{photography}: a new blog

Click here to check out my new photography blog!
It was time. And I am so excited for this. It's just for fun. I will miss working all the time with Rachel (We've recently divorced and are currently working out custody). I feel like Rachel and I were constantly trying to prove ourselves-I don't know, it could have just been me, what do you think Rach? But I don't want to take it so seriously this time around. This isn't a business. This is just me taking pictures because I love, love, love to take pictures and I want to share. What Rachel and I did with Amelie is still so incredible to me because in a few short years we went from nothing to a legitimate business and contender in the St George Wedding Photography market. But it took a lot of time and blood, sweat & tears and with kids and jobs we just can't keep up with it anymore. So we say goodbye to Amelie and hello to a new beginning of a hobby and talent that I love. Enjoy!

The Coopers: St. George, UT Family Photographer

I love spring blossoms! And such a gorgeous orchard with a gorgeous family!

{scoot-scoot}: pros & cons

Now that spring has sprung here in St George, and I refuse to drive the bus, I am back to driving the scooter. Oh how I wish it was this cute scooter, but alas, it is not. It is a ridiculous racing scooter from Spain that looks much better on Jon than me.

Either way, scooter riding is really quite fun during the spring but it has it's pros and cons:

• Pro: It IS really nice outside.
• Con: If you think bugs on your windshield are annoying, bugs in your lip gloss is way, way worse.
• Pro: I get like 90 miles to the gallon.
• Con: Not that it matters too much with my hair, but I wear a helmet and continuously have helmet hair.
• Pro: As a chick walking out into the dark mall parking lot at night, no one wants to mess with you when they see that helmet-even if it is to ride a scooter.
• Con: rain.
• Pro: You get to smell, taste and see more of the environment around you. Golden Corral smells delicious in the morning (when they bake their rolls) and cemeteries are extra creepy because even during the warmest days, its cooler when you drive past them.
• Con: Instead of looking super cute, I wear a bulky helmet, pants under my skirt, random hoodies and usually a pair of dress shoes (that look ridiculous with the pant-skirt combination).
• Pro: I really am a better driver.
• Con: People try to run you over a lot.
• Pro: You gain heightened skills like swerving good.
• Con: When you do crash, you will get hurt. Even when I laid mine down going slow I still got really ripped up.
• Pro: There really is nothing like riding a scooter.

{thoughts}: little girls

What happens to litttle girls? It is so interesting to see the difference between the 10 and 11 year olds that still have confidence in themselves and the 13 and 14 year olds that are a mess. What happens to us? It's horrible! As a girl in Junior High you are either picking on other girls and bratty as can be or being picked on by bratty girls. I was picked on. It was awful. I don't want Paisley to go through it! Working at Bath & Body I have droves of girls come in and they are horrible! It is a rare day that I have a nice, decent, confident but not too confident 13 year old shop at my store...and it makes me sad. So what happens in those few short years? I look back and we get through it ok...for the most part. I'm still a bit scarred, but they're only scars...I'm ok now. I just don't want Paisley to go through it in the first place...

{nostalgia}: love story

On Friday, Jon and I will be married for 5 years, and I can't even believe it. Here is our story in pictures:

I was a lifeguard, working at Reinhart, tan and skinny as can be.

I also drove a scooter-which is particularly bizarre in Idaho.

Jon played guitar, and had a band. He's playing here with Curtis at Curtis' Wedding.

Jon cut weeds...which gave him some sweet are muscles. Oddly enough, he also drove a scooter in Idaho.
Jon and I met on May 17, 2004 in our Institute class. I like him right away. He had cool pants, I had cool shoes, and we both drove cool scooters...it was magic. The first time we hung out, outside of class was at a party where the above pic was taken. We had our first date on July 28th and our first kiss on August 7th...right before I was about to leave for school...
The first time Jon came to St. George to visit me we went to Sand Hollow. I had fallen for him, but run off to St George anyway, and he promised he would visit every 2 weeks.

He kept his promise and moved down in December of 2004. We went to California...and In-n-Out...
We got married March 12, 2005 in the Idaho Falls Temple. I wore chucks, and Jon's cool socks had orange and blue stripes-once again we are very fashionable...

Our reception was organized chaos...and quite the party.

We lived in "the stilts" and I am happy to say we are no longer there...

Thankfully during our time there our decorating got better and better but when we first moved we had a random assortment of armed chairs, a hideous loveseat (pictured above with the material covering it) and my grandparents old couch (they died, it was passed on to us and we still have and love it!)

Any excuse to go to California, and we go!

This was the first family pictures taken with Jon as part of the "Clark Family"

Vegas

You'll notice my hair color change a lot through the years...

Califonia

Rachel's Wedding, 2007

The Scion, also a souvenir from California!

Family Pictures, 2008

Mexico!

Pregnancy, 2009

Cinco De Mayo, 2009 and pregnant.

Washington County Fair-they wouldn't let me go on the rides because of "my condition." Just because I was 9 months pregnant!

Our Family, 2009

I love this man! I don't remember my life without him, but it seems like we were just married yesterday! Five years has gone by so fast, and I am so grateful to have him with me through all of them. I love to look at Paisley and think of her as a product of our love...she is and she's the best thing we have to show for all these years :)

{spoiled}

I have been wanting to blog for so long because there is so much to write about, but it just hasn't happened. I'm feeling very spoiled and very ungrateful at the moment, and I'm really struggling with it. Spring is always hard on me-I always love it, St. Patricks Day, all the birthdays, and Easter, but the barometric pressure changes due to roaming thunderstorms kill my joints (yes, I'm an old lady who did too much ballet for her own good), and the allergies come in with full force. Which means for me a sore grump with a non stop sinus headache and post nasal drip. This is also typically when I suffer my burn out for the year, and unfortunately this year is no different. Christmas is never a relaxing time for us, particularly when I'm working in retail so instead of going into the new year well rested, or really rested at all it feels like we just got done running a marathon just to begin a new one. And poor Jon...oh I ache for him! School is going to end his life! He is desperately trying to survive these last 3 classes...he told me he doesn't want a birthday party this year-but he wants to save and have a HUGE and crazy Graduation party. I agreed wholeheartedly. So I am out working my 40 a week trying to hang out with Paisley as much as I can, he is in working his 20-40, school, and taking care of Paisley most of the time and we are barely surviving. I feel like I've been in survival mode since I went back to work. I just want to cook, clean, repair, hang out with my child and be a housewife! I shouldn't feel so picked on that I just have to work right now in order for us to survive, but leaving her lately has been so hard. And she keeps growing. She's going to crawl and I'm going to be at work, and she's going to walk and I'm going to be at work, and it makes me cry. a lot. And I know, how spoiled are we that Jon gets to be the one home with her, and I love my job. If I could choose anything that took me away from my baby, at least it's something I love as much as Bath & Body Works. But its just hard. I don't know if all you housewives out there know how blessed you are. We've tried to survive off of what Jon makes, and we just can't. Hopefully someday soon we can. I don't mind being poor, but I do mind living off the government, and currently that is what we would have to do. I hate being judged because I'm working and on top of it working Sundays, but at the same time I can't feel good about staying home and living off everyone else. All of this has been rattling around in the back of my mind, which doesn't help the sinus headache. Sorry I'm a downer. I need to get past this point and things will be better. I just can't wait til jons done with school...oh what a beautiful day that will be.

(Paisley): among other things...

I am excited to say I am writing this post from my phone...which is new. Also, Paisley has become mobile and if I can figure it out, a picture will soon follow...