i ♥ faces - "hands on" fun!

I guess they don't call these "challenges" for nothing? 

I chose this photo because it reminds me of how creative and powerful my God is.  her little hand compared to the orangutan is so small and helpless.  and yet God made both.  so I watched this orangutan for awhile at the Brookfield zoo and was in awe of her beauty.
she mothered...like me.
she ate...like me.
she looked at the people coming through...like I looked at her.
and when she climbed, it was breathtaking.  I cannot climb like that.  no, I cannot.
she was beautiful and a complete pleasure to watch.  her hands were completely designed for strength.  strength in climbing...
strength in holding her kids...
strength for weaving through the maze with ease that was made for her. 
it made me very much in awe and admiration of her and somewhat in fear of her.
breathtaking.

e + j = and they lived happily ever after :)

sorry if you looked at this post already and it was different...but here are better resolution pic's of this awesome day! :)

you might remember this couple from their engagement session here. 

these two are extra special to me.  you know how there are some people in life that you meet in life that are destined to be more than just casual acquantencices to you?  well the marshall family is just that for matt + I.  they were some of the first people that matt and I met even before we were married and solidified that this was a place we could call home.  they were the first people to invite us into their home for our very first thanksgiving away from "home".  justin + eric are two brothers that have simply become family to our family.  so when eric + jessie asked if I would photograph their wedding, there was absolutely no hestiation, just a resounding YES!

the day for me was simply beautiful and super special to be a part of!  plus, as a bonus my sister got to fly in a be my second shooter for the day...extra fun for me and completely a natural fit to my style of photographing!  the day started at the place where they would begin honeymooning at and was simply STUN-ning!  beautiful wooden doors, wrought iron detailing, cobblestone walkways...truly picturesque!  and then their courtyard wedding + reception was tucked away in the Ah-mazing Arizona Historical Society Museum's courtyard!  The kind of wedding that you dream about as a little girl, to say the least!

Here are a few of my favorites of the day and THANK YOU so much Marshalls + Emerson's for letting me be a part of this incredibly special day!

I simply LOVE the first look!  I get choked up everytime! :)

I am SO happy!

okay, I'm trying not to post on the weekend, but THIS is too awesome for me to hold it in until Monday!

I got eigth place on "I Heart Faces" this week out of three hundred and sixty nine amazing photographers!!!
The theme was "i wanna dance" which was a hard one for me until I remembered maddie + jonas dancing at my brother's wedding in november...perfect!  and I totally just screamed like a little girl about it too to my sister and I'm not even a little bit ashamed :)

Yay!  and have an Ah-MAZING weekend!

favorite friday!

every friday is fun friday in our house.

what is fun friday, you ask?

something that I made up for my kids once both of them were in school for six and a half hours a day.  the last day of the school week to look forward to as a reward for not grumbling about getting up and going to school everyday.  plus, it's a way that I get to look forward to spending time with them too...I love my kids...yes, yes I do.  typically it involves getting a movie from red box with taco bell or pizza for after football practice.  but sometimes if matt gets involved, he's taken us bowling or we'll all go on a family bike ride to freestone and feed the ducks and watch the sun set.

so, keeping in the spirit of "fun friday", I'll let you in on a few of my friday "favorites" and my "not so muches".  (I can say muches [muh-ch-ez] because it is my blog and I was never so smart in school.)

this friday's favorites!
1. diet coke.  I know I talk too much about it, but it seriously is one of my all-time-most-favorite-til-I-die favorite things and deserves a first place nod this week. plus, as a bonus right now there's a BIG heart on the side of the can that makes me happy when I drink it. :)
2. little big town.  they are one of my favorite bands right now.  super "up" music that helps me edit faster.  and I feel like when I listen to them that I am sincerely from the Boondocks.  (even though, I am not and am not super sure what a boondock is or where it is.)
3. cranberry mandarin candles from walmart.  when you think of candles, walmart is not the first place that comes to mind...but they carry the most beautiful smelling candle that honestly makes me happy.  if a smell can do that, then this one does and is worth getting.  plus, they're a fraction of the price of the yankee candle that smells the same.
4. lotion kleenex.  when you are as sick as often as I am...tissues matter.  a lot.  and these ones are the best.  sorry puffs.
5. the snow boarding event in the olympics.  I am officially on shaun white's bandwagon.  he was LEAP years ahead of the rest of the competition and he made me want to go out and learn how to snowboard at thirty something.  not an easy feat, I assure you. :)  plus, his team had really cool plaid jackets and jeans that they snowboarded in which beat the stink out of the french guys pink spandex that he snowboarded in.  usa won before the event even started in the clothes category. just sayin'.

the "not-so-muches"
1. bad customer service.  I won't say where I went to receive this less than stellar service...but it is a well known place that should definitly know better.  and the even suckier part of this is that is wasn't the first time I've been there to observe this bad customer service.  shame on me, I guess.  the flipside of being bugged by this restaurant is that it inspires me to deliver better customer service because I know what it feels like to not receive it.  nuff said.
2. sickness.  I hate boogers.  well not really, boogers can be kinda fun in a gross kind of a way.  but when they are around non-stop...it kinda blows. ha, I said blows about boogers.  yup, again it's my blog. :)  but I will most definitly be glad when they are gone from my house.  four tissue boxes in three weeks is not a good thing.
3.  anger.  I am learning as I get older that anger is a wasted ugly emotion.  it causes me to not think correctly and to think negatively and then speak ugly.  so I am resolving to not be angry and let things go.  it doesn't happen often, but "i pity the fool" :) who gets in my way when I do.  or maybe I should pity me because of how ugly it makes me look when I do get angry.

that's it...that's my "favorites" and my "not-so-muches" for this week and because I'm a photographer...here is a parting pic of me being happy doing what I love:)  shot by my amazing sister...check her out here.  have a great weekend and an even more amazing fun friday! :)

delicious resolutions :)

this week I cooked.
no.
I mean I cooked!

this is quite a big deal for me.  anyone who knows me knows I love to bake, but cooking just isn't as natural to me.  plus when your family is just as happy with tyson chicken nuggets and tater tots you start to wonder what the point is.  but I am determined to do this at least once a week and introduce my family to REAL food at least once a week.  in my post on musings I wrote about things I'd like to accomplish this year...and number 24 is going to be to cook at least once a week with REAL food.  and this week I did!

for my menu I was inspired by my friend chef david who owns the liberty market and his magnificent dinners he makes.  for valentines weekend he made a special layered potato side that I simply LOVED so I wanted to try and recreate it at home.

my menu:
grilled ribeye steaks with mushrooms
sauteed in butter + merlot wine
with a side of cheesy potatoes gratin
and sweet corn.
for dessert I made molton chocolate lava cakes
w/ strawberries + whipped cream (or for my kids - angel food cake). 

the recipe I'll feature this week is the potatoes gratin...I should layout a disclaimer that I didn't really use a written recipe for this one...I got a lot of advice from cooks illustrated + allrecipes.com as a guideline, but I just added the ingredients that I liked for this recipe and it turned out AH-mazing!

first you start with three large russet potatoes that I got to slice on chef david's mandolin...I'm sure if you had a really sharp knife you could slice them pretty thin and it would have the same effect.  but something about saying you cut the potatoes on a mandolin makes you sound extra snazzy, plus he let me borrow it so I felt like I was channeling some of his amazing cooking abilities ;)

chop up two cloves of garlic super fine...this part made me feel like a chef b/c I've watched carylann at work mince things before and I tried to copy her...and I didn't even lose any fingertips!  bonus! :)  add this to the potatoes...

melt five tablespoons of butter.  now for this part I felt like paula deen - who I love.  partly b/c she just might be a little bit crazy and mostly b/c she makes amazing food and could care less how much fat is in her food...she cares about the way it tastes and I can appreciate that.  and according to her, you can never have too much butter.  and I think she's right. :)  I used unsalted horizon organic butter for this recipe.

add the cooled melted butter to the potatoes and add about one cup of whipping cream and salt and pepper.  mix all of this.  I used my hands because it seemed the easiest to me. 

at this point it was time for a chocolate/diet coke break for me.  my son was the keeper of the chocolate (so I wouldn't eat too many) and he took this job seriously...he enlisted the help of his star wars storm troopers to zap me if I snitched more than four.  however, his storm troopers were not so trigger happy with him, I noticed!

finally grate the pecorino cheese...super good with these potatoes!

so now I have a bowl of milky, buttery, garlicy potatoes.  and a pile of grated cheese.  I layered these in individual cake tins (b/c individual portions of food makes me happy...it just feels fancy) :) that were sprayed with butter spray.

I baked these at 350 degrees for about forty five minutes.  in the meantime I sauteed the mushroom in the butter/merlot wine...

and sliced up the strawberries and dusted them with a splenda packet that has fiber!  yes, fiber!  who knew?!

and an hour later I feasted w/ my family on this!  granted my kids held their noses while I made them eat at least two bites of the potatoes.  and I didn't force them to eat the mushrooms (more for me!) but my family plus uncle josh loved everything else!  success! :)

the goalie :)

the girls that follow my blog are going to love this post.

this guy is just too impossibly handsome for one person.
and from what I've seen, his insides match his outsides.
plus, he's pretty amazing at soccer...extra cool points.
so my bet is, he'll grow up and be on the cover of J.Crew, while playing professional soccer after getting his masters from a university in california...

thanks for an amazingly, easy, fun shoot Josh! :)

and my favorite from the day :)

jordyn with a y :)

this girl is unique.
this girl has a cool sense of style.
this girl has crazy cool eyes that change color.
this girl has some wicked shoes that I now covet. :)
this girl is into photography.
oh and did I mention she shot with nikon? 
yeah, I like this girl.
this jordyn with a y girl.
seriously cool, unique chick. :)

um, did you see her shoes...LOVE them! :)

I wanna dance - i ♥ faces challenge

I snuck into this moment while photographing my brother's wedding in november. 

you can see in her eyes that she is beyond in the moment.
in a place in her mind where princesses reign.
where there really are fairy godmothers.
and birds + mice are your friends.
oh yes, she is so in this moment.
and I love this boy for being her friend.
and for dancing with her the whole night long.
and allowing her princess moment. :)

we ♥ kisses - another i ♥ faces challenge :)

I love kissing.  who doesn't?!
call it what you like...
smooching,
necking,
smacking,
nuzzling,
sweet action...whatever you call it, it's a good thing. ;)

I chose this picture for this challenge because it makes me smile everytime I look at it.  there is n.o.t.h.i.n.g. cooler to watch than a baby totally in love with his daddy and mommy.  he giggles, loves the attention, plays games to get the attention and then squeals when he gets it.

yes, this picture makes me smile. and smiling is a good thing.  plus, as a bonus...he has the coolest mr. t mohawk...the other babies are envious. :)