Do you know who this is???

Last weekend I did a wedding. I was hired by the bride's family here in Arizona. Her now husband, Dave, is from Utah so I didn't meet his parents until the wedding day. Below is a picture of the Bride and Groom with the groom's parents. We met at the temple before the wedding and I did all the portraits including some family portraits etc. I was trying to figure out why I recognized Dave's mom. I knew it was church related so I was thinking back to our ward in AF Utah or my mission in Utah. But they are from Bountiful... not near my ward or mission. I couldn't put my finger on it, until I got home...... So do you know who she is?????? I am curious to know how many people (who are members of the church and read this) will recognize and know her name before reading below..... am I the only one who wouldn't know?

So when I got home I picked up the Ensign to do a little reading and flipped through and saw a picture of Dave's mom. Yes, that's right , it's Sister Margaret Liffereth, the 1st counselor in the primary general presidency. I traced back through the day hoping I hadn't said anything dumb to her. I hadn't. I had been myself. I was then grateful that my actions are generally in line with my beliefs. That was a good feeling.

Eliana's 5 year Old Portraits

I did Eliana's 5 year old portraits yesterday. Here's a little info about Eliana these days.

I often call her El or L or Elle and she loves it and so do I. She is fun and funny and adventurous. She LOVES I mean ABSOLUTELY LOVES to ride her bike. She LOVES her friends. She loves Star Wars and even has her own light saber so she can play star wars with Dean. She loves to run, jump and climb. She is very passionate about things which leads to a bit of drama. She is determined and strong willed. She loves her little sister Julia. We love Eliana and are so glad that she is a part of our family.

I love this picture but can't decide which way I like it better... color or old school vintage b/w.



















Julia came along of course. I didn't really get any great shots of her but here are a couple of fun ones of her and a lollipop.

December

I attempted to get a picture of the two girls together for a Christmas card with no luck as of yet. Here's a cute one of Julia though.

One of the reasons I haven't gotten a good one yet is because Eliana LOVES to make STRANGE faces when I get my camera out!

Here is one of them together that's sorta okay... but they are both making weird faces.

So for now no Christmas cards or new years cards... maybe I will do cards on another upcoming holiday.

We celebrated Christmas a day early so that we could be in California for Christmas and still keep our own traditions at our house. We made homemade pizza and strawberry lemonade for Christmas eve dinner.

Eliana got a bike from Santa and was SO, SO excited. She loves to ride her bike EVERYDAY!

Julia got a bike too, which she loves also and calls MY BIKE... she also got a baby doll.

Our Christmas morning, trying out the bikes . Eliana just wanted to ride and not have me take a picture.

We went to California and had fun with all the cousins and Christian's parents, siblings and spouses. We hung out at the Whites and ate lots of food. We went to see some lights on a street called thorobred in Rancho. For a few more California pictures, click HERE.

December 10th

Eliana's 5th birthday was on December 1oth, the same day we closed on our new house. I took cupcakes to her preschool class.

In the evening she opened her presents. She loves her new keyboard.

Her other favorite gift is her Star Wars tag book. She loves Star Wars almost as much as her Daddy.

Because things were so crazy with moving etc. I took Eliana and her friend Emily to see the Princess and the Frog in lieu of a birthday party. They dressed up as princesses and had lots of fun.

November at a Glance...

At the beginning of November we took a long weekend trip to California.

Eliana and her cousin Morgan are best buddies! They had so much fun playing together on our trip to CA.

Christian and I left the girls with his parents and went to the beach for the night. The beach is still my favorite place!!

Eliana finished her gymnastics class that she took through the city. She loved it!

We stayed home for Thanksgiving and had our friends Mark and Leah over. We made these fun turkey head bands a few days before.

Julia loves to get into my mascara... I have been better at keeping it far out of her way as of late.

Halloween

Yes... this is late, very late, but the grandparents need to see the girls at Halloween still.

We went to a pumpkin patch in Gilbert a few days before Halloween.

Julia even held still to get her face painted!!

For Halloween, Eliana dressed up as Fancy Nancy and Julia was a cute little witch. It was very difficult to get them to hold still and not be crazy, weird (Eliana).

Julia was not about to hold still....

Eliana with Emily at the Ward Party.

Eliana at the preschool party.

Do I have to have a title?

So no pictures in this post. Why, you ask, does the photographer have no pictures. Very simple, it's like the shoemaker whose kids have no shoes. Except, I have taken some pictures, I just hardly looked at them or processed them at all. I have Halloween pictures, California pictures, day to day pictures... but none to post today.

Life is on super ultra hyper speed these days. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week.

The girls are doing well although they both were sick this week, they are better now. Christian is working crazy hours and we feel like we hardly ever see him. I have been super busy doing photography, to see that, click here. We chose not to get the house I wrote about before because a house we really wanted and tried to get back in July, came back on the market. So we cancelled escrow on the house in Villago and are now in escrow on a house in G Diamond Ranch and are set to close in just about 2 weeks. We love it and are so excited but it is hard to believe and I don't think it will seem real until we have the keys and move in. I am looking forward to a sweet ending to a 6 + month house hunt ordeal. Despite all the business, life is good. We are so blessed and grateful to have two amazing girls. Julia is so big and is seriously like a little girl now. She's 30 pounds and 3 feet tall (and she's not even two yet)! She is talking a lot and adores playing with her sister. Eliana is going to be five in 18 days (I know the days b/c she asks me how many more every day) and is becoming a big girl.

The speed at which life is going scares me in a way, I want to savor these times with my girls while they are little. I don't want to forget what they were like, what they said and did when they were at the stages they are at now. I am trying to be less busy so that I can have more moments with them and keep better track of our memories as well. Is that possible? After the holidays.... I hope.

Pictures to come soon.