More Whittle My Middle info...

First off, the picture in that last post is just a random picture of some crazy chick's abs. Nobody I know has abs like that, nor do I plan to (or even really want to) have abs like that.

Okay, now that that's settled. I've gotten some interest from you ladies out there, but some of you were afraid about the "being held accountable" part, ie. posting pictures. For me, I have to have lots of people counting on me in order to motivate myself. If I don't, then I won't do it. Posting pictures is a way to FORCE me to do this and stick to it. I don't have a perfect tummy (please, I've had 2 kids!) and I'm okay with that. If posting pictures is not something you're comfortable doing, don't do it. Figure out the most comfortable/motivating way to get you off your tush, and join in this fun little challenge.

Second thing, this is not a challenge all about getting "skinny". I don't think I'm fat or that I need to lose a bunch of weight. I feel relatively happy with my body (minus the stretch marks, but you grow to love them accept them). I have really been interested in getting fit and healthy, and after talking about getting pregnant soon, it's scared me because I don't work out very much and my core is weak. I really want a strong core, and I want to be healthy before jumping into pregnancy. I'm not really putting much emphasis on how much I weigh after this challenge, and I hope you don't either. If anyone slims down and loses a few pounds, congrats, as long as you are being healthy!

SO, here's some info for anyone interested:

When: Nov. 30th-??? We can just do it through the month, or we can do something like 6 weeks. What do you think? (update! Sounds like we're doing 6 weeks!)

Who: ANYBODY! I don't care if you're stick skinny or have lots to love. We're here to motivate eachother and get healthier.

What: I will most likely follow the same schedule from http://ohsheglows.com/abs/ That means pictures and measurements before, half way, and at the end (Nov. 30, Dec. 21, Jan. 11) . My workouts will be taken from the same website (core workouts with the stability ball) but I will also throw in some pilates, treadmill runs, and whatever else I find that works for me. I'd love to know what everyone else plans on doing and how you want to be "held accountable". Let me know!

Remember, NOVEMBER 30th!

Whittle My Middle

So, I've been loving this new blog that I found at http://www.ohsheglows.com/. She is so inspirational and FULL of tips and information that I never knew. This is where I discovered chia seeds (oh, you have to google these puppies) and I am totally stocking up on them and never letting them go. I want to be healthier, and I'm pretty sure that we all do...but it's the motivation that gets me. I want to be healthier, I'm just lazy. SO, I wanted to do something right here, to hold me accountable, to force me to do better because I know that there are others out there counting on me and waiting for me to post about how I've done. I want to do this challenge that I found on ohsheglows.com called Whittle My Middle. Here's what she posted :

My goal is to strengthen and tone my middle just in time for the holiday season. I want my core to be as strong as it was after the boot camp series in the summer!

When? The Challenge takes place from Nov 11th until Dec 10th 2009.
Who? Anyone can join!
What? Here is what I will be doing:
1) PICTURES: Before, half way, and after pictures on Nov 11th, Nov 25th, and Dec. 10th, respectively.
2) MEASUREMENTS: Before, half way, and after measurements of my ‘smallest’ waist (above belly button for me), widest waist (3″-4″ lower approx.), and hips (over fullest part of butt)- same dates as above.
3) CORE WORK: 6-10 minute core workout, 5 days a week, doing the following exercises:
Plank
Side plank
Plank with elbows on stability ball
Stability Ball Jackknifes
Stability ball roll out
Plank Rotations

Then she goes on to show you different exercises and posts her workout schedule. I want to do this, but not just on my own. I want to do it with a bunch of you! Obviously her dates of Nov. 11-Dec. 10 won't work, but I want to do it soon. Chad and I have been talking about trying for our 3rd baby around the beginning of next year, so I need my core strengthened NOW. I seriously plan on doing this, pictures and all posted right here on the ol' blog. Yes, it will be a bit embarrassing, but that's what's keeping me honest and actually doing it...well, sort of honest. I may photoshop out a couple of stretch marks in order to save your eyesight ;-) BUT, I will not alter anything else, I promise. So, who is up for the challenge? Let me know soon so we can all get started on our hot bods together.

P.S. Check my post below, I seriously need your addresses

P.P.S. If your abs look like the picture above, you are automatically disqualified and banned from joining...and you disgust me

Christmas Cards

It's that time again! The time to start taking family pictures and writing up the newsletter. Yes, it's Christmas card time. I've been having a blast making "practice" cards (yes, I do that, don't judge me) and I think I've figured out how I want to design ours. I love getting creative and putting together something cute for all my friends and family. Only problem is....I lost my address list from last year...so, if you want a card, know of someone who might want one, have an address list yourself, etc., etc. SEND ME A MESSAGE, AN E-MAIL(ash-girl@hotmail.com), SOMETHING! I need those addresses if you want to be included in the Thorn-dizzle awesomeness...and you do.

My very "special" child

Oh Jayden! She is so unique, isn't she? She's intelligent, silly, the most loving kid ever, and she's also loud. She gets that from her dad ;-) Well, in Jayden's Pre-Kinder class, they had a fun project that they were working on. Each of the kids and teachers were supposed to draw a picture of themselves, and those pictures were going to be put onto a shirt. That way, Jayden could have a shirt to remember her whole pre-kinder class. I thought this was such a cute idea, expecially since Jayden LOVES to draw. She draws all day, every day. The only problem is, sometimes she draws weird things (for example:this post ) and so I wanted her to practice beforehand. This was her portrait of herself:

I thought it was safe, maybe a bit of an exaggeration on the hair (the poor kid can't grow her hair beyond her shoulders) but a great job! So I put the picture up on the fridge and couldn't wait to see what she came up with. Well, today we got the shirts. Here is what I found:

Awe, her cute little class!


Look at all those faces. Her teachers on the top look very much like them....in an amatuer drawing kind of a way.

Oh, look at that Kayle and Natalie. Cute and smiley!


Yes, and Ms. Schilperoot. The hair is spot on!



Oh, and that flat top kid...Brennan. Yes, that kid is ready for the National Guard!

...and that curly haired girl...Lava??? Jayden says there's an Ava, but no Lava ("oh mom, nobody's name is Lava!"). Yes, well whatever the name, it's cute as well.

Oh my, who is that kid in the very middle with the giant eyes and the fumes of stink coming off of them? OH! Oh my, that's my child! Well, of course I needed to ask Jayden what was going on. She told me that she was talking really loud, thus the lines, showing vibration of sound...or something like that, and the wide open mouth and huge eyes. Yes, my Jayden is a very unique girl and I love her! (Click on the picture to see the amazing, intricate details)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

For all those who don't know, I LOVE getting creative with halloween costumes. Last year I made these Dora The Explorer and Diego costumes for Chad and I. It was so much fun that I decided to include the entire family this year. At first, I wanted Jayden to be Snow White, Ryleigh be either one of the 7 dwarfs or a big apple, me be the evil queen, and Chad be the enchanted mirror. Well, Jayden decided half way through that she wanted to be a million other things that did not include anything Snow White related. I let her know that she wouldn't be a part of the family awesomeness, but she is stubborn and didn't care. She wanted to be a ballerina. As long as she was happy, I was happy (sort of) so Ryleigh was Snow White. This was probably better anyway because she really wouldn't want to be anything but a princess, so all was good. I became obsessed and pieced my costume together over the past months. I found the dress at an online costume shop that was trying to get rid of some of their stuff. This was like $10, so I grabbed it ASAP. The other stuff I got from Ebay or Walmart for really cheap, or just made myself. Chad was so sweet and humored me through all of this. He put his whole costume together out of a big box, some plexi glass, styrofoam board, and some bedazzlement! We didn't get a picture of it, but outside when it was dark, he had a flashlight that he shined just on his face so it looked like the floating head in the mirror. It was pretty fun.

SNOW WHITE

BALLERINA

EVIL QUEEN

The Evil Queen and the unsuspecting, innocent Snow White

CHAD IS CREEPY

THE MAGIC MIRROR

Happy 5th Birthday Jayden!

Well, her birthday was actually on the 23rd, but I'm just getting around to posting the pictures from the festivities. Jayden decided that she wanted a fairy birthday party, so I had some fun with it.

First I made a cute little invitation for everyone. I've been having fun with putting together cards and invitations (if anyone wants me to make their Christmas cards, let me know). Then I threw together a bunch of fun games/activities for the kids. When the kids first arrived, I had them decorate these fairy wings that Chad and I made. Chad bent some wire clothes hangers into a circle and I bent them together into wing shapes and put nylons over the top. The kids had fun coloring them and we sprayed them with sparkles after they were all done. Then we sent them all on a scavenger hunt. I told them that the fairies lost their wands and needed help finding them in order to do their magic, so the kids were running all over the house from clue to clue until they ended up outside where wands were spread out all over the place. They each got to keep one. After that we did a pinata and then had cake. I wanted to do a nice Tinkerbell cake for Jayden, but I've never really decorated a cake before and I didn't have anything but cheap Walmart frosting to help. I finally ended up printing out a picture and freehanding it onto a pink frosted cake. It's not exactly what I wanted, but the kids knew that it was Tinkerbell, so that's all that matters. After cake Jayden opened lots of fun gifts from her friends. We ended up giving her our special gift a couple days later because it was up in storage and we were too busy with other things to get it down. It's a neat little dollhouse that I found at a garage sale. It's got lots of fun intricate parts and the girls have been having a blast with it ever since.

The Nutcracker

While I've got the motivation to post, I thought I would share Jayden's latest picture. She loves this Barbie Nutcracker movie that we have, and so she decided to draw a picture of it. Here is the Nutcracker with the Sugar Plum Princess (she's wearing a magical necklace). I thought the Nutcracker was pretty impressive ;-).

Pumpkin Carving

I know, I know! It's been like a month, but instead of whining and explaining how INSANELY busy I've been, I'll just skip over that part and get on with my brand new post. This past Saturday we had quite a bit of fun! We first stopped by Jayden's school fair that they had going on. It was cute, with little games and prizes and a jump house for the kids. We also got to go on a hay ride and pet some animals. We didn't bring our camera for that, but you can see the pretty little butterfly that Jayden had painted on her cheek from it. Then we went straight over to our ward's Primary Activity Day. The kids got to carve pumpkins grown by our wonderful friends, the Andersons, and then once they were all done, they each got their very own ice cream sunday. The girls had a blast, and it's really pumped me up for this fall season. I'm slowly but surely accepting the loss of Summer. I can't wait for Halloween, though. Our costumes will be AWESOME!

Jayden didn't quite like the pumpkin goop being on her hands

Jayden said this was a scary cat pumpkin....???

And then they all dog piled on Uncle Ty. It was pretty funny!

Photography

(If you get bored and don't want to read this long post, skip to the end and just answer my last paragraph, PLEASE! Also, a link to my photo blog is on the right, so you can see my pictures)

So, I had a conversation with Chad tonight, and it's a very familiar one, both from him as well as friends and family members. I love taking pictures. I love editing pictures. I love doing creative things for myself as well as for somebody else. I like to please people. If anybody really knows me, they know that I crave acceptance and praise from others. It's a sad problem that needs to be remedied, but nonetheless, there it is.

When it comes to photography, I have always been intrigued by it. In the beginning it was that I loved being the one photographed. I loved trying to model and think up different poses for the camera. As I followed that interest, I found out that I really liked taking the photos as well. I like creating a picture and then adding my own *special* twist to it in photoshop. When Chad found out that photography was something I had always wanted to do, he made it a possibility for me by researching and then buying a nice camera for me. I was a bit intimidated, but I had fun with it. After a while I found out that I'm not too horrible at it, and it was fun! The more pictures I took, the more practice I got, and the more people wanted me to shoot some for them.

The first time someone asked me, I was terrified. I didn't want to screw them up. I mean, I liked to play around, but I was no professional, and I didn't want them to hate my pictures! They ended up really liking them, and even though I didn't charge for the pictures, it felt SO awesome to create something for someone and have them love it. I have continued down that road and am at a weird crossroad. I love to take pictures for people. I like to do it for them to just make them happy. I also like not charging (sometimes) so that I don't have to feel like there is pressure to provide something awe inspiring and amazing. I obviously try my best, but if I make a mistake, or the pictures aren't perfect, well that's okay, because it was a free gift anyway.

I have had a lot of "practice". I have done photo shoots of every kind, shot my kids and every move they make, and I have even done 4 weddings now! The problem? I don't care about making $ doing this, but when you get into "the business" you need to make it worth your time. When I do a wedding I spend LOTS of time preparing, researching, practicing, and then I have to spend money on equipment to help make my pictures more professional. Once the day arrives, I normally spend the whole day killing myself to capture that very special day for the bride. Do you have any idea how stressful it is to know that if you screw up the pictures, you can't retake them! This is a one chance deal, and you need to capture every special moment of that entire day, AND make it look good! It's HARD! Oh, but that's not the hardest part. After you do all of that, you take the 1,000+ pictures, go through them, delete the horrible/unusable/duplicated/or messed up ones and scrunch that # down to a size that is feasible. For me, I can't edit more than 200 from one shoot. I will make myself sick! I spend all of my free time going over picture after picture trying to fix the mistakes that I made in the first place, then fix the not so flattering things on the person, and then adding my own personal style. This process is really, really, really hard for me, but I love to do it and when I make an okay picture into an awesome one, there is no better feeling. So, needless to say, I HAVE to charge for weddings. I love to make the brides day by giving them a gift from me...but if I don't charge, then it just is honestly not worth my time. I put too much into it, there is just no way. BUT, it's the "how much?" question that is a problem. I am told by everyone that I don't charge enough. I struggle with that because I don't think I value myself or my talent enough, and so to bump up the price means that I HAVE to feel like I'm worth that much.

My other problem. I don't charge for photo shoots other than weddings. I like to do things for people and have them blown away by this "gift" that I've given them. I like making people happy. Chad says that if I want to be a professional photographer, then I have to charge for my services. If I don't charge, people will take advantage of me and it comes across like I am a crappy photographer because I'm not confident enough in my ability to put a price on what I do. People will look at the fact that I don't charge, or that I don't charge very much, and think "She must be crap because she's so cheap". I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know that I necessarily want to be major professional photographer....but, somewhere inside I do want to be a professional, just on my own terms. I struggle with wanting to be kind and just do it because I love it and I want to make people happy, and then doing it to make $. I don't ever want to just do it to make $, and I don't want to ever come across like I am ripping someone off and that I care more about making money than taking a picture.

I still have a long way to go with my photography. Am I perfect? NO! I still feel like an average person who sometimes gets lucky and gets a nice picture. How can I charge people for my services when I feel that way? On the other hand, sometimes I really appreciate my talent and I realize that the time and energy that I put into it is worth something and that I am ripping myself off. On the other hand, what happens when I take crappy pictures for someone? How can I look them in the face and say, "Here are your crappy pictures that a 5 year old child could have done better at. Now give me $200. Thanks!" How do I figure this out?

I've decided that I will start charging for my services, because I've become pretty busy and it's getting harder to just do this because I want to be nice. It's hard work, and I need to be worth it. I don't want to charge very much, though. For my weddings, I have different packages that I provide, and although I will be raising the price a bit for those, I feel fine with where I'm setting that price. So what about other stuff? What about family pictures? Senior pictures? Baby pictures? How much would you be willing to pay someone, and how many pictures do you expect the photographer to give you? I need advice from a client's point of view. What do you expect, what do you want, and what would you be happy to pay for it? I really, honestly need your feedback on this. If you have any kind of opinion, even if you think it's a bad one, give it to me. I need some help on this one.

Jayden's First Day of Pre-Kinder

We decided to get Jayden into this Pre-Kinder program out here because we've heard really great things about it we really wanted to get her into something since she's been talking about wanting to go to school for the past 6 months! Her birthday is in October, so it's close enough to the cut off that Jayden is ready, just not old enough. Jayden and I went shopping on Saturday to get all of her supplies and best of all **HER NEW BACKPACK**! She was pretty dang excited about the backpack. We found a pretty good variety, but before we even saw them, she told me she wanted a Tinkerbell one. There were 2 Tinkerbell ones and I pushed for the one that had pink hearts and didn't look so seductive/so much attitude, but alas it was Jayden's decision and so we went with the latter. On her first day, Jayden was going crazy. She jumped out of the car as soon as it was stopped and she ran to the door. I tried to get some pictures, but I was busy getting paperwork turned in, so we only got a few. Once we were in the doors, she wouldn't pay attention to me anyway, she was too enthralled. One of her favorite parts is hanging her backpack up on her very own hook. She loves that! We are so excited for her and can't wait for kindergarten next year!

The trashy Tinkerbell backpack

Her giving me some pose before going inside

Paying no attention to me even though I kept telling her to look at the camera. That's when I knew it was time to leave