Fun Family Photo Time

Rob checking in here. What do you do when a softbox comes in the mail? Have a photoshoot of course. My favorite subject is my darling wife Julie. Here are my favorites from the session of her working it! Hot stuff!

Shots were taken with a Nikon D90 triggering an SB-600 through a 24x36 inch softbox camera left.

Things get a little crazy some times.

Love the hair action.

 

One with Madi

A couple of impromptu photos while Madi is playing on the iPad (yes sometimes impromptu can involve a softbox at our house). Something was going poorly here in the game. Perhaps she couldn’t get the dress order for Tinkerbelle done in time…

She looks like she could fall asleep here.

I love my family and I love photographing them.

Master Bath in Pics (and words, too)

The bathroom was done quite some time ago but I’m just now getting around to blogging it. Before and after.

I wanted to go with a more eclectic-looking bathroom with some vintage vibe to go along with this picture.

I took this shot on Main Street in Ogden in front of an old, run-down motel. The sign says, “Roosevelt Hotel Private Baths Steam Heat” and the little one written on the door reads “Restrooms are for tenants only”.  Some other pictures from that walk are here.

 

Originally, I wanted the colors for the bathroom to be pulled out of the picture, cobalt blue and brassy gold, but I had to think way ahead to when we decorate our master bedroom (next up), since they connect without a door separating them. That room is going to have a more island-y feel so I needed to incorporate more greens and blues instead.

A few months ago another blogger was giving away a $25 TJ Maxx gift card to someone who told her about a piece of furniture that had some special meaning to them. I entered using my grandpa’s china hutch and won! I took that card and bought two rugs.

I really don’t like having toilet paper in plain view. I’d much rather it be hidden under the sink but seeing that the sink is out of the toilet area, around a corner, and 10 feet away, I decided I better house it in-bath. I love wire baskets, so there you go. And a blah mirror, because I had it. At least it reflects my picture when the door is open.

 

The metal Paris print was given to me as a housewarming/birthday gift from a dear friend and fits perfectly next to the shower.

My sister gave me a pair of candles and candle holders a long time ago as a birthday gift many moons ago.

The petrified wood is from our Escalante trip.

The shower curtain was in our old master bath and is still in really good shape so we moved it here. Same with the fake orchids that gather dust. Eh.

I hear over and over again to use white towels because they look so clean and fresh. Well, guess what? They don’t. They show every bit of dirty-hand smudge. Maybe if I changed them every single day. But guess what? That’s not going to happen. Next time I will not be getting white. That way, we can dry ourselves off with dirty towels and be fully unaware ;)

Now, I have no idea why this is the only space in the entire house with vinyl flooring rather than tile. Isn’t this lovely? And every time the toilet overflows, which it has once or twice due to the kids, the water pours down through the floor into the kitchen. Isn’t that fantastic?! I think it’s my favorite feature. I think every home should install a lovely waterfall in their kitchen.

So on my decor to-do list is definitely some tile. Make that hex tile. Like this or this. Ooohh! Pretty! And then I will decorate the bathroom for realsies.

 

 

Side Story One: Rob spit-shined the bathroom yesterday evening. Then last night I went in and found a GIGANTIC puddle of urine on the floor. It seems some little boy woke up and instead of making it to the toilet, made it there instead.

Side Story Two: Today, right before taking pictures, I walked into the bathroom to find little Cara tearing apart the medicine cabinet. This is not at all unusual, but this time she and the counter were covered in blood. Okay, that’s a little exaggerated, but there was blood on her, the counter, and in the medicine cabinet including on my toothbrush. She had broken a little glass jar that sat on my counter and held cotton balls. She didn’t even realize she had cut herself, but it was gross.

Thanks for not getting too annoyed at me posting pictures of my substandard decorating. I’m mostly doing it so that in the future I have pictures of how our home looked, minus the kid havoc everywhere, that is. Besides, it gives me something to take pictures of while stuck in the house all day. So thanks!

Nate Turnsssssss Sssssseven

For his birthday party I gave Nate the option to take a few friends somewhere super fun, like Boondocks, or have a lot of friends at a party at home. Being the social butterfly that he is, of course he chose lots of friends at home. I had no idea what I was going to do to entertain all those kids (about 15). One night I was leisurely flipping through one of those ad books that comes in the mail and BINGO!

BYU’s Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum is closed for renovation for the next year so to supplement their income they are doing birthday parties for $35 in Utah County (a little more outside the county)! They will come to your house, bring all the animals, and do a presentation. Their options are reptiles, animal babies, invertebrates, and others. Nate is extremely into science and animals these days so we were done deal-io!

Nate invited 20 of his closest friends and cousins and we had a great time. Each of the kids were given some snake worksheets to keep them busy while all the guests arrived. Worked like a charm (snake charm?).

Then the presentation began. The young handler was very knowledgeable about his reptiles and was really good interacting with the kids. He brought a croc skull, tortoise shell, box turtle, huge iguana, and a ball python. The kids were thrilled and mesmerized and had many questions.

Video links and more pictures are here.

After the presentation they watched bits of VERY loud Star Wars, opened presents, and played.

The menu was: shed snake skin (popcorn), baby snakes (sour gummy worms), adult snakes (gummy worms), snake eggs (jelly beans), and snake venom (yellow gatorade with pop rocks for hissing and steam). The kids thought it was SO great!

After all the kids left, Rob took Nate to Boondocks Fun Center where they played everything from laser tag (Nate’s first time=awesome) to roller coaster simulations (Rob felt sick the rest of the night) to arcade games. Did you know that if you sign up on their website you get an all-inclusive pass for FREE all day on your birthday?! Do I hear a new tradition? Yes, I do!

Nate got so many great gifts from all of his generous friends and family members. He was in heaven. His gifts from his family, though, were tons of Lego sets (mostly Star Wars). He had a fantastic birthday. Thanks to everyone for making it happen and making him feel special. He really is!

 

ps. Here is his birthday interview video.

Down By The River

Back in July we made a quick work trip down to the Escalante area. Other post about this trip are here, here, and here. We’ll take advantage of any reason we can to come down to this part of the state. If you are considering going down and want some company, let us know and we’ll show you around. We made a quick stop on our drive down to play in the Escalante River. The scenery is just so amazing and beautiful. The sky, the rock, the layers are all so beautiful to me. I feel inspired to help people enjoy our wonderful world as I take in this beautiful area. Here are a few more images of my cute family (sans Caroline, she was asleep and I didn’t want her anywhere near this wall). We are so cute!

On our walk down to the river.

Down in the peaceful river. Life.

The froth of the river never stops.

I love this picture of Madi exploring the river and enjoying the water. Emblematic of summer, of freedom to explore, of curiosity, and of taking pleasure in the simple parts of life.

Next to the water.

The most enjoyable form of bank erosion…..

Don’t forget to look up!

I look so happy to be in the river in this picture.

Helping my youngest play in the water and to explore the river.

Check here if you want to see more.

Grandpa’s Birthday Times 2

On December 2nd we celebrated the birth of two grandpas, Grandpa Snow and Grandpa Williams. These are two of our favorite grandpas in the whole world. They really mean a lot to us.

I started what I hope to become a tradition with birthdays on the Snow side of the family. At every party, conduct a brief video interview of the birthday person using random/interesting questions so that we can all get to know some fun, lesser-known things about them. A couple of the questions for the grandpas were:

What was your favorite toy as a kid?
Would you rather die by piranha or anaconda and why?
Tell us about your first date.
What was your least favorite job and why?
Would you rather be 3 feet tall or 8 feet tall and why?

Here are the links for the interviews of Grandpa Williams and Grandpa Snow.

Here are some other random pictures from the party. We had just gotten our new camera and Rob was anxious to take as many pictures as possible.

 

Rob’s dad was playing a game with the kids. They laughed so hard!

 

Here is Madeleine patiently waiting for her turn.

 

 

 

Cousins Joe and Ben.

Family can see a few more pictures here.