Jackson Family

I photographed the Jackson family at the end of October.  It was pretty chilly outside, but they were rockstars.  The park in Boise was absolutely gorgeous with pretty leaves and fall colors.  It was extra special doing this family session because they waited for baby James for a long time.  It was awesome to capture the joy of their family!

Em is such an amazing big sister!

Click HERE to see more pictures from this session.

baby shower

On Saturday my mom, aunt, Heather and I hosted a baby shower for my cousin Kristin. I wrote this blog post back in July about how they had been approved to adopt. Well, right before Labor Day weekend and a very selfless woman chose them to adopt her 5 week old little boy. You can definitely see God's hand working through their adoption journey that lead them to sweet baby James. We had so much fun planning, buying presents and decorating for the shower. It was wonderful to see it all come together. I took James' baby pictures yesterday and posted them on my facebook fan page. He's such a little stud muffin. Here are a few pictures from the shower!

Music Monday: Steve Martin

As you know, Saturday night the fam saw Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers. The parents took Heather and I as an early birthday present. We had such a great time at the show. Steve is a fabulous performer! He's so funny and has great comedic timing. The Steep Canyon Rangers were truly amazing!

Here are just a few pictures from the show. I hope you enjoy!

Follow Steve Martin on Twitter

adoption

Hello sweet blog readers! I wanted to share something a little more personal with you all today.

I am super excited to say that my cousin Kristin and her husband recently announced that they have decided to adopt a baby! They have gone through all of their home studies and are currently waiting to find their baby. The program they are doing involves more networking and searching out a birth mother.

On the 4th of July they gave us letters to announce their wonderful news and these awesome pass along cards to share.

You can see their adoption website HERE. I absolutely love the letter on their homepage. Please take the time to read it and pass this website along to anyone you know who might be interested. Thanks in advance!

my week in pictures

If you're following me on twitter you may have seen some of the photos I posted via yfrog recently. I'm posting a few of my favorites from this past week and some that I didn't post online.

I went to Twin Falls last weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday. Saturday I ended up at Shoshone Falls, which happens to be taller than Niagra. Unfortunately the only camera I had was on my phone. I got kind of snap-happy, but it was so gorgeous.

Lots of birthday celebrations (and dessert!).

On the way home: the Idaho desert.

We stopped at Lowes (at Overland and Cole in Boise) on the way home for the Wish Granters playhouse raffle. Every ticket is $1 for the raffle. This particular playhouse is part of a silent auction. It ends this Sunday (June 19), so there's still time to get your tickets! Check out Wish Granters on facebook.

Yesterday I ran errands with my mom and aunt and we stopped at Starbucks. There's nothing better than an iced caramel macchiato on a summer day!

Hope you've all had a great week! It's almost the weekend! :)

Roadtrip: Playlist

Heather and I came up with a roadtrip playlist last week when Jenny was in one of her classes. It had about 800 songs on it, about 48 hours worth of music. I checked my ipod when we got home and we listened to at least 750 of the songs on it. Here are a few of the artists that we included on it. Be sure to check them out if you haven't already!

Adele
Andrew Belle
Barcelona
Carrie Underwood
Burlesque Soundtrack
Honeyhoney
Joshua Radin
Justin Bieber
Landon Pigg
Owl City
Ray LaMontagne
Schuyler Fisk
She & Him
Taylor Swift
The Ting Tings
Vampire Weekend

source

Lexington

We made it to Nebraska! We left our hotel at 7:00 am this morning. We made our way west for a while and then up the 71. It was kind of sad to be so close to Joplin (literally like 10 minutes) and not be able to stop and do something. We stopped in Carthage for wayyy to sweet iced caramel mochas at McDonalds. After we passed Kansas City, we stopped to fill up with fuel and ended up getting a salad bar at a grocery store for lunch. After we ate I took over driving and got us through the rest of Missouri.

Missouri countryside

Iowa wasn't my favorite place. At this moment, I can't exactly remember why, mostly construction and a deceitful rest stop sign that did it for me. We stopped in Omaha for fuel and then made our way into Nebraska and finally onto I-80. We desperately needed to make a pit stop and unfortunately picked a stop that wasn't the greatest. Some college girls ran out of the gas station as we arrived because they plugged up one of the toilets. After waiting for what felt like forever (since there was only one working toilet), we were ready to get back on the road. As we drove by the next exit (York) we saw a bunch of gas stations and even a Starbucks. If only we would have waited!

Gas station in Omaha

We stopped in Kearney to fill up with fuel and then made our way to Lexington. We had dinner at San Pedro, a little Mexican restaurant. Yes, that would be the third night on the road that we've had Mexican for dinner. We can't help it, it just finds us. I think my favorite though so far would be the Baja Burrito in Nashville.

The Great Platte River Road Archway in Kearney

Anyway, we're staying with my Dad's cousin here in Lexington. We chatted for a bit right when we got here. Cindy is so friendly and fun! We're so thankful for their hospitality. We're slowly getting showered and ready for bed. We'll be up again tomorrow and on the road around 7:00 am. I'm excited that we'll gain an hour tomorrow: hello, Mountain Standard Time! Okay, it's almost my turn to shower! I can't wait to sleep tonight! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Lexington

Roadtrip - Day 3: Lexington

We left Springfield bright and early to start one of the longer drives of the trip. We're on our way to Lexington, Nebraska. Heather and I have lots of family in Nebraska, so we'll be staying with them. We've only been back there twice for family reunions and visits so it'll be kind of fun to go there again. I think it's my dad's cousin we'll be staying with. We're about halfway through our trip! I hope you're all having a nice relaxing weekend!

Video Blog

Here's my first video blog which I made it yesterday afternoon. Sorry I'm awkward and say "um" and "and" a lot. Haha! It's always weird to watch yourself on video.



Heather's blog posts HERE and HERE

If you didn't get enough in my first video, or need a laugh after a long week here's my after surgery video again. Just incase you didn't see it the first time around... :)

Pure Drivel

You may have seen Heather's blog post last week about her books lists or this post she did of an excerpt. She's been reading Steve Martin books lately and sharing some funny things with me. I'm so very excited because my family got tickets to see Steve Martin perform in July!

Here's an excerpt from his book Pure Drivel that Heather shared with me. He's so funny!

Schrödinger’s Cat
A cat is placed in a box, together with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, a hammer kills the cat; if the atom doesn't decay, the cat lives. As the atom is considered to be in either state before the observer opens the both, the cat must thus be considered to be simultaneously dead and alive. - Erwin Schrödinger's Cat Paradox, 1935

Wittgenstein's Banana
A banana is flying first class from New York to L.A. Two scientists, one in each city, are talking on the phone about the banana. Because it is moving in relationship to its noun, the referent of the word banana never occupies one space, and anything that does not occupy one space does not exist. Therefore, a banana will arrive at JFK with no limousine into the city, even though the reservation was confirmed in L.A.

anniversary

My parents celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary on Saturday. I found this picture from their wedding on my mom's computer. It's one of my favorites. Congrats mom and dad on the past 28 years and here's to another 28!

I actually found a bunch of other old pictures that I emailed myself. They might be popping up on the blog in the next couple weeks. It's funny to look at mine and Heather's baby pictures after being a newborn photographer for a while now. I can't wait to share!

I hope everyone is having a happy Monday!

weekend away

I had a wonderful weekend away at Camp Perkins! It was so refreshing to spend the weekend in God's beautiful creation. You can't be up there and not just feel His presence. We got up there Friday afternoon after stopping in Fairfield for burgers at The Wrangler. I just wish I would have seen they had a veggie burger on the menu before I ordered. Oh well, it was still tasty! I did some digital scrapbooking, got a massage, went snowshoeing, night luging, watched some movies, did a foot spa and hand wax (creepy, but awesome) and relaxed. Here are a few pictures from my cell phone (gotta love the retro cam app) of the weekend. Today's been rough, it's hard to go back to real-life after a little vacay. Heather posted her photos from this weekend HERE, be sure to check them out too!