Day 90: Sneak Peek Baby Karson

This is a very special baby. This is baby Karson. I'm so excited because I get to watch Karson come the end of May! Here is a sneak peek of his photo shoot.

Day 89: Hi Hi Heidi

Tuesday we spent the day with Kate, new Hubby Michael, Beth, Mom, and of course Heidi. I'm so glad Heidi doesn't get annoyed when I follow her around with my camera.

Heidi, before we go outside, we need to put some pants on. I know you love your boots, but you need to put your pants on first.


Look at her eyes!

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of all time! I know exactly what she is saying/doing. "GIIIINGER!!!" In her little Heidi voice as she calls for gamma's and gammpa's Ginger dog. Ginger is very important to Heidi. She distinguishes her grandparents by calling them Gamma and Gammpa Ginger.

Boyd came around the corner and thought it looked it Heidi was hanging from the door.


She is always laughing at Boyd.

This is Heidi's courtesy smile. I told her to look at the camera and say cheese, but she gave me one of these instead.


Thanks for being my model Hi Hi and letting me take pictures of you all the time!

Day 88: Lens Practice

Thank goodness I have a husband who always lets me use him as a guinea pig, a sister in-law who loves that I take pictures of her daughter, and a Ginger dog. Without my models I would never be able to practice. Today I wanted to try some outdoor shots and here's what I got.


So Silly



Loved the Colors!


Sun Set Puppy

Day 87: Trying a friend's lens.

We want to buy a new lens that takes clearer pictures than our kit lens. Laura and Matt kindly let us borrow the one that we a looking for.
Here is a picture that I took while I was messing around. I don't know how often this couple gets used as my guinea pig, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot.

Day 86: We are Noodle Folk

Mashed Potatoes = Delicious. Noodles = Delicious.
Noodle on Potatoes. Who'd a thunk? Can't forget the gravy. Yum.

Growing up, whenever we went to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's house, we always had "noodles" designated for one special meal. Both sides of my mom's grandparents used to cook the following German meal every Sunday: roast, mashed potatoes, and homemade noodles cooked in the roast drippings making gravy, which is then poured over the potatoes. The ultimate carb-loading meal. My sister Carrie, my mom, my dad, and I all warned Allison that it is one of the heaviest meals she'll ever eat. After you're done your stomach feels like you swallowed a brick. Well, I decided that we needed to get in touch with our heritage this past week and learn to make "noodles." So we did. We rolled out the homemade noodles on Thursday and completed the meal today. When I was making the gravy, Allison said it smelled like animal.
Here it is:


Allison enjoyed her first experience eating "noodles." She would like to mention that she could literally feel every swallow creep down her throat and settle in her stomach because it is such a heavy meal. The heritage continues with another generation, and hopefully will continue when we force it upon our children and their children and so on. Because our kids are going to be 1/4 German, 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Taiwanese, and 1/4 Northern European mutt.

Day 85: Random Shirt

Went shopping today and found this in the Ohio State section. Ha Ha.

Day 84: Baby CJ's Pics

I have finally gotten around to editing these. It has been such a fun filled action packed week.

• Monday we practically spent the whole day at Costco trying to restock our home
• Tuesday we went to the dentist for the first time in 2 1/2 (me) 3 (Boyd) years. I don't have any cavities! I'm such a good girl! Boyd has two, woops!
• Wednesday had Carrie's family and Beth (plus a Heidi) over for lunch, then we went up to Kirtland. Happy 175th birthday to the Kirtland Temple
• Thursday we went to Mom and Dads and played. Then watched BYU lose. But it was still a good day.
• Friday, today, I had a work meeting and then we had the missionaries over.

Whew, what a week.

Tomorrow we are going shopping, yay, and then Boyd and I are babysitting over night.

Will I ever have time to finish these pictures?







Of course their dog Kosar wanted in on the action. Look at that face!

Day 83: Big 'ole strawberry

Here's an ugly picture, but I thought it was cool that the strawberry was as big as my fist.

Day 82: Kirtland

Went up to Kirtland with Carrie and family.

It was a very rainy day.

I love this door. I don't really know why, but I do.


Thanks to Boyd who took all of these pictures!

Day 81: Fishies! Why are you sleeping?!?

And why do you look like you're floating?
Allison made cool sparkly fish for the Sunbeams. They loved them. We attached them to poles with yarn and paper clips. At the end of class, the Sunbeams ran around in circles waving their poles in the air saying, "Look at my fishy kite. They're flying." The amazing thing was, in the midst of all the ruckus, I pulled each child aside one at a time and asked them a question pertaining to the lesson that Allison had just barely taught. What happened to Jonah? "He got eaten by the whale." "He Played." (A minor speech pathology: substittion L for R. It took me a second to figure out why Jonah was playing in the whale.) What did Jesus feed the people? "Bread and Fish." Who created fish? "JESUS!" They passed with flying colors.

Day 80: Spooky Tree

We came home one night and the moon was shining bright. There is a spooky tree out front, so we took pictures of the moon through the spooky tree.

Day 79: Strawberry Sale

Obviously strawberries were on sale. On our way home from the temple yesterday we went to Wally World. We were almost leaving the store when Boyd spotted strawberries for $1! I ended up buying 7 lbs. Looks like I'll be making jam this week.

Day 78: Ranch anyone?

We went to the temple today and did some sealings with Shaun and Nicolette. We then went to Longhorn steakhouse. The food wasn't that great, and it's severely overpriced. Overall, we had a great time.
On our way home, we stopped by the Walmart in Mansfield. It is probably the best one I've ever been to. Maybe the best in the world. They have Everything. We got strawberries for a dollar a pound. We haven't had ranch dressing for awhile, so we decided to pick some up. The following is what we were faced with:


6 different sized bottled all the same type, original ranch, and don't be fooled just because the one says light. We had to use that one to represent the large bottle because they were out of stock of the original. Hidden Valley must know something about making a product to fit specific market. It is beyond my understanding why you need six different sizes.
Selecting the right ranch dressing to fit our needs was no easy task. I think Allison took at least 15 minutes trying to figure out which one to get. She just stood there, staring. She couldn't decide if she should get the lowest price one, but sacrifice value, or go for value, price per ounce, and pay more total price. Eventually, we ended up choosing the average bottle. Forget value because our last bottle of Ranch went rancid. It was too large for just the two of us. And The cheapest one. Well, the bottle barely has enough in it to cover a single salad, so it got nixed.

Oh and Longhorn's ranch salad dressing is gross.

Day 77: Sneek Peek Baby CJ

Took baby CJ's pictures today! What a doll!




Tonight I went to a jewelry party tonight and still need to finish photoshopping a bunch of family pictures to deliver tomorrow. Looks like it'll be a long night. But it was totally worth it, the girls in my ward are super cute.

Day 76: Practice Makes Perfect

Tomorrow I'm doing a newborn shoot and I decided to practice a little today with my new props. I'm sure tomorrow will be a lot better because I'll have a real baby, instead of a stuffed animal. Oh well, thanks to my panda I got some practice in.






I decided to try out my new black background and see what it looks like with skin. Since Boyd wasn't home to be my guinea pig I had to take pictures of my own feet. I think it will work out just fine, this is exactly what I wanted, contrast wise. Hum, I think it is about time for me to paint my toenails again.

Day 75: Quiet Time Projects

All day I have been trying to be quite while Boyd studies for his next exam, microbiology (aka Bleh!) So I finished the dishrag I was working on, made a bracelet, and started making Boyd a beanie. Boyd has always wanted a gray beanie with texture and he finally found a youtube video for me of what he wanted. Boyd called me a biddy because I was sitting there, with my snuggie, knitting.


This bracelet is the key to my salvation tomorrow. I work with kids, and they are ruthless on St. Patrick's Day. I have to wear my Bop & Bounce shirt that doesn't have green, my pants don't have green, and I really don't have anything green I can wear under my work clothes. It is crucial for me to find something green. I hope this silly little bracelet does the trick.

Day 74: Exam Week

Exam weeks are yucky! I'm resorting back to my usual, pictures of food. Food is easy to do during exam week because we have to make it and eat it anyway. Thank goodness for leftover night. Mmm Broccoli Soup. One thing I learned when experimenting with this recipe; it totally needs the croutons. I guess this is fitting since this week is St. Patrick's Day and this is a very green soup.

Day 73: Flip Flop

I love love love flip flops. I think they are the only shoes that should be worn. Unfortunately due to weather conditions flip flops cannot be worn year round. In high school I counted and at one point in my life I had 30+ flip flops. In junior high I remember being so embarrassed because my dad would always call flip flops, thongs. Luckily those days are over and they are still flip flops.

Anyway, one day I hope to put up lots of fun shoe and feet pictures in Boyd's office, since he is going to be a podiatrist and all. I always like the doctor's offices with fun things to look at rather than just plain ol' boring walls. At the BYU health center they always had comics up on their walls and I loved reading them when I would have to get my blood drawn. So I decided when Boyd has an office I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of shoes or feet so people have something to look at. I also think it would be fun for his regular patients so they could one day say "I like going to the flip flop room."

(I love these flip flops and just think they are so stinkin cute!)

It'll take lots of practice but here are a few of my first shoe shots.

Feed back would greatly appreciated! What do you like about these pictures? What don't you like? Would you like looking at these pictures if you went to a podiatrist?

Day 72: Beanies

Yesterday we went to Dick's. The good thing about winter is that you can wear cute beanies. Boyd has been looking for a beanie for quite some time and they had a bunch on clearance. While he was looking I found this super duper cute one but couldn't bring myself to buying it, since Boyd had already bought me so many things that day. Then Boyd found this white and green one and thought it was rad. I told him it was kinda girly and I wasn't sure if it was a boy or girl beanie. But then again, compared to mine, it looked like it could be a boy beanie. So we came to the conclusion that Boyd can get this beanie if I got mine and then we can take funny family pictures with our beanies. As we went to purchase our beanies Boyd's didn't have a tag on it. The girl at the register called up someone to have them give her a SKU. She had to give a description of it and she called it a woman's visor beanie! HA! That's ok, Boyd makes it look masculine.

Here they are.

p.s. I swore that I would never get a beanie with a pom pom on the top until I saw this one. I can't believe I gave in so easily!

Day 71: Day Long Date Marathon

My husband loves me.
There is no doubt in the world that I have the greatest husband EVER.

Today Boyd took me to go see the Canton's Ballet performance of Cinderella. Seriously, my husband is wonderful.




Then on top of that he took me to dinner at Tlaquepaques. Yum! AND let me order His favorite thing, which is also my favorite thing.



AND THEN after dinner we went to Joann's to buy some things for my photography business. I'm doing baby shots and needed some soft white fabric, a black backdrop, and a basket. We probably spent 2 hours there. What a trooper! How many wives can honestly say that their husband goes to Joanns with them and doesn't complain a single time! Boyd even bought me things that I have been needing for a long time like fabric scissors. On top of that he was so ever patient while I tried to pick out my black backdrop. I made him hold up different fabrics in the store while I took pictures of him to see which one will work the best.


To top it off we went to DSW because I had a $10 off coupon. As much as Boyd loves shoes, and even though he needed basketball shoes, he still let me get these really really cute Roxy flip flops. (pictures to come)

I tried being a good wife and let him go to Dicks to look at some sports stuff. Somehow we ended up walking out of the store with a beanie for me! (Uggg, I can never win) Don't worry though, Boyd got a beanie too. (That's a story I'll have to tell tomorrow)

If that weren't enough we finished off our day with Cold Stone ice cream. (Thanks for the gift card Shaun and Nicolette!) Boyd even let me pick out my favorite: Mint, with fudge, brownies, and Oreo cookies.

Elder Hales once gave a talk about becoming a provident provider. In his talk he said "Our wedding anniversary was approaching, and I wanted to buy Mary a fancy coat to show my love and appreciation for our many happy years together. When I asked what she thought of the coat I had in mind, she replied with words that again penetrated my heart and mind. “Where would I wear it?” she asked. (At the time she was a ward Relief Society president helping to minister to needy families.)

Then she taught me an unforgettable lesson. She looked me in the eyes and sweetly asked, “Are you buying this for me or for you?” In other words, she was asking, “Is the purpose of this gift to show your love for me or to show me that you are a good provider or to prove something to the world?” I pondered her question and realized I was thinking less about her and our family and more about me.'"

When ever Boyd goes on a shopping rampage with me and buys me things like fabric scissors, shoes, a beanie, etc. He always makes sure to tell me that he is doing it because he loves me and that he is "not buying it for himself."

I am the luckiest girl in the world with the bestest husband anyone could ever ask for.