Senior Portraits Gone Wrong...

Welcome friends - today I am going to give you a good laugh. As we are packing up we are going through all of our boxes to get rid of as much stuff as we can. Today I came across a box I haven't opened up since high school with a lot of good memory stuff in there. Great fodder for future posts. One thing I appreciated the most was some of the proofs from my senior portrait session. I didn't remember that I had taken all of the worst pictures out and separated them from the other proofs. I hadn't seen these in a long time and boy did they give us a good laugh around here. Here are the cream of the crop...

Now these images require some explaining - perhaps more than I can give. But I'll try.

First off, I love to dress up. Not in the sense of getting in high heels and a little dress but in the sense of dressing up like a character . So when I went for senior pictures and my photographer had a room full of costumes and let me put on what ever my 17 year old self wanted to - and then photographed me wearing it - that was a formula for trouble...
This is me dressed as some sort of Grecian - with a t-shirt underneath. Did I really think I'd give this one out?


This one looks like a floating head. Boy, it might have been nice if I had done my hair for my senior portraits. What's that about?



I have no explanation for this hat.





But these are the most puzzling to me...I didn't even remember putting this on. Why did she let me and why did she waste film on it? Did either of us think this was really even worth our time? Obviously.
I love this one - I should get it blown up. This one says "I'm a happy happy sailor boy ready for our next adventure!". Wow.

If you're wondering I did end up with a pretty cute senior portrait but I'm too lazy to find it right now...maybe later I'll have to post it because that's pretty hard to believe after seeing these, isn't it?

peter's big break...

this movie is little and short but I know Grandma will love it!

Pooka.

Just watched Harvey for the first time. Wish I had seen it sooner but it always looked a little too silly for me. As per usual, I was wrong. I do love Jimmy Stewart. Here's a quote I hope I can not only remember but maybe live by a little bit more:

"In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me. "

Ten Things to Do Once I Get to Utah

(In no particular order)
1. Drive up North Fork Canyon(my favorite place on earth.)
2. Hike anywhere!
3. Swim at Payson Lakes.
4. Go over to Megh & Brett's and get Brett to cook dinner for us!
5. Get Cindy to have another class that I can go to to learn the art of paper cutting.
6. Visit the old stomping grounds(BYU) and relive the glory days.
7. Take the boys to Temple Square and see the Joseph Smith movie.
8. Hang with my brother Matt and his family.
9. Get Marisa to take my family portrait since she's a freaking awesome photographer!
10. See all of my Utah peeps.

I love kissing.

This is a scene from one of my favorite films of all time:


Did you watch it? Well, I happen to think that this kiss is one of the best kisses EVER in a movie. I found this trivia on it: "This was Jimmy Stewart's first film and romantic scene on-screen since he came back from the war(WW2), and he was afraid he would be, um, out of practice, but the kiss was so passionate that the censors had to edit it. All Jimmy needed was one take to nail it."

And watching this I began to wonder what THE best on-screen kiss of all time is. I have a few I like - including this one of course - but I wanted to hear your favorites... if you find them on youtube - let me know and I'll post it here.

Here's another kiss that is part of my psyche because I watched it so much in my developing years. It can still give me goosebumps. Man, that Jake Ryan...


This is another great one that I forgot and even though it's a bad transfer it's still worth showing.



Vicki - I had forgotten about this one and you're right - it's amazing. Here it is everyone....


Emily's suggestion was right on...but no embed video here - you'll have to click here to see the NEVER BEEN KISSED finale...

The Pride Cycle

Well, I recently said on here that we were selling our minivan but the birth of our third child has changed our mind and we are now selling our dream vehicle. The Land Cruiser. I'm pretty proud of Mike for being willing to do it. Because of the move we can only take one vehicle - neither one is towable - and the van is just much more practical for us. Don't you hate being practical sometimes?

Happy Birthday Mom!

If you haven't met my mom you are really missing out. She is one crazy lady. A better word might be vivacious. She is funny, artistic, really smart, and talented at just about everything. I love that I get the privilege of having her as my mom and my boys absolutely adore her. So Happy Birthday Mom. There better be at least 40 more of these to celebrate because we want you around for a long long time! Here are some pics...Here we are in Summer of 1982 at Disneyland - that would make my mom 36 - isn't she hot? I hope I look as cute at 36. That outfit is way cool too. Though look at me - at 3 that stroller is looking a little small.

This is probably not long afterwards...everyone's hair is rockin here.

Here we are in 1984. She is soo high fashion. I remember when I was little watching her putting on her make-up and thinking I had the hottest mom.

And here we are in Florida on a family vacation. How cute is that?

We love you, mom!

2 1/2 weeks

The worst part of moving...

I have to leave my hens.

I am soooooooo sad about it but there really isn't any way to keep them. Even if we were able to figure out a way to get them to Utah - we are renting a townhome there so it's not an option. I am giving them away for free including all of their supplies so if anyone has been wanting to get into this chicken thing - this is a rare opportunity. I'd really like these ladies to go to someone I know so - c'mon ya'll - you know you want them!

p.s. They're gone already! They went to a cute family so I'm not too sad anymore.

The Mother Ship

After finishing school at BYU in Utah, Mike and I started looking for jobs. We ended up going down to Houston because I had family there and the market was really strong. We bought a house on the street I grew up on and one afternoon I was talking to one of my parent's old neighbors. They were asking about them and I said that they had moved again. My neighbor said, "Oh, did they go back to Utah?" I was totally taken back by this statement because we had moved to Texas from California - where both of my parents were raised. I said, "No, they just moved across town, but they aren't from Utah." She obviously thought that since we were Mormons we were out of our natural "territory" and when we were done working we would head back to the mother ship in Utah. There was a part of me then that swore I'd never go "back to Utah". But there is another part of me that doesn't feel that way.

When people say, "I hate Utah." I often ask them, "Have you ever been there?" Often they've passed through downtown and done the whole tour of Temple Square but not much more than that. And while I love that whole thing, my Utah is this:
Or this:Both of these images are from our trip last summer. When we lived there Mike and I took drives up the canyon as often as possible. We loved with those mountains and for a long while after we moved to Texas my journal was full of sadness over moving away.

Anyhow, in the past couple days our plans have changed completely and we've found out that we are moving to Utah. Back to the mother ship. We'll be going mid-June and we are really excited about it - but still slightly embarrassed. We don't want people at Mike's work to think the same thing that my old neighbor thought. We really shouldn't care but we're still prideful.

I think a lot of LDS people feel that way about Utah. We are slightly embarrassed by it and yet we also know it is one of the most beautiful places in the country. In any case - we'll be leaving around June 15th and heading up there. And we're excited.

I am blessed to have friends such as these...

Well, my friend Sarah made me the most perfect baby bag EVER. When we talked about it before I gave her the worst guidelines on fabric - "I want it kind of organic and old fashioned but then I really like bright and fun too..." and somehow she made it PERFECT! I am so excited. You can order one of these for yourself or for a friend too, from Sarah. Click here for more info on the bag and her etsy store...
Here's an image of the pattern she used so you can see how big this bag is...I LOVE big bags.

Sarah - I owe you BIG time...

Maybe you've already seen this but I thought it was funny...Ellen is one funny gal. I love her phone calls!

Indulge me...

Ok, so this is getting a bit excessive but I couldn't help myself and thought since he is a week old today I could go ahead and post this. I just can't get enough of my pumpkin eater. I could kiss him all day long - and I do. It takes all of my will power not to bring his cuddly self into bed with me - but Elijah's horrible sleep habits for his first year are my motivation there.

Click on it to see it larger - I realize only grandparents might feel that need...

Now, that's cool!

Found this on how about orange and just thought it was so cool. You can send messages to people using photos of buildings and things from actual images on google maps. Cool, eh? I thought about redoing my whole blog to incorporate it but then when I realized I'd have to put some effort into it - I decided just to post about it. All of my current effort is going towards producing milk.

Here's the link:
geogreeting

Day Three

Since babies look so different every day I'm posting some more of little Peter...and of course I'll post some more in the days to come because I can't get enough of him.

May Day Arrival

This morning at about 3:30 Megan woke me up to tell me she was having contractions. It took me a minute to clear the cobwebs and realize the implications of her pains. We laid in bed for a little while and did some timing. Sure enough, she was having one every six to eight minutes. Most of you may know that Megan always has a C-Section and cannot do the whole labor routine due to a fibroid she had in her uterus as a teenager. So it was time to grab the bag and camera and head out the door to the hospital. As luck would have it, my mom came into town yesterday to help out with the boys, so she stayed behind.

To make a somewhat long story short, after monitoring Megan's contractions the doctor decided it was time to have this baby. He was scheduled for a 12 pm delivery today but apparently he wanted to get out a little earlier. Peter was brought into the world at 6:08 am. He was 8 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long.

Megan and I are both very happy. The surgery went smoothly for Megan, which was a blessing considering she was dreading it due to some problems with the last two.

I apologize for my awkward blogging, maybe I should do this more than once a year.