For Carrie

Why didn't I get your love of cooking?

Recent excitement

Ah, the excitement of normal life. Last weekend, we went to a s'mores party hosted by a friend.  I was a huge fan of the idea. Violet was, too, and she went home asking when we could have a s'mores party in our backyard. I told her we could when we have a backyard.

Charlie insisted on roasting my marshmallow for me.

Violet wouldn't touch the burned marshmallows at first, but she got used to the idea. 

 And for the most exciting news, Violet finally earned her bike! She had been putting stickers on a chart for a month and at last filled it up.  She is beyond excited about it.

Watch out, world, here she comes.

This is what we do

I'm going to preface this post by saying that some of these pictures have nothing to do with the content.  I just had to announce to everyone that today Violet put on these clothes, struck a pose, and said, "How do you like my outfit?" It was priceless.

 What I was really going to talk about is our family time lately.  Have you been checking out my photo blog?  You should.  It's awesome.  I was afraid of running out of ideas but I realized that's never going to happen.  I'm not sure why I didn't do this awhile ago.  Anyways, back to family time.  Lately it has been revolving around taking pictures, and that has actually been quite fun.  We let Violet have her own camera (Brandon's shock-proof, water-proof camera) and she joins us on little nature walks.  Charlie is too young to manage a camera, but he enjoys picking the flowers while we are out anyways. There are few things as fun as getting to share your interests with your kids, so this has been a great thing for us to do.  Pretty awesome family time, if you ask me.

Picking the flowers

This is not the camera we normally let her use, but she looks so hardcore, I couldn't help myself.

How could I NOT put this picture up?

Charlie has the prettiest eyes, even if the booger is a bit distracting.

A blog-worthy bedtime story

Violet loves telling me bedtime stories.  She often takes events from the day and forms them into a more colorful story.  Today was not my day, as Charlie fell out of the stroller and had an injury that almost warranted a trip to the ER. The ER trip was only called off after I called my mom and she assured me that they couldn't do anything for a mouth injury at the ER.  (Don't worry, Charlie is fine now.  By the time I got home, he was talking and eating happily, so obviously there was no serious injury.)

But right when I thought I was getting over the trauma of the night, Violet told me a bedtime story. Here's how it went:
Once upon a time, there was a brave queen named Mommy.  She was riding her horse and she fell down and broke Charlie.  She rode to the castle and the other brave queen, Dr. Reed, put a bag of ice on Charlie so his broken heart could be glued back together.  The end.

So there you have the day's events told through Violet's eyes.  You're welcome.

Rodeo time!

On Wednesday we went to the rodeo not once, but twice. Violet was so excited that she insisted on wearing her cowgirl hat all day.  Our morning visit consisted of watching mutton busting and pig races, and the most memorable part-- the petting zoo. The petting zoo had a sign on the outside that said, "Enter at your own risk."  When I saw it I scoffed, thinking, "What are we, babies or something?"   Then we went in and within 30 seconds, Violet was approached by a deer about a foot taller than her which tried to eat her skirt.  She ran to me, jumped on me, and screamed, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!"  And I thought, "Holy crap, they weren't kidding!"  Charlie was still enjoying himself, so I was mean and made her wait while he finished petting the goats.  I was nice and held her the rest of the time, though.  But I did NOT wait in line for 15 minutes to leave within 30 seconds.

 Our evening visit had much less drama.  Since we are cheap, Violet got to choose one ride to go on-- she had been eyeing the Ferris wheel for weeks now, and that's what we rode.  I thought she would get scared because it went to high, but she loved every second of it.  SO much better than the petting zoo.

And if you want to see more pictures from our outing, check out my *drumroll please* NEW BLOG, 50mmlinds!  (Sorry Bexie, a view from the shade was taken.)

Blogging dilemma

Dear everyone,
Thanks for the feedback on my potential photo/art blog.  I need your help yet again: I'm having trouble deciding what to name this thing. Here are the runners up (keep in mind that all these names will have ".blogspot.com" tacked onto the end):

"A view from the shade"
What I like about it:
My sister came up with this name. It's hilarious (because my family calls me Shady).  I like that it is ambiguous enough that it can include photo and art stuff.  And it's personal.

My reservations:
It's not self-explanatory.  I read that if the subject of your blog isn't obvious from the title, many potential viewers might pass it up simply because they don't know what it's about.  Brandon suggested having it as a subtitle/description on the blog, so I could still use it even if it's not the title.

"50mmlinds"
What I like about it:
The lens I use the most in my photography is my 50 millimeter lens.  I like that this lets you know that it's a photo blog, and uses part of my name.

My reservations:
I'm afraid non-photographers won't get the lens reference.  Also, you have no clue that it's also an art blog.  I could do something similar with "wide angle linds" or "35mm linds--" those are a little more obvious but I don't really use those lenses, so it's not as personal.

Yup, that was a whopping 2 names.  Well, I'm still brainstorming.  I do know that I don't want to have my full name in the title, and I also don't want it to be "(fill-in-the-blank)photography," because that implies that I have some kind of business, which I don't. 

What does everyone think? Any other suggestions? 

The languages of love. Ew, did I really just say that?

Last weekend my stake put on a lovely conference for women.  At this event were some classes that you could choose to attend, among which was a panel of married couples answering questions about marriage for the rest of us.  The class was called Hearts knit together in love.  The title itself almost made me vomit, but I really wanted to sit by my friends, so I followed them there.  I'm really spiritual like that.  Before it started though, I leaned over and warned my friend, "if I hear the words 'and that's why we've never had an argument,' I'm walking out."  But only after I go up and do this:

But luckily it never came to that.  One thing they did talk about though, that almost made me walk out, were the "languages of love."  It's one of the most cliche and cheesy discussion topics, but the general idea behind the "languages of love" theory is that we all give love in different ways, and to be happy in our marriage, we need to recognize and respect that.  Which is actually true, I just can't get behind anything that has a name that cheesy.

 

It did get me thinking about Brandon.  As you may have noticed, he's not a traditional romantic guy (lots of flattery and big gifts).  And that's one of the things I love most about him.  Even though he doesn't go shopping for diamonds every time he thinks about me, he manages to do things for me that only he would think to do.  Make a necklace for me out of a piece of rock he found? Yes. Stay up till 2 AM the day before I get back from Mexico to steal 2 dozen roses for me from random people's bushes in Provo? Yes.  Reupholster a chair that he found on the side of the road in a pretty fabric that matches our bedspread? Yes. 

 

But one of the things that took me ahwile to get used to was the fact that he rarely gives compliments.  Back in the dating world, I was hot stuff.  Or at least I thought I was, because the guys I dated told me so.  When I met Brandon, I felt kind of like Ron Burgundy:



And then the first compliment that Brandon gives me is that I have nice ears.  I specifically remember this.  And I thought, Man, this guy's a keeper.  Just kidding. I thought he was weird (albeit in a cute way).  But after awhile, it stopped bothering me.  Because I remembered how the other guys I had dated had always said such nice things about me, and then never wanted to actually spend time with me.  Which made me even more mad, because I felt like I was being lied to.  Honestly, if you think I'm so great, why can't you call me on Friday night?  But Brandon was always there, no matter how early he had to get up the next morning, or how wishy-washy I was being.  So I married him.

 

Now and then my vain self will creep out and want to be complimented more, especially when it comes to art projects. Everyone through my entire life has always thought of me as this amazing artist.  And Brandon, well, he's actually better than I am at art.  He gives me suggestions on how to do things and I react about as well as a spitting cobra.  But it's at times like these when I need to remember again that actions speak louder than words.  When I told him about my photo blog I want to start, he immediately started sifting through blog templates to see what would best suit my needs.  He advised me to get one that doesn't have the blogspot on the url because it would seem more professional.  He talked to me about how it could evolve through time, how I could connect it to a website with a portfolio and pricing, and how I could market myself. Basically he has ideas of me being this amazing photographer with a professional portfolio, and here I was thinking that I just wanted to start a blog for fun.  I don't think I need flowery compliments to appreciate how he sees me.  That's love.

 

PS- I really hope you enjoyed Buddy the Elf.