Van's first hair cut

It was finally time for Van to get his first hair cut. OK I should say I finally relented and gave Van a much over due first hair cut. All of these firsts are coming way to fast for me. I think because he is probably our last baby all of his firsts feel like my lasts. I don't want another baby I just want the one I have to stay a baby a little longer. Anyway back to the hair cut. He is one of the few people I know that had a comb over before the age of one. For some reason he had a patch of hair that grew much faster than the rest leading to what I called "his old man hair cut to match his old man name." But it was time to say good by to the comb over and hello to the clippers. He actually did very well. It was a fairly short and simple hair cut, all the same he cooperated nicely. Here are a few before and after pictures.

I think this pictures illustrates the crazy comb over nicely.



Nice, no comb over. I was surprised at the difference this hair cut made in the way he looks. He is still super cute, but for better or worse, I think it makes him look older.

Small Victories

Well I don't have much to write, I know it seems weird, but it's true. But I do want to share some small victories that have happened around our home recently:

1. I am finally down to my pre-baby weight. It only took me 14 months.
2. The baby that caused all that extra weight is walking. And it is adorable, so much so that I sometimes forget that I do not want him to grow up.
3. I had a huge photo shoot this Saturday, and by huge I mean 9 families and over 1,100 pictures and I have not shed a single tear or felt inadequate since. In fact I am finally feeling like I could actually do this, for real.
4. Joseph had an awesome Sunday. He was polite and reverent during church and that carried on through out the day. You may not know it, but for some reason Sundays are always hard for Joseph. We are not sure why exactly, but that is how it has been for awhile now. So hopefully he has turned a corner and we will see a happier Joseph on Sundays, I guess we will have to wait and see.
5. This isn't so much a victory as it is just really exciting, our trip to Mexico is 12 days away.
6. We seem to have another music lover in the family. It is fitting seeing as we all love music, even if we have differing tastes.

How cute is he!

Van loved wearing the big headphones and controlling my MP3 player. For those wondering he is listening to classical music...I thought about classic rock but I figured I should encourage the building of brain cells not the depletion of said cells.

More on photography...

For those of you tired of hearing about my photography endeavors read no further, for those interested in fueling my narcissism forge ahead. I had 3 shoots in 2 days. I would consider each a success, but I can't be sure because I have only had time to edit one of the three shoots. Photography is much more emotional than I had anticipated. On any given day I vacillate between wanting very much to be a photographer and feeling so inadequate that surely I must be fooling myself (and no one else). This all came to a culminating emotional breakdown after my 3rd shoot this weekend. I was feeling very overwhelmed not by the work load although 3 shoots in 2 days is a bit extreme, but by the fact that I want to give everyone I do a shoot for the best possible outcome. Because I am still learning as I go I can pick out a multitude of things that I would do differently as I look at the pictures post shoot. Anyway back to my emotional breakdown...

As we all know I hate to fail, I hate even the hint of not doing well at something. So I cried and pouted and tried to get my head around what I was doing. This is were my sweet husband Ben comes in. Not only did he take care of the kids for most of the day on Saturday while I helped with wedding plans, got a hair cut and did shoot # 3, he was also there for support through my break down. He didn't tell me I was awesome and that I was as good as any professional photographer (he tends not to lie) but he did help me realize, much to the chagrin of my perfectionist personality, that this is a process. A process that will be full of successes and failures. He said many kind things about my work, but it seems weird to repeat them here. The point is I am so grateful for a supportive husband who loves me and wants to see me succeed.

Besides Ben's support the other thing that pushes me to follow this dream is the fact that I love being behind a camera. Even though the rest of the time I have to deal with incredible amounts of self doubt that tends to subside as soon as a shoot starts. I hope that this candid confession does not scare those of you who are planning shoots with me. Just know that I do love taking pictures and I wont break down during a shoot...I save that sort of thing for home.

For those interested I have posted more pictures on my photo blog. I hope to have the other shoots posted some time this week. The link is under My favorite blogs.

The Prophet is never far away: sometimes much closer than you think

Yesterday Ben and I were talking to the Joseph and Lillie about conference and how this conference was going to be special because President Monson will be sustained as the new prophet. Joseph told us a story about his friend Adam who saw a picture of Joseph dressed up and told Joseph he looked like a prophet in the picture. Lillie got a very confused look on her face and said "how did you even talk to him?" At first I was confused by her question, but Ben started laughing and said "Not the Prophet Adam, Joseph's friend Adam." As we all laughed and Lillie realized her mistake she pointed up and said "Oh I thought he meant the prophet Adam, that lives up there on our roof." Which caused another eruption of laughter.

I love those moments. The kind you know will be infamous family stories in the years to come.