A Few Snap Shots of Our Life....

This is our life, it's crazy, far from perfect, but hey, we have fun.

Dustin reading to Thomas "The Tickle Monster", I would highly recommend this book. Thomas loves it! The illustrations are cute and it's interactive, which I love.

Thomas LOVES keys, they are his favorite toy. He loves "locking" our car and apartment door. If I give him keys he is entertained for a while. 

We go on A LOT of walks, this kid goes crazy if he stays indoors too long.

We see a lot of cool animals on our walks. There are several ponds near us, so we get to see ducks, birds, turtles, and sometimes snakes. 

And than there are my two boys who are always playing. This time Dustin is teaching him to sword fight, ummmm.... I don't know how I feel about that. 

Side Walk Chalk

Thomas also received some sidewalk chalk in his Easter basket, so this week we decided to use them!

I think I was more excited to use them than him, having a kid gives you an excuse to be a kid yourself. I have many fond childhood memories with sidewalk chalk so I was very excited!

Thomas didn't quite grasp the concept, but he had fun grinding them together. 

My Path to Photography

If you have followed my blog at all you would figure out pretty quick that I like to take pictures.

It wasn't always that case.

I actually never cared for photography. I thought it was boring, I remember when I was really young, my brother, Paul, once showed interest in photography (he probably doesn't remember this) and my dad got him a book about photography, I looked through it and thought it was actually really boring, and wonder why people did it for enjoyment.

Most of my life I didn't have a camera and I rarely took any pictures, which I regret now.
I took a Communication class in Jr High because I dropped out of band the last minute that semester, and it was the only class opened that hour, and I really disliked that class. It probably was because of the teacher, but we had to take pictures, and I learned how to develop film in the dark room and everything, that part was actually interesting, but not enough to keep me interested, and if I remember correctly I messed up a lot of my pictures...

My senior year in high school was the first time I probably started looking at photography and saw it more as an art form. I was in AP art and some students had some cool photography projects... but again I didn't show any interest.



Not until I went on my Europe trip after my first year in college did I really started liking photography. I started taking pictures of the amazing architecture and wanting to take pictures of "the feel" of every country, and capture moments of the people around me. Every night when we would be back at our hostels I would go through my pictures over and over and I would say to my room mate almost every night that it became this huge joke, "Did you know every country has it's own color scheme?", I'm not kidding I would say it every night and not meaning to, but I just loved how the pictures just captured the feel and flavor of each country, I was trying to express this to my room mate, also this was the time I started taking all my lamp post pictures haha.


When I got home I would go to the nature park or somewhere else and I started taking pictures. I did that a couple times, especially when I had a lot on my mind, it was a way for me to relax.
Than school started up again, and I stopped taking pictures. That semester I was taking digital illustration class so I was always at the photo lab printing of my paintings and there would be many photography majors working on their projects and I always loved looking at their stuff, again I didn't think anything about photography.

Not until that summer, a year after Europe and was engaged to Dustin did I start thinking about taking a photography class. That's when I started self teaching myself how to edit pictures on photoshop, I would practice on my Europe pictures and I would spend hours doing it. With my tight schedule with illustration classes and my senior project, I figured my last semester I would take a photography class for fun. Well it never happened, since I was going to have a baby my last semester, I just ended up having my senior project and chemistry because I wanted it to be less crazy.

I would tell Dustin several times how I wanted a really nice camera, but I didn't see how we would be getting one any time soon.  Than Dustin's parents got us the PENTAX SLR for Christmas/graduation gift! O my goodness! I was one happy camper, I teased Dustin that it was mine, well I do use it more than him!

I was a little timid about it too, I didn't know how to use it, I didn't know what aperture was, or shudder speed, or ISO, luckily Dustin's sister came to my rescue and told me the basics, but I was still nervous, it took a few tries till I got things figured and not all mixed up.
After that I just started researching a lot and PRACTICED, PRACTICED, and PRACTICED, Thomas has pretty much been my only model, but he's been doing a great job ;)

And now, thanks to my friends and family, and those who would comment on my pictures make me feel confident enough to think maybe I should go into photography. But I'm still not sure for many reasons, 1. because I still love doing illustration so I'm hoping maybe I can do a little of both? 2. I don't know if I have what it takes, and 3. I see this on the internet:

 Than I wonder am I that monkey? 
Fist thing, I want to say is I agree, and disagree with this picture. 

I agree that because of technology and easier access to a lot of programs and cameras there has been a lot of bad art and, in this case, photography. 

But at the same time I feel like being creative is an outlet for people, a hobby they like to do, and if they love it and they like their art/pictures that they should do it proudly and show it to the world. I hope this makes sense what I'm saying? 

Also, as a mom I want to have cute pictures of my kids, but I can't afford to have a photographer at every event in our lives, so yes, I'm going to play photographer. 

So I'm debating if this is something I want to do.... 

Luckily one of my good friends. Aubrey, asked me to take her wedding pictures this summer (which I'm very excited and nervous about) because this way I will see if it's something I would like to do for a career or more of a hobby. 

And I MIGHT, might is the key word, do free sessions for anyone in town that month I'm in Rexburg, so I can get some practice in, learn from mistakes, and to see if this is really something I want to do. 

I've also thought about posting tips and things I have learned about photography, and maybe some editing techniques that I have learned. Also I would love to hear from anyone that has tips or have techniques they have learned as well. 


So here goes my first tip....


Tip #1: Be Inspired
I'm always looking at other photographers' work, being inspired by others can help your creative juices flow. Also this way you can see what style you like, and what type photography you like.


For me I like the nice clean, bright look, and sometimes I like the vintage look that's popular right now. I also like a good pose picture, but LOVE the kodak moment pictures, the ones that tells the story. 


Here are some photographers that I love:


http://www.taraphotographics.com/

http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/

http://blog.peekaboophotos.com/

http://www.vantagepictures.com/

http://julieparkerphotography.com/

Find some photographers that you like and get inspired. I don't know about you but after looking at photography I want to get my camera and shoot away! 


Another source is Pinterest as well, I'm always pinning photographs that inspire me. 


*Anyway, most of my tips will be more in detail than this, but I figured this post was long enough, so if you actually read through this, congrats!

Bed Hair

This is usually what Thomas looks like when he wakes up:

It's more crazy when it's longer, but almost every time I get him after a nap or in the morning his hair is always some type of work of art. 

One of the Scariest Moments of My Life

Monday morning I woke up 1:30 a.m. by some weird beeping, and siren. The beeping was coming from our fire alarm but it wasn't the normal loud, obnoxious beeping, it was a little one every so often. I first blew it off, than I realized I was also hearing a firm alarm coming outside of our apartment.

I woke up Dustin, and asked him what was that noise, it couldn't possibly be the fire alarm? I didn't see any smoke. We got out of bed, Dustin looked at our deck and their were fire trucks and police cars with their sirens. He checked outside our apartment and we saw some people doing the same thing, but a lot people didn't seem too nervous. Dustin said it was probably a false alarm, than I look out the window from our deck and saw more fire trucks and sirens and flashing lights going off. I told Dustin I wanted to get out of the apartment right away. I kept picturing a fire in our apartment, and I started freaking out. We woke up Thomas and headed out, we didn't even think about taking anything with us, we just left. I kept thinking in my head "we need to get out, we need to get out."  When we got to the parking lot we saw a lot of people out there and three fire trucks and several police cars. We couldn't see what was going on, I didn't see any smoke, so I was still wondering if it was a false alarm. It was cold outside and Thomas and I were cold, so Dustin hurried back to our apartment to get a blanket.
And that's when I saw smoke coming up from the top of our complex, than A LOT of smoke coming out of a window, I started freaking out, I counted the windows to see how close it was to our apartment, it was 2 windows down from our apartment, than I really started freaking out, I looked at the stairs to see if Dustin was coming but there was no Dustin. My first instinct was to run up and find him, but I had Thomas in my arms so I couldn't bring myself to go up, than I heard a guy saying to the people who were still in the complex "You need to get out right NOW! They can't contain it!" and fireman were knocking on people's doors getting them to evacuate. I was starting to loose it, I kept on saying, "He's fine, he will show up any minute."Finally Dustin showed up, and I have never been so relieved.
We were out there a little over an hour, and they hosed down the apartment with water and they finally got it in control, someone said the apartment was burnt to crisp, and some of the apartments next to it smell like smoke, and the apartment below will have water damage.
They finally let us in our apartment, and luckily out apartment was fine, it didn't even smell like smoke.
No one got hurt, Luckily the apartment was empty but we didn't know what caused the fire, but I'm so grateful that no one got hurt. Count your blessings.

Later that day, I went to see the apartment, since it was 2 doors down, and it was in a really bad shape, everything was burnt. On the News it said a couch caught on fire and that's what caused it. Now that's over I almost feel silly being so scared, but when you are in the moment you can't help it, and that it was so close to our apartment and at first they couldn't stop the fire I thought there was a chance all of our stuff was going to be gone, not that we have much, but all of our files on our computer. ALL of our art work and pictures are on that computer. But we also realized if that happened it would be ok because it's just stuff, and like I said, when we first ran out of apartment we didn't think about it, all we cared about was being safe.

Well, I'm grateful that everything turn out ok, I know the Lord was watching over us.

*I just realized in the news video you can see us, it's just hard because it's in the dark, but we are in the middle right, I'm right behind Dustin, but you can see me carrying Thomas. I hope next time I'm in the news it will be in a different situation. 

Easter Picnic at Celebration

This year's Easter was a lot of fun. Since we have moved here in Orlando, we have had every holiday with just us three, that I have come to realize how much work it is to be the mom. Mom's are the one's that plan a head, get everything for the holiday, cook a meal, make dessert... etc... this makes me appreciate my mom and my mom-in-law that much more and look up to them, and I hope one day I can  be like them. 

With that said, it is also fun to be the mom, and just have us three because we can start our own traditions, and I have to be little more creative sometimes. 

This is year I decided to be more laid back and just do a picnic instead of a huge meal, I don't think I will do this every Easter but this year we did. We won't always be here and I thought it would be perfect to have our "Easter dinner" at Celebration, which is a little town I have fallen in love with, if we could I would live here, maybe when we retire....?

I thought our picnic went well, we had egg salad sandwiches, salad, fruit, raspberry cream salad, home-made rolls, and cupcakes. 

Getting all set up for our picnic. 

I love this picture! Dustin did such a good job, he doesn't use the camera as much as me, but sometimes he can get that Kodak shot, and this one I just ADORE!

In Thomas' Easter basket he got some bubbles, and can I just say they were a hit! 

( PICTURE OVERLOAD)

My little stud.

It was hard to get him interested in hunting for eggs after the bubbles, so here's Dustin helping him, 

and this is what he does next: 

Throws them!

Again, back to the bubbles.

Than he dumps it, that didn't take very long.

As I mentioned before, I love this town, here are some pictures of some houses. We were going to go on a walk so I could take more pictures, but Thomas was getting cranky, so these are just a couple pictures I took as we were driving back home. 

We had a great Easter! 

I'm so grateful for our Savior and the Atonement. 

We are truly blessed. 

Blue Horizon and Catch Up

Living so close to SeaWorld, Thomas and I get to see a lot of the shows. Our favorite is the Blue Horizon: The Dolphin and Whale Show, we probably see it once a week. Thomas loves it!

It's really cute watching him, he claps after every trick and he waves hi back to dolphins when they are waving with their fins.

It was very hot that day. 

The false killer whale. 

And sometimes when we go to SeaWorld we have Dustin draw us. 

Than here are pictures of Thomas the other day, he loves playing on our bed and messing it up, so why do I even make our bed? 

And here is a picture if Thomas' new haircut, Dustin did a good job. This kid has so much hair it seems like we are always cutting it.