Monday, May 24, 2010

Forever Family

It's been a really busy, but super amazing week at our house! Wednesday we had the court hearing and then Saturday we went to my hometown for more excitement and another special event!

In our religion we believe that families can be together even after we die. This is something very important to us. Saturday we had a special religious ceremony to bind Clarissa to our eternal family and it was a really special experience for our family. We chose to do it at the same place we got married, and to go back there with our whole family was really wonderful. It brought back a lot of memories of our wedding day, so walking around there with our three kids was just really neat for us.

Because it was a special day for us I hired a photographer to follow us around for the day! I chose a photographer friend of mine who I met on a photography website a few years whose work I really admire. He lives three hours away in Utah but agreed to drive down for the day, which I really appreciated. He did a great job and I'm so happy to have really great photos of the day.

The reason these photos are so great is because you can't tell what a difficult time we had getting them, lol! First of all, it was absolutely FREEZING outside. We almost had to check the calendar to make sure that it really was the end of May because it felt like January. We got hailed on and right as we finished the pictures it started to snow like crazy!! For an hour the wind blew and it snowed sideways. It was crazy.

Also, we had to contend with Clarissa, who HATES having her picture taken. She pretty much hates sitting still for anything, so when the camera comes out she runs. I haven't seen the outtakes from the photo session but I imagine that there are a few hundred of them where Clarissa is having a fit, lol. Fortunately my two AMAZING friends made the four hour drive to my hometown to support me and they spent the day standing behind the photographer willing to do anything to get Clarissa to smile for the camera. Armed with graham crackers and an asernal of toddler songs, they got the job done! :) We didn't get big smiles from Clarissa in most of the pictures, but the fact that she wasn't trying to get off our laps and run away in every picture makes it a success. :) In regular life Clarissa is super smiley and happy. In photos she looks like she's trying to make a hasty exit!

Anyway, here are some of the photos that I especially liked. I'm working on redesigning my blog with all the new photos, so stay tuned for that! :)





































4 comments:

Bethany said...

Congratulations! I am so happy for you guys!
My favorite picture is definitely the one with Clarissa running towards the camera with the rest of the family behind her and your arms going out towards her. LOVE that one!

Dustin, Darci, Britton, Benjamin, & Caden said...

Those are great pictures! I'm glad there was a break in the weather!

Lori said...

Great pics! Absolutely beautiful family. What a special day for you guys!

My5Blessings said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!! What a Beautiful, Beautiful family!!!