Our Summer 2011 Garden

Dang it... I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing. A friend and I were texting about it today and she said that she wished I still blogged. She's probably the only one, but with or without blog readers,

it's probably still a good idea for me to keep a record of the ins and outs of the Householder family.

Back during the summer, Jace, Ellie, and I all worked together on our first family garden.

It ended up being more work than I had anticipated, but well worth the effort! Jace formed all of the rows and did all of the planting with his assistant Ellie by his side. I did most of the watering, and Ellie and I were both in charge of picking and bringing everything in the house. Jace took care of the weeds.

The beans, which we never actually ate.

They didn't grow as planned.

Corn... again, we never ate this. I thought it wasn't growing so I quit giving it water. Then all of a sudden, there was corn! Oops! That's why Jace is a farmer and not me.

We ate delicious steemed yellow squash (mixed with onions, green chilis, and velveeta) at almost every meal. Yum! That is one thing I'm really looking forward to this summer. More yellow squash! This time we'll probably plant a little bit less though. We had squash, pumpkins, cantelope, and watermelons coming out our ears!

Squash on the left, watermelon on the right.



Squash.

And more squash!

Thatcher vs. Safford Alumni game

I talked about the Thatcher vs. Safford Alumni game in {this post}. The game was a few weeks ago and I felt like it needed a post of its own. Basically it was a bunch of old men getting together to play football against their big high school rivalry. I'm not kidding about the old men thing... 40 year old men signed up to play in the game! I realize that isn't that old, but it sure is for football. We live in a small town, so practically everyone showed up. I love that I live in a community where things like this are a big deal. Some people think that's lame. I think it's awesome!

You know the feeling you get the few weeks before Christmas... all of the build up and anticipation? Then Christmas day has come and gone and you are left feeling a little sad that it's all over with. Yeah, I definitely did not feel that way about this game. It was all Jace could talk about for weeks. I could hardly have a conversation with the guy without him relating something to the football game. I was also getting a little bitter about how much time he was spending working out and going to football practice. And if you don't mind me complaining a little bit more... I kept worrying that he was going to get hurt. This wasn't flag football, no. It was full on pads and helmets and guys smashing into each other.

I have to admit though, the sacrifice was well worth it!

A few girlfriends came with me to the game. We showed up at the ticket booth right as our Thatcher guys were walking out onto the field. I saw Jace and started yelling his name, trying to get his attention. He wouldn't answer me! I figured he was just "in the zone" or something. Finally I realized that it wasn't Jace. Haha. Woops! He walked out a few seconds later and that's when we snapped this picture....

It would've been a cute picture if I hadn't forgot to put my camera in auto before I handed it over to my friend. Way to go Taylor! Kidding... my fault. I still love the picture though. Makes me feel like I'm back in high school again... although I wasn't near popular enough to be dating a football player back in the day. Oh high school, glad that's over with! Back to the football game...

Right before the game started. Jace is #4.

Pre-game huddle.












The girls "watching the game". No, I'm kidding. We actually did watch the game. I was too nervous that he would get hurt, so I watched almost all of it. 


Our boys won 44-6!! It was awesome. When Safford initially walked out onto the field I thought we would definitely lose. They were HUGE and had double the number of guys we had. I was wrong! They ended up being kind of slow and just not that impressive at all.




About to sing the high school fight song. It was so fun to see all of these old guys so pumped up and excited about their win.





I have to brag on Jace for a minute. He played receiver and corner back. He had some awesome catches and a few even better tackles.

Definitely a fun night! There was a guy from Safford who broke his neck in the game. That's exactly what I was afraid would happen to Jace. The guy did have to get surgery, but he's doing better than expected. I'm so glad that Jace came out of it safe and in one piece! He had so much fun and was sad when it was all over. I've never seen him so giddy over something the entire time I've known him.

Way to go babe!

happy birthday to me!

A few weeks ago I turned the big TWO-SIX! This was the first birthday I've had in a while where I wasn't upset about getting older. I feel younger at 26 than I did at 23 or 24. I have a lot of great friends, most of which are older than me. They are cute, fun, talented... and in their 30's! It makes getting older so much more fun when you know that your life isn't over once you hit a certain age. I am so happy that I'm learning that lesson early. I don't want to be afraid of aging!

My 26th birthday was definitely my best birthday yet. I tried to go into it with low expectations... you know, so I wouldn't end up freaking out on anybody because my birthday wasn't "perfect". Being married to my husband, it's just better that way (wink). Bless his heart though, he shocked the heck out of me and actually did a really good job making me feel very special on my birthday.

The next day I had a dinner date with my friend Taylor. And you know what? That sneaky girl had planned a surprise birthday dinner for me! It was a blast. Thanks a million Taylor!

Photography tips | Preventing squinty eyes

Jana asked:

"So what do you do if you are outside? How do you get non-squinting photos???"

Good question.

It's just a matter of positioning the subject that you are shooting. If you're wanting your subject to have their eyes open and looking at the camera, you never want to position your subject directly facing the sun. That causes squinty eyes. You always want to turn your subject so that there is no direct light touching the skin on their face. Here's an example...

If I wanted it to be technically perfect, I probably should have turned them a bit more to their right to avoid the sun hitting the little boy's face, but because it hit the side, I don't mind it. The sun was extremely bright while I was taking this. It was about an hour before sunset, so if I had faced them toward the sun, there's no way they could have been looking at me without squinty eyes.



The other solution to squinty eyes is to find open shade. Open shade just means that the shade is even. The shade of a tree usually is not open shade because there are still beams of light coming through. A good example of open shade is the shade of a tall building. If you're a beginner photographer, that is a good place to start. Then you don't have to worry so much about dealing with the sun.

Another tip about lighting and eyes...

You want to be shooting at the right time of day. The best light is always the last hour before sunset, and is referred to as the "golden hour". The ULTIMATE light is the last 15 minutes before sunset. Here are some examples of that last 15 minutes.

Notice that I'm shooting INTO the sun, creating a back-lit shot. Not completely into the sun or everything would be hazy and washed out... but enough into the sun that it's giving me that really golden coloring. You can only get this color right before sunset.

Let's show you what eyes look like when you shoot at the wrong time of day.

Sometimes people don't understand why I like to shoot in the evenings. Do you notice that Ellie is sporting some dark eye sockets? Yeah, not very appealing. It wouldn't have mattered how I turned her. In the middle of the day, any direction I would've turned her would've been the wrong direction. I still liked a couple of the shots I got, just none where she was actually looking at me.










If you're still reading... good for you! Ha.
I really enjoy writing these posts, and hope they are helping someone out there in the blogging world. So if you have a photography question, please leave it in the comments.

Baby steps toward becoming more productive

I have been highly influenced by THIS BLOGGER recently. She has inspired me to

change some of my bad habits and focus more on the things that matter most.

I don't know about you, but for me being a stay at home mom I sometimes let myself get stuck in a rut.

I know I should do this or that... fill in your own blank... but I decide that it can be put off until tomorrow. Well tomorrow has turned into weeks and months of putting off the most basic of things...

like getting Ellie's room organized and decorated, or re-teaching her the ABC's

because she forgot them due to us not  practicing enough.

Or putting away winter clothes.

Or sweeping out the garage.

Or doing daily scripture study.

Or making dinner menu's for the week.

Or organizing my book case.

Or praying with my kids each night.

Or learning new photography techniques.

Or serving a friend.

Or... you get it.

I know that I am not living up to my mothering potential, or just my own expectations for myself.

My days are being wasted, and that is not ok with me. I want to form good habits
so that when we add kid #3 and kid #4 to our family, I am not completely swamped trying to keep up.
If I can form the habit now, then when I add a couple more children to the mix,
I feel the transition will be smoother. Besides that, organization and cleanliness
are good for my spirit. It is past time to make a huge change. My plan?
I have come up with a list of what I call my "Non-negotiables".

This is part daily schedule, part goal sheet for each day.

They are the things that I plan to do every day.

Non-negotiable.

Have to do them!

Be out of bed by 7am. NO MATTER WHAT!

Do personal prayer/scripture/journal time for at least 20 minutes each morning, first thing if possible, or before 8:30am.

Be dressed with hair and make up done by 8:30am.

Spend at least one hour of one-on-one time with Ellie each day.

*This time can be broken up into chunks.

Some ideas are:

reading books

going on walks or riding her bike

doing a craft

working on letters or ABC's

teaching her how to write her name

playing with play dough

Work on at least one deep cleaning project daily. It doesn't have to be finished that day,

but I need to work on it for at least 30 minutes.

Do dinner dishes directly after dinner, or if that's not possible,

then before I have any nightly relax time.

Pray with Ellie before bed time.

Pick up and put away the main areas of the house before going to bed.

Let's be honest...

There will be days where I fail miserably.

But I think overall this will make me a better mom and help me to

feel better about myself and more comfortable in our home.

"We become who we

want to be by

consistently being who

we want to become

each day."

-Richard G Scott

What are your daily or weekly goals? I would love to hear what helps other moms to be productive. Please share your tips with the rest of us!!!

Visitors we could never get sick of...

I am so blessed to have 4 amazing sisters. I love them all so much. My sister Joy is the second oldest child of eight kids, and the oldest girl. She has two kids of her own and she is THE best mom. No really, she is. She is so self-less, so loving, and would do anything for anybody... especially her kids. She is a great example to me of how I want to mother my children. I love her so much!

Lucky for me... she loves my kids too! It has been fun to have her and my cute neice Jessica come stay with us often since having children of my own. Every few months I will get a call from Joy saying, What are you up to next week? Jess and I are coming down! We love it. It makes me feel very loved that she would drive six hours just to see me and my babies.

The last time she came, just last week, we thought it would be fun to snap a few pictures of Joy and Jess. They are beauties aren't they?! Jessica was such a good sport. She isn't into the whole hair/make-up/taking pictures thing. But we ended up having a lot of fun.

I hope I look half this good 13 years from now!! Joy is a total babe.

 LOVE YOU TWO!!! Come again soon.

That same night we did a few pictures of McCoy to celebrate six months. SIX MONTHS!My baby is growing up.

SO TICKED!!

I completely screwed up my blog tempate and can't figure out how to get it back. Ugh!