Today in Nursery...

One of my church callings is in the nursery. I was just called to the nursery at the first of the year and it's the third time I've served in the nursery in the almost 13 years I've been married. But I like it in there. I don't have to spend much time preparing a lesson, it's only two hours out of my week and I get to play with the cutest little kids in the ward (get me some baby-time.)

Today we had 4 kids in nursery, the oldest just turned two today and the youngest will turn one on Friday. They took every toy out of a very large toy cupboard and spread them all over the room. But they were happy and so cute and played really well together.

I'd brought my camera because we've been wanting to get pictures of the kids to put on the door for them to see when they arrive. So, happily, I was prepared to capture this moment between (almost) 1 year old Allison, and 18 month old Hammy.


Aaaawwwwww......

Wouldn't it be great if they grew up and got married. We could put this picture on their announcements!

Aaawwwwww!

Like Peas and Carrots

Don't you just love that line in Forest Gump where Forest says, "Jenny and me, we was like peas and carrots."

If we're lucky, we'll all have a friend like that in our lives.

My youngest has a really good buddy named Ruger. They played at my house today because Ruger's mom (and my good friend) just had a baby and we were wanting her to get some rest.

I realized, as I listened to them playing together so well, hour after hour, that I'd never taken their pictures together. So I quick snapped this fun little image of them peeking out at me from behind the doorway.



Now, I ask you, if these two aren't peas and carrots, who in the world is?

What a Little Jewel

These have been a looooonnnng time coming. I took them for my friend, Autumn, clear back in DECEMBER! I was so behind on my life then, that I just let them go. And Autumn knew how busy I was and was soooo patient, so I let them go even longer.

And now I finally have them done and this little sweetheart is a lot older, but she actually still looks a lot like she did when these were taken at just a few weeks old.

In't she pretty?!


Her Mama has 4 girls and the oldest is in Kindergarten. In fact, this is the third of Autumn's babies that I've taken newborn pictures of. The first was one of the very first babies I ever attempted to photograph. I've come a long way since then, and I've still got a long way to go.

What a journey.

These are some of my favorites from the session:







Such a pretty mama, and such a pretty little dollie.


Her name is so appropriate. It's Jewel.

At least she's always willing...

The other day after we'd cut Brynn's hair she demanded a photo shoot to commemorate the occasion.

I posted this one the other day...


And here are a few more from that session...




Jaxon was watching and this is how he felt about all the posing and smiling and such:



Yeah, I kinda know what he means.

Sometimes her expressions are a little over the top:


And sometimes they're a little bit strange:



But she's always willing...


And that's a good thing.

Marty the Missionary

One of the missionaries from Marty's mission sent this to me on facebook the other day...


I LOVE it! What a handsome little kid.

No wonder our kids are so cute. :o)

Twice as Nice!

The other day, I got to do something I've never done before. I got to photograph not one, but TWO beautiful baby girls. Their moms are good friends and wanted to take pictures of their little darlins' in their blessing dresses, and since they live about 30 minutes from me, we set up a time when we could photograph them both in one session.

This little sweetie, Kynlee, is the newborn from this post last month. I couldn't believe how much she'd changed in just a few weeks.


And this little doll is Jaydee....


They're only 5 days apart - they're both so different, but both so pretty.

Jaydee's mom told me that she was kind of a fussy little girlie and probably wouldn't be very good for her session, but we were pleasantly surprised at how well she did.

We even got a smile or two...


Isn't she lovely?

Here's Kynlee again - oh, and I forgot to mention, they had matching dresses. It wasn't planned, but a nice coincidence - so pretty!


And Jaydee:


And Kynlee:



And Jaydee:




What could be better than a beautiful little girl in a pretty white dress? Two, of course.

She Doesn't Have My Hair Issues... Thankfully!

When I was a kid, we had a family hairdresser who was a good friend of my mom's but she completely ruined my hair. I'm sure she was a lovely person, but honestly, a terrible hairdresser. When I was about 13, my mom sent me to her to have my hair cut. I asked her for a shoulder length bob, and she cut my hair about 2 inches long all over. (She had no mirror and I couldn't tell what she was doing until it was too late.) I was devastated!

I'd had long hair all of my life:

and in one fell swoop it was GONE.

This picture is the half grown out/mullet that was the aftermath of the original cut.

(Me at 14 - already 5'9" and about 120 lbs - and with braces, no less. I could only wear "student fit" Levis in a 27" waist - can you even stand it?)

But that haircut actually did give me Post Traumatic Haircut Sydrome - PTHS - and I've had hair issues ever since. I then spent pretty much all of the 80s trying to grow my hair back out again. It didn't help that the 80s were a time of tight perms, Sun-in, and extreme blow drying. My hair is super-fine and always broke off before it could grow until I learned how to quit destroying it in about 1988.

When I got married, my hair was almost to my waist and I've had various versions of long hair for about 20 years now. There are times when I want to cut it, but even though I've finally quit having nightmares about my hair being cut off against my will, I can't quite bring myself to do it. Pathetic, I know, but there you have it.

My girl, on the other hand, is completely hair issue-less. I've never shared my own hair related fears with her, she has no idea I have hair trauma because I don't want to pass any of my own psychosis on to her.

She grows her hair out for a while and then, on a whim, has me chop it all off - last week it looked like this:

(The Daddy Daughter Dance - more on this later.)

... and as of yesterday, it looks like this:



When she comes and tells me, with no warning, that she wants her hair cut off, I brace myself and refuse to cringe and let my own hair-related mental illness rear it's ugly head. I just say, "You sure? Okay!" and go to cuttin'.

And when her daddy, who really prefers long hair on his women, (even though he would never say so to her) asks me why I agreed to cut it off, I tell him that I think it's very healthy that she's not emotionally attached to her hair.

Thank GOODNESS!

And you gotta admit, she looks adorable.

Our Own Bobby Fisher

Our oldest boy, Jaxon, got a chess set for Christmas. My brother taught him the rules while we were still at Grandma's house and he's been playing ever since. He's had to reteach me how to play as it's been years and years and I hardly remembered anything - who knew you could turn a pawn into a queen? But we've been playing a lot and it's been so much fun. He's beaten me once, but it will probably be a while before he will beat Marty.

I haven't played Marty yet, I'm sure he'd kick my *&%$. It drives me crazy when I'm playing with Jaxon and Marty comes over and coaches us. He's got a great head for strategy.

Jaxon's got the littler kids playing too and is pretty patient with them. (I tried playing checkers with Luke the other day and just about couldn't make it through a whole game without wringing his neck!)

I think Jaxon's sooo smart and has the potential to be a great chess player.

And we laugh a lot, which is a very good thing.

Happy Birthday to Sharon

My wonderful, fantastic, talented, super-fit, amazing little sister, Sharon, had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. So, of course, we had to take birthday portraits. We had a town full of mud, slush and ice to wade through, but we still had a good time.

What Sharon really wanted were candid, non-posey type pictures, so we went in search of adventure.

We found a wishing well...


A winterized orchard.....



And lots of other odd and interesting places...


Some of my favorite shots were in this old, old, OLD house that was being partially torn down. Here is my version:

and when I sent it to my friend/Photoshop mentor, Nan, (she told me not to mention her, but I did it accidentally, sorry Nan) she played with it and sent me back this version:

ISN'T THAT COOL?!!!

Nan, you're rockin' that texture, babeeee! (Oh, sorry, I mentioned you again.)

My sister is so great - she is the Nutritional Consultant at a Health Food store in St. George. She's also an uber-ultimate frisbee player and a diehard runner. She is going to run a team relay race from Prescott to Mesa, AZ in a few days.

Can you tell I'm proud?

The other day we went to her store and there were these signs on the wall. So I whipped out my point and shoot grabbed a quick pic.


And of the one on her office door.


Happy Birthday, sis, love you!

Parelli Possibilities

I haven't posted any horse related stuff in a while - mainly because I'm too much of a fair weather horseman, apparently, to brave all the mud and ice we've had around here lately and find a way to play with my horses.

But I found this great little video and figured that even non-horsie people might really enjoy it. This little gal is a 16 year old girl from Sweden named Lina Brandt. Her pony is Kikki, and this is what is possible between horse and human with the Parelli Natural Horsemanship program.



(Apparently, Lina isn't put off by winter weather....)

The song is by Pat Parelli's niece, Katie Drake.

More about Katie later.

Luney Lukie

My Lukie is the funniest little kid. He cracks me up all day and I really ought to be better about writing down the funny things he says. The other night he conned me into making him macaroni and cheese, which I hardly ever do, and then he spent several minutes oohing and aaahing over how great it was.


This time of year his skin gets kind of dry and chapped around his mouth so we put Eucerin on it every night. After he got on his Hulk jammies, ate his mac 'n cheese and brushed his teeth, I asked him to go put on some lotion.

And this is what he did.


"Happy, Mom?"

"Yes, son. Thank you very much."