A girl and her girl.

Luckilly she said the only thing she'd really miss about field day was the parachute. But not to worry she tells me... we do parachutes in P.E. too.

Oh wishoo. I was so worried :) not.

I know it's not "wishoo" but I typed a few other things in there and they all look wrong so wishoo it is.


First stop. Thomas J. { my hair guy/ bff/we go way back } I'd show you pictures of way back, but I'm scared to know what he will do to my hair if he ever found out. (... ooops, did that say green on the bottle? I better go back and look)

I don't mess around with hair guys, and I don't mess around with food people. Neither should you. They are very powerful.


... and then we ate. and of course we were very polite to the food people :) Not only do we think they probably didn't hock a lougie in our food but we think maybe we got a few extra nuts on our sundae! and then we shopped. ALOT. Oh my gosh I was never so happy to leave the mall in my life!

Everytime I would wander off into the baby sections Natty chimed in...

mom, why are we over here? Were supposed to be shopping for ME!

me... *eyebrows raised high... scared look on face... eyes darting from side to side*

oh my. haha. she was really excited about getting a new outfit!

Do you like it? We found it at Abercrombie kids. I would never think to look there for a dress normally but as we were strolling by the polka-dots pulled me in with their polka-dot powers!



Sometimes i can't decide between color and black and white.


So you get both :)

love you Natty.

Kass... you're next!

p.s. I'm not happy with these photos. Photography is frustrating sometimes. It's ok though because Natty is sweet and she promised me we could do some more on Monday. She must really like her outfit :) !!

Recklessly abandon(ed) {by} the sun.

and in the end it was a race against the sun.

The sun won.

and we did not.

for on our way to our point of interest we were surprised by a field of yellow as far as our eye could see. It was magnificent.

We said things like... oh we must stop on our way back!

And such as life (when you've recklessly abandoned all you do and love to just BE) we were having the time of our lives. We stretched the daylight as far as we could.

We watched as the sun disappeared behind the tip of the mountain to the west.

But we are determined. Because... well, have you seen this field of flowers?



and in the very last of the lingering light we stood there like this.


and this.


and then we had some fun doing things like this. Because we are fun people.


I think I've proven my point.

more of the { Reckless Abandon } series to come.

Maybe like tomorrow or something. I'm not sure. I've got a date with Natty.

(it's a hair date. Shhhh, don't tell her. I am pulling her out of school to get primmed proper!)

I AM SO EXCITED!

...though she may not be because I just learned tonight that tomorrow is the much anticipated "field day" ( I personally hated field day as a child, but apparently my kids are more agile than I am and so rather love it)

but it's too late. Appointments have been made. There's no going back!!

Bet you didn't know

Imagine the horror as i logged onto my email and found this

Sender: Facebook

Subject: Jed Hunsaker has tagged you in 47 photos...

I didn't even see who it was at first i just mostly saw

*tagged* and *47 photos*

My very first thought was { oh no! }

because it's scary enough to be tagged in just one photo on facebook!

So maybe you've seen this before, but then again maybe you haven't. And even if you have you maybe wondering what the heck it is!

So let me explain a little.

Long long ago I was doing some catering. just me and my trusty helper "DeeDee" also know in my life today as Tawna.

but I also did cakes. I even thought I might want to do cakes forever. So i bought a domain.

CAKECHEF.COM

I still own it.

and I have a cousin. Jed. Jed is clever when it comes to computers. He also has an artsy side to him, which you will see, but for now we will focus on his savvy computer skills. He was going to help me build my catering website. He had previously made a little video of himself which he calls tweakface. It's really funny. No, I don't know where it is right now. Jed? Tweakface? You still got it?

and also, my dad owns a business. He had a room in his building that he called

{ the Ann Frank room }

... because of course it was a hidden room.

It was in that room that Jed and I went to town making a cakechef version of tweakface! I asked him to make it into a little video for me, he kindly (and quickly) obliged. He's cool like that.

So go pop your self some popcorn and enjoy :)

p.s.- you may have to go pause my playlist first, silly me can't figure out how to make it not automatically play.



I estimate I was probably 24 in these photos. I also estimate you got about 4 bites of popcorn in before hitting the replay button.

This is currently Lucy's favorite movie!!

Thanks Jed!

*Hot off the press! Jed provided me with a link to tweakface! you gotta check it out. You won't be disappointed.

** Thanks again Jed!

Let's play I spy ...

Lookie what Cheyenne can do!



that is a good trick little missy!

{ yet another one of my amazing nieces }

Oh Easter is delightful isn't it?

I'm taking my blog back!

I just realized what my blog has become, and I don't want that. ( well not totally ) I started this blog for me.

I have the worst memory known to man and I've never been so good at journaling so the idea of a place I could sit and type the dealings of the day seemed like a good plan considering I spend a fair amount of time at the computer and stuff.

So I'm taking it back!

Hi. I'm Jill. There will be no photos in this post :)

just me.

Some things really hit home today and I thought I'd share. First of all I'd like to pat my self on the back for only being 6 minutes late to church. This is like a miracle for me. I am not at all a morning person (though I wish I was because man the lighting in the morning is so gorgeous and it just comes with this peaceful serene feeling... yes I've seen morning once or twice before)

Well anyway church starts at 8am this year. Saturday night I get like this sick feeling imagining the chaos of getting myself and 3 girls ready ( yes, 3. no one can manage on their own it seems) and out the door at 7:45. Some mornings Chad has just gotten off work so I'm slopping makeup on in the dark and trying to yell quietly at the kids to get a move on. Oh it's so insane.

It's not super uncommon to see me driving to church with my vanity mirror open wiping the make-up off my face because when I get into the light of day and see what I've done it ain't pretty. Pretty scary though, yes.

Well seeing as how photoshoots have taken over my blog I may have forgotten to mention how my little Kassidy turned 12 in March. This is huge for her. She gets to go into Young Womens. It's like a whole new chapter in her life and ours I'm sure. That first Sunday after turning 12 they go for a bishops interview and he told me on our way out that he would bring her up in sacrament meething to graduate her from primary in 2 weeks.

Which brings me to today. 6 minutes late. ( you see... i really did try :)

It was packed. We sat in the very back row. I thought ohh poor kassidy she was already a little nervous and here she has to walk as far a possible. But for whatever reason the Bishop never called her up. Maybe because it was fast sunday? Or maybe we missed it. I mean we were 6 whole minutes late you know.

So there I sat. A little annoyed. 3 hours to go. This was going to be a long 3 hours for one tired gal.

After sacrament I dropped Lu off with the sunbeams. I slowly walked toward sunday school pondering how i could get almost there but then just turn the other way and go sit in my car... so bad I know. Who would know? Seriously do not like going to sunday school without Chad! But then of course as luck would have it I ran into Katie. She asked if i wanted to go to sunday school.

no. I said it without any hesitation.

she gave me a look

You said, do i want to go...

Something about Katie... she gets me to do all kinds of things I would never do otherwise. So in we went. It was a really good lesson. I always like Bro. Pothier's lessons. The lesson was on giving praise to our children. Well thats what I got out of it anyway, something I really need to work on. I can tend to be a very "matter of fact" mom. I don't sugar coat things for the kids. I just say it how it is and I know i don't give enough praise to balance it out. He had his wife Shawni explain what her dad used to do when she was growing up. I had actually already read about this on her blog... but i thought it was a genius idea. Her dad would sit down with her and have her come up with some things she thought she was good at and write the first letter of that talent on her finger... and so on till all 10 fingers had a letter on it. I can see how this would would make a kid beam with pride. I want to be that parent that makes my kids feel so good about themselves.

I've always loved to go to Relief Society. I am one of those people that kind of hates sunday callings that keep me out of Relief Society. The lessons are ALWAYS amazing. We have wonderful teachers that put alot of thought and study into what they're teaching. Today our lesson was about loving and embracing today, not waiting for tomorrow. Enjoy what's right in front of you right now. Live in the present. There was this quote...

“You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”

Not that I think I live for tomorrow too much, and I know I don't live in the past... but I know I could be better at playing with my kids now... while they're little. I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing { the all important me } that i brush the kids off.

I say go play. Which I'm sure to a kid is just another way of saying...

I'm busy, Shoo fly. which I also say waay too much.

I grew up with a super fun dad ( which by no coincidence is a super fun grandpa) Which means the world to me. I remember looking forward to Sunday bike rides. i remember him coming home from work early and announcing we were going to the fair. I even got to bring friends with me. I remember hiking alot. He helped us make this video once. We all got a kitchen chair and he would film for like 1 second at a time and then we'd move our chair just a little bit and in the end we laughed and laughed as we watched ourselves "driving" around the kitchen.

I guess what I'm saying is i personally have a ton of awesome memories and I want that for my kids too. i need to let go of somethings that need to get done because what really needs to get done is me enjoying my kids in this priceless stage of life. They need wonderful memories like I have. I know they have some, but if their memory is anything like mine they're going to need alot more so hopefully they can retain some of it :-)

This isn't do-overable.

It's now or never.

When I got home i slept and slept. And when I woke I was ready for fun. Grabbed my longboard and my family and headed over to the parent house for dinner. After which we went on a surry/longboard/scooter ride. It was awesome. I dont' think we'll soon forget how we got nailed with water from the sprinklers. (it was the big kind of sprinklers) Oh poor Natty. She was riding the scooter behind us and got drenched. I at least held onto the surry and got as far under the canopy as i could. hehe... and we played at the park. I personally ran across the bridge thingy like 27 times. It made Lucy laugh as she bounced to and fro.

So even though for whatever reason the bishop didn't call Kassidy up, I think maybe there were other reasons I needed to be at church today. Forever thankful I attended. Not that I haven't heard all that before, it's just that I really needed to hear it again today.

I love my family. immediate. extended. and super extendo... i love you all!

Ok so regarding "taking my blog back" this is something I will attempt to do. I want to print this out and bind it someday. If it's not personal daily happenings well then what fun is that?

I've been wanting to start a photography blog for a long time. And every time i think I will get to it, i don't. The thing is I sometimes get so busy I struggle just posting to this blog...

oh the conundrum

I will figure something out. I promise.

That is not to say this blog won't contain photos anymore. I'm just hoping to post more personal photos rather than photoshoots. You see?

ok fine. 1 picture. For those of you that stuck it out and read this whole post! My cute niece Mia...

just one little moment.

moment captured | moment treasured

Them boots :)

I had the pleasure of photographing this beautiful family...




I thought it was hilarious how they got the kids to laugh in this one. Dad starts saying things like...

boogers. poo. farts.

I was like.... what?

"It's what makes him laugh"...

haha ok! Whatever works :)



Sometimes I just love me some dramatic shadows. Reminds me of old time actor photos.








Doesn't she look just like a little princess?





I love the colors in this. Valerie... you really know how to rock the eyeshadow!


Mr. T's and his boots. So perfect.


I know I probably say this with all my photoshoots but I seriously just enjoy the time I get to spend with these guys getting to know them better and watching them just be "them"


I didn't love this photo at first. In fact I still don't love the one without the texture. Something about softening it up makes it work for me.





I always have a few favorites. This is one of them. How sweet is that? I didn't ask them to do this. This is part of that
{ them being them } thing I love :)


Valerie... if you're reading this, thank you so much. You guys are perfect. Jadyn is such a princess, I loved her pretty baptism dress and messy bun.

mitt hjärta glädje

{ a little somethin pretty from our wild flower hunt }

Jill was HERE !

Because Wendy wanted to see the fabulous apron my mama made me :) ....

that I wore whilst making one of my family's favorite dishes for dinner tonight.

Tyler Florences "Thick Pork Chops with Apples and Raisins"


cept I use craisins because they're much much tastier!

{ I take no credit for the awesomeness or unawesomeness of these photos }

nothing like staring down the barrel of some pretty sweet glass to make you feel like a total goob :)

tootles.