Hello? Is this thing on?

I have the bestest daughter on the planet. She is so much like me its wonderfully marvelously fun... however... I do have to wonder, why doesnt she listen to me? I feel like I am a record player on constant play, and its not a great song I'm afraid. I am sure she is tired of me always asking her the same thing at least 4 times. Example: time to clean your room, can you please go clean your room, go clean your room now...go to your room and clean it! (please)

Is 4 too young for me to be demanding such a chore from her...gessh!? So I have decided to take a different approach seeing as I love the camera so much and she..not so much. I have started carrying it around my neck all day (as opposed to just half the day hee hee) and trying to capture her different looks when she is in such moods. Its been a pretty fun exersize actually and now I laugh everytime I see the pictures. I planned on sharing this little montage at family night tonight but...we decided to go with a lesson about the Holy Ghost, much better choice I think. Maybe next Monday :) I hope this doesnt sound too whiney of me, I truly truly adore her, every inch, and I wouldnt even change this phase for the world.






I cropped her mouth off in one..oh shame on me.

No self esteem issues here

To say he LOVES this new reflection fascination would be putting it mildly. This afternoon I caught him kissing his reflection and thought, this kid is FAR too cute...especially in double vision!

Nature is really trying

We went for a walk this afternoon and I saw the first sprouts of flowers in the yard, I was so excited! What struck me is how cool it was that the blossom is blooming amongst and through all of the still dead branches all around it, simply because its feeling the suns warmth. Since we have lived here, I kind of feel like this flower..a little..I just feel like the "sun" is beating down on us a little more these days.

Doesnt spring just make you feel happy too? On part of our walk today I snapped this of the kids. Isnt it just the sweetest little picture? I love the buddies that they are and the little "conversations" that they are holding more frequently. They love being outside, which is another reason why this warmer weather is so welcomed by me. Heres to sun from here on out!!

Chirpy got around.

This picture made me *laugh out loud* when I saw it. Look at his poor little feet..too cute.

Just a little peek for you Jen :) I have loved being able to able to see you and hang out a little!

Inside.my.body.there.is.a.heart

Although one could consider George, her new friend in primary, her first sort-of-love, especially after she said this after church yesterday:

" I embarrased myself about George today because my hair was too swirly" (aka curly, too curly for her liking)

But if we were honest, we would know that "Chirpy" is the one that stole her heart. After picking him up on Saturday afternoon and playing with him for a while she says to me"

"Inside my body there is a heart named chirpy, and inside his body there is a heart named Isabella"

And the rest is history. They had a few glorious days together but alas, this morning came the time he had to go back to his little duck family at the pet store. So long Chirpy, we will always remember you with fondness!

Dear Moses, I am sorry you got the shaft today for photo's....everything in your little 18 month old body faught sitting still for even a second. If it helps, I do have more pictures of you than your sister at the Easter egg hunt :) (and your own little green egg is in the picture above..does that count ?)


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infatuations

For some odd reason, I am infatuated with hands and feet. Not big feet but the tiny feet kind, like these

(photo courtesy of Shonda B.)

And hands, old, wrinkly, wise hands that have years of experiance and are a story within themselves. I love the contrast between old and young, its beautiful to me. Yesterday during some awesome weather, we went outside to play. These old wise hands helped these young learning hands to ride a scooter. In what was just a typical, overexposed (story of my life these days) photo,

lied something more meaningful and beautiful to see. Can you see it? This is why I love learning this art of photography. To catch something that would have otherwise been a fleeting fun moment and turn it in something we can enjoy forever.


If you know me at all, you know that I am painstakingly trying to learn photoshop. I have a few tricks under my belt. So when I spotted the "heart" of the photo above, I went to work. I love the edited version because of the moodiness it took on. Because it brought out the details in Grandma's hands, it caught a silly face, it focused on the teaching.

I dont think my processing is perfect by any means, but I did learn that cropping in close and tweaking a few colors can really make a photo come alive, in this case, it made the world of difference to me.

Please forgive my border cut off...im still learning!

sweet.dreams

While she's doing this......


He's doing this.....

We love our night times around here. I love that Moses can sleep with a reading light on, I love that Bella will read herself to sleep, I love that Moses is asleep by 730 on most nights and I love that once they are in bed, its Kristen time, uninterupted. Dont get the idea that its anything too exciting though, I usually just go to bed, but there is something to be said about tucked in baby's and the quiet of the night that just gives me sweet.dreams.

Midnight Randomness

Its nearly 1am now...I absolutly cant sleep, what is wrong with me? I dont know other than my mind is swirling with thoughts and I know I'll feel like this in the morning if I dont get some sleep I've already done the journal thing, it helped, but I feel like a post might just top it off and lull me into sweet blissfull sleep... :)

1. I was blog surfing tonight and looked at Shonda's blog and was sad that she had to delete it. I admire her photography so much. It really got me thinking tonight about how much personal information I put on here. I used to be really carefull about it but I know that I have slacked a bit. I need to go through my posts and delete some names and such. If you have our name on your blog, its such an honor and thank you! If you would kindly just refer to us with our 1st names and leave our last names out, I would appreciate it. Shonda has some really great advice and she is so nice about it too!!

2. I cant escape the constant news about Eliot Spitzer and wonder why the lines between right and wrong are so blurry. I guess I will just settle in to being comfortably old fashioned.

3. Have you ever felt a feeling so strong to do something that you just couldnt ignore it? I have had such a feeling for the past 3 weeks now, I finally followed through tonight and did it but I am left wondering why. Its one of those things that will be apparent in hinesight I guess. I cant wait to find out but am horribly impatiant....what a dilemma!

4. This should be #1 but Guess who's pregnant!!!! My sister! I am so excited to have a new little baby in the family and a little subject to practice my photography on...yeah!! We should be meeting the new addition some time in the fall

5. The funniest conversation took place on Sunday just before Sac. meeting started. B and I were just sitting there and suddenly I see from the corner of my eye a SWEET woman lean in towards him and say: "So, I hear your nursing." I laughed heartedly under my breath picturing all sorts of things likely not appropriate for the sabbath :)

6. Tonight when I got home from work, I walked in the door, got on my knees while 2 little bits of perfection screamed my name and wouldnt let go of me in the worlds biggest hug. I live for that. Just replace B for me and you get the picture.

If you've read this far, than you must really love me.......and I love you to.

Happy Birthday to you.

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.

I'll save most of my thoughts for the card, but I want to wish my wonderful Buddy a HAPPY HAPPY birthday! I adore you and love our life together. Most of all, I love the father you are to our little ones, I couldnt ask for better. Wait till you see the card Bella picked out for you, you are gonna die! (for the rest of you, I'll have to post it, its a goodie :)

I love you.