My Family

Last week Travis Johansen of Travis Johansen Photography was kind and brave enough to photography my family.  He had met everyone before so I was surprised to hear that he would do it.  :)

We started our session about 30 minutes before sundown so we had beautiful warm light and afterwards Travis got out his off camera flash and had some fun taking photos of the kids on the swing.

Travis was nice enough to allow me to post some of the images on my blog.  Thanks Travis!

Images © TravisJohansenPhotography.com - Used With Permission  

My boys.

My goofy family.  I love them!
Travis shot a series of images that include me flipping Ethan around.  I don't want to share them because they might be Christmas presents.
Another great shot of Ethan and Noah goofing around.  This is one of my favs from the night.
So sweet.
I keep starring at this one because I love how Ethan is moving so fast that there is just a little bit of motion blur on his face.  If you have ever met Ethan, you know that he moves fast all of time so again, Travis nailed it!
I love the facial expressions that everyone has on their faces.  This is my family.

Yup, she had enough fun and was ready for dinner towards the end of the shoot.

I love the blue playdough on Noah's shoe!  He chases me around the house with playdough because he knows that I don't like the smell of it.  Silly kid.

Thanks again Travis!  You captured my family perfectly!!!

Back in the office

Hi! I am back from my mini vacation. The kids had a wonderful time in jail and on the rest of our trip. We were able to see many corn fields, caves, the location of were Jesse James' gang was defeated and state parks. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of my little jail birds.

If your kids like to play cops and robbers, I highly recommend going to the Wykoff Jail Haus B&B. It was the best!

Baby Claire Elizabeth Raivala

I would like to introduce my new daughter to everyone (yes, I am a proud Ma Ma). Her name is Claire Elizabeth Raivala and I am totally in love with her! She was born on March 24, 2009 at 9:51pm. She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and measured 19 inches. Currently her favorite thing to do is to sleep and cuddle with me, her dad and her two protective big brothers.

I am doing well, however, I have noticed that I am a little bit slow at responding to my emails and voicemails from everyone. I promise that I will get back into the swing of things shortly and reply to everyone.

Have a great day- I know that I will.

The Great Mississippi River

While driving to Monticello last week I noticed some beautiful birds hovering around the Mississippi River. I believe that they are swans, but I am not 100% sure (If there is an avid bird lover out there please let me know if I am wrong).

Later in the day I returned to the same location that I originally saw the swans at. This time I was wearing my Canon 5d, my 70-200mm lens and of course; a pair of boots. My mission, to carefully walk down towards the river without scaring the swans. I was partially successful at my mission.

As I walked down to the river the swans started to swim away from me and some of them actually took flight. I was able to capture a few images before they were out of sight. Here are the images:

I hope to be able to go to the same spot another time this winter at sunrise. I think that the lighting would be phenomenal then.

Arizona- Part 2

I finally took a few minutes to process a few of the images that I took during my Arizona adventure a few weeks ago.

One thing that caught my eye while I was visiting Arizona is how different all of the churches look compared to the churches we have in Minnesota. The image below is from a church that was located in downtown Phoenix. I adore the roof and how there are multiple crosses upon it.

Since arriving back home, I have been look at the churches in my area more closely. All of them only have 1 cross being proudly displayed. I just thought that was interesting.
On my last day in Arizona I asked the hotel driver to bring me to a desert area because I had never seen one in person before. About 20 minutes later we came upon these 3 rocks. They were a beautiful shade of red and were surrounded by plant life that I wasn't familiar with so I grabbed my camera and attempted to climb up the rock on the right.

Had I known that I was going to be climbing a rock, I wouldn't have worn flip flops that day. The flip flops along with a 7 month pregnant belly wasn't a good combination. Let's just say that I finally gave into the idea of being pregnant and had to stop climbing. For those of you who have seen me within the last few months know that I haven't let my belly stop me from doing much so this was big moment for me.

All of my bags are now unpacked and my flip flops have been put away. Even though the weather was beautiful while I was in Arizona, I have to admit that my heart was still in Minnesota almost the whole time I was away.

8th Wedding Anniversary

Eight years ago today Jon and I were married. It seems like a lifetime ago. Probably because we figured out a few weeks ago that we have known each other for almost half of our lives.

We actually met in High School while we worked at Hardees. He came in for an interview and was told that he could have a free pop so he approached me while I was working the counter and asked for a root beer-no ice. I wasn't about to give him a free pop because I didn't want to get in trouble so he went and grabbed the Manager that he interviewed with and she gave me the ok.

It is funny how things work out. If I hadn't worked at Hardees, I wouldn't have met him. Who knew that fast food could be so good?!

Our ceremony was held at Central Lutheran Church in Elk River and our reception was at Silver Springs Golf Course in the Monticello area. This is by far my favorite picture from the whole night. I love Jon's facial expression!

Jon- Thanks for 8 wonderful years of marriage plus 6 years and 15 days of dating. There are hardly any memories of my life that don't include you. I cannot wait to see what other memories are made over the next 75 years. I love you!

For all of my clients out there who are wondering....'Did Katie bring a camera to her own wedding?' The answer is, YES. I only used a black point and shoot camera and I had it around my neck for most of the evening until my Mom begged me to take it off. I got some great candid shots of my guests with it though.

Lil' ol' me

Over the last 12 years I have probably taken around 1 million pictures of other people, places and things; but I probably only have maybe 100 or so pictures of me. Most of those were taken by my mom during the holidays.


I recently had the chance to jump into a photobooth and strike a few poses. Well 3 poses and 1 uh oh, "I am not ready for the picture"... moment. I forgot how much fun it is to strike a pose and be the superstar for a moment. It was a blast!!!!

If you have ever talked with me, you know that I am an energetic, life loving, happy-go-lucky person that is thrilled to talk to people. I am the girl that strikes up a conversation with you at Target while I am trying to pick out a card or holds the door open for you just because I can.

It is the little things in life that makes me happy. I love to hear little kids giggle uncontrollably. I love to watch a couple stare into each others eyes and see the future that is ahead of them. And, I like to have fun. I think that is why I liked the photobooth so much.