Baptism Portraits (Utah Family Photographer)

These pictures were so fun!  It was FREEZING the day we went out to take these but this sweet little girl was an angel!  No complaints out of her!  It was 17 degrees in Provo the morning we went to take these photographs, but you couldn't tell by her face, she was so good at not looking cold:)!  The sun was shining and it was such a beautiful morning!

This super cute little girl has been a great friend to our family!  Her and my daughter became friends in kindergarten and even though they don't even go to the same school anymore they love to play and spend time together!  It is so fun seeing these cute little girls growing up and choosing this wonderful step to be baptized!
I love seeing her in her white dress and her sweet countenance!  I think the flower crown was the perfect addition for this pictures!  

I ended up really liking the pictures with her blessing dress!  It was interesting taking these pictures at the new Provo Temple and seeing these dresses and all the brides coming out the door next to us!  Time just goes by so quickly and it is so important to capture these moments forever!

I love her cute little smile, she did such a awesome job with these pictures!  It was so fun to see her in her baptism dress and go down to the temple and capture these moments!  This is the reason I love taking being a family photographer times change and the kids grow so fast!  It is so important to document these special moments!

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is awesome!  I want to go up there every year!  It is beautiful and full of life and action all the time!  It was so much fun!
So this trip to Yellowstone was a little while ago, but I'm just trying to get it all on the blog!  It was over Memorial Day weekend  and the park was super busy with animals and tourists!  I could not believe how much I loved this trip!  We saw so many animals with their little babies, it was so beautiful!  It did rain a lot but when the sun was shining it made up for all the rain!

I had only been once before with my family when I was growing up, I didn't love it, but I wanted to give it another chance as an adult and not a snotty teenager.   I am so glad that we went back with my little family and were able to see so much!  We saw 5 bears(that was the coolest thing!), deer, Elk(I think), a beaver, buffalo and their little babies it was awesome!!  It is such a beautiful place I really want to go back and do more exploring and picture taking!    

Seeing a mom and her three baby bear cubs was the coolest thing ever!  I was pretty scared of going to Yellow Stone because of all the bear stories but we were in the car and there were like a milling people around, everyone was going crazy, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be!  It was pretty cool to see!  There were rangers directing the traffic and trying to keep people away from the bear(they were crazy) but it was so fun to see the cute baby bear cubs with their mom!

This is a huge Grizzly bear, or brown bear, I have no idea!  It was across the lake from us and it was pretty hard to see he looked like a big furry rock.  I thought it was so cool to see him(from far away, I'm totally scared of everything).  Whenever you get into a lot of traffic at Yellowstone that probably means there's some kind of cool animal around(or the buffalo are blocking the road).  It was so fun to be there and see all the amazing animals!

 This waterfall was beautiful!  I loved that the rainbow showed up right before we were leaving!  This is such a beautiful land we've been given to enjoy, how lucky we are!

This trip was a blast!  I've mentioned that I am not an outdoorsy girl but staying in a camper, having a toilet, and showers is my kind of camping!  I want my children to know and enjoy this beautiful world we have been blessed to live on!  I'm trying to be better about being outside and getting my family to do it with me!  It has filled my life with more purpose!

Utah Family Photographer Newborn Session

A couple weeks ago my cousin had a sweet little baby girl!  You have to understand that in my husbands family girls are a rare commodity!  There is something like 35 boys grandchildren to like 7 girl grandchildren!  So, when our cousin found out she was having a girl it was pretty big news for the family!  

It is so fun to have a new sweet little person fresh from heaven!  This little girl was perfect during the photo shoot!  She is perfect for this family!

So normally I don't do a lot of newborn photography I like to stick with family photography but doing this for family it was a really low pressure situation(just the kind I like) and I felt like we could really take our time and try to get the shots that would be perfect for this new little person!

I'm such a sucker for the sad faces!  I think these pictures are so cute!  I love their lips and the little lines their perfect little faces make!  It's so fun to capture these little moments!

 She is such a little doll!  She is so loved by her family what a beautiful gift!!

 This blessing dress belongs to her great grandma!  It is so beautiful!  I love the simplicity of it and how timeless it is!  It is so fun to photograph meaningful family treasures!  She was the perfect model for the dress!  It was just perfect on her!

I love these pictures of these two sweet sisters!  The older sister was so excited to have a new little baby sister!  It was so fun to photograph this new (to Earth)relationship!  I love the family relationships that show up in little moments to be captured and remembered forever!  

This mom and baby photograph goes down in the books as one of my favorite!  The look they are giving one another is priceless!  Photographing these moments makes me happy, it is good for my heart!!

Baby Fall Sessions, Utah Family Photographer

I love Fall Photography Sessions, I miss them and want them back so bad!  I don't remember winter being so bad, but this year it's really killing me!  I miss the sun, and really just being outside!  Fall is just a magical time of year!  I love all the seasons, they all have a different kind of beauty to them but fall specifically is magical for me, the colors, the air, the leaves, everything is so beautiful!  Utah really knows how to put on a show (right before the winter comes and we can't go outside because the air makes our faces hurt).  It makes me appreciate the other seasons when we have a winter has long and had as this month of January!

This little guy is my youngest and is just the craziest baby you will ever meet!  He loves being active, and screaming to let you know what he wants!  He really likes to keep us on our toes!  He makes life an adventure for us and keeps his older siblings laughing all the time!  We sure love this cute little guy!

It was a lot of fun taking him out to the park to do a little photography session with him and his teddy bear.  This little teddy bear was given to him by his dad last Christmas.  He really doesn't love this teddy bear but we try to get him to love it(it's like he has a mind of his own!:))

 This kid has the best smile and laugh!  He gets a kick out of life, and keeps us all laughing with him!  In this picture his dad was throwing leaves at him and he was just loving it!  It was so funny to see how excited he got when dad would pick up more leaves!

I love those big blue eyes he's got!  I love the light and innocents that comes with these cute little people!  The really teach us so much about life and what is truly important!  

 I love these little pictures with the teddy bear because he really looks like he loves that teddy bear, mission accomplished!  I really think he just doesn't like the teddy bear because we want him to like it so bad!  

The older I get the more amazed I am at the beautiful earth we are given to live in!  I love Utah, I love the season changes and the different landscapes, we are truly blessed to have the beautiful land to live on and enjoy.  The beautiful colors along with this beautiful baby that we love so much just makes my heart happy!  

Lake Powell, Utah Family Photographer

Lake Powell, is beautiful!  I had never been down to Lake Powell until I got married to my husband.  I didn't grow up in a family that loved the water, or had boats, so this was all new to me!    I am not a water person, myself, but it's something my husband loves.  He grew up going to Lake Powell with his cousins and extended family so it's a tradition that we are trying to keep for our children!  In years past his family had a house boat for their Lake Powell trip, and let me tell you, this was not my favorite thing!  I was terrified with my kids on a house boat running around and playing and sleeping on the water.  Needless to say we only took our little kids once because it was too much for their mom!  Starting in 2015 the family decided to try bringing their motorhomes down to the beach and try Lake Powell that way, this is what convinced me to try it again!  It was so much better(for me)!  I loved it so much more!  The trip was a little bit further then before, I think it took us 6 or 7 h1ours to get down there(when before it was only 3 or 4ish), but it was totally work it in my opinion!  Not having my little kids sleep on the water, having space to run and play, it was so great!

The first morning there my husband woke me up to see the beautiful sunset one the beach!  It was truly breathtaking (but getting up at 5 in the morning was a little rough on me and I was kind of a grouch the whole day).  I am so glad he got me up because every time I look at these pictures of the sunrise it reminds me of summer, warmth and playfulness.  It was worth it to get up but sleep is something that I love!

This is what our camp looked like on Tuesday when most of the family got there.  By the weekend there were people on all sides of us!  The beach get super crowded as the week goes on, so weekends are not the best time to go!  If you want a good camping spot right by the water then make sure to get there early in the week!  

The water, the sun and the family, it doesn't get much better then this!  I actually had a lot of fun!  It was beautiful and seeing my kids playing all day in the water with family!  it is something that I wouldn't want to deprive them of!  

One of the things that made me reconsider the Lake Powell trip again(because I hated the house boat!) was when my little girl and I were shopping at Costco and she wanted to use her money to buy a lifejacket.  I reminded her that we didn't have a boat and probably wouldn't use a life jacket very often this summer, and that's when she informed me that she would need one for the Lake Powell trip!  It reminded me that even though it isn't something that I love, my children need to be given the chance to know both sides of their family and choose the traditions that will be important to them!  I'm trying to make a better effort to get out of my comfort zone and try new things so that my children can choose for themselves and their future families!

Family traditions beautiful!  I am so glad that my husbands grandma and grandpa loved to get outside and explore, and try new things!  These traditions and carrying on through the grandkids and great grandkids!  Family is such a wonderful thing to have and I want to make sure my kids are given the chance to enjoy each other and just play together!

Yay for family vacations and photography to capture these moments and memories!!

Utah Family Photographer Fall

This is my cousins little girl (she's not so little anymore)!  I had taken her pictures once before a couple years ago(for her baptism) and it is amazing to me how quickly they grow up!  Sometimes I feel like life is speeding up, and I just can't get it to slow down!  It was so fun seeing her and her mom again, life gets so busy that its great to have an excuse to pull you out of the every day life and see people you love!   It was a lot of fun being able to take her pictures and see how much she's grown and changed in just a short couple years! 

 This fall was so beautiful, it seemed like the colors lasted a little bit longer the usual and we were able to enjoy them a little longer!  That's the hard thing about winter, the white is beautiful but I miss all the reds, yellows, green, really any color other then white.  This January is killing me, but hopefully it'll help me appreciate the colors the other times of year more!

  

I love it when the light catches the eyes just right!  Beautiful eyes, beautiful fall colors, I just loved these pictures!  I feel so lucky to be able to go out and work to capture beautiful pictures!  I love the light that each person brings to the picture!  Light and life is what really makes the pictures beautiful to me!   

The yellow fall colors in the photo along with her red sweater is a beautiful color combination(in my eyes).  They compliment each other so much and her smile really makes for the perfect cherry on top.  

I say this pretty often but it's my favorite slogan: "Photography is a cure for a bad memory. "  Capture these memories, these moments, this age now!  Get your camera out and make sure you are not missing these special moments because they are fleeting!  This age, this time, today are things you will never have again!  Don't miss out, start today!!

Life is beautiful, family is beautiful, capture it!  Take family pictures!!

Yuba Lake

We ventured to Yuba Lake at the end of July.  We had never been there before so this was an exciting adventure for us!  We were a little shocked about what we found.  For some reason there was not a lot of water when we got there, and by "not a lot" one whole side of the lake was gone!  It was lower then the workers had ever seen it!   That was a little shocking to us!  

 Where we had reserved a camping spot there was no lake left.  There was a little stream running down the middle of part of it but it was crazy how little water was down there!  

There were dead big, yucky fish all over the ground,  the "go slow" wake water signs were all on the dirt ground, it kind of felt like the "end of the world" movies that you see on TV where all the water is dried up!  Well, we really didn't know how it was suppose to look so we found fun and new things to do!  We went out on some walking trails and we'd never been in a dry lake bed, so that was pretty different, and new for us!

In the picture above you can see the water lines on the rocks to compare last year to past years!  In the picture below you can see the big nasty fish that were dead all over the ground!  You really had to watch your step while walking down there because those fish were everywhere(EWW!!)

 Eww, this is one of the many dead fish that were EVERYWHERE! EWWW!!

The kids and the adults still had so much fun!  There was a whole lot of mud everywhere!  My kids are not the "play in the mud" type of kids, so it was fun to see them get dirty and have fun with their friends!  They did have stations to wash off around the camp sites so we didn't have to stay dirty for very long! It was fun to be out there, exploring new places and seeing things that we have never seen before!

 We did have one casualty, our friends that we camping with us had just bought new shoes for their 10 year old son, and he sank right in the mud with those new shoes!  We had to figure out how to get them out of the mud and they were super stuck!  We did end up getting them out, but it was a pretty sad sight for those new shoes! 

One of the best things that we did was watch one of our friends go our knee deep in mud and try to catch the big nasty fish that we swimming out there!  The fish were everywhere so he thought it wouldn't be that hard to catch one!  It was super funny to watch him and he was really close multiple times!  It was very entertaining!  It kind of felt like we were on the show "survivor" he was really practicing his skills!  It was so much fun to watch!! 

We did end up finding the lake (YAY!) it was a couple miles down the road!  When we got there it was perfect, except a little windy!  We had a Canoe and a kids Kayak that everyone played on!  The rangers told us that the wind could pull you out pretty far so be careful on those little boats.  The beach was fabulous, the sand and the sun were wonderful!  I am really missing it, especially this time of year when you only see snow all day long! 

Next year we would do it a little different.  We would just camp on the beach instead of in the camping spots, there were too far away from the fun.  I did love having the different views but it was so fun being right by the water.  So next time we would camp on the beach, and we would be ready for the wind, because it gets pretty crazy there!  It was so fun and not very far away, only about aan hour and a half from Orem.  It is definitely on my list again for this coming summer!