a happy easter

i love easter sunday. it has such special meaning of hope and renewal. this was a beautiful day for us. dale made delicous blueberry ebelskivers and bacon for breakfast before church. we finished up the day spending time with our family.

the ride to great-grandma's house was peaceful :)

are we there? can i see my easter basket now?

a few posed shots of my gorgeous husband and our adorable daughter before heading indoors.

uncle dale with little niece nova.

aleah and atticus discovering great-grandma bimmie's pond.

my sister sara and her precious babies. look at their eyes!

aleah with great-grandma bimmie, so sweet.

grandpa bob, grandma leslie, bob, great-grandma bimmie and aleah.

afterwards we stopped for a quick visit with grammy coral.

taking pictures indoors, at night, without a flash is difficult.

practice, practice, practice

for my photography assignment this month, i am experimenting with light. i seem to have the best results with open shade, but have tried to add a few with backlighting and some sunflare.

i get a lot of pictures of baby walking away, looking away!

silly daddy!!

ending the day with a favorite activity :)

on the road again

april 15. the day we all packed up early and headed to utah. it was time for sally to go back to school after four months at home. she met her roommate and they drove together the rest of the way to byu idaho. it also gave us the chance to visit with heather, marc, tessa and emma :) we had a great time all swimming at a great big indoor pool/playground, eating (we love cafe rio and tucano's), and a special shopping trip. sunday we walked around at an outdoor mall, letting the kids run around.

the trees were in full bloom and just gorgeous!

we actually managed to get a picture of us all!

my sweet love XOXO

after so much fun, this is a familiar view from the front seat.

playtime

the weekend after our big bear trip we stayed home. we always manage to have some fun though. aleah loves to walk and play at the park. she especially likes swinging ;)

big bear weekend

i love anticipating something. it can be simple, like the scrumptious breakfasts dale makes, or a fun weekend planned. i especially look forward to trips away. a couple of times a year we go to my dad and stepmom's house in big bear. it is a time to relax, to get away and enjoy the beauty all around, to eat good food and have those fun family talks. the first weekend in april, dale, aleah and i visited dad and leslie. we visited the zoo there and i practiced with my new camera. here are some of my favorites.

the first post

thanks to the help of my loving husband, i am writing my first blog post. i don't exactly know where it all began, but i can say that i was recently inspired by a photography workshop by my friend, kamee, of kamee june photography. the workshop, mamarazzi, was designed especially for moms...known for taking endless pictures of their little ones. my goal was to raise the quality of my photos (i was previously using just my iphone) and have fun doing it. it worked. for those of you who know kamee, this is no surprise. so here i am (with my sweetheart by my side), and we will see where it goes from here.