Point

Ryan thought it would be a good idea to buy the girls each a cactus. I'm not sure I think it's a good idea, see my point?

Freshman

Am I really old enough to have a Freshman in High School? So hard to believe.
Michael is going to a Charter school so they have to wear uniforms. I am soooo loving this and wish all schools would do it.

Ring Around The Rosies

This is one of my favorite statues and it sits on the grounds of Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It is everything a mother and her children should be.

I had to snap this really quickly since I was shooting a bride and groom here tonight so I think I may go back and see if I can capture it better.

All Day Morning Sickness

No pic today. Being pregnant at 36 is sooooo much harder than I expected. I've never been so tired. Even sitting down to edit pictures takes everything out of me. I'm napping 1-2 times a day and am a walking zombie the rest of the time. My poor clients. I'm months behind on my editing and just don't know how to get caught up. I know, I can not do my 365 blog and do someone's pictures instead but that is one picture versus 30-40 or hundreds for a wedding!!

My pregnancy app on my phone says that I am feeling tired because of hormones and my blood volume is expanding and increasing the workload of my heart. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me tired. I'm going to go lay down.

Back To School Night

I believe it is possible to be in a room filled with hundreds of people and still feel all alone.


Abby is my little social bug so hopefully her sitting right at the front of the class will stop her from talking so much!

7 Weeks

My baby really grew this last week. It's now the size of a blueberry. How sweet is that? Soon I won't be able to use a quarter for size reference it will be so big! Maybe I'll move on to a silver 50 cent piece and then a cd. I just love knowing how big he/she is!!



This week, my baby now has distinctive features including a mouth, tongue, and eyes. Thank goodness there are no ears yet. Hormones have caused me to do a lot of yelling lately ;)

Nap

Louisa hardly ever takes naps. She stayed up late last night though so she was pretty tired today. I came upstairs to find her laying down under the piano sleeping in a little bed she made for herself. Odd place for a nap.

Nothing But Words

I need to vent. I don't want to post my picture of the day with this since it has nothing to do with what I need to say!

There are many hard lessons to learn in photography. The biggest and hardest for me is that no matter what original idea you may have that is so neat no one could possibly have done it, it's been done. Yes, it has ALL been done!

My week by week pregnancy updates will no longer be so exciting and fun for me. I was going to do the size of my baby every week, as a seed, fruit, whatever compared to a quarter, and then pictured in another way. As soon as I started showing I was thinking I would have it in the picture with my belly.

Well, I just saw another pregnant photog on Facebook who is doing the same thing! Ugh, hard lesson to learn. It's so hard to really be creative once you've seen it done because all you see is their pictures. Oh well, I'm still excited for my baby who by the way, is a blueberry this week!

***Added Note: Okay, I guess everyone got the wrong impression here. I am NOT giving up on my weekly prego pics. I was just frustrated because it will be harder now that I've seen someone else do it. Please, you really thought I of all people would give up on a challenge? Regardless, this is MY pregnancy and I will have these pictures forever and someday this baby will see the pics and love them no matter who else did them too. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression everyone!!***

2nd Grade

Abby's first day of school. She looked adorable and she was so happy to be back! I have to admit I was happy too. I need to get back on a work schedule with 15 photo shoots to edit I'm sooo far behind! Now that the kids are in school I can get to work. My clients will be happy to hear that!

Double Decker Pt. 3!!!

I did it! All 3 kids at the bus. Don't know how long it will be there or even be accessible to the public so I'm glad I made it. I had to spend a lot of time yesterday altering this dress for Abby. Believe it or not it was a size 10 women's dress that I altered down to fit her. I had to sew her into it (didn't have time to make new button holes) but it was worth it for the pics!!

6 Weeks

This week my baby is the size of a Lentil Bean. Next week it will be a blueberry so it has a lot of growing to do!

Double Decker Pt.2

Shot Michael at the bus today. Only one more child to go!

Family Pics

I had to take Jennifer up to Albion Basin. It's one of the most beautiful spots here in Utah. We took my brother's family pictures there and the only problem was the HUGE mosquitoes that kept attacking us!!

Wedding Day

I shot a wedding with my cousin today. She was so much fun to have there I wish she lived here so she could assist me on every wedding! Like this shot, she held up the train and let it go so I could get the look of it blowing :)

And here is Jennifer, the most amazing cousin ever. I love her and am changing her status from cousin, to sister. My kids even call her Auntie Jen.

Highs and Lows

Today was filled with highs and lows. A major high, was my cousin coming to visit from Colorado. She's a photographer too so she came to have some fun. It was so amazing to see her again. I invited all my brothers over to meet her and we got a giant pizza from the Pie. Yum.


The low, was Abby going in this morning for her cavity and crown. It was a low because I had no idea that watching my child be put under anesthesia would be so traumatic for her and me. They started with gas and she did not like it at all. She started freaking out - kicking and screaming. I could only hold her and promise it would be okay. I remember looking in her eyes watching them go from complete terror to being lifeless. I never want to see that again. It was so hard to watch her go completely limp as if all life went out of her. Yes, I cried.

Double Decker

This amazing red double decker bus showed up out of nowhere by my house! Of course I had to take advantage of it asap and did my Lu's 4 year pics there this morning. I got lucky and had some beautiful cloud cover for it!

If you want to see all my favs from this shoot click here on my photography blog.

This pose was ALL her!!

Here is a before and after for ya.

Lucky Shot?

Some may say that getting a picture of lighting may be lucky, especially when you are taking pictures of a slow lightning storm with it only striking every couple minutes.

I had this picture in my head of lightning in the sky above the Jordan River Temple. Right away I got this shot but it wasn't what I had in mind so I kept going.

I took about 800 pictures and finally got what I wanted. Luck, I don't think so. My neck and back are killing me from sitting out on my deck for so long without a tripod and I new if I kept taking 2 pictures every few seconds, I'd get it eventually :)

Full Day

Today there were tonz of hot air balloons in the air, a work sign that someone changed to read, "Bears loose. 13 dead. Stay inside!!", breakfast at Ruth's, a HUGE line of motorcycles riding up the canyon, and the Josh Groban concert.

All I got with my camera was my dad holding my niece at breakfast. To me though, my dad is the best thing of it all :)

Redhead

My friend's little girls have the most beautiful red hair. This one has natural curls on top of it. What a lucky little thing huh?

Sedative

Only my child can stay awake even when she has been heavily sedated! Abby was supposed to get a cavity filled today and all the sedative did was make her dizzy and loopy. She would NOT go to sleep! Now we have to try next week and have an anesthesiologist put her under and it will cost us an extra $450 out of pocket. The dentist asked what bedtime is like with her and the look on my face was all he needed!!

Sesame Seed - 5 Weeks

I am now 5 weeks along. My baby has grown to a size of a sesame seed.

Most amazing of all, my baby's heart started beating.

Mr. Pete

Meet Mr. Pete. He looks grumpy because he is always hungry and will eat almost anything but his favorite is fingers :)

Muscles

Funny how lifting a 5 pound weight is so easy to me but to my Lu, it's a tough thing to do that deserves a lot of cheering once she lifts it above her head. If only people would cheer for everyone's accomplishments like that no matter how insignificant it may seem.

Favorite Things

Today is my birthday. I am now 36 - yuck. I'm not one to lie about my age but I'm also not one to enjoy the numbers getting higher either!!

Ryan made me beef wellington, risotto, and roasted corn for dinner and Steph made me her amazing cupcakes. Another friend Tara sent me some beautiful flowers too.

First Dance

If you make me cry on your first dance, you know it's true love...

Video Of The Day?

Today I took a picture but loved this video I got of Michael's homecoming from Scout Camp so I'm doing a video of the day!

Since he got home a day early I didn't have time to completely finish his room as I hoped so please excuse the mess on his dresser. His first surprise, a full size bed which is a huge upgrade for a kid his size sleeping on a twin! His second, something hidden under the pillow case...


Click on the image above to see it :)

Poppy Seed - 4 Weeks

My girls were asking how big the baby was so I went online and showed them. It said my baby is the size of a poppy seed so I went to my kitchen cabinet and pulled one out so they could see just how small that is.

Unfortunately, they were shocked the baby was so small since mommy's tummy looks bigger than that. (Hey, I still have 15 pounds to lose and this kind of puts a damper on that!)

Lu was hilarious holding this seed for the picture. I think she was confused and thought the seed was the baby since she kept talking to the seed and saying, "Hello baby, you are so cute.

April 8, 2012

If you think about it it's kinda gross to take a picture of a stick I peed on. But when it's the only way you can get such amazing, life changing news, I think it's worth a post on my 365!

Yay me! Just found out today I'm having a baby and my due date is April 8, 2012!!!!! Now only if there were another stick I could pee on to tell me if it's a boy or a girl ;)

By the way, there are two tests in the picture because Ryan insisted. He was soooooo shocked when I met him for lunch and told him. We always order something and share it and after we ordered, I told him, "I get the bigger portion today since I am eating for two!" Wish you could have seen his face! He wasn't convinced a test from the Dollar Store could be accurate so he made me go to the grocery store and buy a more expensive one so we could know for sure!!

Pink

Only real men can wear pink and they probably even drank out of a pink bottle as a baby.

And here is his beautiful mama. They have been staying with me for a while since they live in Idaho. They are leaving today :(

Gone Again

Michael will be gone all week again. This time for scout camp. I miss my boy!!! He didn't want me to take his picture (as usual) but I took it anyway (as usual ;)