Happy New Year!

From my place to yours, I'm wishing you all a very Happy New Year! Thank you to all who chose me as your photographer this year. I have loved capturing your memories for each and every one of you. I also want to thank my friends and family who continue to support me as I pursue this passion.

As I look to the new year, I have set some goals for myself. I hope by writing them down here, I'll stay more accountable too.

In 2010:
#1: I'd like to attend at least two photography workshops. I am always trying to make my work better and I know there is always more to learn.

#2: I'd like to meet and reach out to other local photographers. We are a great resource for each other, and as one said the other day, there is plenty of work to go around. We don't need to be competitive. Besides it would be nice to visit with other people who are "crazy" about taking pictures too. And it would be nice to collaborate on some projects, which leads me to goal #3.

#3: I also want to continue a little project throughout the year that I heard about last fall. It's called Help-Portrait and is a movement, started by professional photographer, Jeremy Cowart, where photographers come together across the world to use their photographic skills to give back to their local communities. It's about GIVING portraits, not just TAKING them. I was fortunate to be able to share with some local families this year, but I hope by joining with other photographers next year, we can reach out to even more people and share with them beautiful portraiture. If you know of any individual, family or organization who would benefit, please contact me.

Again, thank you so much for letting me capture your lifestyle and a little bit about you and your family. I look forward to a wonderful new year!!

My Baby's First Christmas

Our Little Man enjoyed his First Christmas this year. It's hard to believe he'll be celebrating his first birthday soon too. Wow, this year has gone by fast!

Christmas Traditions

Normally this blog is about recent sessions, well, I guess it still is, just recent sessions with my own kiddos and some past memories too. So please indulge for a moment if you will.

One of our family's Christmas traditions is baking and decorating sugar cookies. I remember my mom used to make them when us kids were growing up. Then there were some years when she stopped. Probably because it was messy and she had three kids or something like that. I think it was in high school I asked if we could try them again. And we did and she hasn't stopped since. She's now kind of the cookie baking queen of the family. She's a great cookie baker and Christmas candy maker. She's known for that too. It took a few tries to find the right recipe--the one where the cookies stay soft, but oh man, once we did. Yum! Mom did the baking; I was into the decorating. I remember making all sorts of colors-the traditional ones-red for stockings, yellow for stars, green for trees-but also purple, orange and blue. We would turn circles into ornaments using different color combos. Ahh, the mems.

Every since I got married, I have also made and decorated sugar cookies. And starting at about 2 years old, MJ has been helping me. Now Little E gets in on the fun. (although I can see why my mom stopped with three young ones-it is messy. :) ) But oh the memories the girls and I share around the kitchen. It's something we look forward to each year and MJ still talks about cookies she made two years ago.

So, even though with little ones, it does get a little messy, but they are only 6 and 3 once. So, I gave them each a dough ball and let them go at it-rolling, cutting, eating. Yes, who doesn't love to sneak a little ball of cookie dough every now and then?! :)









Then Christmas Day, it was on to the decorating...











and on to the giggling...







I absolutely love these photos (courtesy of my hubs-props to him). They capture the essence of this fun time with my girls. Sometimes we get so caught up in the capturing of memories on film ourselves, we forgot to get in the moment and enjoy it. Fortunately, I got to be in front of the camera this time. Thanks hun!



and finally, on to the clean-up!

I hope you are creating special holiday memories with your families this year!

New Accordion Mini Books

These new Accordion Mini Books are the perfect gift item or to use as mini folios and brag books. Available in a wallet and a square 3x3 size, these books are printed on UV coated, art paper and have a leather or custom photo cover. The wallet Accordion Mini Books have up to 14 customizable panels and the square 3x3 has up to 10 customizable panels.

I admit these photos don't really show how cute these albums are, but trust me or give me a call and see how great these albums look in person. And the price is great too! Albums are ordered in sets of 3 for $45. So buy one for yourself, then you have two to giveaway to special friends and family! They are the perfect size to carry along.

G Family ~ Fruitland Family Photographer

Isn't this a beautiful family? They make my job easy! Miss H is a total ham and R is looking so grown up. It was a chilly December afternoon, but I don't think I really noticed until I stepped inside their warm house because we were having so much fun.

I would love to gift them a 5X7 of one of these images, so feel free to leave a comment or at least 10, and I will. Thanks G family!

W Family

It was such a cold day for this family session, but they had traveled from eastern Idaho to visit family for the weekend so we had to make it work. At one point Dad took the girls for a run in the sun to warm up. I think those were some of my favorite shots of the day. It was fun to capture them just having fun. Thanks for making it work guys. Next time we'll shoot for a warm spring day! :) Despite how cold it was and how fast we worked, I think we captured some fun memories. Tell me what you think. If this post receives 10 more comments I will gift a 5X7 portrait to this family.

9 months old

My little guy will actually be 10 months old tomorrow, but I'm finally just getting to his 9 month photos. Can't believe how much our little boy is growing. He'll be walking soon. It will be a bittersweet milestone, but I am so happy I get to have these moments with him. I feel so blessed to be able to document our kids' lives with pictures. And I love capturing these moments for other families. Hug your babies, as they grow up fast!