Happy 31st Birthday Damon!

He is like little kid in a candy store today. We got him a Wii for his birthday. Its 11 AM and he hasn't gotten dresses to go to work yet. He is taking the morning off(which he wasn't planning to do), and I am guessing, he will take the afternoon off too. He loves it. I am glad I didn't get him that Bulova watch he has been eyeing. I think he will enjoy this much more. The morning was a great breakfast of mini frittatas and grilled ham, wii-ing and opening his other presents. The plan is Jason's deli for lunch, and chicken teriaki with a culvers ice cream cake for dessert. What a fun day! I will post a more sentimental offering to the birthday boy tomorrow.Isn't Liam hilarious in this!? He figured out how to open the box of milk duds in the birthday kit ( a gift with all of the birthday boys favorite things, milk duds, cashews, coke zero, Doritos, ect) He stuffed as many as he could in his mouth.
(Yes, I realize my white balance is totally off in these pics, they look blue. Oh well, they are still fun.)

A Photographers Dream

I had the privilege of photographing Taylor for her 16th birthday. The first thing I thought when I got home and looked at the photos on the computer is, "She looks way to beautiful for a 16 year old." As her mother says," We have the eyes in this family." That ain't no exaggeration either. Just look at them! I am so excited to have her in Laurels now! Hooray! She is amazingly pretty, and I got to photograph her with my new camera. Like I said, a photographers dream!

Tay's mom Kelly! Well, now you know where she gets it from!

Liam's 1 year pics

Isn't he adorable!?
My Liam Boy.

Picssss

So- This will be a lot of photo babble, but I have to tell you all how amazing this camera is.

I know this is of Polly pocket princesses, but I was playing around and it came out really cool! This was taken at night with NO FLASH at 3200 ISO. 85 mm lens F1.8 ss60. NO NOISE! For those who are reading this, 3200 ISO is like a really fast film speed. Really sensitive to light. But, also really grainy, which is called noise. The D300 is amazing because they have figured out a way to shoot at that 2000+ ISO with no noise! My flash use just got cut in half...

ISO 250, ss1000, f 7. LOVE that it keeps a exposure log for me.

I love how the shutter release feels. Like Butta. And the whole 51 point focusing thing is super fast and AMAZING! I took over 30 frames of Zoey on the swing, expecting to get 5 or 6. All of them were crystal clear. I am so impressed. Needless to say, Nikon has made huge strides in digital SLR market. Canon cannot touch them anymore. I know 3 photographers that have switched to Nikon because of the D300 and the D3. For a pro photographer, that is huge. If I switched to canon, I would spend about 10 g's just to replace the equipment I have.

I love this because you can see me holding the camera in my glasses lens.

Playing with my fancy lens. I was trying to confuse the camera's focusing ability, but it did exactly what I wanted. I would have had to manually focus my D70 to get this shot.

I am in Love...with a camera...

IT CAME!!

My Camera is here. Safe and sound! I always get nervous ordering things like that online. I did Spencer Broomheads ( Clara's son) groups prom pics with it and I am in love. I feel a little guilty because I have been totally ignoring my family, but not bad enough to stop! This one I LOVE!

Isn't she cute!

Anticipation

So my D300 is coming today. I have checked UPS tracking site like 50 times today. I am not leaving the house. I have things to do, gym, return some things, drop off Bridal shower invites, shop for some groceries for the weekend. But not until my D300 is in my home and charging. I am litterally crawling out of my skin with excitement. I took a 3 minute shower, becuase I didn't want to miss the UPS guy. I didn't blowdry my hair becasue I wanted to hear the door bell ring. I even took down the 'please knock' sign during Liam's nap. I have issues, and I'm OK with that...

GlamaMom

So I was thinking when I was out for dinner/dessert with a few of my fabulous friends, that we should come up with a term for fabulous mothers. WE ARE GLAMAMOMS! I mean it. Its hard enough to take care kids and a husband. But to do so while looking good, that is a noteworthy accomplishment. We could all give up, not care about make-up or looking good. But we don't. We do it all, and take care of ourselves. We work out. We dress cute. We take care of ourselves. AND the rest of our family. Having worked with and photographed what the world thinks beauty should be, waif thin, uneducated "Glamazons" who can't describe anything with out using the "F" word, I can tell you this. You are Beautiful. You are Amazing. You are Glamorous in a totally Unglamorous job.

So to all my fellow GlamaMoms, keep workin' it out.

We make being a Mom look Good. ;)

Totally Forgot

So- I totally left out a big chunk of the weekend. Friday I went up to Denver with Bethany, Breaelle's little sis, and one of my Laurels. Why? SHOE SHOPPING!! We are both bridesmaids and were in need to a pair of shoes. What was even more fabulous was Breaelle was driving through Denver on her way home from BYU-I and met us at Park Meadows. I tried to convince her to get an ultra fabulous pair of teal shoes to wear with her dress, (her wedding colors are teal and chocolate brown, I wanted to shoot a cool photo, and teal shoes would have been AWESOME) but she ended up finding a pair of totally fab white patent leather and lace pumps that go with her dress perfectly.

Beth and I looked at Nordstroms and didn't really find anything perfect. Well I did, but they came with a $700 price tag, and I don't think Damon would have been too happy with me, seeing as I just bought the D300 (new camera). Jimmy Choo Fabulousness. Maybe someday...

Any who, we ended up going to Dillards and finding Breaelle and I some shoes. Mine look totally vintage. I love them. I love anything that mimics the 1940-1950s housewife. Very feminine. Love. Beth got some totally cute ones too! OK- now I'm all updated!

Spring, Oh Spring, where fore art thou Spring...

Do I need to say more? Come on already! Its the 13th of April, and I had to reschedule a photo shoot because its too cold outside. It is so sad that I am reduced to longing for spring like I longed for a boyfriend in the 7 th grade. Pathetic! The weather men in Colorado Springs have the easiest job. They probably just have a conference call every morning to decide what they are going to say, and make some random predictions, because it really doesn't matter. They are always wrong. Except for windy. That's something you could bet the farm on.

Liam ate eggs with a fork today. Yes, I know. He used a fork. What a smart baby. You don't believe it? I documented it. I hardly believed it.

See!! Wow! I'm one proud Mama.

Zoey had her first soccer game on Saturday! I was impressed that she could run and pick her nose at the same time. She is a head shorted than all but one on her team, and her jersey looks like a dress on her. Zoey is adorable in her dress-jersey and shin guards. She gets the not picking up the ball with her hands, and runs like a woodland sprite. It was thoroughly entertaining hour. She is the last one on the right. After the game, she was super excited about the juice box and treats, and she got new tennis shoes. Yes, she finally grew out of her size 6 converse shoes! Go Zoey!

Ever since I saw Liz's post about her little girl in her twirly dress, I had an idea for a cool photograph. It took over a hundred frames to get 4 that I liked, but they are really cool! Makes me feel like a little girl again. Let me know which one you like the best. I am having a hard time deciding! I want to enlarge one for her room.

That's it for this weekend! Until next post

XOXO

Rach

Blech

I know I need to post the update from our trip. I am working on it, it is saved as a draft right now. But I felt inspired to reveal one of those things that is totally ridiculous about me. I hate tomatoes in salad. I love them in sandwiches, pasta, pretty much anything. But salads, I just can't hack it! I don't know why. I made a salad last night with tomatoes IN the salad, (usually I make a little bowl of tomatoes for Damon). There they were, all cut up, exposed to the rest of the salad. Contaminating the whole thing with their tomato-ness. I was brave. Braver than I have ever been in the 24 years of my life. I ate the salad, with out picking out the tomatoes. I ate the tomatoes. It was all I could do to force myself to swallow. I shuddered after every bite with tomato in it. Today I had the leftover salad with grilled chicken for lunch. I had reached my limit. The first bite had a big chunk of tomato in it, and I knew I just wasn't cut out for it. The tomatoes will be banished ( say it like in Romeo and Juliet, "Banish-ed", it sounds more dramatic) from my fair salad. Maybe I'll try again in 24 years...

On a totally unrelated note, also not a fan of blue cheese... Looks like I'll be making two separate salads for Damon and I...

~Home at Last~

Well after our week long trip to Vail, Glenwood Springs, and then into Utah, we are home! It was a wonderful week.

Vail was cold, too cold to ski. Mainly because you couldn't see 15 feet in front of you. Blizzard conditions/ snowstorm from hell. We were 20 minutes ahead of that massive 70 car pile-up leaving Vail. Crazy, the roads were terrible. Thank goodness for the 4x4 jeep. Needless to say we left Vail as soon as possible.

Glenwood Springs was great. A little on the cold side, but a cute little mountain town. I really wanted to take the kids to the hot springs pool, but it was only 35 degrees, and it just didn't sound like too much fun. So I went shopping. I love boutique shopping. If you ever make it to Glenwood Springs or Aspen, make sure to check out Sugar Sweet. The CUTEST clothes ever. Expensive, but worth it. We were there Monday through Wednesday, and had fun getting ice cream, playing in the snow that was rapidly melting, and riding the gondola up to the adventure park. I was so impressed that Zoey actually knew that a gondola was a boat from Venice. Go little Einsteins!! It took a while to explain that this gondola was actually a ski lift that took you to the top of a mountain. Whole way up she kept saying, "We're in the gondola boat?" We gave up after a while. Liam was a bit freaked out by the gondola, and had his classic suspicious baby face on.

See! wasn't so sure about the whole thing. Me and the Zoe at the top. Zoey in the 'Gondola Boat.'

Onward! To Utah! Next time I am there I am going to introduce this wonderful thing called a Zoning Commission!! Yikes! Those mountains are Phenomenal! But everything else, yeah, not so phenomenal. I got the itch to do spring cleaning while I was there. We stayed in Midway, ( again mountains are breathtaking, everything else not so much). Damon's cousin and his wife Nate and Davina had their little babies, well not so little now, but Little Chloe and Avery were sealed to them in the Salt Lake Temple. It was moving to watch as these beautiful children were sealed to their parents for time and all eternity. Especially for me. I was also adopted and sealed to my parents almost exactly 24 years ( plus 3 days) earlier in the Salt Lake Temple. How grateful I am for the sealing ordinance. Afterward, I got to photograph them. Here are some of my faves. Avery is Italian and a little Chinese, and Chloe is Mulatto. Lots of Flavor there! Beautiful, no?

After the Sealing. What a beautiful family!

Chloe and her daddy Nate. Damon and Nate are cousins. They are crazy when they get together...

I wish I could do justice to some of the conversations that went on this weekend...

After the sealing It was a lot of hangin' out, watching conference, letting the kids run wild. Davina introduced me to my new favorite snack. Whole Grain Crackers with Pesto. Yum. We met up with Cody and Breaelle and I saw her wedding dress! How fun! I still need to find shoes to go with my bridesmaid dress. Oh- Cody blew out his knee. He has surgery on Thursday. I feel for the guy. Not sure if he really grasps how hard this is going to be. We hung out at BYU, Damon, Nate, and Davina's ol' stopin' grounds. Its a small campus! I made the mistake of saying that in front of a bunch of people who went there. Much drama ensued. One thing I learned is never NEVER NEVER belittle BYU anything in front of the alumni. Still a small campus. Coming from ASU, who has over 60,000 undergrad students, and spreads over 5 miles in Tempe, going to BYU who has 35,000 total students and you can walk across campus in 20 minutes. They had spring fling going on in the quad, so Zoey had a blast, and Liam just enjoyed being outside. The Bookstore there is really cool. Chocolate covered cinnamon bears, anyone?

Sunday we headed back. I love the drive along the I-70. Amazing. God is an artist. We made it in about 9 hours. The kids did great. I am so glad to be home.