The Sonner Family

I Heart Faces: Anything But A Face challenge

2011-02-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

Ok..so it has been way too long that I have actually posted something on my blog..but we have been so busy. :) My sister had her sweet little girl! Which I had the privilege of taking her pictures. Love her! So I have tried to visit her a lot! :) I have started taking photography classes at our college here! It is so much fun and I'm learning so much.

Anyways this post is mainly for this weeks challenge at I heart faces. It is "Anything But A Face". And I have decided to use a picture of my son Tristan. He absolutely loves water! Well other than his cars. :)

So everyone head on over to and see everyone else's beautiful pictures!

Love That Shot!

2010-09-30T11:58:00.001-07:00

Ok..so this is my first time entering on Love that shot. This weeks judges are Angie and Amy from i heart faces (another site I absolutely love). I love entering photography contests! I love to look at everyone's work! It really gets me inspired to try new things! So my photo entry is of my niece. She is such a sweetie pie! And I fell in love with this photo as soon as I took it! I just love the vintage look to it! This photo took lots of fruit snacks..haha..but it was well worth it. When I am taking portraits..I try to have lots of fun with the kids! Take a couple pictures and then let them play for a while. Then take a few more..It has seemed to work very well for me. :)

f/11

1/100sec

ISO-200

Head on over to

and see some more great shots!

I Heart Faces: Photojournalism

2010-08-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

This weeks theme at i heart faces is Photojournalism! You can either submit one photo telling a story or you can submit a collage of 5 photos telling a story! I have chosen to do a collage because they are so much fun to put together! And I always like looking at more photos! :) So here is my entry! This summer all our son loved to do was play in the water! He would play all day in the water if I would let him. I mean what kid wouldn't?!

Head on over to www.iheartfaces.com and check out more photojournalism entries! Everyone have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!!!

Beach Fun!!

2010-08-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't participated in an I Heart Faces challenge in a long time..Been so busy lately! So this weeks challenge is Beach fun! Oh how I love the beach! I love searching for shells and anything else I can find. Last time we were at the beach we found lots of jellyfish washed ashore and also a sea horse. It was pretty cool! Wish I could go there again soon. :)

My entry is of my son while we were in Sarasota, Florida. My parents have a condo on Siesta Beach..we were down there February of this year and it wasn't very warm..So if you can't tell by the picture, Tristan is a little cold..Seriously after we were done playing in the sand he was shivering b/c it was so cold..felt so bad for him. We were maybe on the beach for only 10 minutes. Couldn't believe how cold it was. The rest of the days that we were on the beach, we were dressed in pants and sweatshirts. Brrr....!

Head on over to (http://www.iheartfaces.com/) and see everyone's fun at the beach photos!

I Heart Faces: All about babies!

2010-06-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

The theme for I heart faces is "all about babies". Now it doesn't just have to be any baby..but it can also be baby animals! :) I love baby animals! So much fun to capture them when they are young! So I am going to introduce the newest member of our family. Well we have had him for about 1 month and a half now, but I just have to share him with everyone b/c he is so darn cute! Everyone- Meet Gus! He's a long haired dapple dachshund! As of now he is about 3 months old!

Now head on over to http://www.iheartfaces.com/ and see some more babies!

I Heart Faces: Play!

2010-06-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted on I heart faces for a while now..been so busy this summer! Anyways...this weeks theme is Play! Of course I have a ton of those pictures! :) There isn't a minute I don't have my camera out when my son is playing! This past weekend we had my son's 2nd birthday party! He had a blast as you can see by the picture! This was pry one of his favorite parts of the day, running through water with his 2 aunts! Enjoy! Head on over to I heart faces(www.iheartfaces.com) and check out everyone's entry!

Just an idea...

2010-05-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in a while..I didn't even post any pictures of when we moved into our new house! Ok..I'll share some photos with you. But I this wasn't the idea of my post today. :)

We had this truck plus my dad's trailor, and the rest of our cars filled with boxes. It was nuts!

Our house!

Some of our help! :)

Tristan and Addison played really good together!

Me and Tristan hanging out in our new backyard! He loves hearing and watching the birds!

My little sweety pie!

I also realized that I have tea growing in my backyard! Yay! I love garden tea!

Ok..so maybe I'll show you our entire house tomorrow! How does that sound?! :)

Have a great week everyone!!!

I Heart Desserts!

2010-04-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is "Desserts"! And I absolutely LOVE desserts! I don't eat them too often b/c my husbands never lets me order them, but I still love them! Here is my entry- This, I believe, is a chocolate mousse cake. While my mom and me were vacationing in Florida, we went to this French cafe. They had so many desserts that looked good but this is what I picked out. And let me tell you, it was delicious! Not too rich but just right! :)
To see some more delicious desserts head on over to www.iheartfaces.com
Have a great week!!

My Story in Photos: Dessert Recipe

2010-04-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge for I Heart Faces is "My Story in Photos: Dessert Recipe". We are to pick our favorite dessert and tell a story on how it is made! :) I love desserts..I have a very BIG sweet tooth! For Easter this year..I searched the Pillsbury website for a yummy recipe and found this: Easter Nest Cookies! I thought it would be a cute idea and also a yummy cookie recipe to try! So first..

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (16oz) Pillsbury Ready to bake sugar cookies
1 container (12oz) Fluffy white frosting
1 cup flaked coconut
food coloring
jelly beans (I used speckled M&Ms)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake cookies as directed on pkg. Cool completely.

2. Frost cookies. Add coconut to a resealable plastic baggie. Add 2 to 3 drops of your favorite food color, shake bag to blend color. Sprinkle about 1 tsp. coconut on each cookie.

3. Top with speckled candy (in my case M&Ms)

I used neon food coloring to get spring colors for the coconut

Head on over to and see some more yummy desserts!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Another beautiful day outside!

2010-03-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today has been another beautiful day to play outside with Tristan..I tried to do bubbles with him but it was just a little windy for that, so instead he ran around our yard chasing after our dog, Dewey. He had so much fun! Here are a few pictures from today!

He was picking all the loose pieces of our table off..

Then he would organize them on our chair..

Then pick some more off..

Cheesy face..

Giving Dewey a hug..

Love this picture!

And on a side note: I entered a contest a couple weeks ago to win a newborn sling for newborn photography from Keri Meyers!! And I won!!!! Yay!! I'm so excited!!!! I've always wanted to get one, but they were just a little too expensive for me to get.

Visit her website to see what I won! :) I picked out the dark chocolate sling!

http://newbornslingsbykerimeyersphotography.bigcartel.com/

Have a good rest of the week everyone!!

Dramatic B&W Photo Challenge: {I Heart Faces}

2010-03-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge at I Heart Faces is "Dramatic black and white photo"! I love black and white photos. I'm a real sucker for them. :) As soon as I saw this challenge I knew what photo I wanted to use, though my entry is several years old, I still wanted to enter it! My entry is at my brother's wedding. My brother and his wife are cutting their cake in this photo! :) I just love their expression! He is being so careful when cutting the cake and she just looks like she's ready to dig in! Ha! Enjoy!

Be sure to head on over to and see some more dramatic B&Ws!

Have a great week everyone!!

I heart faces: Focusing on Angles!

2010-03-22T10:58:00.001-07:00

I love taking pictures with angles! I try to do it as much as I can. That is the challenge this week at I heart faces, Angles! I took this photo the other day when we had beautiful weather outside. We took Tristan to the park b/c we figured he would want to play on the playground. But instead of playing we enjoyed watching all the other kids play. So that is why he's not really paying attention to me in the photo. He was watching the kids! Would've been a better picture if he was actually looking at me, but I still love this photo!

Head on over to and see some more angles!
Enjoy your week everyone!!

Update on our lives!

2010-03-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!! Hope everyone wore green today!

Haven't really posted much about our lives lately. So here goes...

1. We sold our house!!!!!!!!!! Yay! only bad thing is our closing date is April 16. great..we did go look at about 9 different houses last weekend. And now we have a top 3!

2. Yesterday was a B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l day!! We took Tristan to the park..he loved it!! He really didn't want to do anything but watch all the kids..he did however walk around the whole park. And that's a long way for him. :) good exercise though! Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

3. Still working at JCPenney photography studio. I love it..but don't work as much as I want to.

4. The other day Tristan wasn't watching where he was going and ran right into a door..Stupid door didn't move. So that left a big bump on his forehead..now it's just bruised..but it looked awful. Can you see his nice bump?

5. And we are just enjoying life! Here are a few pictures I have taken recently. Enjoy and have a good rest of the week!

Giveaway!!

2010-03-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

One of my friends is doing a giveaway for CSN stores!! They are giving away a dry erase/chalk board easel for two by 2Step!

If you would like to enter just go to
http://theblissfullyhappyhousewife.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway-time.html to enter!

Good luck! And thank you Jamie for posting this giveaway!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!

I Heart Faces: Jump for Joy!

2010-03-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

This weeks challenge at i heart faces is "jump for joy!". This weeks challenge also allows you to have up to five photos! So...I was looking through my photos..and I remember taking this picture last year of my niece while she was jumping on the trampoline.

Head on over to and see more people jumping for joy!

I Heart Faces: Hands

2010-02-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

This weeks challenge for i heart faces is "Hands". What a great subject to focus on. I was going to get a picture of my son's hands in the sand when we were in Florida, but it was so cold while we were there we didn't even get to play on the beach. We did get to play once but the sand was cold and wet.

So I had to go back through my photos and find a decent picture of some hands. And this is what I found! I took this a while ago. I used to be a landscaper at my dad's business. And every so often we would come across baby kill deer. So cute! But very annoying when they are adults. So here are 3 babies that we found. Aren't they cute?! I love animals, so I would always have my camera with me at work just in case we found something interesting. :)

Head on over to and see some more beautiful hands! :) Have a great week everyone!

My Story in Photos: Places I Love

2010-02-01T11:24:00.001-08:00

This week's theme at i heart faces is "My Story in Photos: Places I Love". I have a ton of photos that I am going to share with you. I don't have photos of some places that I really love because at that time, I had a film camera! :) So those photos are in albums! But I will tell you about each place that I love. My all time favorite place is Italy, especially Venice and Naples! What beautiful places to visit..I wish I had some photos on my computer to share with you. If you ever get a chance to visit Italy definitely go to Venice and Naples! I have also got to visit Rome & Florence, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Ireland; France; Hawaii; Australia; Tasmania; and New Zealand. I feel really lucky to have visited those places! Thanks Mom and Dad for taking me with you!! Love you!

Anyways back to the challenge, my first 2 pictures are from Australia. The first photo is of a kangaroo. The 2nd photo is of a pastry shop. Yum! I love their pastries...and I also love turkish delight. Just thought I would share it with everyone! :)If anyone has a good recipe to make turkish delight please share! Thanks!

My husband and I got married in a castle up in Charlevoix, MI. Let me tell you this place is pretty romantic! :) I'm so glad we found this place!

The ceremony

The next place that I love was on our honeymoon in Little Palm Island, FL. If anyone wants to go somewhere where kids aren't allowed, this is the place to go! :) I believe their are only 12 huts on the island, there's a spa (try the milk and honey massage) what an amazing massage- they actually wrap you with milk & honey, an enormous chess set to play, no cell phone service, no TVs, snorkeling, canoeing, key deer inhabit the island, beautiful sunsets and they also have great food! Little Palm Island is truly a romantic destination to go to! I had to include a picture of the dessert, it is so delicious! I think we had it every night we were there!

The next place that I love is northern Michigan. These pictures are taken at my parents lake house in Petoskey. But I love Mackinac Island! When we were little, our whole family would visit every year! If you haven't ever been to Mackinac Island- you need to go!

So these next 3 photos are of a beaver dam near my parents lake house. Such a beautiful creation!

These were also taken up in Michigan, but I love a place where I can go and capture beautiful wildlife and plants! Michigan is surely a place where you can do that!

My last favorite place is Colorado. My husband and I took a road trip to Colorado, July '09. We went to a few different spots. We actually really didn't know where we were going until we got there! We were going to be spontaneous! But we had lots of fun!

Have any of you seen "Yes Man"-then you might recognize this place! If you haven't ever seen it- this telephone museum, in Lincoln, Nebraska, was visited by Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel. We just saw Lincoln, NB as we were driving home from Colorado and thought we should stop by! We actually didn't get to go in it, b/c it was only open on Sundays.

There are more stories to be heard over at

I Heart Faces: Texture

2010-01-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

I heart faces has another challenge this week- Texture. I wasn't sure how I would go about this because I don't know how to use photo shop just yet. So I'm looking through my photos and I come across this one. I took this of my niece while we were mushroom hunting. Love how the trees are surrounding her. She is blurry but it's still a great picture! I can't wait until we can do some hunting this year! :) Not the greatest of photos, trust me I have a ton of texture photos just not very many with someones face incorporated in it.

Head on over to for some more texture! And submit your own if you want! :) Have a great week everyone!!

Best Face Photo

2010-01-10T21:37:00.001-08:00

This week is I Heart Faces 1st Birthday!!! And by celebrating, the contest this week is "Best Face Photo". The photo has to be taken sometime in December 2009 or January 2010! I've been looking forward to this challenge for a while! Ever since I took this picture I knew it was the one I wanted to enter! I love it! I took this December 31, 2009. This is my niece, Emma. She is the most beautiful little girl ever! :) I just love taking photos of her!

(click on photo to see larger version)

To see more faces, head on over to !

Happy Birthday I Heart Faces!

I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.

I Heart Faces

2010-01-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

This week, i ♥ faces, is having a contest that includes 5 photos of which has to include their logo somewhere in the photo..edited or actually in the photo! Enjoy!

1st Entry

2nd Entry:

Our husky pulling my son around on his sled..don't worry my husband had the dog on a leash. Ha!

3rd Entry

4th Entry:
I thought I did a pretty good job with this one. My son loves to dump water onto himself. So why not have i ♥ faces fall with the water. I thougth it was pretty cool.

5th Entry:
Same with this one.

“I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.”

Be sure to head on over to

I ♥ Faces: Hilarious Outtakes

2009-12-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

This is the last week for this years challenge at I Heart Faces. Next year starts a whole new series of challenges! Can't wait! So I do have four outtakes that I am submitting! I think they are pretty hilarious! Most of them of course are of my son! Enjoy!

My first entry is of my son, Tristan, this is his new face that he always does to us! So funny.

#2. Tristan loves bath time! Especially splashing the water! I took this right before my lap got all wet! haha! Such a silly boy!

#3. This is my niece, Addison, she's such a silly girl! She always gives me the cheesiest smiles. Every once in a while I catch a nice one! :)

#4. So when Tristan was younger, well lets say around 6 months or so, he disliked anything on his head, touching his ears, etc. So this is him trying to pull his hoodie off. His expression cracks me up! Love it! :)

Head on over to and see some hilarious outtakes!! See you next year! :)

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-26T13:34:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!! We sure did! Christmas Eve I made our Christmas dinner.. and it was so good!! I will be showing you our Christmas in photos and also explaining what each picture is! So enjoy!! :) And have a Happy New Year!

These are the cookie dough truffles I made! and they are delicious..especially if you like cookie dough! I will post the recipe at the end of this blog!

My Christmas cookies!

Corn bread that we had for our Christmas Eve dinner! We also had asparagus!

A yummy beef tenderloin that I made. It was delicious!

Tristan opening a present Christmas Eve. Jake told me a tradition they did when they were younger. Him and his brother would always open a present Christmas Eve and it would always be pjs! So I thought we could start that tradition also! :)

Here is what Santa got Tristan! And he of course got a few other gifts! :)

Tristan making a silly face.

What my husband got me for Christmas!

After our Christmas we went to Jake's moms house for Christmas! We had an awesome dinner of seafood! Yum! I didn't get too many pictures while we were there. But this is their tree! It was beautiful! :)

Cookie Dough Truffles:
Ingredients:

1/2 c butter, softened

3/4 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c all-purpose flour

1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c mini semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c chopped walnuts (I did not use any)

1 1/2 lb semisweet candy coating, chopped

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in te chocolate chips and walnuts. Shape into 1-in balls. place on waxed paper-lined baking shts. Loosely cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm.

2. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip balls in coating, allowing excess to drip off; place on waxed paper-lined baking shts. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 min. If desired, remelt remaining candy coating and drizzle over candies. Store in refrigerator.

I Heart Faces: Pet week

2009-12-13T21:57:00.000-08:00

This week's theme for I Heart Faces is Pets! I have so many pictures I would love to post of my pets but sadly I can only choose one! I had a hard time choosing one too. But this is what I came up with! This is Sparky. He is a Siberian Husky and he's 5 months old. I just love his blue eyes!

I do have several cute photos of my dappled dachshund, named Dewey, that I wanted to post, but I guess that will have to be another entry! :)

Head on over to and see more pets!

I Heart Faces: Sweet Dreams

2009-12-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

This weeks theme for I Heart Faces is "Sweet Dreams". Such a great theme! I love it! I had a couple choices of photos to choose from of my son..but I ended up with a pretty good one. He was about 5months old when this was taken. When he couldn't walk or crawl..he loved his jumper! Oh my word..he would jump until he fell asleep...literally. Ha! So here is Tristan fast asleep in his jumper. He did this quite often too! Some people have to drive their children around the block for them to fall asleep but we just had to put him in his jumper. :)

Here is a video of him jumping like crazy..sorry it's not a very good video..I think I took it with my phone. But it is still really cute!

Head on over to for some more sleepy heads! :)

I Heart Faces: Tooshies

2009-11-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge for I Heart Faces is "Tooshies"! I have been looking forward to this challenge for a while..I was going to post a picture of my son's tooshie b/c I had a really cute one but I got a pretty cool shot this past weekend of some guys shooting clay pigeons. And since I usually enter pictures of my son into the contest, I thought I would share a picture of some my cousins shooting clay pigeons. This is a family tradition that we do every Christmas! Enjoy!

Head on over to and see some more tooshies! :)

I Heart Faces: Sun Flare

2009-11-23T20:00:00.001-08:00

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is sun flare! I love this picture of my son, Tristan! We were playing at the park..and it was one of the beautiful fall afternoons that we have had in November! :) Instead of playing on the playground.. we decided to take him into the field where he could run around. :) He had so much fun! And it was so nice outside too!

Head on over to and see how other people captured their sun flare!

Autumn Beaty!

2009-11-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

This weeks contest for I ♥ Faces is Autumt Beauty! I love fall! It's so beautiful! :) This photo is of my son, Tristan. He doesn't really get to play in the leaves all that much b/c we don't have any trees in our backyard. So we took him to a park and he absolutely loved playing in all the leaves! He loved the crunching sound as he ran through the leaves! And as you can see, this picture is also the header of my blog b/c I love it!

Head on over to to see some more Autumn Beauty! :)

I Heart Faces: Balloons

2009-11-02T06:18:00.001-08:00

This weeks challenge on I heart faces is "Balloons". I had two photos that I wanted to share but could only use one! So here is my son with his first balloon at 10 months old! I just love this picture of him! Enjoy!

Head on over to to see more balloons!

Halloween

2009-10-30T09:57:00.001-07:00

Ok..so I haven't posted since my birthday..which was on the 10th! I just haven't had anything fun to write about. :) We haven't had too many house showing...we did have 3 in a row about 2 weeks ago..and they really liked our house but ended finding a new construction for less. oh well..then we had a buyer that loved our house, but the only negative thing about it was that it faced the wrong direction for them..weird response I think. Haven't had any showing in about a week. Hopefully one this weekend! :)

Last night we carved pumpkins for Halloween! Tristan loved it! His favorite part was digging out the pumpkin then feeding it to Dewey. He did try a little bit himself but I don't think he really liked it. :) ha! Here are a few pictures from last night! Enjoy!

digging for goodies!

mmm...yummy pumpkins

feeding Dewey pumpkin seeds

left to right: Jake, me, and Tristan's pumpkin

We are going to Bonneville Mill on saturday and then trick or treating later that afternoon! Check back on Monday for pictures!! :)

I Heart Faces: Excited!

2009-10-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

So this weeks theme for I ♥ Faces is "Excited"! I took this photo yesterday at the Pumpkin Patch. We went through the corn maze with my son Tristan. He was trying to avoid all the stalks that we hanging over the path. Finally he was brave enough to touch one and he loved it! As you can tell by the picture he thought it was pretty exciting!! :)

Head on over to to see some more exciting photos!!

My Story in Photos: My favorite things

2009-10-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

This week for is "my favorite things". This will be non-judged. So I have a lot of favorite things..my list is going to be really long..and I plan to post all my pictures. Enjoy! :)

My favorite things are

1.) My husband! I love him so much!

2.) Our son- Tristan Edward...He's such a sweet little man!

3.) Our dog Dewey- miniature dachshund- or as Tristan calls him Dew Dew

4.) My nieces and nephews- there are 2 missing from this photo. and also Tristan is in the photo.

5.) Taking pictures of little toes and feet!

6.) Baby animals

7.) Photographing close ups of wildlife

8.) Wildlife

9.) Storms

10.) Nature

11.) Parks

12.) things that are blue

13.) close ups of flowers

14.) and flowers in general

Head on over to http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ to check out more stories of other people's favorite things!

Friend Makin Monday

2009-10-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

So this is my first time posting for Friend Makin Mondays! My sister actually informed me of this website and I thought I should try it sometime! :) So the topic this week is What are your hobbies? What do you wish that you knew how to do?

What are my hobbies:

1.) Photography- I love taking pictures of children & nature

2.) Painting- Ok so I painted these in high school. But I do love to paint when I get a chance.

3.) Be on the internet- who doesn't?!

What I would love to learn how to do:

1.) Interior Design

2.) Cook

Have a great Monday everyone!!!!!

I Heart Faces: "Blue"

2009-09-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge for I ♥ Heart Faces is Blue. I love the color blue but I had a hard time trying to find a photo that contained some blue in it. This photo is of my son playing and eating sand..haha..I took this Labor Day weekend while up at my parent's lake house in Michigan.

Head over to to see other "blue" photos!

I Heart Faces: Completely Candid

2009-09-21T18:00:00.001-07:00

This weeks challenge for I ♥ Faces is "Completely Candid". I had a tough time trying to figure out which photo I wanted to use, but I think I found a good one! :) I took this labor day weekend while up at my parent's lake house! There were lots of kids there so I had a lot of photo opportunity!

Check out for more entries! :)

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

So for Labor Day weekend, Jake and I thought we were just going to stay home and work around the house all weekend..because I didn't find out if I worked or not until Saturday. Awesome right?! Not so much. And actually I didn't have to work until the 12th. Crazy schedule. So I got off 3 hours early on Saturday, came home and planted some flowers and mowed the lawn while Jake stained the fence and the deck. Josh came over and babysat Tristan while we were outside working.

Later Saturday night around 9:30pm we left for Lake Walloon to join the family for Labor Day weekend! We didn't arrive until 2:30am..long drive...but we had a great weekend!!! Lots of yummy food!!! Thanks Mom! :) Lets see..we also went jet skiing, canoeing, went on a boat ride, played badminton, sat by the campfire, ate some more food and took lots and lots of pictures!!! Here are actually a few photos from this past weekend! Enjoy!

Fix-it-Friday

2009-09-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

This is my first Fix-it-Friday on I ♥ Faces. They give us a photo and we are suppose to edit it to what we feel looks right! So here is the origional

And here are a few I edited. Enjoy!

Go to to see more editing that has been done to this photo! :)

Before & After

2009-09-01T12:28:00.001-07:00

This weeks non-competitive challenge on I ♥ Faces is "Before & After". This will not be judged. Everyone is to share photographs that they took when they first started to get serious about photography. And then a photograph or two of what they have learned about editing from participating in the challenges each week on I ♥ Faces.

So I have always loved photography. Think it runs in the family. Ha! We always told my mom that she was camera crazy! :) B/c she was always taking pictures on every trip that we went on. When I started to really enjoying taking pictures was about 5 or so years ago. The only photographs I took were of landscaping, flowers and animals.

So here are two pictures that I took while we were in Mackinaw Island at the Butterfly house. At the time I thought these were awesome pictures and I still really like them.

Before

When I first started taking photographs of people was when my son was born. It may have been also when my niece Addison was born. But not as much as when Tristan was born. I was the paparazzi, taking pictures whenever a cute opportunity came! :) Not a bad thing though, at least I'll have enough pictures to choose from for his scrapbooks! Ha!

So here are a few pictures of my son, nieces and nephews that inspired me to photograph children!

Before

Now for the "After" part of the challenge. Since I have taken those photographs I have learned quite a bit about my camera. The first picture I played around with my shutter speed. It's not an awesome picture, but I was just playing around with the shutter speed. And I thought it was pretty neat!

I have also recently started working at JCPenney Portrait Studio, so working there has helped me use different poses with my son and family.

After

My son in the pink cozy coup!
My son getting his first haircut!

So join everyone at and show what you have learned over the years in photography!

I Heart Faces

2009-08-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

This week's photo challenge is "Nostalgia". I had to pick this photo out! I love it! It's at my brother's wedding. In this photo they are cutting the cake! You can't really see it because of the flowers, but I thought it was a beautiful photo to share with everyone! They got married at Mission Point on Mackinaw Island.

Go To to see more Nostalgia photos!

Our life right now...

2009-08-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

If you all have wondered what we have been up to lately..let me tell you. I started my job at JCP Portrait Studio about 3 weeks ago! I haven't really had a lot of chances to take portraits yet, but I have done quiet a bit of sales. Which is ok. I didn't really like it at first but it's alright! :) Tristan is as crazy as he always is. Getting into every drawer he can reach!! Literally! So everyday I clean up his mess and the next day it's back to the same old mess..ha!

Jacob got a promotion at work..well kind of...he gets more hours! Which is really nice! Just means that I get less hours during the week.

We went to two wedding last weekend. There were 2 guys that Jake works with that got married. We took Tristan to the first wedding. Here he is in his tux. So adorable! All he wanted to do was go up with the bride and groom. (meaning he wanted to climb the one step that was next to them) Ha! Yes his new favorite thing right now..climbing stairs!!

We decided to not take him to the 2nd wedding..So it was just me and Jake! Kind of nice for a change! :)

This is Tristan's new chair. He loves to put it up against the couch and then use it for climbing.

Eating spaghetti!

So I have been trying to edit some of photographs in various programs to make them look nicer! I ended up making a collage instead! :) It was fun! I just can't seem to get the numbers off of the pictures...the program I used is just a free trial so I don't think it will allow me to take the numbers off..which is kind of disappointing since I wanted to use this collage as my blog title..oh well. Thought I would just share it with everyone! Sorry about the numbers on the pictures and for the small size too. Enjoy!

Bubbles!

2009-08-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

The theme this week for "I Heart Faces" is Bubbles! Tristan just loves bath time! It's his most favorite thing to do ever!! :) Enjoy the photo!

If you want to see more awesome bubble pictures head on over to I Heart Faces blog http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

My Story in Photos!

2009-08-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

This week's is themed "Sharing our Summer Stories through Photos"!

This summer I...

Drove to Florida with my mom and son!

Adopted a baby golden retriever!

My son found his first Easter egg!

Had a play date with cousin Emma!

Went to Florida again with my son again!

Had our annual mushroom hunt in my parents woods!

Check out all the mushrooms we found!

My son turned ONE June 10!

Went to the 2009 Championship Wiener Dog races!

(Sorry for the blurry picture)
Gave my son multiple baths!

Went to the zoo a few times!

My husband and I went to Colorado for a week for our 2yr Anniversary!

My niece Emma turned 1!

Went to the Elkhart County 4-H fair. Tristan loved the tractors!

More bath time!

Play date with cousin Cooper!

The family dog- Dewey

Tristan picking a bite of daddy's burrito when he's not looking..sneaky little boy!

Maybe just one more bath!

That just about wraps up the summer so far! Hope you enjoyed it!

I Heart Faces

2009-07-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

I was looking at my weekly blogs and I came across this link to

The theme is "At the beach"All you photography lovers should check it out!
For my entry I decided to enter the picture that I took of Tristan at the beach in Florida. This was the first time he sat on the sand and let the water run over his legs. As you can tell by the expression on his face, he didn't enjoy it very much. But I thought it was a really cute picture!

4-H Fair

2009-07-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

So Jake, Tristan and myself went to the fair last night..we were originally going to watch Morgan ride her horse but she ended up not doing that. So we grabbed some yummy fair food!! Mmmm...taco salad! We also got a funnel cake and some cotton candy! Yum! :) Then we headed around to every animal barn there was to show Tristan all the cute animals..we even got to see some baby pigs being born! It was a cool experience. I guess she had 13 all together! Anyways here are some pictures of last night! Enjoy!

Trying some strawberry smoothie!

Mama pig and her babies!

Tristan really liked the tractors

He liked the bunnies too!

I thought this goat was really cute! I love the floppy ears.

This is Frank-800 lbs

Petting Morgan's horse Star

Oh and I have an interview today with JCP Portraits!!! Wish me luck!

Trip to Colorado

2009-07-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on our trip to Colorado!!!! It was a very long drive but it was worth it! We weren't sure where we were actually going at first..I don't think we really decided until we were in Colorado. Our trip was very random, but in a good way! :) We first went to Rifle Falls National Park..which was way back in the boonies..took forever to get there plus we had no cell phone service. When we finally got there, there was only one spot left. and it happened to be a handicap spot, so they couldn't promise it for another night. We missed the part in our book that said reservations recommended..oops! They only had 12 spots available. So the next day we headed for Grand Mesa National Forest! This was a much nicer campground. It was 10,000ft above sea lvl..so it was really hard to breathe up there. We did only stay here for one night as well. It got to the 40s at night so we were really cold. Going 3 days without showering is gross...so we decided to head to Grand Junction and get a hotel room! We went to The Winery to eat. The calamari was delicious! Best ever!! Then we got a bottle of wine! That was good too! Our dinner was awesome! Would recommend that place to anyone that goes to Grand Junction, but they are a little pricey. Anyways, the next day we went a dinosaur museum and to 1 1/2 mile hike through the desert..and only saw 3 different dino fossils..it was a tough hike but fun! Then we decided to drive to Denver that afternoon. Once we arrived, we went to the Aquarium. It was an awesome aquarium!

So anyways here are some of the pictures from our trip! There are a lot more on facebook!

Welcome to Colorado!!! Finally!
Beautiful mountains!

First beautiful sunset!

These waterfalls were at Rifle Falls State Park

Our second campsite in Grand Mesa National Forest-Ward Lake

These flowers were very pretty!

Me and Jake

We ate at The Winery- best food ever!
This was the coolest part on our desert hike

Think this was a dino vertebrae, but it looks like a fish to me.

We went to the Aquarium in downtown Denver, CO-so awesome!

This was the telephone museum from the movie Yes Man!

Off to Colorado!

2009-07-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

Happy 2yr Anniversary to us today!!!!! We went out to lunch today at Olive Garden! Yum! B/c Jake had to work from 2 to 8, so we decided to do lunch! Then he came home with 2 flowers and a card for me! Our real present to each other is our camping trip to Colorado!

So tomorrow if going to be a busy day!! I can't even think straight..I am starting the day off at 7:30am..and then leaving to take Tristan to Grandma Sarah's house around 8am. Thanks Mom for keeping him a couple days while we are gone! :) Then come all the way back home to take the dogs to the boarders..I need to get my oil changed after I drop them off..then as soon as Jake gets home around 2pm we are heading to Colorado to go camping for our Anniversary present to each other!!! We are so excited!!! We don't exactly know where we are going yet but it should be lots of fun!!! Yeah! :) We will be going camping, mountain biking (should be interesting), I want to do some horse back riding, and lots of photographs to be taken of course!!! I will post pictures of our trip when we get back! Just wanted to update everyone on what's going on in our lives at the moment, well the few people that read my blog at least..haha

Yes! I actually cooked!

2009-06-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing?! I actually cooked something last night for us~ It was yummy too! I made Stir-Fry Chicken and Vegetables! As you can see by the picture below!

Most of the ingredients

the onions, carrots and chicken cookin

the finished meal!

Which picture is your favorite?

2009-06-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures that I played around with of Tristan on his birthday! I want you to let me know which one you like the best! Enjoy and Thanks!

Crazy weekend! Tristan's 1st Birthday and BQ

2009-06-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was extremely busy..first we had Tristan's 1st birthday party on Saturday then Rod's annual barbeque on Sunday. Well we started getting ready for Tristan's party last Wednesday..had to get the house cleaned, plan the party out, plant some flowers and grass..which btw Izzy killed half of the grass I planted for the party. Made me so mad!!! Had to make veggie pizzas and Tristan's dino cake..It didn't turn out that bad. Here are pictures from his birthday and Rod's BQ~ Enjoy

The dino cake I made for Tristan

The cake my Aunt Gloria made

His new riding turtle

Daddy helped open presents

Picking at the cake

Just chillin

Say Cheese!!!!!

She was on a mission here

This doesn't happen every year..but occasionally a ball will get stuck in the trees

Florida

2009-05-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Tristan and I left on May 15 for Florida with my mom! And returned just yesterday! We had a blast! :) As you can see from mom's 3 blogs we had tons of rain..only about 3 days of sunshine..so didn't really get much of a tan..oh well. We still had lots of fun! Tristan still loves the pool but is not too sure about the ocean. He did like eating the sand, but didn't like when the water touched him. haha..still had to get a video of him in the ocean. So here are a few pictures of our trip to Florida! Enjoy!

Tristan at steak 'n shake

Mom actually let me drive!

Mommy and Tristan in the pool

Beautiful sunset!

Yummy sand!

I love this statue!

Tristan got lots of baths..this time it wasn't in the sink

This is the last sunset we saw (well the last one on the beach)

Emma & Tristan did get along some of the time..they are holding hands here. Cute!

Pool time!

This was Tristan's true feelings about the ocean!
We went to the Mote Aquarium.

I love these flowers!

Tristan loved to put toys that didn't belong in the tube..so when he did that the toy ended up not working..it was hilarious..we would find beads and little people in the tube.

Thanks Mom for letting us come to Florida with you! We had lots of fun!

I love taking pictures!!

2009-05-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know! I love taking pictures!! :) I already have over 1,000 pictures of Tristan and he's not even a year old yet! Crazy! I got the Bontrager genes. haha..I love taking pictures of the outdoors..every time I drive up to Middlebury, I always see places where I want to stop and take a picture, but I never do. I also love to take pictures at mom and dad's house! Such beautiful landscaping and cute puppies! :) Here are a few recent pictures that I have taken recently! Enjoy!

And here are all the animals in our family (except Charlie, Vince & Lex)

Dewey

Izzy

Molly

Miss Mia

Thor

Abbet

Bath Time!!

2009-05-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

What makes almost every child happy?! Anyone? Well Tristan loves bath time! He loves the water and splashing in it! Can't wait until Florida! I think he would play in it all day if I would let him. :) His hair gets so curly after his bath. I love it! Anyways..here are a few pictures from his bath time today! He made some of the cutest expressions while splashing!

This is the face he would make when he splashed!

Happy little guy!

Oh and yesterday, he started saying mama..for those of you who have facebook. I posted a video of him saying it! :) That was my present for Mother's Day I think! :) Have a great rest of the week!

Fun at the zoo!

2009-04-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

Today we met Jason, Aimee, Emma Matt, Amber & Cooper at chik-fil-a for lunch. Then me and Jake headed to the zoo with Amber, Matt & Cooper! We were there for a while. Not all the animals were out since it was too cold for them still. Even though it was around 80 today. Love the warm weather! I think I better just stick with posting pictures on my blogs. I'm not too great at writing like some other blogs I have read. So future blogs will have less words but more pictures!

This was fun!

The men & the diaper bags! haha..we were getting laughed at from people sitting inside.

Beautiful!

Daddy & Tristan

Update

2009-04-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Just a little update for all you guys! I went to Middlebury again on Friday to pick up another yorkie for my mother-in-law! She got a little boy and he is so adorable! Before we got the puppy though, we joined Amber, Mom, Kim and the kids at JoJo Pretzels..yummy! Then I took Tristan on his first carousel ride and he loved it! Saturday morning Jake, Tristan and myself sat outside on a blanket enjoying the beautiful sunshine! We threw the ball for the dogs, but Dewey was the only one that retrieved it. Ha! Rick came up on Saturday afternoon to pick the pup up and left this morning. So here are a couple pictures from this last weekend.

yummy sand
Thor

Dewey
Izzy

Dewey retrieving the ball

Jake let Tristan feed himself cereal this morning and let me tell you, he enjoyed it a little bit! Haha! See for yourself!

Easter

2009-04-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post some Easter pictures from yesterday! We went to mom and dads for Easter! It was so much fun! :) Thanks for having us Mom!! Enjoy!

Jadyn, Ethan & Addison ready to find Easter eggs!

Tristan found his first Easter egg

Tristan & Cooper having fun

The Willy salute!

The parachute bear kite!

Fun Weekend with Family!

2009-04-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

We had a blast this last weekend with Rick, Christine and the girls! On Friday, Christine and I picked up her yorkie(Mia) in Shipshewana. She's such a sweet little pup! Josh and Jaime came over Saturday and we played boxers or briefs! Since they don't make it anymore we borrowed moms! Thanks mom! We also played apples to apples! Fun game too! We watched Marley and Me! Great movie but sad. I recommend Marley and Me to whoever hasn't seen it. We also watched Bed Time Stories. Cute movie. That's really all we did this weekend! Here are a few pictures from the weekend!

Tristan had fun with Mia!

This is Rick & Christine's new Yorkie- Miss Mia

Grandma gave Tristan a bath

Cuddling with Aunt Kenzie

April Fools and an update

2009-04-03T07:55:00.001-07:00

I know I'm two days late for April Fools..But did anyone get tricked?! Please comment and tell me about it! I love hearing the stories! I almost tricked my mother-in-law that I was 3 weeks pregnant! haha..But then she remember that I had a IUD put in. Oh well maybe next year! :)

For the update: Jake's dad and Christine are coming up today! Then Madison and McKenzie are coming tonight as well. This weekend should be lots of fun! Not sure what we are going to do. It's suppose to be rainy all weekend. Me and Christine are going to pick up her Yorkie tonight! She is super excited! :) I will post pictures of this weekend later next week.

Izzy has been a little turd lately..she's doing better about going the bathroom inside but doesn't know the difference between her toys and Tristan's just yet. And she loves to play in the dog water fountain..and floods the ground when she sticks her paws in it. So not fun.

Every morning when I go to get Tristan from his crib, all his stuffed animals and blankets are on the floor. He likes to play this game in the morning. Throwing his toys over the side of his crib then playing peek-a-boo! It's so cute! I have lots of pictures of him doing it!

Tristan's 9 month pictures!

2009-03-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is my first post! I know mom, Amber and Kim are probably super excited that I am finally posting something! What is better than posting some of Tristan's 9 month old pictures?! They are so adorable and I am actually going to pick them up today! Don't make fun of me about posting these pictures. Still don't know exactly how to post them so they look nice!