I love being behind.

I hate this feeling. I have so much to blog about.


I'll do a short blog each day, and then I will be caught up. Maybe.

A while ago. I think the end of February. =) Natalia had her first dance competition. I am so proud of her! So proud. I loved the whole experience. We drove down to Woodbridge, VA and slept in a hotel with our good friends. The girls had a swim in the hotel pool even though we should have put them to bed! Then Maggie and I stayed up very late gluing rhinestones on their costumes. Then we went over to the school in the morning and got all the girls ready together. It was so much fun! I can't wait for the next one! I am really grateful for her teacher...she has done so much for both of us this year. I am learning so much, and so is Talia.

Read Maggie's post here.

16th LOVE

I love love.

This wedding was amazing. This is my niece Aubrey and her new husband Grant. They were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on Feb. 12, 2011. The man that sealed them was so intelligent and you could tell he had studied the gospel to great lengths. I learned so much that day, and was reminded of some wonderful things too.

15th love

I love spring. We had two days last week in the 70's!

It snowed last night and the kids have another day off of school---I love that!

love 14

I LOVE love love LOVE to photograph dancers.


LOVE it.

Here are a few I've taken this month.

These last four are of my niece Brianna.
She is so talented, and I got to photographer her while I was in Utah.

(Mt. Timpanogos behind her.)

13

I loved making this little slide show with my kids.

Actually making it was a little stressful because Talia was in a bad mood because I took her out of school early! (Yep...took them out of school to do this. It was just an hour early. =)

She cried in the van from the school to the studio.

They were really well behaved and such good listeners, as you can see in the slide show. I kept telling them, "This is for Daddy!"

and they were excited about that.

I owe them.

These are a few of my favorite images from our session together.

Love 12

We hope you have (had) a HOPPY Valentine's Day!

love 11

I love my birthday!


My actual birthday started out a little lonely.


I woke up at 5:00 am, and got in a taxi at 5:45 (he was 15 mins LATE!).

I flew to Utah for my niece's wedding.

Someone else in front of me was celebrating their birthday too! They announced it over the intercom, and then everyone on the plane sang to her! I kept my mouth shut, but I'll admit-- I imagined it was for me for a second- and smiled. =)

I got to Utah after a *warm* layover in Phoenix. My Mom and Dad , my brother Mike picked me up from the airport. It felt so good to see everyone.

My Mom made me her yummy Lasagna. The table was set in red and white. My sister Jennifer and her family, and my brother Steve and his new wife came over to eat with us. They all sang to me! It sounded so good. Way better than a plane full of strangers singing! Then we had some amazing homemade carrot cake. It was a good day!




When I was little we had these books on tape about important people throughout history. I found out that Thomas Edison and I shared a birthday.....and he became my HERO! (I bet my Mom is laughing.) I adored him. If I ever had to give a oral report in school on a famous person...guess who I chose---Thomas Edison. (or Paula Abdul but that's another story.) I was just reading his biography, and I still LOVE him! What an amazing man.

Maggie sent me a birthday message on Facebook to let me know that I share a birthday with another famous person.......

I think I things would have worked out a little differently if this boy existed when I was a little girl! LOL! A genius inventor versus Taylor Lautner, I fear that my heart would have swayed the other way. My oral reports wouldn't have been as interesting- that's for sure, but my visual aides would have been better.

love resume

Happy Valentine's Day Lincoln!

I made this for you.

http://www.tidwells.net/images/ThreeValentines.mov

love pause

I'll be back after my two favorite days of the year to post more loves!

I have some amazing things to show you! Seriously....this * things I love * posting is the best thing in the world for my creativity and my love of photography.


I should just do that all year.

I'll be back.

love 8

I love this boy.

I took three kids to the grocery store last night. I was a little frazzled by the end of the trip, but still kept my cool.

Then we pulled into the driveway and the kids went into the house at a snails pace.

I started bring in the bags.

Then my 8 yr. old hopped out of the house and helped me bring in the groceries.



I am so thankful for him.

I love #7

I love simple mornings.

Slow paced

Plenty of time to make a real breakfast before the bus comes.

I don't have to rush off somewhere.

I should probably be on my computer working....but instead I spend time with Simone.

We take some silly pictures, and then we play with the "mouse house" .

This is my favorite way to start a day.

love

Sixth love

For a few years Talia was bald.

Then she never would let me do her hair.

"Piggytails?"
"NO, Mom."

"I can braid your hair for you."
"No, just down today."


Now, she lets me braid it!

Sad fact: I am not good at it.
I don't know what I am doing, and I feel like my fingers are tangled in a bowl of angel hair pasta.

I am getting better though, and luckily she asks me to braid it all the time. =)
(Especially at night so it is wavy the next day.)

This isn't the prettiest wavy hair day...but guess what....the photos are pretty- so I don't care!
Plus, I love her in that coat. =)

FIVE

apple cinnamon + creme filled pink icing heart sprinkle = 3 powdered
(with jelly, creme, & custard filing)

2 boys, 3 girls

Lincoln (blue) MARRY ME
Me (yellow) TIME 2 DANCE
Wyatt (green) GAME ON
Natalia (Pink) CUTIE PIE
Simone (Purple) ANGEL

We always kiss in a family photo!

Fourth Love

I love having family in Maryland!




Last week there was a winter storm warning. We hopped in Lincoln's truck and drove to the "other Tidwell's" house. We had such a blast!
We had homemade pizzas for dinner.
We ate peach cobbler.
We slept over.
We woke up and ate AMAZING waffles and bacon.
That bacon was from our friend John's pig.

Want to hear something weird.
In my freezer there is....
rockfish
(that Lincoln caught)
venison
(that Lincoln shot)
half a pig
(that my children helped feed a few times over the summer)

That's it.



My name is Jeri, and I don't complain about eating venison ever.
I actually don't realize I'm eating it anymore.
It's the reason I am skinny.

Teasing.
It is extremely low in fat though.
Twice as healthy as beef.


Back to the sleep over.

We went out and played in the snow. It was so much fun. My kids LOVE their cousins.
When we were frozen, we came inside and made Valentine sugar cookies.
The kids came up to decorate them, and we had Ciara's famous hot chocolate.

(I totally watched her....so I have her secret recipe!!!)

What a weekend.
Oh, it was really the middle of the week.
It felt like a weekend though.
A great one!

I have so many pictures to share. Good ones too. My dear sweet husband is literally pushing me off MY (repeat) MY computer.

(Repeat again.) MY!



I said, "I'm funny."
Wyatt (who should be in his bed) said, "How did you find that out?"
I just am ,Wyatt. I just am.

Love these late night blogs.

Love numero Three

Love Natalia's costumes this year!

Her tooth was about to fall out and I said, "Lincoln don't pull it! I need to get pictures of her in her new costumes."

She just got home from an hour and a half of dance, and I kept yelling at her to point her toes! Natalia's feet kept cramping. (Good girl!) She was so tired, but I got some good images. I also got to practice with the dang lights. I have no clue what I am doing. I know light though....and I think I can get the hang of this studio stuff. Tomorrow I get to practice some more and my head it spinning with ideas! I hope they work!








I love that she loves dancing too. I peeked in on her ballet class, and they were doing little improv solos with a rose at the end of class. You should have seen her face! She was beaming. Saute arabesque and grand jete were her favorite steps and she did them over and over! It was great.

Second Love

I love this chocolate.

I am not a big chocolate lover. I never have been.

BUT

I buy several of these every time I see them at the store.

Then I bring them home and HIDE THEM!

Have I ever shared a square with you?

*THAT'S HUGE.*

It means I LOVE you a lot!

Lincoln got into my secret spot and gave some to his friend to try.....rude.
His buddy was NOT on my list of people worthy to have some of my most amazing strawberry chocolate.

Now go buy some for yourself to try, because I'm not sharing.

Love it.

First Love

It's FEBRUARY!
My favorite month. That means it's time for my daily love posts! Woohoo.

My first love...

My family.

My favorite people.

I love them so much. They mean everything to me.
I don't know how I got so lucky.

My friend Annie took these in July! We went to a beautiful cherry orchard in Utah. The one above I have printed on canvas for my giant family collage.

I had a dream that a photographer I admire (and used to work with at Nuskin- when he wasn't such an amazing photographer) was at a party. We started to chat and then the party was really at my house. I mentioned that I was a photographer, and then he proceeded to point at every single one of my BLANK walls and say, "Oh really, I'd love to see some of your work."

This dream was a wake up call for me.

I am working really hard to get my work on my walls.
I bought 12 gallery wrapped canvases of my family. ($$$$....Yes, four dollar signs. Not three.)
I have some new photographs and frames waiting to be hung....just for Valentine's Day.

Love me some sun flare. My favorite detail...how little Simone looks.

(I think Lincoln and I kissed in most of our images! Sorry Annie! I didn't realize we were doing that. Thank you for trading sessions with us again, I always look forward to it!)