Holiday Happenings

I hope you've all had a wonderful holiday this past week. We spent the day(s) with my husband's family, his parents, two sisters, brother-in-law, grandparents, and aunt. It was lots of fun! And of course, I was too busy chasing little ones around and making my mama's famous bakery rolls, so I got ZERO pictures of the festivities. Seriously, zero. I'm not proud. But for now, I'm glad I got to enjoy the holiday.

E and W loved having lots of playmates to entertain them, the hubby got some great Wii playing in, and we (the girls) even got to do some shopping that night! Who knew, Old Navy was open until 8pm! Those poor workers. But at least I got a nice new winter coat, so I'm happy.

There are so many things in my life that I'm thankful for right now. I'll only list a few so as not to bore you all, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share some. 

• my Savior, Jesus Christ
• my absolutely amazing little family
• modern medicine
• Sudoku
• Harry Potter Lego's
• dish gloves
• muddy buddies
• a cell phone that takes pictures
• digital scrapbooking supplies (so I don't have to mess with glue)
• really exceptional friends with whom I can pick up right where we left off, no matter how much time has gone by
• this great fall weather that has finally come to California!

Those are just a few of the things I've been thinking about lately. I'm SO SO SO blessed in my life, and I'm practicing acknowledging that and making a point to remember it.

And since I don't have any Thanksgiving photos to share, I'll share a recent layout instead. :) 

You can find links to the supplies I used here.

What I was doing Monday night

Do you want to know what my idea of a perfect evening is?

Well, at least when the hubby is out of town…

It’s putting together THIS:

while watching THIS:

Yeah. Perfection.

(And don’t worry, the hubs is home safe and sound now.)

And you’d better believe we’ll be going to see THIS on Friday night! I literally get goosebumps every time I watch the trailers. Every. Single. Time.

I love this giveaway

Check it out, there's a giveaway going on over at Impatiently Praying for Patience (don't you just love that title? It's the story of my life...but I digress) and the winner gets 5 prints from a cute little etsy shop called Winterberry Cottage.



I'm digging the Alice in Wonderland scheme. Although, since I don't actually have any girls, I may have to settle for the Spongebob one.

Oh, she doesn't have Spongebob?

Then this guy is a close second:


Hahaha, can't you see that framed in the bathroom?

LOVE.

Then maybe the hubby would shave more often. Hmmm....

Really, though, this one has got to be my favorite:


Okay, so this one really is my favorite:


I swear. :)

Not really, though, because it's actually this one:


I'm such a fickle creature.

Check it!

Our friends, Matt and Shayne, have the coolest little family. They’re always doing fun stuff, and they have awesome, creative parents. For Halloween, they made the best costumes for their kiddos and asked me to photograph them. I was so excited!

I was really impressed with their skillz, especially Corr’s.

Want to see how cute they looked? Check them out HERE.

I'm Amazed

I have a friend, Mandy, who is constantly amazing me. She has this ability to put into words the very things that I would love to say but don't know how. The way she places words within sentences draws you in and pulls your heart towards a direction you didn't know you wanted to go. And this post is no different. But then again, in a way it is. Because it really spoke to me, more so than any recent one.

I wondered why. Then I realized that it's because within this post, I could 100% relate to what she was saying. It wasn't just that part of it applied to me, or that I could imagine where she was coming from. It was because I had been right there in that exact situation and felt like she was talking about me. And I love that.

Obviously that isn't always the case with everything I read. So I was glad to have found something that spoke directly to my heart and put words there that I didn't know how to place myself.

So thank you, Mandy, for sharing your words and ideas. You make me want to be better, and that is truly the best compliment I could give.

A Treat for You!

Do you want to see the current cutest baby on the planet? (No, not one of mine...)

Click here to see who I've been photographing lately!

Here's a hint:

Growing up…

I can’t believe I’m typing this, but my little guy is finally going to preschool! I am so excited for him and for the new adventure that he is taking on. For a while there, it kinda felt like this day would never come because E has always been exceptionally smart and intellectual for his age. I mean, he knew and could say all his letters by the age of 2, could read simple words by 2 1/2, and started reading for real by about 3. Now, that’s not to say that I’m some amazing teacher or anything. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It’s more like his brain just *clicks* with letters and words and sentences the way that some kids’ brains just *click* with trains or imaginative play or creativity. He’s always just loved that type of thing – puzzles, reading, etc.

To say that I’m proud of him is one of the biggest understatements ever. I am so thrilled that he takes after his dad in the brains department. And I’m constantly amazed at the things that he says, the way that his brain soaks up information and retains it days or sometimes weeks later, the way that he can read us books at bedtime instead of the other way around. I am so proud of him. I try not to outwardly show this in public, though, for fear of looking like I’m bragging. So I don’t say much about it, and when people ask me how we did it I just smile and say he was born with it. But let me tell you, at home, I let him know how proud I am and how special he is. He deserves to know that I know that.

But I digress…

What I’ve been trying to say is that this day, this first day of preschool, has been a long time coming. And we were ready! We had a scavenger hunt last night to gather all of his ‘essentials’ and this morning he just couldn’t wait to put his backpack on and head out the door!

(And yes, Jed, that shirt is for YOU!) Thanks for the recommendation. As you can tell, he loves it. Almost as much as me and the hubby. :)

Once we got to school, he was too cool to even look at me. Geez, it starts!

Obviously excited to have his picture taken with his teacher…more like he just wanted to get home so he could do his homework! I hope his enthusiasm stays that strong in the coming years…

I’m excited for this new chapter in our lives, for him to learn a little more discipline, to get to interact with other kids on a more regular basis, and for him to learn about existing out in the ‘real world’ (or as close as preschool is to it).

And I didn’t even shed a tear.

Okay, maybe my eyes watered a little.

He’s growing up.

Face your fears!

Yesterday was a really fun day. The hubby had the day off work (thank you 4-day weekend!!) and so his sister decided to come play with us for the day. We went up to Big Bear and did the Alpine slide they have there.

Now, let me fill you in on a little backstory here. When E was about 2, he was a daredevil. He loved going to Legoland and would ride all the roller coasters with me, no problem. He’d go up in the rising helicopters and ride the dinosaur roller coaster when others were afraid. This kid was fearless.

Fast forward 6 months to our visit to Utah for a family wedding. We went to Park City to go on the Alpine slide and E was a little nervous. I assured him it would be lots of fun and that we’d go slow. (I think he was more scared of the ski lift than the actual slide.) So we went up the chair lift, with him scared the whole time, but okay. Then we went on the slide, and he cried just about the entire time down the mountain. I even went slow! But he just wasn’t loving it and I was kind of sad for him.

So what does a good mom do? She makes him go again, of course! Face your fears, I always say.

Well, I think that did him in. He screamed the whole way down, and when we went home to California, he no longer wanted anything to do with amusement park rides, carousels, even those dumb 25-cent horsey rides outside the grocery store!

So yes, I completely traumatized my 2-year-old. Bad mom.

So yesterday, when we went to Big Bear to try this again, he wasn’t excited. He asked us before we got there, “How big is it?” And of course we told him, “It’s really small!”

Bad mom.

Then we got there and he saw how big it was. He didn’t want to do it. Aunt Janae and I went down first to show him how fun it would be. He didn’t want to do it. We promised him he could have some candy if he went down. He didn’t want to do it. I told him I’d hold him the whole time and go really slow and he’d be completely safe with me. He didn’t want to do it.

So we pulled out the big guns. We told him we’d get him a Pillow Pet if he went down. I tell you what, he really thought about it that time! But he still didn’t want to do it.

This is him holding on for dear life to the pole by the entrance. He really didn’t want to go.

So what does a good mom do? She makes him go, crying on the way to the chair lift. Face your fears, I always say.

And what happened this time? Half-way up the mountain, he turns to me (while holding on desperately to my shirt) and says, “Hey Mom, this is really fun!” And I say, “Of course it is, I told you it would be.”

 

So we went down the mountain and the first thing he said when we got to the end was, “Mom! I did it!”

Good mom? :)

If only he would have been able to convey his excitement in this family photo. But alas, he and W both hate my camera, no matter how infrequently it appears these days. :)

There’s nothing cooler than new life.

My oldest, dearest friend Summer had her very own baby girl last week! Little Lily Claire. I was so excited for Summer to finally be done with her pregnancy (although not as excited as she was, I’m sure) and to be able to have her little girl in her arms. Luckily, my sister- and mother-in-law watched my boys for me so that I could go visit her in the hospital. She ended up doing a C-Section, which happened to be a great decision since her little lady clocked in at 9 lbs, 6 oz! That’s a big baby (especially for your first)! But she’s definitely captured the hearts and attention of everyone who sees her.

Here are some adorable photos to munch on:

Seriously, she’s just adorable! She looks a lot like her dad, but I can still see Summer in there too. I just loved how Summer’s mom had dressed her up in her entire outfit, complete with shoes and hat. And you should have seen her going-home outfit, she had sparkly silver shoes with the cutest little ensemble.

Summer’s in for a lot girly, frilly things. I can’t say I’m not a tad bit envious, but I’m completely okay with not having to give up my sleep for a newborn right now! :)

 

Congratulations, Summer and Ian, you two are lucky parents indeed.

What I’ve been struggling with lately is this:

You have to take photographs to be a photographer.

Seems pretty self-explanatory, doesn’t it?

Well, recently, I have definitely NOT been a photographer. I am not ashamed to admit that I have been feeling as though I am in the midst of a dry spell when it comes to finding inspiration or interesting things to capture through my lens. I’m not sure if it is because I’ve been extremely busy, or whether it goes deeper and I’m subconsciously taking a step back from the craft as a whole. If I’m being honest (which I hope to always be on this blog), then I would have to say that I haven’t felt the thrill of holding my camera and discovering sights and moments through it lately. I don’t know if it’s because I’m bored of it or my creativity has checked out or what.

Whatever it is, I’m feeling okay with it.

And that, in the same instance, scares me and thrills me.

For one, I am scared to think that my passion for photographing things and people could be extinguished so unexpectedly and so quickly. I am scared to admit that I am not always taking photos with endless creativity because if I do admit that, you (meaning the readers of this blog, my clients, my prospective clients, the population in general, etc.) may see me as a fake or a phony based on my claim that I am a photographer. If I have these bouts of indifference towards my camera, I am told (through other blogs or other photographers’ opinions) it means I am not a true photographer. And I so want to be! So it scares me to admit to the world that I am going through a photographic dry spell.

On the other hand, it also thrills me to think that I can accept this point in my life as being what it is and possibly just what it needs to be. It’s thrilling to think that I can be okay with putting the camera down for a while and living my life instead of just trying to record it. That I can embrace the dry spell, and start storing away little creative bits and pieces for another time when it may be more feasible for me to flesh them out and really work on them. I may just be at a stretch of road that doesn’t include photographs. And that can be okay.

Does that mean I’m giving up on this craft completely and that this whole time I’ve just been pretending to love it? Of course not. It just means that I am allowing myself to take a step back, let the inspiration come if it will, and not force it. I never produce really great work if I’m trying to force it, and I’m slowly learning this. 

So yes, while these recent moments in my life have been ones of photographic non-existence, I am learning to release the self-imposed pressure that comes with them, inwardly telling me that I need to produce something of interest and beauty and substance and I need to do it right this moment or else I’ll be exposed as a fraud. I’m allowing it to unfold and naturally happen if it will, without getting caught up in the “what will people think” trap. And trust me, that is a very hard thing for me to do, but I’m working on it.

The way I can do this is by remembering that I know that it will come back. I know that one day I’ll pick up my camera again and lovingly start shooting away. It will happen.