35 MPG

Many of us have felt "pain at the pumps" lately and we are no exception. We have been doing everything we can to cut down on our gas use and even trying little "tricks" to increase our gas mileage. Steven and I have a nifty little device in our van that tells us what our gas mileage is. This past weekend we traveled over the mountains for a wedding and we were like two kids in a candy store watching our gas mileage increase with every mile. Steven would coast down the hills, use neutral when we were idle, we even turned the AC off and rolled the windows down (anything to save a buck;). Today I was driving around town and my mileage hit 28, then 29, then 30, in a MINIVAN! So you can imagine my excitement was so great that I called Steven to tell him of my AWESOME driving skills!
"Wow, 30 MPG, really?" he said,
"Oh yeah, wait, it just hit 30.4...30.5...30.6..."
I felt I had impressed him enough so we hung up the phone, after a few more errands I hit 35 and felt like celebrating and, of course, this called for yet another phone call about my awesomeness (if that's not a word, it should be:).
"Really, 35 MPG?" he asked,
"Yeah and it's so cool, I've gone 35 miles so I've only used one gallon!"
"Jenny, are you sure you aren't looking at the trip odometer?"...
"Uhhhh...um...OH, haha, I guess you're right!"
Steven: "OH. MY. GOSH, are you kidding me?" (insert LOTS of mocking laughter from Steven)
Steven: "You have GOT to blog about this, if you don't I will!" (insert more mocking laughter)
Yeah, yeah, so I had a blonde moment, ok, a major blonde moment. My philosophy has always been, if you're going to do something, do it well. Clearly, I have the being blonde thing down to an art;) You've got to admit 35 mpg around town in a minivan would be AWESOME!

Have I been out of the game that long?

So I have been a blog slacker, both my photography and personal blog have been greatly neglected because I am seriously lacking some inspiration and I'm so TIRED lately! I have felt so blase' lately, my friend Tanika tagged me forever ago and I was so excited to be tagged (I know, that's silly;) so I am now finally sitting down, determined to kick my creativity rut! Thanks Tanika for giving me a reason to blog without having to use much brain power, I think I can handle that;)

Who Do You Love? Um, it depends on the day;) but almost always my sweetie bugs Sam and Jaden and of course my hard workin' man, Steven.
How Long Have You Been Married? 6 years
Who Said I Love You First? Steven (in sign language:)
How Long Did You Date? 5 years
Where Did He Propose? In a laundry room (I know your jealous) best part was Nilace hearing something in the laundry room so she came to check it out (in her nightgown and curlers:) (I was living in someones basement at the time)
Who Is Taller? Steven (although it wouldn't take much)
Who Is Smarter? Steven has the book smarts but if you want some useless trivia I'm your gal.
Who Does The Laundry? ...laundry? way overrated.
Who Pays The Bills? Me, wait, do you mean am I his sugar mama or do I just sign my name on the checks?
Who Mows The Lawn? the lawnmower man and the lawnmower woman:)
Who Cooks Dinner? Usually me, does toast count?
Who Drives? Steven
Maybe this post would have been more appropriately titled "confessions of a slacker"
Brittany and Jenny you've just been served :)

If love looked in the mirror...

...it would see my mother's face.


I love this saying, because it is so true. I once gave my mother a card with this on it and it still sits on her desk after two years:) My mother means the world to me and it occured to me that she may not even realize just how much. As with most mother/daughter relationships we haven't always seen eye to eye (especially through teenage years;), but my mom has always been so wonderful and always made sure her children had everything they ever needed and then some. I know this post will not come anywhere close to expressing my love and appreciation for all that she has done for me but I thought I would list some of the moments that has shaped my relationship with her.

My mother was a working mom, I remember her staying up very late, cleaning and organizing after an already very long day at the Bank, we always had a clean home.

My mom always made sure we had dental appointments, clean teeth, braces. Some people may look at this and think this is such a silly thing but what you need to know is that we did not always have money for such things, my mom would save up and make sure these things were taken care of. I am sure this has a lot to do with why I LOVE teeth and was a dental assistant for five years (and married someone who is aspiring to be a dentist, imagine that!). Now we can take care of her teeth someday:)

No matter what she always loves me! I can say this with confidence because I can attest that she now has to have regular hair appointments to cover all of the gray hairs I gave her;) One of the defining moments in my relationship with my mother was shortly after my engagement to a guy that she had never even met (long story) it was a pretty painful ordeal for her how I went about things (sorry mom!). I ended up needing surgery while our relationship was still healing from this and she never hesitated when I needed her the most. After the surgery I ended up having some sort of reaction to a medication that had been given to me and the nurses hurried in to give me something to counteract it, I remember looking up at my mom, she was so concerned, so worried, and a tear streamed down her cheek. I always knew she loved me but I can tell you that that was the moment I knew for certainty the depth of her love.

Holidays have always been so special in our home. I love to think about all of the wonderful traditions we have enjoyed throughout the years. My mother has a knack for heartfelt gifts, she gives a lot of thought into what she gives, I really love that about her.

Tearing the dryer sheets in half. Ok this is just funny, for years I tore my dryer sheets in half because that is what my mom always did. After years of not seeing the reasoning behind it I finally asked my mom why she tore them in half to which she replied "I don't know, my mom always did it".


My mother has been with me for the birth of both of my children, and I am forever grateful to have had her there (not to mention the week or so she stays afterwards to help me out). She is such an amazing nana, I really couldn't ask for anything more. She loves her grandbabies and spoils them rotten, and oh how they love her so!

Something my mother may not even know about herself is that she is hilarious. I can't even describe what makes her so funny, I really think she just says things so innocently and she doesn't even realize how funny it is until we are all laughing, which makes her laugh, I love it:)
(my mom, me, my sister, and Jaden)
I can't really say "lastly" because there is so much more but I've got to end it at some point;) Ever since I was very young my mother has taught me some of the most important virtues in life and I must say it was mostly by example. She has taught me to be respectful of others and their property (I feel this is so important and is ever becoming a lost virtue in our society), she has taught me to be giving, to be honest, to not care what others think (this is a work in progress;) but most importantly she has taught me what it means to be a good mother. I may not have it all down yet but I just wanted her to know I was paying attention and I will always be grateful to call her "mom".

Happy Mother's Day

Smitten...

I recently discovered Belle and Boo etsy shop and I am smitten. Belle and Boo is based out of London, they create beautiful, original artwork, looove it! I know I have been missing from the blogging world for awhile and I have quite a bit to catch up on but for now I just wanted you to know that I still exist and leave you with something pretty:)

"Happy" Meal

My Jaderbug hasn't been feeling well lately, yesterday he said he felt like he was going to throw up (as a Mcdonalds commercial plays in the background). I am not sure which part of the commercial he was referring to but he says "See, that's why I need a happy meal!", now I'm slightly confused "You need a happy meal so you won't throw up?"

Jaden: "Yeah, that's why the "word's" right."

me: "What word? You mean that's why they call it a happy meal?"

Jaden: "Yeah!! That's why when kids are gonna throw up they ask their moms and dads for a happy meal and they say "yes"." (this is a clever tactic;)

Well who am I to argue with such logic? Unfortunately a happy meal did not seem like the best approach to his problem, but when I informed him that we would sadly not be getting the coveted "happy" meal, I got the shocked "are you kidding me?" look followed by "Do you want me to throw up?!!". So, today since he was feeling better we got a happy meal, I mean after a performance like that, what's a girl to do? ;)

Umm...yeah...

Apparently I haven't updated my blog for awhile (so I've been told) so here I am way past my bedtime, this is likely going to be nothing more than a middle of the night rambling, so sit back and enjoy! Hmm, lets see, anything special in my life right now? Well, I shot my first wedding this weekend and well, aside from the 25 mile an hour winds, one of the bridal parties parents getting food poisoning and my flash not working, I'd say it went pretty well (I'm thinking I should stick with child photography). Although the (few) pictures we were able to get due to the weather, turned out very nicely, the stress of a wedding is just not my thing (we're talking emotional breakdown, of course it was family so that may have contributed). I may have a wedding in May (thanks Trish;) but they will not be having a reception and only a small family gathering so I'm thinking the stress will not be so much:) I went to a marketing seminar this Monday, there was some great infomation, it gave me a sense of renewal and I can't wait to start using the ideas!

This week is spring break here so Jaden is staying with "nana" for the week, it has been quiet with only one child, I see his little toy cars scattered about the house, it makes me miss him. I guess he went to his cousins soccer game on Tuesday, they were playing, kicking the ball back and forth, well the ball hit him "where it hurts" and he was crying for mommy and daddy, poor guy! Jaden is my lovebug, he randomly says "mommy," "yes," I say, "I love you." melt my heart. Can you tell I'm missing him? Before we left for the weekend he let me take some pictures of him, he really wanted me to get a good picture. He would try a pose and say "how about this mom?" it was so cute. I will leave you with one of my favorites from his "session".

Advice for the day...

"If you have a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: Take two, and KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN." (hehe, I really do love my kids:)

The heart of a child...

As I have mentioned in a previous post I am a volunteer photographer for "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," infant bereavement photography. Last night I received my first call, it was heartwrenching, to say the least, a beautiful baby girl, fullterm, stillborn. This afternoon I was editing the images from the session and my son came and sat down by me to observe what I was doing. I spend a lot of time editing images and he usually pays no attention, however this time was different, he was very curious and intrigued by what I was doing. As I am paging through all of my images the following conversation played out:
Jaden: "Mommy, those pictures are beautiful!"
Mommy: "Well thank you!"
Jaden: "Mommy, is that person crying?"
Mommy: "Yes Jaden, she is very sad"
Jaden: "Why is she so sad?"
Mommy: "Her baby died and that makes her very sad"
Jaden: "Mommy?"
Mommy: "Yes?"
Jaden: "Jesus loves us and HE died, now we can live again."
Mommy (hardly able to contain the tears): "Yes Jaden, Jesus does love us and He did die so that we can live again."
Jaden: "Mommy, these pictures are gorgeous!"

Oh my goodness! How is a mother to control her emotions at a time like this? Where did those words come from? Gorgeous?!? It amazed me that in his 4 glorious years of experience he would directly relate the death of this little child to our Savior, that we can all live a again through Him. I am in complete awe of my sweet, sweet boy and his compassion, and he was right the pictures were gorgeous, not because of me, but because of God's beautiful little creation.

A day in the life of a "Terrible Two"...

As with most mothers, my day starts out pretty ordinary, I wake up around noon while my personal chef finishes up a gourmet brunch (falling within weight watchers points specifications, of course). After brunch I relax to a deep tissue massage and aromatherapy, followed by a pedicure or manicure only as needed (I wouldn't want to be wasteful, ya know;). Once I have finished my daily ritual, I wake up and realize that it was all a dream and that my life goes a little more like this...

Any meal time usually ends with quite the mess (and Sammy is wearing most of it), I wonder how chubby her little cheeks would be if more food actually made it to her tummy?

She now needed a bath so I went to turn the bath water on and went back to clean up the "aftermath" of mealtime, well, apparently Sammy isn't much for waiting so she decided she would proceed without me... Clearly she doesn't mind bathing fully clothed (she's so modest;)

After bathtime, (without her diaper and jammies) Sammy thought she should stay in the spirit of "keeping it clean", at least that's what I'm guessing was going through her little mind when she dumped a half a bottle of shampoo on the carpet, lovely! There was so much shampoo that I had to pour water into the carpet and then scrape it into a cup, empty, rinse, repeat.

While I was cleaning the shampoo mess, she was, yet again, one step ahead of me emptying the kitchen drawers. (I could really use that massage and aromatherapy right about now:)

You really think the saga would be ending by now, but mommy left the cup of soapy water in the living room while she picked up the kitchen utensils, could any child really withstand that temptation? Is this like getting your hand caught in the cookie jar?



Are you exhausted from reading this post yet?

Terrible Two's continued...

Sammy's little nap finally allowed me to finish packing. I was supposed to be packing for our trip to Nana's house this weekend when everything unfolded as it did in the last post. Well, we finally arrived to Nana's house late last night, where the party continued. My mom is the secretary for the Chamber of Commerce in her hometown and so she is coordinating a "Mardi Gras" gala this evening. She had set aside plenty of "pretties" for her "Sammy Belle" as any great nana would and she LOVED them! She loved them so much she decided to share the joy with Ace, the family dog...

If all good dogs go to Heaven, then Ace certainly has seniority for first in line, he was such a sport through this whole charade...

Doesn't he look beautiful? (hehe) What a trooper!

Then again who could get mad at a face like this...

"You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give"

~Sir Winston Churchill
As a photographer I try not to mix my business with my personal blog, however, this is not easily done as photography is my life! I think about it all the time, I dream about it (yes, I dream about photography, strange, I know). I absolutely LOVE what I do, which is so hard to find in life. Images capture the things in life that make us happy, that make us joyous and emotional, the things that make us feel connected. The gift of photography is felt on so many levels and used for every stage of life, to capture the important moments before they are gone and forgotten. How often do you pull out an old album, can you not help but smile to see the images from the past, each one reminding us of a different story? As a photographer I am so grateful to be able to share these moments in the lives of others. Pictures document a journey, unfortunately, life's journeys are not always perfect, there are bumps in the road, detours, and unexpected moments that are unplanned and are sometimes surrounded by sadness. These are the moments I want to talk about today, because these are the moments that are tugging at my heart. I am an affiliated photographer to a non-profit organization called "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" or NILMDTS. It is an organization that was founded by a photographer, Sandy Puc, and Cheryl Haggard, a mother enduring the loss of an infant. Please read more about the personal experience that drew me to this organization and watch a special clip of a family dealing with this very sensitive matter by clicking here. Thanks for taking the time to read my daily ramblings:)

Don't you hate it when...

you wear your jeans more than once without washing them (yes, it's true, sorry if that grosses you out) although I would never wear sweats more than once, isn't that odd? Anyhow you wear your jeans more than once and you're like, hmm, I feel good, did I lose weight? Yeah! Then you wash your jeans and wear them for the first time after a washing and you're like dang!...shortlived ;)

Happy to update!

For those of you who have been reading and wondering about little Reese, it appears as though all of our many prayers have been answered. She was able to go home yesterday, the Dr.s were never able to identify what was causing her illness, but she is doing much better and is now home! Thanks so much for all your prayers, they were very greatly appreciated.

Prayers are needed...

This morning when I checked my email, I had received the following letter from my aunt:
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know little Reese needs your prayers. She's in the hospital and so far they don't know whats wrong. She's been running a temp for about a week but got worse today. When they admitted her, her temp was 104.3. They took blood, urine,Xray,nose swabs and no results back yet. Earlier this week they thought she had pneumonia and put her on an antibiotic but now they say she didn't have it. She was negative earlier for the flu and another virus so guess we'll just have to wait, pray and see. When we left tonight just before 10 her fever was down to 99.9 (it had come down with cold washclothes earlier but went back up when they removed them) they put in an IV with a different antibiotic and she seemed a lot better when we left. The Dr said it would be 12-24 hours until the blood culture came back and that they could expect her to be there 2-3 days.
Please say your prayers for her, we'll keep you posted.

For those of you who have seen my website, Reese is the sweet little cutie on the opening page and in several other images on my site. She is my cousin's little girl and my heart and prayers are with them at this time. All of your prayers are gratefully welcome, I will update when I know more. Thanks.

This is one of my most recent images of Reese, we took her pictures in December. Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Growing up...

For those of you who know and see my family on a regular basis, you would know that my daughter has the cutest head of blondy curls ever (yes, I'm completely bias). Well, she hasn't always had them, as a matter of fact she hasn't really had much hair at all until the past 4-5 monthes, so as you can imagine I was thrilled to find out that she now has enough hair to wear little clippies! Jaden on the other hand has downsized in the hair category, he also had such cute curls and it took FOREVER for me to bring myself to cut them off. The curls eventually became less and less and then I had a girl so I figured it was time to let go :) What does this have to do with anything? Well, tonight I was just going through some old pictures and I found the baldest little Sammy and Jaden with a head full of crazy hair, they change so quickly *sigh*. Here are some "old" and "updated" pictures of both of them.

Jaden 3 years old:


Jaden now, almost 5! What a handsome boy:)

My "baldy bean," Sammy, one year old.

She has dropped the "baldy bean" title and graduated to "goldilocks" :)

Hmmm...now if we can only get her to keep the clips in her hair, she wasn't too excited about them...

Thanks for the input...

Well, after careful consideration and advice from good friends:) I have decided to change my business name to Bella's Images, for those of you who don't know my daughters middle name is Belle, which also means beauty, I am choosing Bella because a two syllable word sounds better. It is simple and easy to spell, so what do you think? I figure it's still early enough in the game to make the change and I most certainly do not want to be associated with erotic images! So now I have the task of changing everything, it's a little annoying but I think well worth it.
P.S. If you can think of a more creative name, let me know! (I don't want to use my name, it's too long)

The dilemna (PLEASE HELP!)

Ok, so I recently took the marketing plunge for my business and had an ad placed on http://www.myseattlebaby.com/ , well, this evening I checked to see if the ad had been posted, to see what it looked and well, because I was excited :) Anyhow, it was definetely posted and boy did I get more than I bargained for! My photography website is myposhportraits.com, there also happens to be a poshportraits.com which is intimate ADULT portraits, not only do I find these kind of portraits inappropriate but please keep in mind that I am advertising for newborn and children's photography and this website is a far cry from either (not to mention that intimate portraits are not my thing). I once had a guy call me and ask me if I would do some pictures for of him for his girlfriend, um, well, I..., uh, hmm, well lets just say the only naked bums that I'll be photographing are babies ;) I wonder if he thought I was associated, I never thought of that until now, hmm. So my dilemna is do I change my name? Will people associate me with the other? I am not upset with the advertisers, it was an honest mistake, but I wonder if this will be an isolated incident. Will people hear about my photography and go home to look it up and think to themselves "Now what was the name of that business...I remember "something" poshportraits, hmm, maybe I'll try that". In the grand scheme of things this is all quite hilarious and it does give me something to blog about, I certainly hope I was the only one to see it, I hope there were no hits on the photography section tonight, but if there were, could you imagine the shock of a mother seeing an ad for a blue eyed baby girl in a fluffy pettiskirt and thinking "Oh, that's so sweet, I wonder what her other work looks like"
-click-...oh, the horror.

What is real...

This week has been a week for much reflection in my life. I have thought about addictions, sacrifice, love, and choices and how all of these things affect ourselves and those around us. Now before you go calling my bishop :) let me just say that addictions don't have to be drugs, or alcohol, they can be anything that keeps us from doing the things that we should, the things that keep us from accomplishing our goals. I, myself could name a whole list from A to Z of what I could be doing better, but I just don't have that kind of time and would rather not develop carpal tunnel from one blog entry :) Now with all that being said I came across an excerpt from the children's story "The Velveteen Rabbit" that I felt summed up my feelings about life and who I want to be. Don't you just love children's books? The lessons that they teach are so simple and just make sense, mostly because life's lessons can be solved in such a simple way but as adults we tend to overcomplicate things (human nature). So here it is,

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day..."Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once..." he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Happy Valentine's Day!

A heart that loves is always young

~A Greek Proverb

All that is beautiful

Every morning at 3:00am my sweet little Bella bean climbs in bed with us, she always comes to my side to crawl in. Well, this morning was no different than any other except I could not go back to sleep for the life of me! Why couldn't I sleep? Most people may not know this about me but I love to write poetry, it has always been a creative outlet for me. Last night before I went to bed I was looking through my "memory" box and came across some letters that my cousin had written me shortly before she passed away, this month marks ten years since she left this life. We were very close, she had cancer, she was 17 when she died. She was also a poet, she wrote beautifully, she understood things that only someone close to death might understand, the important things. One of my most treasured "earthly" possessions is a compilation of her poetry that her mother gave me shortly after she passed away. I think that is when I really took an interest in writing, at the time it was my way of coping with the situation. Well, back to last night, I couldn't go to sleep, words were keeping me awake, yes, words. This is not the first time this has happened, but I apparently haven't learned that my overactive mind will not rest until I write it down. After several hours of tossing and turning I finally got up, grabbed a pen and my journal and this is what I came up with:

If she had a name would she be mine,

or would she be yours?

Would beauty kiss her on

the cheek?

Would she medicate your mind

or heal your soul?

If I spoke to her would she recognize

my voice

or would my words fall on deaf ears?

If she will listen,

I must tell her that I love her

and she'll forever be

our baby girl.

This is a little different from my "normal" style, I am usually a rhyming sort of gal, but this is what I came up with.

I so love this picture of my baby girl, the inspiration behind the poem.

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Do you ever hear a phrase and can somehow put a song to it? I have a knack for this and do it ALL the time, sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it. Anyhow, I was trying to think of something to blog about and I thought about the oh so fabulous designmom. If you have never heard of this blog, you must check it out, it is one of my absolute favorites (hence the title with the catchy tune;). Designmom always seems to find the oh so fun, oh so chic stuff that you never knew you always wanted. For the sake of not making this sound like an infomercial I will leave it at that and let you see for yourself. As for the songs in my head, I hope you hear them to :)

Gracing the page...

Well, I had big hopes and dreams for my very first post, you would laugh, you would cry, share some "moments" together, etc., etc. After more than a week of dreaming up my big debut I decided to just get it over with so that I could move on to the next big thing. So, here it is folks my new blog! For those of you who are tuning in to my life for the first time or are simply coming back after an extended vacation, this is actually a second blog for me. I have a business blog and I have been debating doing a separate family blog for some time now (since one is already enough for me to maintain!). In the end I decided it best not to post my "me" stuff on my business blog (it also gives me a little more freedom to let loose...you'll see what I mean;)
Until next time!