Missouri storms

I LOVE thunder storms! Last night there was a beautiful storm...so naturally I'd want to photograph one...and then the tornado sirens went off...and we headed for the basement.  But once the sirens stopped, guess where I was? Unfortunately, the rain and wind had picked up so I had to take pictures from indoors. (You'll notice the window screen in the last pictures)

(The same settings were used on all of the below pictures.  It was unreal to me how much the lightning could illuminate everything!)

I Heart Faces| Anything But A Face!

I just love diaper bums!

Missouri to Arizona

This past week my grandma died (more on that later).  It was completely unexpected.  So I left Friday morning with my family to drive out to Arizona for her funeral.  The drive out was beautiful.  We drove through so many different types of landscapes.  Sunset and sunrise I had my camera out trying to capture images from a moving vehicle.  Here's some of my favorites.

Kansas at sunset.

Nothing beats an Arizona sunrise.

All taken in Arizona. Everything from the White Mountains (just outside of Eagar where I grew up), the "Valley" (a.k.a. Mesa), and the Salt River Canyon. When I lived in Arizona, I never really liked desert landscapes. Now that I've been away, it was beautiful.

Ok, I admit this wasn't taken from a moving car. This was taken on one of the many side of the road potty breaks. (We were traveling with 7 kids).

Shannon lost her tooth here when she was little. From then on whenever we drove through Salt River Canyon, we would always search for and point out this spot.

Legend is, this was the car of some honeymooners that went over the side. It was another spot that we'd look for every trip through the canyon (p.s.- I circled the car).

I Heart Faces | Red

This week's theme over at I Heart Faces is "Red". I thought this was probably in light of it being Valentine's day today. But I just learned different. Pink is for breast cancer...red for heart disease. So here's my "red" picture...and appropriate since these two boys take good care of my heart :) (awe...ya okay, maybe a little cheesy).

Update: I was an Angie & Amy favorite as seen here!

I Heart Faces...Hearts

I had a totally different idea planned out for this challenge involving my son, a permanent marker and a cute little diaper bum with my best drawn heart on the back.  Sadly, my son didn't like my idea so much.  I was almost ready to throw in the towel and skip my first challenge but then I got another idea involving a remote, conversation heart and...me!  So here you go!  Happy Valentine's day!

Go find more entries at the above link!

Liam's First Birthday

This is a little video I made of some of the footage/pictures we got from him eating his cake.




(And yes, as you can tell from all the flashes, I am a camera happy mom.)

Here's a few more pictures.

#1- My attempt to make a backdrop and capture some cute pics of Liam...all I could catch were his feet.



#2- My mother in law will appreciate these. She loves BYU and has enough school spirit for the whole university. With that in mind, guess what had to be in his birthday package from her...yep, a BYU ball. (Which I might add, he absolutely loves!...oh, and do you like my backdrop? Bet you can't guess who got us that...) :)

Birthday boy

Okay, this is the last post for the day...promise.

 Today was Liam's birthday.  He turned one.  Chad and I can still hardly believe it.  It seems like we were just barely going to the hospital to have him.  But what a year it has been!  We sure love this little guy to pieces.

We're constantly amazed at how his personality continues to emerge!  For example, today I really wanted to get some cute, more posed looking pictures to mark his first birthday.  I couldn't get him to sit still.  I think he thought it was a game...run away from mom and her camera...or better yet, try to grab the camera.  Oh well, I got some lovely pictures of his feet.  I did, however, get some lovely shots when his dad was rocking him in the rocking chair.  Don't ask me why he doesn't have any clothes on.  Chad was watching him.    

& more snow...

Snowed In...

As you will might be able to tell by my recent influx of blog posting, I've had a lot more free time.  We've been snowed in.  It's given me the chance to catch up on editing some pictures.  Here's some taken weeks ago that I finally got to.  I love these of Chad.  They make me smile.  I don't take as many of him as I should these days.  Liam kinda hogs the camera...but isn't Chad handsome? :)

(btw- just got Florabella Luxe 2 and these pictures were edited with their action "b/w film".  I'm seriously in love!)

Snow storm

Yesterday, I went to Walmart to do some grocery shopping.  I was surprised at all the people there.  I mean, I had to park way back in the parking lot!  When I entered Walmart, I asked the Walmart greeter why it was so busy.

"They're just trying to prepare for the storm."

"Storm?", I asked.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be one of the worst storms since 1912.  Haven't you heard?"

At this point, among other things said, I happened to mention I'm from Arizona.  She laughed.

Storm was right!  I took this picture from inside from our back door.  Notice how you cannot see the houses behind ours.  Tomorrow I hope to venture outside for more pictures weather permitting.