OOOH Baby!

My nephew Jason and his wife Kate have a new beautiful baby girl Helena, and I was lucky enough to photograph her this week. She is a good-natured baby, and she wanted to be wide-awake for her photo op. What a little sweetie pie! So, for all of you who are needing a baby fix today...here you go!

Tulips

It's so fun to see all the tulips blooming right now. These are in my front yard.... planted years ago by someone who lived here before me.

Hail the Conquering Hero!

Nate has completed his first year at BYU! Yay, Nate! We're so happy to have him home. He got home late last night...He woke up this morning before Parker, Mallory and Alex went to school....then went back to bed. I then rudely awakened him at 11 a.m. so he could go with me to meet Derek for lunch in Salt Lake.


Here's our sleeping beauty. Finals are exhausting!

The luggage where he dropped it last night...

And here's a little school spirit. GOOOOOO Cougars!

Playing Catch Up

I haven't blogged in a few days. Life's been busy. Parker had a track meet last week. He came in third place in the 1600-meter race (that's a mile in American terms) with a time of 5:18. That's about my half-mile time:) He also ran the 800-meter leg of the medley relay and the anchor leg of the 4x400m relay. His team won the 4x400! Yeah! Here are some shots from the track meet.

This first one is a perfect representation of the look a 15-year-old gives his mother when she aims her obnoxious telephoto lens at him in public.

Here are some other shots from the meet.

Here's a shot from when Alex received his Bobcat award at Cub Scout Pack Meeting on Thursday night. And.... In other interesting developments, I have been asked to serve as Alex's den leader. Go Wolves! Guess I need to go buy one of those really attractive yellow scout leader shirts now! Woo hoo!

Mallory's been sick. I took her to the doctor on Friday. She's been complaining of a headache and sick stomach for several days. The doctor was pretty certain she had strep, but the lab results came back negative. Mallory missed three days of school last week. She went back today, but still didn't feel that great when she left this morning. But, she hasn't called for me to come pick her up...so that's a good thing, right?

Nate finishes his finals at BYU today! I can't believe how quickly this school year went by. It truly seems just like yesterday I was sobbing my eyes out when we dropped him off at his dorm! Now, he's going to come home, look for a job and will soon turn in his papers for his mission. He'll be 19 in August, so he'll probably leave sometime the end of August we're guessing. (Yeah, get ready to see me sob my eyes out again!) Seriously, I can't believe he's finished his first year of college. It seems like it hasn't been that long since Derek and I were students at BYU. Incredible!

The Cooper Fam at Temple Square

So I mentioned before that I had the awesome opportunity to do some family shots for Travis and Janae Cooper -- fellow Utah Peas. (My "Photography Friends" as my kids call them.) I was excited they would ask, but also incredibly nervous. They are both such talented photographers that I was more than a little worried about how they would feel about the pictures! But they were so fun to work with. Their daughters are incredibly cute and full of energy, especially Paisley. So....here they are!:) By the way, a couple of people have asked where the rock wall is. It's across the street from Temple Square at the Brigham Young Park.

Temple Square with the Utah Peas

Fun times today with the Utah Peas at Temple Square in Salt Lake. The flowers are blooming and it is absolutely beautiful! I also did some family shots at Temple Square for Travis and Janae. I'm still editing those. I'll post some tomorrow.

Alex played photographer's assistant today and had fun with Paisley, Travis and Janae's daughter.

Can't wait to get together again!

Macro...again...

I really want this macro lens to become my friend, but I wasn't too thrilled with most of my shots today. I did kind of like this one of the chains on the swingset in my backyard. I know... practice...practice!:)

MMMM....Macro!

I didn't get to spend as much time with my macro today as I had hoped, but managed to get a few shots. I'm still working on learning how to use this baby, but I can tell I am going to LOVE it! Oh, and Pat, if you read this...yes, you're right. Those flowers I posted yesterday are hyacinths. I remember my neighbor telling me that, but as I've said before, I'm rather horticulturally challenged. Can't grow a thing, really, but love to take pictures of nature!

Oh, and just a bit of exciting family news tonight. My husband's parents got a mission call today to serve in the West Indies! They leave June 30 for an 18-month mission. We are excited for them. They just got home in August from serving a mission to Tonga. We miss them, of course, but realize what a blessing it is for them and all of our family when they serve.

Holy Macro!

Today, I was so excited to hear that "Ding Dong!...Knock, knock, knock" at my door. Yes, it was the Man in Brown with a fun, fun, fun package for ME!


Meet my new 100mm 2.8 macro lens!

OOOH, can't you just feel the anticipation.....as I get ready to open the box!

My first glimpse of my new baby. Sniff...I've waited for you for soooo long!

Beautiful...just perfect...20.5 ounces... 58mm filter diameter. :)



And now, a couple of shots taken with the newest member in my camera bag:

Parker's Live Strong wristband.

Some pretty pink flowers in front of my house. Help me out here, Pat. I have no idea what they're called!:) They remind me of lilacs..only they're not purple and they don't grow on a bush.

And, the same shot of the pretty pink flowers....with a little texture added.

:)

Brianne -- Part 2

Here's Brianne again. We did some more shots yesterday. The first time I was getting a lot of reflections off her glasses, so we decided to try again without the glasses. She brought a friend along, too, so I have a picture with the two of them together, also. I wasn't sure if the weather was going to cooperate, but we made it in between rainstorms.