hair.

For most of my life there has not been an emotional side to hair. Its always just been there. in its pony. where it belongs. I used to think it was funny to hear of girls who cry over their hair...whether it was a dramatic cut, bad cut, wrong color, etc. I have never experienced that emotion.. until it came time to cut little Benson's hair. I thought i had mentally prepared myself for monday night. But it hurt. alot more than I thought it would. I loved his long hair. Don't get me wrong he is still a stud with his haircut. But i will be missin those long locks. Im already looking forward to seeing it grow. watching it day by day. until it is back where it belongs. long. long enough to fit into a pony. just like moms.

we were able to get in a quick morning session before his hair cut. 

 do you even recognize this boy?

camping with the gurrs.

One of the things that me and bryce and our friends loved to do in high school was go camping. It seemed like we were always heading up to Payson, Sycamore, or Bushnell whenever we got the chance. Which is why I am so shocked that we havent taken Benson as much as we have. Ok maybe i know why, because its a TON of work. Even for an overnighter, we had the whole truck full. Its alot of work setting up a tent and getting it ready for the night. A night in which i usually only sleep a total of two hours. And then we have to take the tent down and pack everything away the next day. yea, alot of work. But there are certain things that I LOVE about camping. Things that make all the hard work worth it.

Here are a few of those things..

I love being in nature. i love everything about it. the sounds. the smells. watching the pine trees move in the wind, there's nothing better.

I love camping with family. Bryce's whole family was able to be there except Blake, who is serving a mission in California.

I love camping with my little family.

I love our camping spot. hidden in its own little valley of pine trees. It was our favorite spot in high school to camp.

I love camping with Benson. I love how happy this boy is when he is in the outdoors. 

I love not caring about how dirty he gets

I love how we don't have to bring toys with us because benson loves flowers and other natural things...like oreos.

I love it when you can't tell whats a boo boo, whats dirt, and whats food.

I love having cousins there to play with Benson

i love pinecones. I feel like camping isn't camping without pine trees.

I love our Weather Master 10. Yes, this is our ten person tent for our little family of three. It's the best thing that ever happened to our camping experience. Its got plenty of room for our double high air mattress, side table, and benson even has his own room.

I love cooking when we camp. Well, Bryce loves cooking when we camp. Its probably the thing we love to do most. I'm not sure why but everything tastes better when you're camping. Friday night we had steaks and every vegetable you could imagine. And saturday Loran made home made Arizona Burritos (Fili-B fans know what i'm talking about).

I love nighttime. I love getting bundled up, sitting and visiting with family.

I love flashlights, that can make messages for Blake who was not with us.

and I love the millions of stars that can't be seen in the city.

Yea, i think this camping trip was worth all of the work.

moments.

I think normal women have these moments when they hold a newborn baby. That feeling you get. deep down. That feeling of wanting another child. of wanting a sibling for your kid. that feeling of wanting another spirit in your home. I had a few of these moments this week, but not in your normal way.

One moment came while I was doing something I do almost everyday lately. I was editing pics from one of my shoots. I can usually get into a groove with editing. This picture threw off my groove completely. I opened it, ready to edit, and all I could do was just stare at it. Touched by the single act of the little one's hand on his older brothers. I can remember when I took this shot, they got into this stance naturally. This stance thats states, we are brothers and we look out for each other.

Another moment came when our friends came over to play this week. i cant help but admire these boys. They act like brothers. they play like brothers. they talk about being brothers. And when they are over, they treat bens just like a brother. They always tell him "someday benson you can be five like me and then you can be a big brother." I can't help but smile when Benson plays with them. He will literally try and do everything that they do. When they eat lunch at the table, bens has to eat lunch at the table. Heaven forbid he gets seen eating in the highchair when his friends are over, how embarrassing. When they play the wii, Benson has to "play" the wii. I crack up just watching their facial expressions, and watching Bens try to imitate. Its moments like this that make me ache for a sibling for Benson.

And then there's moments like Sunday, when we all slept in until 9. And then I think, I'm liking our little family of three.

the farm

Us girls are always looking for new spots to have lunch besides the normal Paradise or Costa Vida. Jess came across this little gem called The Farm. There is actually three different restaurants in this little area. one for breakfast. one for lunch. and one for dinner. If the breakfast and dinner restaurants are as good as lunch then we will be visiting again real soon. But lunch was a little pricey, so maybe not as soon as we would like. But this place was gorgeous. They have groves of trees where you can sit at picnic tables and eat while your kids run around. And our lunches came in cute little picnic baskets. I wish I would have taken a picture of the sandwich I had but i'm afraid I ate it too fast. 

My favorite part of this place was letting the kids run and explore while us girls visited. Of course, Bens is still the only boy in the group, but I dont think he minds that too much.

Him and Miss P seemed to be getting along quite comfortably on the fence.

Group pictures are always difficult, especially with children. If Bens had realized that Peighton was a nose picker, i dont think he would have been smoochen on her earlier.

a new workspace.

So its been my DREAM to one day walk out of the apple store carrying a new imac. I've seen people do it all the time. Walk out of there with a big ol fancy computer like its nothin, like they buy them all the time. We were finally able to save up all of our money's (thanks to a very busy march) and make this dream come true...well sort of. We went to pick up our new 27 inch imac. The thing was HUGE. I couldn't even carry it out of the store. So I watched as Bryce carried out my dream and I carried Benson.

We got it home and set it up in the office. I somehow felt that the office needed a little kick. Needed something new to welcome imac to the room. I told Bryce I wanted to do a couple of projects. And he said "you get 50 bucks." I ended up spending 60 for my three projects.

The first project was a collage of my old cameras. For years I have been trying to decide how to display them in the office. I finally took pictures of a few of my favorites and got them printed. Bryce helped me with the rest. He cut out all of the wood, which we already had. painted them black, and then decoupaged the pictures on. and then had the task of hanging them on the wall. love ya B! This project cost $30 to get the prints developed at costco.

Each pic is a 10 in square and the wood is 1.5 inches thick

The next project is a series of three prints which I designed and then printed at home. Just a couple of my most used phrases during a shoot. The frames were 10 bucks each at ikea. Sorry about all the glare, that would be our white trash paper blinds (soon to be replaced).

This will give you a better picture of what each one looks like

The last project is probably my favorite. Not because it didn't cost me a penny, but because I made it all (mostly) by myself, and it holds a pic of my family. Yep, its a frame. Bryce is usually the one that makes the frames in this household and the one that paints them. I wanted a chunky frame to set beside the computer. One that would stand up all by itself. He was a little weary when I said I wanted him to show me how to make one. But he did. I'm not going to lie, I freaked when I went to use the chop saw. The name alone gives me the chills. I could imagine everything. my hand. the chop. the saw. and the blood. oh the blood. Soo Bryce, in fact, made all of the cuts. But everything else I did by myself. Pretty much became a master at the nail gun. I can even hear Steven Tyler right now telling me "Brittney, I think you nailed it." 

We assembled the base frame. I had to glue each corner and then nail them together. Let's just face it, the top right corner frame looks like a piece of junk. But i kept with it. I sanded it. puttied the cracks. sanded some more. And then we cut the pieces for the outer part of the frame. And I nailed those, sanded, and puttied. Then it was time to paint (probably the most time consuming part of the project). We sprayed it black first. And then I painted on the teal. Roughed it up a little and then added some dark glaze. And then it was finished. And in went a 5x7 pic of my little family.

and that will be the last frame i ever do.

puddle.

Benson, remember that big puddle after all the rain.

i told you to go stand by the stop sign because it would make a cool picture with your reflection.

You did great.

but then you went and did your own thing.

Remember when I told you not to get wet

Remember when you looked at me and then ran straight for the water

Remember when you purposely went to the middle of that big puddle. and stayed there. knowing we didnt want to come in after you.

Remember I wasnt upset

because

we had gotten that cool shot that I wanted.