So I realized today that the last time I posted anything was almost a year ago. Recently I took some pictures of some of the things I've been working on. Baking of course! What else! Actually, I've been canning too, which is entirely new to me. The discovery of the farmer's markets here in Sacto has made me want to can and keep all the fresh fruit and veggies I can! This picture is of a pie I made for Thanksgiving. It included apples from the farmer's market and why is it red you say? Homemade cranberry jelly steeped with cloves and cinnamon! It was muy delicioso!
I was inspired by Chelsea's blog about gingerbread construction and tried my hand at it. This is a first attempt...oh yes there will be a second! This was the no template, piping bag from h - e - double hockey sticks, and a spontaneous jumping wall (it apparently did not wish to be part of the house). Over all I think it turned cute enough... we'll see how #2 goes (yeah I know, but the dough recipe was for 5 houses... wish I'd known that before I made it).

I've been a little crafty lately. Holidays and what not. I know, cloves and oranges! And they smell AWESOME!

So... its pomegranate season... and I've been a canning fiend! Holy mole those are time consuming to seed! I think my hands must've been stained for days after and my arm was sore (sore!! I think I'm out of shape if seeding pomegranates makes me sore)! I've canned salsa, blueberry jam, pomegranate jelly, kiwi jam, and cranberry jelly. They should make decent Christmas gifts!

I'll throw a few more pics up in the near future! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and will have a beautiful Christmas and happy New Year!

A few more keepers

We were supposed to take pictures of Ethan and Bella together, but Ethan was having too much fun with his cousins to really feel like taking pictures. I think some of these turned out well for a squirmy subject. He's looking a little GQ here. How adorable is he in his suit and tie. He really was very patient with us even though he didn't really want to be there he still stood by that tree for half an hour. What are you going to do though... he's only 3. It was hard to get one of Ethan where he wasn't moving. This is a little over exposed, but you can see more of his suit and I like the startled face he's making. It looks very old fashioned.

One more of the beautiful Bella. She loves her feet.

What a gorgeous family. Could they get any more photogenic?

The Jacksons

Kate and I along with Summer, Bella, Ethan, Tyler & Chase all headed over to the Reiff house to take some family pictures. The house is the perfect studio. Brenda has the house stocked with the best props not to mention goodies for taking family portraits. The outdoors was even perfect although I think Summer was a little worried that it wasn't finished enough for pictures, but I think they turned out great. I loved the color ones so I had to put them on as well, but the sepia are my favorites.

Here you can see one of the many Christmas decorations in the home. We had to take a Christmas picture while we were there. I love the tree behind them. The colors were great. The boys were fabulous while we were taking pictures, although they were a little tired and distracted by this point. I'll have to put in a progression of pictures of Ryan in these pictures. While everyone mostly had the same face plastered on, he was making faces through several (one asleep, one ubersmiling, and one half dead). It was really funny actually. Sometimes I don't catch it while I'm taking the pictures and get a good laugh out of going through them later.

Like I said before, the boys were super cooperative. They get cuter and cuter everyday and those missing teeth on Tyler are ADORABLE!! I can't get enough pictures of my neice and nephews.

Summer was a big help for the pictures of the whole family. She had really great ideas and she could get the boys to smile real smiles.

I think overall the day was a great photo success. I'm so lucky to have such photogenic people to take pictures. It makes my life a whole lot more fun and easier for that matter (less editing). Thanks for having such great kids Kate and Ryan, and Summer and Steve! Thanks Carl and Brenda for letting us use your house. It is SO beautiful! Next time we'll have to plan it better so we can be there when you're there!

Bella's photo shoot

Its been hit and miss taking pictures of this sweet little girl. We keep trying to make plans and the seem to keep falling through, but with the persistance of a mother watching her little ones grow up right before her eyes we finally caught a few pictures of this gorgeous baby. She was so happy to be naked! Summer is such a great mom, she could get Bella to smile on cue!

As you can see she has her token accessories on, pearls and flower headband. With our little makeshift studio we managed to take a few keepers. We had a velvet-like blanket, a couple of flood lights, a couple of reflectors (equipped with holders - Ryan thanks) and as many crazy expressions as we could come up with to keep Bella smiling.

Kate and I both had fun taking pictures, but she and I love the post processing results. It helps to have a good picture to go from, but with Photoshop anything seems possible.

Summer thanks for opportunity to take some pics and use my camera this weekend. Its been gathering a little dust lately. I also took some pictures of Kate and her family which I am still working on and will post probably tomorrow ( I forgot a disk at home).

Belated Halloween

Yes I know its WAY past Halloween and you may have seen some of these pictures elsewhere, but I thought I would put something new up on my blog. It was a really fun Halloween. BFBA, the office where I work, went all out decorating for a recruiting event. It is the first year that we've been allowed to dress up for work and well, of course some of us went a little overboard.

People were a little nervous to be around me. As you can see I looked a little agitated and like I might bite. The outfit wasn't too hard to throw together. The teeth and the makeup really made the costume. I had the dress from Highschool (wow been chubby forever :) There were a couple of people who were even scared....ooooooooh!

I think this picture was before lunch. I was starving and tired. Good thing it was a cloudy day!

I don't know how I can top this next year!

A minute at the park....

So Kate, Tyler, Chase & I spent Monday just "hanging" out much to Kate's chagrin (she'd rather be shopping at any point in time). We headed to A & W and got diet root beers, popcorn chicken, and cheese curds (don't ask) then headed to the park (no slides or swings). It's the same park dad & Kate took the boys to, to feed the ducks. The light was amazing... the boys weren't incredibly cooperative (as far as pics go), but they are so DARN photogenic its hard to suck at photographing them.

I asked Kate if she wanted any pics of her and the boys and since the light was SO good we took advantage (even though Kate wasn't sure her hair was up to par ... looks great to me). If you notice in the bottom left hand corner, you'll see a couple of sodas... I kinda of like them. Looks like it wasn't set up (which it was).

I have a tendency to shoot into the sun... which makes the pictures really hazy, but I like the effect and if you don't well, don't tell me. I love how Tyler and Chase both look in these pics, gazing out to the water. They look so thoughtful... There was a bird out in the water that was just standing there and it mesmerized the boys. They couldn't understand why it would just stand there ( I couldn't either come to think of it... if it didn't move every once in awhile I would have thought it was a statue).


Alright, has anyone seen Tyler? This kid can not be him... he's too grown up! The more I hang out with that kid the more I love him. He's awesome and SO smart! I was talking to him awhile back about a toy he got from McDonald's (Wizard of Oz doll). It had eyelashes so he was sure it was girl "cause only girls have long eyelashes" my counter was "you have really long lashes and so do your dad and Chase...longer than mine or your mommies" he thought about it for a minute and said "then the doll must be a boy because only boys have long lashes..." Sounds logical to me!


That was a really fun day! I love hanging out with Kate and the boys (its always a highlight of my week)... even if we do go shopping once in awhile ;-)

I have to give credit where credit is due... Kate you have MAD editing skills and beautiful boys both of which make these pictures great! Thanks!

Sprint Down Memory Lane

15 years ago...

I actually was a senior (Kate, hehe). Here's a shy kid's story... so I decided to try out for Madrigals, the elete choir at Shasta High, at 17... if any one remembers me when I was a teen I was really REALLY shy, ie I had to think of things to say to the cashier at 7-11 when I was buying a soda before entering the store... hehe. Anyway the tryouts were pretty difficult (for me), you had to prepare a solo and sing it! I think I stunned my parents by going out for it! Even more surprising I made the choir!! The most surprising thing of all was that I accepted an invitation to sing at a stake conference. My parents were probably thinking "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" because that was so out of character. The music programs at Shasta gave me a lot of confidence that I could do whatever I set out to do. I would have never tried out for any choir had my parents not pushed me into it on the advice of one Peggy Grimmius. She heard me singing around the campfire and told them they had better get me into something! The opportunites that singing has afforded me include but are not limited to: a trip to Japan, a trip to Europe, traveling around the state, singing at BYU, which included concerts for the prophet a couple of times, being involved in a national honor choir, etc. The pic below is from the trip to Europe. Ah Paris!

10 years ago...

I was just coming home from my mission to Florida Tampa/Orlando spanish speaking. Another shocker for my parents was my decision to head out on a mission. Although feeling pretty good at my abilities as a singer, I was no where close to going up to strangers and telling them my feelings in another language. Ha! I'm sure my trainor on the mission thought I was so strange. I made her do all the talking although I could speak spanish better (she went out as an english speaking missionary and was changed after she got there to spanish speaking, can you imagine?).

I came home to a fairly empty house, although the airport was CRAZY full of family, my immediate family were all out on missions. Steve had left in the summer for Peru and Kate had left days before I got home to the MTC for her mission to Argentina! It was 3 years before I saw Kate and a little more than that for Steve! We were all out on missions for like 10 days! Poor mom and dad!

I came home a few days before Christmas and I remember I was FREEZING! After the warm weather (warm... what am I saying, more like roasting hot) of Florida the cool winters in California had me shivering. I remember staying in the bathroom after a hot shower taking in the warm humid air. I never EVER took my coat off that winter!

5 years or so ago...

I moved from my favorite city, Redding, to Sacramento! I stayed with my parents at first, down in Elk Grove and attended junior college CRC where I picked up more musical techniques and info, studied and spoke spanish (I even worked in the language lab... got paid I mean), and learned how to use an SLR camera. I took pretty much every fun class I could think of, not taking me any closer the goal of graduation, but definitely keeping me busy and enjoying it as I went. I started on in the admin department at BFBA (where I currently work) to earn some extra dough. Who knew I would stick it out here so long!?

I've gone through a slew of roommates in the last five years! Most are married and have kids now! Which is why I have opted for a non-LDS roommate. She is very respectful, but I don't think she is going to run off with any guy she has been dating for a couple of months and get married, like some of my other roommates. I've met some FANTASTIC people through all my adventures in housing! and of course the occasional Pig Pen wannabe... I've learned SO much about myself and I've really learned some amazing things from my roommates/friends.

Also around five years ago I became an Aunt Jenna! As you may have gathered from previous posts, I'm in LOVE with my nephews and now my beautiful niece! I had the priveledge of being there for the birth of my nephew (no better birth control)! Kate was such a nervous wreck. She couldn't relax and was constantly listening for that fast fluttering heart beat! When Tyler finally made his appearance, it was like he'd been part of the family forever. He is such a beautiful loving boy! I love hanging out with him and I hope he will always want to hang out with his Aunt Jenna! Its GREAT being an aunt, all the love, hardly any work!

A little less than 5 months ago...

I was able to meet the newest addition to the Fink Family tree! Baby Bella! It's SO different than with the boys! She's still so young that I don't know what to make of her yet, but I love love LOVE holding that little heater! She is SO soft and cuddly, when she's asleep, she's pretty wiggly when she's awake, but I think she starting to get to know her Aunt Jenna. Good thing Kate's an Aunt this time! She's got to have an that'll take her shopping!

5 things on my to do list for tomorrow...

1. Exercise - it's Saturday and its fast becoming a tradition to run the American River trail and go to breakfast at Denny's with Kate, Mom and Dad.

2. Clean up - my bedroom looks like a tornado passed through, well rather, sat there for a day or two to reak havoc in my room and then moved on. Who could the tornado be?

3. Read the end of the Lovely Bones. I keep getting distracted. Really it is a good book that I've been reading for too long!

4. Make sure my nephews get enough sugar. What else are aunts for!

5. Weights - my trainor has been on me for not doing more strength training.

5 things people don't know about me...

1. I never sleep with the covers over my feet... even in winter! They also dangle off the end of the bed... on purpose. I think it was because I used to be affraid of having my feet hang over the edge and be uncovered... I couldn't let the monsters under the bed win and I've been sleeping like that since.

2. I can say good morning/day in probably 15 languages... what good that does I don't know, I can at least be polite in the morning in all those countries! Guten morgan! Ohiogozimas! Bon jour! Bon Journo! Buenos Dias! Not actual spelling!

3. I LOVE comedy! If they could edit out all the crude humor I would be at comedy shows 24/7! No better remedy than a good laugh, even on your own!

4. The outdoors is my favorite place to be. I, unfortunately, am too lazy to get out there as much as I would like, but there is nothing better than the smell of fresh air.

5. I'm affraid of swimming in the ocean. I don't like swimming where something might eat me, call me crazy.

5 bad habits....

1. Lazy... I have SO many things I want to accomplish it makes me too tired to do any of them!

2. Foodie...this goes with out saying, if you like to eat, it will eventually show up in your dress sizes!

3. Opinionated... this could go up in the things people might not know about me, because I may not tell you what I think, but I definitely have an opinion about it.

4. Don't work enough at work... hehe... I'm doing this post at work... whoops!

5. Bad at cell phones - I don't call people back... I answer the phone SO much at work that it puts me off answering any phones at any other time... plus I HATE talking on the phone... much better to talk in person. So, if you've been the victim of my unreturned phonecalls, drop by, I'll definitely talk to you then, well maybe.

5 places I've lived...

1. Provo, UT

2. Kissimmee, FL

3. Redding, CA

4. Elk Grove, CA

5. Sacramento, CA

Tag people... No.