Another moment to remember

We had our Primary Program today at church.  Frankie was very excited to do his part.  "I get to give my testimony in the big one today," he told me when I reminded him about where he was going to sit and what he would be doing.  He already knew:)  All the kids sat up in the choir seats during sacrament and tried their best to not wiggle during the beginning.  I sat with my class at the top of the choir loft.  Frankie is in the 4-5 year old class.  There he sat, right at the front, staring out at everyone and turing back every once in a while to wave and smile at me.  It was fun to watch him during sacrament.  He was so well behaved.  There were a couple shy kids and a couple silly ones but over all the kids did really well.  While we sang the songs I could here his voice ringing out above the others when he knew the words.  When it was his turn to speak he did such a great job.  He spoke clearly, wasn't silly, and said exactly what his teacher told him to.  He ended up doing two parts since one of the children wasn't there.  Instead of insisting on just saying his part (which I wouldn't put it past him to do) he repeated what the teacher said without objection.  It may not sound like much but those of you who have sat through Primary Programs before know what a big deal that is for a 5 year old.  As I sat there looking at the back of his blond head with the curiously swirled cowelick, listening to him talk about getting the priesthood when he turns twelve and about Jesus Christ's true church I flashed forward.  There he was getting ready to go on a mission and giving his farewell talk in my mind's eye.  I almost started bawling.  

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Blah, blah, blah

I feel as though I don't write anymore about what is going on.  Perhaps it is because I feel compelled to add pictures.  I know I shouldn't but as a photographer I should.  It is a complicated mess.  I do like to keep my professional life and personal life separated some what.  So if you want to see pictures more often go to my photography blog.  So here are the haps in my world.  
          Erin had her baby.  Little baby Cash was born October 16th at about 8:30ish.  He was 7lbs 10oz and 21 inches long.  The doc literally had to pull her baby out because he was so long.  Cash is beautiful, of course, with a full head of BLACK hair.  I think it is black because all the spicy food she was eating burned it.  Hahahaha!
          Jessica and her boys survived a tornado in... wait for it... Bellmont, AZ.  Seriously?  I had no idea a tornado was even possible out there.
           Jesse is once again testing for other fire departments.  Barona Fire has served its purpose and now it is time to move on.  It is hard to move on when there are so many other guys looking to move on to better departments too.  He just went up to Santa Barbara to apply for Santa Barbara County Fire.  We would like to stay in San Diego but we have to exercise all options.  I am not a fan of moving so here is my problem.  If we get SB we have to move not once but twice.  Once to rent while he is on probation and again when we are ready to buy a house.  I vote for moving once.  Who is with me?  Sorry SB, you don't get my vote.  If only it were that easy.

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How do you look after 2 1/2 hours of sleep?

Yup, that is Jesse and me after waking up @ 2:30am driving till 6:30am and stopping for gas and breakfast.  Thank goodness the flash filled in the bags under my eyes.  As some of you know our family went on vacation this last week to Northern CA.  We went to Jesse's cousin's wedding at a place called Sea Ranch.  The house we rented for the weekend was fabulous!  We biked, went tide pooling, hiking, and just plain relaxed.  I think I have found a new vacation spot.  Though it is a long drive the place is beautiful.  I am going through all the pictures today and will post them soon.  For now I leave you with this little number and a thankful heart that we are home safe.  I may not have ruby slippers but by hour 8 of our trek back I had a very specific mantra "there's no place like home."  Being in a truck with two little boys who have to constantly make noise will do that to you.

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Awkward Stage

Every girl goes through it and no, I am not talking about puberty.  We reach a stage with our hair where it is too long to be a cute short cut but too short for the versitality that long hair can bring.  Usually at this point I do one of two things: give up and cut it short again or wear it in a ponytail everyday until I give up and cut it again.  I am trying to be strong and resist.  My hair takes forever to grow.  Last time I grew it out long it took two years!  It got to a certain stage and just stopped getting longer too.  Maybe I just need some new head bands or something.  I have the problem of too much hair too.  If I cut it short and the stylist doesn't thin it out enough I look like a mushroom head.  If I let it grow and don't get it trimmed and thinned out I have no volume on top and way too much on the bottom.  Oh issues, I have got issues.  Anyone else have bad hair days?  

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I am the worst at getting family pictures done!

It is sad but true!  I am telling people to get a current family photo and here I am with one that is three years old.  Soooooooo, this morning I had a studio shoot and Frank begged me to let him stay home and take pictures too.  I told him he had to go to school.  "Sometimes we have to miss school," he explained to me "like when we are sick or need to take pictures."  I assured him taking pictures was not an acceptable excuse to miss school but promised to leave the studio stuff up till he got home.  As I was going through out the day I though "Let's just do it!  Let's just grab what we can that matches, set up, and use my remote."    That is what we did.  It wasn't easy: I did alot of adjusting, testing, editing and cropping in photoshop.  I was so hot!  I have been getting hot flashes like a woman in menopause lately!  Here are some of my favorites from our family activity.

Classic.  I love this shot of Frank.  He really wanted a picture with the balloon.  It was going to take too much effort to tell him that the balloon wasn't going to be in the shot but I kind of like it that way.

Our one good family shot that was after I cut and pasted, adjusted and removed, soften and cropped.  Whew!

Don't you just love Ollie's face?!  He put his hand on my shoulder by himself.

Note to self: wear stiffer fabric.  With all the up and down I was doing my shirt bunched up and didn't look all that great.

I love my boys.

OK!  I know it is not exactly what I would like.  I would prefer an outdoor shoot with someone else behind the camera but at least now that I am up to date I feel better about telling other people to get on it :)

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