Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Today is Jennifer's 30th birthday, can you believe it?! i thought i'd celebrate in the blogiverse by posting some cute pics of Jen through the ages... Well, at least the ages that i have digital pictures for.

This is Jen... before i married her. Isn't she cute? i don't know how old she was, i'm thinking the 80ies though.

Here she is in Alaska somehwere sometime. I'm thinking early college or late high school. But i think it's easily one of her cutest pictures.

Philmont Scout Ranch, the summer before we met i think. So that would make it 1999 maybe? Finally, after 8 years, she doesn't go on and on about it anymore. Actually, i love her Philmont stories, and look at her, doesn't she look great? I think the time she spent at Philmont is probably one of the happiest times of her life. Can you blame me for falling in love with a girl who had spent the whole summer hiking around?

I think this is Emily's wedding reception, so it must have been some time shortly after we got married, oh look, i inlcuded the date in the file name, it was July of 2001. Smokin'!

i skipped a few years simply to try and keep this post at a reasonable length. This is June of 2004 on the Slickrock trail in Moab. My little mountainbiker. i was not only impressed that she even tried it in the first place, but that she did AWESOME!

July of 2004. My climbing partner. All the pictures i have of her actually climbing tend to be butt shots and i wasn't sure she'd appreciate that. But inspite of her semi-fear of heights, she has always been willing to go climbing with me. Isn't she great?

Here we are in Zion National Park in Sept. of 2004. If i could, i would include all the pictures i have of her hiking, but i won't do that to you. Not because she's not cute and you wouldn't like to see more pictures of her, but because you want to finish reading this some time. She is always willing and able to go hiking with me, even if it means dragging heavy kids around with us (she carries the babies too, ya know).

November of 2004. This photo illustrates a number of Jennifer's qualities. #1, if she's not cooking, cleaning or otherwise taking care of her family (or blogging now), she's got a book in her hands. #2, she takes great care not only of our kids (kid, at the time), but of our nephews (and nieces) too. And finally, #3, this photo was taken in Vegas while visiting my sister, she's always willing to go and visit family with me, even if they live 5+ hours away.

May of 2005. Jennifer is a wonderful gardener! She always makes sure our home is surrouned by flowers and that we do our best to get a garden in. She makes sure we're healthy and, as cheesy as it sounds, doing our best to live in a sort of harmony with the planet.

June of 2005. My wife will try just about anything, even barell racing! She's not a scaredy-cat (except when i try to scare her) and i think she really does great at the things she attempts.

I couldn't resist; here's another hiking picture from October of 2005. But this wasn't any old hike, this was the "hike". Ask her about it, she'll tell you (it involved lots of mud). But at least she did it once, right?

November of 2006, taking care of our baby. Plus, she's beautiful!

And look, she's a model too! With very pretty brown eyes.

Did i mention she's S-E-X-X-Y (sung to the similarly titled TMBG song).

July of 2007. Not just a great wife, but a wonderful mother!

I know, i know. I said i wouldn't do anymore, but look, here she's taking our kid hiking too! And she likes going to my family reunions with me (July 2007).

August of 2008. Look, she even left a motorcycle gang for me. Err, no wait. She joined one for me. And she does a pretty good job of humoring her husband (by letting him but all sorts of toys).

Do i need to even say anything here? (Dec. 2007).

She does a great job keeping everyone posted on our happenings through her blog. (Granted, she doesn't look at that happy about it; probably has something to do with Aaron on her desk).

She is a wonderful helper for me! Whenever i have a project in or around the house the requires or could use more than one pair of (adult) hands, she's always there to help with a smile on her face.

She's always super cute with the kids. She plays with them and makes sure they're happy!

I just can't say it enough: Jennifer is wonderful! I'm glad i get to celebrate her birthdays with her. And if you can't tell, she only seems to get more beautiful with every year. Happy Birthday honey!

The Byingtons (Reloaded)

Day two with the Byingtons... After church and all that on Easter Sunday we headed over to the Byingtons to take some more pics of the baby in an environment a little more conducive to the creation of baby smiles, or at least not so conducive to unhappy babies.

They had some large west-facing windows that let in the setting sun and really provided some great light. (Incidentally, other than open shade, cloudy days and a dedicated portrait studio, light coming through windows like this provides some of the best portrait lighting).

Kaia Avi was a lot happier (for the most part) to be photographed in the comfort and warmth of her own home. And Julissa & Scott had a variety of outfits and backgrounds prepared for her.

Plus Scott, Jen and Julissa were all great reflector-holders.

I couldn't decide which of these two pictures i liked better; i always have a tough time deciding between black and white and color. I just like color.

Probably a good thing you can't see her face here, she wasn't too happy.

This is Scott and Julissa's little neice, i think. I was testing my camera settings and the light, but she kept making cute faces. Oh, and don't forget that you can see the rest of the pictures from this shoot on my website at http://alanjphoto.com.

These last three are probably my favorites. The bottom one looks like she's belting out some opera. And no, she's not screaming, she's yawning. And it's funny, because i got a lot of cute pictures of her yawning, and more often than not, when i look at them, i have to yawn.

The Byingtons (Part One)

Immediately after "shooting" the Rutherford Family (pictured in the post below), our good friends the Byingtons arrived for some family pictures. They had really wanted to get some family pics with the newest member of their family - unfortunately, it was not getting any warmer. And understandably, no one wanted to unwrap the baby. It was just too cold!

These pictures were also taken around Vivian Park in Provo Canyon, between Bridalveil Falls and Sundance. We didn't hang out for too long because of the weather and the baby, but we set up another appointment for the next day for an inside shoot for the baby. (I'm almost done with those).

Their family was obviously pretty photogenic and the boys were especially fun to work with; Rannon kept striking various poses for me to photograph.

Kian, on the other hand, struck some interesting poses too, but for the sake of not embarrassing him i won't post them here (he was striking fashion model poses).

I hope to get the rest of the indoor baby pictures posted in the next couple of days, but i'm tired.

Can't...Stop...Yawning...

Oh, and of course the rest of the pictures from this shoot can be seen here.

The Rutherford Fam

These are the various members of the Rutherford family at Vivian Park just past Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon.

i had seen some cool pictures of a train car on another photographer's site (Kate Benson) and inquired where they were taken and Kate, the photographer, was nice enough to tell me. Granted, i think she may be tired of my questions now. But i think a lot of being a "good" photographer is knowing where those good spots are.

I have known Kari for quite some time - since i was a junior and maybe even part of my sophomore year in high school in Irvine, Ca. So that must have been the 1993-1995 time frame or something. That may not seem like a long time to know someone for most people, but for us army brats that's a long time to stay in touch with someone. Now that i think of it, she's probably my second longest friend. (That sounds like something one torturer would say to another during the height of the Inquisition). Sure there are lots of people i've known for longer, but none really other than one that i still keep in regular touch with. So thanks for being such a good and long-lasting friend Kari!

So those of you who know Kari very well (which would probably be no one who is reading my blog) might be wondering how i met Kari in Irvine, CA if she was living in Orem. Well, i'll tell you, even though you probably already know - but hey, wouldn't it be boring to just have all these pictures and no text? No? Oh, well - too bad.

Sometime during my Sophomore year i think i met and started dating Jenna Olson from Valencia, CA. I met her at a Church dance somewhere - they were a big deal back then, i think my friends and i went to a church dance every week, and they were HUGE! i was about to give you the whole story, but then i realized i could be held liable for the drool-damage to your keyboard. Suffice it to say that Kari is Jenna's cousin. When i moved to Utah from California, Kari was kind enough to let me road trip with her back to see Jenna. I still remember that road trip, it was pretty fun - and i think it may have been one of my first road trips with a friend vs. family.

Anyway, fun road trip and all that it was, i believe in some way it may have been the beginning of the end of my relationship with Jenna. i'm still not 100% sure how or why, but i'm pretty sure that any girl that reads this will shake their head at me for how obvious it must have been. I'm sure it was my fault and i still kick myself to this day - no wait, that's Jen kicking me. Ow, stop it.

We took these pics the day before Easter, and i had hoped it would be a nice warm day, but of course it wasn't. It was plenty sunny - really too sunny for the pictures i wanted to take, but it was really cold. It was kind of tough to take family pictures because the kids didn't want to take off their coats, which was quite understandable, there was no way i was taking mine off. And even with coats on, some of them just weren't too excited to be there. (That's why there are no solo pictures of the front of Elijah).

Although Elijah wasn't too enthusiastic about pictures in the cold, as you can see, Ally was a trooper! She even took her coat off for a few pics! Even with little smudges on her cheeks from keeping herself amused she was super cute and photogenic.

If you would like to see more of the pictures from this shoot please visit my website here. Oh, and i'd be remiss if i didn't mention my wonderful assistant for that day: my wonderful wife. She volunteered to accompany and assist me for the afternoon and was invaluable. She had lots of picture ideas and was a great reflector holder.