Mission accomplished. Thanks TaiPan and Target.



Not the pillow. I forgot to move that.
Also, there was another green one, but Chloe stole it already.

So, my family has had the same Christmas stockings for as long as I can remember. They're cute. And crafty. And patchwork-y. They've served the Johnsons well.
(I did make one in my junior high sewing class and it made its way into the lineup, but other than that, they've all been the same.)

Unfortunately, the last few years have been some rough ones. I think the poor things are on their last leg. Hanging on by a thread if you will.
(Pun totally intended.)

Observe:





Christmas stockings with gaping holes don't tend to hold their stuffers too well. I know from experience.

So, although miserably painful to ditch them after so many Christmases, I've taken it upon myself to be the Johnson Family Christmas Stocking Liaison. Or maybe Ambassador? Explorer? Go-and-Find-er?
Whatever.
It is my job to find us some new Christmas stockings this year. They have to be cute and they can't be cheap and fall apart on us. I need something that's going to last us for at least 22 years. (I know, I know. It's a tall order.)
Problem is...I've never bought a Christmas stocking before, so I haven't the faintest idea where to shop for them. And my old standby for everything else (Walmart) isn't going to cut it for this task.

So. I need ideas, people. Help a girl out. It is up to me to make Christmas dreams come true for the whole Johnson crew. (Well, except for Taylor since he won't get to see his stocking this year.)
Stores, boutiques, online...whatever. They just have to be here by Christmas. And I have to like them. And be able to afford them.

CANS FOR COMMENTS!!!



There is a little movement going around the photography world called Cans For Comments, and we are more than happy to jump on the bandwagon!!

It’s simple. You comment. We donate a can or non-perishable item to a local food bank for every comment received. You make us feel warm, fuzzy and loved, and someone less fortunate gets to eat. Win-win, no? So comment long, comment short, comment often or only once…just do it! More and more we are hearing of food shelters coming up short this season. This is such a simple way to do a little for someone else! (Oh, and it’s going on for the next 7 days.)

SOOOOO, alls you have to do is pop on over to my photography blog (www.everylittlemomentphotography.com) and leave us a comment. Or two. Or ten. Remember, EVERY SINGLE COMMENT=1 can o' food for the food bank.

So go nuts. It doesn't cost you a thing!

So...I hope you've seen this movie.

If not, I highly recommend watching it sometime this month. Holy childhood memories. Seriously.
However, I must warn you. This movie is a little misleading. You might walk away with the impression that a mouse is a cute, cuddly creature all full of Christmas Spirit.
You'd be wrong.

Let's take a trip to reality. My bathroom has been invaded by this guy:

Little mouse scared the bejeebles out of me a few nights ago. He thought it would be cool to squeeze under the bathroom door and scamper across the floor. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. He didn't even TRY to hide or be sneaky. That is not cool.

I'm actually quite impressed with myself. I didn't scream and wake people up. I didn't leap onto the counter and hunker down til morning. I didn't rip the wall apart in a murderous frenzy. I DID have to muffle a squeal and try to convince myself I wasn't hallucinating, and I had to pee in the other bathroom for a few days, but I'm proud of myself for not panicking. (Read: FA-REEK out)

Good ol' roomie pimped out the whole house with mouse-busting glue traps and PB. (Thanks Lace!)

Mice aren't that smart, I guess. It sure didn't take him long to get all good and stuck. Unfortunately for him, being stuck to a glue trap in my bathroom earns you a one way ticket to the inside of a Walmart bag.
So, he either managed to free himself from his sticky prison, chew through the plastic bag, escape from the giant dumpster, and make his way to freedom...or he froze to death.
Either way, he's out of my bathroom. That's all I really care about.



[DISCLAIMER: I KNOW these are horrible, awful, disgusting, I-can't-believe-you-call-yourself-a-photographer photos. I know that. It was 5 am. I was freaking out at the prospect of picking up a live mouse that could potentially kill me. I was freezing cold and dead tired. I blame the cell phone camera.
I'm compensating by posting three, very boringly similar photos. Just use your imagination and I'm sure you can get the picture.]




In other news, here is my shameless Christmas present to you all:

Dear all of you Hess descendants,

If you didn't see my guest post on Jayson and Celeste's blog, you should pop on over there and read it.
You won't regret it.
It's full of brand new baby cuteness like this:



I promise.
~s

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. To prove to you that I'm not dead, may I present:

THE BLOG O' RANDOM PHOTOS I FOUND ON MY CAMERA PHONE


Starting off the randomness is this beautiful photo of me kicking it at work. Despite what this shameless, cell phone self-portrait would imply, my job is not boring.
Ever.
Also, I love my turquoise headset.
And holding out my pinky.


Recently, and I don't know when exactly, and it doesn't really matter, and this is turning into the worst run-on sentence in history, but sometime recently, my odometer read 100100. I thought that was a cool number.
I made a right turn after taking this photo. Don't worry. I was stopped when I took it.


I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed, but I tend to spend more time with my 15 year old brother and 13 year old sister these days than I do with people my own age.
Part of this is due to my nocturnal lifestyle. It's hard to meet people at 4:00 am.
Besides. Your siblings should be your best friends, right? Check.
On the downside, things can get expensive for me. They don't have jobs. They don't have any money. So, whenever we do ANYTHING, I always foot the bill. Guys, is this what dating is like for you?


Spotted at my local gas station. I thought it was pretty ironic considering gas station workers often tend to hate their jobs and therefore, don't really give a crap about providing good service.
Dear nameless gas station worker,
I'll hang up my phone as soon as you commit to make my gas station experience the best it can be.


And lastly, reason #286 why I love America: The Jesus Barbie.
By pressing the Holy Button I estimate to be replacing the Son of God's L2 verterbrae, I was quoted a verse from Mark something. It was lovely.
And spiritual.
Right in the middle of Walmart.


And that, boys and girls, concludes the first installment of "THE BLOG O' RANDOM PHOTOS I FOUND ON MY CAMERA PHONE." Stay tuned for version two. Sometime in the near-ish future. I hope...

Dear poor neglected blog,

It's not you, it's me. I really mean that. You've been wonderful and supportive. I've just needed some space. A little "me time", if you will.

I promise I'm still alive and kicking. See? Here's a photo of me. (After all, what are you besides a place for me to post photos of myself?)



Now, I'm not saying this to be mean, but I think you ought to know. During our time apart, I haven't thought about you very much. I know it's painful for you to hear that I've forgotten about you, but I mean it when I say that I could never forget you in my heart.

I've just been so freaking busy!! Work and photos and work and photos...
(And yet, ironically, my busy-ness hasn't really been that interesting. Nothing to blog about...)

I hope to get our relationship back on track. You'll have to be patient, because it might be slow going. But I promise I'm working on it. We might consider couples therapy...

In the meantime, know that I still love you and you will always be my one and only blog.
(Except for this one. But it's just business. There's NOTHING going on between us. I swear.)

So please, hang in there with me. We're great together and I know we can have a beautiful relationship again.

xoxo
~s

Happy Birthday, Sophie!



You're HOW old?



Oh yes, that's right.



Eight is GREAT!!



Happy Birthday, Sophie. We love you!

Aubrey and I are helping here.

You're probably wondering why I haven't blogged in forever, right? Well, at least this time I have a good excuse. May I present what has been consuming a lot of my time lately...our brand new website!!
The new and improved www.everylittlemomentphotography.com



This also means that our old blog is no more. So, if you are one of those people who read it, you must now update your links. I know, I know. I'm sorry to create you work. But seriously, though. It will be so worth it, because our website is totally awesome.

I'd like you all to notice that my blog counter hit 10,000 today!!
It is a momentous day.

(Ok, actually I had this blog for like 6 months before I had the sense to add a hit counter, so it's probably way more. It's still exciting.)

Lake Powell in Polaroid: 1 vacation. 5 days. 10 photos.


Ever wonder what the drive is like? Stare at this photo for four hours and you'll understand.


If you've made it to Ticaboo, you're almost there.
(Note the gas prices. Chloe's exuberance is misleading.)


Bullfrog Bay = we made it!


Now it's playtime. Uncle Russ spent a lot of time fishing with the boys.
Not so much with the girls as they tend to gross us out. Boys and fish.
(Yes, there is a fishing pole there. You have to look closely.)


Lake Powell and cliff jumping are like PB & J.


It was a rather stormy week. Mckenna "worked it" with the wind.
Chloe was apparently terrified.


Cousins! Some of them anyway...


The sum total of our vacation. Dad takes the kids tubing while self-proclaimed "flag girl" Sophie looks on.


The week is not complete until Mom finishes a puzzle. This one took all day.


The whole gang! (Minus me, of course, as I was taking the photo.)

See you next year Lake Powell! It was a blast!

Backyard BBQ

I have a love affair with this song.


Lost - Michael Bublé

And don't even get me started on him. (Mmmm...)

And so it begins...





I only hope I can keep up this new hobby. (The film is expensive!)

So, this blog post is totally a week late. Bear with me...

You may remember last summer when Aubrey and I helped out with the photography for the Miss American Fork Pageant?
What?! You don't remember?
Don't feel bad. I only mentioned it once. Okay, twice.

Well to make a long story short, Aubrey's sister-in-law, Staci, is the director of the pageant and has hired us as the official photographers this year!
Thats right! We're on the committee for a beauty pageant. (Okay, scholarship program.)
So, as a committee, we went to the Miss Utah Pageant to support our very own Miss American Fork, Liesl Wright!


Juli, Renata, Britney, Liesl, Staci, Aubrey, and me!

After three nights of preliminaries and the finale, we were pretty pageant-ed out. (We were so over the irritating people in front of us, the same sloooow songs all week, and the singing MC. Okay, the MC wasn't that bad, but four nights in a row...?)

Unfortunately, Liesl didn't win, but she still did AMAZING! Her talent was incredible and she looked stunning in swimsuit and evening wear. (She totally should have won her preliminary in evening wear. She was robbed!)

So now we're focusing on getting ready to crown the next Miss AF. The pageant is in less than a month! You all should come!!

Miss American Fork Pageant
August 16th, 2008
American Fork High School

I bought a Polaroid.

And I found this adorable Polaroid charm, which I must have immediately.

I know, I know. They will soon be no more.
All the more reason for me to take the plunge. Soon, there will be no option of any plunge-taking. I've never owned one and I should be able to say that I have. They are a legend.

Whilst doing my regular blog surfing this week, I found myself completely INSPIRED by Nicole Hill's Polaroids. Seriously incredible.

And so, I shall try my hand at instant film. Obviously, with the up and coming film discontinuations, it won't be a very long phase. But I am determined to give it my best shot.

Wish me luck and inspiration!

So, omg.

I want this.



It's a USB-powered mini fridge. I totally would use it.

Now, I may not live in a trailer park in the backwoods of Alabama, but I certainly don't live in Malibu or The Hamptons either.
My neighborhood seems pretty safe for the most part. I only see the cops from time to time. But every once in awhile, I get some serious entertainment from my neighbors.
My favorite story is the neighbor who got evicted after almost setting the building on fire with her 3 year old inside. (She left the stove on after having a few too many beers.)
Or maybe the neighbors who started a brawl over a game of poker? That was exciting. (There were a few black eyes and bloody noses from that encounter.)
And of course, we can't forget the thieving, foul-mouthed, 12-year-old hoodlums and their noisy skateboards who camp outside my bedroom window ALL summer long.

With those situations, I just roll my eyes. I hear about that kind of stuff all day long at work. The drunken negligence and physical altercations are more commonplace than most people realize. And stupid 12-year-olds are up to no good no matter where you are.

But I drove by something this morning that made me just scratch my head:



(Excuse the blurry photo. It was taken whilst driving, in the wee hours of the morning. It didn't want to get out of the car and risk getting jumped by someone I could potentially need a cup of sugar from.)

Now, I don't claim to be the most polished and refined person on earth, but wow. I'm proud to say that I've never set up an inflatable swimming pool in a parking lot for my kids to play in.
(Also, thanks Mom & Dad for never doing that to me either.)

Now, I have nothing against inflatable swimming pools. Nor do I have anything against parking lots. I just don't think the two should mix.
It just doesn't seem like very responsible parenting to me. Do we not hear about children getting run over by cars often enough? Clearly the words playground and parking lot are not interchangeable.
And geez people. There's grass on the back side of the building. What's wrong with setting up your pool there? I don't get it.

At least my roommates and I have the bragging rights of being the three classiest people on our street. We should get a certificate.