My Thanksgiving Weekend in Pictures

WARNING: HUGE POST AHEAD!!!

I started out just wanting to post a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend up at my mom's. Little did I know that it would take SO many pictures to catch you up to date.

Thanksgiving Day:
My mom always sets a tremendous table. Lots of thought goes into what goes on the table. These pictures prove it, yet don't quite do it justice.




In the afternoon, we took some family pictures. The big one I will save in case it is going in Christmas Cards (don't want to spoil anything), but these are a few of my niece.




She was WAY more interested in playing soccer with the kids than getting her picture taken just like any normal 2 year old. We just managed to squeak these out.

The Day After Thanksgiving:
We left early in the morning (well, we did manage to squeeze in a few sales before we left) on our annual Christmas Tree Cutting Expedition. The following pictures are courtesy of my sister, Brooke (whose picture follows). My baby and I went to my brother and sister-in-laws to make lunch and cocoa for those returning from cutting trees.


(I am not sure who took this of her. She looks to dang cute to have been tromping through snow and ice for a Christmas Tree.)




Check out the size of that tree! It was HUGE. In case you don't believe me--keep scrolling.

It took 5 grown men much work to get this tree into my brother's house. One outside light suffered some damage in the process.

Maybe this helps you see how huge it was. The next few pictures are of my brothers new home/cabin that he has spent the last year building in Bear Lake. It is beautiful and has an amazing view.

The View!

The Loft.



The amazing windows. He did such great work on throughout the whole house.
Thanks for making it to the end of this post. I hope you all had a relaxing Thanksgiving, too.

New Trick Part 2

Apparently sucking his thumb wasn't enough. He has moved on to toes, too. Is anyone else's baby missing some chubbies? My baby might have taken them.

A Little Bit of Real Life

I have been practicing with my flash indoors a little. My flash and I still have a love/hate relationship. I love having the option to take pictures when there just isn't any available light (like at night or in a room with no window light.) But I hate the results (overly bright/harsh skin tones and dark backgrounds.) I am hoping that, with some work and practice, I will not "hate" my flash by the end of the winter and I will know how to use it better to get the results I want from it. These pictures were from the other day. There was some available light from a set of glass doors, but it wasn't enough light to get a good exposure without some "extra" light. Still not all LOVE, but I don't hate these either. A little glimpse into our school mornings (I did remove some of clutter that seems to collect during school.)

Someone is 11 and Someone feels Old!

My daughter turned 11 yesterday. The older she gets the older I feel. It is sometimes unreal to me that I have been a mom this long. Shouldn't I have it figured out by now? I also remember being this age and I DIDN'T think my parents were young. Both my parents were younger than I am now when I was 11. I promise I am not old. I promise I am not old. I promise I am not old. Now that she is 11, we have 1 more year till YWs, 5 more years until driving and dating, and 7 more years till she graduates and goes to college! I know the time is going to go lightening fast and and I am scared to death. Oh, and just one more thing, I PROMISE I AM NOT OLD!!!


P.S. Since June, she has been asking me for the following item for her birthday. Here is proof that she got it.

Quick Pic

About 30 minutes before sunset, I pulled one of my girls outside to see about getting some more back lighting pictures. I think I should have started a little earlier because the sun had already mostly set behind the houses in my neighborhood. I figure I need to take advantage of all the beautiful light and the nice warm temperatures (okay--so a high of 50 something isn't exactly WARM, but for this time of year it is great for us!!) I thought I would post at least one picture that turned out okay. Enjoy!

When My People Subjects Are Too Busy Playing (or Sleeping)

When my people subjects (read children) are too busy playing or sleeping, what is a photographer to do? Thankfully, my husband has been bringing home flowers regularly (read whenever there is a BYU Football game) and so flowers have been filling my photography craving. Sadly, there are no more home football games, so these are the last of the flower close-ups for a while. Don't be surprised if you find close-ups of the furniture, my hang nails, or random food crumbs on my floor. Don't be surprised if you find pictures of extremely boring everyday activities or the mountain of laundry in my laundry room. Don't be surprised if you see pictures of terribly grumpy children who have been forced to sit in front of the camera for the 12th day in a row. In other words, don't be surprised if you see a bit of real life lurking in some of the future images here--because what's a photographer to do?!

To Spike or Not to Spike--That is My Question

One of the reasons that I thought a boy would be nice (this is just ONE of the reasons) is because I have a lot of girl hair to do on Sundays. My girls are getting better at doing their own hair, but where hot curling irons are concerned--they still need some help. I was happy that this new baby was not going to add to the "Hair" time required to make everyone presentable. I was thrilled to know that this baby's hair was going to be LOW maintenance. Anyway, the other day, I came home from a neighbor's house and my girls had DONE my baby's hair. How, you may ask, could 3 girls DO a baby boy's hair? Well, they spiked it--gel, hairspray and all. I didn't like it at first, but my husband thought it was just fine. So I am putting it up for your thoughts--which way DO you like better? How DO you DO your boys' hair? DO you DO boy's hair? (Should I capitalize a few more DO's?) I have added some pictures (of course) of both hair styles. No laughing--I am not an expert at boy hair.







BTW: I am going to start watermarking my images since I have of heard people having their images stolen or used inappropriately. I am hoping a watermark will discourage this.

New Trick

This little boy has a new trick. Isn't it cute? It could just be my mommy glasses, though. I definitely have them on where he is concerned.

Randomness

My blog has been neglected for the last several days. Just seems like there has been lots to get done. Last weekend was also one of the 2 free weekends my husband has until after Christmas, so we had to take full advantage of it (it happens every year when football and basketball overlap). So between a busy weekend, Halloween, and a couple of projects I've been working on--the blog has sat unupdated (probably not a word, but adequate none the less.) So I give you the following random pictures taken over the last few days. Enjoy!