10 on Wednesday the "What has Kristin been up to edition"

1. I miss 10 on Tuesday, don't you?? I wish I could say I have been so busy I don't have time to blog. I'm just in a bit of a funk. I think I have a bad case of the Januaries!!

2. You know that post I did about Justin & Mary's shoot out?? Well I won a spot!! YIPEE!! I am so excited! I get to shoot with the very best! I can't wait!

3. Grandma Zobrist had a birthday and my amazing cousin LaRae suggested the granddaughters that live in town should take her to lunch, there are only 5 out of 18 here locally but we got it together and took her to Tony Romas! It was really fun to spend some time with the girls!!

4. Back in November I hooked up with a photographer friend to be peer mentors/life coaches to each other. I don't know how much I am helping her be she has been an amazing help to me. She has helped me get my act together and accomplish some goals that i have been wanting to do for a long time! Every 2 weeks we chat online and set goals and talk about how we did on previous goals! It's been great!

5. So I am trying really hard to stay on track with my photo a day for 2011, it has been really hard, there has been a lot of cheating, but I am making a fresh start today! I am going to shoot EVERY DAY!!!

6. I finally got new pictures up on my picture wall, they photos were only like 2 and a half years old!! I think they look pretty great, and a big thank you to Heather for taking them!!

I wish I had gotten a little bit smaller of frames and did 9 pics so I could have more on the wall. terry thinks its not feng shuey (is that how it's spelled?) I like it the way it is!

7. I have been spending a lot of time working on my new website. I forgot how much work it is. Especially having to dig out hard drives.

8. I have also gotten myself in gear and am working with my mentor/life coach to loose some weight, she is heading to Hawaii and wanting to loose a few so we threw our hats in together and are being each others support system, making menus and counting calories! It is so much easier when you have someone to do it with!!

9. Jillian Michaels is kicking my butt!!

10. I just read though this whole post and it is really boring. I'm sorry, i want to give you all something super compelling to read but like I said, I'm in a funk!! Any ideas how to get me out of it??

Shoot Out with Justin & Mary

Last Year was my first year at WPPI. I had one class that I can say was the the single most influential class in my WHOLE WPPI experience. I was a little wary as to what I could gain listening to a couple of wedding photographers but I came away from this class completely ready to take on the WORLD!! I loved hear so many ideas on setting myself apart and marketing ME!! I believe that because of the things I learned from this class I had a very successful year. Now that I am embarking on the adventure of doing weddings (kinda :)) I though, when announced on Justin & Mary's Blog, that they would be doing a

I though what an amazing Opportunity!! To learn first hand from my favorite couple in the industry would be a chance of a lifetime!! I am headed to WPPI again this year and Justin & Mary were the class I was SCOURING the program to make sure I could see them again!! I saw right away that their class is going to FABULOUS!

In this tough economy and with work not being as great for the hubbs, I need all the help I can get. If you are heading to WPPI this year meet me Thursday morning there...

It is going to be the perfect ending to an awesome experince!!

A World of Contradiction

I love when my house is clean.

I hate that in never last more than an hour.

I love chocolate.

I hate that it makes me fat.

I love the wealth of information on the internet.

I hate that it sucks all my time away when I get lost reading on the web.

I love that Bonnie calls me Mother

I hate that she is growing up so fast.

(3 is my favorite)

I love snickerdoodles.

I hate that they make me fat.

(I just ate 3)

I love that my kids play instruments.

I hate the contention caused when trying to get them to practice.

I love being a mom.

I hate that I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be!

I love french fries.

I hate that they make me fat

I love summer.

I hate that it is so far away.

I love traveling.

I hate that we never get to anymore.

I love watching chick flicks.

I hate that the lead female is always so freakin skinny I finish the movie feeling really bad about myself.

I love that Brett is composing music.

I hate that he only has 8 measures and he keep playing them OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!

I love sewing.

I hate that my desk is so covered in crap I can't sew without spending a hour cleaning first.

I love that I have this record of my family.

I hate that I feel guilty when I don't blog ever single thing that happens.

I love that I have some many wonderful things to be thankful for.

I hate that there are so many contradictions in my life!

I guess it's good to have balance, you know the whole we need to know pain so we can know joy and all that jazz!!

Favorite project:365 photos

I decided to narrow it down to one favorite a month.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

project:365 December Recap

So I took some time off this month and only ended up with a little over half the month but I'm totally OK with it. It gave me a bit of a break to gear up for...

wait for it...

That is right, I am absolutely crazy enough to throw my hat in for another year of one picture a day. I was really excited to be done with this whole thing but then I read this post by my favorite photographer of all time and I knew i had to go for it. Because things are changing so fast around here, babies are dancing with pretend princes and having pretend kisses, little boys can't drive by a propane tank without thinking of how many ways he could blow it up if he only had a hand grenade, because girls are turning into teenagers with talk of mascara and kissing boys (don't tell her father about that one) and young men are starting to stink in ways that mommas boys should never stink! I want to remember the passing of time with all of the laughter and tears and what a better way than to do that through my favorite medium...the LENS. But I digress (I do that a lot around here don't I??) On with the December Recap

Christmas Magic

Christmas Eve was spent with the Zobrist clan. Staci & Tony's crew was stuck home with the croup so it ended up just being just us, Brandon and his fam, Grandma Z and Mom and Dad. It was a really quiet night with such a small group but fun none the less.

We came home early so we could make sure we were snug in our beds before the man in the big red suit made his debut, which was apparently before 1:30 in the morning. I know this because that was when I was ripped out of my very peaceful slumber with sugar plums dancing in my head (or maybe sugar cookies) to find a crying Bonnie and 3 kids trying to wake her up. After some very stern words about NEVER EVER EVER waking up the Bon at 1:30 in the morning they went back to bed and stayed there until 6:30, a much more acceptable hour for waking up the girl!! When she did wake up happily she came down stairs to see a princess overload!! I am now crowned the official worst mother of the year because I seriously ended up with 1 picture of each Terry, Sam and Brett and all of the rest were of Bonnie and Colby, which wasn't much. Remind me next year to take more pictures of my kids opening presents!!

After some delicious crepes enjoyed on our super fun Christmas plates we cleaned up and headed out to Logandale. Please don't judge, my photo skillz were left with my dancing sugar cookies because dang, I was having an off night!

ANYWAY...

Grandma Becky gave all the kids pillows and blankets which prompted some fun times, fake sleeping, pillow fights and who will ever forget the blanket hats donned by Becca and Amy? NOT ME!! Good times at the Conks!

All in all it was an amazing Christmas followed by a fun trip to Oregon, stay tuned for a blog post with all the super fun shake weight details!!

December Happenings

In all the business of the holiday season I realized that I may have not fully captured the events and goings on of the month. Between lessons, homework, shopping, recitals, photo editing, print orders, and such I didn't really take as many pictures as I would have liked but I did get a few shots from Sam's Deseret Strings performance at the Springs Preserve as well as some video of the boys piano recitals.

The Deseret Strings had a fabulous group this year as always and Samantha was one of the older kids in the group. It is weird to see her so grown up but we are so proud of her and even though she NEVER practiced she pulled out flawless performances as always...if only we could all have that gift!!

I haven't done video in a while so bear with me if it doesn't work!!

This is Colby playing Up on the Rooftop

Brett played is very own decomposed version of What Child Is This. Don't worry only his piano teacher and I knew, it was too late to fix and so we just went with it!