St. Patrick's Day Parade

{March 19th}

We've made it a family tradition to hit up the St. Patty's parade/festival in Springdale every year. It's always a good time! This year we went down with some friends and had a ton of fun. It was both girl's first time seeing a parade and they both LOVED it.

The girls all ready to go!

We thought we missed the parade, but when we got down there it hadn't even started yet, so we grabbed some lunch at Oscar's. (am I the only person who hates Oscars?? What is good there? I always order the wrong thing!)

Then it was off to the parde.. the floats were very creative. I was impressed :) I especially loved the man on a donkey (mule?) with a sign that said "My Ass Is Irish". That was my favorite.

Daddy bought us some necklaces from some old ladies selling them at a booth.. nice until EVERY SINGLE float gave them away for free! haha- those old ladies know how to make a quick buck. It was good though, they were a hit. Even Stelly got one and thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Stelly enjoys the parade with Daddy while she munches on her necklace

The kids all had so much fun. Harlo couldn't believe all the candy.. she didn't even know what to do with it. She just kept handing it to Shawni (NOT mommy.. she's too smart for that!) she ate about two pieces and forgot to ask for more after the parade was over. :)

Me and my one true love ;)

We walked back to the car and I remembered we never got a family picture (some photographer I am! I swear..) So we improvised. 'A' for effort?

Both girls skipped naps and actually did pretty well! I was pleasantly surprised. We just had to have a quick change and snack and we headed back home.

Stella was kept entertained by Harlo playing peek-a-boo the whole way back. Thank goodness! Giggles and squeals are always funner than screaming and tears in the car. :D

A successful trip, for sure! Can't wait til next year!

Best Birthday Ever

So I know my birthday was a whole month ago now, but I tend to celebrate for at least that long... this year was no exception. The morning of my actual birthday was a Sunday, so like every sunday we went to Auntie's house for breakfast.

I got to open my presents.. My girls gave me the cute earrings pictured below and the rest of my wonderful family and friends went in on a one-on-one mentoring session with my IDOL, Becky Earl. I was so surprised and so excited... the best gift I've ever been given. For sure! Inside a big box was a little card that Becky had made up for me explaining the date and time of the mentorship and all that fun stuff. My cute hubby had it all set up.. the getaway, the babysitter, the date and times... I didn't have to worry about any of it! So, so fun.

We had a lazy sunday the rest of the day.. Brady and I were supposed to go to a matinee movie and Al was staying to watch the kids, but our movie was sold out so instead we went and got some in-n-out and headed back home. Bummer about the movie, but it was fun anyway. :)

Later we met up at my house and went to Cafe Rio for dinner. Just my sis and dad and a few friends and of course my little fam. It was just simple and fun. Exactly what I wanted. :)

For some reason we can never get a cute picture.. but here was the best of about 10- ha.

After dinner we came back for a yummy cake Auntie made me. Harlo helped with the candles.

And of course, pop played me the "happy birthday, cassidy, your birthday is today!" song :) Harlo loved every minute of that.

side note: Harlo is OBSESSED with the happy birthday song and sang it to me every minute of the day.. and also for the rest of the week. love that girl!

make a wish!

{March 11}

The day we headed up for the Becky Earl class just happened to be our 4 year dating anniversary. I don't think it was planned like that... but let's just say it was and give Mr. Miller some extra points :) We drove up remembering our first few days together and what we did and what was said and where we were.. it was very fun. Also- just TWO DAYS before my mentorship session, I was able to get my new camera (aka, the love of my life!) my Canon 5D Mark II. I had no idea it would come together so fast, but i sold my old 7D like the second I thought about it and was able to get my new one. If it didn't sound so cheesey, I'd say that my new Mark II completed my life. Okay, there. I said it. Don't hate! ;) I hadn't really been able to use it that much, so I was messing around with it on the way up... it was nearly dark, and I didn't have a lot to work with inside the car, but I got some kinda fun shots anyway. :) and I could KICK myself, because I didn't get a picture of me and B together the rest of the trip, which was SO fun. We just had a late dinner in Provo, the next day we went to the mall and got ourselves both a pair of Toms... just hung out and shopped around. So nice. And SO something we never get to do. It was our first trip away from the girls and we just ate it all up.. It was so nice ot know the girls were safe at home being well taken care of by Auntie. (And Nana too for a bit!)

At 12:00 noon on the 12th, I met Becky at the amazing Yan's Studio in downtown Provo. It was right nexto to an Einstein's bagels (my absolute fave) where Becky treated me to lunch. This is where we were supposed to talk about cameras and business, but instead we talked about natural birth.. you know how I love to talk about natural birth and Becky was the perfect candidate to hear all about it since she, herself, is planning for one. We were a match made in pregnancy/photography heaven! <3 After our lunch, we went back to the studio where her daughter, Sadie came to pose as our AMAZING model. THis girl.. I'm telling you. What a pro! We got some amazing shots and had an absolute BLAST. (again I could KICK myself because I didn't have Brady get a picture of Becky and I!! I seriously wanted to cry on the way home after realizing... what an idiot, I am!!)

After our time at and around the studio, we headed back to Becky's to edit our pictures and talk more about business. It was the most amazing day! I learned so, so much from Becky. She was SOOOo cool. The whole way up to Provo I had butterflies.. to me it felt like hanging with a celebrity for the day. I have followed Becky's work for years now and to finally meet her was so amazing, then to become friends was even MORE amazing! She was just so down-to-earth and helpful, and complimentory... I am still in shock that it was actually real. It could not have gone better! THE BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER! Serious... there's no toppin' this one. As if my day couldn't get any better.. my sister, Angie had given birth just two days prior which made our timing impeccable! What was even more impeccable was that Angie's milk had not come in quite yet and her babe was getting just a little hungry.. and I happened to be busting at the seams with milk since I had no baby all day to nurse and not a lot of time to pump; so Brady had a genius idea for me to nurse Tage and Angie happily obliged. Obviously so did I.. there's not a lot of opportunities in a lifetime that you can do your sister a solid like nursing her baby! It was a special moment. (If this sounds crazy or silly to you.. you probably don't have a sister. Sisters are the best. There's just nothin' like 'em.) And of course, I had to snap a few shots of the sweet little muffin with my new camera and my newly learned skills... as if I needed any of that, he is an absolute BEAUTY.

Tage James Meyer

So yes, my birthday was bursting with joy! I am still recovering from all the activities a whole month later. To see more pictures of Tage and more to come of Sadie, you can check out my blog.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! to all who made this amazing trip possible. We couldn't have done it without you! I am ETERNALLY greatful.

And to you, Miss Becky Earl, you totally rock. THANK YOU!!

xo- Cass

Let Them Eat Puffs

The shirt says it all...

Today my little goosey started doing this:And she's mighty proud of herself!

I love this little lady!

Letters to Auntie: St. Patrick's Day

Dear Auntie,

Are you having so much fun? How was your St. Patrick's day? We didn't do anything too crazy, but it was still good.

I had a long night of waking up with cough attacks and decided to pretend I was in New York for the day, and if I was in New York, what would I do first? So, I wrapped my girl's up and headed to Starbucks. Harlo asked for "oatmew" the whole time even after I explained she could eat a special donut for breakfast. She got an apple fritter and she took oen bite out of it and asked for "oatmew".

So we headed home and got ourselves some oatmew. Elmo joined her for breakfast, how nice! {About 10 minutes after this I was wiping bites of "oatmew" out of Elmo's felt mouth. :) }

Then after I got her dressed in her green tank top for st. patrick's day, she asked me a million times if she could have a bite of Stella's breakfast like she always does, and she was happy when she got the last few bites. With a green spoon and a bowl.. for st. patrick's day :) Oh! She also is loving bibs lately and pronounces them "bee-ab" since she turns on the accent every once in a while.

I moved my coffee table out of the room after the 10th time Stella rolled into it or got trapped under it. (nice.) and Harlo is loving all the room to dance and utilize the space.

Then she thought she would give Minnie a lesson in brushing teeth.. I thought this was so cute and silly until about 10 minutes after this, I barely caught Dolly mid-dive into the toilet. Close!

Stella got to wear the St. Patrick's shirt Harlo wore last year. I still think it's cute and harlo sang the 'Rainbow Song' all day because of it. :)

At lunchtime, harlo asked for a "pe-a-butter sammich" which I made her the day before and she tore it apart and licked off the "pe-a-butter" and told me the jelly was yuck. I decided to get creative and see if she woud like banana...

She loved it! Ate the entire thing, then asked for it for dinner again. Finally found a lunch food she'll eat!
Then after lunch she rocked her baby for a second while she watched a little Yo Gabba.

After naps, I dropped Harlo off at Brady's work so I could go to the store with just one baby.. we tried to go the other day with me by myself and it didn't work out so well. I'm too used to having an Auntie around! We thought we'd do something slightly festive and have bratwurst for dinner. Nana and Papa joined us. Ruth had never heard of bratwurst, weird huh. Harlo liked them too, my girl.

Then Harlo helped Nana do the dishes

{Notice the peace sign necklace she wont take off... it's broken twice already and it was a slight panic attack each time}
And B helped, too.

While me and the busy-bot just watched. It was nice. :)

I'm sure yours was a little more fun than ours. Can't wait to hear all about it!

Miss you!

XO

letters to auntie

Dear Auntie,

We miss you around here! Are you having fun on your trip? I didn't want you to miss the girls too much, so here's what's going on here:
Yesterday was.. interesting. BOTH the girls decided they were not napping today. About five minutes after putting Harlo down, she yelled from her room, "all done napping." I had just gotten Stella to sleep in my arms when she heard Haro say "all done napping" and now STella, herself, was "all done napping."
So.. we watched "memo" in my room where Harlo asked me for "oatmeaw" a billion times and then asked for "Woody" instead of "Memo." And then I called Brady at 4 and asked if he would please come home right this second and he said probably not. Oh, and she also settled for "cheese like elmo" for a snack. whew.
After that, I changed Harlo and she asked me to sit in her kitchen while she made me "a-nack".

It was delicious.
Then, she poored me some "coppee" {If you're wondering why her lips are doing that in every picture, it's because that's the sound of "thhhhhhhhh" the teapot pooring the coffee}

It, too, was delicious. Both the sound, and pretend taste.

I made up some enchiladas and Brady came home a little bit early to help me out (not 4:30 kinda help out, but good enough) and so we had just enough time to take a drive to see if Stella would take a cat nap.

All set!

Remember us? We miss you too!

Before we got to the driving range, Stella was like this:

I bet you're missing this right now:

We made it home just in time to get the bubbly enchiladas out of the oven.

Brady has taken over your job while you're away :)

Then we did a sink tubby and were all in bed by 8! {Nice job on the photos, Dad! you would think he just went to the beck yearl workshop!}

Missing You Madly,

XO