Carol's maternity shoot

 

My beautiful and awesome sister-in-law Carol and I did a maternity shoot of her while visiting the Potter family in Idaho Falls. We had fun playing with lighting and shadows while capturing her third pregnancy. Isn't she gorgeous? This was probably one of the most fun photo shoots ever. Moms-to-be: I would love to do your maternity photos.

Potter family portraits

Our gift to my mother-in-law for Christmas was a Potter family photo session. We set up an impromptu studio in the basement living room on New Year's Eve and I got to test out the new remote control for my camera in the group shots. This was also the first big use of my new Nikon D7000 camera that Santa left under the tree for me.

A sunset walk in Idaho Falls

Joshua and I took a sunset walk in Sportsman's Park in Idaho Falls on New Year's Eve with his brother and his finance. We were doing an engagement shoot for the other couple (more pics to come), but we passed the camera to them for a moment to get a vacation picture. It's it lovely?

We've been having a very relaxing and fun vacation. A great way to kick off 2012.

Happy New Year!

Alaska Christmas

 

Davin got a Kindle Fire for Christmas in Alaska and the next day we hopped on a plane to visit our families and friends in Idaho and Washington. Travel photos to come.

Josh and Davin watch a movie on the iPad while waiting for our flight in the Anchorage airport.

And we shall name it Triceratree

We put our Christmas tree up Sunday. I have fond memories of driving to every tree lot in the greater Tri-City area as a child to find our perfect tallest, Charlie-Brown-y-est Christmas tree possible — only to return to the very first lot and buy the very first tree we saw. But since moving to Alaska there are not billions of tree lots on every corner. So we simply go to Home Depot, because it's cost effective.

This year our tree had three tops. So we appropriately named it Triceratree. One was taller in the beginning, but it had to be lopped to fit in our living room.

My sweet mom made us some very special hand-beaded ornaments this year, including the one above. The beaded wreath frames pictures from our wedding on both sides. She has a similar one from hers and my dad's wedding which makes it extra special.

 Triceratree in all her glory.

Davs and I made paper snowflakes out of coffee filters while watching Elf and the Christmas episode of "Glee."

3-D movie glasses are so much cooler than when I was a kid. Pop the lenses out for a fashion statement.

Snowy days

Davin played in the snow until it was dark yesterday. After a failed attempt to make a snowman on my part — snow wouldn't pack — I gave up and took pictures.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween. Davin did pretty well on his Trick-or-Treat adventure. He was a penguin, but people kept asking if he was an "Angry Bird." Sign of the times?

If you look back, you'll notice there was no snow when we carved our pumpkins just Thursday. That is no longer the case.

 Over the weekend we went to the Monster Ball at the Museum where our friend dee-jayed the event.

Can you guess what our costumes were?

Carving pumpkins and roasting seeds

Halloween is Monday so it's pumpkin carving time. We drove all over town looking for the perfect pumpkins after early release from school today and ended up getting these beauties at the Carr's [Alaska's Safeway] down the street. Bell's Nursery, which advertised a pumpkin patch on the radio only had discounted, tiny, Charlie Brown pumpkins left.

The ones at Carr's were huge and of course Davin wanted the one at the bottom of the crate. So we rearranged nearly every pumpkin in the stack to get to it.

Above, the victims before carving.

We also toasted pumpkin seeds, at batch of sweet and a batch of savory. The savory were coated in olive oil, garlic salt and cayenne pepper. The sweet were coated in olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, savory and a spoonful of brown sugar. Just spread on a baking sheet at pop in the oven at 400 for 20-30 minutes. If you do sweet, watch that sugar, it will burn if you don't pay attention.

Happy Halloween.

UnWINEd Grand Opening

I had a great time taking photos and lending a hand at the UnWINEd Grand Opening last weekend. UnWINEd is Anchorage's newest boutique wine shop and when Joshua went in to sell them advertising a few weeks ago a short chat turned into a career change.

They were so impressed with his wine knowledge combined with his advertising and business management experience they recruited him to be the store's resident wine expert, or sommelier. One of the owners was recently telling me how happy he was to have my husband join their team. He felt the way Josh explains wine is a unique service he doesn't think you can get just anywhere and a key component to the store's future. I told him I was just so pleased to see him doing work he's passionate about. And it doesn't hurt that I'll have to help him with his homework (read: tasting).

At the Grand Opening celebration there were tasty treats, tons of customers and even the mayor came down to do a ribbon cutting. The owners hope to cultivate a store where you can find unique wines that aren't distributed everywhere else in town. They also carry a variety of gifts such as cork purses and jewelry, specialty foods including tapanade and flavored olive oils, and a plethora of wine-related accessories.

I'm excited to see the store grow and have a connection to such creative, hard-working business people in Anchorage. If you live in Anchorage, I hope you drop by sometime to check it out.

 Anchorage Mayor Sullivan cuts the ribbon to commemorate the Grand Opening of UnWINEd, with the store's owners at his sides.