henriksen family shower

I have been wanting to post a THANK YOU to all my henriksen family for the fabulous shower they had for grant and I.

there happened to be the perfect sunday night to have it when we were in utah for work about a month before the wedding. I had mentioned we didn't want any gifts, BUT instead would love favorite recipes. It was a great idea if I do say so myself! we received tons of amazing recipes that I am dying to try.

so thoughtful and so personal. I love being able to see my cousins and aunts handwriting on certain recipes. I really am way into the "tradition" of food and it means so much to me to have everyone share a little of of their "tradition" with us.

check out grandma and grandpas photo on grandma's swiss cheese fondue recipe. I miss my grandpa.
aunt deanne and uncle bob's family invited us over before the shower for a delicious home cooked meal. It was SO delicious. roast and homemade rolls (see how happy I look holding the basket of rolls?). they were naughty and bought us some gifts even though I said not to. I love our cookie sheet with a cover! brilliant! with our parents serving serving as mission presidents in fort worth, it means so much to have our extended family take us in and help take care of us. It's weird not being to go "home" for sunday dinner. thanks wilde bunch. we love you!

the shower was an open house at grandma's and SO many people came. since we were having a more intimate wedding this shower was a way to celebrate with those not attending the wedding day festivities. we talked and bonded and grant did very well with my huge family....it can be kind of intense. my aunt amy and aunt peggy write poems for couples in our family when they get married. they read ours at the shower and usually have a hard time getting through it without crying. we love to cry in this family. (click on the poem to read).
how great is that! I love the part about mikaphone...and grant being a perfect child. pray our future kidlens take after their pop. thanks amy and peggy!!


I know we use to have this rule for this side of the family that when you say "thank you" at the shower it counts as a real thank you.....do we still that? can this count as my formal thank you for all of the amazing shower love? do you all know how much you mean to me?

I have been blessed with a truly phenomenal family. like all of us, I have had my ups and downs with life and they are there to cry with me when it's hard and cry with me when it's great, for that I feel truly blessed.

bigger images

I need to figure out a way to customize my blog so that I can show slightly bigger images. I DON'T want to have to use another site to make this happen....can't I just configure the image size through blogger?!

any suggestions? what has worked for everyone else?

I've tried this, found on friend heather's blog


While in your post, click on "edit Html". Then look for this set of code...it's the code for the picture you just uploaded.

Now delete this section of code--everything circled above. After deleting the indicated code, your html for your picture should look like this:

Now it's time to change the size of your photo. You can choose from s400, s576 or s640 depending on the look you want and the parameters of your blog. Try a few on for size and see what works best for you. See below picture for the section of code you'll want to change during this final step.

All in all this should take you about 30 seconds.

BUT it doesn't work for me! my code looks a little different. so I just tried changing the pixel size withing the HTML code, but it ends up making the image look icky.

help!

shoots raw

how beautiful is this camera?

when I go to the leica website I want every camera. this is a limited edition camera, so I have no idea whether it's even still available...but it got me thinking..

..aren't you suppose to give and receive gifts on the 1st day of summer?

husband, let's start summer right.

(sorry I know a few of my posts lately have been about "things" I need...OK! want. there is just so much goodness I want for my own! I've spent an hour on b&h photo today and amazon filling up my shopping carts. some of the items I really do NEED, I promise.)

once wed

tess and adam strike again!

their wedding is being shared today on once wed's amazing site. once wed also has a real weddings section that is featuring this lovely wedding.

thanks once wed! your site is beautiful! (can't wait to see the airstream wedding!)

...and thanks tess and company for planning such an inspirational wedding. when couples plan a wedding that is personal and meaningful, others are drawn to that thought and care. I just wish everyone could have tasted the chocolate and passion fruit cake. I probably think about that cake once a day.

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.

just a taste...

back from a super awesome work weekend in the great state of utah.

this wedding was off the hook...wait till you see the bride. wowzas! the rain even took a break so we could frolic in the ginormous backyard reception (complete with stream and trampoline). SO fun!

iguassu falls














after rio we spent a couple days exploring the beautiful falls on both the brazil and argentine sides. I was really quite impressed. my favorite part was strolling down the green walkway and having the mist from the falls cool down our hot bods. I generally really love mists of all kinds. we also took a boat ride up really close to one of the falls...I think it shattered one of my ear drums (ok, not really)...but I did learn water force is no laughing matter. oh, and grant took some photos of some rascally varmets that wandered down the paths next to us that maybe I will post later. oh, and we at some coconut popsicles that were really good.

hello utah



grant and I leave for utah today to shoot kindra's and marty's wedding on friday. last time we were there it looked like this (refer to above photos)....this time maybe it will look different? I did hear it was raining a lot. I have to admit this kind of excites me. I love summer thunderstorms in utah. (just as long as they don't ruin my weenie roast up millcreek canyon saturday night!)

(all images taken from my parents back deck)

more night shots- copacabana beach




all the locals were so freaked out that we were walking around the beach and boardwalk at night with cameras around our neck. they keep motioning for us to hide our cameras. there were tons of people on the beach and small children kicking soccer balls....I just didn't feel unsafe... oh and ps. no one messes with me while i'm shooting. no one.

more of this





remember broek from here, here and here? well...it's broek's birthday today! happy birthday broeky! I will be killing it with her on the dance floor later tonight.

thinking about broek, got me thinking about this shoot, which got me thinking about how much I like shooting editorial/fashion stuff.

if any of you extremely good looking blog readers thinks you are the right candidate for a similar shoot or know of someone who may be interested in getting creative and artsy and free thinking and awesome in front of my camera, let a woman know!

also, if you want to donate styling or makeup/hair services we could just take this whole idea by storm and blow up in some publications.

I just want to take photos. lots of photos.

pairs

the lack of swimsuit on the beaches in rio was amazing. why wear anything?

we're hoping for a beach day tomorrow in san clemente. weather please cooperate. rachel will probably be wearing a little more than the brazen brazilians....but you never know with grant.

(honeymoon in brazil photos continuing on monday).
happy 1st weekend of june lovelys!

been busy

I know my posts have been lacking lately. I have tons of stuff I am editing through that I can't wait to share (honeymoon film!).....but this week has been go go girls camp.

I am in charge of planning my church's girls camp, for ages 12-18, and it's kind of like a part time job.

last year turned out great and being at camp is so amazing, but the planning...oh the planning.

tonight is one our first meetings and this is a little flyer I designed for it (thanks julia for prompt leaf removal and thanks istock for the illustration).

camp on the brain!

firsts

(I stole these off her blog..I'm guessing they were taken by her genius husband)

one of my very best friends is having a baby in a week. their first baby. their first baby girl. a lot of "firsts". I seriously have butterflys in my stomach for her. I wish so badly her "new OC" was in the "real OC" so I could be there before and after. so I could hug with her, cry with her, curse with her. so I could photograph so many of those "firsts". I will be spending a week with them in july but that's too far away!

I am so happy for them and love their family so much.

aunt rachel is going to spoil that baby girl rotten.