A week of Celebration

We sure had fun last week! I turned 26 on Thursday, Grady turned 1on Saturday, Sunday was Father's Day, and then we had a party for Grady on Monday! My birthday was pretty nice. Ty and Luke made me breakfast, and later that afternoon Ty took me to the new temple for the first time. On Friday night he took me out to dinner.

Saturday we went on a little day trip up on Mt. Graham. We had a fun picnic, and then we hiked Lady Bug Saddle. We took a wrong turn on the hike and the terrain became extreemly dangerous, especially with 2 kids! We found our way back to the trail after a while and finally made it to the top. There were just thousands and thousands of lady bugs everywhere! Luke loved it!

Luke actually picked some flowers for me to put in my hair. He sure is going to be a heartbreaker!

Believe it or not, this is actually the first tie I have ever gotten for Ty. Father's day was just a nice laid back day, just the way Ty likes it. My boys are so lucky to have such an awesome, caring, and involved father! We finished off the day with a nice steak dinner.

We did some celebrating for Grady on Saturday, but reserved most of the fun for Monday night. He wasn't too interested in his presents, but he really loved his cake! He just dug in face first! I love this kid!

4 Years Ago...

We were there!!!

Germany hosted the last World Cup while Ty and I were there. We didn't actually get to go to any of the games, but we could feel the excitement in the air. Every city we went to, even the little cities had a huge screen in the center of town where people gathered together to watch the games. We were in Berlin for Germany's first game in the 2006 World Cup, and we joined all the crazy people behind the famous Brandenburger Gate to watch Germany win. It was so fun and exciting! Ever since then, Ty has become a huge soccer fan, and this year we've really enjoyed rooting on the USA together as a family from our couch (and getting upset at the ref every time we watch replays of the goal that didn't count!)

The screen behind the Brandenburger Gate. If you look really closely you can see the side of my head!

Frankfurt, by far, had the coolest set up. They put a big huge screen right in the middle of the river Main!Heidi, Jeffrey, and Ty in front of the screen.

Photography Fun

I went to a photography class on Friday with Chea Lamb. I have really been focusing on all the technical aspects of photography. Her approach to photography is very artistic, and so it was really good for me to hear everything she had to share. She chose the locations and did most of the posing of the models. These are all pictures that I took and processed. (Sorry there are so many!) I tried processing them all in a few different ways to get a certain feel that I wanted. This was really fun for me, and now I'm hoping that maybe I can find a couple high school seniors this fall that will let me do their senior pictures for them!

A Cautionary Tale

Well, I tried making some Rice Krispie Treats this week with some Cocoa Krispies. It was a disaster! I used some somewhat stale generic brand marshmallows, and they would not melt! They got a little puffy and then they just started to burn. I tried using my beaters to get them to mix up with the butter, but that just ended up making a bigger mess. I decided not to let everyting go to waste, so I stirred in some peanut butter and put chocolate frosting on top. That helped a little to mask the funky marshmallows. They end up being very chewy with a couple bites that were so hard they could break your teeth. Moral of the story: Never use stale generic brand marshmallows to make Rice Krispie treats with!

My brave husband

Somedays, I really love my job!

I've really been enjoying this Summer with my boys so far. We hang out at home in the morning. We eat lunch together. Then it's usually off to the swimming pool. We have a family pass this year and have really been trying to take advantage of that! The boys have fun splashing around, and I'm glad that I'm finally going to be tan again! I know, shame on me for being so vain! Sometimes we'll go for a snow cone afterwards. I love that we're doing something all 3 of us enjoy. The boys usually then take great naps after swimming, and I can get stuff done! Seriously, how awesome is it that I get to spend my days hanging around at the pool and eating snow cones with my two little buddies?!! I love this job!

Grady just as we're heading out to the pool with his awesome sunscreen hair-do!

In other news, I read a book! I'm kind of embarrassed to say that it's only the second book I've read since Grady was born. My mom is probably one of the most well read people I know, and she said this was one of her favorite books ever, so I decided to give it a try. I loved it! I loved the quirkiness of all the characters. I loved that it wasn't a love story, and I loved the message. I highly recommend it, and it only has 231 pages! It's called The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.

And of course, a few pictures of my little Gerber baby at 11 months!

3 Month Outdoor Photo Session

I was lucky enough to get to photograph this little cutie again. I did a newborn session for him back in February. He was just so sweet, cuddly, soft, and just full of smiles! This was also my second paid photo shoot ever, so that was pretty cool for me. I would love to start doing photo shoots more often, now that I'm starting to feel like I know what I'm doing! It is just such a creative outlet for me, and gives me such a feeling of accomplishment. I have learned a lot these past 8 months, but I know I still have a lot to learn. At the start of each month I've thought to myself about my photography "Okay, I know what I'm doing now!", but then by the end of the month I've learned something new that I don't know how I thought I knew what I was doing without that knowledge! Anyways, hope you enjoy!

When we were finished and the sun had just set, I asked mom to join her little one for a couple quick shots. She protested, because she said she hadn't done her hair or make-up that day. I'm glad she did though, because she really is beautiful and a mom can't have enough pictures of her with her baby!