I was in St. George a little while ago for a fun engagement session, which should be up on the blog very soon. Since I was heading down there anyways, we decided to make a little family vacation out of it.

The kids couldn’t get enough hiking and “treasure hunting”. We would wake up in the morning and find a fun trail and hike till they were dead. With the weather in SLC staying just cold enough to make it hard to play outside, St. George was the perfect little break for us all.

This kid is easily the most difficult child we’ve had. But with much trial comes much reward. When he is in this mood we can’t get enough of it.

It’s nice to have a lazy day every once in a while, right?  It seems like it happens more often than not at our house, but my kids don’t seem to mind…

Today was a proud but sad day for our family. My little brother is one of the 360 Utah soldiers that left for a 1 year term in Afghanistan. He still seems too young to be fighting for our freedom, but I am very proud of his dedicated service. I’m not the type to cry at situations like this because I have faith that he will be watched over and protected. The times I did get a little emotional were the times I thought about his young wife and baby boy that he was leaving behind. I thought about my own family and how hard it would be to leave them. Kenzee is strong. I believe she has a lot of support from her own family and ours, as well. But it’s hard not to think about having to change every diaper, pay every bill, run every errand, and hardest of all, go to bed alone every night. Chase, on the other hand, will be working hard and risking his life every day to make it possible for people like me to wake up and not worry as I document special events in people’s lives. I’m so grateful for these three, and the many other soldiers and families of soldiers, that give us this freedom. Thanks again Chase. We love you and you, Kenzee and Liam will be in our prayers everyday.

I hope your celebration was as exuberant as ours. Here’s to an amazing 2012!

and my wife cried.

I love seeing my pictures printed. Somehow, my images on a beautiful 27″ bright Apple screen still doesn’t compare to a nice gallery wrap or metallic print. One of my favorite parts of a wedding is showing up to a wedding reception to see my images covering the walls and tables. The most amazing one has to be Caitlin and Sam’s wedding when they had one of their bridals blown up to 8′x12′. Yes, that’s 8 Feet x 12 Feet print.
Here is another fun way to display images that my mother-in-law came up with for her own house. With her fast growing family she wanted a way to update the family portrait without re-shooting everyone. Now if one of her two eligible son’s gets married or one of her three married kids has another kid, we can just print another 8×8 and be on our way.

Merry Christmas

People always ask me to post more pictures of my family. My kids are seriously so fun and cute but also VERY crazy. My wife and I were told having three kids is a total game changer. This is a huge understatement. Ethan is getting to the age where he can be somewhat helpful, but his energy level is off the charts. Ada knows she is my only little girl and uses that to her advantage. She can be a snot and somehow my tolerance level is a little higher with her. Gabe has taken many lessons in crazy from his older siblings. I can tell he will be the hardest of them all. He learned early on that mild crying brings mild results, but high pitched screaming brings immediate attention. And despite being terribly bull-legged, Gabe is scary fast. He can disappear around a corner and be destroying things before you even know he’s off your lap. As crazy as these three are, I love them so much. Then there is Taryn. She is the obvious reason as to why my kids are so good looking, and to be honest, I think she is the source of the craziness. I don’t know anyone that loves her kids as much as she does.

Superheroes are a big deal at our house. Most little girls want to be princesses and fairies for Halloween, but when Ethan said he wanted to be Captain America, Ada insisted that she was Iron Man. Gabe didn’t get to decide, but we went with the avengers theme and made him Hulk. It couldn’t be more fitting, though. This kid is easily the most destructive of the three.

I love how serious they take dressing up. When in costume, they need to be called by that characters name. They LOVED it when I told them “Avengers Assemble”.

I really enjoy shooting weddings in St. George because we can make a little family trip out of it. On Friday I had the opportunity to shoot Eric and Kim’s lovely wedding at the St. George Temple. These two were a lot of fun and spending the day with their family and friends was a pleasure. Expect a post of their wedding soon, but in the meantime, here is a sneak peek…

On Saturday, I was able to spend the entire day, care-free with, my wife and kids. I’m the type that likes to do as much as I can during a vacation, where as my wife loves to just hang out. I decided to ease up and just go with the flow. We went to breakfast, hung out at the pool and grabbed dinner and Ice cream. It was an awesome weekend.

This Naked Indian is right next to the house we stay in, and it’s what tells me we are finally done driving, and the fun can finally begin.

Ethan and Ada loved the cacti, and had to talk about each one we saw.

I love the dollar racks at Target. We picked up these awesome vampire teeth and some glow sticks there. I imagined having a sweet party, but Ethan and Ada decided they would use them to be sharks in the pool. I’m not sure how much the other swimmers enjoyed us, but we had a blast.

Such a cute little princess!

The kids watching Spongebob on a handheld dvd player before heading off to bed.

One of the highlights of Saturday was meeting my “#1 Fan”. Brenna was down hanging out with my brothers in-law. She had no idea that I was part of the family, but when she found out, she got excited and told them how she and her friends stalk the blog all the time. So of course, I had to take a picture with her.  It was nice meeting you Brenna!