Ragged Mountain

We had such a blast at Ragged Mountain last weekend. We went with Jackson's parents, and his siblings with their kids...his brother and wife have 4 kids and his sister and husband have 2 kids. So total we had 9 adults and 9 kids...it was great! Here are a few pictures. More will be coming soon.

Thomas, Ethan, and Newell. They were playing good guys and hunting for bad guys. They decided that Thomas could shoot flames, Ethan could become a gator and chomp the bad guys, and Newell had some sort of magic whistle that could do something ultra special. I'm sure I got that all wrong, but it was something like that. They had a blast together.

Sweet little Juliette. She was trying to dangle her feet in the water, but it was just too far. She ended up just standing in the water.
Going for a hike (walk). Me, Nicholas, Brynne, Grandma Chelle, Juliette, and Amber. It's not the best picture, but I love Nicholas' filthy face. I don't know if we have all ever been as dirty as we got that weekend. It was great. Clarissa caught a fish! This was her first fish to catch. It was a rainbow trout. Because it is private land, we didn't need a fishing license, we just had to pay $3 for each fish we caught and kept. We paid, cooked the fish, and let all the kids taste it.
I love the expressions in this picture. Clarissa is full of admiration of her beautiful fish...her mom is interested, yet disgusted, and Newell looks a bit jealous. It is great.
I can't wait for next year when we get to go again!

SNAP!

Thomas and Nicholas LOVE balloons. I bought a big bag of them and unfortunately the boys found them. That meant lots of balloon blowing for me and also lots of balloons on the floor to keep away from Estella. She found one and was enjoying it so much, I decided to just supervise closely. I love this series of pictures. "Look mom...I have the balloon in my mouth."
"This is pretty stretchy."
"Let's see how far I can stretch it."
SNAP!!!
What a silly girl.

We just got back from a Berry family camping trip (in cabins) to Ragged Mountain. It was a blast. I have TONZ of pictures I will post soon.

Standing

I can't believe Estella is over 8 months old already. Time goes by faster and faster it seems. This week she has decided that she wants to stand. Every time I try to set her down on the floor to sit, she holds her legs stiff, grasps my fingers, and just tries to stay standing. I decided it was time to pull out this toy...it was a favorite of both Thomas and Nicholas. Here are a couple pictures of little Essie Boo "standing" next to it. I love the way she positions her legs and feet...she is so girly!
Her face is all dirty because we had just been outside where she made a meal of a dirty stick...yum!

First Newborn Shoot

I did my first newborn shoot this afternoon. My friend Amanda Jolley had a baby boy 5 days ago...I am having brain lapse...I'm pretty sure his name is Zachary...sorry Amanda if I am wrong. He was very laid back and sweet through it all. I was pretty nervous. I already know about 10 things I will do better next time, but I think a lot of the pictures turned out great. Here are a few to peak at. Thanks Amanda for letting me do this!

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. We invited a few kids from around the neighborhood to decorate bikes and have a little 'parade.' It was really laid back. I think the kids had a good time. I told Thomas ahead of time what we would be doing and he wanted me to lead the parade holding a flag on a big stick. The things you do for your kids! He made the flag and taped it to a BIG stick and made sure to remind me to head off the parade. I felt a little silly, but it was fun. I jogged ahead with the big kids and the other parents went slow with the little ones.
We got some weird flu-ish bug right around the 4th. We lucked out, though, because Nicholas had a fever all day the 3rd. Thomas had a fever all day the 5th. And Estella had one all day the 6th. It was a blessing they all felt good on the 4th.

I don't have a picture of this, but I want to tell it anyway. For dinner on the 4th we ate at Jackson's bosses house. He made some delicious ribs...soft meat, scrumptious spicy sauce...they were good. Estella was sitting on Jackson's lap and she grabbed a rib bone off his plate. I thought she would take one taste and not like it because the sauce was pretty spicy, but she started in on that thing and wouldn't stop for anything! She worked on that bone for a good hour and a half! She cleaned every morsel of meat, fat, and sauce off it. It was so funny to see her munching on it.

The night of the 4th we spent with Jackson's family lighting off fireworks in his parent's front yard. His dad had taken a trip though Wyoming and he picked up a lot of fun fireworks while he was there. It was a fun day.

Sunday I stayed home from church with Estella when she was sick. There was a little bit of time when she was acting happy, so I took her outside to take some pictures of her adorable-ness. I got one happy face....

And then about 8 sad faces. Is is mean to take a picture of your baby crying?

Madilyn and Mason

These are a few of my favorites from my first 'real' photo shoot. They are such cute kids, it made things really easy. I love shooting portraits! It is all fun...the preparation, the picture taking, and the editing. I love it all. I still have SO MUCH to learn, but I am happy with what I have learned so far. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Jazzy and Edmund

Jackson's little sister, Jazzy is getting married the middle of August to Edmund. Edmund flew here to Grand Junction from Canada to visit this past weekend. It was so fun to meet him and see he and Jazzy together. They are such a beautiful couple. Jazzy seems so happy. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures at our family dinner at the park. Here's my favorite...

I'm doing my first photo shoot (other than my kids) on Thursday. I am really excited. Last night I was trying to get everything ready and try a few different things to prepare. These are a few pics from that. You have got to love Nicholas's hair! "Please, Mom, give me a haircut!!!"

Essie 7 1/2 Months

Here are a few pics of little Essie Boo...well...more than a few. I sold a bit of furniture out of our 'studio' and bought a backdrop stand, two backdrops, and a reflector with the money. The reflector hasn't come yet, so you will see that in all of these pictures, one side of her face needs a bit more light. I just couldn't wait to try out the background, though.

I NEED SOME PHOTOGRAPHY ADVICE. I am having a hard time getting the focus right. I am trying to fucus right on the eyes, but I don't feel like they are crisp enough. I am trying to just use window light because I like the way it looks so clean, but maybe I need a bigger window, because when I set my shutter speed to 60 (which is the minimum I can do to get a crisp picture with a moving baby and a shakey hand) I have to have the aperture in the f/2 or 3 range to get a decent exposure. With the aperture so wide the depth of field is so small that I have a hard time getting it to focus right. Or maybe the problem is that the shutter speed isn't quite fast enough, so things are blurring a bit. I'm not sure. I tried increasing the ISO, but I'm not happy with the noise in the photo when I do that. Suggestions anyone?

First time swimming

Estella is a WATER BUG!!! She loves the water. I have been able to tell that from the first time I gave her a bath. Last night, I gave her a bath in the big tub for the first time. It was like christmas to her. She was thrilled and excited the entire time...even when I poured water over her face to wash her hair.
I really wanted to get some cure swimming pictures, but playing with three little ones in a pool and keeping a camera safe and dry don't mix very well. I did manage to get this one after-swimming shot to capture Essie's first time swimming.

She is in motion. It is so fun to see her set her sights on something across the floor and then half crawl...half squirm her way there and grab it. She is a determined little girl.

This is often the state of Essie's hair first thing in the morning. It is wild!

Last week, we had our Berry family dinner at the park and Bubba (Jackson's dad) brought his RC boat. The grandkids all had a blast manuevering it around the pond. This is a pic of Thomas having his turn.

Nicholas didn't care much for controlling the boat...he was content playing in the mud and throwing rocks into the water.

We love our garden!

We love to garden. Last year we had great tomatoes and pumpkin, but made mistakes on everything else. The corn was doing great, but we didn't pick it in time and it was all starchy and chewy when we realized it was ready. The peas and squash didn't ever grow well and I think it was that I planted them too late. So...this year I planted peas when there was still frost on the ground. They are doing so well! We picked a big bowl full yesterday and made alfredo and pea linguini for dinner. The corn (in the picture) is doing great. We also planted tomatoes and red and green peppers (you can see the tomatoes in the tires behind the corn). I love fresh produce!

My mom bought my dad a backyard fire pit for Father's day. The day after my sister Kara was married we broke it in for the first time. Before we lit a fire and it was still new and clean, Nicholas enjoyed playing in it. Later that evening we roasted marshmallows and starburst. It was great!
This was Essie's first time having her fingernails painted. My sister Kara did the honors. Essie was not very cooperative. She was intent on grabbing the brush. I was amazed that Kara was able to get any polish on her nails at all. They were so cute! Sorry about the blurry picture.

Random pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the past month or so.

This is Thomas and his cousin Newell. They are good buddies.

Estella eating oatmeal. She is figuring out the eating thing really well. The only problem is that she wants the spoon, so when we feed Essie it takes four spoons. One to feed her with and three others to keep her little hands busy!
Nicholas found a little baby toothbrush that goes on your finger and used it to brush Essie's hair. He knew it wasn't for brushing hair, so he had a "I'm being so silly" look on his face the whole time he was doing it.
For Jackson's birthday we decided to get a babysitter and go on a hike just the two of us. It was so fun to be able to move quickly on the trail without stopping or carrying the kids. We hiked up to a waterfall and decided to explore up over the top of it. When we got up and over we dropped down into a little valley. Suddenly we were surrounded by echoing animal calls of some kind. It took us a while, but we figured out they were frogs. On our hike back we ran into a group of people who were actually hiking up specifically to listen to and watch these frogs. They informed us they were called "canyon tree frogs." It was so fun that we wanted the kids to have that experince as well, so we hiked back up a few days later with all three kids. It took a lot longer, but it was worth it. We had a blast. If you want to see a video that Jackson took, just go to YouTube and search Canyon Tree Frogs.

Kara's Wedding

This past weekend my little sister Kara and Cody Markham were married in the Manti Temple. It was so fun to be there. They are such a gorgeous couple. They were just dripping happiness and new love. It was wonderful.

Here they are having a little moment together in the lobby before they come out of the temple.

She is just stunning!

Kara and Thomas
Brothers
This is my aunt Gaylene holding Nicholas and my sister Jamie standing in the background. If you click on the picture you will be able to see his big crocodile tear.
These are my dad's parents. They have worked in the Manti Temple for over 10 years now. They are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet.