the white family

this morning i got to do portraits with the white family. we did most of them indoors, and a couple outside their home. i love the in-home sessions because they're so much more personal! i got to see the kids play their instruments, which i wouldn't have been able to do elsewhere, and i just feel that overall everyone is more comfortable!










this was a father's day present if you can believe it!

riley turns 2!

i did portraits of the mcmenomy's last christmas. their little boy riley turns 2 in a couple weeks, so they wanted some portraits of just him. since its so hot outside, we decided to do them inside their home. they have a beautiful home in scottsdale, and lots of fun things for riley to show me! he is such an independent little boy, and very active!


riley pulled his little chair up to the wall, and i was so busy taking pictures that i didn't realize what he was playing with until the house alarm went off!










i'm so glad i could see you both again, and happy 2nd birthday riley!

heather and jeff's guest book

i just finished another guest book design for Heather and Jeff who are getting married in September.

CLICK HERE to check it out!

utah for me...

as you can see, i was VERY busy in utah. i stayed with my grandparents, and i felt bad because i hardly got to see them. but what time we did spend together was great. i haven't gotten to see them as often as i'd like, and my kids always have so much fun with grandma!

we all spent many of the evenings out on the balcony which has an amazing view of BYU campus below. my grandma and i went out one night before it was even dusk, and we watched the sunset and finally went in when it was pretty much completely dark! it was nice to just sit and talk in the cool evenings - especially since i don't get many of those here in az.


my sister took a picture for us so that we could have all of us together. my kids obviously don't know what to do when someone besides me is taking the picture - they both seem a little confused ;)

i am so grateful to my grandparents that i was able to stay with them, and that they put up with my crazy schedule! thanks guys!

annjalee is here!

you may remember michelle's maternity shoot from a couple months ago... and annjalee has finally arrived! she was SO tiny and had a full head of thick hair. michelle had tons of beautiful blankets to play around with, which gave us some fun backgrounds.






parker was very excited to do his individual shots again, and was only interested in the silly ones :)

jamie and ron

jamie and ron are getting married in september. we decided to brave the heat and do the engagement pictures last week :) i'm looking forward to their wedding which will be at a very unique place called shenendoah mill.

utah 2007

that is it for my utah portrait sessions! i had such a great time working with all these amazing families and locations. i'll see you all next time!

the tuttle family!

carrie tuttle was able to get her whole family together for some big family photos. i'm sure it wasn't easy to coordinate everyone's schedules, so i'm glad it worked out! we did some big group photos, followed by some with the kids and their grandparents, and ended up with some of just carrie's family...

the blackham family

i hope i'm not overwhelming anyone with a million posts all at once! i know the rest of my utah clients are dying to see their pictures, so i figured i would get them up as soon as i could! i also have some arizona shoots to post, so i'll keep them coming!

this is the blackham family. they brought some grandparents for reinforcements, and we played with bubbles and ran around the park.

the lebaron family

i met the lebaron's at an AMAZING house in holladay. we did a lot of fun family pictures that i love! i do a couple posed portraits, but i love the more natural ones, so you'll notice on my blog that i usually post those. we got a lot of unique family portraits with the lebarons...








it was unusually hot while i was in utah, and it was a little much during this session, so we headed inside. i loved the light in this room with all the windows and the stained glass!






so happy with dad!

the ficker family

this is the ficker family. laney is such a sweet little girl, and kept me moving the whole time. she is going to be a big sister in the fall! her mom mandy looks so cute with her tiny belly! you may remember taylor and craig's engagement shoot, well, mandy is craig's sister. i am shooting that wedding in august, so it'll be fun to see the whole family again!










i love little profiles!

the olsens

i would like to start by saying THANK YOU to the olsens for allowing me to use their backyard (aka the garden of eden) for a couple portrait shoots! and for entertaining my kids during those shoots and many more!

you'll probably recognize these kids, because the first three are boys that i have done quite a few times. jace, parker and james have been good friends of ours for a couple years. you have also seen ezra around christmas time when i did their family portraits, but his mom was still pregnant at the time, so i hadn't seen little luke yet!



and by the way, these are the grandparents, not the parents if you can believe that!

the slikker girls!

i know i say this about everyone, but i really had fun with these girls! we did some posed stuff first, and they they changed clothes and just played around.

the johnson family

let me tell you - these little girls were literally doing laps around the location we were at. and not small laps. huge laps around the whole area which included running up a big hill! i thought they would wear out after a couple, but they didn't!



check out these cheeses!




okay, i know. i have a feet fetish. i just can't help it! they are all so cute and little!



every year for the girls' dance recitals, its a disney theme. this year it was mulan...


and cricket.

kennady

kennady was just adopted by her new family a couple weeks ago. she is so precious! i love her big lips!

these first few are in her mom's blessing dress. she looks like a little doll! she was asleep when we started her portraits, and her mom tried everything, but she DID NOT want to wake up!

the chamberlain cousins

these are the chamberlain cousins. we enjoyed wandering around the park and playing together. i love all the relationships between the cousins!










i loved them all looking at baby kennady!

the grosclaude family

the grosclaude's were a very close family and you could really tell they enjoyed each other! they had really sweet relationships with each other that made shooting really fun!



they were also pretty goofy ;)

taylor and craig's engagement book

just a little interruption in the utah sessions... i just finished taylor and craig's engagement guest book, and it turned out great! if you've never seen one, its such a cool idea - guests can sign around or over pictures and then the couple can actually display the book rather than those normal guest books that you will never look at again! these can be made out of family portrait sessions, or engagement sessions. the finished book is a hardback with a linen cover, and it is 8x11.

CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of the pages!

the hadlock family

the hadlock family was really fun to shoot. we met at this gorgeous park/garden, and just played!










my FAVORITE shot of the day!!!

avery meghan

this is little avery, the daughter of my good friend jodee. jodee and rob lived next to us in our first apartment in az, and we got to be really good friends. i MISS her so much, and was so glad to see her in utah - and of course to do pictures of avery!






i love these little leg warmers and slippers!!



jodee is an interior designer and she had gorgeous colors and light throughout her whole house!






great to see you jod - lets do it again soon!

cousins!

chesney and taci brought their kids together to have portraits done of the cousins together. the kids were so sweet together!

welcome to utah!

this week i had the opportunity to go to utah for some portrait shoots. i appreciate all the interest in my photography, and i look forward to posting a couple from all the amazing families in the days to come!

the first session was the poulton family. these girls are so precious! and their mom jen even made some tutus and brought balloons for some fun props during the girls' individual portraits!

what a week!

i know it has been awhile since i last posted. you might think i was slacking off, but that is definitely NOT the case! owen was gone again for work, and after last time, i promised myself i was just going to stick to my normal responsibilities instead of some crazy surprise. well, halfway through his trip i decided that i could handle painting my master bathroom. my bathroom is not big by any means, but it does have vaulted ceilings which make for some fun painting. its also fun when you do two complete coats and at 1:30 AM, you decide you don't like the color. and by that time, you have to fix it, you can't just leave it as is! so i got up early the next morning (the day he was getting home!) and found a new color at home depot. oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i also decided to rip off the old light fixture in the bathroom and replace that as well! once again, at that point, its already ripped off the wall, so you have to put something back up! in the end it turned out really well, so i'm happy, but worn out ;)

and lastly, it was blake's birthday party today, so we had all that planning and shopping to do for it. it ended up going really well! i knew it would be hot, so i planned a water party with water balloons, squirt guns, and popsicles. the kids had a blast, and all the grown-ups got into the fun as well! they aren't the most artistic pictures because the party was pure madness, and half the time i was shielding my camera from water, but you get the idea!

this is tyler as she aimed for my camera with her squirt gun...


the big kid that all the little kids are aiming at is my wonderful husband. i have to say, he was the life of the party! things definitely would not have been as fun without him! don't you love the little boy blocking with the big football?! owen made me buy a super soaker for him so that he could get all the kids drenched.

blake getting some help blowing out his candle from a friend

i really don't know what this is, but i had to put it in. i tried to explain why we don't put our feet on our plates, but she didn't seem to mind.

the only "CARS" pinata they had was a pull-string pinata. i had never even heard of these! in fact, i was completely confused at the store when i asked if you were supposed to hang it by the strings. i guess someone came up with a safer idea than blindfolding a kid and giving them a metal bat. anyway, each kid pulls a string and eventually the candy comes out.



that's it for now! be prepared for TONS of blogging in the near future!

alex and ryan

i shot this wedding with melissajill a couple weeks ago, and have taken FOREVER to get it posted! it was at the beautiful secret garden. alex and ryan and everyone in the bridal party were so nice, and it was such a fun day!


the bride was totally prepared. she wanted to relax while they were getting ready so she brought uno!



alex had a pretty complicated bustle!



the ring bearer was SO cute!