charlie

remember this little dreamboat from hawaii with the smith's?

while in salt lake I shot some lifestyle family portraits for his family. wait till you see his brother! these two boys are really something. gorgeous for one, adorable, smart, silly, flirty...everything you would want from a little boy.

I terrorized the house with my photo making while whitney feed us all sorts of delicious food from liberty heights fresh (love this market), brownies, salsa, fruit. whit and brian, can we move in? not a joke.

we love our smith/cripe family. can't wait for you to see the rest of your images.

easter sunday

the nanny goat making some delicious cinnamon rolls



grant and I hid easter eggs. can you find the one in the lemon tree?


mini tramp, big hit with the little people

grant gave baby wright a little chair to sit on and we covered him in a blanket. he sat there for a long time.
my steph

almost walking!!!
taking photos of tani...I either get this face (upbove) or this side (below).

what a great day. church with grant's parents, then dinner with family and friends. I loved having all (but one) of my nieces and nephews in one place. matt and nikki where also there (no photos to prove..sorry)... I truly feel like they are family too. did I mention there was sunshine and perfect 70 degree weather? I love california.

conference sunday

tristan getting his first conference foot rub..and loving it!

wright jr. actually asked to have his photo taken. I am madly in love with this two yr old.

faith, doing what she does, performing. I think she has over 500 songs memorized.

crazy girls with their dad.

aunt rachel getting in on some of the love (photo taken by the grant).
I love tristan's face, his hand on his brother and the car shoes.
tay kept sticking her head in the temple fountain. she just needed to "cool" off.

I have the best memories growing up of spending conference sunday with family. we would have a big breakfast, snuggle in our jammies, give each other foot rubs (mom's tradition) and eventually fall asleep....all while listening intently to the words of the prophet. I'll be honest, it was pretty exciting to get to spend church time in pajamas.

my mom would always turn on "the music and the spoken word", sung by the mormon tabernacle choir. she blasted it throughout the house signaling to us that it was time to drag ourselves to the TV. wrapped like mummies in our blankets, because the house was right around arctic levels, we would nestle in together. the body heat and the words we were about to hear were a simply a matter of survival.

this last conference sunday, wright, steph and kidlins came for a visit to the little blue house. It was fantastic!

grant and I made breakfast....scrambled eggs, homefries (with purple potatoes big wright was too freaked out to eat), bacon, frothy banana oj and homemade cinnamon rolls. delicious to the max.

our house is not the biggest, in fact, probably the smallest. I was curious to see how the kids would manage. they did great. I think for the most part they thought they were in a house made for little people like them.

some of my favorite quotes of the day:

"rachel and grant, I really love your house"- taylor
" I just love how many windows there are that you can open up!"- taylor
" were are we going to eat?"- taylor
"grant, how do you even sleep in here? It's so small!"- faith
" I want water"- wright jr.
"I want grape juice"- wright jr.
"I want milk"- wright jr.
" I think I need to stick my head in the water one more time"- taylor
" want to hear a song?"- faith

We half watched and half maintained madness then went for a visit to the LA temple. I loved having them in my home. I am thrilled they love so close to us now. I can't get enough of those wee ones.

thanksgiving for the new year

some of the best subjects for a photo EVER!

mom's homemade pumpkin pie and one of my favorite pass times, watching through the window.
if you want to print a thanksgiving roll basket wall size, let me know. I understand.
kitchen window. strange things seemed to appear....

baby wright was OBSESSED with being perched on the window, sink sprayer in hand...so close to figuring it out..
faith's adorable place cards. she is so creative. best party director hands down.
family prayer (staged!!!!...they loved waiting for that one)

the perfect bite. one of g's and I's favorite challenges.
faith got the whole family outside playing "shark". tag game with safe spots. I had a good time not trying very hard, but grant was sliding and sweating and tripping kids to get to safe spots.
have you ever seen sneakers that white?! I'm impressed dad. what is your secret?





saying goodbye can be hard. goodbye thanksgiving. goodbye christmas, BUT saying hello can be very fun. hello 2009. hello getting married. hello photo projects. so many things I am excited to say hello to. It's going to be a good year.

later 2008.

white family- laguna beach




























this family is seriously awesome.

I photographed their wedding almost exactly a year ago and even on that very day, when I didn't really know either of them, I felt like I did. they are so gracious, laid back and just all around beautiful people.

their son riley is so adorable. I love the fact that both of his parents practically grew up in the ocean and he doesn't want to come within 20 feet of it. he would scream and point to land any time we even approached foam...but as you can see as long as we were a healthy distance away he was super easy to photograph. by the end of the shoot he had lost all fear (and I dare say may have developed a crush) and was all up in my wide angle's grill...made for some GREAT images.

thanks you guys for yet another fun saturday at the beach house.

(psss. this location is where we will be having our wedding dinner/party....I am seriously freaking out over it. private beach cove, complete with a fire pit inside the beach house!!! thank you so much m & p!! xxoo)

happy halloween!

here are two of my cutest of cute, ms. bat woman and mr. car man.

they tried their costumes on for me last time I was in utah. you should have seen mr. car man's face when he saw himself in his car outfit standing on top of the bathroom counter....It's the first time I've seen his expression say "I am seriously the coolest".

so today I am imagining their little faces making all sorts of expressions as they stuff their faces with candy and feel super awesome.

happy happy halloween little monsters!




(ps. line through the images due to a bad scan. argh.)

wanna watch a moodie?


I get to see these little tikes in just a few days. I wished we lived closer to each other. It's hard to only see them once a month, once every two months. with so much time not together, how will I keep my "favorite aunt" status?... I'm thinking gum. lots of gum.

baby pedicures






while I was in utah my sisters and I wanted to get pedicures. my 5 yr old niece heard us discussing this and really wanted to come because she had never had a pedicure (uh, yeah. you're 5!!) we all decided it would be super fun so we took both of our nieces with us. they seriously handled it like pros. I almost got teary eyed watching taylor from 4 chairs over...she was barely big enough to sit on the chair and dip her toes in the pedicure bath...but she WAS big enough. I want them to stay little. when they are little they write me notes, like this one faith wrote for me while she patiently waited for me to finish. oooohhh. melt my heart.

madeleine on the east side

this family represents all things NY to me. Norris is an amazing broadway performer, Jen is one of the most classy women I know...and still maintains a wicked sense of humor...and their first, beautiful, happy, charming, adorable, delectable little girl makes NY even more of a heaven on earth. how fitting that they live there. oh, and if anyone in the NY area is in the market for a chocolate fountain they can hook you up.

It was so great catching up and getting to stare at your child for a couple of hours. she is one of the most enjoyable babies I have ever been around. xxoo.












dessert time

photo shoot of my nieces and nephews during my last trip to utah. for some reason when I look at these images as a whole I feel like crying....and not in a "these are so hideous I can't stand looking at them" sort of way, but in a, "really? you're that big...that old..that smart?". It's almost more than I can stand. these kids are just so delicious, they give me a permanent stomach ache.

























the odom family

too many favorites..lots of series sets.

always love my time with the whole "crew". thanks for the ladder, the chocolate banana milkshake the size of my head, and for liking mia michaels choreography. next time longer...maybe weekend vacation to CA?