Card House Gone Crazy

I taught Matty how to build card houses a couple months ago. His are never more than one level, but this last week he took his card building to a new extreme.




The first day's work was completely on his own, and it just kept growing. We let him keep it up for several days as he continued to work on it and used almost every card game we had. He said he was making a crab.

We told Matty he only had til the end of Saturday to keep it up. Sections of it would get knocked down here and there on accident since it took up so much room. He really wanted to finish using all the cards and asked us to help him. With only 30 minutes left before bedtime, Dan and I chipped in to help him finish his giant "crab."




Then he got to destroy it by rolling a ball at it.


Cleaning up was such a joy! (Please read with sarcasm.)


In the end, he had used 11 different card games. I think we'll hide the cards for a while. I missed my living room.

Summer's Simple Pleasures

I have so many memories as a kid of running through the sprinkler in my backyard. A couple nights ago we pulled out the good ol' fashioned sprinkler we got last year but have never used. The kids had a BALL!!!

Even after moving the sprinkler to the front yard to warm the kids up with the sun, Matty still decided he was too cold.

Jossy on the other hand . . .

She lasted quite a bit longer, but eventually her blue lips made her give up, too.

Oh, the joys of summer!

Praying or Sleeping?

And the answer is . . .

















sleeping.

She'll occasionally sleep in a similar position to this, but I always find her with her held tilted to one side. Not this time. Just a flat face plant was good enough I guess. What a funny girl I have.

For My Mom

Unless you care about flowers, skip this post. My mom hasn't been able to visit my house in a while (double knee replacement surgeries recently) so this is my way of showing her how much our flowers have grown out front.


The gladiolus flowers are HUGE!

I made Matty stand next to them just so you could see how tall they are. They come up to my chest!

The Black-Eyed Susan's have become Matty's favorite. He even prays for them. I'm glad I planted them.

You can see here just how big those petunias have become. Seriously, each little tiny plant I planted is now a bush and they all run together. It's crazy how many there are! (Each clump of color was ONE tiny plant!)

And finally, Mom, here's a section of snap dragons from you. This was just a tiny clump and has spread so fast! My bed's are filled with them, I love it!


I wish you could see all this in person, but at least I found a way to show you! I think it's not bad for my first attempt EVER at a flower garden!

The Last Time

This is the last time I'm going to post about updating my photography blog. If you're interested in seeing my latest work, you'll have to add that blog to your reader list, become a follower, or just remember to check in now and then. If you don't care, then I'm officially done bothering you about it. :)

Besides the pictures of my kids I recently shared, here are a couple samples from the latest posts:

Among the Poppies

Just before Father's Day my sister told me about a fun location she had just found for pictures where wild poppies were in bloom. So I dressed up my kids to go take a look and try it out. I really don't do photo sessions with Matty and Jossy that often because they kind of got burnt out from Mom always taking their pictures, but I really wanted some new ones and knew this would make a great Father's Day gift for Grandpa.

Weeks ago I said I was going to post some of these pictures but I never got around to it. After losing everything on the hard drive last week, I was thrilled to find that this series had been backed up on Dan's computer for some reason. I had to re-edit them which is a pain, but at least I have them!! I would love to get these on my wall, but I'm so indecisive when it comes to frame sizes and layout that it just hasn't happened yet. Hopefully I'll get them up before they no longer look like my kids!

This first one is my favorite!

What Happens When You Make a 2-Year-Old Mad

Such a fun start to my morning, cleaning up a shattered bowl of cheerios.

Thanks Jossy. Next time, please just drink from the sippy cup I offer instead of demanding a different cup. I'd really appreciate it.

At Least I Have My Blog!

I've never really thought of myself as a klutz. Accident prone maybe, but I just tend to wreck myself (bruises and such) not other stuff. But the other night one little trip on a cord led to losing a year's worth of memories.

See we got a new computer a little over a week ago. The old one was about 5 years old and the processor just could not keep up with my constant Photoshop demands. After searching for months, we finally picked out a new one and made our purchase. All that was left to do was transfer our old files and pictures to the new computer. We have a external hard drive, so I figured I'd use that to make the transfer. It seemed like too much work to unplug the thing (stupid lazy me) so I left it plugged in next to the new computer, plugged it into a USB port on the old computer, and sat the drive on a chair between the two. Since we had bought the external hard drive a year ago, I had been keeping all our personal pictures on that as well as my professional ones, but the old computer still had 5 years worth before that, so everything needed to be transferred. After about an hour of doing this, my back was hurting so I decided to get up and go get a drink while it continued to transfer files. I guess I assumed the cord was lower than it was because when I went to step over it, my foot caught on it instead. The hard drive fell to the floor from chair height and came unplugged which immediately shut it off.

My first thought was "Oh no! An hour's worth of transferring and I'll have to start all over again!" But when we went to plug the drive back in and reconnect it, we learned things were much worse. It wouldn't turn on. Instead, it just made a quiet beeping noise almost like a tiny car alarm. No lights on. No spinning disks whirling. Just a tiny car alarm warning me that my week was about to get a whole lot worse.

After asking around, we chose a place to take it into thinking surely they could retrieve the data. I mean, how much damage can be done if it's only dropping about 2 feet and has a hard case? Turns out, a lot. After having it in their possession for a week, they finally gave up. The next step would be to send it off to such-and-such company who would charge $100 to diagnose and (get this) $500-1500 to repair (the latter price being more likely)!! Ummm, yeah, I thought my memories were priceless, but it turns out they're not. They're worth $1500. I'm sorry. I just can't justify that. So all the pictures from about last summer up til Jossy's 2nd birthday are gone . . . and ALL of my client pictures. I used that hard drive for all of that. I kept thinking I should back things up, but never wanted to pay the money to buy another hard drive. Can I tell you how good $100 for one is looking now??


THANKFULLY, there are a few ways I was able to retrieve some pictures. Months ago I had pulled out my favorite personal ones to print off from Jossy's 1st birthday up til Halloween and had them saved on the old computer's C drive. So I at least have those!!! Then I found a few more hidden on my husband's laptop when I had asked him to clear a memory card off for me before a photo session one time. I never have pictures put on there, but if it weren't for asking him that one time, I would have nothing from Jossy's birthday this year! Last Sunday, hours before the accident happened, I had quickly made a DVD of pictures from last summer just to entertain the kids that night so we have a movie of some totally random ones. :) Next I checked my commonly used thumb drive and found several client pictures, though not all edited or not the full series, but it's something!! Finally, last night I spent hours scouring my blog for as many full resolution pictures as I could find. I always resize for the web, but lucky me I found all of the Christmas pictures I had posted weren't resized, so I still have some Christmas! Yippee!! I pulled off some that are resized too small to print well, but I decided I'd rather have some poor quality prints than no prints at all!!

All in all, I was able to find client pictures from almost every session I had done, though not the complete edited series except for two. I also was able to find a lot of pictures to fill in that missing gap from November to May. If it weren't for the blog, I wouldn't have anything from Christmas, Matty's birthday, and a million other important occasions.

It's taking a lot of self-control not to constantly beat myself up over this. There are a million things I could have done differently to prevent this from happening. I'm a VERY sentimental person, so it's been hard for me to accept losing all these pictures, but I feel blessed that I've been able to recover at least some and that I at least have this blog to fill in a few holes. And can I just say how thankful I am that I put on as many pictures as I do? Sometimes I worry that I share too many for some posts, but right now it's not feeling like "too many!"

So thank you, Blogger! You can bet I'll be sure to back-up next time. :)

18 Again!

My freshman year roommates and I all got together this past weekend for a much anticipated girl's night out/in! Dan and the kids went to my parents' house for the night so we could use our house. (What a nice husband, huh?!)

So what do you do when you're a bunch of moms at a sleepover? You go out to dinner, reminisce, laugh, play games, laugh some more, talk about important and not so important things, eat snacks all night, start to get ready for bed around 2 AM but don't really quiet down til 4 or 5, and everyone sleeps in the living room. Actually, it sounds a lot like my sleepovers as a kid! :)

Oh, and you also get to live out some childhood wishes . . .




Yep, I think that was the best way to get the mattress to the living room! :)



Thanks girls for the insane amounts of laughter, some great conversation and of course wonderful memories!!! I have not laughed that hard in YEARS!!! That night was so needed and I hope we do it again before another 10 years pass!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

The kids came along with me this morning as I went to check out a location for a photo session. As usual, they were stuck being my little models with crazy hair, runny noses and all.

Matty refuses to let me pose him anymore. This one is all him.

As we were walking around Matty spied a little friend!


I couldn't believe it let us get this close! It was such a fun surprise to our morning.

Reading In Progress

Matty has become a seriously amazing reader, and I love having another reader in the house. It means every once in a while when things are too quiet I can check on the kids and see this:

Matty reading books to Jossy.
Melts my heart!

For Good Husband Credit

It's supposedly purely coincidental that each and every time my husband buys me flowers (which really isn't all that often) that someone happens to come over, see them, and think I have the sweetest husband in the world. It seems like that happens EVERY TIME! It's just hilarious to me that he gets to look like a great husband who brings his wife home flowers all the time when really it happens almost never. It's like he knows they're coming and wants to look good!

Well today, that's just what happened.


He brought home these flowers for me because I'm having a girl's night here tomorrow with some college roommates and he knew I would think he bought them just for that. That was a big reason why he got them, to make me laugh. The second he walked in the door with them I pointed to him and said, "SEE!? You know I'm having people over tomorrow! That's why you did this! You're a jerk!" Then I laughed my head off. Not many wives would call their husbands a jerk when they bring home flowers. LOL I think it was HILARIOUS that he knew what I would think so he bought them mostly to make me laugh . . . and maybe get a little good husband credit from my friends tomorrow. :) (Oh, and he says he also gave them to me "because I love you." Whatever. A likely story.)

I sure love my "jerk," and I love that he knew how to make me laugh! :) :) :)

Thanks??

A couple weeks ago I was working on some editing and feeling bad that I wasn't playing with the kids more when they wanted me to. Matty was standing next to me at the computer.

Me: I'm sorry I'm not a better mom.

Matty: You ARE better.

Me: Better than what?

Matty (without missing a beat): Better than a tree!


I don't know if it gave me more confidence in my mothering, but he definitely made me laugh. I guess I AM better than a tree since I feed my kids and move around occasionally. :)

2 Bags in 2 Days

Just before I had Jossy, my awesome friend Brooke made me a diaper bag for my baby shower. I LOVED it and used it all the time. (So much more fun than the free, boring ones the hospital gives you.)

After more than 2 years of frequent use, the poor bag has definitely passed its heyday. It has a couple holes, the clasp has come apart, and it looks a little sad at church each week.


I was ECSTATIC when Brooke was willing to take the time yesterday to teach me how to make a brand new one! I was at her house for about 6 hours while my kids played with her kids. We had miscalculated some measurements and ended up with a really big bag. It's hard to see just how big it is by this picture, but I promise, it's big!


I had some leftover fabric from the top part, so I went to the store today and bought another pattern for the bottom to try my hand at it again but on my own this time and armed with our corrected plans.

It took me quite a bit longer than when I had my friend's help, but I still managed to finish today. It's far from a perfect job but I'm really happy with it and proud of myself!


The pockets are designed to fit diapers, wipes and sippy cups perfectly.


My favorite detail? The pink thread on the black ribbon. Love it.


Thanks again, Brooke, for all your help yesterday and you're willingness to teach me how to do this! You rock!

Published!!

I'm happy to say that picture I took for Lone Peak Dental was finally published in Utah Valley Magazine so now I can show it to all of you! :)



The issue is all about woman, so it was perfect to have the women in the office and their children for this picture. It was SOOO cold that day and they almost had to call things off, but they decided to tough it out and at least try. (When you know how much work it is to get all those kids dolled up and ready to go, you wouldn't want to do that again either!) We were so pleased with how this picture turned out, and I'm so thankful for my sister giving me this opportunity to have something I took published. She could have easily gone with someone with more experience but gave me this chance, and I'm so glad I didn't disappoint her! There are a few more pictures from our quick session on my photography blog.