Page 31 - When I Grow Up

Yesterday while driving in the car, my 5 year old completely out of the blue said, "Mommy, I used to want to be a ballerina when I grew up. Now, I want to be a photogapher and take pictures just like you." My heart almost burst with joy at that moment. Yes, she left out the "r" when she said it, that wasn't a typo.

Today we were both home sick from church so I decided to let her take some pictures of me I needed for some product pictures I am doing for a client. I did all the settings, but she pushed the button and was so proud of herself. She kept saying, "That looks so good!"

Cute story #2:
"Mom, all the kids my age can't whistle. Here I am just a weird little kid sitting here and I CAN whistle. See? (Whistle sound)"

Page 30 - Mother Nature is a Tease

Today the sun is out, the skies are blue and the clouds are crazy beautiful - feels like Spring. Too bad we still have 2 more months until it's really here.

In case you are wondering, I took this with my Lensbaby, that is how I got the blurred effect.

Page 29 - Cold Virus, I Hate You

You are not welcome here, you've been hanging around for 3 days messing up my life so GO AWAY!!!

Page 28 - Our Place

When Ryan and I first were dating, he took me up Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake to a restaurant called Ruth's Diner. It's a quaint little place that is built off of an original dining car from an old 1939 train. With it's old fashioned small town feel, Big Band music playing in the background and amazing food, Ruth's has been around since 1930 so you know they are doing something right.

Ruth's has become "Our Place" where we love to go for breakfast. Once you walk through the door you feel transported back in time when things were so much simpler. There are photos all over of an old woman (some with a cigarette in her mouth!) who is Ruth. She passed away in 1989 but I can feel her there every time we go. Once you are seated, your server brings you the most delicious "Mile High Biscuits" and when you put butter and their raspberry jam on top, it's perfection to your taste buds. We always order the same thing, Eggs Benedict minus the tomatoes. I've tried it at other restaurants and no one's sauce recipe can touch Ruth's. That combined with their fresh squeezed orange juice and you have my favorite breakfast. During the summer we love to sit in their outdoor dining area which is covered with a canopy of trees.

If you live in Utah or are visiting Utah and have never eaten at Ruth's, do yourself a favor and try it. I'm sure it will become one of your favorite places to eat as well.

Page 27 - I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

A special day like today deserves two pictures. After 11 and a half days daddy is finally home from Ireland.


Welcome home my love. We missed you.

*One little note: My heart goes out to my dear friend Jayme whose husband is currently gone serving our country. I went nuts after just 11 days. I can't imagine months. You are one amazing woman.

Page 26 - You're The Keeper Of My Heart

I took some pictures of my girls today for a Valentine's Day project I am working on for my photography business. I didn't end up using this one even though it was my favorite so I thought it would be a perfect picture for the day.


If you want to see why I was taking these pictures you can see on my blog here.

Page 25 - To All My Fellow 365ers...

Thank you for inspiring me every day with your comments and your pictures. I love that we are all on this crazy ride together!! The biggest thanks of all goes to Steph who started this and got me to do it. You are the best!

Page 24 - Sunday Drive

Growing up, my parents used to take us on Sunday drives and I loved them. No where to go, just drive wherever you feel like going. Now that I have my own kids, we like to carry on the tradition.


As you can see from the look on my girls' faces, it a tradition they are going to continue when they have families of their own.

Page 23 - Teenagers

Yes, I do have a 3rd child and I feel bad he has never been the subject of my daily photos. What can I say? He is a 13 year old who is gone to school all day so by the time he gets home, my picture for the day has usually been done. It's Saturday and there is no school so I am taking a picture of him doing what he loves to do best, play video games. That is his cousin and best friend in the background playing on an Itouch. Teenagers.

Page 22 - Roomates

It's official, I moved Louisa into Abby's room today. I really hope I don't regret this - I put them to bed at 8:30 pm and they are still awake and it's almost 10!!!! I'm hoping it's just the excitement of the first night together.


*Just one little note: I know I have been posting pictures of my girls every day but when daddy is gone on business he loves seeing what we are up to so I am trying to have my daily pictures be of them while he is away.

Page 21 -Life's Lessons

Can be difficult to learn no matter how old you are.

Page 20 - Playplace

Took the kids to a germ infested cesspool today. I'm the best mom ever.

Page 19 - Music To My Ears

There is no music sweeter to my ears than when I hear my little girls singing together.

Page 18 - Goodnight Kisses...

...all the way from Ireland.

Page 17 - Bed For One

It's only easier to make the bed when he is gone.

Page 16 - Some Sort of Miracle

My Lu was up to her normal behavior today and somehow got a hold of a bottle of "Spray and Wash" and decided the fish need to be "sprayed" and "washed". I walked by the tank and saw the soapy bubbles floating on the water with the fish right there sucking it all in!

I jumped into action and put the fish in a clean bowl and then cleaned out the entire 15 gallon tank (trust me, it's a lot of work!) and prayed our fish wouldn't die. I decided to take a lot of pictures of them in case they didn't live through the day. Amazingly enough, they are doing just fine, they just look a little cleaner!

Page 15 - It's Going To Be A Looooooong Night

Must finish all edits tonight. Must get caught up.

Page 14 - Pants On The Ground

Today's photo was inspired by last night's episode of American Idol. If you don't watch or you missed it, here it is:

Pants on the Ground

I admit, it's quite catchy and I woke up singing it this morning. My girls have been singing it today too! so I figured today's picture should be in honor of the General.

"Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground. With the gold in your mouth, hat turned sideways, pants hit the ground, call yourself a cool cat, lookin' like a fool, walkin' downtown with your pants on the ground, giddy-up! Hey! Get your pants off the ground!!!!!! Look like a fool, walkin', talkin' with your pants on the ground! Giddy-up!"

Page 13 - Can't Live If Living Is Without You

The diet starts tomorrow.
None of my clothes fit me anymore after the holidays with these two contributing the most to the 15 pound weight gain.

Always wanting to give credit where credit is due, I got the idea for my shot today from a photographer friend named Jeremy Hall. His picture is better of course, but after doing a 3 hour newborn shoot today my brain was too fried to think of anything myself. Thanks Jeremy, hope you don't mind. Before I saw your photo, I was going to use this one so you can see your idea really helped!

Page 12 - Money Down The Drain

I should just take all my money and pour it down the drain. My 2 year old has put everything else in there so why not? In just one day she poured juice all over my carpet, opened some red nail polish and painted my rug, got into my expensive mineral powder make-up and dumped it all inside the drawer and mixed all of them together, smeared my lipstick all over her face, drew pretty pictures on my bathroom cabinets with my eye liner, dumped an entire brand new bottle of shampoo in the tub, and then poured a bottle of gatoraid down the glass front of my fireplace leaving black burn marks down the front and a huge puddle on the slate below. All just money down the drain and in just one day. This little girl is going to end up costing me a lot of cash.

For those of you who look closely, I found a hidden part of this picture when editing it. If you look to the upper left side of the picture, there is a smeared water spot. If you look even closer it looks like a person with wild hair screaming while looking at the money going down the drain. I succeeded in getting myself in the picture without even trying since that is what I look like every time I discover something she has done!

Page 11 - Time For Me To Get On My Soapbox...

I have chosen to remove the story since Blurb made it right, thanks.

There, I said it but before I get off my soap box there is just one more thing I have to do...


By the way, I have absolutely NO future aspirations to be a foot model!!! Sorry to make you look at them :)


*UPDATE* I raised such a stink about this Blurb has decided to cancel my order this ONE TIME ONLY and let me fix the T problem. New album is now ordered. Hopefully it's all there this time. Thanks Blurb for at least letting me fix the problem but I'm still bugged they are blaming me for what happened. Still shocked they don't have a system that can prevent these things from happening. Hopefully, they will look into this so no one else has to go through what I did. Case closed.**

Page 10 - Auntie Sue

I love being Auntie Sue almost as much as I love being Mommy. This is my newest nephew, Brody who came to visit today. He is my favorite baby boy on the planet and I love him like my own. Look at that face and the way those eyes penetrate right to your soul - wouldn't you?

Page 9 - I Had A Bad Day

What do you do when you have a bad day? Really, I want to know.
As for me, I just count my losses and go to bed as early as possible. The sooner the day can be over the better because tomorrow is a new day, hopefully.
I did take this picture - gotta love self timer!

Page 8 - Squeals, Laughter, Wrinkled Toes, Bathtime

I've never been good at picking one picture. Never have, never will. Deal with it :)



Yep, there's even a runner up - Not Surprised???

Page 7 - My Little Lefty

Click here to see the runner-up picture for the day!

Page 6 - Wishing...Hoping...Praying...

Found the piece of property I want to build my dream house on. I can already picture my kids playing in the backyard.

Page 5 - Read To Me

Another goal of mine for the year is to take my girls to the library every week. They love to get out of the house and love to read so the library is perfect in the winter months. Starting next week at 10:15 they do reading time with the kids and have activities so if anyone ever wants to join me you are more than welcome!

Page 4 - Don't Want To Say Goodbye

Abby and Aidan were born 3 months apart. They have been the best of friends since they could crawl. They look so much alike and are so close I often get asked if they are twins when I take them out together. Aidan came to stay with us yesterday since his mommy was sick and needed some help. The entire day was filled with squeals and laughter as the two played together non-stop. This went well into the night which ended when I finally had to move Aidan to another room to sleep. They woke up at the crack of dawn and downstairs I could hear their laughter start up again. We had to take Aidan home around noon so he could go to school today. I ran downstairs to grab my camera thinking I may see something along the way to take a picture of for this challenge. When I reached the top of the stairs I saw these two standing by the door, arms around each other, not wanting to say goodbye. So glad I had my camera!


I can already tell the real challenge for me in this 365 challenge is to only post ONE picture!!!

Page 3 - I'm Officially Published!!!!!!!!

I got an email months ago from a wedding florist that asked for permission to submit some photos I took of flowers she did for a wedding last summer. I said yes and honestly forgot about it until this morning when I got an email from her saying my pictures were published in the 2010 "Utah Bride and Groom" magazine!! I ran right out and bought it and felt like crying when I saw it. Never in a million years did I think I would get my photos published in a magazine. How cool is that?


If you want to see the originals of the pictures they used, go to my photography blog

Page 2 - First Wedding Of The Year

Always wanted to get this shot but never had a bride with a bouquet small enough to fit in the lion's mouth.

Page 1 - Once In A Blue Moon

A blue moon is a phenomenon that is extremely rare. The term has been used as a second full moon in one month. The last time that happened was May of 2007. New Year's blue moons (or second full moon of the month) are even rarer occurring every 19 years. An actual "Blue Moon" when the color of the moon appears to be blue is even rarer. The Moon can appear blue when there's a certain amount of dust or pollution in the air. The extra dust scatters blue light, making the Moon appear more blue. The last known blue moon was recorded in Edinburg, Scotland in 1950.

Last night, there was an actual Blue Moon. You may not have seen it because it was overcast last night. I stayed up until 3 this morning and went outside to see if I could see it. Sure enough, the clouds were moving and every once in a while I caught a glimpse of a blue moon and took as many pictures as I could. The clouds actually helped in capturing the blue color. Here is my first photo of my 365 challenge and it is perfect since it is one I will most likely never get again in my lifetime - A Blue Moon on New Years.