Breathtaking. Life.

Remember this? I took this picture at Strawberry Reservoir on Memorial weekend.

Yesterday when I was driving home I decided that I better stop at the same spot again to take some pictures, or I'd never forgive myself. This is the kind of beauty that makes you want to cry. Or be really really glad that you are a photographer. Or really really frustrated that you didn't bring your tripod.

I was driving home from Bountiful after competing in my first triathlon. It was a fun experience to do this with my dad, who is a triathlon addict, and has competed in a few already, and with Jason, Brenda, and especially Aubrey for their first time too. Even more sweet was running across the finish line holding my sister's hand. We didn't stay together most of the time, but we ended up together, climbing out of the pool at the same time. It was a happy ending. :) Aubrey did a great job, and was the 2nd youngest finisher of the race. I was proud of her. She was SO fast on the swimming part! It seemed like she barely got in the pool, and then she was out already!

I've felt so overwhelmed today... feeling like I will never ever catch up. Life just goes by so fast, and it seems like all I can do is hang on for dear life so I don't get trampled. Brandon told me I could have his palm, so I could schedule my life and have it beep at me whenever I need to do something. Yeah. It's that easy. ;)

But you know what? It's okay. How could you look at beauty like this, given to us by our Heavenly Father, and not know that somehow it will be okay. He loves me. He loves you. That I know. This weekend was full of really great things... supporting family in doing something challenging... a sweet visit with a family member I've been struggling with that softened my heart and brought a lot of hope, and released a burden that has weighed my heart down for a long time... a stake meeting for the addition of a new stake in the area (which we are in), where we were blessed to hear from so many good men and women, and be uplifted... and more. I don't know why I get overwhelmed when there are so many blessings, but I guess we all do that at times.

And who could be sad when they have a camera and photoshop to play with? ;) What experience has especially blessed you this weekend? I'd love to hear in the comments, if you want to share. :)

Let's Get Real...Amy Style

NEWLY ADDED: In the spirit of being completely honest, I'll admit that I ate pie and ice cream for lunch, I yelled at my kids last night... a lot, Cooper is watching tv right now (he gets out early on Fridays), my kids ate sugar cereal and leftover pizza for breakfast... ummm... I ate sugar cereal for breakfast... enough of the confessions!!! I'm going to go hide in my room!

This is for Amy and Charlotte... I'm risking everlasting embarrassment for two girls I adore, so they better appreciate this! Yes, it's 10:30 a.m. No, my bed's not made. Yes, this is pretty much standard for me. YES, that's a bra on the floor. Get over it, will ya?

I had to put this one in there, because I can't even blame this mess on the kids... okay, I couldn't really blame the last mess on them either. ;) My purse, my camera bag, my magazine, AHA! Cooper's cereal bowl. I feel so much better now. ;) See that laundry basket with the cooler in it? That was brought in from the truck last weekend and it's still sitting right there.

If you look close, you might notice that this isn't quite the disaster it first seems. There are a lot of folded clothes there. I folded them two days ago, and didn't get them put away. Hey, at least I got them folded, Amy... ;) Now you can't tell the difference between the folded clothes and the boys' junk.

I'm stopping there, because that's about all the exposure I can take, and because I cleaned the bathrooms yesterday. (Too bad, because there is nothing as cool as a dead bug in pee on the back of the toilet... I'll have to document that before I clean it next time. Now all of you should take Amy's challenge too... we've got to let each other know that there really isn't that elusive "perfect" out there. Come on, I dare ya!!

This Little Guy...

I had a photo shoot last night, and met little Keaton for the first time. He was a hoot, and I got even more laughs when I was editing the pictures. He knew that he did NOT want to look at me, and he definitely didn't want to smile. Every time I look at this picture, I giggle a little bit. That face is probably exactly what he thought of me... annoying girl, all up in his face! I really love photographing little ones... you never know what you're going to get, but it always turns out good. :) (More on my photography blog.)

Back to SCHOOL Baby!!

Yes, today was the first day back to school for my kids. Since they all like school, I don't have to feel guilty about liking them going to school, right? I can't say it better than one my bestest friends, Felicia ... "The only crying I did was yesterday, when I thought that I might not survive the final 18 hours of summer break without self-destructing. If I never hear the words, "Mom, I'm hungry" again, it will be too soon."

Aubrey didn't have a great day today, but everything will be fine and dandy. (As long as she can get Photography next semester...)

Tyler had his first day in middle school... yup, the whole locker thing, going to different classes thing, no recess thing... he's excited. See, if there's no recess, there's less chance of getting in trouble! ;)

Cooper had an awesome day... he loves his new teachers (he has one in the morning and a different one in the afternoon), he gets a big kid desk, he has friends in his class, and all is right with the world.

And me? My house looks like nothing got accomplished, but I did stuff... made business cards, learned how to download free fonts (thanks Charlotte, my photoshop guru!!), learned how to do stuff for the apron girls blog (thanks V, my blogging as a business expert!!), folded mountains of laundry, washed the car, and did a photoshoot this evening... oh, I have SO many plans! Thank goodness school is back in session!

Family Reunion at Arches

I can't believe I've never been to Arches before now... never have I enjoyed looking at a bunch of rocks so much! I had a few heart attacks watching kids on the edges of cliffs, but luckily we all made it through alive. I sure wish kids had more fear... ;)

There were a few funny things that we'll always remember about this trip... one was our attempt to find the Double O Arch. First we took the wrong path... then we took the wrong path again... and again... you get the picture. We had a couple from Italy following us trying to find it too. At least they have some good "crazy Americans" stories to tell. We only wished that Adam could have been there to tell us what they were really saying about us. ;) Anyway, we FINALLY made it to the Double O Arch, or so we thought. We were rather disappointed... all that hiking for this?? We attempted to take some decent pictures of a not very exciting arch... until some hikers pointed BEHIND us and asked us if that's what we were looking for. Ummm... yeah. That would be the arch:

This one was a lot more exciting, but at that point we had to hurry back, since half of the group was already waiting at the bottom of the trail, and sunset was approaching fast. Yes, we're quite clueless. The Italians were still listening to us crazy Americans at the end of this, and looking the wrong way...

I took a portrait of me with Brandon... I look good, right?

The windows arches were really cool...

And the double arch was one of my favorites too. (I'll post pictures of landscape arch and sandstone arch later... two of my very favorites. :)

Thanks, Jason, for taking this picture of us! (And for planning this whole dang thing! :) YES, that's a fanny pack. Stop making fun of me... I forgot my backpack.

Some other funny & good things to remember:

Brenda's moth-up-the-shorts-while-holding-a-scary-big-bug-in-a-gatorade-bottle dance. You oughta try it... it's quite the dance. Dallas and I almost peed our pants watching her.

Allston throwing sand in the air, crying when it got in his eyes, then immediately playing with the sand again as soon as he was put back down. Geoff and Allston were cute together.

"Is this what you mean?" (Must be said while flexing a muscle... preferably the calf muscle.)

"Are you looking at me?" (I can't even explain that one... you'd have to be there.)

Aubrey saying that she couldn't go to bed yet, because she hadn't had enough fun yet. Didn't know that was the criteria for going to bed... but now we know. ;)

Olivia holding my hand whenever she had a chance.

Ethan letting me hold and snuggle him while Brenda took care of a poopy.

Kissing Donovan's cheeks.

Eating tin foil dinners at 10:30 p.m. (isn't that how it always goes?)

Oh, so many more... I'll have to try to remember them all to write in the next post.

My Gorgeous Friend

Yesterday I had a photoshoot with my friend, Tari... she's my first in a series of Beautiful Mom photoshoots. (I'll explain more about that on my photography website later.) Anyway, we had so much fun, and it was SO easy to get gorgeous shots of Tari... it's obvious why. :) I also got my new reflector/diffuser in the mail yesterday, so we had fun experimenting with that too! Thank you so much, Tari! You're the best! :)

Post for Brandon

Brandon said it was time to update the blog, because this is how he keeps up on what's going on around here. (Also, if you are the author of one of the blogs he looks at, you need to get a new post up asap... he's getting upset at all of the slackers. ;)

I guess I'll just make this a random thoughts post, since that's pretty much the only kind of thoughts I have.

This photo was from a shoot I did on Wednesday. I love these kids. They're good, good kids. Brandon didn't like this particular photo because he said he couldn't see the other kids' faces. Oh my goodness... I can't believe I accidently cut their heads off! I better practice some more... ;)

I took the kids to the fair today and yesterday. We made a bunch of crafts. (Yes, we... even I got in on the fun!) We made artist trading cards, sewed felt needle holders, tied flies, made sock puppets, bookmarks, cards, zentangles, and the boys entered lego contests. This was the start of my "cramming everything we should've been doing all summer into one week" week. We're also going to go swimming, go to the museum, and go on a trip to Arches. Wish me luck...

I can't think of anything else. Oh! I love you, Brandon. I'm glad you're home! :)

Oh Boy... it's More Family Joy!

I finished editing the pictures from our little family photo shoot (the one you might remember didn't go over so well...) Aubrey took me swimming this morning and taught me some stuff. I'm not a good swimmer, but she's a good teacher... she taught me more than I've been taught about swimming ever in my life. I think I swallowed about half the pool though...

Look! Sometimes my kids look like they're getting along! Thank goodness I captured this to cherish forever! (Notice that Tyler isn't in the picture...)

Tyler's usually my best poser for pictures, but he just wasn't feeling it that day. He finally decided he could quit pouting, and got out of the car and let me take a few.

He even smiled for a few of them! See Tyler, life isn't so bad after all. ;)

This boy is the king of the scowl. He wasn't even mad at me... I think his face must've got stuck this way. Let this be a lesson to you all...

He spent half of the photo shoot with the straw hanging out of his mouth. This boy needs a farm. This boy's dad needs a farm.

I found another decent shot of me! I had to dig through a lot of scary ones, and there were a few times I thought I might cry, but finally, finally, I found one!

And this guy?

I'll love him 'til the cows come home. (We don't even have cows, so that's gonna be a long long long long long time!)

p.s. I resized all of these before posting, because I was having problems uploading to blogger, and now they look all yucky quality... do they look bad to you guys? They look okay when I click on them to make them bigger, but for some reason they look weird on my screen.

Giveaway at Apron Girls

I wanted to let all the people I love know about the giveaway at Apron Girls.... go check it out! You don't have to be a member of the blog to win... anyone can win! :)

The Blanket in Action

Yes, I got a newborn photo shoot already! I'm pretty persuasive, huh? ;) Katherine wasn't really thrilled with the whole modeling thing, but she's adorable anyway, and I got to hold her for a little bit. Sigh... newborn babies are so sweet. (More on the photography blog, of course! ;)

Family Pictures are Torture

Lynda, my wonderfully sweet mom-in-law has been asking for pictures of all three of the kids together. You'd think with me being a photographer that wouldn't be a big deal. Apparently, it is. You would've thought I was lining my kids up to be exterminated or something. Sigh. See, I let pictures of me be taken, and I even posted one. One. That's all you get. I don't know how I can look so bad in so many pictures... NO fault of the photographers! (Aubrey & Brandon) Luckily this one wasn't too embarrassing.

Now, if I looked as hot as Brandon does, I'd pose all the time! I'm going to get to see this guy a lot more often... he got a job here!

This was one of the better ones. Seriously. I know what you're thinking... what the?? But if it wasn't one crying or pouting or looking away or sniffing or refusing to get close to each other or kicking or looking down or looking up, it was another!! There are a few more on my photography blog if you're interested. Hopefully one of them will be good enough for Grandma's collection...

Thanks, Mom!

I thought maybe I shouldn't post this, because you'd all cry from jealousy because you don't have my mom-in-law, but I HAVE to show you what she made for me and sent in the mail today... I showed her some soft bulky afghans that photographers have used in newborn photography, and asked if she thought she could make one for me... (I found one for $100 and just couldn't pay that right now. This one is even BETTER than that one! :)

The next thing I knew, this was in a box by my door... it's SO soft, and SO perfect! She found some yarn and just whipped it up.

I can't wait to use it... If anyone needs baby pictures, let me know. I'll give an "I'm desperate for a model NOW" discount. :)

Camp ROC 2009

This year's camp theme was Rely On Christ. Every ward was a different decade, and we were... the '80s. Yes, we were awesome.

Our girls from our ward were amazing... seriously amazing. They got along so well, participated in everything, "spiffied the biffys" THREE times... and they worked together on the challenge course like nobody else.

I had to include this picture of me, because first of all it shows how much fun I had. Second of all... who doesn't want to show off the flattering harness butt cheek look?? ;)

Now, why would all these gold balloons be floating in the sky?

Each balloon represented a girl's promise to be MORE virtuous...

This was one of my favorite parts of camp. What a beautiful sight... and one that the girls will hopefully remember always.

Do you see what we had to put up with? These girls were completely out of control. Completely. Out. Of. Control.

And the leaders? Perfectly well behaved... yes, we might've had a little bit too much fun with the camera timer... Oh, I love these girls!!! (I'll be posting a few more scenery photos on my photography blog if you're interested... just click the button on the upper right side.)