W.H.P.

Remember how I'm an up and coming photographer?  It's time for me to talk about it again.  And try to entice you, my good friends, to share my name when you know someone that needs a great photographer.  I take pictures of everything: babies, kids, seniors, engagements, bridals, weddings, families, maternity - you know - everything.

So what's in it for you?  I'll tell you.  If you refer someone to me that books for the full price (not the half price that I'm doing until the end of the year), I'll give YOU, and them, $50 off a session. And if you get someone to book a wedding, I'll give you a free session! *You* means that I know you - we're friends - you read and comment on my blog.* And if you get someone to book before the end of the year, I'll throw in $15 worth of prints for you when you have your pictures taken.

I'm sure that most of you have a photographer in your family or you have another close friend that is a photographer.  The Utah market is pretty saturated.  And it's hard to get in front of new clients. So I'm reaching out here - tell your neighbors!  Tell your friends!  Tell your newly engaged sister! And come get pictures taken yourself!  It's actually quite fun and I tell the lamest jokes that are sure to make you laugh... at me.

P.S. Family pictures makes a great Christmas present. I could hook you up with a carry-over discount if you wanted to give the gift of new family pictures. Message me on Facebook (have you liked my Photography page??) or check out my website and contact me there.

P.P.S. I'll try not to be so desperate sounding in the future.

2 Year Check-up

Katie had her 2 year check up with "Dr. Ducky" (that's how Katie says his name) on Monday.  She's doing great and growing great!  Her stats are finally out of the single digits.

She's officially 24.2 lbs and 32.5 inches tall.  Which put her at 16% for weight and 21% for height.

She's talking in complete sentences now, and I can understand most everything that she says (Dad on the other hand, has a harder time figuring things out).

She can count to 10, and likes to add 13 at the end on occasion.

She has a harder time between red and green, but knows BLUE, purple, orange, brown, black and yellow. 

She loves animals (reading book, playing games, watching movies), and knows ALL of their names (oh by the way, the stuffed animals that sleep in her bed has gone WAY up since Disneyland - as of this morning there were 11.)

She loves to read books and still likes to "read" them to herself.

She's a picky eater - until I force feed her to give her the flavor and she realizes that it's yummy.  BUT she refuses to eat potatoes (unless they are french fries). 

If given the choice, she will always choose to have pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  She loves grapes and berries and green peas.

She has super sensitive skin and has diaper rash constantly, eczema on her legs and cheeks - but she loves to help put on her lotion after bath time.

She has one chapstick and she loves it - so I keep it hidden.

She's a little drama queen, and I can always tell when she hasn't slept well at daycare because she is a holy terror in the evenings... she tests my patience!

She likes to have an opinion about what she wears each day - and sometimes I just have to distract her with something on my phone so that I can get her dressed in one of the 3 options I gave her, after she told me that she didn't want what I had originally picked out.

She's getting better at singing everyday - I love to hear her try to sing the ABCs.  She likes me to sing to her at bedtime - but will tell me "no singing" almost every other time of the day.  I try to not  let it hurt my feelings.

She's my little buggie.

Disneyland: Day 6

Our last day of our first "family" vacation.  We started the day off in California Adventure and were in line before the park opened.

We got to say a quick "Hi" to Goofy while we were waiting for the park to officially open.

Our first ride that we HAD to get on was Toy Story Midway Mania (we hadn't made it on it yet!) so as soon as they let us in, we went straight for it.  Katie really liked it, but she didn't like that her 3D glasses wouldn't stay on her face.

We went over to the carousel afterwards and while we were on it, Katie spotted Jessie.  And wouldn't be distracted until she had seen her again.

 

 

 But we rode the carousel again, and again, until she FINALLY was able to get on this blue seahorse.

After that, we headed to A Bug's Land to get one last ride on her favorite flyers and the ladybug boogie.

This is a little overloaded with Katie's meeting with Flik, but I was dying.  The line was pretty long for him, and he was standing right next to the Chew-Chew train ride, so Tyson told me to take Katie on it, while he waited.  Well, the train didn't move as fast as we needed it to, and when we were waiting to get off, I could see Tyson standing there by himself with the cast members that are with the characters.  So we ran over as soon as we could get off and they had waited for us.

But it was so worth it.  Katie was so excited to meet him, and Flik obviously thought that she was the Bee's Knees, because he wasn't in a hurry to get a picture and be done.  He sat and hugged her, then turned her around to pose, then turned her into a bug and tried to dance with her and then wanted to take her with him when they finally told him that it was time to go. I love Flik.

 

 

After that we stopped to get a picture with Mater, on our way to ride his tractors (for the last time).   And they got a great picture of our little family!  Only, it isn't in focus.

And then in focus, but not a very good picture of us. 

We went to Mike & Sully again so that Katie could yell out to Boo.  We also needed an ice cream break.

 On our way out of the park, we saw Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates - it's on Disney Junior).  Katie had watched her first Jake episodes on this trip, so he was fresh in her mind and she wanted to meet him. 

She was pretty happy about it.

 

After nap time, we went to Disneyland.  And I didn't even bother to get my camera out for the rest of the trip.  But we rode the Jungle Cruise (which Katie HATED), explored Tarzan's tree house, rode Pirates of the Caribbean again (she did better this time, but still didn't love it), rode Winnie the Pooh then went to get some dinner.  While we were eating, the parade started and we had a pretty good view from our table at the Jolly Holiday cafe at the end of Main Street.  So we watched the parade for a bit, then headed towards Dumbo, but stopped at the castle, because we had a pretty great view of the parade.

We rode the carousel, Dumbo, Dumbo and then got in line for the teacups.  While we were in line, we head over the PA system that Disneyland would be closing in 5 minutes.  So we rode teacups (Katie seriously loves them) and then ran over to the Alice in Wonderland ride right next to it.  We were the second to last people in line before the stopped letting people in.  So that was our last ride - and it's pretty lame, so that was kind of a bummer.  But Katie liked yelling out to Alice and the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat.

We went to Main Street and started looking for the souvenirs that I wanted to get for Katie - and it was jammed with people.  So I found her a hoodie and we got the heck out of the park.

Our trip was over.  Tyson told me that he was Disney-ed out on our last day, but I could have kept going.  I think there might be something wrong with me.

We drove all the way home the next day.  Katie did so great.  We stopped for dinner in St. George and she FINALLY fell asleep for the first time that day around 6pm, when we were only two hours away from being home.  She was really upset for about 15 minutes before that, but we left her alone and she gave up and went to sleep.

All in all - our trip was awesome.  Katie did so great with everything and she seemed to love our vacation.  When she would wake up in the morning or from naps, I would ask her if she wanted to go back to Disneyland and she always yelled out, "YEAH!"

So Disneyland, we will be seeing you again in about a year...

Disneyland: Day 5

Tyson took Grandma to the airport first thing in the morning, and Katie and I watched some Disney channel while we waited for him to get back (and bring us breakfast).

We headed out to the parks around 10:30am and started our day at Disneyland.  With our first ride being Dumbo. (duh)

And, I didn't get my camera out once while we were in the park.  So, you get to see the awesome quality that I get with my phone.

Like, this attempted family picture.  Awesome.

(Oh double chin, how I hate you.)

We spent the morning in Fantasyland, riding the rides that Katie loved best.

Like the teacups.

And we took breaks to dress like a princess.

As we were about to head out of Fantasyland, we glimpsed Mary Poppins coming our way.  And Katie could hardly believe her eyes.  Until we got up to her to say hello and ask for a picture - and Katie got too shy to even look at her.  It made me laugh.

And of course, the nice camera didn't get pulled out for this picture - because my husband apparently can not read my mind.

We called it quits on the park a little earlier than normal and went out to lunch before heading up to our room for a nap.  And Katie discovered her love for ketchup.

After nap, we headed back and went into California adventure.  We made our way over to the Redwood Creek Trail and made it just in time for the last Wilderness Explorer Ceremony.  Katie got to see Kevin and meet Russell.  Katie was made a SENIOR Wilderness Explorer and I have the badge to prove it.

After we met Russell, we stayed and played in the Redwood Creek area and while we were playing a ranger approached us and asked if we would like to be involved in a Ducky Race.  We weren't in a hurry, so we said yes.

Katie got to color her very own Duck.  But she was pretty shy around the other kids and had to bring it back by me.  She was too shy to get different colors, but the ranger was great with her and helped her out.

Blue, of course.

After the race (Katie's came in third), she got to keep her Duck and... it's her very favorite souvenir from our trip.  She loves to have it in the bathtub with her, and it goes to "sleep" on her bookshelf.  Today (11/13), it even had to go in the car as we drove to daycare with her.

We spent the rest of the evening riding the Junkyard Jamboree, Mike & Sully to the Rescue and The Little Mermaid ride.

Then it was home to bed - tomorrow would be our very last day on our trip.

Disneyland: Day 4

Today was Grandma's last day at the parks with us.  We spent the morning in California Adventure.  The first stop was Cars Land - we needed to get on the new Radiator Springs Racers when Grammy was still with us, since Katie isn't big enough to go on it.

 So, we got our fastpasses, and then we hit up the other two rides that Katie could go on.  Her favorite tractors and the flying tires (which is actually kind of lame, but Katie thought it was funny and I thought it was funny watching my mom and Tyson ride together.)

Lightning McQueen came out for pictures and Katie wanted to see him.

A partial picture with one of the tractors.

We headed over to Mike and Sully to the Rescue! which was another one of Katie's favorite rides.  And while we were waiting in line for that, we could see the top of a character's head hidden behind a building... we were curious and headed over to that building after we got off of the Monsters, Inc. ride.

The sign there said that it was a special Disney Visa card meet 'n greet.  And hey!  We had just signed up for a Disney Visa before this trip (they had a promotion that they would give you a $200 Disney gift card when you made your first purchase with the card.  SOLD!).  So, so waiting and who was waiting around the corner?

STITCH!

She was pretty excited about it.

We started to make our way back to Buena Vista street because Grandma wanted to check out the shops better and find souvenirs for each of the grandkids.

While Grandma was shopping, we waited to see Pluto again (he's wearing a hat - that makes him different!)

I love this picture so much.

We eventually made our way over to the side of the park with the roller coaster and the carousel.  And we saw Donald on the way.  In a sailor outfit. 

Tyson and I wanted to ride the roller coaster and the line was SHORT, so off we went while Grandma and Katie rode the carousel (it's all sea creatures, because it's King Triton's Carousel).

When we got off the roller coaster, we found Grandma and Katie in a line to meet Buzz.  Grandma said that while they were riding the carousel Katie all of a sudden shouted, "BUZZ!" - she spotted him before Grandma did, so they had to go over once they were off.

Buzz isn't soft and cuddly, but that didn't stop Katie from trying.

I love the look on her face.

 It was getting close to lunch/nap time, so we started heading out.  But, the way out takes you right passed Katie's favorite ride.  And as soon as she saw it she started yelling out to the tractors.  So one more ride was needed.

I just handed the camera off to my mom to take some of us on the ride.  But I didn't change the settings and all of the pictures were completely blown out.  This picture is horrible, but I wanted to show you Katie's face on this ride.  She laughs and cackles and yells and loves this so much.  I think we must have ridden this ride over 10 times while we were there.

Nap time was glorious and we were ready for the park again.  We went back to Disneyland so that Grandma and Katie could ride Peter Pan and Dumbo together.  But first we saw the parade.  And Katie loved it.

Here she is, waving to one of the princesses as they went by.

The parade ended with Mary Poppins and Bert on these awesome bikes that were their merry-go-round horses and a bunch of chimney sweeps dancing along.  Katie could hardly believe her eyes.  And I knew that we need to try to find Mary Poppins for a picture if we could before our trip was over.

We rode all of the kiddie rides for Katie and then were kicked out of the park because they were closing early for the Mickey's Halloween Party.  Grandma stayed extra to shop for souvenirs and we headed over to California Adventure to ride some rides until World of Color started at 8:15pm.  Grandma joined us about an hour before the show started.

Katie was pretty tired, but she liked the show (it's very well done).  When it was over, we were all ready to get home and get in bed.