't make my kids behave 100% of the time.  I can't guarantee that nothing will go wrong with the technology side of life.  I can't guarantee that school is always going to be peaches and cream and my kids geniuses.  So why am I so disgruntled when it all falls apart?  Cause it does and it will.

Some days nothing goes right.  Some days you just let it go.  Some days you just pray that you can get through it without maiming anyone.  Some days you want to run down to internet company and demand heads on platters.  Some days, it just doesn't run smoothly.  And some days, I want to run off to the Caribbean; shrug off all my cares, and sip a pina colada on powder white beaches while reading a book, listening to the ocean.  Virgin pina colada mind you :)

Yesterday.

*sigh*

And then, like it usually does when I go looking, a scripture pops out at me.  I was reading this morning after the girls had got off to school and the boys were still asleep, in 2nd Nephi.  Nephi's psalm.  I often think when I read this that if Nephi thought he was a sinner, what did that say about me?! 

As I read I came across vs. 26-30 in chapter 4.  It reads:
"And why should I yield to sin because of my flesh?  Yea, why should I give way to temptations that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul?  Why am I angry because of mine enemy?
Do nto anger again because of mine enemies.  Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.
Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

It struck me that I let the trials of yesterday and the stresses of the last couple of months affect my peace.  Why do I allow those things to have place in my heart?  Why am I angry?  And here's what I really love:  "Do not slacken my strength because of my afflictions....cry unto the Lord..."

My peace was destroyed yesterday.  Life's difficulties left me weak and literally feeling afflicted and exhausted, but instead of not letting it get the best of me, I let it take over.  I should've got on my knees and prayed for strength...the strength to stay strong, to stay cheerful, the strength to not get frustrated or short tempered.  This was a good reminder this morning to try again today, to not slacken my strength but to keep pushing forward with good cheer, even if all I really want to do is throw the towel in the ring and say I'm done sparring.  :)  Life throws us curve balls, and when we swing and miss, we regroup, say a prayer, and keep going.  We are women/mothers after all :)

Today is a new day.

I'm taking a deep breath and putting a smile on my face.

Back in the Saddle Again....

"Back in the saddle again..."  Yes, I did actually hear Roy Rogers in my head singing that song.  There is usually a song lyric that I can apply to some part of my life.

It's true.

I realized the other day that I hadn't blogged since January?  Or was it February?  Well, either way, it's been too long.  And as I was in the "wondering" process the other day, I asked myself why that is? 

It's not that I don't love to write....cause I do.  It's not that I don't think it's good to chronicle one's life...cause I do.  It's not because I feel guilt over not blogging slash journaling...cause this blog is my way of journaling.  (Note to self:  ask Doug to PDF the last year of my blog.  It's nice to look back on what's transpired in my life and actually have it in print).  It finally occurred to me, in that split second thinking that we all do but actually takes 10 minutes to write, that the reason I haven't blogged is because of Facebook.  Yes, I said it.... Facebook.  About the time I got on Facebook in February, I quit blogging.

So why am I back?  Well guilt really.

No, not really.  I'm feeling the need to write my thoughts down, to chronicle in words on "virtual paper" what transpires in my day to day, week to week... to find that emotional outlet that sometimes only writing gets me, irregardless of whether anyone reads this.  I will have had the emotional therapy, even if it's just shameless rambling :)

So here goes another attempt at trying to do something for any period of time.  And honestly, I'm just letting go of the photography challenge.  I had forgot about it, which is sad, but now I simply have no time.  And if that isn't the best excuse ever, I don't know what is.

Here's where I'm at:

Homeschooling.

Kids.

Teenagers.

Life.

Activities.

Church responsibilities.

Extracurricular activities.

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

As I was brushing my teeth this morning - a lot of my contemplation in the morning is done while brushing my teeth.  Perhaps it's the mindlessness of the activity as I simply let my sonicare do all the work-  I suddenly was confronted with the thought that although my life is hectic, I wouldn't change it for the world.  My thoughts regressed to an article posted on facebook about a mom with young kids who was tired of hearing how much she was going to miss having young kids, and that she should enjoy it.  This young mom was a bit miffed about it.  Should she enjoy dirty diapers, temper tantrums, etc... all the "stuff" that goes into being a mom of young kids?

I thought about her comments as I continued reading as she made many valid points, but this morning as this article came to mind, I realized that I may say something like that to someone when my own kids are gone.  Not to say that we should enjoy dirty diapers, temper tantrums, but what I wouldn't give to have my kids go down for naps in the middle of the afternoon!!  Am I right???  :)  Then I got to thinking that yes, I did change diapers, (many tens of thousands of diapers I'm sure!), and I did lose my temper with the child throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of store as she lay prostrate on the ground..(yes that did happen)...or when we got to the store only to find that one child has no shoes (!?!)...  and yes I do remember some of those times, but they are not really what I remember.  I remember the fun things they did, the first time my oldest daughter put her arms around me for the very first hug.  I remember how that felt.  I remember the milestones that my children reached...I remember the funny things that they said..(though I wish I'd wrote more down)... these are the things that I remember.  I wonder if I did enough, if I taught them enough, if I gave of myself enough.  Maybe that's why so many people whose kids are grown say to young mothers, "Cherish it.  It goes so fast."  It was said to me too.  And I didn't believe it.  There was no way this baby toddlerhood was going to go fast, I thought. 

(At this point my toothbrush beeps, signaling me to pay attention and switch to the teeth on the lower jaw.)

But it did.  And it does.  So even though I decided a long time ago that whatever phase of life we were in, I was going to enjoy it as much as I could, because time really does get away.  This time that I get to share with Zak, just him and me at home, is priceless.  Even through the days of whining and tantrums, or the complaining that "it's just too hard mom!", I'm convinced I will look back and wonder where all that time went.  And as much as I feel the weight of his education on my shoulders, specifically anything to do with reading/writing/spelling, I have to remember that it's one day at a time.  One thing at a time.   One concept at a time.  We'll get there.  He and I will get there together, and when he finally reads I think it will be a hallelujah moment for me.  I'm sure I will break down and cry and feel the pride that sometimes only a mother can feel because he and I will have worked and sweated and bled to get him there.  Because isn't that part of why we're here?  To share in each other's joys, to help each other along?  His accomplishment will be mine as much as it is his. 

And I cannot wait. :)

Tahoe- Girls Weekend WAHOO!!

Hi Girls!

So I did a little editing with the photos and I wanted to show you. But now I can't figure out which ones I want to print:) And I'm also wishing we took more! :)

And just for the record, nobody outdoes Tara putting chains on tires. Just sayin.












I have to laugh at the next ones!!

Day 10- A Childhood Memory

And I thought photographing food was hard. A childhood memory??? REALLY?

Geez.

I was wracking my brain for this one.

Last night we had french toast for dinner. And I just want to clarify that if you're not using the thick slices for your french toast, you are just plain doing it wrong.

Seriously.

Zak asked me if he could help, and for whatever reason, I thought to myself the many times I have made french toast. We used to make it all the time when we were kids. And voila! Day 10 of the challenge just emerged:)

My cousin stayed with us one time. We decided to make french toast that morning, maybe it was one of her loves too. She asked me for cinnamon and I must have had a "why do you want cinnamon that's just too weird" face cause she explained to me that it's so much better when you add cinnamon.





And she was right. It is sooo much better.



This inevitably happens.










We've experimented with the different spices over the years. Doug likes the nutmeg and vanilla addition, or some pumpkin spice during the holidays, and while that is good, there's just something about plain old cinnamon that hits the spot.

Mwah! Perfecto!

Photography Challenge- Day 9

Photo someone you love.

I knew right away who I would photo.

My dog!

JUST KIDDING.

The Hubbs. I want to photo The Hubbs.

I knew yesterday I wanted to take a picture of him, but it was a crazy morning and he left the same time the kids did, and then he didn't come back until late last night cause he was out schmoozing with some bank people..... does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm really not. It just left me no time with any light source.

So this morning, as I write this at 6:47am, I have decided to ambush him. After all, I just need ONE picture. So the goal is to get my boys ready for school a few minutes earlier so I can grab a photo of the person I love the mostest: The Hubbs. My Douglas.

He's amazing. He has this mischevious wink, which was one of the things that made me fall in love with him. Even though we're both older, it still makes me melt. Especially when he's teasing, or he's bought something expensive without consulting me, that wink and boyish smile usually lets him get away with anything. Usually:)



The boy can't lie to save his life. He really can't. That's a really good thing I know, but if he's trying to surprise me, or if he's trying to pull one over on me, I ALWAYS KNOW. He cannot stop grinning and saying, "WHAT???"

I particularly love that he intimidates Teaghan's guy friends when they come over. One of her best guy friends that was over a week ago jumped off the couch when Doug walked in from work. Teaghan introduced her friends and this kid walked over to Doug, threw out his hand and said, "Hi sir, I'm .... Nice to meet you." I had to walk out of the kitchen I was practically in fits. Are we really here?!?? It doesn't seem that long ago that Doug was shaking my dad's hand!!

I just love that Doug can intimidate. It makes me happy:) hee hee

He's...

*spontaneous
*a man of few words
*fun to hang out with
*loves sports
*can ice skate like a pro having never been on skates IN HIS LIFE while I fell down 3 times
*tries to teach me new things, like ping pong. He achieved Saint status after that.
*always orders the best stuff when we go out to eat. I've learned to always ask his opinion. And I'm usually the food critic!
*always remembers my birthday and valentines day as SEPARATE days. My birthday is two days after Valentine's. He probably should've never dated me if he knew what he was in for:)
*very hard worker
*very smart
*great dad
*bad mechanic:)
*buys me things he knows is going to irritate him later, but he knows how happy it'll make me
*organized
*very choosy about his friends. If you're a friend, you better feel lucky.
*opinionated
*let's me get out with friends pretty much whenever
*loves me like nobody's business

This list is not in any order of priority, but he is all of those and more. And he's turning 40 in a couple of months so maybe that's where all this introspection has come from.

So I ask myself, how do I NOT photo this amazing person?

:)

Photography Challenge Day 8

Day eight's challenge is to photograph a bad habit. This one is particularly hard as I am practically perfect and have no bad habits to speak of.

RIIIGGHHHTT.

However, trying to figure out what bad habit to photo is hard, let alone WHICH bad habit I want to broadcast out there in cyber space. As I tell my girls, what you put out on the internet STAYS out there on the internet. It's sort of like the saying, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Not to mention the fact that it is so very hard to photo something that is abstract. Some bad habits just aren't tangible.

(I'll leave you to the guessing games as to what bad habits I have that aren't tangible, cause I am SOOOO not going to list them.)

The point being is that this blog post may be more about a blog post than about photography. But since I tend to be wordy whenever I do this challenge, well.... nothing's new. :)

Of course it just occurred to me that this is a photography challenge. It is a CHALLENGE to photo a bad habit.

Duh.

So like a knight riding into battle with his sword drawn, or rather wielding a vacuum or spatula, onto Day 8!!

First and foremost, I blame this next habit on the hubbs. If you know me, you know it's hard for me to take ownership of my own faults. I'm just genetically wired that way. :) Just kidding. However, I do LOOOVE to read. Love it. LOVE IT. However, unless I've actually GOT something to read, like I went to the library, a friend lent me the Twilight book (that was the beginning of the end. In all honesty I just wanted to read that book so I could say I hated it at book club. Needless to say I stayed up till 4am reading that blasted thing) or some other series to read, or someone recommended something, I typically don't read. But when I do have something to read, like when Doug bought me the Hunger Games before book 3 was out, everything just goes to pot. The house doesn't get cleaned, dinner doesn't get cooked, the kids look like urchins... oh wait, that's tax season. And to be honest, this is what happens when I read a good series.

Then Doug buys me a Kindle, where there is a virtual library at my fingertips. At my fingertips!! It makes me giddy just thinking about it. Will the hubbs ever learn:) But even though he knows how I am when I read, he STILL got it for me anyway. Now if that isn't true love, I don't know what is!




Membership does have its perks:)



What I think is even more fabulous is that I can get on my phone app and download books straight to my Kindle. But then wherever I'm saved in my reading on my Kindle, I can pick up and read on my phone. Technology is so amazing!!



Pinterest is another obsession slash bad habit. Put both those together and you've got a deadly combo. Pinterest started off with good intentions- I just wanted to use it as storage for projects. I was tired of printing off everything and storing it a binder that I never did get around to looking at again. But here's the irony: instead of looking at the pins I already have to see what projects I want to get done, I spend time clicking on that darn "see more pins" button!!

Hence the obsession.



The bad habit is that I spend too much time on it. And honestly, what is it about Pinterest that is so addicting?? I actually spent some time thinking about this. (self analysis happens once in a millenia so I felt pretty proud I could conjure it for this blog post) I figured out that for me, pushing that "Pin it" button sort of feels like I've done them already. Even though I know that's not remotely true, they've still been pinned to MY boards, like I've somehow got claim on them. The more I pin, the better I feel. Not really, but you get the point. It's like a full color spread of your to do list complete with instructions. Oh how I love my boards.


Obviously I need to change my profile picture, but when did I get that many pins? See! Obviously I fit the addiction profile when I can't tell you how it came to this.

Day 7- Photograph Fruit

Soooo.... fruit.

Huh.

I like fruit. But to photograph it? Not so sure. I decided to photograph the fruit on my counter currently.

Oh, and by the way, I LOVE bananas. Not the ripe bananas. I don't care what the Chiquita Banana song says, DO NOT eat them when they're speckled. They are too overdone at that point.

I like them when they're still ever so slightly green, just barely turned yellow. When they're still slightly hard but they're just turning to ripeness.

Mwah! So good!

I've decided that still shots are not my thing. It is so hard to get food to look good! Those food photographers are amazing!!

This is my snack jar....my cool find at Winco that still earns me some laughs. "Really, you found that at Winco?"

"Yes, yes I did."

My kids can grab as much fruit out of there as they want. The other kinds of foods we try to limit, but fruit, not so much. We're trying to get the family to eat healthier. The other day I saw Andon eating an apple TEN MINUTES to dinner being on the table. I said, "What are you doing? We're about to eat dinner!" He spread his arms wide and shrugged his shoulders. "Mom, its' HEALTHY." Like, duh mom!













To make this fruit post a bit jazzier, I decided to play Jenga with the fruit.



Ahhh? Not too bad right? And really, that took some pretty good slight of hand:)



Saaaweet!! Day 7 done. Only.... well we won't count how many days left. :)

Photography Challenge Day 5 (Cause I already did Day 6)

I told my sister in law that I was going to start this challenge up again, since I no longer have the excuse that the holidays are in the way. To the hubbs, I'm actually going to finish this challenge.

I am.

I swear. :)

(It's really turning into a challenge. A challenge to actually do it daily:)

It is so fun watching my children grow up. I feel so blessed to be able to experience parenthood, to see my kids make choices, get older, grow into themselves. Just by virtue of the fact that Teaghan is the oldest, every milestone that she goes through is also our first. She's turning 15 in April and it has been so fun to see her grow and mature, and figure out who she is. She's outgoing, super fun to hang out with, smart, and a crazy addict of Just Dance:) The girl can move!

Doug and I have also met so many other parents of her friends and that has been really fun for us!! Last night two of her best friends came over to hang out and then go ice skating with our church group. I knew that for Day 5 of the challenge I needed to photo something from a high distance, so I made them come be my models.

It didn't take too much coaxing:) Teaghan loves pictures, as do most teenagers nowadays, as long as it's "Facebook Profile worthy." Ya, how do you like that term? So I pulled my ladder out to the middle of the street, and took their picture.



Here's their serious pose.



Love that my girls are getting older, but it also makes me want to slow down time. As much as there is a new frontier looming in the form of driving and dating (aaahhh!!!) and it's an exciting time, I still marvel at how fast they've grown. I often wondered if I stuck in my brain all the important stuff as they were growing up. Did I really appreciate it when they were babies and toddlers? Have I stored up enough memory? Did I give it my all?

Thus far, it has been so fun for Doug and I to be a parent of a teenager! It's scares us so much, but the ride is definitely worth it:)



Aren't they the cutest!?!