K+W

The reason I love photography is because my baby is
1. So darn cute
and 2. Extremely photogenic.

He's seriously so easy to get a cute picture out of.

Sometimes I convince myself that I love photography in general and not just photographing my own kid. Sometimes, when I'm under such a delusion, I offer to photograph other people as well.

One such couple is Kamila and Wyatt. Right after they got engaged, I volunteered to take some engagement photos for them, figuring that if they didn't turn out well, they could always hire someone to do it for real.

Then as the big day drew near (for me, their big day isn't till May), I started to have a panic attack. I mean, Caleb's SO EASY. How could I kid myself into thinking I could take a decent picture of someone besides Caleb. I'm only an expert at photographing Caleb. What was I thinking!!!

But I sucked it up and didn't cancel on them, reminding myself time and time again, that the worst thing that could happen would be that they'd have to hire an actual photographer. No biggie. There's still two plus months till their wedding. They have time.

As we drove to our first location, they told me they'd had a friend take some "normal" type engagement photos, you know, with them just sitting there next to one another and smiling, and that the pictures hadn't turned out too hot. They tried to tell me they just weren't photogenic people.

Did I mention that I have an EXTREMELY photogenic baby? Okay, just checking.

Well, I've decided they were completely lying to me. People in love are so easy to take pictures of. And so much fun. Or at least it's true of these two. They had me laughing the whole time we were together.

Here are a few of my favorites. (And have I mentioned recently that my favorite thing about taking non-Caleb pictures is playing with them in photoshop? I just love the faded look. Maybe I should edit some of Caleb wearing his pearl hat with the faded look...or not.)





And my absolute favorite:


Now Kamila and Wyatt, if you hate them, that's okay. There's still time...

But I had a lot of fun (especially since I was baby-free for two whole hours) and I think I'm officially one step closer to realizing it's okay to come out of your comfort zone (now and again).

A Pearl Hat

Sometimes, in the morning, when I'm too tired to open my eyes and Caleb's too restless to lay in bed with me and wait for me to wake up, he'll open up my jewelry box (which is right next to the bed) and see what he can find to play with.

Tuesday morning he found himself a new hat. It was so darn cute that I had to grab my camera (also right next to the bed -- I wasn't that awake). The flash blinded him (hence the squinty eyes) and he quickly took his "hat" off so I'd quit blinding him.

But I love the way the necklaces make his hair stick straight up.

Today, after we'd been awake for a bit, Caleb and I headed back downstairs to take a shower. I got sidetracked for a moment, and next thing I know, Caleb's sporting his old friend, the pearl necklace.





Pearls are useful for other things besides hats. Such as...leg wrappers?


Leg wrappers make a STRONG MAN!



As well as a cute boy.


During his strong man routine, Caleb kept saying "one more picture," so of course I obliged. When he was finally finished posing, he decided it was Mommy's turn to have her picture taken. I let him have the camera.

"Mommy, hat," he said, pointing at the necklace now lying on the floor between us. So I put it on my head and he began taking my picture. Several of them actually turned out really well framed. But since I had yet to shower, you get to see Nana's favorite one instead of one that looks like someone who knew what they were doing took the picture.


And on an unrelated note, besides the fact that the picture is also from today, Caleb loves to climb. Climb and jump. He'll climb up onto anything he can and I try to refrain from stopping him, only dishing out a few "Be careful"s every now and again.

Book Club

I discovered something tonight. Book clubs aren't about books. They're simply called book clubs so your husband thinks you are doing something important and intelligent and will willingly watch the kid for you while you go out and gossip with a bunch of other women.

Tonight I attended my first book club meeting. I read the book two weeks ago and was nervous that I'd already forgotten everything. I even started to reread the book so it would be fresh in my mind when I went to book club tonight (though I got distracted by other things and didn't get very far in my rereading).

Then I went to book club. On time even. Okay, three minutes early. Half an hour later, enough people were there that they finally mentioned the book for a minute. Twenty minutes after that, we discussed the book for maybe five minutes.

I don't know what I was expecting. Okay, I do know. I was expecting the person in charge to have a list of deep, intellectual questions to facilitate discussion. I was expecting well thought out responses from people who knew a thing or two about literature. Basically, I expected a grad school literature class with more interesting books.

I'm considering not even reading the book for next month's book club, but then going anyway.

Has anyone else ever been to a book club? Is this what they're all like? When I came home and told Brandon of my disappointment, he was surprised that I'd expected so much from book club. Apparently, his opinion of what book club is is exactly what I went to tonight.

Our Little Rock Star

I think these videos of Caleb (taken on my cell phone) are hilarious. We were playing with the Wii guitars the other day. Caleb loves music. He loves to dance. He loves to sing. But he especially loves playing the guitar. And the drums. He's our little rock star.

Though, when the cameras come out (yes, he knows that when we get our phone out and hold it up, that we're really taking a picture of him), he doesn't like to perform. So it takes a moment in the first video, and then he gets a little shy in the second video when he realizes that I'm filming him. But this is my cutie.




(He's singing "I Like to Move it" from the Madagascar movie. We sing it all the time and change the words around. If we sing "I like the Caleb, Caleb," then he'll sing "I like the Mommy, Mommy" or Daddy or whoever.)

It's Official

We're homeless.

We sold our house. I'm not really sure what we were thinking. The whole ordeal has been beyond stressful.

We've looked at almost every house for sale in Utah County (or at least the ones in our price range). Fifty houses would not be an exaggeration. It may even be underestimating. We've now begun looking in Salt Lake County. At this point, we're no longer sure we want to stay in Utah. But we have no idea where to go.

Moving sucks.

Here are a few pictures of Caleb from the one and only day he thought moving was fun: