Flash Mob Philosophy

Last year on Thanksgiving me and my sister got a grand idea to do a flash mob for the black Friday shoppers at Target.  This was the result...

This year we decided to continue our tradition of crazy outfits and bad dance moves to a ridiculously catchy/popular song.   I posted an invite on Facebook for my friends and family to join me.  I was so excited and surprised at how many fabulously fun people I have in my life.   

After a few hours of creating choreography with my sister, an hour of last minute practice and prep, we had 22 people for our flash mob this year.  THANK YOU to everyone who came out to make this year even bigger and better! 

This was the result of this years fun... 

 We spend lots of time making sure we look good in front of other people by the way we dress and how we act.  Many times we believe that people will think we are silly or ridiculous when really they love when people are silly.  Why do we love kids so much?  They are silly.  Life is so short and we often take it very seriously.... take the time today and maybe just do something silly that puts a smile on someone's face.  You never know it might change their life.

The Great Failure

Recently I've been having many conversations with women about how difficult it is to be a mom.  The constant struggle of trying to keep the house together, the kids alive, the husband happy, the laundry done, and looking beautiful during all that.... not to mention all the others things but I don't want to bore you.  Then, we are constantly bombarded with images of all these amazing ideas on Pinterest of perfect mommies making beautiful food, having super organized homes, and children that are surprisingly clean and stylish.  In the midst of all this I find myself feeling like a failure on a daily basis, and in talking to other women about this subject I have found that I am not the only one in this boat of failure.

I began to think about the things that make me happy and bring a bit of light to my dark world of failure.  I am a photographer and I LOVE photographing people, I think photos are priceless treasures that capture moments in our life that will never happen again.  Being honest with myself I also enjoy when people compliment me on my work.  It brings a smile to my face and makes me feel great!  As a mom, I feel like it's almost wrong to take such praise when I have failed day after day in house work or disciplining my children but the other day I realized why these small moments in my life are so important.

If you don't read any other part of this blog this is what I really want to share....
"The reason we need to do things we are good at is so that we can be reminded that we are not failures." 

We all have something we can do well... some of us can run fast and long and that makes us feel good. Some of us are creative and can make things that people rave over.  Some of us are just amazing at throwing a party that people talk about for years.   We all have something that we know deep inside that we do well and when we choose to take the time to do those things in the midst of giving everything we have to our families it keeps us from flipping out.... literally.

I'm not suggesting we give up on our families or being an amazing mom, I'm just suggesting that we pay attention to when we need to give ourselves a reminder that we have amazing beautiful wonderful gifts inside of us that need to come out.  I've told my husband many times that I don't want to get lost in the world of taking care of everyone else and end up not even recognizing myself.  In turn he has supported me in my creative endeavors and moments of being myself.  I don't think it is fair to us or our families for them not to see who we really are... honestly what is that teaching our children?

I would love to hear what some of the things are that make you feel good about you, or that make you who you are... please leave them in the comments, you might just remind someone else of something they love that has been lost over the years.

*Why not end this post with a hilarious picture of me taking pics in the dark morning hours with my snuggle bugs?*

Fun with Graffiti

I got a fun opportunity to paint a huge mural on the wall of the new building the Crossfit St. George gym is moving into.  It is made up of words that we use in the gym... names of workouts, movements, etc.  

It was so much fun and I'm so glad that Ali trusted me with such a huge project.

Here is a fun Before and After.

Here is a bigger version.

Super Hero Surprise Party!!

We had this great idea to cover 4 birthdays in the family with one awesome Super Hero Surprise party. It was a success and soo much fun! 

On the right you will see the list of birthday boys... 

Cunning Clint! 

Atomic Andrew! 

Blaize the Bomb! 

& Super Shaw!

Yeah that's right cheesy and ridiculous but FUN! FUN! FUN!

Other decorations included cool super hero words/sounds.  Like Kaboom! Skadoosh! Pow! You get the idea.  We made them out of some inexpensive poster board and some markers.  

Shaw couldn't help but fly away with his cape on : ) 

Yup we were taking pictures of ourselves while we were waiting for Cunning Clint and Atomic Andrew to arrive for the surprise.

The dress code was pretty simple... stick to some primary super hero colors.  Blue, Red, White, Yellow,  and Green.  We made these awesome wristbands with duct tape.
*Shaw wore his wrist bands for 3 days after this... he just couldn't get enough!*

We painted on "masks" with some inexpensive acrylic craft paint.  Directly around our eyes we used some metallic silver eyeshadow and it blended perfectly with the metallic silver paint.

"SUPER HEROOOOOOOOOSSSSS!!!"

 For the capes we found this fabric at Wal-Mart for only $1.50?! a unit.  There were 2 "dangers" per unit so 6 capes only cost us $4.50!  We gathered the top of the cape and pinned it onto some scrap pieces of fabric that we cut for the ties.  Then we just did a straight stitch across the gathered area.  These were so quick and easy and I'm sure you could even hot glue them if you didn't want to pull out the sewing machine.  

The entire super hero posse!

Sisters are great... if you don't have one you should get one. 

Now, I will be honest we only wore these boots for the pictures then we put our flip flops on... it was almost 100 degrees and that weather is not made for boots : ) 

*a super power was used on this photo* 

Now onto the funnest part of the party... we did a Super Hero Slip and Slide!!! 

A large sheet of black plastic + some dish soap + water = AWESOMENESS  

This one deserves a video so enjoy!

We also did some interviews with our Super Heros.

For those of you with iMovie I used the "Cartoon" effect on this video.  I think it really give it a fun comic book kind of feel.  : ) 

Let's take a ride....

At the park this evening the girls found some balloons and filled them up with water... all of them got popped except for Taurin's pink balloon.  She wanted to bring it home with her in the van but I said NO WAY!  But I told her it could ride on the top of the van and if it made it home I would let her bring it in the house.  

Here it is on the top of the van after a ride on the interstate, up hills, down hills, through 3 round-a-bouts, and over 2 speed bumps.  Our van has four awesome sun roofs in the back so the kids had a full view of the balloons ride home... the whole time they were yelling, "It's on Taurins side! AHHH... there it goes!"  It was pretty hilarious and entertaining.  Other than being a bit dirty it's still fully intact and currently residing in the kitchen sink.  : )  

Marinn gave me a high five for my awesome driving that saved the balloon... it did have a bit of help with the rack on the van but I'm still impressed.  

Cross the country BATHROOM AWARDS

somewhere in the middle of nowhere utah:

we stopped at a gas station that had gravel instead of asphalt.

as i walked in the door to take the girls to the bathroom to my left was a kitchen table with 3 guys sitting at it: they were wearing plaid flannel shirts and drinking beer... on the wall next to the table was a 52" flat screen TV with the basketball game playing. (obviously they spent the cash on the TV instead of the parking lot)

in the bathroom were 2 toilets side by side with no dividing wall. 

Marinn said, "look Taurin! one for me and one for you!!"

Needless to say I appreciated the convenience that they both got to go at the same time... this one gets the award for CREATIVE CONVENIENCE!

*this is not the actual bathroom but my good friend Faith found this picture for me... this is pretty much what it looked like. thanks faith!

goodland, Kansas:

at the Crazy R bar and grill where we stopped to grab some gizzards the bathroom was so small you could barely get into the stall.

this one gets the award for MOST LEAN!

somewhere in kentucky:

we stopped at an extremely small and old gas station.

when we walked into the bathroom it was decorated like we were in someones home. 

tile on the floor, a nice paint color, vases with artificial flower arrangements, and a clean toilet.

It smelt amazingly fresh and clean. 

Marinn says, "MOM! this bathroom smells soooo nice!" 

Taurin says, "I'm gonna stand by the flowers."

I actually felt like I smelt better as I walked out of that bathroom.

this one gets the award for BEST SMELLING!

off the west virginia highway:

we spent about 30 min in this bathroom... some things take more time. 

while i was waiting for Marinn we sang "i'm a little tea pot".

this one gets the award for BEST ACOUSTICS!

Only in Utah.

This weekend on the way to the park we saw a truck with these stickers on the back window... do you notice anything odd?
*you can click on the picture to get a closer look*

That's right people... count them. 1 Dad. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Wives. Wait... 5 wives!!!

Now we live in Utah and there are Polygamists that live in a few nearby cities... but could this be? Did they really just broadcast it across their vehicle?  Yes, yes they did. We actually chased this truck down to take a picture of this. 

Only in Utah.

ONLY in UTAH.