Pass It On - Blogger Award

I received this blogging award the other day...

My first award! Thanks Granny T!! 

My favorite part about this award - it's a pass along.
So I get to choose 15 other blogs to receive it...

So here's how this award works:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award 

and link back to them in your post. 

2. Tell 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 15 recently discovered new bloggers,

contact them

and let them know they've received the award :)

Super fun!

Thank You Granny T!!!
_______________________________________

7 Things About Me:

1 - My favorite color is red and it takes a conscious effort to not decorate my entire house in red...

2 - I am days away from having baby #2 - I'll be induced Friday at the latest - woohoo!

3 - I secretly wish I was a jazz lounge singer - maybe in another life.

4 - I am married to a rocket scientist - literally.

5 - I am the youngest of 9 and have 20+ nieces and nephews, and 7+ great nieces and nephews - there are so many I can't keep track anymore.

6 - I have an obsession with cooking and traveling and wish I had the time and means to do more of both.

7 -  I am LDS - a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka mormon)

Blogs I have Chosen for the award are:

7 Layer Studio
Kuki's Kookbook
I Love The Way She Blogs
The Little Red House 
Poppytalk 
Seven Cherubs
Seriously A Homemaker
The Coterie Blog
She's Crafty
Secrets of Mom
Just Something I Made
I Heart Naptime
Tatertots and Jello
A Daily Dose of Dieting
Olive and A

How To Get Your Kids To Take Good Pictures

Do you have a little one that refuses to look at the camera when you're trying to get some pictures? Here are some tricks...

• Lately when I want Little Miss to look at the camera and smile I tell her to look at my crazy eyebrows and just when she looks I make sure they're going up and down really fast, she smiles and I snap a picture.
  
• When I want a really good smile or a laughing picture I'll put a stuffed animal on my head and "sneeze" so hard he flies right off - all while holding the camera posed and ready with my free hand.
  

Really, the sillier I get, the better the picture is.

This weekend we got some family pictures done by this amazing photographer...


...Nicole Anderson. I learned a new trick from her. She asked who Little Miss's favorite cartoon character was and then kept telling Little Miss that Mickey Mouse was in her camera but she had to look really close to see him...SMART! It worked like a charm and we got this cute picture out of it...

Thanks for the new trick Nicole! I hope you don't mind me passing it along. Thanks again for the amazing *free* photo shoot. Proof that blog giveaways are worth entering - I'd never won before, but I finally did! (FYI - giveaway tomorrow on The Mom Blog...)

Do you have any tricks for getting great pictures out of your kids?

Maternity Monday

My friend Ashley over at A Daily Dose of Dieting is preggo and into nutrition. Her site is fabulous and I've been a follower from the beginning. But since she became pregnant she's been featuring a Maternity Monday post every week, how to be healthy and pregnant. I love it!

She has great information. So...this Monday while I'm still trying to recover from a computer meltdown last week - head on over to her site and check out the archives for Maternity Monday. Also - she's celebrating one year of blogging fun - so enter her drawing!

Giveaway: Family Photo Shoot

One of my friends is doing her first ever giveaway on her site and it's a big one! A family photo shoot - cd with the pics and copyright to them, plus an 11X14 print...did I mention she is amazing? Her pictures are vibrant, full of life, color, and movement.

Head on over to her site to enter to win!