I have so much to share.  I’m not sure where to begin . . .

Until I collect my thoughts, and organize my images, how about if I share two recent shoots of my kids?  You can also check out some of my recent shoots: the Salt Flats, new head shots, and some cool composite imagery over on my photo blog.

I rarely photograph my kids.  Well, I take that back.  I photograph them all the time on the iPhone, so that counts, right?  What I meant to say is that I rarely have an actual “photo session” with my kids.

These are two different sessions.  I photographed Hannah during the peak of the fall leaves, and then I photographed Dallin two weeks later. (I absolutely needed an assistant to photograph him, so it was a matter of coordinating with David on a warmish afternoon.)  Dallin’s session lasted about seven minutes.  Hannah on the other hand, let me work with her in two different locations for about 45 minutes.

I have a few secrets to share when it comes to photographing kids . . .

Secret #1 when photographing kids:  tell lame knock knock jokes.  The more they don’t make sense, the better.  (I told a silly knock knock joke to Hannah which allowed me to capture this expression.)

Secret #2: Play Simon Says or Follow the Leader.  Make it a game and they will play with you and give you darling expressions!

Secret #3:  Tell them to perform.  (I told Hannah to perform for all the passing cars and pedestrians.  She played a killer version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star  Look at her stance!  She acts like she’s been playing for years!)

Secret #4: Role Play.  Kids LOVE to role play!  Tell them what is happening in the invisible world and they will get into character!

Oh boy.  Is she really only five?  By the way, I told her that was an EXCELLENT idea.

Speaking of Hannah . . . six days ago she decided she didn’t need to take naps anymore.  She didn’t tell me, she just stopped falling asleep during her nap time.  I knew we were on borrowed time for a year or two now . . . but the sad day has come.  She just doesn’t need a mid-day nap to keep her going all day.  We’re still in the transition period where one nap is too many and no nap is not enough.  I know many of you are pulling out your invisible violins, playing an obnoxious song for me right now in honor of this milestone.

Let it be noted for all posterity . . . Hannah is a champion sleeper.  She took a nap everyday of her life until just after her fifth birthday.  As this chapter in our lives close, let’s have a moment of silence.

Oh yes, I almost forgot . . . Dallin is still a champion sleeper!  My life is not turning to to complete chaos overnight!  Let’s have another moment of silence for the moments of silence that kid gives me everyday.

Ah.  Yes.

Cheers to silence!  And sanity!

This is was taken this summer at Splash Park.  (AKA, the best FREE water splashing place near my house.)

Dallin and his train set.  He can’t help but put sand EVERYWHERE on the patio.

Hannah and her birthday tea set.

Sparklers on Hannah’s birthday.

Hannah (far left in the nude leotard) and her friends waiting for their ballet class to begin.

Dallin and his late night reading.  (MOST ADORABLE THING EVER!)

This ends my randomness for today.  Until tomorrow . . .

(Waiting, holding my breath . . . curious to hear what is very different . . .)

“Well.  I wear big girl panties and he still wears diapers!”

Yep.  That is VERY different!  :)

I let Hannah wear this little number to church on Sunday.

Go ahead and judge me.  I deserve it.

I let her choose her outfits Monday- Saturday, and I pick out her dress on Sunday, but I’m not sure what happened  this weekend.  I blame having too many things on my plate.  Pick your battles, right?  Please, note: this is her Halloween costume.  We bought it Saturday night, and she LOVED it so much, she begged me to let her wear it to church.

Whatever.  She wasn’t going naked.

At church, one of her little friends said, “Hannah, you’re wearing a dress up to church?”

Completely offended, Hannah replied, “No!  This is my Halloween costume!”

Awesome.

Please, do yourself a favor and don’t ever, ever, EVER, confuse Hannah’s “dress ups” with her “Halloween costumes.”

Not only are we both working and in school, but we are homeschooling Hannah.  (This is another post . . . were you wondering where the traditional “first day of school” pics of Hannah were?)

To top off the busy schedule, we thought we’d enroll Hannah in an art class.

She LOVES it SO MUCH.  In fact, she told her violin teacher no less than FOUR times during her lesson that she was going to art class right after her lesson.  Okay, that is an average of telling her teacher every 6 minutes!

She still takes ballet and LOVES it.

I think they like her too.  :)

And she started taking violin lessons.

This cute little thing really, really loves her pink violin.  (I had no idea that I would have to practice the violin so much!  How soon until she can practice on her own?)

Also worth mentioning, this busy little bee likes to pretend it’s my birthday just about everyday.  She recycles her toys, wraps them in any paper product she can find (card stock was the paper of choice in the image below, topped of with pom poms for bows) and places them on my desk so I will be sure to find them FIRST thing in the morning.

She also greets me first thing in the morning with birthday surprises:

New day, new tray, same dress . . .

You all know what kind of perks come with having a birthday, right?  Songs, breakfast in bed, more presents . . .

It’s a tough job being the favorite parent, but someone has to do it!

Poor little Paris had to stay home.  No pets allowed in this RV.  (Don’t worry Paris, when we get our own RV, you CAN COME!)

A whole lotta room and the two little people chose to share a seat.

Now, this is why we rented this . . . proper naps!  What says comfort more than driving at freeway speeds, sleeping in bed?

The kids thought they were in kid heaven and were a little sad when we had to drop it off.

Look at the happy runner!  26.2 baby!

Glow sticks.  Possibly the BEST entertainment for kids.

Dallin quite liked playing with these in the RV.

One day were are going to buy an RV and we all can’t wait!

In an attempt to bring my blog up to speed, I am randomly posting now.

Random would be the operative word here.

Unfortunately, there are not more than 24 hours in a day, and for some reason, my body likes to sleep at night, and that TOTALLY cramps my style.

Sleeping and eating.  Such pesky habits I can’t seem to kick.

Anywho, let’s talk about David’s stellar performance at the Top of Utah Marathon!

In a nutshell: we rented an RV. The kids thought we were the BEST.  PARENTS.  EVER.  Dallin puked.  I slept in every bed in that RV during that ONE night, so as you can imagine, I was just a peach after three hours of sleep that weren’t even consecutive.  You’re jealous, right?

It poured.  ALL NIGHT LONG before the big race, and ALL MORNING DURING THE RACE.

I know what you’re thinking, LUCKY DAVID!!!

It rained, it poured, it HAILED on him!  No stopping this running machine!  He crossed the finish line with a time of 3 hours and 39 minutes!  He didn’t qualify for the Boston Marathon this year, but it was a great time for his first marathon!

Last week I mentioned to David that I wanted to have a booth in the January bridal shows in 2012.   After calling the bridal shows, we were surprised to hear there was room for us to participate in the show in September.  AS IN THREE WEEKS AWAY from the the time we paid for our booth.

Oh boy.

Luckily for us, we’ve done several bridal shows (remember how we used to own a wedding gown store in Dallas?) and we know how lucrative they can be (being placed in front of your target market with thousands of potential clients is awesome) so we decided to jump on it.

My time is completely tied up in preparing for this show with super short notice.  I’ve been designing albums, getting large prints made, putting together promo marketing pieces, updating my website,  and oh yeah . . . putting together a new LOGO.  (I have new business cards coming now!)

You see, my logo has never sat right with me.  Not sure what bugged me about it, but I never took the time to make it “mine” until now.  Doing this bridal show, I knew I had to brand myself and NEVER change the brand look, so David and I came up with something I was happy with.  (That meant breaking down and buying a font!)  Want to see it?  Check out my website www.emilylesher.com and/or my photo blog.

Also worth mentioning:

Hannah started Ballet again this week.

She starts violin today.

Did I mention art classes?  Yeah, she starts those today too.

David started his classes this week (he is getting his MBA right now as well).

I start classes at AAU tomorrow.

And now we’re doing a bridal show.

It may be a few days before I’m back on this blog.  :)

I think she mostly loves that it’s pink, but hey, at least she’s thrilled with it and can’t wait to learn how to play it!

Hannah is taking a nap and her new pink violin just came in the mail!

SHE IS GOING TO FLIP!

I really want to wake her up!  (Holding back . . . she got three shots today, she really needs to sleep.)

Hannah has been DYING to play the violin HER WHOLE LIFE (which we all know is not that long considering she just turned five) and she has been saving her money from jobs she gets here and there.  This is her first big purchase:

A metallic hot pink violin!  Heck, I even want to play it!  It’s adorable!

Looks like we’ll be moving on from playing the “Marker Violin” to a playing a real violin today!

I can’t wait for her to see this!