Michelle's Baby Shower

What is a "Cut the Cake" baby shower?

It's a shower at which the Pregnant Mother doesn't know the sex of her baby. Krystal and I had her husband tell us the news after her ultrasound. Michelle had no clue what she was having, until she cut the cake! The inside of the cake I made was dyed pink because she's having a girl!

We had a white cake with whipped cream frosting and fresh strawberries on top! It was delicious!

Krystal and I had a great time decorating and getting everything ready for the shower! Here's the digital invite we sent out.

Nativities Around the World

Sunday night we went to Nativites Around the World. They had 400 nativites set up! Can you believe it? We were very overwhlemed by the feeling we felt there. It was a peaceful feeling.









We also made Christmas sugar cookies. A family tradition.


The girls LOVED decorating them!

Lauryn + Stomach Flu + 5 days of it + One trip to the ER + Bryan's Finals Week + 2 other kids =

THIS!



I am REALLY behind on my house work and I've got to get my house back in order. I'll be back soon. Wish me luck! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Ours is looking like snowy white one!

I WON!

Today I went to my favorite quilt shop for their Christmas open house. They had a drawing for fabulous prizes and guess who won the $100 gift card! That's right, I did! WOO HOO! I am so excited! Thanks stitches and petals. You can check out their blog here.

Did you miss the Christmas Devotional?

You can still watch it HERE.

My family and I sat by the tree while we watched it on our laptop. I love love love the Christmas Devotional. It definatly helps to remind you of the true meaning of Christmas. The music was beautiful and so were the words.

Enjoy!

Our First REAL Christmas tree!

On Saturday we went and chopped down our first real Christmas tree! All we had to do was buy a cutting permit for $5, drive about 45 minutes out of town and find the tree we loved! How awesome is that! I love IDAHO! Bryan was very excited to use his hand saw and Lauryn loved tromping through what little snow we had.

We had a wonderful evening decorating the tree. Who knew that Bryan was a tree lighting expert?! Lauryn helped him by holding the extra lights while following him around the tree. Kamryn loved laying under it and watching the twinkle lights. Brooklyn just kept saying, "WOW".

On Saturday I also had a photo shoot. I packaged it all up like this:

They also ordered a custom Christmas card. Want to see more photos from their shoot? Go to my photography blog. Kate Jennings Photography

Old Navy Stockings: $1

Check out these super funky stockings we got last night,

They are only ONE DOLLAR right now @ Old Navy! Original Price: $9.50!

I hope you all have a fabulous Weekend!

PS- Kate Jennings Photography now does custom Christmas or New Years cards! Check them out!

Photo Of The Day: Russian Dolls

{Thanks Melissa for letting me borrow your Russian Dolls!}

Rember The Peppermint Cookies?

Tonight is our ward Christmas Party. Brooklyn and I are making these Short Bread Peppermint Cookies to bring! They are a holiday tradition here at the Foutch house.

Extra Tips: Pull them out of the oven at about 11-12 minutes so they stay softer. Also, for a more uniformed look, press them with the bottom of a glass before baking. Enjoy!

December Menu

Here's the December Menu. Let me know if there is a specific recipe you'd like me to post. Click on the menu to save and print. Stick it up on your fridge.

Don't get discourage if you miss a night. Just switch stuff around. The Dinner Calendar is more to help you with ideas.

Remember your end goal. What is your end goal?
Mine is: a happy family sitting around the dinner table, talking, laughing and enjoying the food!


















Here's one of my favorite photos from dinner time.

Merry Christmas!

My Cousin: Laura Lou

My Cousin is getting her degree in photography, check out her fun new promotional video. My girls keep saying, "Again, Again!"


Leave her a comment on her blog!

Because We Love Our Brookie Cookie

Brooklyn is my second girl. She is very emotional, funny, and smart. As you can see, she has beautiful bright red hair. I LOVE her hair.

On our way to my mom's house for Thanksgiving, Brooklyn had to go to the bathroom. We were almost home so, I told her to hold it. I also gave her one of those "looks".

She gave me a look back and said, "I don't like it hold it!"

My mom and I about crashed as we were laughing so hard. We continued on home in the hopes that she wouldn't wet her pants. While pointing out the window, my mom kept saying,

"Look there's a __________."

And she would fill in the blank with whatever she thought Brooklyn would like to see. My favorite was, Santa. My mom kept saying that she could see Santa.

Brooklyn replied with, "Look a Camel!" She didn't know who Santa was so she didn't care but, she obviously cares about camels.

I had no idea that she even knew what a camel was. Oh, Brooklyn you make us laugh.

And yes we made it home without an accident! Thanks Mom!

To Everyone

Please forgive my absence. I have been dealing with and getting tested for different IBS issues. What is IBS? Irritable Bowl Syndrome. Or as Bryan would like to call it, Irresistible Bowl Syndrome. I've been "dealing" with it for 4 years now. It's hard. I am constantly nauseated and I usually spend my evenings in the bathroom.

This last week it got so bad that my wonderful mom came down to help me with my family. She saved me. She took me and the girls home with her for Thanksgiving break so Bryan could finish up some last minute things.

I am now off dairy and gluten. I feel SO much BETTER! I can't believe the difference. It's just very hard to keep up on my calories. Dairy and gluten is in so many things. I had no idea.

I hope to get the December Dinner Menu up some time this week. Sorry it will be late.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I'll leave you with this happy thought. It's a photo of a vintage cross stitch that Bryan's Aunt found. I saw it and fell in love.

Happy Birthday Mom and Kurt!

A couple weeks ago it was my moms birthday. I surprised her with a slide show of all the photos from this last year. She started to cry when photos of my brother came up. We don't see him very often and she was so happy to see him. (even if it was just a photo) Kurt had secretly e-mailed me photos of him doing some really cool stuff at work.

Here's one of Kurt at work. (on the left)



This last week was also my brothers birthday.

{Happy Birthday Kurt! Have a great week in California!}

Here's one more of Kurt on top of a 300 foot wind generator. My brother has the coolest job!




When we visited my mom this last week I took this photo of all her birthday cards hung up on her fun kitchen lights.



Happy Birthday Mom! We all love you so much. I personally don't know what I would do without you! You have taught me so much and you've always been there when I needed you!

(picture from a couple weeks ago. taken at my grandma's house in Murtaugh.)

Walker Home

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to photograph the Walker's New Home. Heather picked out every single detail in this home. From the siding to the door knobs. Aren't the knobs beautiful? They are real glass antique door knobs and they are on every door in the home! Go to my photography blog to see more photos.

Gingerbread House

Last night the girls and Bryan made a gingerbread house. The girls had a great time and Bryan did too. Brooklyn mainly helped by eating candy and then spitting them back into the candy bowl. (yummy) Check out the one we made in 2007.











What are some of your holiday traditions?

Still Life: A work in Progess

Ever since I got back from the Art Week, my mind has been thinking of all the things I could photograph. Here's one composition I'm still working on. When I get it done I'll show you the final shot.

Hope you have a fabulous Saturday!

The Art Weekend Saga Continues

On the last leg of my weekend trip, I stopped in Boise to pick up Kira. She was awesome and came part way with me. I was so glad to have her with me. She helped with the driving but, we also had some good sister bonding time.

We ate at Five Guys.



We stopped for some photos in McCall.







(I stood up on this huge rock in front of the lake and couldn't help but think of the lady who does yoga on PBS. I just had to do it. PS- I am not a yoga master.)



Thanks Kira for coming along with me! It made the 12 hour road trip a lot easier!

Happy 90TH Birthday Grandma!

It was my Grandmother's 90TH birthday this past weekend. I was lucky enough to be driving through and could stop to see her. After my classes at the art weekend, I drove late into the night to get to my grandmas. My mom was even in town for the occasion. Before I left in the morning I had to get a photo of us three together. Here's the photo. Not the best composition wise but, a great photo anyway.




Happy Birthday Grandma! We LOVE you SO!

PS- Can you see the resemblance?

Saturday at the Art Weekend

{read more posts about my experiance going to the art weekend here, here, here, and here.}

Saturday morning I woke up, packed up, and left for the art weekend. I was so sad to be leaving Kristine's place. We hardly had any time together.

(Below are photos of Kristine's cute kitchen.)



(Above is Nicole, teaching photo 101.)

At the Art Weekend, I took 4 classes. Photoshop 101, Photography 101, Digital Work flow for Photographers, and Tabletop Photography. (each class was 2 hours long)

I started shooting pictures with my first SLR when I was about 14. It was so good for me to learn on film. In Nicole's photo 101 class, she challenged us to go back to film for 6 MONTHS. It forces you to get each shot spot on. (since money is defiantly not on your side)

Most of the classes were more like a review for me except the Tabletop photography class. You can see a photo I took in that class, here. Still life and food photography is very complex yet, I LOVE it!

All in all, the weekend was exactly what I needed. I feel more confident and excited about my photography. If you are at all interested in photography I suggest that you take a class or attend something like I did. It will teach you so much and excite you about it all.

My 300th POST!

Happy 300Th Post Foutch Coutch!

In honor of that, I'll post this picture. I took this photo at the Art Weekend, in the Tabletop Photography class. We learned everything about shooting still life and food. So fun! It was defiantly my favorite class!

Prizer Family

Go check out the Prizer family.

Kristine and I

When I left Kristine's house we realized that we hadn't gotten any photos of us together. So I took out my camera and took this photo.




There's the proof that we were together.

Friday Night

Friday night I headed out on the town to attend the Art Weekend Party for students. Miss Kristine did my fab hair. It Rocks right? She also had fun doing a little photo shoot of yours truly.

Can I just mention how BIG SLC is? I was so overwhelmed! Don't worry, I never got lost. Thanks dad for letting me use your Nuvi!

The party was fun. I loved meeting Nicole and her husband. She is so nice and very much like you and me! At one point we got to talking and I asked her if she played Bejeweled. She reluctantly said yes. (We share the same time sucking activity.) I asked her what her high score was and she answered, "One million." I was laughing and her husband replied, "No seriously, look!" He then showed me her high score on her iphone. It did say one million. Lets just say I can't get past 300,000.

At the end of the party she did a drawing for prizes. I won a $40 gift card to Paper Kiwi. We all had a great time chatting, swapping blog URLs, and photography tips.

To be continued....

First Day in Utah

When I drove over the Idaho border into Utah, I honked my horn several times. (family tradition, started by my dad) I was so excited to be there. The first place I went was her house. Kristine was my first roommate at BYU-I. I'm so glad that we met and stayed friends. Thanks Blogger!

The first thing Kristine and I did was go out to eat. We ate some good food while we caught up on each other's life. Then we got crafty! Kristine was getting ready for a craft show so, I tried to help her get everything done. Durring it all we managed to take some photos of some of her projects.




Isn't she the cutest!? I love her and all she does!

To be continued.....

Where's Katelyn?

Can anyone guess where I've been?

It starts with a U and ends with a TAH.

I have so much to tell you and so many photos to upload. I also have a photo shoot that I haven't put on my photography blog yet.

One thing I'll tell you, I met her.

Bryan and Istock

Yesterday Bryan and I were surfing the net and found this:




Istockphoto used Bryan's art work for their Ad! We couldn't believe it! Doesn't it look awesome! We are still shocked.

Here's the original drawing of bryan's that they got it from:

Bryan is still busting out vector based drawings for istockphoto. Sometimes he has me take photos of random things for him. Like this:



And this:



I think it's so fun to work with my husband. We have so much fun being creative together. Keep your eye out for his stuff!

More of our Family Photos!

Here are a few more of our family photos taken by Heidi Sue. Which one is your favorite?