Family Photo-shoot, September 2012

MY.  OH.  MY.

*Warning, these pictures may elicit cute and cuddly verbiage, and a strong desire to be adopted into our family.  These feelings are normal.  And we are not looking to adopt.*

Ok, in all seriousness, these pictures turned out GREAT with a capital G!  They are so, so, SO cute!  And I have to give credit to my friend and photographer, Jessica Johnson.  She lives in our ward, and we love hanging out with her and her hubby.  She did a fantastic job of catching the smiles on those kids before we even knew what happened.  It was a beautiful morning, and the park that we were in was a great place, even though they had football teams, track teams, soccer teams, AND a 5K walk going on at this same park that SAME day.  Neither Kris nor I had EVER seen Sugarhouse Park as packed to the gills as it was this past Saturday morning.

We had the usual morning RUSH to get ready.  I slept terribly the night before, so I iced my eyeballs and lathered on the concealer, thank goodness for modern marvels, eh?  The kids actually did really well.  After about 30 minutes, they were totally done.  Marin was ready to collect on her promise of a treat, and Owen was ready for a bottle of milk and a nap.  We made it!  And somehow I survived the pre-photo-shoot wardrobe trauma drama.  

So, without further ado, our little family.

Check out this Sister-Brother duo!

 Kristoffer and I with our crazy kidlets.

 I wanted Marin to have her own little piece of jewelry, so I magically found this necklace at Kohls for 85% off.  I got it for like, 8 or 10 dollars, and it has Swarovski crystals, so cute!

 Her pretty "sprinkle" shoes.

 Here we all are!

 Up close family shot.

 Look at this pretty girl, she is just adorable.

 Check out this handsome stud-muffin!  Wowza!

 Just Kristoffer and I.

Happy.

 A precursor to the next picture...

 YUCK!  Check out that Marin face!

 Daddy and his little girl.

 I love the one above, she is such a cute girl.

 This is such a great candid.  We were swinging Owen in between pictures to keep him smiling.

 Daddy with the kids.

 No one likes dad around here, can you tell?

Mama and Owen.

 Happy boy.

 Marin and Mama, I LOVE this one.

 Daddy and his boy.  I love the candid look of sheer GLEE on Owen's face.

 My two handsome boys.

The end of the day!

 

We are SO grateful to Jess for doing this photo shoot for us.  We haven't really had such an official photo shoot, and this is such a blessing, to be able to document our family like this.  It was a lot of work to prepare for this as a mom, and a lot of work to pull it off during the shoot, but totally worth it.  Thanks, Jess!!!

Farmer's Market

Saturday, oh how I love thee.  Nothing is better than having a Saturday with my cute little family.  We try to do fun stuff on Saturday since our weeks can be pretty busy.  

This Saturday, we went to Gardner Village and the farmer's market they have there.  I am a terrible photographer, I don't take nearly as many pictures as I should, due in part I think to the fact that I LOVE farmer's markets and can't keep my eyes off of the local goodies for sale.

Marin, of course, found the toys and the stuffed animals.  She is such a little girl and *loves* her stuffed animals; they are so real to her!  And I totally remember being little and thinking the same thing, in fact, I really miss that part of my imagination :(

 The whole crew!

 We found a semi-shady place to sit while we waited for our brick oven BBQ chicken pizza.

 Mmmm, our brick oven BBQ chicken pizza.  My only complaint is that I had to share!  We had some fresh limeade to go with it, yumm!

 And then we went to some indoor carnival/kids place.  It was actually super cute.  They had rides for kids, a magic show, and mini-golf.  Kris took Marin for a round of mini-golf while Owen took a snooze on my shoulder.  I can't say I was sad to have a sweet little buddy sleeping in my arms, all too soon he'll be too big.  He was one hot tamale, though.  That boy is just like his daddy, a *furnace*!  His feet are always hot and sweaty.

 Marin did great, although, she's still 4 and obviously doesn't get the concept of min-golf just yet.  That's ok, she and daddy had great fun.  Owen joined them for the last couple of holes to try his hand.

And THIS Saturday, we have family pictures coming up, YAY!!  I'm excited and happy and pulling my hair out all at the same time.  We've had kind of informal family pictures before, but I feel like this is our actual FIRST scheduled family photo shoot with a friend from our ward.  I've been stressing about outfits.  Oh, how I have stressed about the outfits.  I'll spare you the dirty details, but let's just say I was on the verge of tears twice today on two separate visits to the the 5th store.  I think I have my outfit figured out, I'll have Kris give me a final look over tonight.  And I think Marin's and Owen's outfits are relatively put together.  My poor husband...well, I have no idea what he'll wear.  It's hard to string together 4 outfits on a tight budget.  BUT, hopefully we'll have success, no?  After all, the pictures are for us, not the clothes.

It's Time

If you've been reading my blog, you know my thoughts on running.  I'm not a huge fan of it, I'm not that great at it, but I do it anyway.  My dedication to running ebbs and flows with the months.  Some months I could care less and opt for the elliptical, and other months I push it hard.  And from time to time, I've toyed with signing myself up for a race...not to win, but to finish.  And I've never done it...UNTIL now.

Now hang on, before you think that I've signed up for some crazy marathon, or even a half marathon, I haven't.  That would be emotional suicide!  I'm slightly terrified of failure, and I like a gradual introduction to things.  SO, I've signed up for my first 5K.  That's right, 3.1 miles of yours truly re-living her running memoirs of times past, wohooo!

I am nervous and excited all at the same time.  Nervous because I've given myself a deadline to run 3.1 miles nonstop, and running is hard for me!  But I'm also excited.  Excited because I'm ready to be done fearing something that's hard for me.  I feel like this is almost a little milestone for so much more than running.  I'm ready to stop being afraid of things that require a lot of effort.  

I'm learning that just because something is hard, that doesn't mean it's bad; it just means that it's hard work.  And in my 28 years of life, I've learned that a lot of things that are worth achieving, require hard work.  It's still hard to dissociate hard work from being 'bad', but I'm starting to get there.  I think my first real eye-opener was my birth experience with Owen, and now I'm ready to begin tackling a new area, running.  It's more than running, it's what it symbolizes.  I'm not expecting any part of it to be easy, and I'm not even expecting it to be easy when I'm done with my 5K.  I'm just expecting more of myself, because I know I can do hard things, I KNOW I can.  

I'm ready to be done holding back because I'm afraid of some hard work.  I'm ready to work and sweat and feel pain and accomplish my goal and set a great example for my kids.  It may be a small goal, but it will lead me to bigger and better things, and I'm ready for the challenge.  I'm also considering some other goal-worth challenges soon, I'll let you know when I've decided.

SO, my 5K is in American Fork on Thanksgiving Day, a Turkey Trot!!  I've been running on the treadmill at the gym, and have kept telling myself that it takes more than 3 days to train for this.  I'll do about 2.25 miles with scattered walking, slow jogging and fast jogging interspersed, and it's a workout for me!  I always turn red when I run, my face looks like I'm about to have a heart attack, I've even had two people at the gym ask me if I was OK.  "Yes, people, I'm fine.  Not everyone can look gorgeous when they run.".  So, I'll keep you all posted on my progress!!

Dental Doom and Gloom

Have I totally scared you away with this title?  I know, I'm sorry.  Any words that are less than happy and are next to the word "Dentist", usually elicit a terrifying response.  So I'll share the whole story:

Marin went to the dentist.  

She really was an excellent little patient.  And the staff was super happy and nice.  She did great!

Her teeth got a less than stellar report card.

SEVEN cavities!!!!!!!!!!!! (did I use enough exclamation marks?  NO I need more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I didn't even know 4 year olds *had* seven teeth (ok, that's a lie, but you can sense my frustration, no?)

I sat in the dim corner in my designated 'parent' chair and felt myself shrinking as the dentist kept calling off cavities like hot-cake diner orders...."cavity on C4, order up!".  I felt about 2 inches tall by the time the dentist looked up at me and saw my shocked and embarrassed face.  I stumbled over my words when he started the interrogation: "Does she drink a lot of sugary drinks?  Does she brush her teeth?  Do you inject sugar in her mouth after she falls asleep at night?"  Ok, so maybe he didn't ask *that* question, but I may have been a little light-headed at the moment as large dollar bill signs kept knocking me in the head.

I responded:

Umm, uhhh, yes, we brush her teeth and uhhh, we only give her diluted juice once or twice a day uhhhh, how can this even happen?!

The dentist was super nice, but I saw a brief smug look of 'did-you-know' cross his face when he informed me that apple juice is the worst kind of juice you can give your kids.  Sorry about that Dr. DDS, they don't exactly advertise that on the Mott's label; and, should I be switching to grape juice then?  I'll be sure to call you to scrub my couch and carpet for future spills.

So I choked out my embarrassment and then the dentist switched gears, for which I was grateful.  He told me that some kids just have a certain bacteria in their mouth and no matter how much they brush, cavities.  And some kids never brush their teeth, no cavities.  Of course.  My poor sweet girl.  She has terrible vision, and now her teeth.  I hope this is as bad as it gets, for her sake!

So, we have a few more visits back to the dentist.  I'm hoping we can just use laughing gas to accomplish the task at hand, but we shall see.

Here's the cute girl getting all ready for a cleaning.

 She really did a great job, she was super obedient.

 Lounging around.

Thank goodness for flex-spend accounts.

Labor Day Hike

We totally hemmed and hawed about what to do with our Labor Day after a busy weekend, and we really just needed some family time, so we went to Snowbird and had ourselves a little hike and some lunch.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the fresh air was just what the doctor ordered.

At the top of the mountain where the tram dropped us off...and where Kristoffer proposed to me over 6 years ago.  And here we are, 4 states and 2 kids later!

After lunch, getting ready to load little Owen in his carrier.  Owen LOVES his carrier.  He gets to be up high and see it all AND be right next to daddy, his favorite pal.  He is one happy boy.

 Marin also loved the same carrier when SHE was a little tyke, and she was hoping to sneak in without anyone noticing.  Owen was less than thrilled with big sister's plan and squawked at her until mommy booted her out.

It didn't take long for Owen to drift off to dreamland.

Um, gorgeous much!

Happy and TIRED girl.  I'll spare you the details of the this sweet girl on the hike back UP the mountain.

Headed back down on the tram.

Snowbird was hosting an Oktober-fest the same day, so we got Marin a little chocolate dipped German waffle.

Happy!

A September Wedding

Kristoffer's gorgeous little sister (ok, so she's really 25) fell in love and married the love of her life this past Saturday.  Marin and I went to her bridal shower last Tuesday and we all attended the wedding on Saturday.  It was absolutely lovely.  The bride was stunning, the groom was handsome, the food was delicious, the music was intoxicating and the happy couple was deliriously happy.  It was so wonderful that we were able to participate in their happy day, and we wish them nothing but the best for the future.  They are honeymooning in Hawaii this week, and I would be lying if I told you I wasn't jealous at all.... ;)

The front table with pictures of the happy couple and page cards to sign for each family.  They put up their i-pad and had everyone take a picture in front of it to glue on their page card for their wedding guest book.  Such a cute idea!

 The reception was inside their home and was cozy and happy.

 The wooden stairs to the bottom lawn where they had the ceremony.

 GG and Marin.

 Hanging candles.

 Coming down the stairs together as single people for the last time.

 Taking their vows.

 Justin, the groom, has a daughter from a previous marriage named Estelle.  Marin loves Estelle (although Estelle is just shy of 8) and they are so so SO cute together.

Sharing little girl secrets.

 A very happy bride.

 The newly married couple!!  Melodie and Justin are just the perfect couple.

 Their little dog Charlotte took a seat on the train of Melodie's dress.

 First family photo.

 Owen, my sweet little buddy was just wiped out, and snuggle into his favorite pal for a rest.

It has not rained in Utah for the entire summer (just about), and it was scheduled to rain on the wedding day.  Of course!  Poor Melodie must have been beside herself worrying about it.  But the rain held off just long enough to finish the ceremony and take pictures, and then we had a soft rain-shower after we were inside and tucked away for our dinner.  Check out this gorgeous view from their balcony.  Absolutely stunning.

 It really was breathtaking.  A picture doesn't do justice.

 Marin and mama.  Not sure why my hair is so fluffy...

 I just couldn't stop taking pictures.

 Just imagine yourself here and take a deep breath of fresh, rain-y air!

 My cutie girl.

Cake cutting with Estelle.

 I loved the after-sunset remnants of wispy clouds, trailing the final drops of rain onto the city.

 A little string trio playing French bistro music all evening?  Yes, please!

 The dessert table.  Full of the most delicious treats known to women everywhere.  The classic wedding cake, a strawberry cake, a German chocolate cake, macaroons, pistachio tartlettes, coconut yummy bars (this is what I call them since I don't know the real name).  Let's just say I overspent my daily caloric budget just a touch for this table of goodies.

We spent the night at the house after the party; this way, we could put the kids to bed and keep partying!  We are so happy for the cute new couple, congrats Justin and Melodie!!