Priorities ... huh

I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying lately about my priorities.  It's easy to say, "my family is my number one priority" but I really think that it's a much more difficult thing to make happen.  I know that I am a selfish person - I crave for solitude a lot of the time.  I enjoy being alone doing what I want to do.  It's something that I have to really work on because as a mother of 4, how much time do I deserve to really spend by myself!  With my new job, my kids are now even spending less time with me.  I've been trying to juggle my family, work, my photography, and my church calling.  I've decided that something has to give because my family unfortunately has been being put last.  With a lot of sadness, I'm going to have to give up my photography business.  I thought that if I just gave up doing weddings this year that I could have a lot more free time, but even doing families has proven to be time consuming and stressful.  It no longer is something that I'm enjoying - it's become a job.  That's not something I ever wanted it to be.  I LOVE photography, but I found myself taking hardly any photos of my own children doing the things they love because I was tired of picking up my camera!  Before any of you gasp at my announcement, I would love to still be able to take my friend's and family's photos.  This does not cause me stress, but it's something I enjoy doing.  So if you wanted your family photos taken this year, please still hire me!  I'm just not going to be advertising myself any more or actively looking for new clients.  

My photography website will be going offline this February.  I've decided that I want to make this blog t not be only about my family, but about all aspects of my life.  I will be sharing more of my photography projects on here along with some of my designs also.  I recently was called as the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator in my ward, and from time to time, will be sharing some of the activities that we plan here on my blog.  Maybe I will even share some free downloads of posters/handouts/ideas that I create!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from January:

Promptings, an MBA, & SignCity

I've started writing this post a few times, but can never seem to put in words what I want to say!  I really hate writing - I'm not very witty or funny so I know it's not very interesting to read.

In my last post, I promised that I would write about my new job.  I think it's a pretty good story so I want to share it...

We have some good friends in our ward that are just awesome people.  They are the kind of people you want to hang out with all the time because they know how to make you feel so good about yourself, and they make you laugh nonstop!  We're very grateful that we've gotten to know Keith and Lisa!  Keith happens to own a sign company - they design and print anything from business cards to outdoor business signs.  Last year I did their family photos and their newborn baby photos.  I designed their Christmas card and birth announcement for them.  I was still very new to the world of design!  Keith told me that when I learned a little more he wanted me to come work for him.  I sort of laughed at that!  No way would I want to work for a friend ... what if I failed or did a horrible job!

So fast forward a year -- my photography business was going pretty well, but it was taking me away from my family more than I ever thought it would.  Weddings are wonderful, but they are extremely time consuming.  To say the least, I was putting in way more time than I was getting paid for!  But we needed the money!  We found out in September that the home we were renting was being foreclosed on.  We had rights as renters, but knew that it would just be a matter of months before we had to move out.  I'd been looking within our ward boundaries for a few months for something we could rent and afford.  Nothing was coming up.  We did not want to have to move our children to a different neighborhood again.  We love it here - we love the people, we love the neighborhood, we love the lake, we love the small town, we love the swimming pool!  We all prayed and prayed that something would come up.  Then something bitter-sweet happened.  I found out that some good friends of ours that live down the street bought a house in Lehi.  I was so sad to hear that they were moving, but being the somewhat selfish person that I am, I had to find out what they were doing with their house!  As you guessed - our prayers had been answered!  They were trying to find renters!  As anyone who has ever rented a home before, you know that you have to come up with quite a bit of money - deposit, first months rent, moving expenses.  The rent was a little more than what we were paying so we knew that we were going to have to come up with more money.

In comes the reason for this post!  A couple weeks later, out of the blue, I get a call from Keith.  He tells me that he has an opening for a part time designer and immediately thought of me.  He really wanted me to try and if things worked out, he would even let me work from home.  I'm still not sure why he thought of me or thought I could do this job!  All I know is that he was an answer to a prayer - so thank you Keith for answering that prompting!  I would need to train in the office for the next month every day.  Ok - so how does a stay at home mother do that?  As "luck" would have it ( and I say luck when I know that Heavenly Father has a hand in ALL things!) my sister Sydnee had just quit her job and was looking for something.  She offered to watch Brock for me.  And because she's the amazing person that she is and another person who answered the prompting that were given to her by the Spirit, she let me pay her by buying her lunch!

So now, we get to rent the house, I get to work at a job I love, and Sydnee gets some major bonding time with Brockers!  My first month of work was probably the scariest thing I've ever done!  I hadn't used Illustrator (the design program we use) for about 6 months and really only knew the basics anyway.  I jumped right in, faked a lot of it, but somehow made it through.  After a bit of a struggle with setting me up at home, Keith bought an iMac for me to use at home.  It's GORGEOUS!  I still have things that come up that I have no idea how to do, but I somehow figure things out!  I work 2 days a week from home and it is the most perfect job I could ask for.  Brock is pretty good for me most days :)  I only hope that I'm doing a good job for Keith!

As I mentioned in my last post, Paul graduated with his MBA in November.  He didn't want to make a big deal about it, so I didn't even blog about it.  But he needs to be recognized here!  It was a long 15 months of him doing homework every night until late hours of the night.  He graduated with all A's and I'm so proud of him.  Things weren't going so great with his job because of some management issues, so he started looking for something new. Through the help of a friend, he found out about a corporate recruiter position at WJ Bradley.  He started working there in the middle of December.  It's been nice for me because it's only about a 20 minute drive compared to his 45 minute drive that he had been taking.  He's home by about 6 every night.  We're not used to seeing him until about 8!  The job also pays better which is always a plus!  I have to say that I'm grateful to not to be a man.  I would hate having the responsibility of supporting the family.  I think we all need to give our husbands and fathers much more credit for what they do.  Paul amazes me in his commitment to take care of us!  So that was another answer to our prayers that happened this year!

I think that I've written enough, but those are only a few things that happened to us this year through the power of prayer.  Thank you, Keith, for being in tune with the Spirit.  Thank you, Sydnee, for your service that you gave to me.  Thank you, Brailsfords, for helping us rent your house. Thank you, Paul, for supporting this family.

(Can you believe I did an entire post with NO PHOTOS!)

Our Holiday Week

Our holidays started with our church party and the primary children's program of the Nativity.  It was so cute and the kids all sang the songs beautifully.  Gracie got to be Mary, which she was really excited about but also very nervous.  Gracie doesn't like people looking at her so being up on stage was a pretty big breakthrough for her!  She made a GORGEOUS Mary.  After the program, they opened up the back of the gym and had a gazillion bowls of candy ready for the kids to decorate gingerbread houses.

Eli's Gingerbread House

Gracie's Gingerbread House

While the kids were out of school this past week, we took an entire day to bake goodies for our neighbors.  We decided to make cookie balls, dipped in chocolate.  Of course they didn't end up looking like the one's in the magazine photo, but I thought they turned out perfect!  We had a fun day making them, but didn't get them out to all the neighbors we'd planned on.  The recipe only made half of what it said!  So I'm sorry to some of my neighbors who didn't get these gorgeous "Balls" that we made!

The rest of the week we spent hanging out, going to the movies, going to lunch, playing the Wii.  We don't have any snow so it didn't really feel like Christmas.  There's hardly any up in the mountains either.  It's kind of weird!

On Christmas Eve, we went to my parent's house for dinner and a party.  We missed Sydnee like CRAZY!  She is the one in our family who can really get us all laughing and having fun.  It just wasn't the same without her. The kids had fun, but Gracie cried all the way home because she was worried about Syd and missing her so badly.  They enjoyed being with their cousins though.

Eli and Andy having fun during the game!

Brock got right in the game and took his share of the loot!

For Mom and Dad's gift from us, we had our family photos of each of us printed and framed and then I had a canvas print of our whole family printed for them.

All the grandkids (except for Jared's kids) in their new jammies from Gma and Gpa!  I love that Wazy made it in the photo - I don't think Brock would have gotten in the picture if Wazy didn't!


Santa found our house and we had an amazing Christmas morning.  We love our new house and it was fun spending Christmas here.  We have a log burning stove in our front room, so Paul started a fire before the kids opened presents.  There's something about a real fire going that really brought the feeling of Christmas into our home.  Without snow, we've all had a hard time, but the fire helped!  I love when Christmas is on a Sunday.  We were able to go to church and worship our Savior on this of the most special days.  We spent the afternoon at my sister's house eating, eating, and eating!

Eli really wanted drums for Christmas.  We didn't want to buy him a "real" set because we don't know yet if it's something he's going to like.  So we found this beginner set and he LOVES them!  It's fun listening to him pounding away!

Gracie got an underwater camera.  She's been taking photos nonstop!  Maybe she'll take after her Momma ...

I love this photo!  It's the genuine reaction that Emma got when she opened her present.  It's an iPod Touch.  We don't usually spend that much on Christmas, but we really felt she deserved it.  She has been amazing this past year.  She bought all of her own school clothes in September and babysits all the time for me.  We are so lucky to have a daughter like her.

Brock received a lot of cars!  He was tired and cranky from the late night party the night before.  He opened up 1 gift and just played with it and didn't care about anything else!

I had to post this photo!  Emma got this foot soak from her Grandma Hanson.  This is what she did all day yesterday - soaking her feet and playing on her new iPod!  She'd get up and play the Wii every once in a while, but then go right back to her "spot"!

We hope you all had a good Christmas.  We learned a lot this season about how blessed we are to live where we do.  Learning from Sydnee as she has been in Ghana has helped my children see that there are many children in this world who need our love and compassion.  We are all Heavenly Father's children and he loves each one of us.  It doesn't matter what the color of skin we have, or our station in life, or the country we live in.  We are ALL His children.

My brother is a PA and works in a low-income clinic in Washington.  Last year after Christmas, he would ask his patients (he works with children) what they received for Christmas and most of them said they didn't get anything.  A lot of his patients are immigrants here illegally and are too scared to even put their names on an Angel Tree.  So this year, my sister-in-law organized an amazing Angel Tree for 10 families in the clinic.  She asked all of the family to contribute and then she set up a tree in her church building.  My children each donated some of their Christmas money.  We talked about what the money was for and they each decided on their own that they wanted to do that.  My sister-in-law told me that with my children's money, they were able to help a whole other family!  It definitely made my kids feel good knowing they were able to do that for someone else. 

We have had a very trying year, but have been so incredibly blessed.  We have witnessed miracles in our own family.  We are so grateful for those who have listened to the Spirit and acted on those promptings to help our family.  There are some who don't even know they were answers to prayers.  In the last 4 months, Paul graduated with is MBA, got a new, much better, job, we were able to find a nicer house to rent in our ward boundries when we found out the home we were renting was being forclosed on, and I started working part time from home.  I'm going to write more about that later because it deserves it's own post!

I didn't mean for this blog entry to become my journal, but I'm so full of gratitude and love this season.  I'm so grateful for my Lord Jesus Christ and the many gifts that He gave us.  Merry Christmas everyone.

Our Casino Thanksgiving Dinner ...

For Thanksgiving this year, my nephew, Josh, had a soccer tournament in St. George.  My sister invited us to go down there with them for the holiday.  We all rented a house together and had a great time in the warmer weather.  We didn't really want to cook a big Thanksgiving meal because we had had Thanksgiving with our family the Sunday before Sydnee left for Africa.  So we decided it would be fun to go to a buffet.  Well, the lines at the buffet restaurants were like 2 hours long and we have a toddler so there is no way that was going to work.  So we decided to take the 1/2 hour drive to Mesquite, Nevada and eat at one of the Casino buffets.  Those are always delicious - right?  It was fun to watch my kids' faces as they walked through the casino.  They've never been to one before so they didn't really know what to expect.  The only thing they kept saying was how bad it stunk (with all the cigarette smoke)!  

We finally made it through the buffet line and started getting food.  I think we must have found the one casino that didn't have a good buffet!  It was actually quite gross!  The kids had fun though because they had a seafood bar where they all tried crab legs, shrimp, and crawdads!  Even though the food was gross, we all seemed to get full ( it could have been the 3 pieces of pumpkin pie that I ate!)

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun.  It was nice to have the house we rented because we just hung out together, playing games, going swimming, watching movies.  Emma got to go with the 3 teenagers to the new twilight movie.  She was so excited!  (I made sure that Maddi had her walk out during the honeymoon scene!!!)  Josh's team did awesome in their tournament - they won 3 out of 4 games!

Gracie and Eli loved all the crab legs and oyster shells.  They kept them and now I get to see them in their rooms ...

Eli LOVES his cousins!  They are so good with him and never act like he's bugging them!  He got to sleep in the living room with the boys.  We could hear them laughing for hours after we went to bed!  Josh had his friend stay with us that helped coach Eli's soccer team this last summer.  Eli was in heaven to have so much attention!

My studly husband and Brock!

Josh is so good with Eli!

It took Maddi all weekend, but Brock finally opened up to her towards the end :)

Behind the house was a pond full of ducks.  The kids LOVED to go out and feed them and watch them.  Brock was fascinated!

The kids spent most of the weekend trying to hunt lizards.  They found quite a few.  Gracie named her's Mitch!  She has issues with naming animals after her cousins ...

Brock wouldn't hold still for the picture ...

Thank goodness Vaughn has an iPad!  The kids spent hours playing on it together!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

My sister's children in Ghana need help ....

The school that my sister is volunteering at in Ghana is very close to being shut down.  Their only vehicle has broken down and the children don't have a way to get to school.  Sydnee is asking anyone that can, to donate money to help them buy the school a new car.  Every little bit helps.

click here to go to Sydnee's post about the car.

If you'd like to donate money click here.

My sister ... in Africa

My sister, Sydnee, has had a dream for years to volunteer her time in Africa.  She has an amazing talent with children.  I've always been so jealous the way that even the smallest child just seems to cling to her!  She truly has become my children's second mother.  I think they would be fine if I left them with Syd for awhile!  She loves them probably as much as I do!

Anyway, through a series of events, and Divine intervention and guidance, Sydnee was led to Accra, Ghana.  She is going to be there for at least the next 3 months.  For the first while, she is staying with a lady, Lydia, who has opened up her home to Sydnee.  Lydia runs a school for orphans where Sydnee is teaching.  One of the amazing things that Sydnee was able to do was take priceless lesson plans and teaching manuals with her to Ghana.  A school in Provo donated them, but no one had a way of getting them there.  It would have been really expensive to ship, so Sydnee was able to take half of them with her on the plane and another girl is going to be taking the other half.  She said it will change the children's lives.  They haven't had a good teaching manual or schedule, so when teachers come and go every few months, the children basically start over.  She was very honored to be taking these with her!  It left her with one bag to pack all of her things in - which is pretty funny if you know Syd!  She loves clothes!

If you'd like to read about what she is doing, you can follow her on her blog at sydshelton.blogspot.com.  I put a link in my sidebar also.  She just posted some amazingly sweet photos of some the kids that she gets to work with!

You are so amazing, Sydnee!  You have been such an inspiration to me and my family.  My children adore you!  Be safe and know that we pray for you EVERY prayer!  Love you :)

Brock in his very favorite place with his "Ninny" (and her iPhone!)  He can say her name, but he has yet to say Mommy for me!  Shows you how much he loves his Aunt!

Grace Face is 10!

We had such a fun birthday with Gracie this year!  She has been wanting a bike for awhile now.  Her last 3 bikes were hand-me-downs that all had problems within the first couple months of getting them.  Paul and I really felt bad that she didn't have a decent bike.  She picked out one that she liked - black with purple skulls!  It says it's a boy's bike but Gracie doesn't like girlie things, so it's perfect for her.  And really, how many boys that age would ride a purple bike?!  So she got the bike!  She had to go out and ride it right then - even though she'd just gotten out of the shower and had wet hair!

That afternoon, she had her school friends come over and we took them all to the ice skating rink.  It was such a fun party!  The highlight of the party was the cake!  I had asked Paul's cousin's wife, Tiffany, to make it for her when I found out she enjoys making cakes.  I really hate baking and my children usually have to suffer through a wal-mart cake!  But not this year!  Gracie loves shows like Cake Boss, so we knew she would love a custom cake.  Tiffany did an AMAZING job!!!  The girls had fun tasting the fondant!  It was actually really sad to cut into it because it was so cute!

THE CAKE!  Isn't it the cutest horse-crazy girl cake you've ever seen?!

Gracie and her friends (I'm one of her friends, right?!)

The girls dug right into the cake!  It was delicious :)

They really were having a lot of fun - I just didn't get any smiles on camera.  Note to self- do not take an expensive camera onto an ice skating rink when you haven't been on skates in 14 years ...

I attempted to ice skate with Emma and Eli!  I hadn't been skating since high school.  I was a little bit sore the next day ...

Emma was really good and stayed with Eli the whole time.  This was only their 2nd time ever ice skating, but they all did pretty good!

This was the look on Gracie's face when Paul whispered in her ear,"I hope it's Justin Bieber!"

Happy Birthday, Gracie!  We love you!!