Fantastic Family Photo in Bryce Canyon

If you have kids, then you know that there is a special kind of torture involved in taking family photos. However I am a bit obsessive about pictures,  so when we added little Audrey to our family one of the first things I wanted was a new family picture.

So I started the search for coordinating clothes and thought about where I wanted the pictures taken. I usually use my own camera and set up the shot and then have a friend take the pictures for me. Sometimes we get decent pictures and other times I end up wanting to scream with frustration.

Since we were going to Bryce Canyon, I thought it was worth a try to take family pictures there. Since we didn't have anyone to take the pictures for us, we put up the tripod and used a remote to take pictures. I will admit that my expectations were not incredibly high. I told the boys all day that their only job was to look at the camera and smile, but I wasn't sure if we could actually pull it off.

Would you believe that we actually took my favorite family photo of all time?! Sure, we probably took over 100 pictures, but in the end I didn't even have to switch anyone's head with one from another photo. All I did was some color editing, etc. Isn't this photo beautiful?

Even the baby is looking at the camera... it's a miracle! So I had the photo printed 16x20 and every time I pass by it in the living room I have to smile. I love my little family!



Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Beautiful Bryce Canyon

Last week my husband went to an IT conference at Bryce Canyon, so the rest of us decided to tag along. We had so much fun! The boys loved hanging out in the hotel. I think their favorite part of our vacation was watching the Disney Channel (we don't have cable at home) and swimming in the pool.

Silly boys! Don't they know we were at one of the most gorgeous places on earth??!!

I took the boys around with me to see some of the beautiful red rocks. I packed Audrey Jane with my homemade Moby wrap and the boys walked around with me. They were not quite as enthusiastic as I was about the scenery.

It was a little bit easier to go see the rocks in the evening when Honey Daddy was done with his conference. Then I had help dragging the kids along. We decided Bryce Canyon would be a really great place to go hiking... as long as we left the kids at home. I do have to say that the rocks were actually even more lovely in the evenings.

These two photos are from a place called Inspiration Point. Isn't it amazing?

We also saw all sorts of animals. Our favorites were the prairie dogs, but the pronghorns were pretty cool too.

The last day of the conference the boys and I went on the scenic drive. It was nice because I could hop out of the van and take picture without having to drag the kids along.

We actually accomplished something monumental while we were at Bryce Canyon. Using my camera and our tripod, we managed to get the most gorgeous family pictures EVER. I had been planning to take family pictures soon and had already picked up the coordinating clothes. So we decided to give it a shot while we had such gorgeous scenery. Just wait until you see them! Too bad you will have to wait until Photostory Friday. :o) But here is a preview of the picture location:

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.

Little Audrey Jane

We are on vacation in Bryce Canyon, and it is GORGEOUS here! I am loving all the red rocks! I would upload photos and share them with you, but I am having too much fun.

So you will have to settle for pictures of my beautiful baby instead. One of my friends loaned me some black photo fabric, which is SO awesome because I can take pictures of my baby girl whenever I think she looks particularly cute.

I love how these pictures of her in her Sunday dress turned out. What a cutie!

Isn't she just the most beautiful little girl ever? She was so little when she was born that she is just barely getting too big for newborn clothes --and she is three months old! She probably won't be able to wear this little newborn dress again.

That's ok because she has plenty of really cute clothes! Picking out little girl clothes and accessories is SO much fun! After having two boys I am reveling in all the pink, lacy, frilly, flowered, adorable girl clothes.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Summer Sprinklers

At the end of last week it was finally warm enough for the boys to play outside in the water! We have had an incredibly wet and cloudy spring, so it was nice to finally have some sunshine and warmth.

We got out the sprinkler ball, and the boys had a great time playing with it.

By the end of the evening they were soaked. Eli keeps asking to get out the swimming pool, but it is still too cool at night for the water to stay warm. So until it gets warmer, the sprinkler and the slip 'n slide will have to do!

Actually the boys may get to play in a pool this week when we go to Bryce Canyon for Honey Daddy's conference. We will be staying at a motel, and I am sure they will have a pool. It will be good practice for the boys before we get them signed up for swimming lessons!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.

Strawberry Baby

Before Audrey was born I got on a bit of a hat crocheting kick. I crocheted teddy bear hats, flowered hats and cute little sunbonnets. Apparently my addiction was catching because I even got my mom busy knitting cute little hats.

She knitted me the cutest little strawberry hat, and I finally got around to photographing Audrey in it. Don't you just love it?

My baby girl is just so yummy!

It helps that we have a rather large strawberry patch. I may have to take her out there and do this again when there are actually some berries! Good thing crocheted/knitted hats are stretchy!

Mustache Party

My sister-in-law came to visit for a week, and we had SO much fun. One of the highlights of her visit was definitely the mustache party.

Who knew that stick-on mustaches could be so much fun?! Seeing the boys with their little black mustaches had me laughing my guts out!

But nothing can compare with how hard I was laughing when I saw little Audrey with a mustache on!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.

Postpartum and Precious in Pink

Just in case you are wondering, I have not fallen off the face of the earth... at least not physically.

You may not know this, but with each of my children I have gone through a period of postpartum anxiety/depression. With my second son I handled it pretty well, so I thought I was prepared for what would happen when Audrey was born.

Turns out I was not prepared. This time has been very different from what I expected, and it has been incredibly hard. So hard that I don't really even want to think about it right now.

But through the hard times I know I have been incredibly blessed. So many friends, family and neighbors have been there for me and helped as much as they could. That and all the little blessings help me know that I have not been alone in my struggles.

I feel like I have turned a corner. I feel like I am finally winning the fight. I am finally enjoying my boys and my baby girl.

I feel HAPPY.

Don't I have the cutest baby girl ever?

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Digital scrapbooking

Are you interested in digital scrapbooking? Want to make your own printables?  If so, I suggest getting My Memories Suite.

My Memories is not paying me to tell you how much I love this software. I have used it for a lot more than just scrapbooking, and I love it!

My Memories Suite is software that you can do SO much with. It is awesome, easy and inexpensive. Three things that mean you need to get it, right?

I get asked all the time about Photoshop. Photoshop is great, but unless you're going to be doing some intense graphic design or photo editing, I don't really recommend getting it. Yes, you can do amazing things with Photoshop, but it's really expensive and can be hard to figure out. I use Photoshop for picture editing and feel like I still need to take classes to learn how to use it!

My Memories costs about 1/17th the cost of Photoshop ($39.97 for My Memories Suite and $699 for Photoshop) and is seriously so easy to use.

There are endless things you can make using My Memories Suite. I know most of you are mainly interested in making digital scrapbook pages and cards, but there is also a lot more you can make. Invitations, videos, handouts, favors for a party or other event, photo books...the list goes on and on. So if you're not super techy or don't want to pay for an expensive program, My Memories is for you. You can make a project from scratch and design it exactly how you want, or you can use the premade templates and just plug your pictures in.

Check out My Memories Suite. You will LOVE it. 

And I even have a discount for $10 off the software. 

Just use the coupon code STMMMS8072 at checkout from MyMemories.com. 

If you have any questions just leave them in the comment section and I'd love to answer them. I seriously love My Memories and wish I would have known about it a long time ago.