if elle and brenden were a country, their chief export would be smiles. * special thanks to stems design studio and the occasion events for making the day ahahahahahahmazing!!!

howdy peoples! hope your Christmas week was fan-freeeeeking-tastic!!! we've been having a blast just relaxing with the kiddos, celebrating with our families, devouring dozens of sugar cookies, etc. :) for Christmas, i got grace (who is recently obsessed with the movie "annie") a custom engraved locket...she loved it...and my heart melted :) oooo oooo oooo and i got a nikon 28mm F1.4 lens for Christmas...it is pure sex...i LOVE it to pieces!!! all of the following images were shot with it on a D700...mmm mmm good.

jasper and grace enjoying their new lion king dvd.

jasper on his new tricycle...it's now his preferred mode of transportation around the house :)

low light testing the nikon 28 F1.4...all images lit by a computer screen, shot at 1600 ISO, 1.4 @1/125...did i mention i love this lens!

it's dancey dance time for jasper!

...and then it's zombie zombie time...

my two favorite ladies early in the morning :)

hope you're enjoying the last week of 2009!

over the past few months we've been shooting just about all of our everyday life, trips, random crap, etc. with our new favorite little camera, FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI seriously, if you're a photographer, an amateur, a mom, a person with eyeballs...YOU NEED ONE OF THESE! they work just like the recently discontinued polaroid stuff, but you can actually still get film without selling a kidney to get it :) INSTAX FILM typically runs about $1 an image to shoot versus the $4 plus for any of the remaining polaroid film that's floating around. we shoot a lot on the INSTAX MINI which outputs small credit card sized (2"x3.5") photos and have also been shooting a lot with the larger FUJIFILM INSTAX 200 WIDE which is gigantic and delivers a 2.5"x4" photos. anyway...since we've been shooting so many instax photos, they were starting to pile up all over the house by the hundreds. our old big picture over our living room mantle was of just us and grace (PJY: pre jasper years) so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and came up with a little something like this...

all of the instax photos are just held on the wall with clear thumbtacks...easy...although my pushing thumb was completely raw and blistered by the time i was finished :( in order to keep everything in the right shape, i measured out the heart so it was symmetrical and taped out the outline with blue painters tape. BOOM.

has anyone else come up with any cool ideas for what to do with all of their instax photos? if so, leave your idea in the comments...we've got more piles of instax to use up :)

this past week we've been enjoying a little winter family vacation with some fellow fantastic photo friends out in flagstaff, arizona. we rented a HUGE cabin and had a funtastic week lounging, activities, and more laughs than my body could handle :) :) :) two years ago we got together at a cabin in big bear (post one and post two) and started what is quickly becoming our neck shattering, face stretching tradition; JOWLING! jowling is pretty simple...it goes a little something like this: 1* loosening all of your facial muscles. 2* shaking the living crap out of your head. 3* try not to drool everywhere 4* don't fall over or permanently damage anything. in person, it's pretty funny to watch...but better yet is freezing those amazingly unflattering moments in time forever :) :) :)

THE PARSONS.

THE LYONS.

THE SLOANS.

this is angie. she is the undisputed queen of jowling. she deserves a whole post just for her...everything she jowls is pure gold.

have you ever seen a more beautiful set of ladies?

or dashing men???

this year we introduced our brood of children to jowling as well....they need some work but it was exciting to share this family treasure with them :)

...and then we ate him up...SO STINKING CUTE!!!

we live five blocks from the beach, have a studio two blocks from the beach, but never ever go down there except for when we have sessions to shoot...we should change that...it's purty. oh, and i managed to shoot in a swarm of seagulls without getting crapped on, yay! :) oh, oh, and, and stephanie and tim make me feel warm and fuzzy inside :) :) :)

SEAGULLGASM!!!