delivery shoot

Has anyone else ever had a photographer in the delivery room with them?  

I was so blessed to be able to have my sweet aunt Laura in my labor and delivery room to document the whole experience.

At first, it seemed like it might be a little weird...being in pain and being photographed.  But, I must admit...I loved it.  

I was so grateful to just be able to enjoy the experience, and not have to worry about constantly asking someone to take pictures.  

Laura did a beautiful job.  I love being able to remember every detail.  I am the kind of person who has the whole thing video taped...just so I can watch in later, and actually enjoy it.  Sometimes in the moment, it's kind of hard to see the beauty of it all.

Laura definitely captured the beauty of this process.

I was so grateful to her for giving up her day to be there, so I can have these photo memories forever.

Thank you Laura.

Waiting for my epidural to be done

my beautiful mother

So relieved my epidural is working this time

My Mother in Law, Jolene

I think my body is pushing her out....maybe you want to check??

Practically running to the delivery room, the nurses didn't know if I was going to make it

I love this precious picture...it really is true love

So grateful to have both our mothers there to enjoy this special, sacred experience with us

Emma Jo, 12 pounds 7 ounces...born 10 minutes after I got into the room

cutting the cord

seeing her for the first time...my precious angel...is there a more beautiful sight than seeing your own sweet baby for the first time?

Congratulations

My mother is so special to me, I am so happy she was there to share this with us

My sweet Emma Jo really looking at her mommy for the first time

newborn shoot

Okay, so I know I am a little late in posting these...but, what can I say?  My life is busy these days.  Sitting down at the computer seems like an undoable task.  But I just had to post these, because I love them.  

My Aunt Laura is a photographer, and she came and did Emma Jo's newborn shoot for me right after she was born.  I didn't get to appreciate the photos a the time, because the following day Emma Jo went into the hospital with bacterial meningitis, and well....life was not so good then.  

But, it's wonderful now:)

So I just took the time yesterday to go get these developed and put them in an album, and I love them.

I feel like the older I get (not that I'm old)...maybe more accurately, the more children I have...the more important photographs and journaling has become to me.  I feel like my kids are growing so quickly and I want to capture every moment.  

So, I am so lucky to have such a wonderful aunt who takes beautiful pictures, and is so kind to come and do them for me every so often.  

Thank you Laura...xoxo

tender moments

I love to see my children in such tender moments

One of my favorites

So my little guy...had to have his truck in the picture

our everything

July Gloom?

Is anyone else's mood affected by the weather?

If I wake up to a bright sunny day, my mood is automatically lifted.  

If I wake up to a gloomy day, well....let's just say it tends to make me feel a bit gloomy as well.

I am not sure why it affects me so much.  My mother is the same way, so I can only assume she passed it on to me. 

So, I am a bit disappointed in the weather this summer.  

What's up mother nature??  I mean seriously, get with the program!  Summer is for the sunshine...not the gloom. 

Maybe if I do a sun dance the sun will come out?

I definitely think it's worth a shot.

Here goes nothin'!

I love to cook.  

Especially dinner.


I try really hard to make healthy things that my family will like.  That can be tough sometimes.  There are times Kyle just looks at me like, "Really?  This is dinner?".  No, that's not fair to him...he is always grateful for whatever I make....but I am sure he thinks that sometimes.

I am always reading articles online about health foods...what's healthy, what's not.  This seems to change from year to year.  With all the miracle diets and super foods, who could ever keep up?  On top of that, everything online seems to contradict itself, depending on where you get your information.  It's very confusing.  

One of my favorite blogs to follow is called 100 days of real food.  Her name is Lisa, and her family pledged to eat only real food for 100 days....nothing processed...period.  I think most of us would look at that and think, well that can't be very hard...I eat real food all the time.  It is so sad though, because so many things that we eat that we think are healthy, are not.  Reading her blog has really opened my eyes and helped me understand what real food is.  Understanding what real food is pretty simple.  Eating real food...that's a different story.  But, I do my best.  

This is where my joy of cooking comes from.  I enjoy getting natural ingredients, and putting them together to make something delicious.  I feel our bodies are gifts from Heavenly Father, and so important to take care of.  It's so important to me to teach my children to eat healthy and take care of their bodies.  

I am most definitely not perfect.  I have my guilty pleasures..namely, candy.  But, I also feel like there needs to be balance.  So I try not to be too crazy obsessive.  I let myself eat candy, and I also allow my kids things that aren't good for them sometimes too.  

I think life is an act of balance.  Balancing the good and the bad.  Trying to do our best. 

So here I sit, trying to think of what to make for dinner tonight.  Maybe I'll visit Lisa's blog for one of her recipes.  Though I am most definitely imperfect at eating completely healthy, I feel like we generally do a good job as a family.  That makes me feel happy.  So here's to a healthy meal, and investing in our bodies.  One bite at a time.         

Does anyone else ever take pictures of their dinner?

In a nutshell...

I wanted to post about our Hawaii trip in a nutshell.  

To sum it up in one word I would say....superfuncantwaittogobackgreattimewiththewholefamilylovehavingmylittlefamilytogetherallweeklonginsuchabeautifulplaceamazingtime!!!

We really did have just the most wonderful time.  There were a few days that we just got to hang out at the resort.  The resort is so beautiful.  There are two pools that are really geared towards kids, so Grayson and Kyle had such a fun time playing around in the pool.  The Lagoon pool is so neat because it is meant to be like the beach.  It is really shallow for the first fifteen feet, and it has a sand floor.  It was great because Gray could just walk around and play in the water.  The other pool is so fun too, it has waterfalls to walk through, a water slide, and is like a big circle you can keep going round and round.  My boy was a fish, we could hardly get him out to eat.  He did so well in his floaty this year, I was so impressed.  Emma Jo and I just relaxed by the pool, tanning our legs, and reading a book.  Okay, maybe that was just me, but she had fun too, I promise.    

We also had a few "field trip" days when we were on the island.  The first field trip we took was on Sunday.  First, we went to church, and the view from the building is amazing.  I would definitely love to see that beautiful view every Sunday.  After that, we went up to the North Shore to have lunch.  We ate at this little place called the Grass Skirt Grill, which is my mom's favorite stop of the whole trip.  It's a healthy place with really fresh fish.  I love that.  After lunch we all headed up to Waimea Bay, a really pretty beach with a huge rock to jump off of.  We ended the day by stopping at the world famous Motsumoto's Shaved Ice.  Mmmmm.....I don't think Hawaii would be the same without shaved ice.  We had more snow cones in one week than I've had in the last two years.  

Our next outing we went to the beach Lanai.  It is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  Powder white sand, with the bluest ocean....just makes you want to jump right in!  And we did.  The water was warm, and so inviting.  It was great, because every time we went to the beach, both of my kids would fall asleep in the stroller.  Grayson was so good about that.  He would just come up and tell me he was tired and wanted his "bebe" and a towel.  I would wrap him up, give him a binki, and lay him in the stroller and he was out.  Kyle had fun playing with all the guys in the water.  After the beach Kyle and I went to a place I had been dying to go to ever since I saw it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives called Fresh Catch.  I am a sushi fan, and this place was famous for it's freshly caught poke.  Let me just say, it was worth the stop.  I've never tasted fish that was so fresh.  We got the smoked octopus...which was amazing...and the tuna.  We ended our fun day by soaking in the jacuzzi watching the sun go down.  

Our third outing was definitely one to remember.  Not so much for me, because I didn't do it, but definitely for Kyle and all the rest of the family.  They hiked the stairway to heaven, which is a rigorous stairway all the way up the side of a mountain.  Twelve hundred steps in total.  It was quite the undertaking.  Looks are definitely deceiving.  All those who hiked it eventually made it back though...eventually.  After that, we fueled up by eating at Teddy's burgers, then finished it off by getting mochi balls at the famous Bubbies Ice Cream Shop.  

We are so blessed to be able to go on such a wonderful vacation, and none of it would be possible were it not for my amazing parents.  They are the ones who make this all happen.  I am so grateful to them for giving us priceless memories.  After all....in the end all we have are our memories.

My sweet girl

My brother Boe and Emma Jo

Gray and his daily snow cone

Lanai Beach

Lanai Beach

At Waimea Bay

Stairway to Heaven

The best family picture we could get.

My sweet Grayson

At the top of the mountain
Stairway to Heaven