Soon the bus was in front of us and the tall doors swung open letting us climb the stairs and find a seat amongst the rows of benches. The doors swung shut and the bus began accelerating. We hadn’t gone far when suddenly a kid shrieked out, “Wait! Stop! Stop!” I looked up alarmed and discovered the shrieking kid was my little brother. He was frantically running up the center isle yelling at the bus driver, “Wait, I forgot something!” Tears started falling down his tender little kindergarten face and his wild eyes darted back and forth wondering if the driver would listen to him.

The bus driver stopped quickly in front of our home and told my little brother in an urgent voice, “Hurry fast.” My little brother didn’t waste one nanosecond. He took off like lightning down the stairs, across the street, and disappeared into the house. Not a few seconds had passed when he came tearing back towards the bus, his legs churning so fast they were almost a blur. Man, one thing was for sure, my little brother could run!

I straightened my back to peer out the window curious to see what in the world could have been so deathly urgent that my baby brother would stop the bus, full of the entire neighborhood, so he could run into our home to grab something he forgot.

In his tiny hand, flapping in the wind as he ran with all his might, his clenched fist held onto the stem of a single fall leaf.

He had found this rather large, perfectly intact and colorful fall leaf and he was dying to show it off in his class show-and-tell.

As my little brother climbed back onto the bus with a look of relief on his face, the streaks left by tears began to dry like a riverbed succumbed to drought. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, and worked his way back to his seat. I felt a pang in my heart because he was so worried about this leaf he would make everyone wait, less he not be able to show his classmates. I was a mean older sister however, and I betrayed my heart by loudly exclaiming, “You went back for a leaf?! I can’t believe you made everyone wait so you could get a leaf!” I turned to the window shaking my head.

I’m embarrassed to admit I was too worried about what the other kids would think of my little brother and by default, me. My insecurities made me want to make him feel dumb before they did. He responded with another wipe of his nose on his sleeve and a shrug of the shoulders as he sat down in his seat.

I’m sorry, little brother, for letting my insecurities overrun my heart that day. It’s one of my many not-so-proud moments.

We all have a list of them, right? The not-so-proud moments?

Until next time,
~Shay

So like many of my ideas, it was put on the back burner. But it wasn’t forgotten back there. It simmered and patiently waited for me to come back to it. And although the weather has changed and summer is on my mind now, I still had to create this video. I pulled it from the back burner and finished what my mind had started.

Disclaimer: I am by no means a videographer, nor a great video editor. The first video I made (found here) was not really edited per se and today’s video is the first one I’ve created with music, transitions, and the like…so if it’s a little choppy, now you know why. Haha.

Password to view the video = snow

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oh, Hi! I’m slowly awaking from my sugar coma inflicted by the holiday season tornado that sucked me up, spun me around, and spit me out 6 pounds heavier. Although my holidays were wonderful (hence the 6 pounds I gleefully put on) I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things so I’ll be posting more soon. How were your holidays?!

Of course I had to let my husband in on the secret that I had broken down and we could begin looking for a dog. A few months back my husband and daughter were getting lunch at Burger Bar. While they were waiting for their order another customer had a Pembroke Welsh Corgi there. The two of them fell in love with the goofy fox-like ears and long body. They did some research and found the breed would actually be a good fit for our family considering they are good with cats, small children, and are easily trainable.

We found a litter of 6-week old pups online in Idaho. Once my daughter saw the pictures she squealed in delight and picked the cutest one out saying it was her favorite. At this time she had no idea that I had relented and was considering getting a dog, so she simply thought it was a fun way to see puppies. I sent the photo to my mom and not knowing which one my daughter picked, my mom made her pick. My mom then sent the photo to her good friend (who owns Corgis) and she made her pick. Ironically, they were all the same pup.

My husband and I made arrangements to go look at the litter a week later while our daughter was in school. Of course I invited my mother to come along so she could help me do some simple aptitude testing. When we arrived there were 3 puppies left in the litter: the one my daughter wanted, a boy, and a girl. During the aptitude tests, the pup my daughter wanted was the only one that retrieved for us. Sold!

On the way home from Idaho, we derived a plan to surprise my daughter. I would hide in my parent’s computer room and my husband would bring our daughter over under the ruse that we were going to eat dinner with my parents that night. We knew eventually she would walk into the computer room and would see me sitting there with the puppy in my lap. We stopped by the store and bought a big blue bow to put on her new puppy.

Below is the video of our plan unfolding perfectly. After a few moments (waiting time edited out of the video) my daughter entered the computer room as expeted. The clip begins right as she walks in to discover me with the dog in my lap:

Password = puppy

So please meet [my daughter's] Little Gamble, aka “Keeno” — the newest member of our family.

These photos were taken a few days after we got him when his ears will still floppy:

And his first snow. You can see his ears finally came up!

I think it’s so funny how he has a huge snowball in his mouth in this one! He loves to eat the stuff. LOL

And doesn’t he look just like a fox coming out of the weeds like that?! So cute…

Until next time,
~Shay

So. It may be needless to say but due to my upbringing, I fully understand the responsibility, hard work, and yes reward too, that owning a dog can be. However, I can’t fathom the idea of not fully training a dog; therefore, I really didn’t want to tie myself into all those years of commitment. And responsibility. And work. Ohmygoodness, the work!

Enter my wonderful husband and darling daughter.

They wanted a dog so badly. They begged. And pleaded. And tried their little hearts out to convince me we needed a dog. They even resorted to attempting to excite me. Example: “ohmygosh mom, it would be so! much! fun! to! have! a! dog!”

Ha! Nice try, right? I knew waaaay too well how much time and work and responsibility dogs are and those tricks would not work on me. But they kept begging, and pleading, and trying all kinds of tactics for about 2 years.

Enter my wonderful, lovely, professional dog trainer of a mother.

I was doomed. My darling girl started in on grandma and before long I was ganged up on. I really didn’t have a chance you know. What with the pressure of getting a dog coming from all sides ‘n all.

Unbeknownst to my husband and daughter, I broke down internally and began talking with my mother about the logistics. She talked me off the ledge when I was about to jump back into never-own-a-dog abdominal darkness due to all the kinks we’d have to work out. But I eventually made peace with the idea that now was the best time in my daughter’s life to get a dog. After all, I am an animal lover and the magic of owning a dog is something every child should have really. I was fortunate to experience that magic myself – the eagerness to please, the quiet understanding and comfort when you’re sad, the unconditional love – all emanating from a cute fur-ball dog. In a few years my daughter would be too grown up and too busy with her teenage life to fully appreciate the work and reward a dog could give her. It was now or never…
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(to be continued….)
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And because I try not to post without any images, here are some images I took of my mom with her dog in 2006:

Doing the weave poles:

Look at how happy he is!

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Continued in Part II here

Clearly that wasn’t helping so I started telling myself: “self, you MUST get these done by your anniversary!” Well shame on me because it’s been a year! Where has the time gone?! And of course I’m absolutely swamped with client work right now so my images will yet again wait for me on the back burner. That’s ok though….I love to cook and I love my clients.

And can I just say how wonderful my husband is? We’ve grown a lot over the years and I can honestly say I love him more and more each day. He is the funniest person I know and he makes me laugh every.single.day. He’s the dose of happiness I need. Today I came home to three red roses in a vase and a sweet handwritten note.

Happy Anniversary, Babe. I love you more than I ever thought possible and you make me so happy. Thank you for being my best friend.

Ok, ok, so I took a few mins out and edited one wedding image to share. If you didn’t know, Mike, our daughter, and I were married on the beach in Mexico. The day was perfect. I hope to share it with you soon along with the rest of our images.

Until next time,
~Shay | Contact Me

Utah Family Photographer | Utah Wedding Photographer

After registration a week ago, the time flew by and before I knew it, Sunday night was here and school was starting the next morning. My daughter went to bed late. Fortunately she was still able to wakeup early to get dressed in her carefully-planned outfit and went about reestablishing our morning routine. We were running on time and things were going smoothly. Soon we were in the car on the way to the bus stop. Once we arrived we we found no sign of other kids waiting for the bus to come. Either we were way too early or we had missed the bus. After a phone call to my friend, we discovered it was the latter.

On the way to the school I couldn’t help but feel like things were happening all too fast. Yes I made my daughter stop before getting into the car to take the obligatory-first-day-of-school-photo, but was it good enough? No. I was too zoomed in and couldn’t see her outfit. and I only got 1 image.

So I snapped a photo in the car on the way while stopped at a stop sign. What did her expression say? “smile to oblige her but c’mon, mom – get me to school already! Get back to driving!”

We pulled into the school’s parking lot and as she got out I made her take a step back so I could get a photo of her outfit.

She told me she loved me and closed the door and hurried off to the front door. “Wait!” I thought, “Do you know where to go? Are you sure you can open your locker? Do you need me to come do it for you? Should I walk to all your classes with you to make sure you don’t get lost? Can’t I continue to protect you and hold your hand? Are you sure you’re ready?” I knew the answer though. She didn’t even turn around to wave goodbye as she slipped through the doors.

I fought back the lump in my throat as I drove away. In a way missing the bus was a blessing; I learned I need to accept my baby is growing up, as painful as it is; and I experienced the pain the other mothers talked about, albeit a few years late. Now I’m a member of their imaginary club.

My Discover card commercial would say:
Registration fees – $300
New school clothes/make-up/supplies – $250
Watching your baby grow up – painfully priceless

Anyway, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you’ll know that I live in the country. Every year my small town has a 4th of July parade complete with “floats.” I say floats in a figurative way because they’re not the traditional floats you’d normally see in a parade. Well, that’s not fair, there was one real float. But I digress. Most of the parade entries are hand-decorated trailers pulled by trucks or tractors. This year we even had a garbage truck and a school bus!

My daughter waiting for the parade to start:

What hick-town parade would be complete without The General Lee complete with Rosco P. Coltrane in hot pursuit?!

And who wouldn’t appreciate a little culture and geography lesson with a hick version of the Stonehenge? Isn’t it awe-inspiring?

Of course there were a few 4-H clubs and Rodeo queens:

and the ‘clean-up’ crew following the horses:

a fully restored, beautiful 1936 Farmall tractor:

my mom riding on one of the primary’s float:

followed by the one and only “real” float:

And finally, what’s a 4th of July post without fireworks? Not a 4th of July post at all I reckon

How was your holiday?

The 4th of July is one such holiday. Ever since I discovered Barefoot Contessa’s Flag Cake it became a holiday staple. The 4th simply isn’t the 4th without it now.

Let me say though, I am no Barefoot Contessa. Heck, I don’t even have a pastry bag to make my cake all pretty ‘n stuff….and my version alternates strawberries and raspberries for the stripes. But man, is this cake good.

What kind of traditions do you have for the 4th?