3 months old!

Can you believe it? My baby is 3 months old already! I am perfectly astounded! Time has gone by so fast! She is sooo cute, though! She is such a little character, too! She turns on the charm when I walk passed and she wants to be picked up. With her smile, it is hard to resist! Well...just see for yourself:

Nathan has his master's degree!

On Friday December 12th, Nathan graduated from WSU with his Masters degree in Education!!! YEAH!! I am pretty excited!! He has been working on his masters for over 4 years, so to have it complete is a wonderful feeling! He will be applying for a PhD program for 2010, so he is nowhere near done with school...but at least he will have a little time off to do things around the house and with the family! And, he even let me take a nice picture of him all decked out. Usually, he makes some funny face or looks constipated when I take his picture!

I have the cutest girls!

So, today my mother-in-law paid for the studio rental fee and we gathered all the children in the family for a photo shoot. If you can imagine complete pandemonium, you wouldn't be far off. We had 9 children 8-years old and under, 3 of them were 2-years old and 3 of them were infants. The oldest child was 8 and the youngest was 4-weeks old. I am surprised we got as many good shots as we did...but OH BOY! They sure tired me out! It turned out that my "low-key" boy was the one that decided the photo shoot was over. Can you say "Exit stage right"? That is exactly what he did. Just thinking about it makes me giggle.

I do have an absolute favorite picture from the whole shoot, and of course, it is of my girls.
Aren't they sweet?

So much happens in a year and a half!!

I have been photographing the Dalton family for a year and a half now. Angie contacted me when she was very pregnant with Carter and they wanted some "couple" pictures for their wedding reception. What fun we had at Red Butte Garden!!

Then, I got to meet Carter when he was 6 months old and it was time for Christmas pictures. He is such a doll!!
After that, we went to Liberty Park to shoot Carter's 1 year pictures. He just gets cuter and cuter!
Today we went to Wheeler farm and shot some pictures for their Christmas cards! What fun!


I have had so much fun with the Daltons the past year and a half! I am so glad that they have kept me as part of their fun, fun lives!

2 years old

My boy is now 2. That is one of those statements that kinda puts a shiver down my spine. Time flies so fast! My sister-in-law commented the other day that 6 weeks goes really fast when it isn't your own child...I countered with that it goes really fast even when it IS your child! I am still reeling over the fact that my oldest is 4...and now my boy is 2!!!

He had a good day, though. We opened presents in the morning and he spent the whole day dragging around his new Tonka dump truck and his new train. The dump truck we found at DI and is mostly metal (like the old style ones) and so he had a tough time taking it everywhere he wanted to go and gave up dragging it around at about lunch time. The train, however, is apparently his new best friend and took a nap with him:

He also had a train cake. I asked him what flavor he wanted his cake to be and he said "blue"...we did not have a blue cake, however. Daddy vetoed that. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. I even made the cake from scratch (I am tired of how box cakes all taste the same, regardless of the flavor!). Here's a couple pics of the cake:


The cake is a little cockeyed, but that is okay. I used cupcakes for the smoke stack, but I didn't have any bamboo skewers to keep it from tilting, so it started to droop as I was icing it. The whole cake is a little crooked because I used styrofoam under the cake to hold it up so I could put on the wheels and the styrofoam wasn't perfectly flat. Oh well. I think it turned out pretty darned cute even though it would never get me a job on Food Network. LOL!

When we sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy, he was so excited that as soon as Daddy lit the candles he blew them out again. We had to re-light the candles and give him strict instructions to wait to blow them out! He's so cute!

I have the bravest boy!

Today we took Henry to the cardiologist for an echocardiogram and evaluation due to his heart murmur that was heard at his last pediatrician's appointment. The heart murmur was heard back in August...it has been a very busy 3 months so I haven't been sitting and stewing over a possible problem, but it has been a source of background worry. Our appointment was at 8 a.m. so all of us were up really early. Nathan gave Henry a blessing yesterday for him to have courage during his appointment. We had to divide and conquer to get things done this morning, but everyone was together for Henry's appointment.
When the ultrasound tech took us back for the test, she warned us that she would do as much of the test as Henry would let her and then she would stop once he got jittery enough that it wasn't going to work any more. But, Henry laid still for the entire time!!! The tech commented that she doesn't have 5 or 6 year olds do as well as Henry did! She really didn't expect to be able to do the entire test. He was so good and brave! Okay, so it didn't hurt...but just imagine being 2 years old and having someone put cold jelly on your chest and poke and prod you with a weird stick! I am so proud of him!

Blessing

Tomorrow is Julianna's Blessing. I took pics of her today in her dress to simplify my life tomorrow. She's so pretty!

Halloween

We had a pretty good Halloween. Plans got changed, but it was okay, because everything worked out for the best. I opted to do the kids' costumes on the cheap this year, and they turned out pretty cute!

There was Evie Butterfly:



And Henry the Train Engineer:



And Julianna Banana:



What a bunch of cuties!

Pumpkin Picking

This summer my family participated in a community-supported agriculture program (CSA). All summer we received farm-fresh produce which tasted WONDERFUL! We are definitely participating again next summer. At the end of the season, they gave us a letter saying that they were having a Pumpkin Picking activity at the farm and that we could go and pick pumpkins. It was pretty fun. The kids picked their pumpkins and we carved them into jack-o-lanterns the following Monday for FHE.

2 weeks old!

Can you believe that it has been 2 weeks since my baby was born?? I sure can't! We had my mom here for the first week, and I have been flying solo with 3 kids for the other week. Yikes!

I did have some fun today and took pictures! Isn't she just the cutest thing??

My baby was born today, September 20th at 10:51 a.m. She was 9 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long. She has a ton of dark hair. (I guess the old wives' tale about heartburn really paid off in this instance!) She was born at home in a birthing tub. She is only about 5 hours old now, and I feel really good. My water broke at about 6:30 a.m. It really was a beautiful morning here. Right now, I am watching a thunder storm cleanse the earth...I love the rain.

Evie and Henry were really good to me during the birth. They kept coming over and stroking my hair and giving me hugs and kisses. Evie got scared when the baby started to crown because I was yelling, but we coaxed her out of her room and she was able to watch the birth with Henry. Nathan, my mom and my midwife and my kids were the people that where there. Nathan was great. He stayed calm and held my hand and rubbed my back and whispered that he loved me.

Today is the day!

Well...today is the day! We are scheduled to close on our new house at 3 p.m. I am totally excited, and a little nervous as well. Not only will we be moving to a new house, but it will be a completely different environment than we are used to. For one thing, we will have a yard! I don't know what my kids will do with themselves! We are also leaving the church group we have been in for 5 years, which is exciting, but also a bit scary as well. I was told by my very observant daughter that not only does she have to make all new friends, but so do I. Too true. I hope we can find and make some friends in the neighborhood that will make us feel welcome and won't be too judgmental. I always worry about how people are going to respond to the sight of my daughter's very prominent facial birthmark...even though we are getting it treated and it is looking so good in comparison to what it started out as! I guess every mother is overly protective in her own way, and this is mine. I hate it when new people ask, "What is wrong with your daughter's face?" To this question I generally have 2 initial reactions, neither of which I act on. The first reaction is to punch the person in the face. The other reaction is to ask them, "Nothing, but what is wrong with your brain?". As satisfying as those reactions would be, at least one of them could land me a night in jail, so I generally opt for the polite approach of calmly explaining about her birthmark and the subsequent treatments. It's really amazing to me how judgmental and rude people can be.

Anyway, wish us luck on our closing. We have been completely debt-free for a week now...no mortgage, no student loans, no car payment...so now we will have a mortgage again, albeit a relatively small mortgage...but it was still nice to feel like we had no financial obligations and a huge chunk of money just sitting in the bank gathering interest. :)

Tori and Dustin

I spent last weekend in Idaho and Washington. I flew up to Spokane in the morning the day before my cousin's wedding and spent a lot of that day running around with my aunt and cousins and then taking Tori's bridal portraits that evening. We left the house at 7 p.m., tried to break into the project office where we were taking the portraits, and ended up having to have Tori change into her gown out in the great outdoors. We only were able to shoot for about 1/2 an hour, but we got some pretty nice shots all the same. Click here to see one of my favorites.

The day of the wedding was pretty hectic, but the wedding was wonderful (of course) and we had fun shooting more pictures! Here are 3 of my absolute favorite shots from the temple:

We found it!

Even though I don't want to jinx this whole process, I am just so excited I can't contain myself from shouting it to the world...We found our new home!!! It has been such a long and exhausting process I was starting to give up hope. We seriously looked at close to 40 houses before we found this perfect gem!!! It isn't even a house we had on our "list" to go look at. It is one of our agent's listings and since Nathan and he were in the area looking at another house, they popped by for a little look-see. Nathan loved it and decided that I needed to go see it, too. It is perfect. It has nice high ceilings and is very open and airy with lots of windows and natural light streaming in from everywhere! I am sooooo addicted to light that this is a very good thing! The basement is unfinished, but that is okay. I figure Nathan and his dad would implode if they didn't have a project to do! :) The basement is amazing, even though it is unfinished. It has 10 foot high ceilings! In the basement! There is even a little cubby room that will be perfect for food storage!

Here's a pic of the outside:

Such a grown up!

Yesterday during Primary, my 3 1/2 year old gave her first real talk! On the first Sunday of this month, she decided that she wanted to give a "talk" during Testimony Meeting. She went up to the front and sat with her Daddy until the end and then he prompted her what to say. She did really well...it was pretty cute. Then, she decided that she wanted to give the talk during Primary. Of course we had all week to prepare, but I forgot all about it until Saturday night at about 9:30! Daddy wrote her talk for her on Sunday morning, and they practiced together until she had it all but memorized by the time we had to leave for church. She did really well when she was up in front of the Primary actually giving her talk. I asked her if she was scared and she said, "No." She is growing up so fast! Sometimes it makes me a little sad! But I am so proud of her and how brave and smart she is, so it pretty much cancels out the little bit of sadness I feel when I think about my baby growing up!

I love Liberty Park!

Today I had a photo shoot with a family that I had shot twice before. It has been so fun to see them go from excitedly awaiting the birth of their baby to seeing their baby at 6 months old and now to see their big boy at 1 year old. We shot at Liberty Park. We stuck to the south side of the park near the pond, but we got so many cute shots! With a park as big as Liberty Park we could have spent hours taking pictures all over the park, but I am very pleased with the 45 minutes that we spent and the pictures that we got. It was so much fun.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Chocolate Clay Roses

Tonight I dropped off my first wedding cake. The couple were real choco-holics. The cake was chocolate fudge brownie with chocolate mousse filling, covered with buttercream icing and chocolate ganache. Top it all off with chocolate clay roses, and you have the second most chocolatey cake ever...the first place would have been covered in chocolate icing and all that. When I got to the reception center and set it all up, I pulled out my camera to take an awe-inspiring picture only to find out that I left the batteries at home. ARGH! I ended up not using one of the chocolate roses, so I was able to take pictures of it when I got home. Here is what a medium sized chocolate rose turned out like:

I also made the large sized roses and rose buds...but they all made it on to the cake. The mother of the bride said she'd email me pictures of the cake, so hopefully I won't be completely deprived of pictures...hopefully!

Literary Inspiration

So, I am not the most reliable of bloggers. Oh well. I guess you just have to savor what you get!

I have been busy, of course, but with things that are really run of the mill. I take care of my kids. I clean the house. I got the stomach flu that just won't go away...well, it is either the stomach flu or my "baby in my tummy", as my adorable daughter would say, is not being very nice to me lately.

I did do something that I am proud of...I crocheted a baby blanket. Never did that before. I have crocheted doilies, scarves, granny squares by the dozens, purses and dolly dresses...but never a baby blanket. I found the pattern here. The weight of my yarn wasn't correct for the gauge, so I had to improvise a little, but it worked out perfect. Instead of a brown satin ribbon, I used a pink and white checked ribbon and it turned out cute, cute, cute! I am giving it to my friend for her new baby girl that she is having in July.

I am also making embroidered kitchen towels for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's day. I found the patterns here. I found a good deal for the flour sack towels at American Chair.com (yes, American Chair, even though they sell all sorts of kitchen, bath and bedroom textiles). I got 10 towels for $10. I bought 2 sets and will have 6 towels left over. I am going to make my own design for the last six towels and give them to a friend that is in culinary school in Denver. Today I ordered a light box from JoAnn.com to help me with the pattern transfer...a "bright window" was just not cutting it! As soon as my light box comes in the mail I will transfer all the rest of the patterns (I have done Monday through Wednesday so far) and do the stitching. The stitching doesn't take very long. I can crank out 2 or 3 towels while watching a movie with my hubby after the kids go to bed.

I am trying to cut costs and still give nice gifts. It means a little more time for me...but I was inspired by the Victorian women in Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell's books...they always have their "work basket" handy and sit and sew or knit or whatever during the evenings while there is little else to do!

Easter Bunnies

In an attempt to help guide my family on the path of healthy eating, I opted to have the "Easter Bunny" give my kids muslin bunnies for their Easter gifts instead of baskets filled with candy. The fun thing about these cute bunnies is that they have outfits that match the clothes I made my kids for Easter. They were a big hit. Evie wouldn't give up her bunny for more than 2 seconds today- she had a little girl at Church that wanted to see it, and she refused her even a small glance in the fear that she wouldn't get it back. Henry spent a bit of the day "honking" the bunny's nose. Very funny. Here are a few pictures of them with their bunnies:

We had an Easter Egg hunt with the cousins yesterday, and then Easter dinner tonight. It has been a nice weekend. We will probably do the zoo tomorrow seeing as everyone will be home!! Yeah!

I have the bravest girl ever!

We just got home from the hospital. Evie, for those who don't know, was born with a port wine stain birth mark on her face that we have been getting laser treatments in the hopes that it will fade and be unnoticable. This morning was such a laser treatment. This morning we had to wait quite a while because the attending anethesiologist was busy doing another case before he could come and do Evie's case. While we were waiting, another family came in. They had a really cute little boy that had a port wine stain on his face, but he has more bad effects of the condition than Evie does. When I was talking to the boy's mother, I really started to see how lucky we are that Evie's birth mark, while red and covers her face, does not effect her development or her eyesight. The little boy's sister was the same age as Evie and the two little girls sat and played until the anethesiologist came in. It was very cute. When it was time to take Evie back, she just took hold of the nurse's hand and led the way to the OR. She didn't seem to worry about the fact that she had left Mamma and Daddy behind. When she woke up, she was very calm and didn't cry. She hasn't cried after a treatment for a long time.
She really is a very brave girl. I think that part of it is that she is just naturally brave and strong, and part of it is that she has a lot of faith. Before each laser treatment, Nathan gives her a priesthood blessing- and by golly, it really helps. It really is amazing to see the amount of faith that this little girl has that her Heavenly Father will help her through her troubles. Her birth mark is fading really well...we have a lot of treatments left, I think, but there is already a significant difference in her birth mark. I am grateful for that.

Cutest, Gooey-est Couple Ever

Saturday was Matt and CarrieAnn's wedding. I don't know if I have ever seen Matt so happy, and I have known him for 4 1/2 years. They are perfect for each other...they just fit so well and have a great time together. Everytime I have seen them together they are always laughing! They had a wonderful day, even though there was a small hiccup when they got to the temple, but no big deal. The weather was not ideal, but at least the snow stayed away until after we were done shooting our pictures at the temple. It was windy, but not too cold. CarrieAnn liked it because then we could try and use the wind for fun. It turned out, though, that the wind just blew her veil out of her hair, and it had to be retired for most of the shoot. Their reception was really good, too. I don't think I have seen that MANY people at a reception...well, a Mormon reception. I mean, there was a steady stream...no a river, of people coming the entire reception! It was crazy, but they had fun. I got tired, and probably didn't take as many pictures as I have at other weddings, but they still ended up with almost 300 shots, so I don't know if there is going to be any complaining.

Capitol Bridal Shoot

Today I had the wonderful experience of shooting bridal portraits in the Utah State Capitol Building. What a wonderful building! There was a bank of big windows that we started at, and that turned out fun. Add columns and stairs and so much marble it starts to all blend together, and you have a recipe for really fun pictures. I almost fell down the stairs twice today because my scatter-brained brain lost track of where the first and the last step were. That would have been bad...I probably would have broken my camera and hurt myself. But, lucky, I came out unscathed. There is a huge overhead skylight over the big marble staircases...Oh my goodness! It was perfect! I didn't have to use my flash hardly at all! I was so excited! I don't like flash photography (except in the studio) and I am really more comfortable doing natural light photography, so it was perfect. We were inside away from the cold and the snow and the wind, but I got to use mostly natural light! It was great!

I have a couple of favorite pictures from the shoot. Here they are:

Happy Valentine's Day!!

So, we aren't really "celebrating" Valentine's Day this year. The last couple of times we celebrated Valentine's day, we ended up with babies born in November. So, Valentine's day is now outlawed in my house.

But, I thought we would do something fun anyway. I made heart shaped petit fours for dessert. I am making a heart shaped pizza for dinner. And Evie and I made "Love Bug Crowns" this morning. It turned out pretty cute. She was excited that she gets to be the Love Bug Princess. Here's a picture:

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

My Big Boy

My baby is 15 months old! Boy! It has gone by soooo fast!! I took him to the doctor today and he is 35 inches tall and 25 pounds 11 ounces. In 3 months he has grown 2 inches and gained 14 ounces. He is so tall! I noticed the other day that his little spine sticks out through his skin! He is beginning to take after his big sister...Tall and Skinny!

Isn't he cute?

Really cool soft light box

Yesterday I bought the coolest thing ever. I did a ton of searching on the internet trying to find a doable solution for CarrieAnn that wants her bridals shot in the Capitol Building...but I don't want to haul around stand-mounted lights and umbrellas and soft boxes and all that crap. I like to be moveable when I do pictures! Anyway, I found a 12 inch by 16 inch soft light box that can attach to my Speedlight that attaches to my camera. It is so cool. I was even going to buy a off-camera mount flash bracket...but the nice salesperson at the store gave me a better idea. Instead of spending an additional $100-$200 on a bracket, she suggested just putting my camera on my tripod and then hand holding my flash with the soft box attached...that way I can move it to where it needs to be manually and easier. My pocketbook thanks her!
I am shooting CarrieAnn's bridals in a couple of Saturdays, so I will post the results from my really cool soft light box when I get them!!

Matt and Carrie Ann

I had the funnest time shooting Matt and Carrie Ann's engagement pictures today. We started on the top of her apartment building, and then walked around the neighborhood a little bit to get some fun "urban" shots. It was great, and they are just the cutest, gooey-est couple!

This picture is my favorite from the whole shoot:

Congratulations Matt and Carrie Ann!

I love brush embroidery

So my newest fun cake decorating technique that I used last night is called "Brush Embroidery". You use a flower shape fondant cutter to lightly mark where you will outline. Outline the indentation with thin icing, and then immediately brush the icing in towards the center using a damp artist's brush. It was so easy...and it looks so pretty!

This cake is for my brother's family. They just had a baby, and I needed to practice my decorating...so they get a cake! Happy baby!

P.S. My sister-in-law was confused about the description above...the brush embroidery is the little purple flower. The top tier is kinda "quilted"...I used a sharp knife to cut the lines and then put small dots in icing in the line intersections. I hope this clears things up!

Wedding Cakes

Next month I am shifting (or sifting, I am not sure) my focus from wedding photography to wedding cakes. All I know is that I need to stay home with my beautiful children, and I need to help make ends meet. My friend and I were supposed to work together on the wedding cake business, but after 7 years of decorating wedding cakes, my friend has had enough. So, she is helping me get started and then she is done, and glad about it. Hum...I wonder...

Anyway, I am starting to make "demo" cakes and experimenting with different things that I have seen in books and magazines. I made a cake Monday for my friend that is pregnant. I had to cover a "boo-boo" with a drape, but overall, the effect was pleasing. I had fun doing this little cake. It took me a while to do, but I was experimenting, so I wasn't really rushing anyway.

Here is a picture:

Turned out pretty. This next one is my favorite picture:

After I took these pictures and before I took the cake to my friend, my wonderful daughter ate 4 of the fondant flowers! I put the kids in the car and went to get the cake and noticed that something was a little funny...then I realized! I asked Evie if she had eaten the flowers off the cake, and she said, "No, I only ate 3 flowers." Shame on me for not being more specific! But, it made my friend laugh when I gave her the cake, so I guess everything turned out okay.