The Bell Family

Taking family pictures with little ones can have a tendancy to be a little bit crazy. This shoot in particular required a little more care and cosideration than most family shoots. The darling little girl here has Rett Syndrome. We wanted to make sure she was comfortable in her surroundings and that there wouldn't be too much around to over-stimulate her. So, we went somewhere no kid could ever feel unwelcome - my grandmother's house! My grandparents are currently serving a mission for our church, but the backyard is still completely shaded with huge old trees, and the swingset and trampoline are still in great working condition. What kid wouldn't love that! Plus the fact that they wouldn't have to share with any other kids as they would have on a playground. It worked brilliantly. The kids were happy, most of the time, and we ended up with several really great shots. I was honestly shocked they turned out so well.

We ended up taking over 1500 pictures, but our favorites are in a separate folder (There are around 80 of them) if you want to take a look!

www.Pictage.com/477161

 








 

Ballerina

Let me preface this with the fact that I have NEVER had such a hard time choosing which pictures to post. EVER. Click here to view the entire shoot: http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=467024

This one is definitely worth a look!

Shauna was simply stunning, and an absolute blast to photograph! I was surprised that she was actually nervous at first. I guess dancing for hundreds of people on a regular basis is one thing, but dancing for two of your own personal paparazzi is quite another! Once she got started she never looked back. She was so comfortable with herself, and she was one of the most graceful things I have ever seen. She was so exited to do the desert pictures, something funky but still graceful. Personally, I think we nailed it.  

Click here to view the entire shoot: http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=467024

Four Front Teeth

I think I may be one of those incredibly biased parents, but I really think I have a VERY cute kid. :) Kylan now has 4 front teeth! He is also getting ridiculously mobile, and I didn't realize how "un-baby-proofed" our house is! The other night he pulled himself up on his bouncer, from crawling to standing in just moments! He thought that was pretty cool and laughed and laughed once he knew, for sure, that we were watching. Until he fell on his bum, of course. :) So here are a few pics of my darling kid that I really post too many pictures of as it is. What can I say? I'm a mom! 

Murals

I couldn't post the pictures of the paintings I did without posting a "real" picture. This is my sister attempting to practice the piano with her 3 year old in tow. Definitely a favorite of mine.

So, here are a few pictures of our Utah trip. I photographed a graduation and painted for 5 days strait. That was about it. It was really a lot of fun, I LOVE being knowen as the "paint aunt"! How many kids do you know that even have one of those? Especially when their mom is as crazy as my sister, who totally supports (and actually has credit for beginning) my little addiction. :)  There is still a lot of detail work I want to do, but not bad for limited time and assistants ranging from 3 to 13. Every kid got to help a little in their room, which I think is pretty cool. Yep, even the 3 year old. I wouldn't have had it any other way. And yes, everything was free-handed. 

This is Pete, after "Pete's Dragon" (whose name was really Elliot by the way, if anyone was interested). He was a VERY big accident that took a lot longer than I anticipated, but is by far my FAVORITE out of all the murals we did that week. My nephew got a hold of a paint brush when we weren't looking and there was suddenly a huge green blob on the wall. Instead rushing to find the matching wall paint to see if we could paint over it, what does my sister do? Unlike any rational adult I have ever knowen, she said "Oh, you can just turn it into a dragon or something." How many parents see a gigantic green blob on the wall and very calmly, almost EXITEDLY tell someone to turn it into a random mythical creature to fit the theme of the room? She's a little crazy, but by far one of the coolest mom's of all time. Hence, Pete joined the family. 

This is the "castle room" where pete guards the front door. Eventually these darling nephews of mine will have a full mural in the archway we painted, but that will take several days more to finish. My other nephew came to play the day I finished the rock work and asked where we got the big sticker from. What a compliment! I took them to Wendy's for frosties for that one.

 

This is the teenager's room. Yes, even the teenager gets a mural on his wall. He is an AVID BYU fan. Can you tell? He and his cousin even helped base the faux work on this one, and helped with base coats in several of the other rooms. I have to say, it was definitely nice to have the help. 

This is the "Space Room" and the pictures just don't do it justice. The cieling is vaulted, and I am TERRIFIED of heights. This took many hours on a ladder with every huge circular thing we could find in the house to draw and paint the planets. There are almost 1000 glow in the dark stars in the cieling, and some of the planets glow, too. The night it was done we had a "camp out" for a few minutes so everyone could see the completed "galaxy". It was actually really cool. 

This is the "black hole" in the space room. I can't even begin to tell you how cool that looked at night!

Since Pete took up so much time I didn't get to do as much to this room as I wanted. The tree will eventually be covered in moss, big leaves and huge tropical flowers. The branches and vines will go all the way around the room right below the cieling. It turned out okay for now, but will require a lot of attention on our next visit. 

Missing In Action

I finally got a chance to look at my blog the other night and I can't believe it has been so long since I posted something! We have been running around like CRAZY. I guess it's good to know that some things never change. :) We spent a week in Salt Lake City where I photographed a Law School graduation and spent almost a week painting murals in the bedrooms of my niece and nephews, we spent several days in San Francisco photographing AND doing video for a wedding, and now we are in Denver working with an office here! We have only spent a few days at home in between each trip and I am starting to get really tired... With family shoots, cutting video demos and attempting to keep on top of the packing and unpacking it has been a little tough get everything done. But, I will try to post again while we are in Denver and I will try to catch you up on everything we've been doing in the last month once we get home!