More Cousin's Camp

I edited all those cousin camp pictures and then found another memory card with a whole bunch more pictures. I can't wait for next year, the wheels are turning!!

Cousin's Camp

We had a fabuloulamous cousin's camp this year! The kids worked hard on the service project and I was so proud that they were excited about giving service and working to help others less fortunate. We did about 350 hygiene kits and about 160 school kits. It was a beautiful, warm day and lots of playing and bonding went on outside as well as the fun inside the house. There were amazing gingerbread houses and trains decorated with great talent and gusto! Such clever kids! Pizza for lunch and then a Dollar Store gift exchange...which, ironically, seems to be more fun-filled than just exchanging bought gifts! We ended up with Hex-bug madness! We didn't explain them to the kids who weren't Hex-bug savvy.....we just said to figure them out...then it got really fun....AGAIN! Now, what can we come up with for next year???? Grandie

Gift

I teach the CTR6 class (for one more week anyway) and for Christmas I wanted to get them something that will help them as they move into senior primary and prepare for baptism. These CTR rings are just little symbols to remind them to Choose the Right and follow the teachings of Christ. We have really focused on choosing the right by following Jesus Christ this year in our lessons. My sweet little primary class has been so fun even with as rowdy and wild as that bunch of boys and 1 girl could be, I will miss them as I go into the new year and a new group of kids. I will be teaching the 5 year olds next year, which is a little bit of a daunting task, I am used to kids who can read and have a little better understanding of the scripture stories but I am sure that I will love them as much as every other age of primary kids I have taught!

Thanksgiving '10

Thanksgiving this year will go down it history as the year of the most delicious turkey EVER!! We have been frying turkeys for the past few years but this year Brandon was in charge and he used some cajun injection on the fried turkey and it was so absolutely delicious I have been dreaming about it since that wonderful day. It was the coldest Thanksgiving in Las Vegas (well, Logandale...same diff right?) that I can ever remember. We froze unless we stayed in the house. it was cold and windy! We played quite a few games of the Monopoly card game, we had a blast!! Family is the best! If they aren't pictured they either hide from the camera or were too spaztastic to hold still for a picture!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2 Questions...
1. Is Christmas really 2 weeks away?
2. Can I blog about Christmas when I haven't blogged Thanksgiving yet?

Forget it, I'm breakin' all the rules because my house is all decked out and I had so much fun taking pictures of all my fun stuff! I'll get to blogging Thanksgiving, I promise!! I hate that this season just seems to fly by, it really is the best time of the year but it doesn't last long enough. Last week I was surprised by my sweet brother and sister in law with a tree. Knowing that my artificial tree had seen it's last days and that things are a bit tight around here, they decided to bring us a tree to force us into the Christmas spirit. I am so thankful they did, not only did they get our tree they brought in all my bins of holiday decorations. We got the tree set up that night and then the next day I got the rest of the decor set up. I started with my North Pole Village, I just wish I could shrink down and walk around in there!!

A few years, well maybe more like 8, a friend of mine told me about a tradition she has of collecting different Christmas plates each year and they eat on them all season, no two are alike and it is fun each night at dinner to pick out which plate you will eat on. It is definitely one of my favorites traditions, along with picking out one or two to add to the collection!


Everybody loves mistletoe right? Catch your honey there and just see how much fun it can be!

I made these stockings a few years back and still love them to death!! It never ceases to excite me when I pull them out of the bins! This darling bell rings when ever we get a visitor and makes me smile every time! The advent calendar has been a Conk tradition since Terry was a little boy. The kids get to take turns opening a small gift! The trick is finding prizes small enough to fit in the pockets! I never have trouble waking kids up when it is their day to have the advent!


My tree and banisters make the whole house look amazing. The whole house glows and you can see my tree from the street in my front room windows. I always wanted front room windows so you could see a lit tree in the window!!

I have had the rest of these decorations for years but I want to document them because when my kids are grown they will look back at thesse pictures and say remember the wooden nativity that we played with and the trees that always sat on the piano! I have memories of decorations from when I was a kid and wish I had photos of them to cement the memories.



When all was said and done I kicked up my polka dot santa sock clad tootsies and sipped some home made hot chocolate. I plan to do a whole other post on that recipe but I better blog Thanksgiving first!

Parenting by Kristin

Guilt is such a powerful tool as a parent. 10 minutes ago I lost it and I mean COMPLETELY LOST IT. I actually resigned as a mother with my parting words before I shut my bedroom door being "And when you all grow up to be complete losers it won't be my fault." Now I feel it necessary to give a little background here, It is currently 5:45 on Thursday afternoon. My children have been home from school for more than 3 hours, more than enough time to complete the simple tasks of homework and instrument practice, YOU'D THINK!!! But not my children NOOOOO! Examples of how effectively they killed time this afternoon to follow in bullet points because they look so official and I like them, who cares if this is not the appropriate time for them.

• Brett stayed after school and did get his homework done so that is one positive but when it came to piano practicing he sat a the piano, played though his recital piece for like 3 minutes and then proceeded to sound out the theme to "The Office" now while that is awesome that he has the talent and ability to play by ear so easily it gets us no closer to polishing a song that needs to be performance ready in 16 days.

•Samantha rather than do her homework during the week a little each day decided to leave it all to Thursday night to complete, and rather than actually work on her homework she has squandered the entire afternoon on eating me out of house and home, leaving bits and pieces of her clothing strewn about the house and sitting at her desk "pretending" that she was doing her homework. Now here we are tears, a few slammed doors, LOTS of yelling (by her I may add not me) and coming quite close to blood and she is still not working on it.

• Colby sat in his room at his table with his homework out and actually built some pretty impressive lego creations, oh and managed to smash pizza into my carpet in between building projects.

So that brings you up to speed as to my reason for resigning as a mother, I am so tired of nagging my kids to do the things they must EVERYDAY, seriously you'd think Brett would not be surprised when I ask him to brush he teeth...HE'S 12 years old for heavens sake, this is not a NEW thing!! After having all I could take I told my children I quit...they could never brush their teeth again, never to their homework, eat whatever and where ever they wanted and that when they grow up to be complete losers it won't be my fault. Now 10 minutes later, Piano is being practiced, homework is being worked on and rooms are being cleaned with out asking. I love guilt, well except when it comes after telling my kids that they will grow up to be losers without me!

On a side note Yesterday was the first day a Christmas and somebody brought to us a Partridge in a pear tree! How cute is this and it totally brightened our day! Now I just need to get my Christmas decorations up so he doesn't look so out of place in this bahumbug looking house!

Has it really???

I just pulled up my blog and it must be lying, it said I haven't blogged in 10 days...TEN DAYS! How is that possible? I think it must be the complete lack time that is causing it. I feel guilty blogging when I have so much to do (like the 2 weeks worth of laundry pied up) but it is important for me to blog for so many reasons. In my last post I talked about how blessed I am because my photography business was doing well, that busy-ness however, is a double edged sword. I need to work but I need to be there for my family. how do I find the balance? I am just hoping that this busy season will end and things will get better when the holidays are over. But again that double edged sword rears it's ugly head and I am missing this wonderful time of year. I told myself in a effort to enjoy my holiday season I wasn't going to take any sessions passed the Thanksgiving weekend, what ended up happening was that I packed the entire weekend with photo sessions and the whole time instead of enjoying the time with the family I was stressing about photo shoots! (I do that by the way, I get that yucky pit in the stomach, self doubt and stress every photo session, but that is a completely different blog post.) So back to balance...seriously i don't know why I have blog readers because i am so all over the place and completely random in my writing. UGGG...BALANCE>> I need to find it, where do I get it? I read blogs all the time that talk about finding the balance between mommyhood and the business world but nobody ever gives me any answers. I think the key to balance is organization. Something which I have none of. So if you, out there in blogland, have any help that could keep me sane and my family happy help a girl out!!! And because I know you all care, here is a shot from the hardest family session EVER!! Probably because I was in front of the camera and behind it simultaneously, as well as it being like 30 degrees and FREEZING wind!!

Being behind...

Some days it seems as though I will never catch up. Scratch that...every day it seems as though I will never catch up. Every time I cross something off my new handy dandy "To Do" app on my phone, I add 2 more....

Two steps forward..3 three steps back, we come together cuz opposites attract.

Sorry, I totally just went Paula Abdul on you. Please forgive me. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post. OK now what was I saying, o yeah, I'm behind, AGAIN. Why does it have to be this way? So I had such grand intentions for this month, a blog post every day and that would motivate me to keep with my photo a day lul that I am in. Not to mention that I think my camera is tired of being used and abused. I have come up with a thankful post every day but not having the motivation to snap a shot to go with it has gone out the window with all my grand intentions. I am going to still share my thankful's for this week, just all in this post and with few pics...so here we gooooooo.

11.16.10 Tuesday

Today I am thankful for Netfilx. While sitting at my computer for 8 hours editing I was able to have constant streaming of videos to keep me going.

11.17.10 Wednesday

Today I am thankful for Technology. It has kept me some what sane in these past few weeks.

11.18.10 Thursday

Today I am thankful for the fact that my photography business has been doing well. I was able to go to costco and buy groceries with out stressing about how to pay for them!!

11.19.10 Friday

Today I thankful for my knowledge if hair cutting. Bonnie chopped the sides of her hair. This is the 3rd hair cut she has given herself. This one is by far the shortest. I was able to work with it and it did turn out cute. She is pretty bummed that there will be no more ponies and princess hair. Now to grow it out, uggg!

11.15 & 16.10

Sunday-

Today I am thankful for it being cold enough to wear my sassy boots to church. I always freeze in church but it's too hot outside to wear them. Well there is one positive thing about colder temps and that's that I get to wear my sassy boots!! I should have taken a picture because I was seriously sassy in my boots today!

Monday-

Today I am thankful for amazing music teachers, They are such a blessing in my life and are instilling such a great love and appreciation for music that I could never do. Than you Miss Jenny and David!!

11.14.10

Today I am thankful for my 365 Project! I just went back through and printed some pictures for my mother-in-law for her scrapbooks and it was so fun to see my year in pictures. I love that I have documented this whole year, something I don't think I have ever successfully accomplished, at least for the last 6 years since I quite scrapbooking. It is so fun to have just one shot that defined each day (minus about 25 or 30 days that I have missed) I never blogged my pictures for October so here they are, and for those of you out there who think this is too small here is a link to my Flickr Photostream!

11.13.10

I am combining my thankful posts for yesterday and today. All in one picture, I got a new phone yesterday and took a picture of what my thankful thing today is...So I am thankful for my new phone and fuzzy socks because my feet are freezing! The camera on this little baby takes pretty good pictures but my favorite thing about it is the fact that I can use it to accept credit cards!! It's not an iPhone but it's the next best thing!!

11.11.10

Today I am thankful for those who fight so we can have the freedoms we enjoy.

11.10.10

Today I'm thankful for this kid...

How many 12 year olds do you know that would see that mom was having a hard busy day and just clean and vacuum the entire up stairs? SERIOUSLY! He is so sweet and loving. How did I get to be such a lucky mom? I think I getting the payback for the 15 lbs I lost puking while I was pregnant with him. I'm still waiting for the payback from when I was pregnant with Samantha. I might have to wait until she gives me a few grandbabies for that one!

Today...

I am thankful for this little spitfire. She keeps me on my toes and reminds me everyday why I became a mom. She is so fun and loving. I have never know a more polite 3 year old. She has always been quite self entertaining but lately she has been wanting me to play with her and I am so thankful for that because I want to engrain the mental picture of her and I playing dolls at her doll house and the way she talks with them like they are real. I want to keep her three forever.

I know I went a little overboard with the texture and what not on this photo but it's fun for a change.

Catching Up

I have been crazy busy this weekend and had big plans for my thankful posts for Saturday and Sunday but hence, as most things in my life, it didn't go as planned. Then today was taken up by sitting in front of the computer screen editing my little fingers off. (2 weddings to be precise!)

I did have a great weekend filled with photoshoots on Saturday that were super fun and church on Sunday. Which leads me to what I am thankful for...

11.06.10 - Saturday

Today I am thankful for the one and only Heather Abbott. I have had the pleasure of working quite closely with Heather over the past few weeks in doing these Holiday and Halloween Mini Sessions. I can honestly say she is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is so genuine and sweet. I am so lucky to have worked with her and my Bonnie is lucky to have her as a preschool teacher.

[Insert photo of Heather Here]

11.07.10 - Sunday

I woke this morning to sunlight, yes sunlight, but I didn't have to get out of bed, it was a beautiful thing. To wake up at a decent hour and not have to get out of bed. I love when the time changes to "fall back" strangely I love it when we spring forward too, weird huh, I guess it's the same way I can be so excited for short sleeves and sweaters all at the appropriate season. So daylight savings made for a wonderful morning but and I am thankful for that however, I am more thankful for the lesson I had to plan for my primary class. My lesson was on The Sacrament, more specifically remember Christ while we take the Sacrament. It was a great reminder of how important is it to think about Christ while we partake and why we partake of the sacrament. It was a bit hard for my little class to think about sitting still and thinking about Jesus during that time but I tried to give them some help in that but suggesting things they could think about and things not to do, like talk to sibling and bug parents. All to often I find myself dealing with kids instead of thinking about the Savior. I challenged my class to try to do that but I also am taking the challenge myself. I hope I can be a good example to my class and more importantly to my children.

11.08.10 - Monday

Today I am thankful for the discovery of Adobe Lightroom. I edited 2 entire weddings today, TWO, that's almost 700 images, in a matter of about 5 hours. Life is good! I really wish I could show some images here but unfortunately I can't, maybe when I start doing my own weddings you will get to see them!

**Totally Unrelated Photo But AWESOME none the less, am I right??**

11.05.10 Today I am thankful for...

Stretch Jeans.

See yesterdays post for why!

Today...

I am thankful for hot fudge and chocolate sprinkles. Tomorrow I won't be. The end.

11.03.10 Today I'm Thankful for...

77° at the park, on a day with no school, IN NOVEMBER.

I got a text from a gal at church that she was taking her kids to Floyd Lamb State Park for the last day of the 5 day weekend and asked if we wanted to join them. I am so thankful that we did. My to do list was (and still is I might add) a million miles long but I said what the heck...We are going to the park. It was absolutely gorgeous. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect temperature. I had a hard time leaving. Just to sit a visit with other moms and let my kids run wild was awesome. Everybody brought snacks (except me of corse...duh!) We enjoyed carmel/white chocolate/brown sugar apples, delicious homemade bread and a very tasty pomegranate. Every day should be 77° perfect!

I know I still need to blog the rest of Bonnie's Party, I'll get to it I promise!

Month of Thankfulness

I decided to do a month of thankfulness starting yesterday...then I got distracted, so I'm going to do 2 today to catch up and hopefully, even though I am busier than I have ever been, I can keep it up all month long!!

November 1st, 2010

I am so thankful that I am married to the man of my dreams and that he loves me in spite of all my many many MANY short comings. He is such a wonderful husband and father to our kids. He makes me want to be better every day. His outlook on life and raising children is inspiring! If I could put into practice the things he tells me my kids would be so much happier! He is a hard worker and dedicated. He is the most loyal person I know and rarely says an unkind word about anyone! He's not to bad to look at either, if I do say so myself!

November 2nd, 2010

I am thankful that for the freedoms we enjoy even though we may not get to enjoy them much longer with the way this country is going. I am grateful for the inspired men who founded this country and men and women who have committed themselves to serving this country at all costs. I an thankful that we do have the ability to vote and put in office the leaders who try to make our country a better place to live (even if they don't get elected, crossing fingers for today!!)

The Princesses

Since Bonnie went to a friends birthday party who had Cinderella there, MONTHS ago, she has been telling everyone when she has a party she is going to have Cinderella at her party. Fortunately for me I happen to have a niece who's a dead ringer for the princess herself. When I asked Kirsta if she would be able to come and play the part my other sweet niece Austyn jumped up and said she wanted to come be a princess too. So We had both sleeping Beauty AND Cinderella at the party. They were so sweet with the other little princesses, The took a picture with each and every princess at the party, and even some of the adults too. A big thanks to my favorite nieces! Love you girls!

Last party post tomorrow, just a few of the details that I haven't posted yet!

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar

In an effort to sugar up 17 little girls I created the cutest (if I do say so myself) dessert table ever!! Pom poms courtesy of Jamie. I created the banner and cupcake toppers in photoshop. The pixie stick scepters are topped with glitter paper and ribbons. And the part I, and my children to a much greater extent, are still enjoying are the Strawberry Malt Whoppers...YUM, and pink to boot!!

I made the mistake of making about 3 times too much of this yummy stuff, but thankfully my behind was saved by those who took my extras home!!

I didn't get to taste the yummy treats but am assured that they were delicious!

The cupcakes were my favorite part of the dessert table but the girls just seemed to like the frosting. I think I threw away 10 cupcakes licked clean of frosting!!

Now that I have hopped you up on virtual sugar you should be rejuvinated to go about the rest of your day!!

Tune in Tomorrow when I feature the Prince-i. As Terry calls them, because the plural of princess is not princesses!

Guess Who's 3

We celebrated Bonnie's 3rd birthday on Monday with the biggest and bestest Princess Birthday Bash EVER!! A big part in my absence around here over the past couple weeks was the planning and executing of this party! If you have ever been to a party thrown by yours truly then you know that I have a tendency to go overboard. It can get a bit ridiculous. I LOVE throwing parties and would have one ever other month if we could afford it. Bonnie's party was no different. After attending a princess party for a friend from church Bonnie exclaimed that she would be having a Princess Party too. And a Princess Party was had in the grandest of ways I know. In an effort to make it look like my blog is fresh with recent postings I will break up the party in to sections. The fact that Candace came to be the photographer and blew through an 8gig memory card may have given me some work to do on editing but I'll get through it! First up...the invites that were hand delivered by Bonnie herself and a little help from Colby!

Stop in tomorrow when I'll show you the details of the dessert table and table settings!

Crazy Busy=No Blogging

So much to do, not enough time to do it. I want to blog...I NEED to blog but life has gotten in the way. Don't abandon me yet! I will be back next week...hopefully!

If you post it they will come!

I have found that statement to be very true. My stats drop like Obama's poll numbers when I am not posting regularly. It has been such a busy few weeks around here. Here's what I've been up to this week...in bullet points, because I think bullets point look real official and make it seem like thinks are more important than they really are.

• Photographed my 6th (and WEIRDEST) wedding in 6 weeks.


• Designed, ordered, received and hand delivered invites for Bonnie's Party.


• Planned and shopped for party supplies...the food table is gonna ROCK!!


• Planned a primary lesson.


• Made cupcakes for primary class


• Scrubbed down entire house only to have it become a complete disaster an hour later.

Here are a few things that I had planned this week that just didn't get done...again in bullet points because I love them.

• Washed, folded and put away all the laundry.


• Blogged my Thankful Thursday and 10 on Tuesday.


• Practiced piano with Colby.


• Sent out e-mails with the details for our mini-sessions.


• Made bread.


• Cooked dinner.

• Booked the last of our mini sessions. (grab up the last spots for your chance and half off)

In other news, the Colbster lost his first tooth, he's pretty cute with that hole in his mouth!

Mini Sessions

We have a few spots available left for our mini sessions and we want them filled so we are having a drawing... Book by the 18th and enter to win HALF OFF YOUR MINI SESSION. Refer a friend and get a FREE 16x20 and an EXTRA entry for half off your session.

Celebrating Aunt Annie

As I mentioned in my last T on T post my Aunt Annie passed away last week. I had the opportunity to drove down to Southern California with my parents and sister to go to her funeral. It was so wonderful. The flowers were amazing.

Annie was an amazing quilter. The family had collected quilt that she had made throughout the years and had them on display. I wish I had gotten a picture of it my my cousin's 12 year old son was over lovin on one of the quilts hanging up, it was so sweet.

It was good to see lots of family, I took more of a voyeuristic approach to getting the shots because no one wanted to have their picture taken!

Annie had requested that she wanted Balloons and Peanut M&M's (because they have protein) at her funeral, I would call it more of a celebration of Life though. All 5 of Annie's children spoke during the service each of them talking about a different gospel principle that she exemplified. At the gravesite the grave was dedicated and then we did a balloon release, it was beautiful The sun was at the perfect spot to just light up the balloons as the went up.

It was great to see everyone and celebrate the life of an exceptional woman.

10 on Tuesday

1. My Aunt Annie passed away this morning. She was an amazing woman and I am so sad that I didn't get to spend more time with her. She entered the hospital a few weeks ago on Sept. 8th and was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumor. I am so bad at expressing my feelings when they are grief or sorrow but I just want to express how much she was loved and will be missed. My heart and prayers go out to the Forston's and hope you may all do the same for my family in this difficult time.

2. Chocolate is my best friend and my worst enemy all at the same time. It's like the abusive boyfriend you just can't leave because you love him! (sorry if that was offensive to anyone!!)

3. There was a time in my life when I loved a completely quiet peaceful home. I find lately though, I need to have that constant chatter of radio or audio book. I think I don't like to be alone with myself because I'm not happy with the person I am right now (wow, that's awfully deep for a 10 on Tuesday post) I need to start enjoying the silence again! I need to find peace, maybe my boyfriends Dove & Gheridelli can help me with that, probably not though! (Honestly I think they are making things worse!!)

4. So many of you may know that I have been shooting weddings like CRAZY. I have been working with Candace Simpson of Elegant Images. She is amazing and I am learning so much. Because of insurance reasons I can't post my images here on the blog but if you are interested I have them posted in a secure place and I will give you my password, just leave me a comment and I'll e-mail ya!!

5. So since you just read about the weddings I have been shooting I have found that it's time to make some changes in my gear bag if I am going to continue doing these weddings. I would love to keep this lens but it just doesn't meet my needs for weddings, it is a great everyday lens but I am finding I am needing more specialty lenses and since the bank account is looking pretty grim these days I am going to sell my 24-105mm f4.0 lens. This lens new retails for $1100, I am only asking $850 for it. It has been a really good lens for me and It will be sorely missed. It just came back from canon with a complete tune up and cleaning. These is some normal wear and tear on the lens hood, I keep it on my lens at all times, If I'm not using it as a hood, it is on backwards as protection!! If you are interested e-mail me kristinconkphotography@cox.net

6. I just did a photo shoot with that lens. One of my former Young Women's leaders called me and asked me if I would come take pictures of her young women. It was one of the FUNNEST shoots I have ever done! I will post some of the pics when I get them edited...what made it so fun? Well, lets just say there were some GIANT balloons involved!!

7. Those balloons are now residing downstairs tied to my banister. My kids are going to FREAK in the morning. I'm thinking I may need to do a birthday shoot with the Bonnie and said balloons.

8. I am now accepting credit cards with the help of this little dongle thinger that plugs into my iPad. Just one little swipe and boom! Loving it!

9. I need to find a good pair of jeans that won't make me flash people when I sit on the floor to take pictures. I have much to much junk in the trunk for low rise jeans but mom jeans are just UGLY. Got any suggestions?

10. I need a bowl of cereal so I'm gonna call it a night! Loves!

September project:365 Recap

It's been a crappy day. The End.

1 on Tuesday because I'm to tired for 10

1. It's 10:43 on Tuesday night. I just hit a wall but I feel like I have had a really productive day, I don't feel like I've had one of those in a while. I made bread, headbands for an upcoming newborn session, reupholstered my barstools, all 3 kids practiced their instruments, and got homework completed, I cooked dinner, finished a baby present, started a new crocheted baby dress, burned disks with wedding images, and got them ready to mail, and updated my project365 on flickr. Run on sentence MUCH??? So as I feel accomplished (though when I read over my list, it's not all that impressive!!) I can lay my head down now and rest easy knowing I had a good day!

My Newly Reupholstered Bar Stools

(until tomorrow and I have to start all over again!)

Thankful Thursday (On Monday)

Totally forgot about my Thankful Thursday post las week. Somedays I think how can I remember the color of my 8th grade science binder (forrest green btw) but I can't remember the important things. When I was having lunch with a friend the other day she mentioned how I "remember everything" which is really retarded because I do remember the totally non important things in life, but can't seem to recall the time of violin lessons which I take my daughter to EVERY TUESDAY!! You would think that the repetition of the act would engrain the appointed time in my mind but no, that seems to make things worse!!

ANYWAY...back to Thankful Thursday (on Monday).

Today I am thankful for Fast Sunday. For those of you who have no Idea what I am talking about In the LDS Church one Sunday a month we Fast for 2 meals (or 24 hours) as a sacrifice for those in need. A wise woman once told me that if you don't fast with a purpose you're just goin hungry. I had until that point never thought of it like that, while I always fasted out of obedience I had never thought to fast for something unless there was a very evident need like a sick family member or family need. Well I have made it a very important part of my fasting to fast with purpose. I always see blessings personally and generally when I do. I have tried to teach this principle to my children and when we fast for something as a family the kids are much more likely to do it with out complaint. Yesterday one of my children, who shall remain nameless woke up ornery and decided right away the she was not going to fast, we encouraged her to do so but nope, she said "I'm too hungry" and then proceeded to eat everything in the pantry with fervor! It wasn't until I closed my own fast in contemplation of the things I was fasting for that I realized that she needed my help to fast by helping her decided what to fast for. Next month I hope to have very different experience in fasting as we do it as a family. Though I fasted and so did the other 2 that are old enough to fast in the house did, we didn't have the spirit in our home as much as we could have had we set out fasting each with a purpose. I believe that through my fasting I have been blessed with the sight to see what was needed to help my children gain a testimony of fasting.

(wow how many times can I say fasting in one post!!)

And because a post without a picture is boring here is 2 of the 5 TOTAL decent shots I got of Miss Jessa when we tried to take pictures the other day! To say uncooperative would be an understatement!

Halloween Mini Session Trial Run!!

So in an effort to show those of you who have asked what to expect when you bring you child for their Halloween Mini Sessions I did a quick run with the Bonnie this morning. She was somewhat cooperative only because she got to wear her precious tutu!

When you bring in your little one you will have a 10 minute shoot where we will capture the personality of your child as well as the details of their costumes. We will choose the best image to print in your choice of an 8x10 or 2 5x7's. All of the images will be edited and put on a disk. Call now to reserve your spot!

Kristin-353-0526

or email halloweenminisessions@gmail.com

10 on Tuesday (posted on Wednesday because I forgot to hit "publish")

1. For all ya'll who have been bugging me about mini sessions they are here! I am collaborating with a super fab photographer friend Heather to do them this year, should be super fun! I also had the super fun idea to do Halloween sessions this year, inspired by not one picture of Bonnie in her garden gnome costume last year. I can't wait for these because there is nothing better than kids in costumes!

2. Speaking of costumes this year Bonnie will be a ballerina. When Sam was 3 my Mom made her a pink tutu that is cuter than any tutu I have ever seen that you can buy. I have passed it around to friends and family each Halloween but this year we got it back and Bonnie is in love. I had to hide it because she won't leave it alone. She is awfully cute in it too, if I do say so myself. Samantha has decided to wear my 80's chick costume from last year, she's not so sure about the big hair thing but she'll come around once I show her the beauty of AquaNet!

3. I have a totally clean house right now thanks to my sweet sister who hired my Maggie to come clean for me for my birthday present. I think that is one of the best presents I have ever received! Clean sheets are in my top 10 of favorites! Now to just catch up on my laundry!

4. **Update on the swallowed washer** Bonnie informed me she flushed it. I'm going to have to trust her on this because I got tired of watching for it! It's a dirty job and I was just not up for it anymore!!

5. Just finished "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas, again. I think this makes my top 10 books of all times! It's a hefty read but on audio you can get so much done while listening!

6. Speaking of top 10 books, Harry Potter (I'm counting the whole series as 1) makes that list and I am so stinkin excited for the first part of Deathly Hallows. I really want to go to the midnight showing but Terry is not wanting to go with me, who's in?

8. I bought a hat.

9. I currently have 6 loads of laundry to fold. Why does it always seem I have 6 loads of laundry to fold?

10. We watched Avatar for the first time for our "Friday Night Movie Night" with the kids. I bought the thing right when it came out on DVD and the kids have seen it but we never got around to it. The visuals were cool but I don't know that I'm a fan! Hate me if you want!