Snap Shots of the New Life in Texas

Well, we are finally Texans!

 We've changed our licenses, license plates, registered to vote, and everything else. It's been a little crazy the last couple of weeks getting everything settled. But I think we are about there. 

The house will be finally finished painted today, and I can finally get every room cleaned up. The washer and dryer is hooked up, and everything is out of the box.

So far we really like Texas, it's nice to be in a house first off, but we also like the neighborhood we are in. There is a WAY nice swimming pool and playground just across the street so we have been taking advantage of that. The town we are in is smaller than Rexburg, but we have a lot of stores close by which is very nice, but the construction here is really bad and crazy. 

Also the weather has been so nice this last week, it feels like fall here! I love it! I have had summer weather for a year and half now. I love how I can wear a sweater! And having Dustin's grandparents next door has been great, it's nice whenever Thomas is grumpy we just head over there for a change of scenery for a bit.

Last week we had my brother Michael and his family come over for dinner and swimming (sorry no pictures I have been horrible) and that was a lot of fun, Thomas had fun playing with his cousins. 

So yes, we have been liking Texas.

Dustin also got a job working at Walgreens at night, so he can be available to substitute teach during the day and working on his teacher certificate and hopefully start teaching next year while we keep developing our clientele as artists and one day have that be our main source of income. 

Anyway, here are some snapshots of the last couple of weeks:

Thomas and Dustin drawing right after breakfast. Thomas really likes to color. 

The house we are staying at until Dustin's parents sell their house:

Walking and playing in the park with Grandpa Hayden.

In the house there is a little loft with a nice big room that we use for Thomas' playroom and he LOVES it! Dustin was very clever and put some boxes together to make a "race track" that Thomas likes to drive his cars on, but of course when I take pictures he doesn't do that, he just plays with the boxes, but you get the idea.  

Than a little UPDATE on Thomas:

Thomas just keeps growing and growing, last week all of sudden he started saying phrases instead of just words. He's been able to say words before but this last week I just feel like his vocabulary has exploded and he will repeat and copy what we will say (if he feels like it, he can be a little stubborn). Some phrases he's been saying:

"What's that?"

"Got it!"

"There he/she is!"

"See it?"

once he said "I need help"

"ready, set GO!"

"BLAST OFF!"

and more but those are the ones I can think of right now.

He's also been really good at asking what he wants vs pointing it to me. He says "help" a lot, "bottle" when he wants a drink, "fish" for gold fish. He's been saying letters of the alphabet but I don't think he knows them yet, he's just repeating what he hears. He quotes movies all the time, he must be my son! My two favorite words he's picked up is Aaaaamen, for amen after prayers, it's very cute. Than there is "ew" every time he sees an insect, and I'm guessing he picked that up from me since I hate bugs and I'm guessing that's what I'ver been saying every time I saw a bug

He's also in a "big boy" bed now instead of the crib, and that was surprisingly an easy transition but I think it's because he was excited for his new room. And not until today he didn't realize he could get off the bed, he would call me when he was awake, which was SUPER nice because I didn't have to worry about him getting out of bed but I think he's starting to figure it out. DANG! And he's been sleeping fine during the night except last night he kept waking up. 

Also yesterday I took the bottle away, which has been not so easy transition. He loves bottles! He also loved nursing, that I was nursing a lot until I could introduce him to whole milk in a bottle. He won't take sippy cups, or any other kind of drink thing. But I have been worried about it because people kept telling me he would get cavities and stuff, and since we've moved here he hasn't eaten anything he just wants to drink, so the other day I got frustrated and cut the tip of the bottle and now he won't take it or anything else. Now the last couple of days have been a pain, because that was his little "security blanket" I think. That now he doesn't have an outlet to calm down or has that security blanket that I mentioned, also it's made nap time and bed time harder because that's how he would start getting sleepy that now when I put him in bed he's still wired up. So I guess we are still figuring that one out, and I hope it's not the reason he kept waking up last night. Anyway I'm hoping he will start taking some type of drinking device soon for all of our sakes!

Now a little update on pregnancy:

Even though I'm not a big fan of pregnant pictures, I've been trying to take more this time, because now, with my second pregnancy I wanted to compare and I had maybe 3 pictures with Thomas so I regretted not taking more, but I still haven't taken a lot, probably 3 so far. Anyway, this is me at 21 weeks, and yes, I don't know the gender yet, and it is driving me a little crazy but that's what happens when you take a 2 week trip and move at the time you can find out, but I do have a Dr appointment on the 24th and I'm hoping I will find out than, many places we called to see if we could just get a quick sonogram wanted us to have an appointment before we did that, so I'm hoping this place doesn't make us to that, the lady on the phone wasn't sure since I was so far along they might do one at the same appointment so I hope they do! 

But with this pregnancy I felt like I was "hiding" it very well that some people in Rexburg didn't realize I was pregnant till I mentioned it, but the last few weeks I just popped out like crazy, and probably caught up with how big I was with Thomas at this point. I don't know how much I've gained, but when I was in Rexburg I had gained about 13 pounds I'm guessing since I didn't know my pre-pregnancy weight so I'm just estimating here. Over all I've been feeling pretty good this last month, my morning sickness lasted a little longer this pregnancy so it's nice to fell almost normal again. 

And now Dustin's update:

Dustin recently took an online class called Character Design by Stephen Silver. Stephen Silver designed all the characters for Kim Possible, and many characters in Cloudy Change of Meatballs to give you an idea of some of his work but he is consider one of the best in the Character design world. It was a really good, a lot of work, and intense class. But Dustin and I learned a lot (I would watch the lessons) and Dustin did a lot of work, I have tons of paper of drawings to prove it. Anyway, there were a lot of assignments but the first one he had to create this jolly, fat character (so the first picture on the left was his first week's homework)  and than after 9 weeks of the class they had to do the same character to see their improvement, so that's the second picture. I think both are good but the second is awesome. 

On the bottom picture is some of the process, the first one was what he originally had after many sketches and finally picking that as the direction he wanted to go. The second, is after I gave him some critiques (he is a lot better at handling critiques by me than I am with him), but I love how we both will push each other. 

Anyway, isn't he awesome??? He does really awesome artwork that I need to show more of, I really think he's getting to that professional level, he just needs that extra 10% than he will be there!

This month I was going to take a figure drawing class from a guy who works with PIXAR and Dreamworks, but the classes are $1000 a piece and I wanted to make sure we had a job lined up before I signed up, we had quite a bit of money in our savings that I could have, but when I finally decided to do it, the class was full. Which is too bad because I think it would have been a good time to do it, because I think the next class starts right as baby #2 comes so I might have to wait to July before I can take it. 

Anyway, this post turned out way longer than I anticipated, but that's what we have been up to the last few weeks!

Idaho, Family Reunion, and a Drug Dealing Chase

I'm almost caught up on my blog!

As I mentioned before I didn't take that many pictures when I was in Idaho because I was busy trying to sort out some of our stuff that we have left at my parents house, and since I've been pregnant I just been having less motivation to take pictures. I need to do better. 

While I was home in Idaho I threw away a whole garbage bag of my artwork! And I know there was more that I didn't find because I used to save EVERYTHING that I drew thinking it would mean something later. I guess I have become less sentimental, or have moved a lot, or I already have a million drawings between Dustin and I all the time that it felt good to just chuck it all. I only kept, maybe 7 projects from college and that was it.

For Labor day weekend I went with my parents to Utah for my mom's family reunion in Park City. And it rained A LOT the first 2 days, and me, being used to Orlando weather was cold almost the whole weekend. 

What was exciting was that this was the first time I've taken Thomas camping and he LOVED it! Outside all day, by a river and throw as many rocks as he pleases? Yes he had a blast! He also had a blast hanging out with some of his cousins.

He thought the tents were great and tried to help grandpa set them up for a little. 

Thomas and his cousin, Mitt, hit it right off. Here they are snacking on some Starbursts as we were setting up. During the whole weekend I think the only thing Thomas ate was sugar, because there was always candy near by.  

At your campsite there was a platform that all the kids had fun dancing on.

I think this picture is so cute with the cousins.

Even though it was raining a lot and I was always wearing layers it was fun to see everyone. I got to see all my siblings that live in Utah, and my sister, Nicole, flew up from Arizona. It was good catching up since some people I haven't seen for 2 years. 

So being the pansy that I am about being cold all the time, the first night Thomas and I slept in the back of my parents car, it was nice and warm! I loved it! 

And here is Thomas sleeping in because he didn't go to bed till it was really late.

The second night Nicole joined us, and that night wasn't as nice. First thing, there was some type of drug dealing speed chase, and one of the stolen cars crashed in a ditch right next to our car that Nicole and I were sleeping in, and he ran off and the police were trying to look for him. So here is Nicole, Thomas (but he is sleeping and clueless what's going on), and me locked in our car can't sleep because we are freaking out about this guy on the loose and the police can't find him. 

Nicole and I were kinda laughing because both of us just came from more shady places than Utah and here we are witnessing a drug chase in Utah, how ironic is that? Also we were laughing because I said, "With my luck the guy is underneath the car, for some reason crazy things like this happen to me." We were laughing pretty hard about that, because I have been stranded at a gas station calling my parents because I ran away from a guy I had previously been on dates with, who took me without my permission (long, long story, let's just say after 2 years of him bothering me last I heard he is in a mental hospital) I have had to call my parents for many occasions because someone wouldn't leave me alone somewhere, been in 2 fire accidents, just to name a few. 

So Nicole and I sat there for a good hour and they were still looking for him. We didn't want to sleep but at the same time we were tired, we finally both laid down, but we were both uncomfortable because there wasn't that much room and Thomas spreads out like an eagle and I'm pregnant so that never helps. I finally sleep, than after a couple hours I woke up, I look out the window and the cops are still there, they hadn't found him! O great, so again it took me a while to sleep because I kept picturing this guy going to pop his face at the window. Anyway, to make a long story short they eventually got him by our cousins trailer but they only got one out of the three people involved. 

Than the third night Nicole and I stayed at a nice hotel, thanks to my brother Benjamin, so we could get cleaned up before we both headed home the next day.

It was a fun trip, but it was the longest I have been away from Dustin so I was anxious to get back home, or my new home in Texas, which I have been liking a lot thus far. It nice being in a house vs a small, stinky, apartment. Anyway, I will talk more about Texas in my next post. 

Yeah! I'm finally catching up!

The Plane Ride From Heck

So this might surprise some people because of how much I flew around this year, but flying makes me nervous. I'm not nervous about crashing or anything, I always get nervous of getting lost in the airport, missing my flight, or losing my luggage. 

But luckily I've never really have had any issues until my flight to Idaho last month, and THAT was pretty bad.

First thing, DON'T EVER FLY UNITED AIRWAYS!!

I always get nervous the day before, like I can't sleep, I don't know why but I just do, but this last time I was more anxious than usual and I figured it was because I usually fly Southwest and I know how they do things and such, and I never have flown United before, also I thought I was scheduled to fly in the morning, because I like to get it over with, but a few days before I realize it was 7 in the evening instead, so I wasn't too happy about that because Thomas' bed time is around 8 and if he didn't fall asleep on the plane it was not going to be very fun.

Anyway the day of, I got to the airport, said my goodbyes to Dustin and things seemed to go pretty smoothly, getting my ticket was kinda annoying and long, but whatever. I wait at my gate, get Thomas' juice ready, diaper changed. When they said there was a ten minutes delay because the plane was late, not a big deal since I had an hour and a half lay over, but they asked for us to get in line anyway because they wanted to load the plane ASAP because there were some storms ahead and they wanted to beat them so I got in line with everyone. Well, we were in line for a good thirty minutes and Thomas was getting fussy staying in one spot, but I didn't want to leave and walk around because my fear of missing my plane and since we were running late I didn't know exactly when they were leaving. I didn't know why it was delayed so long because the plane was empty and they had enough time to tidy up. Anyway, we finally got in and we had to wait another 30 minutes with no AC because of "paperwork"? I don't know why because every time they said why it was for something different, also I guess some of their workers were running late. I started to get nervous because I had a connecting flight. 

We finally leave but we were an hour or so late, I was kinda nervous because that didn't give me a lot of time to catch my next flight, but with southwest I've been there ten minutes before and there wasn't a problem and usually the airline's gates are pretty close by so I figured I was ok and a lot of times the plane ride is slightly shorter than it says so I figured we would make up some of that late time.

Thomas is usually good on plane rides and this one he wasn't too bad, but he was really fussy because he was really tired and every time he was almost asleep they made some type of announcement, it was getting really annoying, and it kept him up. Also since it was a long flight and we had to wait for an hour or so before we left Thomas' diaper got a little too full and it leaked all over me, I was not a very happy camper, especially when I knew I wouldn't be able to change him between flights, so I just changed him right there on my lap, the guy next to me was super nice letting me do that (I asked first). An hour before we arrived in Denver Thomas finally fell asleep. 

We landed to Denver 50 minutes late and many people, including me, were anxious to get off the plane because we all had connecting flights. The pilot asked for people who didn't have connecting flights to stay put so the ones that did could get off quicker, well I was far in the back, and I heard a guy exclaim, "yeah right I'm going to wait for them." That really made me mad, and most people weren't willing to wait, so I was stuck in the plane for another 20 minutes before I got out, so I ended up only having 22 minutes before my next flight. And if you ever been to the Denver airport, you would know how crazy LONG it is. The gate I was at was #16 and I had to get to #88 in 20 minutes! So I strapped Thomas in the stroller and ran like a mad women, I really think it was about a mile, but I kept running and running. So here I was almost 5 months pregnant, with a bag, stroller, and Thomas booking it as fast as I can. I was breathing so loud that any other time I would have been embarrassed but I didn't care. Than when I got near  the end, I saw the gate was in the lower level, so I had to take an elevator down (which adds another couple of minutes) because of the stroller.  I finally get to the my gate 8 minutes before it was to take off, and they just closed the door to get to the airplane, I just starting bawling like no other. I asked them if I could get in, and they said no because I had to be there 10 minutes before, 10 stinking minutes. And I was there 8 minutes before. And it was just a flight to Idaho Falls, and it was 11 o'clock at night so it was one of the last flights of the day, and NO ONE goes to Idaho Falls for a connecting flight, it's their final destination, that I think people would be willing to wait a few minutes for a pregnant woman with a toddler, but she said she couldn't do anything and that I needed to go to a help desk. I pleaded and she said no and that she couldn't help me. I just kept crying and crying and I was furious because I WAS LATE BECAUSE SOME OF THEIR WORKERS WERE LATE! And I really felt like she just wanted to go home it was end of her shift I really felt like she didn't care. So I had to go back almost ALL THE WAY I started to get help and get another ticket. 

I waited in line, and there were A LOT of angry people there. I finally get to a person with a computer she asks for my tickets and where I came from and my destination. Also at this time, Thomas is crying because he is WAY tired, it was 12ish Orlando time at this point,

 I told her I came from Orlando, Florida, than she asks "Is that an island?" 

You got to be kidding me???? I just about lost it there. 

"Ummmm, noooo. You know, Disney World?" 

Than she took really FOREVER, and she didn't know how to get Thomas a ticket so she had to look it up, than she finally said.

 "Well the soonest flight I can get you is 7 in the morning tomorrow but it will take you about 6 hours to get there."

WHAT? 6 hours to get to Idaho Falls from Denver?

I asked her why it's that long when it's like an hour flight away? Than she said, "O your not flying to Orlando?" Remember I gave her my tickets too that she has been looking at for the last 30 minutes, so I had to correct her and get it all taken care of. Well she finally got me a ticket AND THOMAS to Idaho Falls early the next day, but than when she went to print it, it wasn't working. I understand stuff like that happens, but she kept trying and trying, and NOTHING was happening. So at this time everyone else is gone and taken care of so I'm the last customer there, that FINALLY she decided to go on another computer and just do it again. But than when she did it again she got confused and didn't know how to do it, and I was thinking "didn't you just do it like 5 minutes ago?" Anyway, she finally got things figured out and she got me a complimentary dinner at the airport, I look around everything is close, um thanks, no good. And a complimentary breakfast and a night in the hotel. I asked her how far was the hotel and how to get there. She said it was 30 minutes away and that there was a shuttle that I needed to take that was in either this door or this door.

 And I was like "Well, find out EXACTLY which door I need to take so I don't have to run another mile to be at the wrong door and end up missing my shuttle like I missed my flight, because I don't feel like running with a toddler and being 5 months pregnant again tonight." 

Well she finally found the door and it was getting late that there was NO ONE to be seen at the airport  but the cleaning crew I finally find the door, I met some people there and asked what hotel they were staying at, hoping to find someone with the same one so I can have a buddy and make sure I got on the right shuttle. Well NO ONE had the same hotel and everyone's was only ten minutes away, and I'm thinking why did she send me to the one 30 minutes away?

I was staying at a Holiday Inn, and I see a shuttle that had their logo and I gave him my ticket and starting loading, when he told me he wasn't the right shuttle and that I had to wait for the next Holiday Inn. That made me frustrated because I was tired, Thomas was tired, and by than every one had been picked up but me. Finally the other Holiday Inn shuttle came I showed him my ticket and I asked "Are you the right Holiday Inn?" He looks at the ticket, confused, and he asks "They didn't give you an address?" Ummm, no. "Well there are like 3 Holiday Inns here and I don't know which one that is without the address" he said. You got to be kidding me. I told him that the other shuttle said it was him, but he doubt he was the right one. I told him they said it was the one 30 minutes away, but that still didn't quite tell him which one. But he was really kind, and the first person that I felt that cared about me that night, and said, "Well, I'm the last shuttle of the night and your the only person so I will just drop you off at each one until we find it for you." I was so grateful since I didn't want to be stranded in the airport by myself, so I got on the shuttle, and one good thing, Thomas LOVED it! He thought it was so cool. Anyway, we stop at EVERY Holiday Inn, and not till the last one, and furthest, did they say I was at the right place. 

I thanked the Shuttle driver and told him how grateful I was because it was about 1 (so 2 at Orlando time) in the morning and I knew he could have gone home a lot earlier if he didn't drop me off at every hotel finding the right one. 

Than I felt sorry for the guy at the hotel desk, because at that point I was at my comical angry mode, and I told him my whole story in a very sarcastic way. Ha ha poor guy, anyway we finally got to our hotel room and it was very nice, in any other circumstance I would have loved staying there. Thomas thought it was great to share a big bed with mom since that never happens, that I finally got him to calm down, I took off his bottoms since they were wet from leaking on the plane and changed his diaper and he finally fell asleep. I, on the other hand, just stayed up with wet pants from Thomas and watched TV because I was so worried that I would sleep through my alarm clock and miss my early flight. 

The first shuttle was the following day was at 4:30am so I decided to take that one, since it was a half hour away from the airport and my flight was at 7. So I got Thomas up, he wasn't very happy since he had only 4 hours total the night before, but luckily he liked the shuttle again. I got to the airport, security was quick, got some breakfast and waited at the gate while Thomas was playing on the Ipad. It was very empty that I felt like maybe I was at the wrong gate, but it said I was at the right gate on the computer so I thought I was ok. Than I was talking to a lady who was also flying United and her story was a lot worse than mine, than it's been taking her 3 days to get home!!! WOW! She told me her story that she was at the gate it said she was to be at, and she kept asking the worker if she was at the right spot, and she kept reassuring her that she was, but than she noticed that he wasn't saying her destination by the gate and the lady kept telling her she was at the right gate, that finally she asked why her plane hasn't arrived yet, and why it was late, than the worker said well you are at the wrong gate and it has already left, and it was the SAME WORKER! After hearing her story I decided to check the computers again and they CHANGED The gate!!! Thank goodness I looked. So I had to go to the other gate. Anyway, obviously I finally made it! Thomas and I were asleep during the whole flight. 

BUT I WILL NEVER FLY THEM AGAIN.

And I know things happen, you miss your connecting flights, but there were A LOT Of things that happen, and everyone I talked to that had issues was United. 

My flight to Dallas, I flew Delta. I fly Delta usually if I can't get a SouthWest ticket and I've liked them in the past. And this time they were WAY awesome, that had me board first because I was with a child, they were on time, and everything else.

Anyway there is my LONG story, so if we read through it, I'm impressed.

Testing the Waters

So while I was in Idaho I got the opportunity to practice some of my photography skills. I was the photographer, for my friend, Aubrey's wedding, ( more pictures to come) and I also was lucky to take pictures of one of my childhood friends, Sara,  and her family.

I was excited to do this because I've been wanting some practice and wanted to expand my horizons, and not just take pictures of my own family. I also wanted to see if photography was something I wanted to do for some type of career.

Well, while taking pictures I learned a whole lot, and I felt like I fell on my face a little bit. There were some challenges that I just didn't anticipated. One, and the main thing, and I should have known this was to happen, but I didn't like being looked at and having the pressure of taking a good picture, I don't know if that makes sense. I like to be artistic and creative but I don't really like having any type of focus on me, I like to be more behind the scenes. For example I loved playing the flute in high school and I got really good, I was first chair and any solo I tried out for I got it, but I really disliked the pressure of playing a solo in front of people, obviously I did it, but every time I stressed out way too much that once I cried before a performance because of the stress of messing up, and I knew that music was not my career.

What I love about art is I can do it in my own little corner, no one watching me, than I present, and even than I don't like to present in person, ha ha. Thank goodness for technology that most of my clients I don't even see their face when I send them my final product I just email it to them. Also most of my college career I rarely signed my work because I didn't want people to know it was mine.

So I guess what I'm saying is, with photography I don't think I like the pressure of seeing my client face to face. The whole time taking pictures at the wedding I was a nervous wreck, o boy, I wondered if it was obvious, but I tried to pretend to be confident and knew what I was doing, but honestly I didn't, I just tried to act like my own wedding photographer did. Also I have never really posed anyone before, I just follow thomas and go with the flow, so it was hard for me to come up with poses at the wedding, good thing Aubrey and Loren were naturally good models. Also speaking of pressure, when people said how they have liked my pictures on this blog, and comments like "wow you look like you know what you are doing" it made me even more tense, because I was thinking " o no, now I'm going to disappoint them" it might sound silly but that's what I really was thinking. And honestly that night, talking to Dustin on the phone I said " I think I ruined Aubrey's pictures, she will always regret that she asked me to do her pictures."-but luckily she has been loving the ones I've sent to her thus far. 

After that I wasn't sure if I wanted to take Sara's pictures too, but again I wanted to try it out, I was thinking maybe I will be less stress since its not wedding pictures, and it was less stress, and they were so good, and I just took pictures of them playing with their little girl, and I didn't pose them because its really not my favorite thing to do, I rather sit at the back and take pictures, but now that I have edited them I wished I had posed them because I think I could have gotten more good pictures. But thank goodness their little girl was really good and was fun to photograph so I got some cute ones despite my lack of confidence and skill.

So after those two experiences I told Dustin photography is not for me, it's just a hobby vs a career. Than when I got home and was in my little corner with no one looking at me, editing the pictures I was having fun, and thank goodness I saw that I did get some good pictures, I was thinking maybe I could do this, but I'm still leaning on no it's more of a hobby.

So after that long explanation, I don't think I want photography be my main thing, but I am willing to photograph people with a small charge, but I don't think im going to put all of my energy towards it, I rather do illustration where I don't have that kind of pressure, I love deadline pressure that illustration can have, and I love drawing while I like photography. I hope this all makes sense, but I still want to learn more about photography, just not as a profession.

So thank you Aubrey and Sara for letting me take your pictures, you guys were great!

So here are some of the Forbush family:

And a quick preview to Aubrey's wedding. I will put more up later. 

I Am Alive! Just Really Busy

It's been a LONG time since I blogged but I have been super busy, I have been packing getting ready to leave Florida, I had to stay over night in Denver (I will blog about that crazy little adventure, DON'T ever fly with United Airlines) I've been visiting my Family for two weeks, taken some wedding and family pictures, cleaning up some of our stuff we have left in Idaho, had a reunion in Utah, saw a drug dealing car chase, and now I'm in Texas moving in and getting the house ready with everything else that happens when you move, and trying to find a Dr so I can find out what I am having since I am almost 20 weeks along! (I will blog all about this later when I have time) and now I'm trying to play catch up with work for two weeks and getting settled in, so who knows when the next post will be but there will be some good stories that's for sure. 

 

 

 I didn't take that many pictures of us on my trip because I was busy but these 2 were one of my favorites from the trip. This was after I told "no" to Thomas about something, and since he was mad at me he went to Grandma and scored because she gave him a popsicle, so they were buddies.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS: Part 3

Sorry this is WAY over due, I started this post back in May but just now did I get back to it. I think I originally had more to say but I think I will just leave this post how it was and I will just continue with more blog posts in the future, and I promise I won't take as long as I did with this one, now that life will settle down a little more now that Summer is almost over.

PLAN AHEAD, WHAT'S THE STORY?:

Planning ahead before you have a photoshoot, or just taking some pictures is always beneficial. I always like the ones I have planned out the night before, week before much better.

When I plan ahead I try to think what I want to tell? What is the story? What am I trying to say in my photography?

Maybe since I was an Illustration major where we focused SOOO much on the story of our paintings I like to do the same thing in my pictures. And for me, I like to tell the story through color, props, angles, composition, and any other story-tellimg elements. Here are some examples that I have done to demonstrate what I mean:

For our Easter Picnic, I actually started planning a week or so ahead, I thought about a lot of things. I thought about the color: I wanted it to feel "Eastery" or spring so I used some pastel colors, with some accent bright colors. I also had us where it was green to get the mood for spring. I had us color coordinate so all of us looked good together. Luckily the "story" part was easy, it was a family going on a picnic, and than Thomas with bubbles. Having Thomas with bubbles worked great because he acted natural and we could see some of his cute personality. With all of this planning a head this series of pictures turn out great with not that much effort.

And yes sometime I plan "the everyday" pictures that don't look planned but I really thought about the in my head. For example for this picture. Thomas does this EVERYDAY, he messes with our bed, and I wanted to take a picture of it because it something I want to remember and also I thought it would be a cute picture because it would tell a little "story" about Thomas. I didn't use "props" for the picture, but I let our bedroom not be picture perfect because I wanted to be real and for me, it tells a better story.

Anyway, Like I said, I will try and post more and sooner!

The Happiest Place on Earth- Disney World

Yesterday we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the last time before we move, I'm going to miss having all the fun parks close by.

This trip to Disney was a lot of fun because Thomas was old enough to have as much fun as us. Last time I went to Disney he was just barely a year old so he still didn't know what was going on. But this time he had a blast, it was a lot of fun to see him get excited about everything. His favorite part was the monorail to get to the park, we could have done that all day and he would have been a happy camper. 

He loved all the rides we went on, that every time we got off he cried. We went on the Dumbo ride, It's a Small World, and The Pirates of the Caribbean. He thought they were great. 

I didn't take that many pictures because we were always on the move and there are SO MANY people that it's hard to get a good picture without having thousands of people in it. Also when we first got there we were trying to hurry and catch Merida from Brave for the little girls from the Hill family that came with us that morning. 

But I did get a few of the castle, they turned out better than I thought because I was literally walking and taking pictures at the same time, I learned that skill on my Europe trip.

Than we went home for lunch and Thomas and I took a nap. Than that night we decided to go back since we actually never seen the firework show and we figured this might be our last time, but right as we get off the monorail to head to the park it started pouring. So we just chilled at the station for a while, Thomas loved it, he could run all over and watch the monorails go by. 

And this worker thought he was hilarious and came to greet him and gave a little card. He was Thomas'  buddy for a while. Than the rain finally stopped. I love when it rains because people start leaving the parks so it's less crowded and the weather is so nice aferwards. 

Look who's going to be our next king!

(Thomas pulling out the Excalibur) 

When we got to the park we went on few more rides, we even got to ride the Peter Pan ride! A funny story to that, so both Dustin and I have never been on that ride, and the last time I was at Disney, literally every ride in the park was 5 minutes BUT the Peter Pan ride, it was about 70 minutes, and every time I have walked passed the line it's at least 60 minutes. So I'm thinking: What is up with this ride? Is it really that good? But I never went on it because I'm not going to wait in line that long, well through out the night we would keep checking it to see if the line would go down, and we were right there, when we heard this big, manly guy say to his friends, "I love that Peter Pan ride, it's probably my favorite." and he wasn't joking either, that Dustin and I started laughing, this whole idea of  "this amazing Peter Pan ride" just got funnier and funnier (you probably had to be there) and we saw the line was finally 35 minutes, but it ended up being like 10 minutes. We finally got in the ride, when it crashes, like right when we were about to start, and Dustin and I just started cracking up, "Come on! We will never get the chance to ride this amazing ride." well, it finally got back to work and we finally got to ride it. And it was fun but we don't know what the big deal was, both of us looked at each other and started laughing and we both said, "That ride is not worth the 70 minute line it usually has!'

 So there's that great story.

We also got to ride the Haunted Mansion which I loved! I thought it was the best haunted ride I've been on, the ghosts looked AWESOME! It was fantastic, but I love that kind of stuff. Both Dustin and I wanted to ride it but we didn't know how Thomas would do, I figured he would be fine since he's pretty young and he liked it like the rest of the rides, so we went on that one a couple times.

Another funny thing that happened that night was the firework show cancelled because of the weather so we thought that was funny because of all times we could have gone to see them the one time we do they cancel it, but we had fun anyway, and Thomas was awake the WHOLE time, I thought he would fall asleep but he was having too much fun, but the minute we got the car he crashed till 9 this morning, which was super nice.

Anyway it was a great day, and I hope that one day we can go back.

Random post

Not a whole lot is been happening with the Clark's the last little bit. 

 Right now I'm trying to get everything done before I leave for Idaho in less than 2 weeks! To photograph the AMaZInG Aubrey's wedding! I'm a little nervous, not going to lie, photos for me not a big deal, but for someone's wedding, let's just say I hope I do well. So I've been trying to get many projects done, and get things packed and finding people who want our furniture because, again, we are just taking what we can fit in the car, sometimes it's depressing because I feel like I have nothing to our name, but in a way it's nice because we get rid of so much junk that we don't need. 

So I have packed most of our stuff, so about 2 boxes ha ha. I just have kitchen stuff and some odds and ends. We also have been able to get rid of half our furniture which has been a relief. Also this week I taught my last art lessons to a 11 year old girl, which has been very good for me because it made me go back to the basics of art and remember how important it is. 

Also I have been working really hard to get this book done:

I don't know if this will be the final cover, I'm still working on it, but I'm definitely not a graphic designer, but yet a lot my random art jobs has asked me to some type of graphic design, so I'm always looking up logos and any information online, I wished I had taken a graphic design class now. I was planning on it but the class always conflict with my illustration classes.  

But I just have two paintings left and that are almost done, I will have it done before I head to Idaho, but I don't know when Jocelyn will put it up for a free download, but I know either end of this month or next month, but I will let you know. Also I will be having a free giveaway for one of my prints on my etsy shop (which needs some work on at the moment) probably around the same time she will promote this book, so check that out too!

Also speaking of art jobs, the other week the lady gave me the shirts I designed for that company I mentioned about, I was pretty excited I wore it all day! Her husband said he liked it so much he got one too even though he didn't do the triathlon. So here's me modeling it, ha ha. I guess my other design was somewhat controversial because it was just for a 5k so I used the same female runner, I guess some of the men in the race didn't want to wear a shirt with a female on it, the lady that hired me to do the job thought it was hilarious, and I just said, "I guess that's what you get when you hire a female illustrator". She thought it was great. 

Sorry, this post is random, but here is a movie of Thomas dancing to Tarzan, sorry you can't see his whole body but every time we moved him back he just moved closer. This is the first movie that I have been able to load on blogger so I'm just excited. 

Also last week, or the week before, can't remember Dustin and I saw the new Batman movie in IMAX. I'm sold on the IMAX, but 3D, doesn't do anything for me, but the IMAX was impressive it was my first time, and probably our last because it's more expensive, but we did it this time just because Dustin gets discounts so it was almost as much as a regular ticket, but it was AWESOME, they had a preview for The Hobbit and it looked amazing in the IMAX that now I wish we could do that one in IMAX too. 

Anyway about the Batman movie, I won't say anything so I don't ruin it for anyone, but it was my least favorite Batman movie, but ever since we've seen it I have been wanting to see it again. It's my favorite movie so far this year, Dustin's is still Advengers but I'm a HUGE Batman fan, and Christopher Nolan's movies fan. I have loved all the movies that I've seen from him like Prestige and Inception. 

Anyway, random post, but that's just what we have been up to. 

Tomorrow we are heading to Disney World one last time so I will probably do a post about that, but maybe not because I swear every time we have gone to disney some reason we have either forgotten the camera, memory card, or some other reason that we never have pictures, but I'm determined to get some pictures. 

Cocoa Beach

Yesterday on Dustin's day off we went to Cocoa beach as a family. We haven't been to the beach very often because the closest one is an hour way but since we only have one more month left to enjoy Orlando we've decided once a week we are going to do something, so this week was the beach and next week we are thinking Disney World one last time. 

To be honest, I've never been a big beach person, but I do love Orlando's beaches, the sand is soft and the water is the perfect temperature, that I'm beginning to understand why people love them. Thomas wasn't so sure at first because it's been a while since we have been to the beach he wasn't sure what to think but in the end he was running all over and running to the waves with no fear.

We are going to miss Florida and it's beaches!