photog blog

Check out my Lindsay Jane blog! I will hopefull be putting more pics up tomorrow.

PS my new nephew is THE cutest thing ever!!!!! Pics, soon. I seriously could die every time I see or smell him! Olivia cracks up every time, too. She told Granny, "My mom is SO silly around babies!"

perfect recipe

First add 35 Christmas CDs on Ipod+ speaker...shuffled.  

Plus old college roommate's yummiest cookie recipe.  
Plus dancing in the kitchen until you hear the beep.  And maybe we did do the alternating head bobbing todem pole "move."  And maybe my teeth still hurt from Bentley's head smacking my teeth.    
Add in a new budding photographer to the mix!
And a Daddy getting home early!  There you have it.  The perfect recipe for a great evening.  

Happy Holidays!! So exciting!

I'm so thankful I get to go to the coast for the holidays and see my new baby nephew!  Only a few more days and we are taking our Christmas music and heading out!

busted

The silly things you do to get a genuine laugh!  Actually I needed to be up and just a smidge over to the left.  So this is where I ended up!  Cally outed me in my comments, and Lindsay on her blog.  So I figured I might as well pass on the laugh.  And the resulting image!  

Have you had enough of my tales from boot camp yet?  If not...check out Evaly's  and Nat's take on boot camp.  

and that's not all!

Here are super cute CJ and Shalise.  Another newly wed couple.  They were so fun and playful with each other.  I loved it.  Can you tell that it was freezing cold rain and wind the entire time?  They were such good sports!!

Boot Camp photo shoots

Every day at LJ Boot Camp we had a photo shoot.  I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took with you guys since my photo blog isn't up just yet.   This is super sweet Elizabeth.  She is a dancer, too.

These little guys were so cute!  The whole family was darling.  This picture of the boys was just moments before a headlock!

This is my favorite picture from the week.  It's interesting to see what people like the most.  I always like the laughing ones.  Chris and Chaska are a cute newly wed couple. 
This is the winning shot from boot camp!  It won me $100.  So that's exciting.  It's nice to win something and be recognized.  But, it doesn't mean much more than that.  There were 20 awesome photos submitted (5 from each of us) and they were all good.  MY personal favorite would have been one that Staci took of little Dax, the baby from our family shoot.  It's a darling picture.  All the girls got awesome shots.  I just happened to luck out that Shalise was picking the winner.  Because this shot is so her!

 

Music, fame, and inspiration

I have had all these random brushes with fame lately.  Really uninteresting stories (one of the past dancers from SYTYCD was on my flight from SLC to Denver--but I didn't even notice until he passed me to get off the plane because I had my nose in a book the whole time) for example.  And of course all the well known fabric designers and Jay McCarroll from Project Runway.  Who I actually did have a conversation with at Market.  I guess these people aren't famous to everyone, but they are to me.  Anyway, I have just been kind of wondering why is it exciting to see someone who you recognize solely because you have admired their professional work.  I don't know.  I guess a part of it is just that you have enjoyed their work or been inspired by it in some way, entertained by it, maybe we feel like we can relate or that we understand them.  For me, I think it's the hope that by being near them you can possibly figure out how they got so stinking awesome and steal their tricks!!  

At any rate, tonight I was totally inspired by Jason Deere!  Who is apparently famous and I'm now his biggest fan.  He is a very successful music producer and he wrote Joseph  A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet.  He said he read over 100 pioneer journals and did tons of research.  Just something he has done for his love of history and church.  I go to church with him (little did I know) and he and Dan Truman and Due West performed for a small group of people from church.  We had to bring a friend (thanks Merrida for going with me!!)  I just love how music can be so inspiring and set a mood.  I play primary songs at home if my kids are stressing me and I need to calm down!

At Lindsay Jane Bootcamp Lindsay played Christmas music the whole time.   I am so in the holiday spirit now!  I spent all afternoon downloading our Christmas CDs into my I Pod.  One of the benefits from having owned a dance studio, we have 34 Christmas CDs.  That's a lot, right?    

You know how sometimes you put forth a lot of effort to be friends with someone just because they are a really good mom or really creative, or really fun.  Do you guys do that?  I have a lot of people around me that I really look up to and have been able to learn a lot from.  That's why I'm thankful for blogs!  You learn so much from people on their blogs and you don't even have to live near them or know them!

Today I'm just feeling so inspired hearing Jason's story.  Listening to his passion and hearing how much work he gave to this project!  I loved it!  

I promise I'll post pictures from bootcamp tomorrow!!

I survived boot camp!

I just got back from Lindsay Jane Boot Camp which was SO much fun!  We were in gorgeous Utah!  Utah really is my happy place. I can't help it!  The air feels so great and the mountains and scenery are so gorgeous!  Staci was teasing me for liking sagebrush.  Staci is the blonde in the picture above.  We had a photoshoot everyday Mon-Thursday.  Lindsay taught us all her tricks.  She's making some kids laugh!It was so cold Lindsay was using her nose to control her phone!
Todd, Lindsay's husband, made us all laugh with his laser.  He always had it handy!  He does all the business stuff, and had a lot to teach us too.  They are such a sweet couple and really fun to be around.  We even watched their babies 3-D video while we were editing on the last night.  They are going to be the cutest parents! 
The photographers there were Staci, Natalie, Evaly and me.  This is Nat.  She has the cutest engagement story of all time.  Seriously, it should be a movie. 

We will all have our LJ blogs and websites up pretty soon.  I will let you all know when they are up!  Except for Evaly, who is already a seasoned pro.  As you can see she will go to any lengths to get a great shot!  The last day we were there the weather was HORRIBLE.  We're talking freezing cold rain and gushing wind!  Anyway, Evaly had no idea her wind had ruined her umbrella until she noticed us laughing and clicking away!  I LOVE this picture. It makes me giggle every time.  I'm not gonna lie, it was hard to leave my family again so soon.  But I didn't have an ounce of regret not once while I was there.  I like to work hard and be busy.  And we were for sure!  I learned so much!  And being on a photo shoot is one of the most fun things I have ever done. I love it!  Also, I learned so much about photoshop.  If I start looking incredibly gorgeous in my pics from here on out you will all know why!!!  None of these have been photoshopped, though, they really are that gorgeous!  And even more important really good people.  We are all moms and we had a lot in common.  I SO needed girl time!  So that was fun, too.  

And none of it would have been possible without help from my parents (and Chris and Christina).  My mom sent my dad my way (again) he helped watch the kids while I was in Houston, too!  Thanks Popo you are the best!  Popo is his grandpa name, my crazy little sisters made it up.  Perfectly silly, and fitting for him.  Luckily he can bring his work with him.  Hopefully he was able to get some done!

I also got a quick visit with my Aunt Darcy and Grammy in the airport before I left.  Which was great.  And I finished Persuasion on the plane ride.   Love that book!  

I'm thankful to be home, for family, and for this awesome experience.

And for sagebrush in all it's glory!

have I mentioned...

that we can walk to school?  It's the best fun ever!  Can't you tell!

This expression is SO my little sister!  Katie, this reminds me of that hilarious Mother's day card! 

Oh, look. I'm so prepared! I had it scanned in to my computer already. How handy!!  By the way...she is wearing a hand me down that used to be one of my all time favorite dresses!  Wouldn't you die for sleeves like that!!?  Don't even get me started on the reversable sash!  

P.S.  Today was gorgeous!!! And I met two real live neighbors. I'm feeling much less pouty about not knowing anyone today.  (because now I know 2 more people!)  Do the happy dance with me!  Plus there are only two, count em 2 more boxes left to unpack!  (how long did it take me to unpack after the last move, like 2 seconds?)  Oh, well. Life is busy. So that's good. right.  

oh right, Halloween

Can I just pretend that I'm bat girl, Chris is Batman, and Bentley grew really tall and became that grey spiderman?  Just ignore that little boy in the front.  My guess is you wouldn't buy it.   The halloween festivities started when I was in Houston.
I knew Chris would get in trouble while I was gone!
Chickie and Chris carved pumpkins on Hallween night.  She drew this cute witch and then told Chris he had better only carve out the moon so as not to ruin the witch!
And we painted pumpkins.


I made Chickie this dress using a pattern.  And of course it didn't fit that well.  Put pattern making on my list of things to learn to do... Chris took this when they were enjoying the local festivities while I was gone.  I asked him what was up with her hair (did he really not brush it the whole time I was gone?).  He said she wanted messed up hair, because that's what the hair of an evil witch looks like.

Chickie was also a firefighter for a "trunk-or-treat" in Knoxville.  Somehow I didn't get a picture of that.  She was super cute.

Bentley refused to dress up.

This was for you Beth. :)

You can still vote!!

Derek won round one!  Go vote for round two!!  Take that vote link, then click on Round Two Begins, then look for D's name fourth one down!  We have a week to vote this time, as many as we want!!  This is a cute "My Hero" moment, don't you think.  This is a Lindsay shot from the beach back in April.  

voting for a worthy cause!!

I know I've mentioned Chris' best friend Derek on here before...they were partners in crime on that house.  Derek is an awesome singer/songwriter.  Go check him out on CMT Music Madness!   This is one of my favorite songs of his!  You've got my vote Derek!