sweet sixteen weekend

two fridays ago, on the fourteenth, 

this little baby girl...

and this little one year old girl...

and this little two year old girl...

and this little four year old girl...

and this little five year old girl...

turned into a big sixteen year old girl!

really?

yes really.

i know.

i can't believe it either.

but it happened.

because fridays are so crazy around this place, and no one in the family, including the birthday girl herself, would be able to attend our traditional birthday family dinner, she opted for a saturday morning french toast kind of party with everyone in attendance.

(it's not fair that she is so cute, even in the morning without getting ready.)

most of her presents started with the words "justin bieber", as in: justin bieber perfume (it actually smells surprisingly lovely), justin bieber posters - which we will post later after we've found room on her walls for them, and maybe her favorite present of the day...

 a justin bieber tshirt!

in case it's not already clear, allie is a huge j.b. fan. HUGE.
and while sixteen may not be the average age of a girl with bieber fever (more like 12), that doesn't bother her in the slightest. she's loved him from the beginning and doesn't care that it isn't a super popular way to be in high school. i love this about her, she is not a fair weather fan. everyone knows of her love for j.b., even ethan knew a card with justin bieber on it would be a hit, all without any help or prompting from me.

 (justin on the front wearing purple, his trade mark color, and allie in yellow with pink hair. 

i can translate ethan writing, it says: justin loves you allie. i love you too. ethan)

needless to say, i think this card was her second favorite present!

later on saturday her big birthday plans were to go get a pedicure with her BFF, lauren, but when we went to pick her up, there was something in the backyard that lauren was dying to show her....

SURPRISE!

lauren, with a little help from her cute parents, threw a fantastic sweet sixteen party for allie that she never saw coming! it's possible i'll go straight to hell for all the lies i had to tell her over the last few weeks and especially on saturday, but they worked because she never had a clue about any of the preparations and was genuinely surprised to see so many friends in lauren's back yard. it was awesome.

the girls ate and played games and roasted smores by the fire pit, ate cupcakes, laughed their heads off and then snuggled up in blankets to watch a movie outside in the backyard. allie was so touched, she's pretty much been smiling for the the last two weeks over it.


it was a great thing for her to feel so loved and so special on her big day! 


my thoughts on having a sixteen year daughter are complicated. i admire her strength and her love of others and her strong testimony of our Savior's love. i worry about falling short on being the mother she needs - its often hard to balance when to push and when to step back and let her figure it out. some times i feel like i can't keep up with the hormones and drama of being sixteen! but more often than that i feel so proud of all the good things that she's choosing for herself and excited for her future that looks so bright. 


love. this. girl.

happy happy birthday allie !

 sixteen is going to rock.

(p.s. allie, i did this whole post in purple in honor of your beloved j.b.)

birthday love

here's my first part of a september re-cap...

september is a big deal around here because rich and i both celebrate our birthdays within a couple of days of each other. first rich, then me. but i'm the photographer so we usually only have photos of him. :)

we always have a date somewhere in the middle of our special days to celebrate, and i love sharing that with him. this year, the date was just us, which it usually isn't, and while it's always fun to have a group date, it was lovely hanging out just the two of us. 

somehow, we always end up going to the restaurant that i want to go to. i always try to persuade rich to choose his favorite place, but he's too much of a gentleman. we ate at happy sumo, because somehow my birthday always makes me crave sushi. (i crave it all the other days of the year too, but whatever.) 

the thing i took away from birthdays this year is just how much LOVE we have in our lives. everyone was so thoughtful and went the extra mile to make us both feel special and loved. and it worked! there was something kind of big going on every day for a full week - a birthday WEEK. it was a big deal. and a lot of fun. and humbling because i really just feel so blessed.
we have the best friends and family.

have i written out the thank you notes? 

no i have not. i need to get on that. 

tomorrow.

right after i post the second series of september happenings.

five for friday

1. i love it when cousins come to town and everyone just picks ups being best friends where they left off. even the little guys just play like they've never been gone. love that about cousins.

2.  with a little help from a garbage can, a picnic blanket and the self-timer, we got this impromptu family portrait that we'll call,  moores minus eleven since that's how many family members are missing from it. the next time we are all together, i am going to INSIST on taking a large family portait. it's way over due.

3. it's summer, therefore we swim. mostly with trent and cousins because the teenagers are too busy with other things.  the boys didn't even get swim passes this year - first time ever. strange. i bring my camera every time, but so far, this is all i've got. :)

4. the summer of cards. this has been a big favorite activity of my kids this summer (probably because it's an air-conditioned activity). usually there are many neighborhood and other teenagers at the table with them, and occasionally a board game, but usually cards. they're not asking to watch tv or play video games, so it's good with me.

5. this pic was a happy accident.

i was trying to take a self portait of  four of us and it didn't turn out. i'm so glad. it's my new favorite.

because i'm kind of a mess

if you know me, you know i love a good apron.
i mean really love a good apron.
mostly because i'm kind of a mess.
i'm not talking about emotionally either, because while that's probably true, that's a post for another day.
i mean i am a mess, in the kitchen especially.
i haven't learned the art of neat and tidy cooking.
but homemade goodness from the kitchen is usually worth it, so it's ok.
but not if it adds to my laundry pile.
and not if it requires me to change my clothes after every meal.
and not if i have to reach for the towel to dry my hands every ten seconds.
and so, i love a good apron.
and lucky for me, patsy has been sewing up a storm lately.

this photo doesn't even do it justice - it's so dang cute!
and i love the style, sort of old fashioned that doesn't tie around your neck.
and this morning, when i was making the kids' lunches,
i should've been wearing it.
because i wasn't.
and now my pajamas smell like tuna.
thanks patsy, i love you.

please pass the catch-up

it's late sunday evening, and i'm reveling in some quiet computer time - finally.
there have been about ten too many end-of-term projects going on at my house lately with three teenagers and their demanding school schedules. luckily, the end of term is coming soon. listen closely, and you may hear a collective deep breath on thursday when the school bell rings. we are all looking forward to a three day weekend.

i should be taking advantage of my turn on the computer, and the quiet house by taking care of some things on my "get it done" list. things like editing these loooong over due photos of my beautiful new niece.

or editing photos of this darling family whom i love.

or working on updated photos for grandma's apple tree.

but i can't.

because, my blog is nagging at me.

i have this dilemma .
i haven't been a consistent blogger since spring break, maybe even before that?
i don't want to try and catch up, because, that's a little too overwhelming, but i feel like for documenting purposes, i need to at least summarize what we've been up to in the last few months. so here goes.
starting with a summer recap.

i had mixed emotions all summer long.
i didn't want to spend the whole summer unpacking boxes and miss the time with my kids. especially because taylor will probably be working full time next summer saving money for school, because he will be a senior next year. what? that's a post for another day.
back to summer.

we spent a lot of time trying to cool off because the heat was such a bear!
sometimes cooling off involved the back yard hose,

or a local water park with friends or cousins, or friends that feel like cousins.

 or, eating as much frozen yogurt as humanely possible

 but some days the heat was so bad, all little ethan could handle was laying on the tramp with a squirt bottle to cool off.

 i learned how to tend roses this summer thanks to patsy, and allie enjoyed photographing them regularly!

of course we loved going to see toy story three!

and especially loved getting a copy of rich's game to play and play all summer long.

allie and taylor spent a week re-roofing, painting and cleaning up in a low-income area of salt lake with our church's youth group. i don't know why i don't have a photo of taylor, he looked just like a chimney sweep in mary poppins most days since he was tarring the roofs. a ton of hard and hot work, but they loved it!

i learned how to work the grill this summer thanks to my dad, and so we hosted several bbq get togethers which was so much fun! i love the easiness of bbq, everybody brings something, there's not a ton of preparation involved, eating outside, chating, our new little kids picnic table, love everything about it.

oh, and i got to hold and kiss the newest smith in the family, sweet little emmie cakes.
ethan is in love with her too. who isn't man? she's such a princess. and she smells so good.

and i guess these photos remind me that i also wore super bright red hair for a little bit of the summer.

 thanks to grandpa's nice ebay hook up - we also lagooned for a day with cousins.
this included, the green dragon which ethan LOVED (cole not so much), bumper cars, some more serious roller coaster riding by the older kids, me and grandpa, funnel cakes (of course), going up in the giant farris  wheel with grandpa, and allie winning at bingo at the ebay party!

 and we stayed until closing which meant that everyone slept like rocks that night.

 we celebrated our country's birthday, as well as our state's.

 and all the smith birthdays in august with the happiest little cupcakes we've ever made!

of course, we did a million things that we didn't take photos of - like unpacking boxes

furniture shopping 

trying to decorate the walls

lots and lots and lots of weed pulling - yuck

driving lessons

movie marathons
halo nights with friends and dad
girls' nights out
eclipse
reading and reading and reading
ethan finally got a hampster!!
and more...
i was sad for it to end.
especially since today, it was so cold, there was SNOW on the mountains. sheesh.

a good day

i needed this day-
of getting out of bed
of getting showered, shaved and lotioned
of putting make up on my whole face, not just blush
of taking the time to do my hair, not just wear a hat
of wearing my favorite t-shirt and clean jeans
of blue skies and sunshine and breathable air
of chatting, sharing and laughing hard with the thursday girls
of eating cinnamon lips and my favorite lemon tarragon salad
of subbing in jenny's bunco group of crazy fun women i don't even really know
of laughing even harder
of wearing the super cute girlie scarf that jenny gave as a door prize - she has such great taste!
of taking a poorly lit self portait with a smile so i don't forget this great day

i needed this day.

abc girls

for about a week now, i've been slowly editing a fun little ballet shoot that i did of allie, blair and chloe over the summer. the girls were nice enough to be my ginuea pigs for the afternoon, and lovely ginuea pigs they were! i had fun just shooting for fun for a change, playing with different techniques and styling.

i especially loved shooting their feet.
  this one is playing with depth of field.

what is it about toe shoes that's so fun to photograph? maybe it's because i'm such a fan of ribbon and also their lovely pink-ness.  i also love how they're worn out and dirty from so much hard work.

their shoes were fun to photograph even after they had come off their feet.

we had fun using the mirrors, although it was a huge challenge to shoot photos without catching my reflection along with the dancers.

at one point i put my camera in "rapid fire" (rich's term) and tried to catch some action shots.

there were several shots that will make a fun series to frame and hang, but my favorite might be this one of chloe because it catches the movement with the blur so well, and because she's completely airborne in the shot

i also tried to catch some more serious artsy portraits but ended up being stunned during the editing process by how grown up the girls are in these photos. especially allie, of course because she's mine and her grown up-ness in photos always startles me somehow.

the best part of the day though, was just how much fun the girls had hanging out and being silly together.

i am so grateful for the wonderful friendships of the lovely girls in allie's life.

lovely lovely girls.

i just adore them all.

note: there were way too many photos from the shoot to try and plug into a blog entry, so i loaded them onto flickr, and you can view them here. be sure to click on the ballet shoot icon on the right.

then leave me a comment on which one(s) you think i should blow up big and hang in allie's room.