Newly born

Had the chance to photograph cute little G, the newest addition to Chris and Scarlet's little family. So much fun and such beautiful subjects to work with. The light (and weather come to think of it) was beautiful and allowed us to shoot with plenty of available light indoors. Here's a little sneak peek. Hope you enjoy!

My life

Being a mother is hard. But when I see that my daughter has done something like this, it makes my day:



She has obviously learned that babies (such as herself) like raisins.

#24- Eat at Cafe Rio

While this completion of a goal is not photography related, my purpose for including it was to help me get back to Utah and the delicious yummyness that is Cafe Rio. At the time I made these 101 goals I did not know when I would be in Utah next. Luckily, my brother's wedding was in Salt Lake City and thus I was able to eat at Cafe Rio three times in December. :) For those of you who have never been to this restaurant you must go!!! Plan a trip to Park City to ski in the winter or to hike and bike in the summer if you must. Once you go I promise it will be the only restaurant you will want to eat at.

Cafe Rio has three basic menu items to choose from: Enchiladas, Salads and Burritos. There are a few sides here and there but these are the big three. You walk in (and usually have to wait in line because so many people share similar love affairs with the restaurant) and once to the front of the line you are at a glass plexi-glass wall similar to Subway where you can see them putting together your meal. You tell the person what you want, the type of beans and whether you're going to have meat or not. Slowly you walk down the line and tell the various employees what you would like to have: sauces, lettuce, salsa, dressings, guacamole, lime, tortilla chips, etc.

I always get a veggie salad with shredded lettuce, pico, guac, sour cream, tortilla chips on top and their famous creamy tomatillo dressing.

For those in the DC region I read an article about two weeks ago that said that Cafe Rio will be in Washington DC by the end of 2010. You can be sure that I will be making a trip up to the Nation's Capital to visit. :)

Time for reflection

As we are all aware the beginning of January is a time for reflection about the upcoming year and what each one of us wants to accomplish. I am actually one who gets very excited about the new year and about creating goals that can realistically be accomplished. I'm a BIG list person. I have post its all over the place and love being able to cross something off of my google calendar.

Ten years ago in 1999 I was barely 19 (my birthday is the 31st of December) and my family and I spent New Year's Eve with close family friends. At their home we created "time capsules" to be opened ten years later. We put in a picture of ourself, any magazine or newspaper clippings we wanted to include and any other "important" items we felt necessary to put in. I am slightly embarrassed to say that when I opened the box up there were NUMEROUS pictures of Celine Dion as well as pictures of my then on/off (more off) boyfriend and something you might call a love letter from him stashed inside.

Oh gosh... as I read through the things I had written about where I was in 1999 I realized that luckily many things had changed. But I also came to the conclusion that a lot of things about me had not changed. And that worried me. I went for a run on snow packed roads the next day and struggled to get a good solid grip in the snow. While running I thought about what I would write and put in a time capsule to be opened in 2020. And I wondered if I would still have the same "unchanged" characteristics that have carried through since 1999.

You may remember my 101 goals to do in 1001 days. Well, I'm making progress! I realized this past week that these goals I made for myself last year may just be what I need to help overcome the unwanted characteristics that I've been carying around for ten+ years now. Do any of you feel this way? Is there any characteristic that strongly sticks out to you which you would like to change?

I am going to be sharing with you some of the goals I have been able to accomplish in the coming days. So to everyone reading, Happy New Year (ten days late) and best wishes with your goals!

This is an image from New Year's Day 2010. It had stormed the previous day and when we awoke the sun was peeking through the clouds and there was of all crazy things, a rainbow. :)

Goal #94- Shoot my brother's wedding

When I was choosing the 101 goals to do in 1001 days my brother was not married but I was hoping he would be before March of 2012 :). Well, Dale was married this past Saturday to a wonderful girl named Leisa in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple of the LDS Church. I was so excited (and slightly nervous!!) to photograph their wedding. And despite the 20 degree weather and 15 mph wind chill it was a beautiful day. I edited the images below on a laptop so I hope that the colors aren't too far off. Thank you Dale and Leisa for allowing me to capture this special day for you! Enjoy Spain!

I was lucky to arrive at the Temple as the sun was coming up.

These two were so happy the entire day!

We came around this side and the wind literally just sucked the breath out of us.

Love how this one turned out!

So beautiful and so happy!

The smartest thing Leisa did was choose to wear snow boots instead of regular shoes.

Gorgeous!

Thanks for being such a good sport Leisa and taking your cape off for this one! :)

LOVE you both so much!! Welcome to the family Leisa!

The winner.....

Is letter "F"! Coming in second was letter "O" (votes are still coming in but sadly they stopped counting after 8 pm Central time) and third was letter "L". Congratulations to Coleen and her family. I know she did a MASSIVE blitz on facebook to get the votes. The families of letter "O" and letter "L" will also win an 8x10 of their choice so please contact me!

Contest just in time for the holidays!

****Contest is closed*****

I wanted to do a contest for those families who helped make this first year in business so great! Each one hired and trusted me enough to capture their family dynamics and for that I am grateful. I have grown so much this year and I hope to continue to grow into 2010 and beyond.

To say thank you to my families I have chosen my favorite images from family sessions and included them in this post for you all to vote on in the comments section. The contest starts now and will end Sunday December 6th at 8pm Central time. Each person may vote once so pick your favorite! The winning image will receive a $100 print credit (digital images and holiday cards excluded). So get voting and spread the word so that your image can win! :)

**Please leave your name along with your comment. :) Thanks!!**

1 (this one is a number b/c it was a late addition)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

Thank you once again to my wonderful families. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!