Our 1st Camping Trip

So this past weekend Doug and I and our good friend Eric and Alicia went camping up past Payson. It was an awesome experiance! I had such apprehension going into it b/c of my horror camping stories I had heard in the past, but our trip turned out to be so memorable. It's going to be a fun part of our lives. This is what the girls did while we set up the tents. They loved playing around in the car.Sitting around the fire, right before bed with our cute Daddy
Our girls slept from 10-6 that night! Not to bad for being in the woods, in a tent, getting rained on and having the sun in your face at the crack of dawn!

Breakfast time!

Eric and Alicia

Eric and Doug serve in Weblos together. They have alot in common and hang out often. Sweet Alicia is a teacher too!

So fun exploring nature!

We went to the Fish Hatchery and Livvy was facinated by the jumping fish!

Audree in a field

Yay for mini-vacations!

KIDS CLUB at the Superstition Mall

Just about every Thursday we go to the Mall and go to kids club. A cute lady named Persephonie and Duper the Priare Dog, sing and dance for the kiddos. My girls love it and you get to ride the carosel for free! So if any one else is available come on down Thursday's at 10:00!
Sorry about the horrible quality of these pics....sometimes I feel like I can't use my camera on Auto mode anymore!

Our friends Sage and Sydney came with us today!

Duper and Persephonie

Dont' they look so happy;) At the end A had the hugest melt down....It's so hard to be patient when they are freaking out in public.

I'm teaching Enrichment on Thursday!:)

I am teaching a photography class to the ladies in my ward. I am little nervous and wanted to run my handout by you all. Please check for spelling, things that don't make sense, or any other tips you have. I definatly not a pro, but am happy to share what I know! There are picture examples to go along with these as well. :) I'm just too lazy to upload them all:)

Photography Tips

Lighting
Natural light is best!
Don’t use your flash to reduce red eye. Move subject more to the light.
Best time of day to shoot indoors is 9-4
Garages and Doorways are great
Close to a window
North Facing big windows are best
Look around your home during different times of day to see the best lighting
Outdoor shooting is best 1-2 hours before sunset in open shade area.
You can use a reflector to bounce the light off the subject

Posing
Make sure it’s a good time of day for your subjects
Arrange heads at different levels watch for visual triangles
Have subjects srunch together before
Take pictures from different angles
Simple Props-Chair, stool, bean bags for newborn
Set up poses and let the subjects interact

Composition
Refocus and compose
Rule of thirds-try and have the subject a little off to the side instead of dead center
Be aware of your backgrounds

Ways to get attention and smiles
Bathroom Humor:)
Give us a big kiss!
Animal noises
Cover the penny
Where’s your tummy
Look in the lens...what do you see?
Show me...an emotion (happy)
How old are you?

What to wear
Something that suits your personality. Bright colors, or black and white work well too. For family sessions, colors with similar tones work great. Try to avoid busy patterns, and cartoon characters on clothing.

I can't sleep.....I can't eat......

These books are consuming my every thought!!! I borrowed "Twilight" and "New Moon" from my friend on Sunday and have finished both of them already! They are both like 500 pages each and soooooo very addicting! When I first told Doug what they were about he was like, "A girl falls in love with a vampire? And you like reading that kind of stuff?" My dishes and laundry are coming out of my ears, and I have lost so much sleep!

SERIOUSLY If you have not read these, buy, borrow, check out, or do whatever it takes to read them. You will not be dissapointed!

I can't wait to read Eclipse!

It's been a long time that I couldn't put a book down. Go get them!

Badk in the saddle.

Well of my computer chair that is! No media week is over and the 1st 1/2 of the week was great! The 2nd half...not so good! The 1st half was filled with patriarcial blessing and scripture reading. Along with many hours of scrapbooking and preparing for my new calling as chorister. I also went to St. Joe's Hospital with my YW to deliver blankets we made at girls camp. There was a woman with a 1 hour old baby. So fresh and new I cried......I'm a little baby hungry!:)
On Thursday Dougie and I went out while Dene(cousin Dena) watched the girls. Friday I got a call from my dear friend Miceala to tell me that she had a extra ticket to Tim and Faith that night. (For those of you that remember D bought me some for our b-day but we had just seen them last year and we decided to use the money for a cruise instead so we sold them)
So we went to the concert on the floor row 25 and it was awesome! We had a super good time dancing and singing!
Sat. we went to Texas Road House for dinner and ate with music blaring in our ears. So....like I said, the first of the week great! Last part....no so good.
But what I learned is that I really need to have self control when in comes to the internet and t.v. There were many times during the week where I thought, I'm going to go to the computer, or lets watch a show. It was neat to have church music on instead and really prepare for my calling. I hope to continue to have minimal media week ahead.
And today I dressed up as the Sweet Note Sugar Fairy for my primary kids. I got the idea from my friend Taleah Mangum to dress up and have special characters. She changes characters about every 2 months or so. Senior Primary loved my dances and were so cute and embaressed to come up and help, but they did anyway. Jr. hated my dancing and giggled alot. So much fun!
So thanks for reading everyone....hope all is well with you!

Here are some Timmy & Faith Pics...you can see how close we were to them! Faith is so sweet to the crowd. You feel like she is your bff. Tim knows is hot and shows it.....sexy but a little annoying!

Sweet Micalea and Me!

......I HAVE AN ANNOUCMENT.......

I am the New Primary Chorister in my Ward!!:) Sorry guys, just wanted to psyche you out for a minute. I am so super excited about teaching our kids in our ward music. But I will despratly be missing my sweet Mia Maids. I have just started to feel like I was making some progress and getting things done. But that's how Heavenly Father works. I have such a strong testimony of the power of music and the spirit it can bring. So if anyone has any ideas of websites, let me know!

Also our bishop has challenged us to have a NO MEDIA WEEK. So this week I will be off the computer, and not watching any tv except for church related stuff. Also no music, books, newspaper, radio or anything else we see fit. We did this last year as a family and I realized how much time I spent doing all of these things. I am excited to see how the spirit can talk to me while I'm quiet. I will miss all of the blogs though....Take care everyone and call me if you need!

......These are the moments......

I would love to say that my chicadee's were like this all the time. But they aren't. Just a rare moment when they were feeling silly and felt like snuggling.

Hyrum and Abigail came to stay for a few days....:)

Amanda & Jared went to Cali for a little vaca, and I got to watch my neice and nephew Hyrum and Abigail for 2 days. My girls love having them around and say their names all day long. Hyrum is such a good big brother and very obidient. Here they are making a fort with "pwillow" as Hyrum calls them. He kept pretend playing with them and tried to coax them in there. "Come in children, it's raining outside." So cute!

I pulled Sweet Abigail up by the window for a few pictures. She is such a sweetie. She just followed me around the whole time with her blankie or a dolly. She has a little sneaky side to her too. She loves to get into purses and find cell phones, and wallets.

My favorite one! Isn't she a beauty?

This is all I got out of Hyrum. They have PCS too!(Photographer's Child Syndrome!

24th of July Celebration in Safford

We went down to Thatcher this weekend for the festivities. It was so great to be with family and we made it a Davis weekend. We played with cousins and the girls started saying everyone's names. Like "Corky" for Courtney and "Nene"for Renee. We were enjoying the clouds and the breeze at Aunt Julie's house when all of the sudden the down pour came! It rained really hard for about 2 hours and the parade was cancelled! So bummed! But that night I did get to go see "Hairspray" with the girls and it was AWESOME! I smiled and shimmied the whole time! Go and see it! Here are some pics from the bbq!

Davis Grandkids(except Matt who was working:)

Camo Girls( Becca and Savannah)

It was so fun watching 3 toddlers on the tramp. They played ring around the rosy and Audree loved roughhousing with cousin Jonah who has 4 older siblings.

Daddy's girl

Livvy loves her Aunt Ali...she runs to her everytime she sees her!

Just Because

Here are some recent fav's.

I love Eyelash Pictures.

This is a new Vanilla BNW conversion I am trying out...let me know what you think.

Audree wakes up before Livvy and I get to practice on her. I have many sweet images of her. I love her smile here.

Such a sweetie!

These ones aren't photoshoped or sharpened as you can tell. Just snaps of everyday moments. The girls love to try on my shoes...:)

More just awake from her nap moments. She is playing pattie cake with her doll.

Gotta have the blankie and teddy!

18 Months Already???

Where did the time go? I wish I had some amazing pictures, but we are still on the road to recovery and you know what they look like. It's too hot outside anyway. Audree girl has thrown up every night for 8 days. We think she has the Rotovirus. I have such cabin fever! We ussually get out every day. We are just praying she feels better soon. So since my blog is like a little journal that I plan on printing it, just wanted to share with you the words that they can say. It's been fun to document all of them and if I do say so myself....I have some smart chica's! In no particular order....and reading it now there are lots of cleaning words!

18 Month words that we can say
Mom

Dad

No

Sissy

Dadree(Audree)

Wivee( Livvy)

Potty

Wash

Shower

Help you

I wuv you( I love you)

Bath

Dog

Cat

Eyes

Nose

Mouth

Stuck

Book

Ok

Cool

Yeah

Up

Down

Vacoom(Vaccum)

Macee(Medicine)

Wet

Pretzel

Bapple(Apple)

Peas

Spoon

Yucky

Mess

Bug

Nigh-nigh(Night-Night)

Prawer(Prayer)

Winkie(Binkie)

Woobie(Nickname for blankie)

Belly Button

Tank you(Thank you)

Begel(Abigail)

Hyum( Hyrum)

Curt(Curtis)

Manna(Amanda)

Sorry

Ba(Bath)

Owsi(Outside)

Shoes

Body

Gum

Bites

All Done

Nana(Bannana)

Mamaw(Grandma)

Papa(Grandpa)

Piture(Picture)

Cheese

Wee

Soft

Baby

Teddy

Circle

Ball

Wipe

Toes

A fun yet LOOONNNG weekend

This weekend we went to Thatcher to go attend Chris's farewell. The talks and songs were great....but we had a lot of bumps along the way.
Are you ready for a novel....here ya go.

Friday morning the girls woke up and A had a super bad diaper and O had thrown up in the middle of the night without me knowing. I thought it might have been something that they ate...so after naps we loaded up the van and went to pick up Amanda. (Doug had already left to put a new A/C unit in for my mom.) On the drive over to Amanda's A puked 2 more times. I felt so bad for her and drove to Manda's as fast as I could. Still thinking it was something she ate. We cleaned up and decided to just head to Thatcher b/c who wants to take care of sick kids at home without help? Bad idea. She threw up again in Globe, but we made it Thatcher safely. The next day everyone was acting fine so we played outside in grandma's backyard in the morning and swam and ate popsicles in the afternoon. At about 5 pm that evening Hyrum starting throwing up. And at 7 Abigail starting throwing up. And at 10 Audree woke up and started throwing up!! It was a nightmare. Janiel, Amanda, and I were running around with bowls and towels trying to catch it all. It was just awful. Finally Audree went back to sleep and Hyrum and Abigail went to bed at 2am and woke up at 6am!

Church was the next day and all of the Udall kids, J, Ma,Chris and Me were singing in sacrament meeting. So we left the kids home with my sweet Doug b/c it would have really been a disaster if they would have thrown up at church. Every one was fine and we really enjoyed Chris's great talk about the 4th article of faith. He will be such a great missionary.

Longing for Africa!

At the luncheon we sang a song "Africa" by the group Toto. (You know it....I hear the rains down in Africa)

Anyways, we made up different words to the song to fit Chris. And then did Choreography that he had used with his Choraleers group. Some of the lyrics are

.....Be the tallest white guy down in Africa...

.....May find a black girl down in Africa....

....Stain alot of white shirts down in Africa....

....Don't drink the water you'll get runny poos....

.....Sing with the natives down in Africa.....

....When he comes home he will be a better man....

Anyways....Super funny!

This is the runny poo dance move

Doing Choraleers Choreogrpahy

Our family....My mom just painted her kitchen(Don't you love it Lis) and made new twall curtains. So cute!
So we thought everyone was better and we went home. At 11pm on Sunday night Audree woke up puking again....Ugh! Poor baby. Monday comes and everyone is acting ok so I gave them a cup of milk. Bad idea. We then went to Walmart and she threw up everywhere at Walmart. We left the cart with Customer service, and with a child on each hip trecked it out to the car. Most of the throw up was on me, so I took of my shirt, and garment top and drove home in my sports bra. The funny thing was when I got there someone from my ward was at my door droping of an annocement. Me neighbor across the street rear ended her and I was there in all my stretch mark glory in a bra!! I left both kids in the car and ran in to get a shirt. By the time I got outside she was driving off. So I guess all was ok with her car.

Wow! If you made it through that, Thanks for being a tropper! No one has thrown up yet today....I'm crossing my fingers. And we are staying indoors all day.:)

2 New favorite things

My sweet sister in law Christi and I were talking about discipline. She is an amzing mother of 5 and her kids are very well behaved. She told me about a book called Love and Logic. I went to my library and checked it out. It is really neat. Even though my girls are small I feel like they get the stuff I am implementing from the book.

Then my old roomie Jennie was here and she had these..http://http://www.coldseat.com/index2.html I thought they were really neat, but no way could I spend $100. So my mom and I made our own. They are washable or huge, but the do the job. All for only $12! They keep the buckles cool so their chubby little legs don't get burned! Thanks mom! And Lis....do your recoginize the material...they are from some overalls we used to wear!

Happy 4th Everyone!

What a difference a year makes! These are the girls a year ago at John and Lisa's in Vegas. They are just 6 months and sat up for the first time at their house. They are the sweetest little chubbers!

Here we are today....giving kisses in the garage....crazy mom, took them out in the heat to get 4th of July pics!

Doesn't she look a little mischeoveous?(s/p)

Their hair is a little unruly these days.

Yup...I'm cute!

Sweetie Angel Audree

We had a great 4th! We spent the morning at home and then went to The Point South Mtn. where my brother and sister in law had a few nights there. We played from about 3-6 in the pool. The girls loved the kiddie pool b/c they could stand. Audree thought she could swim and kept putting her face under! They also liked the wave pool. We then ate dinner with our family and drove to watch some fireworks with Aunt Allie, Uncle Darrin, and Uncle Kevin. The girls sure were tuckered out and fell asleep at about 9:30. We are so grateful to live in this country! Yea for the U.S.A.!