My husbands brother got married this weekend is Salt Lake City. Can I just tell you, it SUCKED! OK, so the wedding was perfect and the bride and groom were stunning, but I didn't get a turn to take pictures. The "professional" photographer was paid hourly and the wedding ran an hour late so I didn't get a chance to do any pictures with them. I had to sneak up behind the photographer and get what I could. I know that the professional was ready to beat the crap out of me, but HELLO, it's my family so keep your panties on. I would say that I would rather watch someone eat my favorite chocolate cake while I am on a diet, than watch another photographer work. It was so hard!!!! I managed to get a few shots that will be just fine for me so I can't complain too much.

Don't you love her shoes, her sash and her freaking cake? Everything was SO beautiful!!!

I had a session last week that still has me smiling. The girls were so excited to get their pics taken. They knew what they wanted so I just let them do their thing and clicked. It is the easy ones like this that make this SO much fun!

I wanted to do an entry about the Walker funeral. I wanted to get some of this written down before I forget it all.

This is Bishop Probst. This man is incredible, simply incredible. He is the father of the other two children who also died in the accident. Not only did he conduct this meeting, he conducted the meeting of his own children's funeral as well. He said that since his children seen him sit on the stand at church for so long, he would do it one last time for them.

Bishop Probst and Brandon got to the site of the accident before the diving crew was in the water. The police had to handcuff them because they were trying to go into the water. I can't imagine what they went through not being able to help.

This was about half of the people in attendance at the dedication of the children's graves. Their were so many people there to support. During the funeral the church was packed with family and friends. They also broad casted it to three others churches.

These are just a few of the pall bearers. It was an amazing site to see those young men so reverent, placing their friends for the final time. They were all too young to have to do this.

After all of the boys placed the flowers that they wore on the caskets that they carried, they gave hugs to Brandon and Tamara. All of the boys were special in Meagon, Tyler and Kyle's life.

All of the children there got a balloon to release. It was a sweet site to see all of the balloons going to heaven.

I love how Tamara was fussing over Meagan's flowers and pictures. It broke my heart to watch a mother say goodbye to her last daughter. The weekend before Meagan passed away she was planning her 16th birthday party that would have been on the 15th of this month. I can't imagine loosing my daughter at such an exciting time of her life.

I put my bossy photographer hat on for this picture. I think it is tender and what we all wish we could do for Tamara when she gets to the moments of deep and painful mourning for her children.

Kyle would have been 13 this Saturday, the 11th. He was a sweet and tender boy. It was said that he was more than willing to stay inside while the boys worked to help take care of the children. He loved to cook and bake all sorts of goodies. When one of his cousins heard that he had passed, they asked, "Who will feed us now when we go to aunt Tamara's house?" Tamara giggled when that story was told because she said it was true. He would make Mac and Cheese or top ramen for anyone who would eat it. He loved to make cookies and brownies for his family to take to other families. He was a good boy who loved his siblings and parents.

Tyler was a little bit of a stinker. When he was younger, if their was ever another child crying, it was because Tyler was hugging them and wouldn't let go. As he grew up, he put his passion for life towards the outdoors. He was riding a motor bike at a very young age. He was never afraid to take it off of jumps, even with someone on the back. It was amazing he lived as long as he did. :) He wrote in his journal how much he loved working with his dad. He was very creative when it came to anything with his hands. He built model plans to fly and was an excellent artist. He loved to hunt and fish.

He had another journal entry that has made me rethink how I want to be raising my children. He was asked some questions by a teacher at school. One of them was, What about you annoys other people? He wrote that other people didn't like it that he was so good. He didn't understand why it was bad to be a "goodie." He loved to do what is right and he loved to obey his parents. I want to know what those parents did to have their 14 year old boys have such pure intentions.

Sweet Meagan. This girl accomplished more in her 15 years than I have in my 28. She was passionate for so many things. She had a raw talent for singing. She had a pure voice and was not afraid to share it with others, no matter how big the crowd was. She loved Basketball and Track. She played forward on her team and did it with all of the heart that she had. One of her team mates said that at practice, nobody wanted to guard her because she used those hips and elbows as much as she could. She was the one who would sacrifice her body for the ball and was proud of all of the bruises that came from it. In track, she was phenomenal. She loved to sprint and do hurdles.

Another one of her passions was for horses. As young as 4, she was riding by herself on a pony when the pony started to run. Meagon started to slip off of the saddle until she eventually slid off. She ended up laughing it off and couldn't wait to get back on. She loved her horse Shadow. She would do shows for her family with all sorts of routines and jumps. She was prepping for a show (that she created) for a family reunion with some cousins and friends. Before one of their scheduled practices, it began to rain. Instead of canceling the practice and spending some play time together, Meagan made everyone go up in her room and practice. She got our her plastic horses and fences and they did their routine. When they got tired of that, they set up the arena in the living room and pretended like they were the horses themselves.

Meagan was planning her 16th birthday with her cousin the weekend before she passed away. After they spent all day thinking of everyone that they wanted to invite, they were able to go to a church dance together. Since the Walkers moved to Sweet 6 months ago and her cousin lives in Eagle, it was a fun reunion for her to see so many people that she was hoping would come to her party. Her cousin said that at the end of the night, Meagon said that she felt so lucky to be able to see everyone that she wanted to before she went home. Now, we can't help but think that she is home, and it was such a blessing for her and her friends to be able to see each other one last time.

When the car was pulled out of the water, Meagan was sitting by Kyle and had her arms around him. These children love each other so much. Meagan helped so much with the family after Makayla died 5 years ago. She along with all 4 of the other children will be deeply missed.

I have had one roller coaster of a week. The funeral for these sweet children was unlike anything I have ever witness. Being in the presence of such an amazing family has inspired me to be a better mother, wife and woman. If I could raise my children like Brandon and Tamara have raised their kids, I would be at peace with so many things. I could go on and on about the uplifting details, but at the moment, I am so drained and want to go and spend time with my children. I will continue to have the Walkers and the Probst families in my prayers, they need every ones prayers for a long time.

It has been a while since I have posted. Too much going on and not enough energy to write here where not many people come anyway.

Today my heart has broken. My husbands cousins Brandon has three children that were killed in a car accident Megan-15, Tyler-14 and Kyler-12. They were on their way to school with their friends and slid off the icy road into a 20 foot deep pond. It took rescue crews two hours to get there. All five kids in the car were killed.

I have been told that when they pulled the car out, their was a set of scriptures open with one of them. That is how all of those kids lived. As sad as it is to not have them here, I have no doubt in my mind that they are with Heavenly Father. Megan, Tyler and Kyler are now with one of their other sisters who died when she was 2 1/2.

Like so many others, my prayers and thoughts are with these families.

My poor Bubba! This morning he went to the dentist and had three teeth pulled. Initially, I told him that we had a different tooth fairy. I told him that she didn't leave money for teeth that the dentist had to pull, instead he gets charged $5.00 per tooth. After I explained that I told him that since he is 5, I was able to use a coupon and it was going to be free this time. Seeing Carson go through what he did today, I think that I am going to let the tooth fairy come anyway. He cried of course, but he was so brave. He did ask the dentist if he could come back next Thursday to do the last two teeth. It made me laugh. It has been 5 hours since we have been home and he is back to his normal self. I guess he WILL be going to school tomorrow.

For the love of lighting!!! I was at a friends house today and of course brought my camera. I am sure I am starting to bug the crap out of her. Her children are so beautiful. She could be making TONS of money off of them. Here are a few from us playing around on moms bed.

This morning I had the most fun doing this infant shoot. The mom is the brain behind the Chatterbox designs! Jessie works in the art department there and designs the paper, ribbon and lots of other goodies. I was SO excited to do this for them. Their baby was so great once she surrendered to the camera. They are the cutest couple. I never had to tell them, SMILE. They were all smiles just being together. Here a few of my favorites, OK so their are lots. Keep in mind I still have much to learn. :)

I wanted to post the gift that I gave to my family this last Christmas. My parents and syblings came to my house and it was crazy but fun. Even though everyone said no gifts, I got wind that nobody was listening. We were out of town the week before Christmas and I didn't have the money to buy something awesome for everyone nor the time to make something. As we were driving home from Tahoe, Spencer and I came up with the idea to do this picture. All of these pictures were taken in the year 2006 (except one but that's OK). They are around "The Proclamation to the World" that our church has put out. It is a statment about families and how to be better families. Anyway, I knew that my mom would LOVE it so there you go. You want a present? fine here is your freaking fabulous present. As I had predicted, my mother cried when she opened it. Now and for the REST OF MY LIFE, they will get an updated on every year as their gift from me.

Nevermind the dumb picture at the bottom. My layers were sneaking around on me. :)

YEAH! My wall decor rub ons are here! I still have five projects that I am going to do with the others that came. Don't worry, I will post pictures of those too! My cousins made this for me. I designed it and she cut it out. I am so excited to do the next one, it is going to be so cool!

I was inspired to do this card by someone else's on ILP. I couldn't resist trying one on my own. I think I am going to mail these out to all of the kids friends this year. It isn't very often that I get to show off a picture of my kids where neither one of them is crying or bleeding.

Oy! Things have been busy around here!! I have been taking lots of pics and trying to catch up on my editing. All of this along with helping with Carson's class and my other part time job. I have another family shoot this weekend for one of Spencer's cousins. They have 4 kids under 4, yeah, it is going to be FUN! It is amazing what I will do to get myself out there. They are a beautiful family and it will be rewarding hard work.





This pic is a reason why I LOVE what I do. This last week in church we sat next to Hallies family. She ended up practically sitting on my lap trying to see what my kids were doing. I thought she was the most stunning child and HAD to ask her mom if I could take her picture. I am going to use one of these in my very first add and would LOVE some help! Which one do you like the best?

Today I am doing a session with a family of 7!!! It is cold and crappy outside so I set up my backdrop in my front room. The north wall is just windows and I am in love with the lighting. I actually turned the light on in that room too and it is perfect, it is diffused just right. So, today will be interesting. I can't wait to see how these turn out. The mom told me that if these don't turn out she is going to Sears. I giggled because she is going to LOVE my pictures cause I am pretty darn good for only doing this for 3 months.

This is a picture of Carson that I took to try out how things could possibly look. I was happy with the way his eyes turned out and that is all I am looking for right now.

This was my fist Senior photo shoot. I was super nervous and actually dreamt about it the night before. It was a cool dream, I was taking pics with Doug and we decided to stop and play soccer for a bit just to break up the smiling time. Anyway, it was cool, mostly cause he can't walk. We took these pictures at the same park that I did our family pics for our christmas card. It looked like crap with all of the leaves dead. I feel bad that their wasn't more to work with but I felt like I did a pretty good job.

I am still waiting to hear from him and his mom. She wants me to design a full page LO in his yearbook using some of my pics and pics of him with the football team and sky diving. Glad they didn't want me to take those pics.

This is my sweet cousins family. For some reason, my pics didn't turn out like I wanted them to, I still have LOTS of things to learn. Anyway, this house is across the street from where we live. I will be torn down soon as this area develops. When we were inside, I was noticing some of the writing on the walls. Most of it, I had to quit reading cause it was naughty but there was something really cool there. Someone that once lived there wrote how old they were when they lived in that house and how old they are now. They said, that house held some of their favorite memories. That obviously got me thinking. I LOVE taking pics in front of old barns and old homes. I want to take pics of the homes around here before they get torn down. I have a great picture of a barn that I will post when I get finished with it. I just love the feeling of these pics. I actually went back and took that doornob in the pic of Maycie. I just had to have it!!!

I wanted to post a few pics of the decor items that I have made this year. I made the witches legs a few years ago. They were inspired by a LO that my friend Kellie did for me. She paper pieced witches legs just like that and I had to make them for halloween. I updated my picture wall which was so fun. I LOVE FALL colors. I finally feel like I have been able to start decorating in our new home. The Happy Halloween took forever to make but I am so happy with the way that it turned out. The picture totally sucks but you get the point. All of the letters are about 12 inches tall. I used Chatterbox paper since I am in love with the stuff. They don't really have a halloween line so I used the back of a lot of their cardstock which worked out really well!

So, this is what I get to make me smile everyday. Madyson is such a sweet little girl. She has lots of "2 year old" in her but I adore her and her personality. It seems as though sometimes, she does what I wish I could do. I USED to dress up like this act like a huge dork but I would probably get CPS called on me if I tried this now. She and Carson are the reasons that I am still here today. They give me purpose in my life, trials when I need them and smiles to make me happy.