Bailey, behind the curtain, with carrots, a beanie, and a princess dress!

Bailey loves beanie's! Whenever we go anywhere she wants to put a hat on. If I've already done her hair I have to do my best to change the subject and hide all of her hats. Today she was hiding from me behind the curtains eating carrots! Hey, atleast it was carrots and not candy. I said , "Bailey, where are you?" she threw the curtain open and said BOO, and I snapped the cute picture of her in her princess dress, with her carrots, and her beanie. She likes to dress herself lately! Pretty dang cute!

Taking after his older brother...

Ok...
So this post is thanks to Shelby, and she'll know what I'm talking about, it would take way too long to explain.
To sum things up without typing a novel, after some tears and an emotional trip down memory lane (brought on from looking here) I ended up looking at some pictures of Payton when he was 10 mths. old to compare them to Beau right now, since he'll be 10 mths. old on March 1st.
Wow, they do look more alike than I thought and look at this. Payton always, had his finger in his mouth, and Beau just the same. It's kinda crazy but I love it, I love that Beau is taking after his brother in little subtle ways. (the nose, the eyes, the skin, etc.)
After talking to Shelby tonight about this little boy Charlie Cooper that's really sick and fighting with all he has. After looking at the pictures of this little boy in the hospital, it was hard, because the blonde hair and the blue eyes resemble my sweet angel quite a bit. After my good cry I had, in the end it felt good. It's good to cry, and it helped me feel so close to Payton tonight. So, thanks Shelby for talking.
When you have a good 1/2 hour you'll have to go on this little boys site and read about him, starting from the beginning. I haven't read it all but Shelby says it's worth it, just grab the tissues. Then say a quick prayer for this family I KNOW it will help Charlie and them.


Payton in San Diego in June of 2004, out by the pool at our hotel. We went there to watch two of Jeremy's sisters run the San Diego marathon.



Beau in February of 2008, just sitting on my bed.

Two little monkey's...

For some reason as soon as I make my bed in the morning Bailey loves to get on it and jump and play. She always says, "Beau, up!" Meaning she wants me to put Beau on the bed with her. I don't know what it is about a freshly made bed to kids. Whether it's her bed or mine, as soon as it's made it's suddenly a lot more fun to jump on. I had to get a few shots of them laughing, wrestling, and playing around. Beau is going to catch up to Bailey in size before she knows it, he's an aggressive li'l bugger.
I love seeing them play together now that Beau is getting bigger, Bailey actually likes to play with him, (most of the time). Wherever Bailey goes, Beau follows.
This was on Valentine's Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

No more tears!

You'd think that on the third child I would've figured it out that, I CAN'T TAKE MY OWN KIDS PICTURES, ALONE! The other day I thought, "Beau is such an easy baby, he's happy all the time, I say HI to him and he smiles, his pictures will be easy." I got everything ready, clothes, hats, his letters from his room, camera, put Bailey down for a nap, just about anything and everything I would or should need for pictures. After about 10 minutes of placing him and scooting back to grab my camera, over and over, he was half way off the rug, after something he spotted across the room. So after the umpteenth try, I QUIT! I can't get mad at my own child for crawling, being curious, and just being a nine month old, so I will have to do it when Jeremy's home or I have help. So here's a few, I'll post more when and if I find the time to do it with help.


Now, don't get me wrong I love all of these, I love when kids put things in there mouth, when they're not looking at the camera, and just being themselves, I guess I just wanted the "B" to be facing the right direction, somewhat and a few of his cute smile. I didn't even get to putting his cute clothes on.

This is one that I love his look, I love blank stares.
This is when I finally had to quit, I couldn't take it anymore after seeing those tears. It broke my heart to see that pout!

A smile and voice I'll never forget.

As I heard the news about President Hinckley's passing, (the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), I had mixed emotions. At first I was almost brought to tears because he is an amazing man that has accomplished so much in his life and done so much for our church during his ministry, that the thought of him being gone made me sad. My thoughts soon turned to happiness as I pictured his reunion with his sweetheart and loved ones. How thankful I am for eternal families, knowing that when our time on this earth is through and we have fulfilled our purpose here, we will be together again with our family and loved ones that have passed on before us.

A few quotes from our Prophet...

"Do the best you can. And remember that the greatest asset you have in this world is those children who you've brought into the world, and for whose nurture and care you're responsible."

"People wonder what we do for our women. I'll tell you what we do. We get out of their way and look with wonder at what they're accomplishing."

“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.”

President Hinckley will sure be missed and I hope that I will always remember his wise teachings as he was an incredible man full of life, charm, humor, honesty, charity, respect, faith, and he was the cutest old man with the best smile and a voice that I'll never forget!

My PHOTO BLOG & STUDIO have arrived!

For those of you who have been patiently waiting, I finally started a photo blog you can find it at http://amandasimages.blogspot.com
Also, the studio that I've been dreaming about is finally done. It's small, convenient, and perfect for now. I know I'll get greedy again and be ready for my real dream studio one day but it'll be a while and another house before I get that one. So for now I'm super happy and excited about this one and am having to budget myself so I don't spend our life's savings on props and cute accessories for the shoots. So check it out, I've only posted one shoot so far and will add more when time allows, (which those of you that know me know that time doesn't allow as often as I'd like).

a day in the life of a... two year old!

This is another assignment from my photo class. Holy cow it was a huge project in itself to follow a two year old around and try to catch her doing her thing. It was actually a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it because it's totally Bailey, the toys, the blanket, the food, the temper tantrum, time out, etc. I took so many pictures and there were still some I missed that I wish I would've caught. Oh, well! Now I need to do on of Beau. (click to enlarge)

Lunch with friends & crazy kids!

So, my good friend, Marianne, and a friend of hers all went to lunch because she was in town. It's hard to find a place that you can go with 6 kids and eat lunch without distracting too many people. We went to Pizza Factory and they gave us the entire back room to ourselves. It was great the kids ran around and had a blast. It's always nice to get together with friends and catch up.

I keep telling Marianne that she just needs to move back to Utah, hopefully one day!


This is Marianne and I, and Beau of course!


This is her cute 18 mth. old, Nicholas!
This is her 4 year old , Andrew, he's really adorable too even though you can't see him, he was loving playing with the booster seats!
Here's my cutie, Bailey, she always smiles so much better for other people when they have cameras, I pull mine out and she just says, "NO CAMERA!"

Beau was ready to go home and take a nap, but he still is dang cute, I must say! Look at those eyes.
How often do I get a picture taken of me with my kids, not too often, I love this one, I love kissing baby cheeks they're so soft.

All the kiddos lined up the booster seats and were having a blast with them. Bailey insisted to hold Beau, she did alright this time, she didn't drop him on his head! And... he's even smiling with her holding him, which is a first.

the shoe project!

Since there's so much to learn in the world of photography I decided to take a class with nicole hill.
She is so good with lighting and angles and all the technical stuff. Taking the class I'm finding out I know more than I thought but I am still learning some. Also it's fun to get out and meet new people and get critiqued on my work so I can learn what I need to work on. THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT!
This is one of our assignments from last week and it was tons of fun. I wish it wasn't so dang cold outside, I would've shot more people and more locations. Just thought I'd share.