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Perception Photography

It's been months in the making...but i'm finally launching!

I'm mainly focusing on senior portraits and high school dance photos right now. I will do engagement and family pictures as well. So, check it out! Photography is my passion and ever since I was just an annoying 9 year old i've loved it. I'm getting close to graduating as a professional photographer as well...and I can't wait!

So anyway, check out my webpage! PERCEPTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List MemeTodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

• Wide angle camera lens
• New Shoes and clothes
• A little elf to stain my kitchen table
• Speedlight & Remote
• Bookshelves and decorations for new house

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
My aunt crocheted afghans for each of the grandkids before she passed away. When we each get married, we get ours. That has been one handmade item I will never forget.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I'd like to make a quilt...

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
One year i got a geo safari. I wish i had it today! I appreciate learning more now that i don't get to do it every day in school.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
A door jumper, gates to block off the stairs, learning baby toys, fuzzies, warm clothes, and books, books, books. This kid can't get enough books!

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Pecan Roll, Christmas Sweet Roll, and really anything with a high amount of sugar.

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
Hopefully a photo arrangement thing to put on the wall. I'm still trying to learn how to use the adult size scissors without the blunt edges.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie? ELF!

9. Favorite holiday song? I love the First Noel to Pachelbel's Canon

10. Favorite holiday pastime? I love Thanksgiving Day breaking out the Christmas tunes (Harry Connick Jr.) and a Christmas puzzle. Then once the tree is set up, i love sitting in the room with no lights on but the lights on the tree and reading a book.

What is he thinking?!

So many times during the day I wonder what is running through my baby's head. This picture especially has me wondering...

CALLING ALL CAPTIONS!!!

Try to come up with your best caption for what's going on here. Leave caption in comments!

1st Halloween

Little Mac got to be a floppy eared puppy per request of his father. We found the perfect costume! He wasn't a fan of having his puppy ears on his head...he has baby pride.

First Trick-or-Treating Stop...he's a little nervous. Big Life Event.

We decided to introduce McKay to a real dog...it started out good. He loves running his fingers through new textures and luckily, Gilbert was very patient. Mac was holding onto Gilbert's hair for dear life. And then Gilbert got his revenge. He was licking Mac's face (I KNOW) and Mac was done. It didn't help that he was hungry and tired. Little Mac Puppy got bullied by the veteran Gilbert.

A Year of Happy

www.ayearofhappy.com

My best friend mother has started a blog dedicated to looking at the good in the world. She is going to do an entry for every day of the year for a whole year. Sometimes you just need a boost in the crazy world we call life and for me, this'll do. Go HERE for your daily happy.

Soul Food

Once, when I looked like this

BAHAHA (laugh with me, not at me)

My dear mother introduced me to a donut that tasted unlike any donut. I am a true fat kid at heart and could eat a donut a day for life...flashback to 2004 when i was a senior in high school and me and my two good buddies Matt & Trevor would go to Bryson Bakery every day and get 3 donuts each.

Flashforward to last Saturday when my Ryan surprised me with the donut from my past. Please, pause with me for a moment and look at the donut.

It's not Y for BYU...

It's Y for Yes. As in Yes Sir, Yes Ma'am.

Or Y for Yak - McKay's future favorite animal.

Or even Y for yacca podocarp...you can figure that out. A yellow-bellied sapsucker lives in a yacco podocarp.

Let it be what you want.

McKay Summer

Sleeps in weird positions...

Rolls and gets stuck on/under things...

Cute little fella.

Riley and Mac had another date...SHE made the moves.

4 month checkup stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz

Length: 25 inches

Helping Grandma Jo blow out her birthday candles.

Clearly not a fan of sun in the eyes.

After 4 months, Mac FINALLY took a pacifier.

Senior Pictures 2

Here are some more pictures from Adam's senior pics.

Senior Pics

My little brother, Adam, is a senior this year and had me take some senior pictures for him. More to come, but I think this is one of his favorites.

SnobMart

Many more important blogs are to come, seriously. But they all take quality time which is currently off galavanting on the 9th tee. I'll let you know when i catch up.

But for now, my first encounter with what i shall call "snob-mart"

You may think this is some store we used to go to when we were living in NJ, possibly somewhere in The Village.

Wrong.

Part 1: We recently built a home (blog, pics, etc. to come) in Saratoga Springs.
Part 2: I love Wal-Mart. Where many people refuse to shop at Wal-Mart for it's "taking over the world" attitude, I find that it is more my spa retreat. White trash right? RIGHT!

I never realized that I love Wal-Mart for it's trashiness before. I previously thought my love for Wal-Mart came from hours i spent wandering the aisles, finding new pop-tart flavors, sales on ice-cream, anything new. Really. Anything. Sales. Sales. Sales. $2.50 oreos. (Other stores push you to $4 per pack) Self-check out lanes. The 5 cent notebook sale the WM in Harrison, NJ had last year. I bought 50 notebooks.

When i find myself in times of trouble, I go to Wal-Mart. Until now.

Last night I took a visit to the neighborhood Saratoga Springs Wal-Mart. I didn't recognize it. And then it hit. I like Wal-Mart because of the trashiness associated with it.

Walk in to SS Wal-Mart. Fancy cement floor. Wooden floors. 30 feet of space between each aisle. Fancy pictures of delicious looking food surround the outer walls. Bright painted walls everywhere. I miss the Wal-Mart with the nasty linoleum tile floors, the squished upness you get to your fellow shoppers when you are in the baking aisle. The train wrecks that occur when you exit an aisle. The 30 people long lines at each check out lane.

In the new Wal-Mart, you can't even see the next aisle without binoculars.

It just isn't Wal-Mart. From hereon out, it shall be known as, SNOB-MART.
I'll have to get my fix back in Orem.

What happens when the internet dies...

I didn't realize how much my life revolves around the internet until today when it didn't work. So, what was i supposed to do? It all started when i changed Mac and his onesie got stuck on his head...it just tumbled down from there.

Yeah...too bad he didn't like his space hat. He even has space boots and a space gun. It was his idea.

I just love him.

3 Months!

McKay turned 3 months today and man, has it gone by so quickly! This has been the absolute best time of my life. I'm sure all you other moms out there will agree, but being a mother has made me a better person. I was so afraid when I was pregnant that this little person would rely completely on me and I wasn't sure if I could handle that. The first night we were home, McKay was crying and Ryan was holding him. As soon as Ry passed him off to me, he stopped crying. I knew then that I could do this. McKay knew I was his mom and was going to look to me for comfort (more likely for food, but I can believe what I want.) Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I will go get McKay and just hold him. I can be stressed about some lame adult life stuff and just go look at him and smile at him, and when he smiles back, nothing in this world matters but that. I love my little guy.

McKay - 1 day old

McKay - 1 month

McKay - 2 months

McKay - 3 months

McKay's Favorite Towel

These are pictures of McKay in the awesome towel Monica made him. We love this towel!!!http://gavonica.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-keeps-me-busy.html

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

McKay has been rolling over since he was 2 weeks old but NOW he actually does it on purpose.

Riley & McKay

Our friends Mike & Viv McKay had their little girl, Riley, 3 weeks before McKay was born. We named McKay after Mike - if we had done Mike we would have a Mike Meyers on our hands which...well let's be honest. Not good. Anyway, Mike & Viv were in town so Riley and McKay finally got to meet and become best friends.

They wouldn't look at each other.

But when they did....STARE DOWN

McKay started crying and Riley joined in. Good buddies do things together.

On our way to fireworks....

For Riley's birthday, McKay made her some cool onesies...as you can see, he has plans.

Ryan's First Father's Day

Father's Day was so much fun today! We made Ryan orange rolls for breakfast and then Ryan got to open his first Father's Day present. He was going to wait til after church, but I was so excited that it happened after breakfast. I'm just proud of myself for making it til then...I had to leave his present at my mom's house so I didn't give it to him early. Ryan LOVES Dave Matthews so I preordered their new CD and it came with 3 live cd's.

Then we framed some of Ryan's tri pictures for his future mancave. These are at Utah Lake that I took the other night.

It was so nice outside this evening so we decided to introduce McKay to our family favorite of laying on a blanket on the grass. We thought he would hate it but he ate it up. If the wind hadn't picked up, we probably would have stayed out longer. Here are some pictures from McKay's first outdoor party.

And then the wind came! Check out this reaction...

Happy Father's Day

Dear Daddy,
Happy father's day! Thanks for changing my diapers and getting me to sleep at nights. You're the best dad i've ever had. I think I love you!
Love, McKay

IRONMAN

*For those of you with sensitive ears - mute your computer.
**For those of you who REALLY want to get the full vibe of this post - blast them speakas!

Last weekend RYAN competed in his first IRONMAN in Boise.

Let me explain a little what this means.

It's really funny. I promise.

At 2:55 p.m., Ryan and 130 other males (Over 1000 people finished) in his age group entered FRIGID water to swim 1.2 miles. It was raining. The wind was blowing - and thus there were white caps. Luckily, I packed Ryan his water wings just because i'm nice.

After the swim, he ran out of the water, took of his wetsuit and threw on his bike shoes, helmet, gloves, and sun glasses. Then he jumped on his new bike (pictures and post to come) and rode 56 miles on the bike. The first 10 miles was nice weather...and then the rains came down and the floods came up. After the ride, he threw on his running shoes and ran a half marathon - 13.1 miles. For his first Ironman, he did extremely well! He finished the race in 6 and a half hours. I find working out for 6.5 hours nonstop very funny.

We are so proud of Ryan and this amazing accomplishment. The first thing i asked when he was done was if he was going to do it again and he enthusiastically answered yes.

St. George is having their first Ironman next summer and we are hoping we can get Ryan registered before it fills up. http://ironman.com/events/ironman/st.george -check it out.
It is a full Ironman (2.4 mi. swim • 112 mi. bike • 26.2 mi. run)
We made a deal that as soon as he quaifies for the world Ironman championships in Kona, Hawaii that he can get a Tri-Bike.

McKay and I stayed home so Ryan's great parents went and supported Ry. Here are some pictures from Saturday that Ryan's Dad took.

Swimming in the resevoir - Where's Ryan?

Transition from Swim to Bike.

Before it started raining...

Transition from Bike to Run...after the monsoon
Start of the run portion

Sprinting into the finish

OUR IRONMAN FINISHER!!!

Confessions of a Me Monster

1. Monica - Remember when we had a sleep over probably in the 2nd or 3rd grade...and I woke up in the middle of the night and had to go home...it's because I slept walked from the trampoline to the bathroom and COMPLETELY missed the toilet.

2. Since McKay was born, i've eaten 6 whole packages of oreos - 1 Mint, 2 Summer (blue frosting), 3 Double Stuf. Package number 7 is half gone. Package number 8 is under package number 7. Ryan has helped, but i conquer.

3. I quit basketball my Jr. year so I could focus on tennis. That same year I tore my tendon in my shoulder making a blind three legged elephant better at tennis than me. I was miserable without sports, so my senior year I tried out for basketball but got cut first tryouts. I was ok with it.

4. Everyone in my AP Literature class in high school knows this. This is for those of you who thought orange juice was spilled in the hallway during the ACT test our senior year. It wasn't. I had a migraine and didn't quite make it to the bathroom. I acted like it wasn't mine as I walked past it.

5. I wash my hands AT LEAST 20 times a day.

6. I am convinced G mountain is an active volcano.

7. I still don't know my alphabet. I have to say the whole thing in order to find out that N comes after M and before O.

8. I secretly (was a secret, not anymore) want to be on a talk show. When I was a little kid, it was The Rosie O'Donnel Show (then she went nuts) Then it was Ellen (I can't dance, forget that) and now it is Jimmy Fallon...sometimes I even surprise myself by interviewing Jenna.

9. I hide candy wrappers in my husband's socks. My point of view is that a sock is like a christmas stocking and a candy wrapper is ALMOST as good as the actual candy it houses.

10. I love waking Ryan up when he is in a deep sleep because he says the WEIRDEST things and it makes my day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QvSoRQrVJg - i only have a two wisdom tooth tale.

I TAG: MONICA, BRITT, LAURA

More Pictures

This is not posed.

New Pics

We had a little photoshoot today. More pics to come...

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

It all started when JoLyn met David...She went on a mission to Taiwan for a year and a half...Dave waited for her and when she got back...they got hitched.

Then a baby girl joined their little family, creating celebration on Mother's Day.

22 months later, Mom became mother to 2.

5 Years later, another little boy completed the family making JoLyn a mother of three.

Three kids couldn't ask for a better Mom. She read to them, sang to them, played toys with them, and taught them how to love by her great example.

Then those three little kids grew up.

Over night, Mom of three became a mother to four when the oldest got married.

And then Mom became a Grandma.

Happy 23 Mother's Day Mom!
&
Happy 1st Grandmother's Day Grandma!

The little guy has his nights and days messed up.

McKay during the day...

McKay during the night...