Fun tradition.

Every year at the beginning of December we put together a Christmas chain.  We make a list of all of the things we'd like to do together and for other people and each link gets an activity.  The links count down the days until Christmas and every morning the kids race to see what well be the activity of the day and to be the first to take a link off of the chain.  It's a big part of Christmas for us and the kids look forward to everyday.

So far we have:

Gone to the resuce mission twice.

Gone to a matinee movie.

Eat dinner by the tree while we watch a Christmas movie.

Make gingerbread houses

Go Christmas shopping for each other.

Play a Christmas game (we make a family Christmas game and book each year).

Go get our Christmas tree.

Decorate the Christmas tree.

Ride in the car and look at Christmas lights.

We still want to:

Take food to the Utah Food Bank.

Go ice skating.

Make toffee for school teachers.

Make a Christmas game.

Go to Salt Lake and meet up with Louis Palos and his sweet family for Temple Square lights, dinner, and hot chocolate.

Take soup to the homeless.

Make a Christmas book.

I'm going to be posting our fun gingerbread party very soon!

enjoy. LIFE.

THREE TIMES while I was on vacation with my little family (more pictures of that to come soon! :)  Thank you Anne Ruthmann, Amy DeYoung, and Michelle White.  You know I love you girls! :)

I'm supposed to list 8 interesting things about myself.  So...I have this question...since three people tagged me does that mean I'm to come up with 24 interesting things?  I don't know if I have that many! lol.  So here's the deal... I'm going to come up with as many things as I can.   Then you can ask me any question you want in the comments and I'll answer it.  I'd love for you to feel free to ask me things that aren't technical photography questions (I'd be happy to answer them in an email: davina@davinafear.com).  That way I can embarrass and reveal myself to you as much as possible right here on my blog! lol.  So let the questions begin!!!

1.  I am the first of five children.  The first grandchild on my mom's side.  Everyone in my family has a name that starts with a 'D'...even my parents: Don, Debby, Davina, Danita, Dionne, Donny, and Devin.  It's crazy silly but we even named all of our animals with a 'D'.  I wanted to name a little white kitten that we got 'Snowball' but it would only pass as a name in our family as 'D'Snowball'.  Yes, I know...chessy to the nth degree! :laughing:  I love my family!

2.  All of my kids are named after someone in my family.  My son is named after my awesome grandpa James Emmett (who went by Emmett).  My girls are named after a great-great grandma on each side (one from Mike's side and one from my side...from what we know of the grandma's my girls have a lot of very similar characteristics to their namesakes).  Gracie is named after someone from way, way, way,way back we hope.  We actually weren't completely sure what to name her.  But after going through the labor I did with her we knew that her name had to be Grace.  It was just perfect.

3.  I gave birth to all of my children naturally, no drugs (including my twins).  I know people think it's an absolutely crazy thing to do.  I think it's amazingly empowering for women.  Labor is an incredible experience. 

4. I attended three different colleges and ended up graduating from the one I went to first.

5.  I was a voice performance major at Arizona State University on scholarship.  Thanks to my voice coach, Russ Penny, for all his hard work, effort, extra mile, and belief that it could really happen!  Not to mention my parents believing that it would always happen.

6. I went on a mission for to New Mexico when I was 21.

7.  I almost joined the Peace Corps when I was 20.  I still want to go to Africa.  Now I want to go with my little family and help Thirst Relief International.

8.  I lived in over 20 houses and over 8 states (Ohio, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Texas) by the time I was 21 years old.

9.  I LOVE chocolate:  The Molten at Chili's, V Chocolates toffee, Burger King Chocolate Milk Shakes...it's just all soooo good!!!  Oh...and don't remember the last week that I missed having some kind of Mexican food.  I sometimes think I could live on chocolate and chips and salsa. (ummm...that might be why I need to lose about 20 pounds...hmmmm....it's all becoming clear to me now!  :laughing:)

10.  If I weren't a photographer I'd love to be a country singer or a salsa/ballroom dancer. :)

11.  When I was in college I was checking out a guy during orientation week in a big crowd of people and smashed into a window that I thought was an open door.  It wasn't an open door.  The window shattered into million pieces.  I think the guy saw me...don't think he was impressed. 

12.  I love it when my little three year old holds my face in her tiny, little soft hands, looks in my eyes and says "I love you, Mom."

13.  I love the smell of my husband just before he leaves for work in the morning.

14.  I love when my kids cuddle up to me first thing in the morning with their warm little, still sleepy selves.  Especially when they've had a bath the night before.  It's heavenly.

15.  I lost my Dad's nice SLR camera when I went on a trip in high school to DisneyWorld.  I was so worried sick about it on the trip back that when I came off the bus the first thing I said to my Dad was, "I lost your camera."  He hugged me and said, "It's a good thing I love you more than that camera."  He's a really great Dad.

16.  When I first met my husband, it was not love at first site.  I was rude at first site.  I'm pretty lucky he didn't give up on me.  I knew he was the one when I had a super big dinner for a whole bunch of people and he was the only one that stayed and helped until all of the dishes were done....okay, maybe that's not right when I knew!  He is the best man that has ever happened to me and I count my lucky stars everyday that I get to spend my forevers with him.  And, yes, he still does the dishes after more than 12 years.  I told you I hit the jackpot!!!

Okay...now it's your turn!  Ask me anything you want.  Just put it in the comments.  Or tell me something about YOU, my dear blog readers!!  I'm ready.  :)

I'm supposed to TAG some people.  So here you go:

Duston Todd

Kate Benson

Millie Holloman

Jules Bianchi

Kelly Moore

Tim Uhl

Jim Davis-Hicks

Lauren Clark

Sinead

good. LIFE. 

really good.  LIFE.

EDIT: QUESTIONS ANSWERED

*What has been the greatest lesson you have learned during our 12 and a half years of marriage that will help others keep their love alive?   Remember that everything you married them for is still there and you still love it.  Oh!  And go on a date together every week...no matter what!

*How did you get so HAWT and I get so lucky?  I'm lucky you think I'm hot...

*How old are you?  I'm 36 but only for about 3 more weeks.  September 13th (while I'm in LA at Partnercon--I'll miss partying with my kids...) is my birthday.  When I think about it....I can't believe I'm in my 30s...life goes by so quickly.  It's crazy.

The Joy of Free Slushies!

So every year 7-Eleven has a  free slushie day.  We went last year and by the time we got there at one in the afternoon they were completely out of free slushies so we just ended up buying them.  This year we got to 7-Eleven at 10pm (yes we're doing a really great job on the bedtime this summer...) so we thought sure we'd be purchasing our free slushies again this year.  Much to our surprise they still had some free ones and all kinds of people coming in to claim theirs.  As you can see our kids were in their pjs with boots (quite the fashion statement)...we had good intentions of getting them in bed but the promise of free slushies could not be denied.  I mean really! it only comes once a year.  After we had gotten our slushies no one wanted to hop right back in the van (yes, I do own a mini van. lol)  so we hung out eating at 7-Eleven.  (I love the way Gracie is trying to do exactly what Mike is doing in the seventh picture.  Cracks me up!)  The whole evening was quite the treat.

Thanks 7-Eleven!!!

tasty. LIFE.

Okay...so this is probably saying a little too much about us! lol.  The title should proabably read: 'Irresponsible mom lets her kids stay up until 3am!!' OR  'We're crazy Harry Potter Fans'. lol.

In the past on Harry Potter Opening Night we've felt our kids are too young to go to Opening Night.  We've all read every Harry Potter book a few times and we like to sit around and talk about what's going to happen in the next book.  The kids like to dress up and play Harry Potter and since we have an Emma she is always supposed to be Hermione. 

Yesterday on a spontaneous whim we decided this was the year to go for it.  The kids and I all huddled around the computer for about an hour holding our breaths and trying to get tickets.  Every time I'd hit the select seats tab there would be a collective intake of air and crossed fingers that by some miracle we'd land some good tickets.  It finally happened and the minute it did my ten year old son threw his arms around me and said, "I LOVE YOU, MOM!!!"  So...that was the beginning of a long and fun evening.

We ended up eating a spagetti dinner that we all made together at 10pm, a quick clean up, then the dress up time to be in the Harry Potter Opening Night spirit, and jumping in the car (with a pit stop for candy).  We made it to the Megaplex where 13 theatres were showing Harry Potter.  It was so exciting and the movie was COMPLETELY worth it.  We decided it's the BEST Harry Potter movie so far.  You have to go see it.

We had wanted to stop on the way home for breakfast but had three sleeping girls and decided to go when we woke up this morning.  Well, as you can see at 11:30 this morning Gracie was still sleeping! (So sweet...)  We did finally make it out to Moore's Family Restaurant for breakfast (at about 12:30 this afternoon) and had a great time.  It's been a super fun last 24 hours! 

It's finally here!

The morning of the Fourth of July Gracie woke up and ran into our room and shouted, "It's the July Party Today!!"

I love the Fourth of July!  It's a great holiday and it makes it seem like summer is really going strong.  We had great food, great friends, and great fun.  From the dunk tank to the movie after dark everyone had a great time. The kids helped get all of the decorations and food ready.  We had a fun day of getting the party ready and then a fun night of playing.

Check out all of our fun day....

fun. LIFE. 

To have your family event photographed contact the studio at davina@davinafear.com