Old MacDonald Had A Farm...

Or Miss Fynnley...every night she gathers her "children" together and climbs into bed. She has Booberry (her doggy), Caramel (her cow), Banana and Bananas (her monkeys) as well as 60 more to choose from and she treasures them all! She claims she can't possibly find the Land Of Nod without them!!

Love, Exciting and New...

This Valentine's Day was marked especially by Dane's insistence that we buy his new love, Kristen B---...er, uh...he can't remember her last name...LOLOL! But what he DOES know is that he REALLY, REALLY likes her and NEEDED a gift to give her on the special day. He composed his own Valentine message to give her, we picked out a fabulous bear with chocolates which he hid in her desk the day before so she could discover it first thing on Valentine's Day! She LOVED it (he assured me!), and he walked around with a big smile on his face for the rest of the day.
Natasha spent her Valentine's evening (as I did) participating in a flash mob dance at IKEA promoting the prevention of violence against women. She had practiced with her studio and had a good time performing the dance when it came time at the store. It wasn't quite as big of a surprise to people walking around the store as it might have been (I mean, let's be real...who's walking around IKEA on Valentine's Day night?!), but she still had a lot of fun!
And, as every year, I had fun picking out little Valentine gifts for my sweethearts!

We Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow...

Sometimes, you just have to give up the Saturday "to-do list" and play Mommy! Fynnley had been begging for her new dance friend, Harley Newell, to come over and play. With freshly falling snow, they were eager to get out and romp around in it. Correction: they were eager to have ME drive them to a hill to zip down it on their sleds! Deciding this was one of those opportunities to have (what I call) a "good mommy day", I agreed to drive them (and a few others!) to a nearby park with a pretty decent sledding area. The girls had a blast zipping down the hill and I had fun pushing them down to their hearts' content. Until the lazily falling snow turned into a I-can-barely-see-in-front-of-my-face-blizzard! That way my cue to sit in the truck until they decided they were done being kid-sicles. I loaded six dripping-with-snow kiddos into the truck and headed for home...and some sugar cookies and hot chocolate!

Zipping down the hill

Catching some air on the jump!

Connor and Natasha decided to tag along for the fun.

Portia, Harley, Fynnley, Hannah

This World of Water...

During the last five months since Dane joined the Hilltop Aquatic Swim Team (HAST), he has really improved his swim strokes and speed. On January 31, he entered the Heart Attack swim meet at Provo High and we were excited to see how well he would swim this time (having been disqualified a couple of times in the past and hoping for some great gains in his race times). I was thrilled to see it was a smaller meet (those swim meets can be pretty long, it turns out!) and we loved that Grandpa Bar showed up to cheer on his favorite swimmer grandson! Dane was entered in the 50-yard freestyle (shaving over five seconds off his time from 1:05.39 to 1:00.36), the 50-yard backstroke (shaving off 3 seconds: 1:16.99 to 1:13.96), and blowing away his 50-yard breaststroke time (shaving off 13 seconds!!: 1:25.73 to 1:12). *Then we found out he got DQ for the breaststroke--BUMMER!* Still so proud of our handsome (and *speedy* fish!)

So happy to have Grandpa Bar there!

Proud Mama!

Dane and his fellow fish, Jackson

{Pink} Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend!

For the last several months, Fynn has been BEGGING me to get her ears pierced. Daily, she would regale me with tales of ALLLLL the other little girls in her class who had pierced ears and who had sensitive ears and who had what color of earrings and who didn't take care for their pierced ears and...well, you get the idea. I was hesitant to agree with her demand. Did I think she should have to wait until the age of ten when Natasha was allowed to pierce her ears? Was she going to cry when they messed it up as Natasha had experienced? I just couldn't decide what to do...
Finally, after many conversations with me expounding on all the horror stories of what MIGHT happen when she got her ears pierced, and it's going to hurt, and you have to clean them...I agreed to make it happen. She was ECSTATIC!
I took her to Claire's at University Mall, she picked out the pink sparkly studs (no surprise there--she adores all things pink!) and climbed into the chair. I detected a hint of nervousness, but she was determined to wear a brave front. I got the camera ready, the girl placed the gun on Fynn's ear and click! Fynn didn't even flinch! I couldn't believe it. Just a big ole smile...she was so happy! No tears, no fuss, no muss...atta girl!
I had also promised to take her to Color Me Mine to paint something special. (During our trip to Cancun, there was a place at the hotel that offered ceramic painting and Fynn was just dying to do it. But, we never could find the time to sit down and make it happen. When we got home and she couldn't stop talking about how she wished she could have painted that turtle in Cancun, I thought a trip to Color Me Mine would be just the solution. *sigh*) So, with pink sparkling lobes (albeit, a little red from the trauma of having a needle shoved through them!), I let her pick out a ceramic monkey and all the colors her little heart desired to paint. It didn't take her long, and she certainly didn't want any help from me. She was thrilled with her creation! It was a mommy-daughter date I don't think she'll soon forget...

The moment the girl clicked the gun!

Still smiling!!

Now the other side!

All done! She looks beautiful!

So proud of her for being so brave!

A better view of the sparkle

Striking "THE FYNNLEY" pose in front of the store

Working on her monkey at Color Me Mine

Papa-Paparazzi...

I can write this post now...now that I'm over the emotion that flooded this photo opportunity for me. It certainly didn't end with the result I had hoped for. But, I guess, that's just life sometimes...
I was asked by someone (I'll just let him remain nameless since he's related to one of my family members), if I would like the incredible opportunity to shoot celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City. I was told I would be demoing Samsung's newest camera by photographing celebs that frequent the festival and stop by to check out what's new in company sponsor areas. I was beyond giddy!!
At first, I was told the entire 5 day gig would be mine! Are you kidding me?? I was THRILLED! I couldn't believe my luck! Then, as days passed before the big assignment, my responsibilities continued to dwindle, dates were rescheduled (over and over) and I was left with being assigned one day (the LAST day) to have this great opportunity. So I geared up...and waited for that someone to bring me my press pass and information...until 10 o'clock the night before I was to head to Park City. Then, the phone rings. I knew the outcome before I even picked it up. That someone cancelled (for the umpteenth time). Only this time, it was permanently.
I was so incredibly disappointed. What better marriage of my two loves, right?: Photography and celeb watching! Alas, it was not meant to be. (I mean, I was REALLY bummed. I might have even required my mama to take me shopping the next day to get past it...just saying...).
In the midst of all that, however, (back when I was excited about the impending opportunity), I talked dear Jessica into coming with me to check out the venue where I was supposed to be shooting, and to do a little celeb-stalking on Main Street! (Yeah, she's a good sport!) Turns out, finding parking during this event is next to impossible, it was freezing, we walked Main Street for hours and the only thing we COULD find was some caramel apples at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! Oh well, at least it was fun to have the dream for a minute...

We had to park at the bottom of the hill, walk AND take a bus to get back to  Main Street!

Yeah, we're finished Celeb-Stalking! It's FREEZING!!

Show Me Your Teeth!

Last fall, Fynnley declared that her top front tooth was finally wiggly! That was my cue to hurry up and do a "vintage" photo shoot of her that I had been hoping for ever since I bought her the perfect dress (that was just a smidge too big and needed my little lady to grow a bit more to fit into it!). I always mourn the loss of those perfectly shaped white baby teeth (knowing full well those big ole' permanent ones look pretty ginormous for a while in those little mouths), and wanted to shoot pics of Fynn before that top tooth came out! I squeezed the shoot in right before our Cancun trip in November, just sure that tooth was coming out any second now....

Then we waited...for weeks...she wiggled...and pulled...and waited! Finally, Fynnley had had enough and begged Tash to help her yank it out! I couldn't believe the lllloooonnngg root on that tooth...and the HUGE hole it left in my baby's smile. She, however, was pretty jazzed!