Video Footage

We discovered how to do time lapse photography on one of our cameras. It takes a picture every 2 seconds for up to 30 min. We thought that we would capture some of our Christmas events then add in our own video editing and....voila! (we are working on one for the Johns family festivities so dont worry fam) enjoy

Christmas Morn

This Christmas we celebrated christmas morning with the Madisons and Meffords. We had started doing a progressive breakfast a few years back and continued with as much as we could considering there had been three or four moves since then and housing arrangements were different. We started out at the Meffords where we opened the presents from the Madisons (Sr.) and the Meffords and ate cinnamon coffee cake and clementines. Outside was a freezing white-out blizzard but we definitely got into the christmas mood when we sat down to open presents next to the Mefford's 15 foot glittering tree.

The whole crew then came to our house to open all the presents we had for them and then to eat our traditional waffle buffet.

I gave Reece a cozy orange northface down coat and he surprised me with a Cannon 5D Mark II!!!!! I was too excited I started shooting pictures and HD movies right away.

I always pull out my crazy reindeer plates from pottery barn. Blitzen and Vixen are my favorite caricatures.  We make both Belgian and normal waffles with some a little crispy and some soft (I think Im the only one that likes my waffles soft) There is always a spread of jams, jellies, syrups, and curds as toppings (the favorite for two years running has been the lemon curd with whipped cream) And then Sam is always our breakfast meat specialist....bacon and sausages galore. Darlene made strawberry orange Julius' for us. It was all so entertaining and tasty.

Christmas Eve 2008

Our Christmas Eve started out with a half day of boarding up at snowbird. It was a bitter cold and windy day but we braved it because I was too excited to ride through the mountain on the conveyor belt. But just as we made it to the top of Peruvian express our spirits were finally dampened to see the tunnel was closed due to the bad weather. We finally made it to the bottom of the hill ice covered and grumpy when we heard the faint sound of sleigh bells. I looked ahead through the storm to see a flash of red and white. I pulled kitchen with me while I chased after the red blur. We finally caught up and asked the holiday character for a picture which his side kick elf took for us. After shooting a pic Santa and his elf parted by reaching into is black back and pulling out a couple of mini mint chocolate cliff bars. What wonderful little gifts. Who knew that santa was such a ski nut? Kitchen then vowed that she and her husband were going to take on the roll of the skiing Santa and elf from now on (well at least from whenever she gets married on) With our spirits now bolstered up we were able to push through a couple more runs before we headed down the canyon to feast upon our traditional post- snowbird treat, Bajio Grill honey pineapple shrimp salad.....yummy. 

That night Reece's parents brought over a yummy dinner (check out Darlene's beautifully green side dishes) and then we went and played santa to a few families that thought Christmas wasn't going to happen this year. Pretty fun day.

In the Christmas Spirit Activity

We took Brea's kids to Macy's to participate in the Angel tree. We had each child be responsible for an angel that was around their same age. They picked out socks, underwear, and a really cool toy for their angel, we told them to pick out things that they themselves would be really happy to receive. We hope to have started a tradition that will not only teach the kids to give to those in need but to give the very best that they can. 

Afterwards we took them to color me mine where they each picked out a mug and decorated it however they wanted to. We got the mugs fired and then gave them to the kids for Christmas full of yummy treats.

{some of the painted designs were more .... interesting ....than others.}

Granna's 89th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Granna! All my aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and all other family on my dads side gathered to celebrate sweet Virginia's big day.I gave her a little rosemary tree decorated with lights and purple ornaments (her favorite color) I will always think of Granna whenever I see the color purple (that should be a song). Granna has always been such a loving and supportive grandmother she totally deserves a big bash honoring her.

She was always there at all my ballet & piano recitals and birthdays. She patiently taught me how to crochet (making me take out a row if I did a single stitch wrong.....tough but worth it). She would help me adorn myself in all the jewelry in the jeweled box she had filled with old pendants and rings....she would smile at me while I tried to put on every trinket in the box and then would help me wrap tape around the inside of all the rings so they could fit on my tiny fingers. She has always fostered my love for photography...asking for updates, sharing ideas, and then bestowing on me her husband's (pappa's) old roliflex...which I got restored and used exclusively for an entire semester for a fine art project.

I remember helping scan in and insert all the pictures in Granna's written history and in the process read every single word. I gained a much deeper respect for this wonderful woman. She was so hardworking and full of spunk. She is such a sweet example to me...she is always saying the sweetest tid bits of advice of how to find the good, enjoy life, and trust in the Lord. I love you so much Granna.

Final Portfolios

My 2008 fall semester of teaching photo 1 at UVU has now drawn to a close. Im going to miss my two classes full of so many lovelies. The students were truly amazing I had so much fun. I just hope they had as much as I did. Teaching has been definitely the best fit for me....what a dream.... to be teaching everyday the thing Im the most passionate about. It was so satisfying to see every student progress and develop photography as a talent....even from having no experience at all. Im so proud of all their work, their final portfolios were really quite impressive. Here are some of my favorite photographs from some of my students' portfolios....they all gave me permission to post these lovely photographs. Thanks guys/gals for such a great semester!

Andrew Graham 

Total Michael Kenna in the making. I love how he noticed clouds. He got his first medium format camera halfway through the semester and was doing amazingly at exploring around in photography.

Steven Kroff

His wife had a baby while the students where supposed to be working on their final portfolios. I was so completely impressed with the variety of images he captured while spending quality time with his wife and new son.  

Jordan Eatough

I was blown away at how his imagery changed to such beautiful and elegant subject matter. All his photos in his final portfolio were so composed and technically stunning.

Amanda Barney

She always found and captured such beautiful lighting. I always loved seeing her attention to detail. Her prints were always so clean and printed so well. 

Brrrrrr!

Everywhere I look its a frozen wasteland. (picture I snapped while driving past Cabelas) Especially at the point of the mountain. Im convinced that where I live we have our own extreme weather system. Fierce winds, mini blizzards localized to our area, snow drifts. Last year they closed the only access road to our house and Reece and I were stuck in traffic for 6 hours before figuring out that we were "snowed-out". I slept at my sister Jenny's house while Reece pushed through and finally got home at 3 in the morning, I got home at 7. The next day was Valentines so....we actually didn't really mind being "snowed-in" all day that particular day. But the way the weather has been a-howling Im afraid we are heading for another "snowed-out" misfortune. Even though Reece bought a snowblower (which has totally saved our lives...and our backs) Im afraid to leave home. Not only because its just plain miserable to drudge through the snow, slip on ice, and totally get soaked up to my knees.....Im afraid I wont be able to make it home......I guess I should just stay home and read books, drink yummy warm tea, wear my PJs, and edit pictures that remind me of sunnier and warmer days... pictures like these.

 This is Kate and I soaking up the sun in Greece on the decks of our cruise boat this last summer. Oh I miss the days of being warm, being able to see  my toes let alone feel them, sipping on bottomless Coke Lights, and having hamburgers and shakes daily for lunch. Im feeling warmer already since I've edited this pics...

First Day On The Slopes This Season

Reece, Kate, and I (the tri-pod) went up for our first day of boarding of the season back in the first days of December. We like to start out at Brighton which has quite easy runs so we can break in our gear and muscles and to give us some confidence. I got Reece and I these sweet fur-lined lumberjack hats from Cabelas down the street. They now have our votes for the best boarding hats ever. Totally warm. The conditions were extremely snowy and cold but it might as well have been bright and sunny cause we totally had a blast.

Reece getting more air than me.

Speedy Kate Shredding the slopes and her innovative nose/hand warmer.

I took some video but Im waiting for ilife '09 and all the new editing improvements in imovie to make the video rock....so stay tuned. Also posts should be picking right back up as now reece has reorganized all our photo storage for the new year and now all our photos are back online for me to use.