Five Boys

Steve and all 4 of his brothers were in town the weekend we blessed Kelan for James' missionary farewell. This hasn't happened in a while and can't happen again for at least 2 years while James is gone, so we took advantage of it and snapped a few photos.

Aren't they handsome?? Man, I married into a great looking family...

Showing a bit more personality...

And a full on "I'm stronger than you are" contest... there is ALWAYS competition when you've got 5 boys in one family. ;)

More of that weekend to come...

Visitors and Newborn Pictures

We've had a lot of visitors over the past week and a half. I should have made an effort to get more pictures of him with everyone. I always think this later on... oh well!

Grandma and Grandpa Sonnenberg came to visit Kelan this week and I realized that we still hadn't attempted a picture of all 4 of our kids together... so thanks to Grandpa wanting a photo with them, we now have one! Getting all 4 kids to look and be happy in one photo in the future ought to be interesting.


Just a couple of the pictures I took of Kelan this week too. He is exactly 1 week old in these pictures. I didn't include my favorites because I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to put on his birth announcement...




An update on Kelan's jaundice... he's fine now! We actually sent the lights back on Monday (despite what his pediatrician's office gave as instructions) because we were tired of it and I've been down this road before and trusted my instincts as a mom. He was eating, pooping, and a happy baby. So, just letting him sleep in the sun through the window every evening was enough, in my opinion. And I was right... love that motherhood instinct. It saved us several days of a fussy, cranky babe on the lights.

Five, three, and one.

Cohen and Scarlett didn't really get pictures done for their birthday's in April, so since I was needing to get Kanyon's done soon with him turning 5 this month, I decided that it was best to just pack them in and take them all. That way, once the baby is born... I can focus on just getting newborn shots of him and not feeling the pressure of the others still. SO glad I can check this off my "to do" list.

Many, many thanks to my friend Jen for tagging along and helping me wrangle Cohen while I was working on the other two. As a bonus, she got some pretty cute shots of her girls too. :)

Cohen - 14 1/2 months and at a VERY tough age to photograph so I was thrilled with what I was able to get out of the small amount of time he would cooperate with me.




Scarlett - 3 years and 3 1/2 months (at least she is still closer to 3 than 4!)






Kanyon - a week shy of 5 years old and looking far too old for me lately.


The four best buddies... Kanyon has already informed us that he is going to marry Paityn (on the far right). She is about 8-9 months older than him, but hey... no complaints from Steve or I! We love her family!
I loved photographing Paityn because she had quite a few ideas of her own as far as poses and where she ought to be. It was so cute! She is 5 1/2.





Presley is 2 1/2 and while I couldn't get a ton of grins out of her, she was very serious about wanting her picture taken... as long as I showed her what I captured on the LCD screen when I was done!






I also enjoyed getting out there and shooting that night because I got to put my 5DMarkII to use for the first time. :) I couldn't believe how fast my CF card filled up though... I'm going to have to upgrade that as well!

'Mark' is here...

...and I'm in love!

He sounds different and feels a little different, but he's so close to my 5D that my fingers already know just what buttons to push. I see a very smooth transition happening over here. My awesome 5D will now be shipped to Cali hopefully for a short trip to be cleaned and fixed up a bit. Then he'll be right back here to serve as my back-up. He's given me a great almost 3 years and deserves a little TLC and a rest. ;)

A couple test photos before I had to juice up the new battery a bit more for when I really see all that 'Mark' can do...


Don't you love how cooperative my two older ones were? Nice faces.
They'll really be sick of me tomorrow when my new lens arrives and I'll be wanting to play. ;)

An Announcement

Click on the first photo to see it enlarged and find out our surprise. :)


We are excited. :)

Yes, I'm one of "them".

I went to the midnight showing of "New Moon".
And, I loved it.
Here's Jen, Me, Destiny, and Christie waiting in line to get in.
Jen and I were a little concerned about our ability to enjoy it at that time of night, so we picked up a 5-hour energy drink at the gas station. We split it and it worked great! No shakes and heart palpitations... but just the perfect amount of energy to stay awake through the movie and enjoy it. Although you can tell from Jen's face that it's really a yucky tasting thing!
I'm still trying to recover from that night, 2 days later. A 4am bedtime was not cutting it. Although my husband was so sweet to let me sleep in until almost 8:30 that next morning.

Oh and I thought my SP for this week was pretty fitting...
Don't be a hater. ;)
Can't wait to see it again with Steve on Monday night!

Not a hard job...

... to photograph the Bird's! I have owed them a photo-session for some time now, but more than that, it was just plain fun to get out there and take pictures for someone else since I have pretty much sworn it off this year. I can't take it in large quantities, but I miss it if I don't play on occasion.

Jen's location choices were just perfection, making it so hard to choose what to put on here! Just a few favs of mine...






The photo below is very much inspired (if not totally swiped) from my photog friend, Jenny... love it.
Everyone needs a silhouette, in my opinion. Can't you just see their personalities coming through? And the perfect last photo when the youngest is totally over it! ;)
I'd do this every weekend if it always ended in take out and a movie in with one of my most favorite families ever. :)