Pinewood Derby Champ!

Bryson had his first Pinewood Derby tournament and it was the highlight of the year for him. 

He's been looking forward to the Derby since before he was a Cub Scout. 

So has Tanner. Unfortunately he was in Connecticut, but they were able to get the car shaped and painted before he left. Grandpa Terry was able to help B with the rest of it. All the hard work payed off and Bryson won first place. It is so funny how competitive the dads are about this kind of thing.

There were a few older "boys" that wanted a re-race because they didn't think it was fair. 

The funniest thing is that the track is completely electronic and Bryson won because his TIME was the fastest overall. And he was a mostly gracious winner too.

Round 1: He's the yellow car second from the left

Round 3: first car on the far right

Final Round: second from right.

Baby Aniston

Beth and I have been friends for almost half our lives so I was excited to take pictures of her third child Aniston. I think Ani was less than a week old here.

 I love this one

 She was an UH-mazing sleeper. This was by far the easiest newborn shoot I've done.

 I la-HOVE this one of Beth! Gorgeous!

 This one too. As soon as I snapped the shot I was so excited...I knew it was awesome!

 And I thought this one of Laney was so precious. You can tell how excited she is about her baby.

 I am using this petti-romper every single chance I get

 First smile maybe?

I am loving that I chose to make photography my "job". I am having so much fun

with it. 

Baby Faith

I have finally finished Faith's photo shoot. Here are my faves:

 We actually did two shoots a week apart. The first shoot Faith was very awake (and she was only 1 week old)

 I think this one is my favorite. Look at that precious little chubby face.

 I like this one too!

 I was so excited to use my new petti rompers

She barely fit in my basket but she liked being all squished in there.

Cheap entertainment

I apologize for the noise level of this video. Now you can see what my poor baby has had to put up with since he was born. Everyone screams at him to get his attention.

I was doing dishes one day while Sketty was eating lunch. I am not kidding when I say how strict he is about falling asleep right at noon. This was about 12:15 and he just could not hang any more. Watch how smiley he is even as he's falling asleep. That's how he wakes up too. Ooh I just love him!

And this is the game we have to play all the time. He runs around in circles until he sees that I'm video taping him. Then he becomes obsessed with my phone. I will say it is much handier (and discrete) than my old handheld video camera.

Future Mo Tab conductor

This was during the Sunday morning session of General Conference. 

He loves to lead the music whenever we here it. 

Today in church he led the choir number from our pew. 

We got several comments after church about how good it was:)

2nd and 3rd

 How sad that I'm finally getting around to posting my kids' first day of school pictures. They've been in school for 2 months now. It was a pretty rough week before school started (Bryson tends to have anxiety about unknown things. He was up all night every night for at least a week prior to school).  Fortunately the day we found out their teachers we walked over to school to find their classrooms and Bryson's teacher just happened to be in the classroom. At the end of last year everyone was saying that this is the teacher you want for a 3rd grade boy. Yay!! We got him! Bryson was so excited and he was put to much ease after meeting him. Brynn also got a male teacher and was a little apprehensive at first but she really likes him. Both their teachers have incorporated much more outdoor activity than in the past. The kids often come home hot and sweaty with bright red faces. I love it!

I have finally been able to get into their classrooms and I've really enjoyed seeing how their classrooms are run. Bryson's teacher is much more organized (it seems) and he has lots of visuals and charts and stuff on the walls. I walked in to Brynn's class the first day and there wasn't one thing on the walls. I was worried. My girl needs some bling in her classroom. The two teachers are very different in style (I can tell Brynn's teacher has kind of a short patience rope). But the kids are doing really well in school and we are back to where we were living in Reno - the kids LOVE going to school again. That was my main concern since we moved here. So I'm not real worried about how the kids do with homework or testing or any of that sort of thing. As long as they enjoy school and they love learning than the rest will fall into place.

I do really like their teachers too. They are putting a lot of responsibility on the kids and I, for one, really appreciate that. When I was in B's class last week they were meeting some elderly men who had donated dictionaries to each of the kids. His teacher had them practicing their handshakes and their introductions all week so that they would be polite and courteous to these men. I thought that was really cool. There's a book called 'Drop in Your Bucket' and I guess its about building other people up. So each classroom has a bucket and little pieces of paper in the shape of a drop. The kids can write a note to other class members and fill their buckets with compliments. In the few times that I've been in the classrooms I've seen the kids often writing notes to their peers. Tanner and I feel very blessed that our kids have been blessed with such wonderful teachers here and that they both are excelling in school and that they have such a desire to learn and do well in school. I think this is going to be a fabulous year!

I don't have a picture of Hudson starting school again but after the second day he got in the car and let out a big sigh "I am sooooooo glad to be back in school!"

Me too.

Williams Family

Jen and her boys moved into the ward about the same time we did. She met Andrew through his sister and they were married in March. I told them then that I wanted to take their first family photos but I wasn't comfortable enough with my skills. So this summer they had Andrew's three kids for a month or so and I was able to get some pictures over at Meinzer HQ. I knew going into it that I would have to be quick and creative, since we had 6 kids within 5 years of each other. Busy! But I think we got some good ones.