The Party July 28, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Parenthood, Princess Hannah, Utah , 5commentsA very special somebody just turned four . . .
I may have gone a little overboard planning this party, but how could I not? Hannah is just so dang ADORABLE.
Big tent? Check.
Good food? Check.
Barbie cake? Check.
Warm water in the pool? Check.
Lot’s of friends? Check.
Yes. Oh yes. I made this cake. (Stop snickering right now, you know I have culinary skills when I apply myself.)
Turns out, doll cakes are pricey, (OK, pricey is relative, so pricey for a “recently graduated from medical school” family) so instead of buying one, (I may have gasped at the price at the bakery, but after I made the cake, I would have charged five times that much!) I decided to make one.
How hard could it be? Seriously?
One very unsuccessful bunt cake later, I ended up buying two angel food cakes and layering them. Decorating was the easy part, getting Barbie the right height without chopping off her body, was the difficult part.
Everyone had a great time, and I heard the cake was delicious. (I felt like trash that day, so I didn’t eat one thing. Just looking at Hannah’s cake made me want to vomit.)
Hannah is one sweet little girl and she had a fabulous time with her “too many” friends.
Happy birthday Hannah!
Check Out My Photo Blog! July 21, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Family, Photography, Princess Hannah , 2commentsMy niece is getting married this weekend, so my family is coming together.
This is my younger sister, Allison, and her family who flew in from Wisconsin for the big event. I photographed them earlier this week, so check out my photo blog to see more from their session. :)
I’m slightly jealous of her fabulous hair color. I know she paid for it, but still . . .
Also, for those of you who are interested, I posted a tutorial on how to photograph fireworks on my photo blog as well.
On top of having a wedding this week, and spending lots of time with my family, we also have two birthdays (David and Hannah) and I’m not sure who’s more excited for Hannah’s 4th birthday, her or me!
A Snap Shot of the Last Few Days July 20, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Family, Little Man Dallin, Parenthood, Photography, Princess Hannah, Utah , 3commentsHere is a string of somewhat unrelated, snap shots from the iphone over the last week. I don’t always want to lug my camera gear around, so every once in a while, I snap pictures on the iphone. Not always ideal, but hey, I took pictures, right?
Every Monday night this summer, we have attended concerts in the amphitheater.
Sometimes, Hannah gets really into the music, and feels compelled to dance for everyone.
It’s adorable.
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When Pigs Fly . . .
I can’t say that statement to my kids to drive a point home because they pointed out a pig in the sky on our way to a parade!
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I can only imagine how our kids are going to react when we take them to Disneyland someday . . .
Because these little carnival rides had them bursting out of their own skin in excitement.
Check out Dallin’s face! I swear he’s having the time of his life . . . he just hasn’t told his face yet!
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I love this picture . . .
Nothing. and I mean nothing, makes my heart explode out of my chest like this. I love to hear Dallin yell, “HAND” to Hannah. Oh. My. Heck. They hold hands all the time when we’re driving. This makes the trip pleasant for everyone.
Dang. Why do kid have to be so cute?
No Fear of the Dentist Here July 19, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Daily Life, Parenthood, Photography, Princess Hannah, Thoughts, Utah , 2commentsGoing to the dentist is usually the most traumatizing experience of our young lives. Most of us have a physical reaction to the sound and smell of THE DRILL.
Oh. My. I think I’m going to barf right now.
Last week, I took Hannah to the dentist to get a cavity filled. You know what I was thinking, “LUCKY ME!”
She had to get ONE cavity filled. One cavity mind you.
When we walked into the office, Hannah was elated to find toys, and people to talk to. When they called our name, Hannah skipped over to the dental assistant and promptly said, “My name is Hannah!”
She then hopped right into the chair and crossed her legs, settling back into a comfortable position. I kept thinking, “Oh my, she has NO IDEA what’s in store!” And then I started to panic, thinking that I WOULD be the parent she looked at as the one who deceived her! The one who took her to her doom! The one who ruined her sweet innocent life! Oh my heck! Why was I on dentist duty? There are two of us! Hello? Where is David when dental duty calls?
The dental assistant told Hannah she needed to take a picture of her teeth, and Hannah smiled and said, “My mommy is a photo-grapher! She takes TOO MANY pictures!” She then held up all ten fingers and blinked them several times to convey her message.
Looking at her x-rays, Hannah needed FOUR cavities filled.
Seriously, I was all, could you just hand me the gas and put me out for this session? Heaven help this dentist.
The dentist walked in, chatted with Hannah, put the gas on her, and went to town. She watched Cars (the movie) on the flat screen panel on the ceiling . . . relaxed as a cool cat.
Quiet as can be, and giggling at the movie. Not once did she un-cross her legs from her comfy position. After the dentist gave her a couple of shots, the dentist asked her a question and she said, “No thank you.”
WHAT? Where is the trauma? Where is the fear? Is she not going to grow up hating and fearing dentists like the rest of the world?
40 minutes later, her mouth was as good as new.
As I walked out to settle my $995 bill, the girl behind the desk told me I was not going to be charged, and that the services were complimentary.
Oh. My.
I don’t fear or hate the dentist anymore. In fact, I quite like him! Thank you Mr. Dentist for taking pity on my life as the wife of a recently graduated medical student, and thank you Hannah for making his job so easy and tipping the scale in our favor.
Gosh, and I was just starting to think that life basically sucked and that most people were selfish jerks.
Well, shut my mouth.
Speaking of mouths . . . here are some notable comments from Hannah in the last few weeks:
“Why Did the Easter Rabbit bring me a broken movie?” (The DVD she got for Easter is scratched.) He SHOULDN’T DO THAT!
“Mom! You can just drop me off! You don’t have to stay!” (I took her to visit the kindergarten class my sister teaches and Hannah was mortified that I was hanging around. She totally thinks she’s as big as all the other kids, and who taught her it’s not cool to have your mom go to school with you?!)
“Mom, if you told me a lie, we would have to talk about it.”
“My tears are too wet! I can’t even talk!”
“Mommy, if you die, then daddy will marry a really nice step-mother.” (WHAT THE HECK?!?! David and I have NO idea where she came up with this.)
“I’m not a doctor. Only daddy is a doctor. I’m just a super hero.”
“Mommy! We can’t forget to pray! Heavenly Father will be so sad if he doesn’t hear my sweet little voice! Mommy! YOU. SHOULD. NOT. FORGET!” (I almost forgot her night time prayer during one bed time routine. Heaven help me to never forget again!)
“Look! My tithing built that temple!” (Hannah, confident the Draper temple was built on the 80 cents she paid in tithing last month.)
“Mommy are you not perfect? Are you just a parent?”
“The life-jacket-police said I was too little to go down the water slide by myself. Why did they say that? I’m big enough, and I have BIG muscles!”
“Daddy . . . is this Colbie Callet singing?” (Listening to a song on the radio, which indeed was Colbie Callet)
“Waking you guys up is my biggest job. IT. IS. REALLY. HARD. It makes me so tired, that I have to go back to sleep!” (Hannah explaining the disadvantages of being an early riser.)
“I want to get on Barbie.com! Oh! Oh! And Nickjr.com too!” (WHAT?! Maybe no more TV ads until you’re 18!)
The 13th Anniversary . . . SERIOUSLY? July 17, 2010
Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, Parenthood, Princess Hannah, Thoughts , 2commentsToday is our 13th anniversary.
I don’t think any other sentence could make me feel older. (OK, don’t start offering suggestions, I’m just sayin’ . . .) 13 years. WOW. Seriously? Where has time gone?
One of our favorite movies is The Family Man (2001). When we saw it in the theaters 10 years ago, I vividly remember a line Kate (Tea Leoni) said to Jack (Nicholas Cage): “How can you look at me like that? Like you haven’t seen me everyday for the last 13 years?”
I remember thinking, “Man, they have been married FOREVER!”
Well. Here we are friends.
We kicked off our anniversary last night by going to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Apparently, 10,000 other people had the same idea. Still, our seats were good and the entertainment was amazing. We then enjoyed a walk around downtown barefoot. OK, now before you gag and throw up a LOT in your mouth, just know that LOTS of other people decided to go barefoot as well . . . I should know better than to hoof it all over town in shoes not conducive to walking long distances. My feet felt so much better on the warm streets. David on the other hand, is always barefoot, so this was just a normal night, for him . . . walking around downtown SLC barefoot.
We came home to our sweet sleeping children, and thought about drifting off to sleep ourselves until . . .
BLEH! BLEH! BLEH!
What the heck?!
Hannah started vomiting! David stayed up with her all night while she vomited every 15 to 30 minutes while I got some shut eye. I knew I made a good choice when I picked my spouse!
Up next? David’s birthday, Hannah’s birthday, Jess’ wedding, Pioneer Day, and one big family party. (Not to mention four photo shoots next week! EEK!)
And that’s just the next seven days.
Oh boy!
I look forward to many more anniversaries with the one that God made for me!
Jessica’s Bridal Pics July 14, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Family, Photography , 2commentsI shot my niece’s bridal pictures a few days ago. I posted several images from this shoot on my photo blog if you want to see more. (Hint: go see them!)
Fireworks! July 13, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Photography, Utah , 4commentsWe have taken our kids to five parades in the last four weeks. Half way through the parade last Saturday morning, Hannah looked over at David and said, “Daddy, this is boring. I’ve already seen this.”
Fortunately, she loved the carnival and is already a roller-coaster-junkie. (I took lots of pics on the iphone, but who knows when I’ll get those pics off the camera to post on this site.)
Saturday evening, I shot my niece’s bridal pictures, and got home in time to pick up David to go on a little “watch the fireworks” date. There is an amazing lookout point just minutes up the street from us which was perfect for watching the fireworks.
Lucky for us (this is my positive spin on the situation) the fireworks didn’t start until after 11:00 PM, so David and I had a lots of extra chat/snuggle time waiting for fireworks to begin.
I have wanted to photograph fireworks for a while, and had a fun time experimenting with long exposures. I will post a tutorial on how to photograph fireworks on my photography blog in a few days. It was interesting (to me at least) to learn what worked, and why it worked.
For now, enjoy the fireworks show in American Fork! What kills me, is how it looks like the fireworks are being set off on the temple grounds!
Bear Lake Part Two July 12, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Family, Little Man Dallin, Photography, Princess Hannah, Trips, Utah , 1 comment so farRemember how I went on vacation and had a million pictures to sort through?
Well . . . here are a few unrelated, pictures from our trip. :)
This was the view of the lake from our beach house. The kids had plenty of grass to roll around on, and there were PLENTY of mosquitos who made it their life’s mission to feed on our blood from every pore on our bodies.
I’m not a fan of bug spray (it’s too sticky and stinky) but I lathered it on like it was Love Spell lotion from Victoria’s Secret to keep the bugs away.
Dallin’s favorite part of the trip was the trampoline. He HATED the sand and cold lake water, so the only real fun he had (besides hanging out with me all the time, which goes without saying, is super fun) was jumping on the tramp.
Gosh, I think of this kid as a baby (because he is!) but dang, he’s looking like a toddler!
The kids loved jumping and seeing me under the tramp. Check out the size of Hannah’s feet!
Brent rented this little number for about an hour, which was probably the greatest hour of Hannah’s vacation. But let’s back up here . . . do kids really know what vacation is? I mean, isn’t her WHOLE life ONE BIG VACATION?
This is my eight year old nephew, Andrew (or as Hannah, refers to him as, “little boy”) demonstrating his mad back flip and back twist skills.
And this is Katie showing off her hand stand trick.
After seeing these tricks, Hannah confidently stated that she was going to demonstrate a back flip, back twist, and hand stand on the tramp all by herself. Then, she looked over at me and said, “Mommy, can you help me?”
Winner! July 10, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Uncategorized , 3commentsDallin picked the winner. If you like or don’t like his choice, take it up with him.
We are very hi-tech around here. :)
The winner of a free photo shoot and 11×14 print is . . .
Congratulations Melissa!
Bear Lake Part One July 9, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Family, Parenthood, Photography, Thoughts, Trips, Utah , 2commentsMy extended family had a wonderful vacation together at Bear Lake, which is about four hours away on the border of Utah and Idaho.
We rented an eight bedroom beach house to accommodate seven families which equated to 28 people. It was a lot like being in a nice hotel with lots of common area to move around in, but at the end of the day, you share a room with your kids which is not my favorite way to sleep. I seriously don’t know how kids can share a room. I mean, I shared a room growing up for several years (probably until I was 12, then I got my own room) but I don’t know how anyone gets any sleep when two little people in the same room don’t sleep the exact amount of hours! I know I have great sleepers, and I’m talking about how one child sleeps 11 hours and one sleeps 13 hours, so some of you are throwing eggs at your monitor reading about my sleeping woes while on vacation, but seriously, Dallin really needs his extra two hours of beauty rest!
Hannah LOVED the beach. Why wouldn’t she? She’s from the Caribbean! The water was a nippy 50 degrees (or less!) and the weather only topped 75 degrees (too cold for my blood!) but she loved every minute of it just like she did two years ago when my family went on this very same vacation.
She was very busy making sand castles and watching her uncle Brent go in and out of the water doing various water sports.
Oh. My. Heck. I could just kiss her face off.
Dallin on the other hand . . . hated the sand and the freezing cold water!
Do you see this chair he’s sitting in? He did not get off this chair for SIX HOURS.
Yes. You read that right. SIX WHOLE HOURS. This is where he ate, jumped, socialized, and took a two hour nap on my lap.
Making sure my kid was safe at the beach was a no-brainer for me in this great baby-sitting-chair. :)
This is Katie and Hannah. Hannah thinks she is 12.
This is one of my nephews, Luke.
Brent and his sailboat.
This is another nephew, Aaron.
This is my niece Becky learning how to windsurf.
Hello Brent.
This is Hannah and Becky on their canoe adventure.
David missed this day at the beach, but Hannah sure had fun with her “too many friends” anyway.
