Birth Announcement

Since I have a baby coming up soon, I thought I'd start playing with birth announcement ideas. Plus, this baby was so cute I couldn't resist! We had our neighbors over last week to take pictures of their 2 week old baby. It was fun to shoot a baby so small! He was very well-behaved and we got some great photos.

Best Daddy Ever

I loved taking pictures of my two favorite people.
I love seeing how much Rachel loves her daddy, and watching them play together. I might add that the water was COLD, and she was very horrified and fascinated at the same time. Sam was a trooper to sit on a log in the middle of a freezing creek for so long!

My Almost 2 year old

Rachel is starting to act 2 years old. She held a screaming fit Sunday when I put her down for a nap, and I totally lost it with her. By the time church was supposed to start, she had been screaming on and off for a good hour and a 1/2 and my patience was gone. I called Sam in tears and he RAN home in the 95+ degree weather to come take care of me. That's how awesome my husband is. He asked the Elders Quorum president to sit on the stand with bishop and he came home to be my husband. The only plus side to this whole story (if it could be called that) was that Rachel threw her screaming tantrum again Monday night. I didn't feel so bad about having a meltdown after that. Sam was pretty surprised, especially when she suddenly turned off the tears and fell asleep when she realized we weren't coming in her room anymore. Tough love. It's hard to listen to your child scream, and even harder to know that they are only doing it to get what they want and that everything really is okay. I'm sure this is only the beginning.

Sewing Project Complete!

This is not photography related at all (except that I took a picture), but I was just so excited to finish this project. I made burp cloths and receiving blankets as "new mother/baby gifts" for our ward. I have been the Compassionate Service Leader in my LDS ward for the last year or so, and have loved seeing all the new mothers with their tiny babies. I thought these would be a great gift to say congratulations!

Photo Shoot

I received a referral from a friend, and had the Beal family over for pictures this week. Their little boy, Porter, is so cute and was great to work with!

I like these better...

I was bored today and didn't feel like doing much. I split the pictures and made them an 8x10 size instead. They look much better now, right?

My Girl

I took some great pictures of Rachel over the last few days. After my photo shoot yesterday I pulled out my new backdrop and and was able to practice using Rachel as a guinea pig. We also went to storytime at the Provo library today and I let her play outside so I could work on some outdoor photography. She is so much fun to take pictures of and she'll even smile when I ask her to! I spent awhile on this collage and am still not convinced I like it. It'll probably change over the next few days.

Kangaroo Zoo

Surfing through Utah Valley magazine at the dentist office, my husband came across and advertisement for an indoor, blow-up toy, amusement facility appropriately named (in my humble opinion) Kangaroo Zoo. He came home and told me about it, and we stashed the thought away for a really hot-need something fun to do, day. That day arrived. We showed up around 5:30pm and my first thought was "Wow. There are a lot of min-vans in this parking lot". After signing waivers, and paying for both Rachel & Sam (I got to watch for free), we were excited to get her playing. Oh no. She was terrified. It took her a good 15 minutes and some fruit snacks to get her even remotely interested in going on the scary looking toys. After that, she was hooked. We couldn't get her off even to come eat the pizza we had ordered in (turns out you can only order in Dominoes. No other outside food allowed). After 2 and a 1/2 hours, countless trips down all the slides, lots of water, and a little pizza we finally got her out to the car and driving home. Needless to say, it was a success. I highly recommend the place, especially for pregnant moms looking to have a break (in the air conditioning) while their kids, and husband, play and entirely wear themselves out.

Independence Day

I've never been into the 4th of July holiday much, especially in the last couple of years living along the biggest parade route in Utah Valley. Watching everyone elses' enthusiasm somehow drains my own. I don't get why people set up chairs, stake out lots, and even camp out the night before the parade. I've always been angry at the people who keep me up until 2am with their noise because our house is so warm we have to sleep with the window open. This year, however, I decided I'd change my attitude a bit, maybe see what all the fuss is about. It helps that I know we'll be moving away next summer (hopefully before July) so this was a last chance thing.

To start off our day of festivities, we walked (can't get our car out of the parking lot!) to Macey's Food store for a free french toast breakfast. If you've never had their french toast, you gotta try it. Some combination of whatever they dip the bread in and their yummy vanilla syrup is definitely worth the trip. Next, I took Rachel out on our front lawn and squeezed in a chair in the last remaining open spot probably on the entire street. She was enthralled by all the sounds, colors, and pre-parade excitement just oozing from everyone around us. I thought the parade was okay, she absolutely loved it. What can I say? I'm no longer 1 and a 1/2.

After naptime, Grandpa came down and we headed out for Center Street and all the festivities in downtown Provo. This was a bad idea. 1) It was really hot. 2) I'm pretty pregnant. 3) Did I mention it was hot outside? 4) We walked the 8 blocks to get there. Oh well. Gotta have one bust in the day, right? This was one of those "reminding myself what I don't do this" activities.


For dinner, my husband bbq'd us up some delicious hamburgers and corn on the cob and we had homemade ice cream to boot. I love food. It's probably my favorite thing about holidays. After playing with Rachel some more, we put her to bed and had a lively game of Ticket to Ride. Grandpa left to beat the rush home, and as soon as we heard the loud booming of fireworks, Sam & I journeyed out to our parking lot to enjoy the spectacle.

Not too bad of a day. Maybe getting into the celebration wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Down & Dirty

I got down on the floor to play with Rachel today. I've been feeling guilty because it seems like we always do what I want to. She's great about sitting on my lap while I work on pictures, "helping" me stick pins into my sewing projects, or coloring as I scrapbook, but I decided today we were going to play her way.


Surprisingly to me it was a lot of fun, and Rachel actually became interested in her toys again. It's almost like she hadn't seen them in months (she hasn't btw). I was also thinking that if I can teach her to play in her room through example, maybe she'll finally learn to play in there on her own. Wishful thinking? Probably....