Joy Turns 4

So it took a few weeks and a few borrowed eggs, but we finally let Joy have a birthday.  She wanted to have a horse themed party, so I wanted to make her a carosel cake.  I bought the stuff, borrowed the eggs, and wrestled with fondant for about two hours.  After much muttered cursing, and loud yelling, I gave the project up to Johnny.  He did a great job putting it together for me. 

And of course her present was a horse. 

And this was her reaction to finding money in her birthday card from Grandma.

Joy's First haircut

We'd been talking for awhile about Joy getting her hair cut.  After seeing many pictures, Johnny convinced her that she wanted a pixie cut.  I was worried that she might miss her hair, but after Johnny told her about donating it to make wigs for children who loose their hair when they get sick, she was really on board.  Knowing we were going into summer in Texas and doing swimming lessons for at least 4 weeks this summer, I decided it was a good enough time as any.  

There's a woman in our ward who is a cosmetologist and Joy's former Nursery leader, so I thought she'd provide the best, most positive professional hair cutting experience.  I asked her on Sunday, and she got us in that Tuesday after school.  We had the salon to ourselves for most of the time, which meant I could sit by Joy (holding Lee, of course) through the whole process.  The Captain could have sat with us too, but his ear was hurting, so he sat by the door and distracted himself as well as he could on my Kindle.  (Note to self: put aspirin in the car to help with future problems like this.)

I took some pictures of the process.  I'm sure you expected nothing less.

Here we are getting started.  We were worried she wouldn't have enough to donate.  Locks of Love needs 10", which she barely had.  We ended up sending it to Children with HairLoss, and they only need 8" so we were covered.  

I would have taken a picture of the cutting, but I had to hold the hair so we could get all 10". 

Her shampoo.  She liked having a bath without getting wet.  Although she kept sitting up, so her back did get pretty soaked.

Waiting for a blowdry.

She ended up getting a bob instead of a pixie cut, so they wanted to give her some pixie dust as a consolation prize.  They couldn't find any glitter, so the glued on some jewels instead.  They're by her right eye in the picture.  It was really sweet and she loved it.

She pretty much charmed all the people in the salon with her constant chatter.  

Here's the back. 

And the side.

She loves it.  I love it.  It's so much easier to take care of, especially when she doesn't let me brush it. Now The Captain wants to go to an actual salon to get his cut next time.  

Blessing Day

One of the things I loved when we first looked at our house was how much natural light it had.  It has wide, almost floor-to-ceiling windows in almost every room, plus 2 triple panel sliding glass doors.  It's a photographer's dream.  It wasn't so great before we got blinds, but it still comes in handy because almost any time of day, a room can be turned into a studio with a quick backdrop.  

Take Lee's blessing day.  We had time to kill before church, and I wanted to take pictures before the inevitable personal fluid explosion that happens on any and all cute outfits.  And there could not be an outfit cuter than this one my MIL made.  

(By the way, she totally exploded that night, so yes, it is inevitable.)

The whole point of the shoot is that I wanted this shot:

Still totally had to Photoshop some heads.  Plus Johnny's arm that was holding Lee up (it was safe, don't worry).  Worth it.  The rest of these shots are just bonus.

Daddy smiles

Daddy kisses

Big sister

Big brother

There was Photoshopping on this one too, but I don't have many pictures of myself with the kiddos, so I love it.  And the fact that I look good is a bonus--I don't tend to photograph well.

Grandma's quilt

Miss Joy wanted to take pictures on her Grandma blanket too.

And act like a baby

So did The Captain. Except for the act like a baby part.  Look at this handsome Kindergartener!

We had a wonderful weekend.  It is always nice to have visitors over and we had a full house for Labor Day.  I was so excited to have my little sister visit.  She has never been out to visit us since we left Utah.  We went swimming, played at the park, and ate Taco Bueno.  I feel like she got a good view of Texas.  

Also, Lee's blessing was beautiful and she was a champ the whole day.  She really is such a sweet, happy baby.

Lego Kids Fest

Do you love everything Lego at your house?  

Cause we think they're awesome!

Which is why when we found out Lego Kids Fest was coming to Dallas, we decided it would be worth the Lego-sized admission price to get in.  

We found the Convention Center after having adventures in parking and walking through a (luckily empty) homeless nest under a bridge.  Once we walked in, we saw all these sculptures.

Yes, Joy wanted to take her picture with every single one. 

It could have been a stalling technique since half of these were taken as we were about to leave.

But she loved all of them.

Here is The Captain in front of the giant pile of Legos.  There were at least a million in the pile.  Possibly more.  Children were getting buried in them like sand.

Here's another picture of the giant pile.  I wanted to take a bird's eye view, so I jumped up on one of the folding chairs surrounding it, but unfortunately, the cushioned top of these folding chairs was on a pivot hinge, so the chair collapsed, my leg went down, scraping and bruising my ankle, then it tipped the other way, causing me to fall off.  It happened in stages and was quite painful as I bruised my knee, elbow, and right under my bum, but it was also embarrassing as it happened right by another mom, and 2 gentlemen came to see if I was okay.  So 5 minutes after arriving, I was already minorly injured.  So you don't get a bird's eye view, this will have to do instead.  

Making cars.  Lee is practicing her flying skills.

Down the hill!

They had booths for all the different Lego sets with different activities for the kids/adults to do.

There was figure battling at the Ninjago booth.

Also these huge ball baring mazes.

Tops and obstacle courses at Legends of Chima.

Joy made trees.

A mono-chromatic build.  (No we didn't make all of that)

Joy was playing at the Lego Friends booth.  She had to be pulled away from that one.  The only other thing that entertained her that much wasn't even a Lego booth, it was a booth for a local company that had a foam track to build for tennis-sized balls.   

This was our last booth of the day, the Lego Movie booth were we shot bullets at the bad guys and knocked them over.  

This is by no means a comprehensive picture of all of what was available at the Kids Fest.  This is less than half of the booths, but we didn't go to all of them, and I got a little tired (and injured), so let's just say fun was had by all.

3 Year Photo Shoot

I had my eye out for good weather on the week leading up to Joy's birthday.  On Monday, I thought we struck gold since it was overcast in the morning, but by the time we got to the location, it was bright, bright sunshine.  I brought my reflector, which has built in shade, but poor Joy still had to squint up at me, which resulted in pictures like this: (and long run-on sentences, apparently)

a little better

and the best one of the shoot

Decent. But I wanted another shot.  Luckily, (sadly a huge percentage of my photography skills come from luck) there was a storm on Saturday, so an hour before sunset we set out for some great light and a naturally defused sky.  (And now all my photography secrets have been revealed.)

Umbrellas make great props, but this one was also necessary since it was raining when we started.

We were playing peek-a-boo with the umbrella.

This is my model shot.  Too bad she hates
doing photo shoots, she could pay for college
now.

This face reminded me of something . . . 

6 months - 3 years

More silly faces.

Climbing up on the bridge was her idea.  Proof that if you let them go with their ideas, you can get some great pictures.  Also letting them see the screen with their pictures as you go helps.

And this one is the winner. 

And now you really do know all my secrets to take a toddler photo shoot.  I use a 50mm 1.8 lens.  They are the easiest, cheapest lens for anyone interested in taking better pictures with a DSLR. Didn't realize when I started that this would be a tutorial, but at least these show a little bit of Joy's personality these days.