Family Photos - Fall 2009

OK, I know this is just a little ridiculous.
We have had our pictures taken a LOT lately.

But I couldn't resist exclaiming from the rooftops (or blogtops) my joy with these pictures. Several months ago, I took Ashley up on an offer to donate my old wedding dress to a charity her sister works with, in exchange for a photo shoot. The truth is, I'd been bugging her to take some pictures of us for a year, so this was the perfect opportunity. She was nice enough to let me put it off for a couple of months so that we could have the photos represent Nolan at 2 (even though we were a little early) I asked her to get some great shots of him, especially, and she did such a brilliant job.

Sometimes, when you meet with a photographer, it's a little awkward at first. It takes some time for everyone to warm up to each other. That didn't happen with Ashley AT ALL. We were instant friends. And you can tell how comfortable we were when you look at the pictures. It was such fun. You can see the results of the entire shoot over to the right in the side bar.

Ashley has a post with several of them on her blog, and you can visit her photography website HERE.

Maybe my favorite part. . . It totally looks like a fall day! Exactly what we were going for.
You would never know it was 75 degrees.

Thank you SO much, Ashley. I love them.

Taco Picnic

After a long work-from-home day on Thursday, Nolan and I needed to get out of the house. But, as energy levels were also a little low, and we had a plan for dinner already, we decided to picnic in the back yard.

So we had a taco picnic.

Nolan was pretty much just interested in the cheese.







Ben tried to encourage him to eat a taco by piling one high with cheese. . .





But he just went back to eating it straight out of the bowl instead.

Friday Randoms

Afternoon, friends. Welcome back to Friday randoms.
How have I only posted one tiny post since last week?
Oh yeah, #1.

1. I am up to my eyeballs in my new business venture. It will be known as Out Of Frame photographic services. Our mission will be to do all of the back end work for photographers. There is a huge group of photographers in UT that are also moms who get very frustrated with the amount of extra work there is to running a sound photography business. We would be there to do all of the stuff they find less fun and more time consuming than taking pictures.

Not that we're limiting ourselves to moms. Not at all.
That's just where we're starting.

2. On the same lines. . . choosing a business name is HARD.
Branding it equally hard.

3. Ben made Chex mix last night. I can't stop eating it.
And I should. It gives me bad breath.

4. Our Dish Network decided Wed. night was a great time to stop functioning. (Thank you stupid HOA and our central dish. Don't get me started) As a result, we missed all of SYTYCD and the first 20 minutes of GLEE. To say I was annoyed is understating it a great deal.

5. Nolan's new favorite thing to do. . . walk around in our shoes. He's finally steady enough on his feet to make it work. This is only the one foot show. . . still need to capture it when he puts both shoes on. Our shoes are now never in the right place.



Ben's background music there is Nolan's current favorite song.
I will post about that next week when I upload the video I took of him singing along.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog

OK, but have you seen this?

Not sure how I never saw it before. . . but I am in love with it.

Joss Whedon is a genius.

As is the whole cast.

It's long, but if you have 45 minutes that you're bored at some point, watch it.

It's amazing.

Friday Randoms

1. I know that there are many people who are no longer feeling the GLEE love. I am not one of these people. I still love it.

and Josh Groban loves a blousey alcoholic. . .

2. Nolan has started to try counting. He's not very good at it yet, but he does it with feeling!
Observe:




3. We were up on campus last night for Sweeney Todd auditions and a storm gathered around the mountains. . . check out the storm/ sunset:

Some days. . . I am reminded what a beautiful place we live in. . .

4. I had a small run in with Nolan's love for the oven yesterday. I checked to make sure there was nothing in the oven before preheating. . . but obviously didn't bend over and look ALL the way in the back. Somehow his orange skillet and one of the letters from his Leap Frog magnetic alphabet set were in the very back.

And I'm sad to say, they didn't make it.

Ben suggested that we make this a Christmas ornament.

5. I have a little side venture starting up in my mind. It's my dream job, actually. . . But I need to do a little more research before I launch it. If you are a pro/semi-pro photographer and you would be willing to let me pick your brain about some ideas I have to help photographers with their businesses. . . email me. or leave a comment. Or refer me to your friends who are photographers, if you think they'd be willing to talk. . . I want to make sure the whole thing is perfect before I start shopping it around.

A Good Cause Revisited

Remember when I talked about Justin Hackworth and his awesome fundraiser he was doing for the Women & Children's shelter in Provo?

We took advantage of his offer and went for a photo shoot over a Labor Day weekend with the girls in my family. My mom, my sister Natalie, and Natalie's daughter Aubrey.

We had such a marvelous time. Justin is the very definition of a people person and he helped all of us relax. And the proof is in the pictures. I am so excited with how they turned out. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Video Fun

Nolan is growing up faster than I can keep up with him. . .

We took a quick tript o Walmart last night to stock up on basics and get the things I needed for my wedding cupcake baking adventure tonight. . . (and don't even get me STARTED on the number of things we needed that were missing from their shelves. RIDICULOUS)

Anyway, Nolan decided that it would be a lot of fun to help unload the cart. Apparently he's done this with Ben before, but it cracked me up.



& today, we played an unconventional game of catch.



The floor is now covered with Starburst. . . but he had fun.

Kitchen

As you all know, Nolan is a little chef.

Ben has been planning a kitchen for him for some time now, but due to time being at a premium, work space being practically non-existent, and tools needing to be purchased. . . it was taking a while to come to fruition. So we decided that it would be more cost effective, and certainly more time saving, to buy one.

Especially when we saw THIS beauty at IKEA.

Holy gender neutral!

We loved it.

And so we got it for him
And set it up on Monday night with all of his dishes and such
(forgive the graininess, and the lack of stove top. the batteries were charging)



Aside from his intense frustration that the sink will not actually produce water when he turns the knob, he really seems to like it. We're not 100% done with his set up yet, as he is in need of a little bit more storage and work space. . . but that will be remedied soon.

(I was trying to get him to open the microwave as a demonstration of the fact that he can reach that high. . . but he wasn't in the listening mood this morning)

Friday Randoms, Video Edition

I have been meaning to upload video for a very long time. And I finally got around to it last night. I have made some smaller clips, for the sake of size, and everyone's attention span, that I will share as Friday Randoms today. Enjoy our goofy child:


Playing peek-a-boo with Tamera


Torturing Elmo



A few of his favorite tricks
Interacting with the TV, finding his body parts, and being a little faker. . .


And playing around with mom & dad after work