Photo Session Giveaway!!!

I'm giving away a completely FREE session (family, kids, engagements, bridals, seniors, pets, whatever!) to one lucky blog reader!


This giveaway includes a free session plus all edited images on a disk with copyright release so you can print, blog, facebook, whatever you want with them.

Plus the winner gets to choose one of the following:
-3 FREE mini accordion albums (little brag books that are the perfect gift for parents, grandparents, etc.)
-3 FREE 8x10 prints
or
-1 FREE 10x10 double matted print (perfect for setting on an easel)

This is open to all! (okay...within a couple hundred mile radius of Blackfoot, ID--trust me I would love nothing more than to hop a jet and fly across the country, but my babysitter (Grandma & Grandpa) said no!)


So...blog stalkers (I'm one too, especially with free giveaways), friends, family, friends of friends, doesn't matter if I know you or not, EVERYONE enter to win!

Leave me a comment with your name or send me an email at echo24@hotmail.com.


I will leave this open until the end of March and will randomly choose a winner on April 1st. Check back then to see who the winner is!


Here are a few of the pics I've taken over the past few months.

End of 2009 Catch Up!

So where do you start when you are the laziest blogger around? I guess clear back at Halloween. Quinten was a knight at preschool and then decided to be Darth Vader to trick or treat around our neighborhood. Gavin was a knight and we had quite the dual of Knight vs. Vader before we actually made it out of the house!

That night I found that Gavin had traded in his usually snugly stuffed bear for a Darth Vader mask and cape...I guess whatever makes you feel safe at night.

We spent Thanksgiving at Josh's family's house. It was great getting to hang out with everyone. While we were out there I made an attempt to get a few pictures of the boys, but I swear I have the most defiant kids in the world. I have about a 12 second window before Gavin starts bawling and Quinten won't look at me. Somehow I can take pictures of other people's kids and they are nothing but ear-to-ear grins and adorable smiles, but nope, not my kids. So this is about as good as it gets.

Attempt #2 back in Blackfoot. (Let me just mention that there was a small meltdown on my end and I think my exact words by the end were..."Why in the heck am I still taking pictures because I don't even want to remember this moment in any way, shape, or form!"


We spent Christmas morning at my family's house and then went out to Arco a couple of days later. The boys both totally loved Christmas this year. They got basically everything under the sun.

Gavin was thrilled anytime he opened anything edible.

We were all spoiled absolutely rotten this year. Josh got a spotting scope and new knife, and I got a new treadmill (love it...although I could have used it about a month sooner since the holiday food was just a little too good).

Quinten loved going to see Santa and told him he wanted something really cool (way to be specific bud) and Gavin was absolutely terrified. Maybe I should have felt a little bad about just throwing him on Santa's lap just for a picture, but what would Christmas be without a screaming kid on Santa's lap.

Here are all of us girls modeling our hats that Josh's Grandma Joyce made us.

This is kind of random but Quinten drew an awesome picture of a "Daddy Princess"

Josh shot his first bobcat this year. Sorry if anybody is disgusted by all the dead animal pictures on my blog...if you knew my husband you would understand.

While we were at my parent's house we took our first ever family picture. I now understand why...the scene mostly consisted of my father barking over and over again "Come on, let's get this over with, now!" Therefore, not the greatest pictures I've ever taken.

I was super busy over the holidays with taking pictures and scanning in both of my grandma's pictures for photo books for Christmas. I literally took every picture they owned and scanned them onto disks. It was extremely tedious work, but so worth it!

Tonight we started on the long process of finishing our basement. We definitely have our work cut out for us, but it's a good thing we have two pint size helpers! We haven't really needed the space yet, but we figured it will be great to have somewhere to send the two wild munchkins to run around until they tire themselves out!

Q's 4th Birthday

Yeah, so I'm only like 3 weeks late posting this but Quinten turned four on September 29th! I still can't believe I have a four year old, or more surprising that I've survived four years of that kid! He was so excited for his birthday this year. At first he wanted a Star Wars cake, so I was all motivated to make my best attempt at making one, but then he decided it was more fun to go to Walmart and pick one out there. Trust me, fine by me, so he ended up choosing an Ice Age one. He was so excited that he got Star Wars presents. Yes, my kid is a Star Wars junkie.

The last couple of weeks have been busy ones. Josh has been out hunting almost every chance he gets. In fact, tonight he came home and told me that he didn't see a single deer out on the desert, but almost stepped on a rattlesnake. I told him there aren't any deer out on the desert because they have all willed themselves to die because they realized that they have wandered into the middle of nowhere and are now in hell on earth (rattlesnakes included). I told him if he got bit that he would probably die out there because no one in their right mind is going to go traipsing out through rattlesnake country to find him.

I spent the past couple of weekends at my mom's house helping her paint. Sounds easy, right? That is what I thought until I realized that almost her entire house is covered in oil paint from when the house was first built 33 years ago. So that lead to a very long weekend of priming. Not only that, but when we decided to "paint" the bathroom, what we really ended up doing was ripping off wallpaper, tearing out old caulk, recaulking, spackling the walls, putting up molding, put up crown molding, and trust me the list goes on and on. It wouldn't have been so bad if the whole process wouldn't have been one step forward and eight steps back. To make a very long story short, let's just say that non-paintable caulk is a whole lot different than paintable. And maybe, just maybe, my mom should look at the label a little bit closer before she hands me a caulking gun and says "Don't worry about getting it all over the walls because we can just paint over it." Needless to say I'm smearing this crap halfway up the wall, before we realize that she grabbed what she thought was paintable caulk. Not so much. The next day consisted of me, about 40 straight edge razors, and a metal cleaning brush. Long, long weekend.

And these pictures just go to show that boys will be boys. Gross, gross boys.

Tonsils & Preschool

So I've kind of been slacking lately because I had my tonsils and adenoids out a couple of weeks ago. It honestly wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I'm probably the only person who has actually gained weight after getting their tonsils and adenoids removed. What can I say, not even getting my body parts ripped out will keep me from eating! The first thing I wanted when I woke up from surgery was sherbet. The only downside to the surgery was the pain medicine made me sick so I wasn't able to take very much, but other than that it went good. It was way nice having someone watch the kiddos while I recovered--thanks everyone.

Quinten started preschool again. He loved going back and now goes 3 times a week instead of 2.

The boys showing off their muscles on Q's first day of preschool

I bet you can't guess what they learned about their first day...

Johnny Appleseed!