Thursday, October 30, 2008

Kids in Costumes

It's a day early, but I had time to do this earlier in the week, so here's the Halloween photos. I thought Luke would HATE his doggie costume, but he loved it. He was so happy just walking, walking, walking everywhere in it. Lucy picked an old Sleeping Beauty dress from her dress-up drawer (lucky for me) and Jane likes her bride costume because it's LONG.













Wednesday Review

Yesterday was a Big, Big day for me. Normal days for me typically have a lot of A.D.D. moments where I get sidetracked from one project after another and it's hard to get anything done. Sometimes I just get stuck in a time warp where hours are sucked out of my day before I'm returned to the normal space-time continuum. But not yesterday. Here is a review of my day.

1. Read Scriptures, Made 3 breakfasts and one lunch, scooted Jane out the door to School.
2. Shower!
3. Paid some bills, wrote a note to a Visiting Teaching sister, mailed it.
4. Loved on Luke for a while.
5. Cleaned my Dirty kitchen.
6. Walmart trip for some grocery basics and some Halloween Essentials.
7. Lunch!
8. Dirtied my Clean Kitchen while making chili for ward Halloween party.
9. Simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer.
10. Charged camera battery, erase memory card, collect photo gear.
11. Made a ti leaf lei for my Halloween costume.
12. Gathered costumes and accessories for kids.
13. Went to do a photo shoot for a nice family.
14. Went to ward Halloween Party. Trunk or Treat!
15. Kids in bed. Yeah!
16. I voted (early)!
17. Worked on editing photos of another Nice Family until yesterday turned into today.


Today I did a lot of nothing.

I did a little more work on photos, but mostly I wasted time online. Then I made this:


Spaghetti and Eyeballs. Spooky.


Enjoy Luke enjoying spaghetti.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

"When in the Course of human events..."




Ok. Other bloggers have been putting their $.02 in the political arena and I don't necessarily agree with any of them. Here's something very neutral.

We all get interested when we see that someone has a new entry to their blog. Take the time to read this one. This is where it all started. I wish more Americans would read this. Take note of words like "God", "Creator", and "Supreme Judge". I think it stands on its own.




IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.


He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.


He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.


He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.


He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.


He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.


He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.


He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.


He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.


He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.


He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.


He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.


He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.


He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:


For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:


For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:


For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:


For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:


For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:


For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:


For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies


For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:


For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.


He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.


He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.


He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.


He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.


He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.


In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.


Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.


We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Friday, October 17, 2008

I Love Christopher Columbus

Nate and I took the kids out to California last weekend to celebrate Christopher Columbus Day. Yeah, it's pretty much our favorite holiday. We really went to visit our friends, Ryan and Michelle and to take some family photos for them. Jane and their daughter, Emily, are BFFs. I had to grab this sad, sad picture off their blog of the two of them when it was time for us to go home. Compare it to how happy they were when we first got there and you'll know that they really will be Best Friends Forever...and ever.



Now, Ryan and Michelle, here's a sneak peek of what I'm working on for you guys. More to come soon!

Busy Busy!





You may have noticed that my blog posts have become fewer and shorter. I've been busy working on my photography! If I'm not actually editing the photos from a job I've done, I'm usually learning as much as I can about new and better ways of doing it. I did my first commercial job last week for a cookware company. They had a popular Mexican TV host endorsing the cookware, so everyone there was really excited to be working with him. I had to learn some new lighting techniques and buy some new equipment in just a couple of days, but the shoot went well and I learned a TON. Mostly about what NOT to do, but still...

It's been a challenge for me while I'm trying to adapt to being a stay-at-home mom and a work-at-home mom. One of the young women from our ward was asking me a few questions for a school project and she asked me if my chosen career made it easy to keep up with my kids. "Easy?" I repeated. "No, not easy. But definitely do-able." I'm still learning how to balance both parts of my life, but I'm so grateful that I am able to do both.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Crying Shame



When we went to Walmart the other day, Lucy had a pair of pink sunglasses on. As we were getting out of the car, she pushed them up onto her head and asked if she could wear them into the store. She looked so cute with them on, so I let her bring them. I must have forgotten my rule of never, ever, ever bringing anything into the store. The whole time we were shopping, I would look at her and say now where are your glasses? We went looking for them and found them three different times. Finally, as we were leaving the store, I looked and she didn't have them. I did remember where she had set them down just moments before, but when we went back they were gone. So Lucy got her first lesson about being on the losing end of that old familiar phrase. Finders keepers, losers....well just look at her.

Fluff 'n' Fold

I know you're not supposed to let your kid play in the dryer, but what are the chances that the dryer would suddenly turn on with me standing right there and the door open. I almost made him get out, but I couldn't resist the little "Hee-hee-hee" that came from the dryer every time I threw another handful of wet clothes in there.



Sunday, October 05, 2008

"A Toofer"

















After Priesthood session we loaded up in the family truckster and headed for our neighborhood pizza place (they really have awesome pizza but they also have the best honey hot wings in the world). Jane has been wiggling her two front teeth for awhile now but they never really were getting loose enough to come out. She started wiggling one of them alot and even showing off as to how far she could get it to wiggle. It seemed like it was still in there so we all just kept eating our pizza. All of sudden she says, "I got it!" And there it was... one front tooth. She bled a good amount but didn't care a bit. We teased her about how silly she looked but she loved it.

Later on that night she kept working at the other one and we had know idea she was doing it. Apparently she was just sitting on her bed grunting and working at the tooth and yanked the 2nd one out!!!

As if looking at her with out any of her front teeth isn't funny enough, she talks funny now too. As we were getting ready for conference this morning, I could hear her singing songs over and over again. It was because she liked how she sounded with her new dental work.

She made sure to hang on to these ones so she wouldn't have to leave the Tooth Fairy a note as why she was requesting money but had no tooth to show for it.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Suns season is starting...

Most people that know me know that I am an avid Suns Fan. This year the excitement is building because the team has added some very good pieces and they will be good. Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shaquille O'Neal are no doubt the stars. Add Matt Barnes, Grant Hill, Boris Diaw, "Ryan's sister" Lopez, Leandro Barbosa, Goran Dragic, Raja Bell, and a couple of other young players and you have yourself a pretty decent team.








This blog post is meant to start to get you excited for the new season. Which logo do you like the best? Do you like the new? Are you old school?




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