My Sisters, the photographers!

Like I said, my sisters are totally becoming entrepreneurs (leaving me in their dust) with their photo businesses. Anne, my older sister in Dallas is also taking family photos now and they are gorgeous! I am a very picky person when it comes to getting a good photographer for my chillins and my sisters are totally stepping up! She is going to team up with my sister Amy and book a few clients while she is Utah the month of July. She has a few families already lined up but she still has some openings if anyone is interested in some inexpensive but totally adorable photo shoots. Check out her website if you are interested and shoot me or her an email. Check out her website at Creatively Chic Photography if you are interested. I posted a few samples to give you a taste of how cute they are.

Amy's pro photos

Amy has such an amazing talent for taking the cutest candid pics of my kids. She has been taking some photo classes and pair that with her natural talent and voila! She really should pursue it and make some serious moolah (sp?). She took some pics for my neighbor's little girl that turned out sooooo cute, tons better than any studio. If you are interested in getting your photos done by her for fairly cheap let me know.

Not My Mother's Cup of Tea

First off, I'd like to apologize for the tardiness of this post, I wrote it about a month or so ago and never got around to publishing it until now.  

Around here we try to plan inexpensive adventure filled vacations due to the fact that my family still has four students and a father who believes "if it doesn't hurt a little (or a lot) it isn't worth your time."  Therefore, much to my mothers dismay my family goes on bike trips for weeks on end with nothing but a bag of necessities and a few power bars.  We've tempered Dad's completely exhausting adventures a little and now with toddlers and babies in tow, we go high up in the mountains in freezing temperatures and camp in lieu of bike trips.

Okay, I'm exaggerating a tad, we did have a cabin waiting for us up yonder, but there was a 7 mile snowmobile ride in, which 9 month old Boston was not very fond of.  Boston is not a snowmobile baby.  It is rather difficult to hold onto 25 pounds of bouncing boy, and I'd love to see you try to zip up that chunk in your coat.  After 10 minutes of solid wailing, he fell asleep (or passed out we're still not sure).  The cabin is owned by my brother-in-law's parents.  A little shout out to the Evans family for providing the shelter!  It was rather cold inside the 30 year old cabin when we arrived, but once the fire was a cracklin' we were happy campers, quite literally.  The only thing of note, other than the frigid temperatures, were the frozen flies that came to life as the cabin began to warm. And there were a whole lot'a them.  I think being frozen and thawed and frozen and thawed so many times has to cause some sort of genetic defect. 

The remainder of the trip was all fun, while we crammed into the front room and had a giant sleepover(the other rooms were freeeezing!).  The land was as magnificent and peaceful as it comes.  We found an amazing sledding hill, went snowshoeing up to a mountain lake, and played games while sipping hot chocolate at night.  So I suppose I was wrong, this trip was different than our childhood vacations. . . I didn't cry once.

  Boston and his cute rosy cheeks.  Who doesn't love a baby in a beenie?

Matt stoking the fire and keeping us cozy.

The bib says it all! (Stud!)

Kristi doing what Kristi does best.  

Amy using Camden for his body warmth.

Late night grins

Dad making his best "elk" face.

The famous shades in action.

Andy and Cam lovin' the horses

Camden's new best friend.

Go Wildcats!

When the cashier at Hobby Lobby scanned this item she said, "Do you have some High School Musical fans in the family?"  With no reservations I replied, "Yeah, me and my sisters!" For all you High School Musical fans out there, this one's for you!  

Yes, I am 26 years old and have a mild to moderate crush on Zac Efron.  Yes, I am a mother of two and know many, if not all, the lyrics to the songs of the epic HSM3! And YES, I attended opening night in the theaters and the day it came out on DVD had a party at my house.  

The sad truth about our little party. . . we (me, Amy, Kristi, and Kelly) originally didn't invite any kids.  That's right, an all girl party and no one was under the age of 20.  We rethought the age limit when we realized how ridiculous it would be watching a bunch of grown women smacking a pinata.  So we invited Camden, Boston, Melissa (my next door neighbor) and her little girl Madison.  

Amy provided us with High School Musical 3 take home goodie bags and a tablecloth. While Kristi and Kelly put together the "pin the lips on Troy" game.  The highlight of the night happened when Kelly sat on my sticky lips and we searched for a good 5 minutes looking for them, only to discover . . . 

Amy giving us her "bedroom eyes" during the game. 

  Other fun and exciting things included:   

Painting our toenails Wildcat red.

The thrill and excitement of seeing the movie yet again!  And last but surely not least. . . 

Kristi's pre-show grooving!  

If you have yet to see this movie, I hope now more than ever you will rush out and rent it and have your sisters or friends over.  This is a movie that is all about fun and laughter, as Kristi's grooves will prove.  

A few more dress-ups

Just a few more pics of my boy in his dress-ups!  

My Boy likes Dress-Ups

Moments after opening his gift he was fully outfitted and ready to play.  Grandma couldn't find a full BYU Cougar outfit so she improvised and found a blue Colts jersey and put Y stickers on the helmet. I love my mom in the background, I think she might be just as excited as Camden.

And a few moments after that, head down in action ready to tackle Shane. 

Rather than doing the laundry that is pilling up in my hallway I've decided to blog.  Here's to irresponsibility!  My mom and I both have a tendency to get the winter blues and she gave me the advice to do things that I want to do rather than all the necessities, or the things I imagine to be necessities, in order to feel more peppy.  

A week ago Camden was wearing his Cougar football outfit. . . again. (Note: His favorite present of Christmas '08, courtesy of Grandma Debbie.)  I allow him to wear it a maximum of two, okay sometimes three, days straight before I bribe it off him to wash it.  As a matter of fact, he is wearing it this very day and it smells like yesterday's homemade greasy doughnuts.  I never imagined I'd have a boy that loved dress-ups so much, but I literally have to hide his "costumes",   in order for him to wear regular clothes.  But I digress, back to a week ago. 

Camden and I were  pretending to play football.  As we were tossing our invisible football Camden stopped mid-throw: 

Camden: "Mom, where's your helmet?"

Me: "Oh, I forgot to put it on, can you help me?" Camden walks over to me and places an invisible helmet on my head, even remembering to buckle my chin strap.

Me: "Thanks C"

Camden: "Hey, where's my football pads?"

Me: "We took them out.  Remember? because they were hurting your shoulders." 

Camden: (with a concerned face) "yeah cause they hurt me." 

Camden: (with conviction) "You got pads mom." patting my nursing chest, "see, you got pads."  

Me: (concealing a smirk), "Great."  

As you can see, Camden has a vivid imagination and if he wants to dress up, then by golly let the man!  

    

I was curious about the obsession that all my neighbors, friends, and family had for the book Twilight and so I overcame my "I think I'm cool because I haven't read Twilight " attitude and gave it a little attention.  Wow.  It was that bad.  And good.  To tell you the truth I'm a little confused as to how I really feel about it.  There were times reading that I threw up a little in my mouth. I even remember the lines that induced the small but nasty mouthfuls, after Bella writes her secretive goodbye letter to Edward and remarks after sealing it, "And then I carefully sealed away my heart.", or any references she made to Edward's "marble arms".  But I won't deny that I got a few love butterflies at times as well.  So the conclusion that I have come to is this. . . the story had great potential but how I wish that someone else had written it.  Someone who didn't sit by the computer with her Thesaurus in hand waiting for a good place to fit that one big word in every sentence.  (Note: Kristi came up with this theory but it rang so true I have adopted it).  At least I won't be an outsider to those who love, and those who love to make fun of, the phenomenon called Twilight. 

p.s. I tried to find the most hideous picture I could for this blog,  but I couldn't find one of Edward "sparkling" so I choose the next best thing,  him "soaring".  

The rules are: Go to your pictures folder, upload the 4th picture in the 4th folder, post and explain the picture.  Tag 4 friends. 

Amy, although it took me over a month, I am happy to admit this is the first Tag that I have ever followed through with.  It was interesting enough but not as daunting as the other Tags I have received in the past.  So here it is:  This is the first picture of my Dad's first born son holding my first born son, and may I say one of my favorite pictures of my brother.  Although Mike doesn't think he is fit to be a dad, I think he is wonderful with my kids.  He will be a wonderful dad someday.   

I tag Janelle, Lori, Melissa, and Kristi (because she failed to do it the first time)!

Ahh, the summer is over and I miss it already.  It is my favorite season and this is why this year was no different. . . 

tradition, tradition, tradition, of tents and trees and tired kids

a weekend of camping

sun, sun, sun and a nice shiny sweaty sunscreen glow. 

a St. George vacation

family, family, family and a lot of little ones scampering around.

baby Boston's blessing

together, together, together. . . forever

jeff and michelle marry

memories, memories, memories of a random but hillarious nature

a summer obsession with helmets

fresh, fresh, fresh, food with family by sunset

an evening Barbeque

but, Fall brings its own joy. . . most importantly (according to Shane) the smell of football

sweet, sweet, you

Boston.  how can I love you so much already and yet have only known you for four months?  i can already sense a distinct vibe of your gentle nature and patient personality.  how can something so small fill my world with so much love?  my world is truly sweeter and more lovely with you in it.  i love you this moment and forever.  

photography by jennifer anderson 

visit her website at photographybyjennifer.net

We love the potty! . . . at least sometimes we do.

We have entered a new frontier ladies and gentelmen, that of trying to coerce a two year old that going to the bathroom in the potty is cool. Luckily, he thinks that being like his Dad is pretty cool, so we ask "Does daddy go poo poo in his pants?" We hope not. I knew it was time to start weening him off the diapers when one day after he took off a load he promptly stuck his hands down the back of his pants came up with a little more than expected and said, "icky". You think? Nasty is more like it. Well, needless to say I wish my kid was the angel child that is potty trained in less than a week. Not a chance. Some mornings are good days and we make it on the pot a few times before we go in our pants. Other days, he could care less and it's all diaper again. A few days ago we had a decent day and he went actual number two in his "big boy potty". However, the funny thing about Camden is that he already wants his privacy when he braves this new potty adventure. The minute I get him up on it he looks up at me and says, "Close door mommy, go out." Because I'm so happy that he is even trying to go I allow him this one wish. A minute later I ask through the door, "Are you finished?" He says, "me done". I walk in and to my surprise he has gone poop in his small potty but felt it imperative that he take his poop in hand and transfer it to the big flushable potty. Wow.

By the way, I wrote this entry a few weeks ago and now Camden is wearing the big boy undies everyday. He really has surprised me. Although, he has become even more particular about his routine of going number two. Not only does he tell me to "go out, close door mommy" but now he demands to have a book while he unloads. "Get me book mommy." I wonder where he gets that from? hehe

The dreaded Fwd: a pet peeve.

 

This is going to be a short little entry and may offend a few

people but it must be said.  What is with the pathological forwarders?  We all have them, one or two people in our Contact list that forward every little thing they can get their clickers on.  I don't know about you but I surely don't have time to read every little hallmark sob story or email fear scam or even the somewhat witty but forgettable joke.  News flash for these offenders:  i don't read forwards! Now please don't get me wrong, this entry is not for the one or two time forwarders that occasionally get something of actual interest and pass it on for others to benefit.   

Another thing is this whole forwarding activity really plays with my emotions when I open up my email and I see "Inbox (3)".  A little silent "Waa-whoo" goes off in my head, a little flutter of my heart says "did someone think of me today?,"only to discover the dreaded "Fwd: blah blah blah blah blah blah"  It's similar to getting a hand written envelope addressed to you and getting a poopy advertisement inside (sorry about the "poopy" adjective but amidst potty training it was all I could come up with).  What's worse is that the advertisement is from someone you know!  These forwards are coming from people we know that lack the ability to use the keyboard to write a personal line and instead opt for four pages of  a big waste of time.  Aaah.  Okay enough whining, I'll jump off my soap box now and call it a day.    

One lucky little boy

You are definitely one lucky little boy Camden. Your Dad took you fishing for the first time at the wee age of two. Now that is some serious love kid. Shane said that it was a little difficult because you constantly wanted to, "Me do it, me do it, me do it" but he was happy to oblige such a cute request. You may notice the different expressions on Grandpa's face as you fling that pole around. Back home when cooking the fish you were extremely proud of your catch, petting and practically kissing the dead things which truly grossed your mom out. I wouldn't want my boy any other way.

What the chub?

I just thought you all might like to know that my son is 14 pounds at two months. That means he has doubled his birth weight, which means that only 6 more pounds and we have to move him into a bigger carseat, which means he is already in size 3-6 months clothes, which means 29 dollars down the drain because all those size one diapers are useless now, which means he is darn heavy, which means I get to kiss those juicy cheeks everyday, which means he is the cutest thing in the world. Here is a before and after picture of him at birth and him now. . . Phew all that growing makes him sleepy. . .

The Before:

And now for the After: