One!

It's a big deal to turn one.  Morgan is quite the cute one year old.  She didn't so much want to smile for my tricks or her mom's tricks, but then her dad became involved and she turned on the charm.  I love a little lady that has some spunk and independence and Morgan already has that going on.  And, did I mention she is cute?

For awhile all Morgan wanted to do was read books.  Really I was alright with that because her facial expressions were hilarious to watch  unfold. 

And, then she was off like a little lightning bolt. 

Morgan's dad is over the moon for her {so is mom} and it's always fun to see a dad interacting with his little girl.   

We ended with a tutu.  Enough said.  :) 

The Big Three

Easy Rider turned the big three today.  He had a pretty darn good day I'd say.  Football, cupcakes, and a little sandbox time.  I love that boy to pieces and wish and hope that his third year will be filled with happiness and fun.  

Just being around Easy Rider makes me smile.  How could I not when he does these kinds of things...is a goof troop while he tells me he's three, shows me his three point stance but I miss it, lifts his helmet to tell his mom something, and then flashes me that dimpled smile.   

Easy Rider has the best spirit and is so full of life.  I'm so lucky I get to be his aunt. 

Happy third birthday buddy...I'm so glad I could spend part of the day with you! 

Thankful

After literally weeks of rain, clouds, and zero sun...we finally were blessed with the perfect fall day.  Crisp warm air with a bright blue sky to contrast the newly yellow, red, and purple leaves.  A day that a person wishes they could bottle and save forever. 

This evening I had the pleasure of capturing some more family memories.  I just returned home, uploaded all the pics, and did my run through of them.  This one made me catch my breath.  It's a picture that makes me so very thankful my parents saw my love of photography and gifted me my camera four Christmases ago.  It's a picture that makes me so very thankful there have been people along the way to help me learn how to use that camera.  It's a picture that makes me so very thankful there are families that allow me into their lives for a brief time.  It's a picture that makes me so very thankful and makes me think about how lucky I am.     

And, don't even get started on the little princess and her family.  Seriously amazing.  A quintessential end to the perfect fall day. 

Winner!

First of all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of the kind comments...you just had to tell me your favorite toothpaste or something, but again, thanks!  

Now, onto the fun.  I numbered the comments and then drew a number out of a hat to come up with the winner.  And, yes...I was honest.  I'm a teacher after all.  We have to be.  Plus I used me some Photobooth to show you the proof.  Who doesn't love a Photobooth picture every now and then?  Please don't mind the fuzzy hair; it's one of the many joys of having curly hair.    

The winner is....

NUMBER 19 {in case you couldn't read backward number language} which is Kathy Jensen.  So, now Kathy, you just email me at amy@nowpicturethat.com and let me know which picture you would like in an 11x14.  You can choose from any picture on any post I've ever done.  :)  

Now, back to the regular programming and we'll leave all of this awkwardness in the dust but I'm so glad some of you dared and learned to comment!  Have a great weekend. 

Awkward

So this is all kinds of awkward to talk about, but I need to.  Therefore, I will.  I started this blog on a whim and never figured anyone but Momma Debi would read it.  And, my friend Brittany.  I knew she would read it because she's just crazy like that.  Refer to this story for proof.  Anyways, I didn't really think it would turn into a place to grow my photography business, vent my neurotic tendencies, connect with people, or help on the journey of cancer with Momma Debi.  But, turns out, this silly thing has done all of the above.  It's weird though, sharing bits of my life with who knows who.  You see, at first, I could basically count on one hand the number of times anyone viewed this blog.  Now, there are quite a bit more views and sometimes it feels odd to have this one way conversation.  Makes me feel like I'm talking to myself {and, please I do that enough as it is}.   

Many of you send me emails, messages on facebook, tell me in person, etc... that you enjoy reading the blog or that it has helped you or entertained you or made you realize you weren't alone in your cleaning craziness.  Like I said, this is all kinds of awkward because really, I think I'm just a nut.  I think to myself, "Who would want to listen to my words or look at my pictures?"  I really do.

Ok, I'll keep going now. 

I know sometimes what you share with me you only want me to see.  Of course when that is the case, by all means, send me a private message.  But, if you don't mind others reading your words, I would very much so appreciate you leaving your comments on the actual blog page.  Here's why: this has become my journal.  My story in a sense.  And, I would love for your reactions to my ramblings to be an attachment to it.  I'm thinking I will print this blog every year so I have a hard copy to go back to and reflect about where I was and where I'm headed.  If you leave your thoughts other places {email, facebook}, I won't have them with this later on.  Because I'm a tad forgetful, I probably won't remember what you told me.  That makes me feel a bit disheartened because so many times your words have meant the world to me.

Have I mentioned this is awkward?  

Part of the reason I know some of you email or facebook message is because it's hard for you to comment on here.  I'll explain the easiest way to do that so maybe that will help.  When you click on comment, this box shows up.

I circled, in red, the two options that are the easiest for commenting.  If you click on the name one,  all you have to do is enter your name {just first is fine} and then comment away.  If you click on anonymous you don't have to enter your name, but you still can at the end of your message if you want...totally up to you.  With any of the previous methods, you do have to do the word verification thing because it wants to make sure you are an actual human.  Then, you just hit publish, I get an email saying you commented, I will approve your comment, and voila!

Now, I hope more of you will leave your comments here instead of other places {again, unless you want only me to see it} so they will become a piece of my story.  And, if you don't want to, that's totally fine too!  I won't take your birthday away or anything.   

And, since I'm all about sticking my neck out right now...I have one last thing to say.  When I put pictures up on this blog, I reduce the resolution.  They are not in full quality; they are blurry if you print them or look at them larger or use them for anything else.  So, please don't right click and save these photos because they aren't the quality I would want them to be for you.  I'm all about sharing, so if you see a picture you enjoy and want, just pop me an email and we can figure out how to get it to you in full resolution.  I've even had a couple of people order art work for their walls from pictures on this blog, by all means, I'm happy to oblige!  :)  I just don't want my pictures to be used when they are not in their full quality.  That's all.  

Ok, I'm think I'm done with this uncomfortable one sided conversation.  If it made you feel as uncomfortable as it made me feel, I'm sorry.  Just pretend like it never happened.   

Wait, one more thing, just to entice you to figure out the commenting on the blog thing instead of email or facebook, I will randomly pick a comment from this post and give the winner an 11x14 picture of your choice from any of my blog posts printed with a fun metallic finish ready to hang on your wall.  You could tell me your shoe size, your favorite kind of toothpaste, your favorite thing to clean in your house...you know, really anything!  And, if you can't think of what to say in your comment, since summer is over and out...tell me your favorite  memory from your summer.  Maybe it was enjoying a s'more at sunset...

I'll pick the winner winner chicken dinner on Thursday {September 23} in the late afternoon.  Until then, go live your dream!      

Coordination

I always like to say, "The family that color coordinates together...stays together."  And, this family will stay together.  We snuck in some family snaps during Cody's senior session and it was a good thing.  Keaton is going to miss his big brother next year whether he will admit it or not so the mom wanted some memories of this special time.  Plus, family pictures are something you will never regret taking the time to do.  That I can guarantee.  As far as I'm concerned, the more combinations of the family...the better!  

Who doesn't love having a goofy little brother in their life?  Everyone should really have one.  Now, me?  I just have a goofy little sister, but she does a mighty fine job of playing the role as well. 

Like I said before, family pictures are something you will never regret taking the time to do and I'm so glad I was able to capture some memories for this family before they have to let Cody do some leaving and flying. 

Here

It’s those kids that you play with nonstop.  The kids of your parents’ best friends.  The house your mom drops you off at when she needs to go to an appointment so you can play house and get kool-aid smiles and make forts and play dress up and run free instead of being toted around the town.  The house that felt like home.  The kids that felt like siblings and in turn, their parents were your second parents.  The kids you would hide with when your parents said it was time to go because you all knew they would keep visiting.  It’s those kids that define your childhood years.  The running to the barn to feed bottle calves, the carefree playing in the trees on the farm, the hiding in that cool, up-high cupboard in their house...it’s those moments when you first realize the importance of friendship.  It’s those moments you don’t ever forget. 

And, when you are little and eating your lunch on a blanket in their living room, you don’t ever imagine, ever dream that one day the friend sitting next to you, the girl you completely idolize and look up to, will be gone.

Gone at the age of thirteen because of a car accident.  An accident that put the word death into our young and innocent lives.  The event that shook us all to the core because, for the first time, we weren’t carefree anymore.  The time that took a sister away from her two brothers and a friend away from me, my brother, and many others. 

I will never forget my mom coming downstairs to wake my brother and I up early the morning after it happened.  She pulled me into my brother’s room and through teary eyes explained that three of the kids who were a life beat in our childhood had been in a car accident and that Missi didn’t make it.  I remember my little eleven year old self just thinking that it couldn’t be so.  And, then I looked up at my mom and knew that yes, it was true and her pain was the pain felt of a mom who lost one of the kids who was a stitch in her life; a girl she loved like her own.  It was when I walked upstairs that morning and saw my dad completely beside himself wracked with grief that I once again realized, yes, this is real.  My parents will be comforting their best friends as they deal with the loss of their daughter.  My little baby sister will become a saving grace to that second set of parents with her belly laughs, chubby cheeks, and toddler ways.  And, the days of the rest of us playing house, making forts, dressing up, and running free would be forever tainted with the loss of an intricate part of that childhood.

When Missi’s mom hugged me that morning I felt as if my heart would break.  And, probably, a part of it did.  Because, it’s those kids you play with nonstop and the house that felt like home and the parents that felt like parents and the running to the barn with the wind whipping our hair and the memories of all of those things that play a vital role in defining a childhood and when a piece of that is so tragically taken away, the invincibility of childhood is taken away with it.

It’s been sixteen years today since that car accident.  The accident that claimed the physical life of a thirteen year old girl.  I can’t help but always think whenever my brother has passed a milestone in his life like graduating high school and college, getting married, and having his own children...Missi should be doing this too.  And, whenever the little brother Wade and I had major moments in our lives, I always think...Missi should see this.  And, when I see the big brother Darick with his two beautiful children, I always think...Missi should be here with us.   

Then, I remember she is.

I Wonder

I often wonder just how strange I look when I'm taking pictures of odd things.  I wonder because sometimes I'll look up from having one eye all scrunched shut and notice I'm being stared at.  I would just like to say to those people, "Hi, my name is Amy and I have attention issues.  Therefore, this object right here caught my eye." 

And, since my name is Amy and I have attention issues saying "one eye all scrunched shut" above made me think of a story.  A story about a gopher hunt.  A gopher hunt might be a foreign thing to some, so I'll quickly explain before the story...teams of two, very small town, starts at noon and ends at six, the team with the most dead gophers in the back of their pickup at the end wins.  Sound a bit redneck?  Well, it is.  And, one year, I participated.  A couple of years ago, one of my friends actually convinced me it would be fun to shoot gophers all day and place them in a back of a pickup once they were dead.  So, in order to get ready for said gopher hunt, I figured I should practice up on my gopher hunting skills.  I asked Momma Debi to give me a refresher lesson on how to shoot the twenty-two.  She obliged.  We were at the farm and I was trying and trying and trying and trying and trying to hit a gopher we had drawn on a paper plate.  I kept failing and failing and failing and failing and failing.  Until finally, Momma Debi suddenly exclaimed, "YOU'RE CLOSING THE WRONG EYE!!!"  It was like she had unlocked the secret to aiming.  My whole life I had been closing the wrong eye.  I think this also explains why being a doctor didn't pan out for me...I was shutting the wrong eye looking into the microscope in high school and college as well.  Once I closed the correct eye, I was like a professional twenty-two gopher hunter.  Seriously, I could actually hit the little buggers.  But, then you have to run up as fast as you can to the gopher hole and dig them out before their little siblings pull them back down.  I realize this is totally and completely disgusting.  The first time I hit one, I jumped up and down and yelled, "I got it!  I got it!  I got it!"  And, then I ran to the hole, and jumped and down again.  Only this time I was flailing my arms all around and yelling, "I can't do it!  I CAN'T!!  Ewwww!!  I just can't grab it!"  But, then I did and my life has never been the same.  And, that's all I want to say about that.  

Anyways, back to being the girl taking pictures of odd things.  Last weekend was no exception.  I can't help but wonder what the vendors thought of me as I stood there taking pictures of their ropes.  As I previously mentioned, I would have liked to have said, "Hi my name is Amy and I have attention issues.  These colors caught my eye and therefore I need to stand here and take pictures of them.  Now."    

Then, in the middle of all the hustle and bustle and a crowd of people, I aimed my camera high in the sky because I think the American flag is as iconic to a rodeo as the Smurfs were to the 80s. 

Next, I became rather bored waiting for the boys to get on their saddle bronc horses.  I just don't understand why it would take them so long.  I mean it's not like they are getting on a wild bucking animal or anything.  So, I was bored and I decided this steer needed it's picture taken.  Now.  

Next, while I was waiting so patiently for it to be Sister Pister's turn to do the goat tying event, I actually spent time with my face pointed at this wood post.   "What did you do this weekend?"  "Oh, you know, just spent some time with my face pointed at a wood post, how about you?" 

Then, this little yellow patch of flowers caught my eye and the fun flags behind were just a bonus. 

And then, I swung around and saw Sister Pister sitting in a strange position on her horse.  Turns out I'm not the only odd one in the family.  I guess she was practicing for goat tying on her foot.  At least that what's she said. 

And, finally, who takes a picture of a book on their own lap while at a rodeo?   I do. 

I do because, "Hi my name is Amy and I have attention issues.  The sun reflecting off the book in my lap caught my eye and I had to take a picture of it.  Now." 

I'm sorry if now you think I am a gopher hunting redneck who has attention issues.  Only one part of that is true.  I'll let you figure it out.