Playing Catch-up

Andrew has been eating cereal for a couple of weeks now, but I finally pulled out the camera to document the occasion. For some reason this milestone just isn't as exciting as it was with Rachel. Do I really have to feed him cereal 3 times a day? All I do is feed this kid. Ha! It's good though because he hasn't been gaining weight and the doc says we have to pork him up. I'm even mixing in formula to give him some more calories. geesh. I wish I had his underweight problem.

Anyway, he finally figured out that he actually has to open his mouth in order for me to insert food. Yeah. That one took at least a week and a half. Now he loves it though. Maybe we'll get ambitious and move onto something a little more exciting. Mmmm...

Boys, Boys!

These kids have such personality! We struggled to get smiles out of them, but eventually I won 'em over. ha! Hooray for fruit snacks. Maxin (the younger one) really struggled up on my table. I think it's too high and is scary for younger kids. Ah, to have my own studio. Someday all my dreams will come true, right? I also haven't used my gray backdrop in awhile. Kind of like visiting an old friend. It's so much easier with my studio lights though. I love having control over my lighting (even if I still struggle to get it looking the way I want!).

Life of Pi: Yann Martel

I've read some good books recently and thought I would share for all of you who are in need of something new and exciting to read. I wasn't so sure about Life of Pi, but I read it for our RS book club (which meets in a few weeks so I'm going to save most of my comments for that) and really enjoyed it. A lot of reviews I read said it started out pretty slow, but I never got that impression. Maybe I just skimmed, can't remember. Anyway, the book is about a young man from India, Pi, who immigrates with his family to Canada. The twist is that his father was a zookeeper and they had sold most of their animals to American zoos and were shipping them across the Pacific. A little while out to sea, the ship sinks and Pi survives in a lifeboat with an orangutan, hyena, and a Bengal Tiger. The story is about his survival. I'll just say it was immensely entertaining and something I would never care to experience.

Keeping Faith: Jodi Picoult

This is the third book I've read by Jodi Picoult and she continues to amaze me. She tackles hard subjects. The first one I read was called My Sister's Keeper, and is about a girl who sues her parents (no joke). The second, Nineteen Minutes, is about a high school shooting, and lastly, Keeping Faith is about a little girl who sees God and the ensuing media frenzy and custody battle between her recently divorced parents. The plot is fairly straightforward, the characters are real, and it is just emotionally taxing. I really feel for her characters every time. Please note these are not Relief Society book club books. There is language, sometimes sex, and they are all somewhat controversial. Like about a little girl seeing and talking to God. I had some issues with the subject, but the book really was a page turner. I was up until 2am one night just glued to the pages and couldn't give it up. If you're up for it, I highly recommend these. Anybody else read anything by Picoult?

All of my Glory

Not that there's much glory to behold, but I thought I'd share just so I can brag about how awesome my husband is. I needed a picture for my About page (on the website) so we set out one rare, sunny, afternoon to shoot some pics of me. It was very disconcerting being on the other end of the camera. Now I know how awkward everyone else feels! hahaha Anyway, Sam did a great job, and then I had fun playing around in Photoshop with my new actions.

Fabric for Sale?

JoAnn's had a home fabric 50% off sale the other week, and I thought "why not? everyone else seems to be doing it" and went and bought a few yards to use as a backdrop. Apparently it's the "in" thing to do right now. Anyway, today was the first day I actually felt like setting everything up. I recruited a neighbor and her kid while mine were sleeping, but of course, I had to use mine for models as well. Rachel's were very "mom I really hate this" so I won't share any, but I got a cute one of Andrew, and our neighbor, Brock. Kind of a different studio look. Like it? Should I ever try it again? And yes, that's a bath rug. Very stylish, I know.

New Website

Hooray! Very original title, but it's after 11pm and I'm tired. Just had to get the word out though. We finally finished (I use that term very loosely as there will be many upgrades over the course of time) my new website. My husband is amazing. I designed it, and he put it in to action. We're such a good team, right? Two of my favorite features are that my website does not 1) resize your browser when you look at it and 2) play stupid music. (Our biggest pet peeves about pretty much every other photographers website we've looked at recently and believe me, we've seen a lot). Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think: www.picturememine.com

My little Caregiver

So I've been pretty sick this whole week. The kind of sick where you are achy, headache, throat hurts, got the chills, and pretty much just don't feel like doing anything. Last night after dinner, I went into our bedroom to lie down and see if that would help me feel any better. I brought my book, propped myself up on pillows and commenced reading. Rachel wanders in and decides she wants to read books to. She collects her stories, blanket, and pillow and climbs up on the bed with me. We remain that way for a good 20 minutes (which when Rachel is involved is a pretty impressive amount of time).

After I decide lying around is not helping me feel any better, I turn off the light and snuggle under the covers to try and get some sleep. After being very annoyed for a minute ("mommy all done sleeping!"), Rachel goes to her room, collects kiki, floppy, cow, her musical zebra and a few toys (her sleeping entourage as we like to call them), tucks them all around me, gives me kisses and hugs, turns on the zebra, says "night, night mommy" and quietly leaves the room and closes the door. How cutes is that? It seriously made me want to cry. Whoever knew a 2 year old could be so perceptive, loving, and just what the doctor ordered?

The Blodgett's

This is one of my high school friends and her cute family. They agreed to let me borrow them to try a spot up near SLC that I've been wanting to shoot at. It was great, only it was really, really cold! Their 15 month (I think!) old daughter was such a trooper, but I could tell she really didn't want to be there. That age is so hard to photograph. We had fun wandering around, looking at the ducks, and got some good ones anyway. Thanks Em!

Fun Date Night

Those of you with kid(s) can sympathize with how difficult it can be to get out on regular dates. Our dating life usually consists of putting the kids to bed and then eating yummilicious ice cream while watching the most recent episode of Eureka (highly recommend), 24, or some other equally addicting tv show that we have recorded and get to watch commercial free. But, every once in awhile we get a night out. Last night was one of those, and it was awesome.We have great people in our ward that will babysit, for free, with short notice. I cannot thank these people enough for helping Sam & I get away from our two beautiful, yet taxing children.

I digress. The date. That's what you want to hear about. We decided we wanted to go out to eat, but we had so many choices that it was difficult to narrow our selection to the one place we really wanted to go to without having to drag the kids with us. Sam chose Shoots, a new Chinese place in the Shops at Riverwoods that is knock-your-socks-off delicious (I'd link to it, but their website appears to be having difficulties). The best part about this establishment is they take reservations for 2. What was that? Seriously. No two hour wait at PF Chang's. We walked in, stated our name, and it was "right this way, please". We had potstickers for an appetizer (way better than the frozen Costco kind, although those are yummy when you are having a desperate craving), and some steaming, pan-fried noodles/bamboo shoots/shrimp/chicken/beef yummyness that arrived bubbling to our table, and some tangerine chicken. The chicken was okay, the pan-fried delectableness was amazing.

After our stomachs were filled to overflowing, we killed the hour and a half before our movie walking around the mall, buying See's chocolate to sneak into the movie, and just enjoying the time we had to actually talk to one another without interruption. So, the movie. Loved it. We saw August Rush at the $1 theater (i know... spend $35 on dinner, $2 on a movie) and it was moving. I loved the mixture of classical, cello music with more modern guitar rock. I'll admit the ending was a little cheesy, but I'm not sure I could've written a better one. Go see it. You'll love it.

So that was probably more than you wanted to know about my weekend. But, I thought I'd share. To recap: Go eat at Shoots, and go see August Rush. Both have made it to my favorite list.