Connections

I have to admit I have some pretty good connections in my life. Brett's dad is a plumber, my uncle works for a car dealership, both of my parents are retired, my daughters paint my toes. (No, I don't mean toenails. I mean toes.) But now I have a wonderful new hook-up. My little sister has been taking one-on-one photo sessions with her father in law and has inherited some pretty jazzy equipment from him (he is a photographer for the Deseret News- talk about connections). She wants to start doing photography on the side and asked if my girls could be her first trial run. I was THRILLED because I have never had their pictures taken by anyplace other than Target. Which basically means I have always posed the kids, got them to smile, worked the camera, brought my own film, and developed it after. I thought that she would do a really good job, but I was wrong. She did an amazing job. It was like being at the spa. I just enjoyed the moment and she did it all. Here are just a few pictures that I robbed off her blog. I will post more when I get them.

I love the way that she let each girl just be herself in the picture. They had so much fun with her. Anyway if you, or someone you know, are looking for a photographer give her a call. I don't know what kind of deals she would offer, as I mentioned earlier I have a total connection. (I got a screaming deal. Maybe she will give you one too!!!)

What a Weekend!!!

Where to start? Well, I guess Friday would be the logical spot. Friday morning I had a doctors appointment so needless to say we were a bit rushed. When I went to curl Ava's hair, it melted onto the curling iron. &*(-, I hate hair emergencies, so Ava got a hair cut and I think she looks adorable. However, as soon as she was finished she looked at me and cried, "Mommy fix it." My heart totally went out to her. We stopped to show my parents. My dad had just gotten a new buzz cut and told Ava short hair was the best. When he asked her how you knew you had a good hair cut, she answered, "When your hair is still long." Poor thing, who hasn't had a hair cut that they hate?
We spent the rest of the weekend up at my Uncle Clark's cabin in Bear Lake. The kids had arts and craft time to make a paper flower bouqet for Bammy. It was supposed to be a "Do-It-Yourself" Craft, that must of meant that you, the mother, were supposed to do it yourself with no children even in the vicinity. My sister-in-law and I were not impressed with the level of difficulty with the craft. Oh well, Bammy and the kids loved it.

Brett, Kevin, and Kris all participated in the Bear Lake Classic. This was the third year in a row. The first year Brett finished almost dead last on a mountain bike wearing basketball shorts and a white t-shirt. This year he finished second out of all the competitive citizen cyclists. That is him on the left. What a difference two years, a nice bike and some spandex makes!!!! This is my father-in-law finishing. He was so fast you can't even see him. (And to think, they call him Big Dot.)
The kids loved watching the race. Ava called every man in Spandex her Daddy. I am not really sure what to think about that. Because let's be honest, men do NOT all look the same in spandex. By the way if there is anyone out there considering converting over to cycling I only have one piece of advice: white spandex=BAD IDEA. If you think Victoria's Secret is a little risque, white spandex leaves NO secrets, and I mean NO secrets. I really hope that it's true what they say about the color white, you know that it makes you look "smaller", just for the sake of the poor guy dressed as the Celestial Cyclist. (Brett wants everyone to know his spandex are black by the way, assume what you will about that.)

On Sunday the guys took the kids Geocaching. This is a marked improvment over the first year when, after completing the event, they passed out and couldn't even identify their own children. For those of you who don't know what geocaching, is you can google it, because I still don't get it. Basically you get a set of coordinates from somewhere and wander around with a GPS unit until you find a tupperware box full of random stuff. Then you take something and leave some of your random stuff there. The kids LOVED this. They all thought they were real life pirates. Here they are with some of their booty.
Scenic picture. Ahhhhhh.While we were packing we thought that we would water the lawn, and Ava thought that she would water herself. She was the only kid to run through the sprinklers this year. You can't tell, but she is drenched!!! (Brett hopes this is her last wet t-shirt picture ever.)
What is a trip to Bear Lake without a trip to see the Bear Lake Monster? Gracie thought that would make a great trip. She wouldn't even get in the picture. The rest of the kids wanted to sit on his head and were mad they couldn't climb higher.
How can you tell it's been a good vacation?

No one fights the whole way home. Yeah!!!!!!! Those are the faces of a happy vacationers.

I am sure most of you were aware of the storm that past over us last night. Well at our house it happened to be about bedtime and I swear that stinking storm was right on top of us. Instead of reading bedtime stories me and the girls sat in the computer chair and watched the show. It was so cute how they acted surprised everytime there was lighting. Ahhh, the innonence of childhood. Brett and I just hoped our house didn't get hit.

Big Announcement

So I guess that I took April off from blogging, but I have a good excuse. . . . . I'm pregnant!!!!! I think that everyone that reads my blog already knows that, but it's fun to "announce" just the same. This has not been an easy journey to get to this point and I just want to thank everyone for all of their kind words of support and encouragment. I really do have the best friends and family in the world. Now that my evenings don't center around not trying to "frow-up", in Ava's words, I plan on getting back into the game.