A 'Chris Daughtry' Thanksgiving

At long last, the silence is broken... I keep telling Lindsay that eventually I'm going to post on our family blog - since I've yet to contribute. Well, here it is! There was an event so big this Thanksgiving that I had to blog about it. We had an incredible visitor for Turkey Day this year...the one and only Chris Daughtry! For those of you who aren't devout AI followers like Lindsay and me, Chris Daughtry was on American Idol a few years ago and should have won but didn't. Still, he's had one of the most successful music careers of any AI contestant. As many of you know, I had a band for a while and was in the music scene. That's where Chris and I became good friends. Well, we got to have him over for Thanksgiving Dinner. My favorite part was when we jammed and he played MY Taylor. Pretty rockin'. Almost as incredible, we also had the opportunity of having the Yeager family over too (Lindsay's cousin Jenny, her husband Chris, and their 3 kids)! Linds and Jenny pulled off an amazing Thanksgiving dinner all on their own (though they vowed they'd never do it again)! Thanks again for stopping by Daughtry - always good to see you.

35 Weeks

I just think my belly looks HUGE in this picture! It's all pointy! Well, only 5 weeks to go (hopefully less)! I am so tired and achy - but all for a good reason. I can't wait to hold my baby boy and see what he looks like.

Joshy's nursery

I finally ordered the prints I am going to hang in Josh's nursery above the changing table! I took pictures of an old rustic truck, trike and tractor and then did some photoshop work on them to make them look old. That's the whole theme to his room. So these pics will be 10x10 gallery wrapped canvas prints.

Todd @ 34 Weeks...

We went to an all day childbirth class on Saturday. We learned a lot and Todd did so good with the gruesome birthing video we had to watch. The nurse did a great demonstration of "daddy sympathy". She took a backpack and filled it with different baggies that represented how much everything weighs when you are about 34 weeks along. With everything in it, it was about 25 lbs. So the guys in the class took turns strapping it on their bellies to see how it feels to be us! I think he definitely gained some more understanding of what I am going through right now! Doesn't he look cute! Oh, and us girls strapped on fake breasts to practice nursing.

My Birthday

This dude sang Happy Birthday to me in Italian. Chocolate....mmmm! Princess Eden We went to Macaroni Grill for my birthday with Todd's family. It was yummy and I even got a chocolate cake for free. The first present Todd gave me was a princess crown - there is a story behind it - we met exactly 4 years ago on my birthday at a party. My friends made me wear a crown that said Happy Birthday on it, so that's why he was able to talk to me at the party. He actually sang "Happy Birthday" to me and got everyone in the party to join in! Cute, huh! I especially like Todd wearing the princess earrings!

The Big 27!

That sounds old...Oh well, Happy Birthday to me! Here are some pics of my very first birth day! My mom said that she doesn't remember any pain, just that she was sooooo happy to have a girl after having two boys! My dad was sooooo nervous to have a girl! Mom, I hope I look as great as you did right after giving birth! And Happy 3rd Birthday to Hyrum - my nephew who was born on my birthday!

34 Weeks

Baby Joshy is now as big as a cantaloupe. He weighs almost 5 pounds and is 18 inches long! I can't imagine getting much bigger, but he still has to grow a few more pounds before he's full term. Good thing I am done shooting!

Lindsay Jane Boot Camp

Nat

Staci

Andrea - Tennessee

Evaly - California

me giving my feet a break

Love this picture of Andrea!

The girls

This was so funny because Evaly had no idea that her umbrella had turned inside out because of the wind. She just kept shooting! She was really not used to this kind of weather!

Photo Contest at Main Street Pizza!

The winning shot of the week! Congratulations Andrea!

The morning after - beautiful blue skies! What the heck?!

Every time we do a new round of hiring, we put on a photography "boot camp" for the girls to do some crash course training on all aspects of photography. This was our second attempt at it. We headed up to Midway and stayed in our timeshare for the week so we could really focus on photography without any distractions. I think it went really great! All of the girls are newly hired except Evaly who has been with us for a while but lives in California, so we wanted her to be involved in this boot camp. They all did so awesome with their shoots. We had some absolutely crazy weather up there - we didn't see the sun all week, until the Friday morning when we were packing up to leave, it was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky! I guess we should have waited one more week to do it! Oh well, it was so much fun!