Happy Holidays!

The holiday season is upon us. It is my favorite time of year because everything seems so magical and people everywhere show how wonderful they are to each other.

I wish you a very wonderful holiday season. May you have days filled with laughter and love.

I will be away from the office until January 5th celebrating.

Happy Holidays!

Gato Family

The Gato family invited me to their house in hopes that their oldest daughter would be relaxed and enjoy the portrait session. So when I arrived I just played with her for a while. She showed me the "Ho Ho Ho" and pointed to the Elf that was sitting on top of the shelf. She told me some stories and even showed me how to play with a few toys. Eventually, she helped me take a few pictures and loved playing with my lens puffer (helps clean dust out of the lens area on my camera). By the time the backdrop and light was setup, she was raring to go! She was so energetic...I loved it!

I think that this one is so precious. I softened the image up a bit so that it became even more angelic.

And the love that started it all.

Primus-Louallen Family

I love how all of the kids showed up in their PJs for their session. It was a 10am session so it really did make sense. They looked all warm and toasty.

I baked a batch of Schwan's monster cookies for the occasion because I wanted to use them in the session, but it kinda escaped my mind so they never made it into the images. The good news is that the kids were able to take all of the cookies home with them.


This is the newest little addition to the family. She was born on November 14, 2008 and was already so strong. She kept lifting her head up and moving all around.It took me about 15 tries to get this picture because she decided that she didn't want to lay still. She kept wiggling every time I was about to take the picture. The other kids thought that was hilarious. I thought so too.

The Hansen-Hanson Family

I like to joke with these two that they should hyphenate their name to be Hansen-son to make it easy for everyone. So far, the haven't run with the idea.

Aaron, Dannah and Oscar came over to have their holiday card taken. They live about 1.5 blocks away from me so it was a really long car ride for them. We had fun dressing up poor Oscar in various hats and giggling at how cute he looked. I think that Aaron felt a little left out because he started making silly faces at the camera. From there on out, it was non-stop laughs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I often reflect on life and realize how precious the gifts that we are given are. Thanksgiving is upon us and there are so many reasons to be thankful this year.

I am thankful for all of the people that are in my life. Whether it is a 5 minute conversation with someone new to me or catching up with a friend or family member, I cherish each moment.
I am thankful that my family is healthy. I am thankful that Sarah (married in August) completed her last scheduled round of chemo on Tuesday. I am thankful that my old co-worker Mitch is in remission after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last winter. I am thankful that my Aunt Vicki is healthy enough to enjoy Thanksgiving with her family. I am thankful that my little family is growing (we are having a baby in March). I am thankful for my warm house and the ability to buy food. I am thankful for each little laugh that I hear or smile that I see from Ethan and Noah. I am thankful for the progress that Noah has made in the last year. I am thankful that Ethan knows exactly how to answer all of the questions during the children's portion of church. I am thankful for being trusted to document people's lives. I am thankful for every solider that is protecting our country.

The Winterfield Family

The Winterfield's have two little kids, Tate and Taylor. Tate cracks me up because he has trademark moves. I personally think that he is practicing to scare the boys away from his beautiful little sister.

After all of the fun we were having playing, Tate didn't really want to sit still for a family photo. He tried, but he could only make it for about 3 seconds before trying to run. Again, he cracks me up.

His little sister Taylor seemed to be fascinated by the big black camera that was starring at her.

After about 50 minutes of photo fun, Tate had enough. :)

A whole lotta fun!

My Sunday afternoon was a complete blast! I was asked to photograph 4 families at a home in Annandale, 2 of which have small children. Ya' it was a slice of heaven. I am not sure where to start since the afternoon was busy with trying to get Mallory and Anders to look at the camera. I did learn a new preschool song that did the trick though. After that, it was smooth sailing.

I adore Ander's expression in this image. It is so him. He laughs so hard that he leans back a little. Then we have Ms. Mallory who is so sweet and caring. They are just too cute!


The newest member of family is little Ethan. He was so attentive to his parents. Every time one of them spoke, his head turned towards them. I could tell that he thought the world of them.

These two graciously allowed me to turn their front room into a studio for the entire afternoon (thanks again). They are proud grandparents and everything that they did that afternoon showed it. At one point in the afternoon I over heard Carole explaining the story about Thanksgiving to Mallory. It was really sweet.

It was all smiles with these two. I honestly don't remember seeing them not smile all afternoon long.

Here is a picture of the grandchildren.

This one is my favorite. It was such a sweet, innocent, memorable moment. Anders was trying to get close to his new cousin, while Mallory was trying to get close to him to give a kiss.

My Family

Last night the Raivala family decided to have a little fun so I set up lighting , a backdrop and figured out how to use myself timer on the camera. That took me like 5 minutes because I couldn't remember how to do it. You can ask me about aperture settings, dragging the shutter and lots of other things that I know how to do with my camera, but the self timer was a challenge.

Anyways, we had a blast taking the pictures. Jon was the focal point so he pretty much sat in the same place while the kids and I moved around. After each image the kids and I ran back to the camera to see how the picture looked and then we would race back to Jon for another picture.


I was still trying to figure out the self timer when this image was taken. Hence, the absence of me.


Ethan wanted to do something scary. Noah on the other hand, was not thrilled with the idea. Do you like my peace signs? I couldn't bring myself to do full on scary. It just isn't me.

Yup, this is a typical night at the Raivala household. We flip the kids around all of the time. It will be a sad day when they are too big to do it.

I think it is really funny how Jon and I are looking at the camera in every image. Both of us watched the little red light and then suprised the kids with differnt our moves.

Another true to life image. We love cuddling too.

Ethan and Noah want to do another photo shoot tonight. I don't know what has gotten into them. Usually they run away from the camera when they see me take it out.

The Sturgis Family

I go way back with the Sturgis Family. So far back that I cannot even remember the I first met Jim and Katerina. I do know that we had a blast working together back in the day at Sax Food and Drug in Elk River. Ahhh, the memories. I can smell the Jo-Jo potatoes right now. I would also like to take partial credit for these two. I was the one that walked up to Jim and asked him what he thought of Katerina after she had mentioned that she liked him. Can you tell that we were in High School?

Many years have past and I am still lucky enough to have these two in my life. I have witnessed their marriage, helped celebrate Ayden's birth and birthdays with them and have watched them become a dynamic duo with all sorts of projects.

Last Saturday the Raivala fam and the Sturgis fam had a date. It consisted of me bringing my boys over (that includes Jon), taking pictures of the Sturgi and then grabbing a bite to eat afterwards. All was well until Ayden decided that he wanted to play with the boys (yes, that includes Jon again) instead of reading a book that his Grandpa read to Katerina when she was little. I eventually moved them into another room-away from Ayden. It was smooth sailing from there.

Check out a few of the images from my date with the Sturgis Family:

Ayden giving his Arthur Fonzarelli impersonation.Hugs and Kisses from Mom.
Fooling around with Dad.

Oh no, it's an Ayden sandwich! Complete with tomato, cheese and bun.