what's been going on....

I haven't blogged in a while, so here are a few picts...Tyler finished kindergarten and that was a bit emotional...I've been the room mom this year and we couldn't have asked for a better teacher for Tyler. When I was all worried last summer about who he would get, I just prayed that he would get someone that would be loving. I am so grateful, she truly loves her students! We got to know the people at school, the principal, the office staff, other children. It was the greatest when the children would say, "hi Mrs. Duke" or "hi Tyler's mom" or "can we play with Alyssa?" Another mom and I put together a quilt with all the kids making a square and then my mom (my professional seamstress) assembled it for us. We did field day, the zoo, all lots of fun. What a great year! Hopefully the summer will be kind to us

Kick Counting

A fellow photographer lost a baby due to stillbirth and is trying to get awareness out there on how to prevent stillbirths by counting kicks.

From Blair Blanks...founder of the Baby James Project.

"1 in 150 births is a stillbirth, and that number is generally considered a low estimate. Think about this, most women have two children. So that means roughly one in 75 mothers will go through this. Do you know 75 women? Neighbors, school moms, moms from church?

Some stillbirths are unexplained and some are unavoidable. But in some cases, stillbirths can be prevented if the mother is highly aware of her baby's movements. You can track your baby's activity by using a written log of kicks. While every baby is different, in general, babies in the third trimester should move at least 4-5 times an hour. If you detect a change, either a decrease in movement, or an unusual increase in your baby's level of activity, it may mean your baby is in distress. Should either occur, call your doctor at once. If you can't reach your doctor, go to the hospital to have your baby checked. Don't wait until office hours; go to an ER if you have to. A "false alarm" is far better than having a stillborn baby."

Please take a minute to visit the site below if you or someone you know is pregnant!! It could save their baby's life! (click on the brown box) If anyone wants to be pro-active and put this banner on their blog, feel free to take it or I will get it to you.

Randoms about me....

On my photography board, someone wrote: "Show me your randoms... " Requesting everyone to confess random oddities or quirks about themselves. It is hilarious to see how WEIRD people are, but we all have our "things." Here is a list of random things about me....

-No one is allowed to touch my collarbone! I broke it as a child, and have phobias--I only recently can stand to wear necklaces that touch it
-I HATE onions--I know, they are in everything, but not in the food that I eat
- I don’t really care for ice cream…unless there is cake or a brownie next to it
-I've only had a few, but I giggle like crazy at a pedicure when they rub the dry skin off
-I HAVE to wear socks to sleep, no matter how hot it is...my feet must be covered
-a blanky or pillow must be between my knees, and between my elbows
-I can't stand to walk around barefoot on a hard surface floor--always little tiny particles that get stuck to my feet (I love carpet--fighting Michael wanting hard wood everywhere)
-I have teeth braking phobia...so scared about damaging them
-I can make a dolphin sound with my lips and a horse sigh...hard to explain....
-I HATE all soda...it tickles my nose and hurts my throat
- I hate taking baths...why would I want to sit in my own filth and have my shoulders and knees stick out and get cold?
-I have to force myself to eat vegetables, but I love broccoli
- I love a loud radio when I'm in the car by myself, and the more I like the song , the faster I drive
-I don’t mind chaos…I actually thrive in it
-I have no desire to skydive, scubadive, bungee jump, etc. I see the fragility of my life now that I am a mother
-I can really appreciate good handwriting b/c mine isn’t
-I wish I could give better reactions to surprises/gifts from others (my face doesn’t show what I feel)
-Every morning when my alarm goes off (at 6:50), I curse our shool district for making elementary school start so early
-I bust out in drill team moves at a moments notice (5...6...7...8....)
-I'm all about semantics...don't tell me I'm "angry" when I'm just "frustrated" BIG DIFFERENCE
-I pull my hair when I'm thinking

If anyone can think of anything else quirky about me, feel free to comment.

My girls....weekend away

I have these 2 girlfriends that have known the real ME for a very long time--half of my life. Wow, that sounds like a long time! I met Natalie (above right) when I was 14, just before my freshman year in high school....I had just moved to Houston. We lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same church. Emily (left) didn't move to the area until a year later....she also went to my church, and she and Natalie ran track together and became friends, but we didn't become good friends until we were both 16 and the boys we were dating were best friends. So we did a lot of double dating and chatting about the in's and out's of those boys we liked. They went to BYU before me, but I met up with them there and we had the same major and took some classes together. We all got married within a year or so from each other. We've lived all over, and kept in touch and saw each other when we could (all our parents still lived in Houston).

(Here we are, back in the day) The past two years, they have both been in Houston, just a few hours from me. So we'd meet up and talk about our lives...parenting and such. It's just so great to have solid people move through the stages of life with me. They make me laugh, we cry together, we hold each other up when times are tough, remind me to be my best self, and keep me in check when I'm slacking off. Collectively we have 8 children and still going....I know all of their siblings and they know mine...their husbands actually grew up and went to our high school, too. They truly care about me, and for that I am grateful. I love these girls!

We met up in Dallas b/c Natalie just moved there and has the baby, Emily drove up from Houston, and I drove from Austin.....all by myself! Michael actually called me on my drive as I had my MP3 player blaring my newly downloaded favorite songs, and I exclaimed to him, "I am having so much FUN with myself!" Just to sing loudly with the idea that I was meeting up with my friends. Navigating the unknown Dallas area with my mapquest map beside me I crossed over 8 lane highways and thought, "I'm a BIG girl now!" Emily is moving in a few weeks to the East coast which is so sad, but we've decided its worth it to do these "Girl Weekends" at least every other year. Remind me again why I can't pick all my favorite people to live on the same street as me? Stinks sometimes.

We ate out....went shopping, and stayed at a hotel with down comforters and nice padding. And just talked all night long.

I'm so grateful I have a supportive husband who doesn't "bat his eye" at holding down the fort and encourages me to have fun like this. Also grateful for good friends who helped me when my hubby couldn't get off work the whole time.

hair chop

i like to grow out my hair then chop it off....I just got an inkling one day last week and went for it. I like that i can do two "little ponies" as Em calls them, aka pigtails and they are fun. Great for summer. My hair is so heavy, I also get it thinned out....I know a lot of you are horrified at the idea, but its my life. A great bleasing I know I don't fully realize...good thick hair.

Domestic Darlings

My friend has a business selling really cool and cute aprons...check it out
http://www.domesticdarlings.com/

Yummy Yummy Banana Bread

My friend Emily M. made this for me at Christmas, and I LOOOOOOOVE it! It has butterscotch chips, pecans, and cherries. Sounds weird, but it is oh so good. I finally got the recipe this past week and made it today with my nearly too far gone banana's.

Recipe:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3 mashed ripe bananas

2 cups flour 1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup pecans

1/4 cup cherries (cut in half)

1/4 butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x5 bread pan. Cream sugar with butter. Beat in eggs. Add in bananas. Mix in baking soda and flour. Stir in Pecans, cherries and butterscotch chips. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until toothpick is clean.

Recipe works best (this is what I did) if you double it and bake in 3 medium bread pans.

Texas Blubonnets

I took Alyssa when the boys were at school...we tested out our new petticoats--oh so fluffy!

RUN, don't walk!!!!!

I finished the book in 4 days! 500 pages and that's still doing my regular fiddling on the computer each day....it is soooo great (I"m glad I didn't read the back b/c I might not have ventured into it if I knew what I was getting into). What is even more exciting is that there is a sequal that I need to run out and get, and the third installment comes out in August! I've never been so excited about a book before (reading has never been top of the list of my favorite things to do). I read what the author wrote on her website (late last night after I finished) so as not to get any spoilers, and I loved how she said, "I just love these two characters and I wanted to share them with everyone else." She's got several projects in the works regarding them! Yay! The book is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.....I posted about it below.

lots of visitors

My friend Cynthia came to visit today...she used to live just down the street from me...about 7 houses down...she has 3 kids roughly the same ages as my kids...I only had the pleasure of having her on my street for 9 short months....she moved away...2 hours away. Seems so close, but in the reality of hectic lives, it might as well be far far away. We went there for Thanksgiving and she came with the kids today on the school holiday. She came mainly to pick up a print I made huge for her

of her daughter, Samantha...I love how it turned out, the print is about life size. The kids ran around and screamed and we chatted and munched on Queso and Carrot Cake. I was reminded that yet another friend that I really treasure, moved away...but unfortunately don't keep up with as well as I'd like. Why can't she still live down the street? waaaaaaaaaaa! On her way out, we stopped at a nursing home to visit a ward friend and the kids got to be adored by all the residents, and she commented, "If you are ever feeling low, just come here and you will feel like a celebrity." It's so true. They requested our kids sing a song, so we sang, "I am a child of God" and "Popcorn Popping." I need to go more often. We stopped by Ikea on our way out and then she was on her way. She recommended a great read, but she said I can't read the back cover, but that it is so good I won't be able to put it down. It is written by a stay at home mom who is a member of my church in Arizona, so that really intrigues me. It has also been highly acclaimed nationally. Here is the website and book info....I'll let you know how it turns out.

for linda

Linda has been asking to see this wall for a while now...she helped me think of a design about a year ago and I finally got them all up a few months ago... the theme is candid shots of the fam (not looking at camera) and black and white...I really love how it turned out! The big "D" was purchased at a craft fair about 2 years ago and Linda also got one with her family letter. I finally found a place to put it.

This is funny....

I love to view other photographers websites and my cousin in law, Angela, is also a budding photographer. She found this and showed it to me, and I've since shown several others and we all just laugh! I'll put the actual link here for easier refererence. http://www.babycakesphotography.net/index1.html This is the home page, go to the right and click on Galleries, then go 7 down to "pee-nut" you will laugh and laugh and want to show your friends!

Hoppy Easter

Michael's brother + family plus his parents came in town this weekend...his bro only drove 3 hours, and his parents flew from Cali...they were actually stopping off for the weekend on the way to S.A. It was fun and crazy...it rained and was freezing all day Saturday so we stayed inside and let the dads hide eggs in random places around the house. I had to prepare my lesson to teach the kids at church on Sunday, and ended up using Resurrection Eggs...has anyone seen them, they are great (I borrowed from a friend, but I'd like to get some)! Anyway, my sis in law is my fellow blogger friend, so we commiserated about the blog world.

Here are some picts:

Clarification

I have 2 cameras that I use regularly...my Canon 20D slr...what I use for my photo sessions and when my kids are looking cute...usually intentionally b/c I know I'm going to take pictures of them. It's just too big to lug around from place to place. So 2 years ago I purchased my "fits in your pocket" Canon Powershot s500 elph. It's great, it's got video features, and takes a decent picture. It has the delay which I don't love, but I was used to the quickness of my slr. Although I can look at an image and clearly tell which camera I used on it, I'm ok that it isn't as sharp or as great than my "nice camera." The ease of throwing it in my purse and not worrying about it outways the edge I could get with my "big camera." I love them both. So I sometimes cringe at the picts taken with my "little camera" when I post on this blog, mostly b/c I worry people will say, "she supposed to be a photographer, that is not a good pict" and I'm here to say, I know that and I'm okay with that....so now that I have my disclaimer out there...maybe I won't cringe so much and worry that those of you out there will think this.

Out with the old....

Before: nasty gold trim...I've "strongly disliked" this fan since we moved in 4 years ago...about 2 years ago Michael gave to me as a gift to go pick out any fan I'd like and he'd replace it...I went several times and finally recently it wasn't cooling so well, so I knew I had to do it before summer. I was so happy to be rid of it....as for the light, I've also wanted a change, so I did them both at the same time.

After: Beautiful brushed silver! Now to replace the 7 other small light fixtures in our home from the gold to the silver....

Thanks to Michael and his brother David for the joint effort and 2 trips to Home Depot!

I'm a photographer

I've had my photography biz for about 3 years now and in the last year through the help of online photography forums, I've really honed my skills to a place I feel good enough to say, I'm a photographer. Although I've downsized and am no longer doing weddings, and for the time being, I've halted doing children and families (Senior Teens are my favorites) I love to practice on my kids...the boys let me only sometimes or when they are offered some sort of bribe in return. Alyssa seems to be my target of late, so here are a few favorites I've done of her recently.