A Little Christmas

This time of year is always pretty busy, but I thought I would take just a moment to blog about a few a little things.

Cameron has recently taken an interest in cooking. Where he got this idea we have no idea. Craig can hardly cook at all, and while I can cook (and Craig says I cook very well), I don't really enjoy the task. I prefer baking, but even that is not very enjoyable for me. I don't like the clean-up:-)

But as Cameron grows older, I find we have fewer and fewer shared interests. He is every inch a boy, and well, I am not. But I think cooking is something we can do together. Even though it is not my favorite thing to do, I think it is much more enjoyable when I can do it with my little boy. Besides, I hope to turn him into a little chef, so that by the time he is in his teens, he can be the head chef of the family:-)

We decided to try our hands at some baking, and we chose one of my favorite Christmas cookies - M&M Chocolate Drop Cookies. Cameron did a lot of the work himself - he measured, poured, and mixed the ingredients (his favorite part is cracking open eggs!), and I helped him put the dough on the cookie sheets and put them in the oven. After they were done, I filled them with frosting, and he added all the little M&Ms. I have never seen a little boy so proud of his accomplishments than Cameron was:-) And I was a proud Mommy, too! And, in case you are wondering, they were delicious:-P

It took me a little longer than usual to get our Holiday decorations out. I usually like to get them out right after Thanksgiving, but too many other things have been going on. But, I finally got it all out, and I am thrilled to see my little home all decked out.

Christmas really is one of my favorite times of the year. I love all the glittery things, the colorful lights everywhere, and the way my home looks and feels so cozy in the glow from the Christmas tree. And I love that I have this great old piano to put things on:-)

As you can see from the photo, I have started collecting two things. The first is Santas. I LOVE Santa Claus. He was always a VERY big deal in our home, so collecting different Santas has been a lot of fun. The second thing I have started a collection of is Nativity scenes.

I received my first Nativity scene several years ago after my parents attended an estate sale. The figures are fairly small, but it was a full set - all the wiseman and their camels, all the shepherds and their sheep, the donkey, and even the angel. What it did NOT have was the BABY JESUS! I still set it all out every year, but it bothered me that it had no little Jesus. What is the point, really?

Well, I FINALLY found the little Jesus that goes with this set. There is a little ceramic shop near by, and they actually carried the pieces to this set, and were lucky enough to have a little Jesus (he is hard to find this time of year). So now my set is complete! My next goal is to paint it. I like the white, but I might add some sparkle by adding gold or silver highlights. Or maybe I will go full color. I haven't decided yet.

I have several other sets that I have acquired over the years. Right now a secret friend is leaving little Nativity pieces on our doorstep every night. We look forward to seeing what new piece we will get.

And finally, we come to the tree. My adorable little tree. Yes, it is quite small. I have had this tree since before I met Craig. For many years we lived in apartments, so it made sense to keep a small tree. But now we have our own home, and I told Craig it was high time we got something a little bigger. We are hoping to find a nice one during the after Christmas sale. This one will not gone forever, though! We are going to set it up in the basement to add a little cheer down there. And I can also use it for photo shoots with young children.

So, there is a little bit of Christmas for you. There is surely more to come later!

Thankgiving

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving this year! For a long while we thought we were not going to do anything. It was our year to spend Thanksgiving down in Vegas with Craig's family, but we were just down there last month for his brother's wedding.

But it turns out that all his other siblings were staying up here in Utah as well (incidentally, all but one of Craig's siblings live here in Utah now. We really need his parents up here, too!!). So we decided to host a little Thanksgiving get-together here in our home. In all the years we have been married, we have never hosted a holiday dinner at our home, so this was very exciting!

We kept it simple with the usual treats - turkey, stuffing, taters, and plenty of pies:-) I was a little nervous about cooking the turkey, but it turned out to be very simple, and, I must say, it was the most beautiful turkey I have ever seen. Looked like something out of a magazine:-) I forgot to take a picture of it BEFORE we started carving it, but you can still see the nice golden color it had.

And the pies! Oh, the pies! All four pies were made completely from scratch - crust and all! Even the chocolate pie was made from REAL melted chocolate and milk. My new SIL Laurel made the yummiest apple pie, and I did the cherry, chocolate, and pumpkin. Yum!!

We had a lot of fun eating, playing games, eating, chatting, and eating. All in all, it was a fantastic day, and we all had fun:-)

A little about Halloween

I know Halloween is a bit in the past, but I have been pretty swamped and have not had much time to blog about life. And I suppose it doesn't matter, since I am not sure anyone but myself ever comes to this blog. So I write more as a journal for myself than for anyone else. But just in case anyne ever does pop over here frmo time to time, I hope you enjoy these little glimpses into our family life.

Last Halloween (2009) was kind of a bust for us. We really didn't do anything at all. No parties or activities, and Cameron was tired of T&T after only one street. Bleh.

This year was tons better! Now that Cameron is in school we have a lot of school activities to look forward to. I was a little disappointed that his school did not allow costumes. That was one of my favorite things during Halloween - wearing my costume and marching around in the school parade. So much fun!

Since they could not wear their costumes to school, Cameron said he needed a "Halloween" shirt, just for fun. I was hoping to make it a fun mother/son craft experience. Just one problem. Cameron is not really big into crafts. In fact, he does not really like them at all. So I ended up making the shirt, but he was still really happy to wear it:-)

The school did have a Fall Carnival and we went for a little bit. They have a few games and activities, but the place was PACKED, and we had to wait in line for 20 min just to play one 10 sec game. We had to leave before they did T&T around the school, but they gave Cameron a bunch of candy anyway.

Later we went to one of Cameron's favorite places - the dinosaur park! They had a big Halloween event going on all month, and we decided to use our family pass to go and have some fun together. It was a lot of fun seeing the dinosaurs at night. And there was TONS of candy! Cameron had a blast, and so did Mommy and Daddy.

Speaking of Daddy, his work had a little fun for Halloween as well. They all got to dress in costumes, and they invited all the kids to come and T&T around the office. Craig decided to go as one of our favorite TV characters - Chuck. I tried curling his hair, but it was a little too short to do what I wanted it to do. Oh well, he looked great anyway!

We did do a little T&T around the neighborhood, but our area is pretty lame. A couple of years ago we lived in an area that had TONS of kids everywhere - just like when I was a kid. But our area now is practically dead (no pun intended) on Halloween. A scattering off houses passing out candy, and a few kids here and there. Still, there was plenty of booty to be had.

All in all, we had a lot of fun, and Cameron brought home more candy than we could eat in a year. And finally, I will leave you with a few more pics of Cameron in his Buzz Lightyear costume, because he is just so cute!

Family Photo Shoot

This is the first installment of our family photos this year. We did a photo swap with another photographer, Shantell Urry. There is a big park right across the street from our house, with lots of cute spots for photos. And since I live here, I know where all the BEST spots are - especially the ones that not a lot of other photographers know about.

I was a little disappointed that the leaves were still mostly green. Fall has been sporadic this year - even while some trees are still green, others have already turned color and dropped their leaves. very annoying.

I think we must have been a challenge for Shantell. She had to deal with very low light, a wiggly six year old, and a little dog!

Here are some of our faves. Sorry they are so small. I tried to resize them, but then they wouldn't fit on the blog.

So this last one shows the creek where that body was found. My house is just up to the left, a little less the 100 yards. We actually tried going back to this spot a few days later to see if the leaves had changed, but they had the whole bridge taped off.

Uncle Matthew

Okay, okay, I know it's been a long time since I have last blogged. I apologize. Life is busy, that's all I can say. But here is a post to bring you a little smile.

Cameron adores his uncles. Well, mostly Craig's brothers, as he does not know my brothers very well. Although his uncles are considerably older than him (but not too old), they still love spending time with Cameron.

One of these uncles, Matthew (not to be confused with my own brother Matthew), recently began serving a mission for our church. He will be gone for two years, which makes Cameron a little sad. So we decided to do a very impromptu photoshoot with the two of them before Matthew (aka Elder Stiles) left.
Cameron was being pretty silly, and kept wanting me to take more pictures, so I shot a few of him by himself. I love my handsome boy!

The beard

Most everyone who knows me knows that I DO NOT like facial hair. Yuck. I do not like looking at it. Or touching it. And DEFINITELY not kissing it. So why, then, did my wonderful husband decided to randomly grow a beard?

He said he wanted to try it out. He has talked about it for years. I kind of thought it would be one of those things he would try when he was forty or fifty. But he decided to try now. And no, he did not consult me on this decision (he didn't need to, he already knew what I was going to say).

I think part of this desire came with a recent visit with my family. Both of my brothers were there (very rare, btw). Matt, the younger of them, had some very sporadic growth around his chin and face. It looked awful. But when he told us it was TWO WEEKS of growing, I couldn't help but laugh! Bill, the older, has much the same problem, though I think his "beard" might be slightly better. But only slightly.

We have always known Craig could easily grow a full beard without much trouble. We have been a little curious about how long it would actually take to grow one. So for the last week he has been trying to grow a beard.

And I hate it. I mean, I REALLY hate it. Cameron isn't too fond of it, either. And it turns out, Craig himself doesn't like it either! He says he is constantly aware of it, but it never ceases to shock him when he looks in the mirror, or puts his hand on his face. So, the beard is coming off tonight. Hooray!!

I have to say that I am impressed with the growth he was able to achieve in only one week. It is not a full beard, but probably would be within another week if he continued to let it grow. I am hoping that he won't try this again for a long time. Or ever. Maybe now I can convince him to do laser hair removal on his facial hair:-)

A few shots of the beard:

Fostering

I have a new found respect for foster parents. It is HARD WORK!

Craig and I have been searching for ways to "grow" our family. We recently took a serious look at becoming foster parents. Because the state helps quite a bit, we felt this would be a great idea for us. We already had a spare room, a bed and a crib, plenty of toys, etc. Only the child was missing.

So we started going to the classes that they require as part of the licensing procedure. We learned a lot. We learned things we didn't want to know. We learned that people do terrible things, and a lot of time they do these terrible things to their own children. So sad! Heartbreaking, in fact.

We thought, "We could give these children a safe home. We could give them love. We could give them hope." But then we were told that the state ALWAYS wants to send these children back to their bio parents whenever possible. Even if we feel that is just not cool.

Some of these kids have been through way too much in their short lives. They need A LOT of attention. Which is, of course, a problem for us, since we both work full time. I even work most weekends.

Putting it all together, we decided that fostering is probably not such a good fit for us after all. It would be very difficult to spend the time with them that they really need. And we know that we will probably become attached to them, and it would be very difficult to give some of them back to their parents. I think I could handle it a little better than Craig. He is an all or nothing kind of guy. But it would still be hard.

So, here we are back at square one again. I find we are here A LOT. I don't think I like square one very much. It means there is no progress. We want more than anything to have more children, but nothing has worked out for us. In fact, fostering was pretty much the last step for us. Now that that has fallen through, we are pretty much thinking Cameron is going to be our one and only. It kills me to think that. I always wanted a big family. Never thought I would only have one. I love him like crazy, but I would give anything for him to have a brother or sister. Perhaps it is just not meant to be.

I guess she's not so bad, afterall

Many eons ago, I lived in a hole-in-the-wall place south of BYU campus. Total ghettosville. But I made a lot of friends and some good memories. But there was one person I did NOT want to make friends with. We called her the "Cookie Slut". I know. Awful. She had this name because whenever any of us tried to visit with any of the guys, invariably she was there. With cookies. And not just any cookies. These were always her best homemade, melt-in-your-mouth, died-and-gone-to-heaven cookies. Us plain girls didn't have a chance. So naturally, we hated her. Okay, hate is much to strong a word. But we didn't like her much, at any rate.

Well, as fate would have it, I ended up actually moving in with her the next year in a new apartment complex. Yes, I did know she was going to be there, and yes, I did cry a few times before the big move-in day. I was certain I was making a big mistake, but something kept telling me I needed to do this. Besides, if I lived in the same apartment as her, I was bound to get some of those cookies, right?

Turns out, Alicia (yes, she does have a name), was an awesome cook in general. Really, I think her homemade Chicken Noodle soup is impossible to beat. And those chocolate bon-bons? Yes, please.

Then here cookies made something magical happen. One night she made a batch of fabulous cookies and invited a bunch of guys a few doors down to come sample them. Too bad she forgot to tell me. So there I was in my jammies, no make-up on, hair not done, and in walks an entire apartment full of guys. Yikes! No where to run, no where to hide. So I just curled myself up on the couch, hoping I looked invisible.

Nope, not invisible. Apparently I caught the eye of one of those fellers, and he sat right down next to me and started up a conversation. And he was smart. Real smart. And I liked him. A week later he asked me out on a date, and I decided I like him even more. And he liked me, too. We've been together almost eight years now:-)

And what about Alicia? Well, turns out she wasn't so bad after all. In fact, she was downright great! I have had many roommates over the years, but she is one of the few that I have actually kept in touch with (thank goodness for blogs and facebook!). She found her Captain Awesome a few years back, and now they are expecting their first baby!

Even though she now lives in Kansas, I still keep up with her. She has been in town because her hubby Brian is an AMAZING organist (I think he played a little for MoTab), and is doing some kind of organ thing at BYU, so Alicia's mom threw her a baby shower.

It was great seeing her again (even though I was reminded how very short I am). Alicia, you are awesome. I am soo excited for you and Brian! And I envy the new little one because he will get to eat your amazing food every day. Thanks for the cookies:-)

The Great Outdoors

I have always been the outdoorsy type. Despite my cuteness and chic style, I grew up as a tomboy. I was the one climbing trees, digging in the dirt, and bringing home the local wildlife (I still do not understand why my mom would not let me keep the tadpoles).

Craig is not so much an outdoors kind of guy. He is happiest behind a computer. He says he doesn't like fishing (but he has only been once, so how can he really know?), except in the occasional video game. He mostly refuses to help me in the garden (though for our anniversary he did help with some weeding).

We always assumed Cameron took more after his dad. He is ALWAYS playing video games. Or watching youtube videos about playing video games. Or talking about things that happened in games he is playing. It never really occurred to us that hidden somewhere inside him he had the Outdoorsman gene.

A few months ago my dad offered to take Cameron for a night. My dad is a very outdoorsy kind of guy. He loves camping and fishing, and he took us out frequently when we were all kids. So when Cameron went to visit, of course he took him fishing. We weren't sure how Cameron would like it. Fishing is something that requires a lot of patience. What five year old has any of that?

Turns out, Cameron loves fishing! They stayed out all day, and Cameron caught THREE fish!! This was one proud mamma! I let my dad have the fish, though. Cameron, like me, loves to fish, but hates to eat them.
So this past weekend we planned a short camping trip with Craig's cousin Clin and his family. We have been planning this for quite some time. We decided to head up to Echo Lake in the Uintah's. For anyone that has been up that way, you know that the ONLY way up is a on a rocky road (more like small boulder road), using 4 wheel drive. It was very slow going. But so worth it! We were pretty high up (10,000ft), so it was pleasantly cool. There were no towns or highways anywhere around us, so the stars at night were spectacular. We even saw the ribbon of the Milky Way!

We roughed it for the weekend. We could not park the cars at the campsite, so we had to make a small hike, which we did several times to get everything from the cars. There were also no bathrooms, but we brought some shovels;-) Dinner was hot dogs roasted over the fire, and I made breakfast tacos in the morning.

I regret that I did not get a fishing license. Their were some small trout in the lake that would have been fun to go after. Clin brought his fishing gear and was able to catch a couple. By the time Cameron got out to the lake the fish had already gone to deeper water. Also, little Madison was so loud that she scared off all the fish. We don't really blame her, though. She's only two. I did catch a little snake though. That was kind of cool:-)

My biggest regret? No pictures. I know, sad. I brought my "big" camera, but I didn't have my tripod (it broke), so I didn't feel like getting it out. For snapshots I brought my little P&S, but Craig packed it away somewhere and I couldn't find it. Craig should know better than to touch my cameras.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, and we are hoping to do it again. BTW, Cameron's favorite part was sleeping outside in a tent. He looked so cute in his sleeping bag, and said he was "so cozy". Craig and I were not. Our air mattress sprung a small leak. And I had Orion (the dog) with me because he was freezing, so it was a little cramped in my sleeping bag.

On a final note, I am starting to harvest some of my garden vegetables. I have already had a pint or two of strawberries, which I am hoping to jam. And yesterday I harvested my first bell peppers ever! They are puney, but I am happy to have them. I left one on the bush for a little longer, and it turned red, the other is still green.

I also noticed that I have one tomato that is starting to turn red, and a whole bunch more that are starting to come out. I love fresh garden tomatoes!

Well, this post has certainly gone on long enough. But since I am not the greatest at keeping my blog regularly updated, y'all get a an extra portion:-)

Cameron Lost His First Tooth!!!

Yup, you read that right - Cameron's first baby tooth came out today! The adult tooth is already half grown in, but it grew in behind the baby tooth. As a result, it took a lot longer for the old tooth to fall out. I am hoping the new tooth moves forward a bit. But genetics dictates this kid is bound to have some crooked bottom teeth.

The tooth has been wiggly for a few weeks now, and I have checked on it every day to see how it was coming along. We just kept telling Cameron to keep wiggling it, so it could come out. Today when I checked it was just barely hanging in there, so I knew it was time. I just reached in an plucked it out. He hardly even felt it. And boy was he proud!! The tooth is already waiting under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy:-) Craig came home a few minutes later and Cameron was right there at the door to show off his new "hole" to his daddy. Yes, a proud day indeed!

It is crazy to think that my little boy is losing teeth already. Who gave him permission to grow up? But I love all these new and exciting moments in his life.

Craig asked me to snap one of him and Cameron together. It's funny how a quick snapshot can become your most favorite photo. I LOVE these two boys!!

My First Bridal Show!

This past Thursday I received a call from Jan Schuurman of Shoootz Photography inviting me to participate as a vendor in their Fantazy Bridal Show which took place at the Wight House in Bountiful. Except the show was this past Saturday!! That gave me only 36 hours to put everything together. I have never participated in a bridal show before, and I had NO studio samples of brides or weddings. A little odd, yes, but everything I have is of portraits. Pretty much the only thing I had was my business cards.

Thanks to the fabulous people at Inkley's in Layton, UT and to Chester at Postnet in North Salt Lake, I was able to pull together a nice presentation. I still did not have samples of albums and such, but I still think my booth looked nice. And I had an added bonus in that my booth had a very large flat screen TV with a DVD player so that I could run a sideshow of some of my favorite weddings.

Saturday was a very hot day, and I think there was another bridal show happening elsewhere. So maybe that is what kept the brides away. At any rate, there were really not a lot of people in attendance. I am not sure if anything will come out of it for me, but I still had fun.

My booth was right next to the best cake decorators ever! Tricia of Sweet Perfection had the BEST tasting cake I have ever had!!! Her Tuxedo cake was really an out of body experience. And her cakes were beautiful as well.

I sat across from Rusty Sessions of Sidewinder Photography. We had a great time bantering back and forth and strutting our stuff, lol. It was all in good fun, though. I did find out that Rusty was one of the judges at the Davis County Fair last year that awarded one of my images with Best of Show, so I give him a big kudos (even if he IS a Canonite!).

Here are some images of me and my booth. In the future I may try some of the bigger shows as well.

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo

I am not sure how many people will get the reference to that title. It comes from an old children's song, "We're Going to the Zoo." Very catchy little tune:-)

So, indeed we did visit the zoo this past week. We went with Craig's cousin Clin and his family as part of our holiday festivities. It was very hot, and I don't like all the hills our zoo has, but it was still fun to spend time with family and enjoy watching the animals (two of my favorite past times, as I am sure you all know).

Here's a funny story. I had brought my big camera with me because I could use my long telephoto lens, which is very useful in taking photos of animals who are fairly far from where I am at. I guess people thought I was there working on a project, because people kept asking me if I was a professional, and what I was working on. Apparently lots of people have "big, fancy cameras", but very few have a telephoto lens. Go figure. At one point a couple stopped me and asked me all sorts of questions about photography and cameras and such. I was more than happy to share what I knew, since photography is also a favorite past time;-)

Despite what people say about my "big fancy camera", I was actually wishing for an upgrade. I was using an older model, which has only 6mp, and is terrible in low light. Way to much noise. Still, I made it work for me, and I got a few nice images to remember my visit.

Love these cute kids!

Madison LOVED the little kitties. She wanted to pet all of them. Can you blame her?

I don't often use direct flash, but it really helped bring out this guys iridescent feathers.

So stinkin' cute!!


I wish our pigeons were this pretty. Then I might not be quite so annoyed by them.

Squirrel! There were a few of these just randomly running around the zoo. And everyone had to stop and check them out, lol.

Zuri! She is almost a year old, but such a cute baby! I am not sure I have ever seen a baby elephant in person before.

My boy. Love him!