This little guy is one of my very favorites to photograph! He is such a great baby and absolutely adorable to top it off.

I had the pleasure of doing birthday pictures for this cute little guy. We got some with Momma & Daddy and some of him by himself. He was full of smiles! Then we brought out the cake and he was down to business! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a little one eat so much cake, but it was there and he wasn’t about to stop. Here is a fun collage I put together with the cake pictures. I’ll be posting more of this cutie soon.

It’s a new year and our family is wishing you the best for 2010!

I finally decided to update the images in the galleries on my main website and was shocked at how behind I really was. I had not added any pictures from any of my session over the past year and a half! I started this web log and neglected my site. Oops! It took me a while to narrow it down to the images that are there now, but with a little help I managed. I also had to update my pricing structure slightly, as my cost of goods have risen. You can find all of that information and more at www.photographymoments.com.

I finally got a few of our family pictures edited from our trip to San Diego last October. One of these days I just may get caught up on editing all of my personal images. Maybe.

From our family to yours, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas and the New Year brings all you could hope for!

I just have to brag on my kids a little…

The National PTA has a program in the schools called “Reflections.” It is an art competition and there are several categories that the kids can enter for a specific theme each year. This year, the theme is “Beauty Is…” The projects must be completely done by the kids and the winners at the school level will be moved up to the council level and potentially all the way to the national level. This year all 3 of the kids did paintings of a beach scene on a 16×20 canvas, inspired by our trip to California. I can’t wait to get them all back so I can hang them together in my bedroom! Annika and James also had submissions in additional categories. James did an awesome picture of a beautiful sunset! It is another one I can’t wait to get the print back so I can frame and hang it:

Annika’s second entry is in the TV/Video category. She wanted to enter in both the literature and photography categories, but found out last year that those are two of the most common ones. She realized that she would have a better chance in a category with fewer entries and figured out a way to incorporate both of those things she loves to do:

I can’t wait to see how all three of them do in the competition!

It’s that time of the year again! I love Halloween. I love coming up with fun costume ideas with the kids. I love making them. I love the great memories of Halloween that I have from when I was a kid. This year Chase and Annika knew exactly what they wanted to be.

Annika decided on Cleopatra. The hard part about her costume was that it has to be able to be layered underneath for the cold Utah Halloween nights. Here’s what we ended up making for her. She loves it — but then she loves pretty much anything that I would consider (how do I nicely put it?…) tacky. I think it works on a Halloween costume, though:

Chase’s current favorite movies include Toy Story and Toy Story 2. He went back and forth on being Buzz Lightyear and Zurg for a bit but decided on Zurg because he has a really cool laser blaster gun. I confess — I bought his costume from the Disney Store. It would have cost me twice as much to make it (and to make it as warm as this one is) so I broke down and purchased it. Yes, I am quite certain my Grandma was looking down from Heaven saying “Shame on you!” So to make up for it I made him his really cool laser blaster gun complete with flashlights for the lasers. Chase informed me later that Zurg’s gun really shoots little balls, but I have a feeling he will appreciate the extra lights when we are walking around Halloween night.

James was more difficult. First he wanted to be a lizard. (We still can’t figure where that came from.) Then he wanted to be a werewolf. Not just the teen-wolf one, but the full on big furry scary dog one. That fur is major $$$ and I knew it would drive him crazy wearing that all over his body (he takes after his Daddy and does not like being hot!) so we searched and searched for ideas for something else. We finally came up with a winner. He even won “Most Creative” at the school Halloween Carnival last night. He was thrilled!

At the last minute, I decided that I couldn’t go without dressing up this year (and didn’t want to be the same thing I was the last two years.) I wanted something quick and simple, so I decided on a black cat. James took this picture of me:

Happy Halloween everyone!

Annika and I had so much fun with Taylor the other day — She totally spoiled me by making my job way too easy! It was so hard to narrow down my favorites to just a few because they all turned out so great. Enjoy your Senior Year, Taylor, and enjoy your Senior Portraits!

This morning the song “Let Them Be Little” by Billy Dean came on the radio. It was after I had taken the kids to school and I had an empty and very quiet house. I almost started to cry! A couple lines in the song say “Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle. Oh, and let them be little.” Chase is growing out of the stage where he comes and climbs in our bed in the middle of the night. On the occasions that he does, we love to snuggle together. James is at the age where he thinks he should act a certain way — to not show so much emotion towards me in front of his friends. We use to have this little hand signal and word that was just between us and I have noticed that he is less interested in them any longer. Annika is still just as sweet as ever but is getting so grown-up. She asked me to fix her hair up for her today for school. She looked so beautiful — so I had to take some pictures. Just stay sweet forever Darling!

After football practice yesterday, James requested a certain location to do some pictures of him. He was already wearing his game uniform from the team pictures we did earlier in the day, so who was I to turn him down? As I look at these, I can’t believe how big he is getting! He (and his brother and sister) is growing up way too fast! Can’t we just slow down time and keep them young and sweet and innocent a while longer?

And here is a storyboard I am offering to the players as part of a fundraiser for James’ team:

Chase started Kindergarten this week. I now have all 3 of my children in school full-time. It’s crazy — I don’t feel old enough for this! Chase was kind enough to humor me while I took a few pictures of him tonight… 5 to be exact. That was his stipulation. I miss him terribly during the day and will be so sad the day he forgets to tell me “I will miss you SO VERY much, Mommy!” when I drop him off at school. In my mind, I hear his sweet voice telling me that in my ear all day long until he gets off the bus and he says “I missed you so, so, so much today while I was at school!” That has been the ritual these last three days. I hope it lasts forever! *I love you Chasey!*

It’s pictures like this next one where I can really see that he’s growing up:

Congratulations to Candace and Mike — What a cute couple they are! Annika and I headed out to some beautiful gardens yesterday for their engagement session. Here’s a sneak peak for you guys…

(Yes, pun intended.)

Q: What happens to zucchini when you go on vacation?

A: They keep right on growing!

Here’s another one for you…

Q: What happens when you cross someone who hasn’t waterskiied in 15 years with someone who has little experience driving a boat?

A: Well, I got a mighty big bruise! Ouch!!!

Justin has been counting down to the beginning of college football season and James is looking forward to his first game next Saturday. Here are a couple quick snaps of my big, tough boy. (Okay, actually he is one of the smallest out there but he’s doing great!)

And here’s what happens when you tell a bunch of little kids to go run into each other as fast as they can…

Seriously.

I have spent the day packing for my kids to go spend two weeks with their grandparents, as they do each summer. Between sorting through clothes and figuring out which toys to pack, I decided it was time to take a break. I found these family pictures that we did on Father’s Day (yes — I forgot all about them for a while!) and thought it was the perfect time to post them. Kids, we will miss you and all the noise and chaos that comes with you! Daddy and I love you very much!!!

You can’t see here how out of breath I am from running from the camera and trying to get set and look “normal” in just a few seconds… (for some reason my nifty little remote doesn’t like to work when I am using my strobes)

Annika loves the camera tilt…

So sweet…

Two of my boys. Chase wanted no part of it after so many tries it took to get the family pictures done right.

James wanted to take charge of the camera and got this…

And then the camera went back into Annika’s hands…

I wanted some pictures with Chase and he agreed — as long as he could have his back to the camera! We got a ton of pictures of the back of head before I could sneak him around enough to get these…

Have a great time, kids! I will think about you every second of every day! Love, Mommy