Crowns, Wands and Princesses.

A "castle" under the trees, 12 little princesses all dressed up. Crowns, wand making, and "dragons and princesses" were all part of the party fun. Pink cupcakes, little croissants, veggies and juice, on a blanket under the "castle." Drama free!

Project 365: Everyday life.

Some days are a little monotonous (who am I kidding, most days are like this!), and I'm trying to find a little more fun and be a little more thankful each day. I like taking photos of some of the basic stuff we do every day, not only to have a record, but well, because I think my kids are so stinkin' cute! No matter how annoyed I am with them sometimes!).

My little one loves to color and do art, so we do this almost every day together.

My oldest loves to wind down at the end of the day, by lying on the shag carpet and reading a book.

And my youngest, well let's just say, the top thing on his Christmas list was his own iphone.

These are all such quite moments with my kids, next time I'll show you what they're really like!

New Year's Resolutions 2014

I'm not good at making New Year's Resolutions. Mostly because I don't really see the point in waiting until New Years to set goals and start new things. But with that said, every new year I do like to re-evaluate where I'm at in my business and my life.

Every January I start fresh with a Photo A Day Project 365 (like I know a lot of you do). Mostly it gets me more in the habit of pulling out the big camera to capture every day moments in my family's life. So I've started it again this year! Here's a few photos from the first week of January...

 

The Grand Canyon... Look Out Below!

On our way to Mexico, we stopped at Lee's Ferry / the Grand Canyon. We only got a little taste of it's jaw dropping grandness, but it was amazing! (and really, really HOT!). I always get a little nervous with kids looking over the edge, gives me butterflies. But I was brave and crossed the bridge anyhow.

Here's a little taste of it's beauty...

Piñatas & Cousins

I love family reunions. Especially ones' with lot's of kids and piñatas. The kids play from dawn to dusk, the adults visit and neglect their children, and everyone gets really dirty (at least at our family reunions!).

This summer, we spent our family reunion at Deer Springs Ranch, Utah. Lot's of hiking, playing and eating. On our last night there we had not one, but three piñatas. Plenty of hits, plenty of candy. The kids all lined up from smallest to biggest and patiently waited their turn to hit the piñata. I'm happy to report there were only two casualties! Unfortunately both my children. One got "attacked" by the piñata and the other got dog-piled by all the other children while diving for candy.

Two of my favorite piñata photos...

Valentine's Day ideas for kids!

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I've started exploring fun valentines ideas for the kids to make and give to their friends. I love having them give something original rather than the boxed valentines from the store, it's so much more fun! (Although I have nothing against Spiderman and Dora).

Here's a few cool ideas I've found and done in the past.

My kids made these cute little bags last year. So easy, and so quick! Just have them draw or take a photo and print out on white or colored paper. I bought the little bags at Michaels for super cheap, and then just filled them with candy and stapled the printed paper on top. Easy!



I love this idea: Just draw a face on white paper, photo copy, then let the kids decorate with hearts, eyeballs, hairpins or mustaches.

The Tic Tac Toe pack in this photo is soooo cute! 

These are the cutest little matchbox/candy boxes!

Boys will be boys!

I promised my mom and my mother-in-law photos of the kids for Christmas. Didn't happen. SO, I thought they would make a great New Year's gift. Didn't happen. Finally, one sunny afternoon, I dragged my boys outside to take a few "quick" shots of them. It wasn't long before they had sticks in hand, sword fighting. Hey, at least they were having fun - and I ended up loving the photos of them playing together. And it looks like the grandmas will get Valentine's photos this year!

 

 

The amazing Y Family!

We lucked out with a beautiful, sunny day in December. It was a bit chilly, but the light was so perfect. By the end of the session there were lot's of red noses and we were all ready for some hot chocolate. It was so much fun to meet and hang out with the "Y" family!

Some of my favourite photos from the session...

 

 

Just in time for Christmas!

I can't believe it's only one more week until Christmas! And a few of us (ahem) still haven't done our Christmas cards yet.

Here's two very adorable kids that I was able to photograph last weekend... just in time for Christmas!

 

Autumn Splendor!

It's been a while since I've done one of the iheartfaces photo challenges... what better time to get back on board than autumn!

Last day of school!

Wow this year went by fast! I can't believe today was the last day of school and summer is here. Does that mean I get to sleep-in tomorrow? Yeah right! I think this is the first year I haven't signed my kids up for any summer camps or have any big vacation plans (and I may totally regret this!). We're just going to be spontaneous and play it day by day. I always feel so overwhelmed by the endless choices of camps and summer happenings. So this year I'm making it easy on us (I think). The kids may be driving me crazy by the end of the month, and I'll be calling around asking if any camps have open spots available. Then you can all shake your heads at me and say "what were you thinking?". OR the summer could turn out to be super amazing since we have so much freedom to do whatever, whenever.

So here's to a great summer AND to the last day of school!

(my kids on their last day of school... I think they were sad because school was out!)

Priest Lake with the fam!

I always love going to Priest Lake. Not only do the kids have lot's of fun, but I always get some great pictures. Here are some of my favorites...

A day at the beach...

What a beautiful, spring day! the kids had fun playing in the water, no matter how cold - and were drenched and covered in sand by the time we left.

Christmas Portraits for Grandma

Day before Christmas, and no gift for Grandma... quick get the camera out. Done! (Of course that's all she really wanted anyhow.)