10 on Tuesday

1. We have successfully completed the first 2 days of school. I think I just might get used to this one kid thing! Bonnie doesn't quite know what to do with herself. She wants me to sit and watch princess movies with her all day. She'll adjust!

2. Speaking of Bonnie, her princess dress-up obsession has branched out in to super hero costumes. Colby busted out the Halloween costume bin and she had been shooting spider webs all over the house!!

3. Seinfield is funny.

4. I have had a migraine since 3:00 this afternoon. I would never wish a migraine on anyone, especially a mom who has homework to do with kids. Or worse yet, violin practice!

5. I am seriously considering getting Bento boxes for lunched for my kids. I spent like 2 hours reading THIS blog with ideas on how to do this for your kids. It would be nice to have a bit more variety in their lunches with some healthier choices. and not go through 5 ZILLIOn plastic baggies.

6. I am seriously behind on my 365 project. I have done so well up until the last 2 weeks. I am debating to cheat for the last 2 weeks or just start anew.

7. November 19th is when the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is in theaters. I am so excited for this!! I get excited every time I think about it! I would love to go to the midnight showing. Who's with me?

8. According to Colby refried beans makes our house "musical."

9. I hope Michael Westin doesn't bleed out before Burn Notice starts the next season!!

10. This is a really boring 10 on tuesday. sorry. blame it on the migraine.

First Day and all that Jazz

So obviously, like the rest of the city, my kids headed back to school today. I couldn't be more delighted. We have excellent teachers again this year at the elementary school and a new principal at the middle school who is going to whip things into shape. Brett headed to 7th grade!! SERIOUSLY, how can I have a kid in 7th gade, man I feel old! Samantha is of to "rule the school" as she put it, in the 5th grade, and Colby rounds out the bunch as the low man on the totem pole in 1st! Bonnie will join her siblings a few days a week at preschool starting next week! When asked the best part of the day here were the responses...

Brett-"lunch". He also went on for quite some time about a hug he got from a girl that was in one of his classes last year but that was NOT the best part of the day he assured me!

Sam-"everything" she loved every minute of it!

Colby-"PE" He wouldn't expound on why but just that it was the best part!

I did manage to snap a few shots of the kids before school, but next year I am copying my photog friends who all faked the "first day" pictures and take them the day before school starts so I don't feel so rushed!

Sam and Colby were cute, but not in the mood for pics! The nerves had set in by this point so I just snapped a few before so I could make them feel not so nervous and embarrassed by the camera toting paparazzi in their faces.





Brett actually went to school for the first time with out being driven by one of his parents. He was cool with it too. He rode his bike with a bunch of buddies from the ward. I love that we have a great group of young men that can stick together. I managed for the first time in years to get him to wear a button shirt to school. When I say years I MEAN YEARS, like 5 to be exact, starting in 2nd grade he flat refused!! He sure looked handsome this morning!!


We went for our annual First Day Of School Dairy Queen Family Home Evening. It was a bit of a somber F.D.O.S.D.Q.F.H.E. Terry had worked outside shoveling all day so he wasn't in a very talkative mood, until we got some sugar in him then he was lots of fun!! At DQ we collectively decided that Bonnie is the cutest little girl that ever lived! We are sad to see her grow up so fast!
Another first day of School passed by in the blink of and eye, but we end the day with a smile because it was a great day all around!

I Totally Forgot this one!!

I uploaded pictures from my camera, imported them to photoshop, resized them, made them into a collage and uploaded them to photobucket and NEVER blogged them. I blame my ADD!

Earlier this month we headed up to St. George for the K. H. Goodrich reunion. It was held at the community park in Washington and let me tell you what, it made me want to move there. This was one of the coolest community pools there ever was. I wish I had gotten pictures of it because it was like a Wet-N-Wild on a smaller scale. They even had a lazy river. The kids just swam and swam! It was really fun to visit with my family. I get to see a lot of my girl cousins at the annual granddaughter sleepover but I never see their kids, my boy cousins or aunts and uncles. It was great to catch up.

That lovely white haired lady in the red is Grammy. She is the one responsible for this wild bunch!

**these pictures are all sooc (straight out of the camera) don't judge, I was being lazy and didn't want to put my other lenses on so the pics are all grainy and dark and i was again to lazy to fix them in ps!

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Things I want to remember about today...

1. Waking up to my 2 middle children serenading me, one playing the violin, one singing.

2. A very sweet hack job into my blog by the greatest man alive!

3. The flowers from Costco I put back yesterday because I was being "practical" that are now brightening up my kitchen.

4. Brett doing the dishes...twice

Things I don't want to remember about today

1. The hair I found growing out of my chin

Happy Birthday Kris!!!!

I hope that Kristin doesn't kill me but I'm hacking into her blog to wish her a happy birthday and tell everyone what an amazing woman she is! (but you already knew that)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!! I hope all of your dreams come true. I am head over heals in love with you! I can't imagine my life without you. You still take my breath away.

Terry

10 on Tuesday...Things I Love Edition

1. Mushrooms...I am on a total mushroom kick! A litte butter sauteed with salt, peper and the biggest honkin mushrooms you can find mmmmmmm!

2. In-N-Out Burger...ketchup and pickles only, heaven on a bun. Uh-Oh, my first two were food, time to deviate from the rear-end expander things I love.

3. A clean house. I have been fortunate enough to have some trade work I can do with my former cleaning gal and let me tell you what, A clean house when all 4 kids have been trapped in the house for 3 weeks is a MIRACLE. I mean it, the heavens parted and light shone down upon my normally crumb covered floors, the angels sang hymns of joy and peace as all became right in my universe...until Colby kicked off his shoes and rand up stars...nothing heavenly happened after that...it all wen spiraling downward in a completely different direction than heaven!

4. Guilt free eating...I get to have a day of guilt free eating tomorrow...because it's my BIRTHDAY!!! I can eat whatever I want to and the calories don't count. WHAT? The calories do count, No NO NOOO they don't, and if you try to convince me otherwise I will be forced to put my fingers in my ears and sing lalalalalalalala, I can't hear you!

5. Vintage actions on my photos. It's a fad and I am trying to use them sparingly because I don't want to look back ten years from now and say " The processing on those is soooo 2010" It's like when you look back on your photos from the '80's and wonder what was my mother thinking when she let me wear a pink full body leotard to the skating rink. (SERIOUSLY MOM-WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I WAS ONLY 10, YOU HAD VETO POWER ON MY CLOTHING CHOICES.) There will come a time when I will shutter at the dated processing on my photos just like I do when I see photos of my rockin pink full body leotard! But for now I am loving them!

6. Bonnie's obsession with being a princess. She rarely dons her normal clothing these days, luckily for me it's not a fight to get into real clothes to leave the house! She has worn her dresses to rags but she still becomes a magical princess every time she puts one of those special dresses on!

7. The color Grey...if grey can be called a color being a mixture of white, the compete absence of color and black, absorbing all light and not refracting any color. I want to paint my walls and buy new furniture with grey being the base!

8. Trying to make myself sound smarter by spouting off words like refracting.

9. Having photography friends whom I can call upon when I am having a complete breakdown about my most used and versatile lens is pooping out on me I just don't know what to do, they help see that there can be a solution to my problem and if not they are there to let me cry on their shoulders when I have to fork out $1600 that I just don't have for a new lens.

10. One of the things I love most is comments on my blog, I got like 10 just for posting my last post to I ♥faces yesterday. SO c'mon gimmie some love.

...and because a post with no pictures is BOR-ING here is a collage of some of my favorites.

I ♥ Faces

This weeks challenge over at I ♥ faces is "beach fun" I immediately thought of this fun pick from out lake recent lake trip!

Out of my hole

I have been hiding...in a hole. These last few weeks of summer are going to do me in. I don't know if I can make it until school starts! My kids did really well with schedules and chores, getting along and playing together. But as the summer has drug on the ends of our nerves are frayed like the bottom of a princess dress worn every day for 6 months. Unfortunately the first thing that has gone out the window with my patience was my blogging. That makes me sad. I love blogging. I love the little bits of love you all leave me at the bottom of each post. I love looking at my stat counter and seeing how many new visitors I had that day. But most of all I love that I have a record of what my life's happenings were. So now, when my kids are grown and they look back at the "2010 [4] conk kids blog book" they will see that I went 2 weeks in August we did NOTHING!! Then the will read this entry and hear about how the did not do NOTHING, they fought, screamed, pulled hair, kicked in private areas, screamed yelled and made their mother miserable for 2 SOLID WEEKS! Enough complaining and justifying...on with our regularly scheduled blog post.

I'm out of my hole with a new outlook today, at least I did when I laid in bed this morning with my baby girl laying asleep next to me, it may have changed a bit when the rest of the crew got out of bed and the quiet peaceful morning where I made my resolve changed to me wanting to crawl back into my hole. Dang I did it again...starting over!

I think back to when my mom was raising us as kids my children's age often and try to remember things about those times. Mainly because I want to try to think about the things my kids will remember. The daily grind I don't have much recollection of my life, it's more like snippits of things that happened that were more impacting on who I am today. Like how my mom and I used to joke when dad was gone with the boys on father and son's campouts with the boys and we would say "lets do a mother daughter overnighter where we go SHOPPING!" Like how we used to scrounge for dinner on the nights mom was to tired to cook. Like the art teacher who told me I was coloring with my blue colored pencil wrong...WRONG! How do you COLOR wrong...hellloooo it's called ART!! Or like the teacher I had for second grade and then again for 4th, Mrs. Squires. She loved me like none of my other teachers loved me. This kind of memories are the ones I remember, yes I have some recollection of the everyday, walking to school, I know I almost always had a sibling to walk with but my memories are always of me walking alone! I remember watching tv in the family room on the brown carpet and lots of sleepovers where I would fall asleep in a sleeping bag or on the couch and dad would carry me to bed. But the everyday is not what comes to mind when I remember childhood.

This is my hope for my children, I hope that they remember popsicle stands built and painted with banners flying and dry ice smoking...not the screaming and yelling for the kids to get the house cleaned if they wanted to sell popsicles. I hope they remember a standing ovation at a recital not the pleading with vigor (loudly) to "practice your instrument." I hope they remember the discussions on the way to their lessons were we talk about life and the important things not the lecturing they get because my expectations are just too high! I hope they remember the hugs and kissed not the anger and tears. So here is my resolve...I will try to love more and yell less. I will make more fun so that they won't have memories to recall of screaming because they just didn't happen. Wish me luck!

Ane because I never posted it here is the recap for my July Project:365.

Sugar and Spice

When I got the e-mail inviting me to come to a photo shoot put on by the amazing Jeanna Hayes and designed by the ever awe inspiring Suzanne Johnson I jumped and the chance to participate! These girls pulled out all the stops and made for and absolutely jaw dropping set up. There were 4 stations, 2 with models and 2 detail setups. A sweet station and a detail table set for a party. We spent time shooting 3 of the cutest 5 year olds. This is Porsha and she knows how to work it for the camera.

I didn't get much time with little Brynlee, she was kinda done by the time it was my turn to shoot her so we just chatted for a little bit!



The Sweet Station was so lovely. I was so glad I had eaten before I came because it was hard enough with a full stomach to keep my hands off the goods!



Miss Halle was so much fun to shoot and she is wicked good with a hula hoop!





The details on the sweet station were just perfect, I want to throw a party just so I can buy from these vendors and photograph them!


I thought when I throw a party I pay pretty good attention to detail but never in my wildest dreams could have come up with this bit of loveliness!


Curious about where all the little lovelies were purchased from? Check out these websites!

Zucchero Bakery (cake and cupcakes on the "detail" table)
Truly Scrumptious Cookies (cake and dress shaped sugar cookies on the "sweets station")

10 on Tuesday

1. We have had what I consider a major success with the popsicle stand. Samantha made $56 in sales and tips, she even managed to sell half of her peanut butter and Jelly sandwich. We have plans to open shop again on Saturday from 12:00-4:00pm. Stop by to enjoy the deliciousness!

2. My hair is really long right now. I haven't had it cut since November. It was breezy yesterday and a gust blew up just as I stepped into and shut the car door. A small lock of hair got caught in the door. It hurt. Guess it's time for a haircut!

3. It's August. It's usually my favorite month but this year I have mixed feelings about it!

4. My messy house just might (or may have all ready) caused a nervous break down. I did really good with schedules and chores the first part of the summer but it has since all gone out the window. I need to get back to that because it really makes me a much more pleasant person to be around.

5. I had the opportunity to attend a photoshoot put together in a class set up by the amazing Jeanna Hayes, I mentioned it before but I could have never imagined the time and talent that went into this, I am going to blog about it tomorrow but here is a little taste!

6. I really want to go se Charlie St. Cloud but it is a "chick flick" according to Terry, so I just may have to go see it myself! I saw the previews in the theatre and cried...IN THE PREVIEW! I'm not really much of a fan of cry movies but I am a fan of Zac Efron so I will gladly wipe the makeup off my face pack up my box of kleenex and spend some time blowing my nose to see this movie. Who's with me? (Don't all jump at once, I know I just made that sound SOOO appealing that you all want to go with me!)

7. I did a newborn session yesterday and this baby was the sweetest thing EVER...she gets it from her mom!!

8. I am totally addicted to words with friends. I have like 8 games going right now! Have I mentioned that I ♥ my iPad?

9. A photographer friend did a trade with their orthodontist. A year of photos/portraits for braces on her son...any orthodontist's out there want to make a trade? Both Sam and Brett are in such need of them but we just can't afford them right now!

10. I need a vacation. The end.