First Snow Day

Love the snow, love these boys, love being home for the holidays! And- Gotta love the mismatched winter box accessories! Being from CA, we haven't stocked up on snow gear.... Yet!

Very Merry

Merry Christmas to All

And to All a Goodnight....

Special Thanks to my sisters in law, the makers of our Christmas Card this year.

Becca took the family photo and Amy designed the card!

Just FYI: Update #2... Someday

So. In just 5 short months Stephen is GRADUATING! It's really just right around the corner and I couldn't be prouder of this guy. He has worked SO hard to get to this point. Over 20 years of school in his life. Whew! And now its time to start planning where we go from here.

So. Let me ask you, Where SHOULD we go from here?

Stay in California? Go back to Utah? Try out Colorado, Washington, or Oregon?

Or maybe go to Alaska for a couple years- (an amazing starting salary, plus extra $ to help us pay back student loans!) I lightly, partly jokingly, brought this up to Stephen after seeing a postcard from Fairbanks with the offer. Then later that week I spotted Stephen looking up some Alaskan stats that showed I really put a bee in his bonnet. (BTW one of those stats was the average winter temp being -27 degrees F. Whoah.)

We may just be considering all the aforementioned. Including the Alaska.

Sure I'd have to invest in one of these.

And maybe some of these.

My son might look like this.

And be afraid of this.

But hey, how many people can say that they've actually seen this?

Maybe someday that could be me.

So. I guess we'll see.

Wish us luck as we welcome any new adventure coming our way.

In the Hood

You know how parents think every little thing their kid does is "SO cute"? Well, this is my current favorite video of the week.

As we were driving around on a rainy day, I looked at the back seat mirror and found this....

I was lucky enough to have my camera in the car already.

These little moments sure make me smile.

This Morning...

Our boy woke up with his first case of real bed head.

And when we asked him to smile for the camera. He gave us his "Stare Down" instead.

Sounds like a boy to me.

He's Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

My heart is so full. I feel like I have a million things I want to say. A million things I want to remember about this last year. I was trying to think of what I could put in a birthday post for my little guy, but there just was too much for me to wrap my brain around completely, too many pictures, too many videos- and too much for the average blog checker. So, I guess I will save those for my journal and instead just post a few simple "baby favorites" from the day.

November 28th, my baby turned 1.

He was all boy...

And despite what this looks like- he actually enjoyed wearing the hat for most of the day.

It was also an Elmo day. Of course. Started with him recieving his first birthday present, an Elmo t-shirt. He was so captivated, kept pointed and saying "DAH!"

Even though I took a couple cake decorating classes when I was younger, I was a little intimidated by the idea of decorating 15 Elmo cupcakes- so instead, we had a CONTEST- who could make the best Elmo cupcake. It was fun. And funny. Kimmie's cake got chosen by the birthday boy, so she won!

Seriously, he just gets cuter and funnier each day.

I just feel so so lucky.

And speaking of lucky- he was lucky enough to spend his birthday in Utah where he could party with my family, Steve's family, and even visit his great grandparents. What a loved little boy.

CHECK IT OUT!

OUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS WEBSITE:

www.truly-you-photography.com

You can also get to the same site by going to www.juliadavisphotography.com

Still many a thing to add and update on there, but its about time I posted the link. I realized with continuing business there is always going to be something to improve on. So here is the first official announcement.

Thanks to everyone we have worked with thus far.

Surprise, you may find yourself in a starring role in the site!

Just FYI: Update #1... my new hobby and "profession"

Hi Friends,

I feel like I have so much to write- but have been so super busy the last few weeks. Busier than I can remember being in a pretty long time. I have a very quick and super cute walker on my hands, Stephen is staying way longer hours at school, and suddenly my sister and I have a "photography business." Haha.

I have been doing christmas card photo shoots for families since the end of October. 17 families so far, one engagement session, and one newborn session- and 6 more families to go before Christmas. What the heck was I thinking? Talk about being thrown into the deep end of the pool! And it all started with this little flyer I sent to my friends in the ward just to help me get some more practice:

(Yeah, nothing too fancy.)

Well, Word spread and I started getting calls from friends of friends and their friends who saw their photos etc. I am definitely a beginner- but it is incredible how much I've learned in just one month. And because it has blown up to be a much bigger deal than expected at this point, my brother Caleb helped us put together an awesome website.

It looks great so far, but still needs a little TLC before I put it on here and tell everyone about it. I am looking at DECEMBER 1st to make it all "official." I am kinda being picky because I know a lot of people will only look once- I want it to include some of our best from the last month. Also, we suddenly have to figure out pricing- because I can't charge this "family and friend" deal forever as we already have a couple requests for sessions after the holidays.

Anyway, there are a billion incredible photographers out there with their own style and exceptional work.... there are also a lot of "photographers" that aren't that great. I know! I laugh when I hear people say "Everyone is becoming a photographer." Or "That is such a stay-at-home-mom thing to do." Thanks (said with sarcasm) But, Who cares? I'm not doing it to make a living or be all competetive with it. I am just excited to be doing something and fortunately there aren't THAT many photographers here where I'm living in CA at the moment. The lack of school in my life was eating away at me- making me crave something new to develop. And I don't want that new skill to be cooking until I get a dishwasher. My artistic skills of old needed some serious excersize and this is a good first step.

So, anyway, Thanks for your support, guys. (If any of you are even really reading this extremely wordy post. How ironic- a post about my photography and I didn't include any..... haha.) Thanks for letting me ramble. Check back later for the website so you can see some of our latest. We are pretty excited about it.

Winter Cheeks...

Apparently run in the family:

Guess who?

(Thought our moms might appreciate these.)

Turning Toddler

You know your baby boy is turning toddler when....

A diaper change can take up to 12 minutes.

Cell Phones and Laptops are the new favorite and he can find/reach them anywhere.

Baby food is just not cool anymore.

He squeals in excitement when you get to the park.

He cries when he has to go back inside.

He's officially pulled off an entire roll of toilet paper.

He throws his first tantrum. Burried head in the carpet and all.

Has a new fascination with everything CAR.

Finally says Mama on a regular basis after a month and a half of Dada's.

And yes.... He Takes his first real steps!

The Multipurpose Monkey and Last Minute Costumes

This was the first year I didn't have my costume planned out before Halloween. The last six years or so I would have to dress up for school. Jacob had his toasty monkey costume all ready to go, and I was going to feel wierd and boring if I didn't dress up. So we figured Steve and I would have to go with the monkey somehow. He became the Man in the Yellow Hat, thanks to his mom's quick creativity. (He's so nice to dress up with me!) And thanks to Steve's sister, Kimmie, I was magically turned into Dora the Explorer- thanks to her supply of a pink shirt, orange skirt, yellow socks, and little black wig!

(Just in case you don't know who these classic characters are.)

We Trick or Treated to one house across the street.

And Jake had a quick accidental taste of a tootsie pop. Happy Monkey!

Hope you had a fun night, too!

Another Reason to Love this Season...

Mickey Mouse + Halloween + Family =

We thought since we were annual passholders we should check out the biggest party of the year. My family came down for the occasion and since it's customary to dress up for the Mickey's Trick or Treat Party we went as the wicked queen and the 7 dwarfs... well, 8 dwarfs actually.

We added a "Hungry".

Hundreds of people wearing costumes, young and old collecting candy at all the stops, a dance party and parade, practically no wait for any ride...

and somehow this little man stayed up with the big kids just fine.

Thank You Mom for the costumes and such an Awesome weekend! We miss you guys!

What Are You Going to Be on Halloween Night?

One of my favorite halloween memories from my own kid-hood is when we'd pull out the dusty decorations and home-made costumes from the garage. We'd spend what seemed like hours re-trying them all on while thinking of what we could be that year. I was always so impressed with how creative and crafty my mom was. She came up with so many fun costumes from scratch. Here were a few favorites I recently found on my computer...

My sister Rachel and I a.k.a. Witch and her Cat

Miss America, Jailbird, Pumpkin (Baby Johnny)

Court Jester, Pirate (Caleb), Ghoul

And just for fun, this is the only Halloween Pic I could find of Stephen...

I always heard that holidays become more exciting when you get to live it like a kid again. The last few weeks we've been getting ready for Halloween around here. Jacob helped me put up the pumpkins.

I made him try on several costumes just for fun.

...Though, I don't know how much fun it was for him...

Let's face it. I don't really know how to sew anything more than a pillowcase. So a store bought costume will have to do this year. I think it may just be the cutest thing anyway.... We decided to have Jacob be "Curious George" for Halloween '09.

And fortunately we will be in Utah for the holiday where the fleece will be slightly more appropriate. I am trying to talk stephen into being the "Man in the Yellow Hat" but then I don't really know what I would be..... hmmm. Are you dressing up? What are you going to be?

The Pumpkinest Patch Ever!

I am Loving Fall this year! I don't know if its because I'm not working in a classroom anymore and feel like I can enjoy the outdoors more, or what it is.... but I am just loving it! I guess it has only taken me three years to appreciate Autumn in Southern California.

Stephen's clinic was closed today so he took us to a gorgeous farm in Orange County.

There were more pumpkins there than any of us had ever seen before.

There were tractors driving around on the dirt roads, a corn maze to walk through, and we got to pick our own pumpkins right off the vine! And of course, we also came home with some of the best pumpkin bread I've ever tasted.

It was a good day.