first kiss.

It was 15 years ago yesterday, November 11th, that Mike and I had our first kiss together.  It's hard to believe that the time has gone so quickly and at the same time I can hardly remember my life or a memory with out him in it.  What a wonderful life!

We were both going to college at BYU.  I had just come home from a mission and so had he.  I was serious about getting a degree and studying and becoming the 'A' student I had never been (I've always LOVED learning but school is not the way my brain works...).  I had decided that I didn't want to date much.  I wanted to find an awesome thing to study and become really accomplished. 

Well...I ended up getting asked out all of the time...way more than I did when I was a freshman and I was going out a lot and also getting some really good grades.  Things were going really well...except for this one guy that every girl in my building seemed to love to hang out with.  He'd come over to my apartment a few times and I had totally been rude to him...hoping he would get the hint.  He didn't, and I'm so glad.

One day I made dinner for a whole bunch of friends and at the last minute invited Mike over.  He was the only one who stayed to help with the dishes and I was hooked.  We started spending all kinds of time talking and going everywhere together but I had no idea I wanted to spend ALL of my life with him.  I thought he was a great friend and he was wonderful to talk to about real things.

I finally got a clue and and we've been together ever since.

Mike has been such a gift to me in so many ways. He is giving, thoughtful, kind, and encouraging.  He's amazing at seeing problems from a grounded perspective and he's understanding when I'm feeling overwhelmed.  He always wants to know how he can help.  He gives me his time, his listening ear, his thoughtful words, his heart, and so much more. 

There will never be enough words to say how much I love him or ways to show how blessed I am to have him in my life.  More than I really know, he does things for me that I don't see...and I feel like I never say well enough what his love has done to me.  It's given me strength when I thought I didn't have any left, given be sight when I was blinded, and hope when I was down, and joy that makes me feel as though I may burst at the seams.

Every year for Christmas we try to give each other a gift of meaning...something from our heart.  A few years ago Mike made me this book, "A Life of Love"...and it's seen a lot of love (as you can see from the cover).  It's one of the kids' favorite books and definitely one of my favorite books.  I love the stick people and the sweet simplicity of the text and the ideas.  There is so much of Mike...of us...in this book.

I am so lucky.  And like Miss Carrie Underwood says,  "Some hearts just get lucky sometimes..."

Happy first-kiss-aversary, Mike....

love. LIFE.

the old lady.

I got to be at Keri and Keith's wedding two years ago and they still like to kiss just as much as they ever did.  I LOVE hanging out with Keri and Keith.  They are so relaxed about each other, so kind to each other, and just have a really wonderful time together.

I was so excited when they got in touch with me about doing a little shoot with them when I came into town a couple of weeks ago.  They told me that they had a new addition to their family...the old lady. 

The Old Lady is a 1963 BMW motorcycle.  It's got a great vintage look and it's just huge...and HEAVY.  They wanted to make sure to capture the fun they are having with this awesome new ride.  I was envious of Keri getting to ride on the back of it and near the end of the shoot I got the chance to grab a couple of rides on the back with the wind whipping through my hair.  (Side note:  I've been completely against my husband getting a motorcycle.  I keep telling him his not allowed to leave me while we've got 4 kids to take care of...so that, of course, means we are not getting a motorcycle.  I told Keri and Keith after getting the chance to ride The Old Lady my husband would probably be calling them up to say thank you! It was super stinkin' fun!)

As you can see The Old Lady has made herself right at home with Keri and Keith.  (I love the Audrey Hepburn look of Keri's scarf around her head...)  We had so much fun trying to get the perfect shot of them in the street  We even went to a really cool cemetary.  We went back to the place that we visited the day that Keri and Keith got married for old times sake.  The yellow building looks like a place you may stop fo a little bite of something while you're motoring around Italy so it fit perfectly. 

I love the shot of them riding on the motorsycle in black and white near the end!  I think it looks like they are riding through France or something.

Thanks, Keri and Keith for letting me meet The Old Lady...

fun. LIFE.

your metabolism.

Sleep, what you eat, and how you exercise totally affect your metabolism...which helps you to burn fat and calories.  I think a combination of these things are what have helped me to lose weight this time around. (I'm officially in the 130s this week!  yay!)

Did you know that not getting enough sleep lowers your metabolism?

Not eating breakfast will slow your metabolism down?

And doing the same exercise over and over again with no changes doesn't get your metabolism going like spiking your exercise?

Eating:

I just read an article in "Healthy Style" that talks about all of these points.  Eating sugar doesn't make your body work very hard.  It breaks down sugar quickly and immediately stores it as fat.  Fiber takes longer to break down and slows sugar from entering the bloodstream.  That's why it's so important to increase your fiber (and I thought it was just a natural laxative). 

Also, eating breakfast is super important to the way you eat the rest of the day.  Skipping breakfast is just like getting up on the wrong side of the bed.  It takes a long time to get over it, if you ever do, through out the day.  Consider having some protein at breakfast to help last you longer in the morning...your body takes a lot longer to digest it so it gives you energy longer.  And get this!  You "increase post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35%"!  Burning calories sounds good to me...

Sleeping:

I also read that when your body is sleep-deprived your body produces huge quanities of a hunger hormone and makes you crave MORE sugar and carbohydrates!!  Hello!  I've gotten to bed late all weekend.  Not one early night to bed!  I've been craving chocolate and sugar like I never have in the last few months of trying to maintain a healthier life.  No sleep totally explains it...and I must say, I gave into that chocolate craving on Friday night and had some chocolate icecream.  It was soooo good...now I know why I wanted it so badly.

Exercise:

This is another reason I think that my weight loss is working this time.  I go to a track on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I do a very brisk walk the first 5 times around.  On the 6th time I sprint around the first end of the track then do a speed walk to the next bend in the track.  At the next bend I sprint around the curve.  I do this for four laps around the track.  I then do a very brisk walk for 2-3 laps and then do a cool down lap around the track.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I take a brisk walk around my neighborhood for 20 minutes.  I come back to my house and do weight training for about 40 minutes.  I do 12 reps on each of my arm exercises then I go straight to my legs and do 20 reps on each of my leg exercises.  As soon as I'm done with my legs I start all over again.  I do a total of 3 run throughs of training my whole body.  I then do 15 army pushups and try to increase by at least one pushup each week.  I do situps 30 to the middle and 30 to each side.  I repeat that three times.  I end by doing the cool down that I mentioned on my blog post here to reduce stress). 

When I read in Healthy Style I was excited to find out that I was doing the best type of exercise I could do for my metabolism: Interval Training.  On MWF I do sprints that spike my heart rate and so that increases my metabolisms power to burn.  "When you exercise this way, your mitochondria, the little engines in your cells that burn calories, run hotter all day."

So...I think I've found some of the keys that make my body burn calories and fat.  I definitely need to get to bed earlier tonight!

healthy. LIFE.

206 pieces of candy.

I'm a little behind on the fun stuff we've been doing here in South Carolina...I can't wait to blog about so much once I get back from Love Affair!

So...we did actually go out trick-or-treating.  I know that my kids thought is was up for debate whether, if ever, we would really go pound the pavement and get a boatload of candy.  We did...206 pieces of candy for each person to be exact.

Every year my kids decide what they want to be and then put together their costumes with stuff around the house.  I think it's really fun to see what they come up with.  This year Emmett decided to be a mad scientist and his costume was hilarious.  He made his hair pretty wild with gel and made his face look like an experiment had blown up in his face.  My very favorite part of his costume has to be the swimming goggles, though.  They totally make the costume!

For the first time...I think, in their entire lives, Miriam and Emma wore the same thing.  I was totally surprised when they said they both wanted to be witches.  Even though they are both witches, it's hard to see, but their costumes are different from each other.  This was also the first year we went out and found costumes at the store for the two of them...not sure we'll be doing that again next year.  Their creative take on costumes from things around the house are way too fun.

Gracie was a princess and she talked Miriam into letting her use the princess costume she got for Christmas.  Gracie made it extra fancy with her jeans that have pink flowers on them, a long sleeved pink shirt, her pink tennis shoes, and a gorgeous crown, necklace, and ring. 

The second the girls arrived home from school they put their costumes on.  By the time Emmett stepped off the bus 20 minutes later they were ready to go around the neighborhood yelling trick-or-treat.  The wait just about killed them, thankfully they made it through the torturous experience.

After going through almost 2/3 of the neighborhood the girls decided to call it quits.  I think the newest thing about this year was that Emmett went trick-or-treating with his friends.  Is he really that old?  Am I really ready for this?  We missed him but I was so glad to have him back with us at the end of the night when all of the kids sat around counting their candy and then dividing it into organized piles of candy by varieties, and then finding new ways to divide their spoils. 

It's amazing that such a simple night can be a favorite of the year.  Just dress up, go from house to house, get candy, come home count it and divide it, and then collapse from exhaustion on the couch.  There's not much more a kid can ask for when they dream of the perfect night.

I'm glad I got to be here for it.

dream. LIFE.

**and yes, that blue color is one of the walls of my new studio...

so quickly.

He came out of the house and hesitantly and with great effort walked down the steps.  As soon as he hit the pavement we was off and running.

I met sweet Jacob about 6 weeks after he was born.  We had fun getting some pictures of him trying to lift his head and seeing how adoring his parents were of him.  Around the time he was 6 months I got to see him exploring his little world and trying to stand up, banging on things, eating in his high chair, and loving the sound of his  own voice.

When I saw him at this session I was so surprised at how big he is!  He's really about 15 months now but I'm always surprised when I get to the last session of our "Baby's First Year" package.  It's crazy how quickly a newborn grows into a little explorer and then into an adventurer.

Jacob didn't have time to hold still...not for a second.  He was very busy...too busy for sitting still, hugs, looking at anything for longer than a milisecond, or anything that wasn't his idea.  He had a plan...a plan to see and do as much as possible in every minute. 

For the first little while I was there he was loving the rocks in his new front yard.  He carried one or two around for a long time.  He would pretend to hand them to you and then decide they were too precious to give away to anyone.  You could look, just don't touch, and definitely don't take it away.  He didn't abandon his rock until long after we had gone inside the house.

He showed my his dogs, his motor car, his books (which he did sit still for but it had to be HIS choice of book), his big chair, and how cool his parents were. 

He loves being outside, playing in leaves, seeing how fast he can run away from his parents and then be caught by them.  By the time we did everything he loves he was pretty tired.

I've had so much fun watching Jacob grow.  His big efforts at independence and being grown up are so much a part of being one and I love seeing him trying everything he can to taste that new flavor of fun.  His world is so wonderful and full of experiences, color, new things, and excitement.  He's not going to miss any of it.

What a fun day!

great. LIFE.