We babysat Jayden yesterday and since we had him captive we decided we should…..take some pictures!!
(we’ve recovered enough from the weddings to be able to use our shutter finger again!)

 The Many Faces of Jayden!

This was a very special day for us. Our very dear friends  Skip and Sally Meyers called to tell us their daughter Susanna was getting married! We met up with Susanna and David one fine afternoon in Nevada City to do their Engagement Session and knew this was going to be a beautiful wedding and couldnt wait to do it!  

When we took a drive over to see their venue the Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley, California we felt as though we stepped into Ireland! 

We were honored to be able to capture the day and all the planning and love that went into this wedding and the joining of two families and the extraordinary people they are.

God bless you guys!!!

PS. The Beatles song “All You Need Is Love” is actually what they played as their recessional song after the wedding ceremony! So cool!

Time for some quick shots of the fam….by the time we are done with a wedding the last thing I want to do is lug a bunch of camera equipment around and since the 5D is such a great camera I just go without a flash alot for just personal stuff which is how I like it anyway…it captures the mood and the important stuff!

So onto the family side of things:

Jayden sure has been gowing fast! We just spent the evening with them for Dave’ s Birthday…here Kelly just got home from her very new job at a local restaurant/bar. Mark had to help her learn how to tie a double windsor knot!! Too cute!

Now that Grandpa is done with that…. it is Jayden time!

But Grandma gets to feed him his bottle before we head out for dinner…..actually he is pretty good at holding it himself! That is if he doesnt suddenly spaz out and throw it over his head! ..he hates it when he does that….LOL! He did pretty good this time…

Okay fast forward about 2 hours and we are at a pizza place and Grandma is feeding Jayden some rice cereal…yum!
He is just learning how to eat food! It was a bit funny to watch him.He kept pushing it out at first but then he got the idea and I had to keep shoveling it in or he would get annoyed! lol! 

I guess he thought it was a bit funny to watch me!

Now that is taken care of I can concentrate on playing!

Oh yeah its Daddy’s birthday so I better show you what he got from Grandma and Grandpa….that sure doesnt look like me now! But Daddy loves it. He got two different photos but he put the other one away before Grandpa got the camera out.

We have had quite a few personal things this months along with shooting weddings every weekend…. We had 2 birthdays…our 27th Anniversary which slipped by very quietly and Father’s Day…
As of matter of fact Lindsay spent her birthday shooting Josh and Karah’s wedding! She is such a sport! She said she didnt mind!

So, now we soldier on with editing all these images! Brian is asking alot about the post processing so perhaps he will enjoy doing that too! That sure would help Mark out!

Hope you are having a wonderful week….

Kerri

Next up will be The Empire Mine wedding….a few photos from that wedding will be up tomrrow…

Mr. and Mrs. Josh and Karah Childers 

This was shot by our son Brian so we dressed it up for him and hope he is encouraged by such an awesome catch! 

Jayden and Kelly at Empire Mine on a scouting expedition for our upcoming wedding

This one just cracks me up!!!

Hope you all enjoyed Fathers Day….

Kerri  

Watching my husband over the years and seeing the difference between how fathers can be with their children I am always reminded of how God is a Father and how He is the perfect Father. When I was growing up I did not know who God was at all. I was raised by my father to not believe in anything like that. One of my memories of my father and I was when I was a little girl and my father had me on his lap and was showing me pictures from our encyclopedia set. The tremendous fear that set in my little mind and heart when he showed me the different types of captial punishment from around the world. This was in the 50′s and they were beheadng in France and using elephants to crush heads on tree stumps in India. I went to bed that night in complete fear that one day if I made a mistake I would die like that…maybe that is why I grew up to be such a people pleaser. I did eventually grow up and learn the difference between a perfect Father and an earthly father and to forgive my earthly father’s humanness even though he did some hard to get over things to me. He also was a good man. We lost him a few years ago and it was a hard time fraught with lots of hurtful things that ended up happening. One of the hardest things was not being at the hospital in time to say goodbye while he was coherent. But the hardest part of that was knowing that he rejected Christ all of his adult life. We tangled a few times over the “stupidity of believing in something you cant see” we agreed to disagree mamy times but toward the end he became very sarcastic and disagreeable and it became hard to have a relationship. His being sick added to this as well as a young woman who lived with him that was also in the big middle of his ultimate rejection of my sister and I over us being Christians. I cant tell you how hurtful that was to us. I had to go to counseling over the next year after his death to talk things through. It is too weird to know you loved someone so much but also had such a hard life with them that tried to negate all the good that was there. When I had pretty much accepted that my father died in his athiesm and his anger toward us I get a call from his sister in Iowa to tell me the last of his brothers had passed away. My favorite Uncle Marvin. In his last moments he told his family that he could see a bright light and then he said the words that ripped through my heart and soul….”and I see Bert and Glenn standing here”. Bert is my father. When my aunt told me this by phone just the other week a huge knot formed in my throat and years of pain and frustration poured out of my heart. I wept like I hadnt wept in years. I had been so uncertain about his life and where he was spending it that I walked around for years with such regret and “what ifs” that left such a painful place in my life that many times I just couldnt talk about my father. Now on this Fathers Day the first one since his death. I can honestly say, “Happy Fathers Day, Dad. I finally believe in my heart that I will see you again when this life is over for me.” It will be a wonderful reunion to say the least. One that I had always hoped for as a child. A relationship that should have been better than it was can now be put to rest as I am assured that somehow something made it through that crusty heart as he lay dying that inspired him to reach out and ask God for help. At which point the perfect Father extended His forgiving heart and welcomed him into eternity within Heaven’s Gate. This is my most memorable Fathers Day that I can remember…this is what I had prayed and hoped for for years and years and I believe that God is telling me, “Kerri dont worry anymore…he is here and safe with me…”

Happy Fathers Day to all of you ….Fathers Day doesnt just affect fathers it affects the kids…forever .

Happy Father’s Day to my favorite guy… and most wonderful father and husband I could ever hope to have! I love you, Mark! I am so glad God has given us all these more years than the Drs told us….God always has the last word on that! Thank you God and Happy Fathers Day to you! You’re the best!

Love Kerri

The New Generation of Cufflink

Now that it has been sent out to all of the Dupont Registry subscribers we can now release our photo and ad….

Our life this week….

Wow what a whirlwind weekend! We had 2 weddings back to back this weekend and it was crazy! But it was sooo fun!! Both weddings were beautiful as I expected and both families on both sides were so great! The couples were so wonderful to work with!

Thanks Karah and Josh and Susanna and David! Cant wait to edit and present your images! Hope you are having the most wonderful time away!!!

Hey you remember that this spring we went to WPPI in Vegas for the best Photographers Convention ever!? While I was there I kept eyeing this cool booth and I recognized her as Jessica Claire and had heard she was coming out with these cool bags for us photogs. I love an entreprenuer! Well on the last day Mark finally just said, “Why dont you just get it already! lol….well I didnt really want to spend that much but hey… bags are expensive period! So why not carry one you love and reflects more of who you are!?? Soooo this is the cover I chose that best suited me. She has tons of different fabric covers to suit your style.  

I finally got mine just in time for this seasons weddings!

The ShootSac 

If I can find a pic of me wearing mine in our photographs I will post it up this week sometime. If you are interested in one but just cant justify the cost then this might interest you!

Jessica Claire who is the photographer/designer and inventor of this bag is offering a free one in her little contest. In her own words, “I have in my hands ONE SHOOTSAC. I am going to give it away for free to whoever sends me a photo of their rattiest, ugliest camera bag! I will pick the top ugly bags and take votes on who should get the shootsac. So send in your photos of your horrible old bag, and tell me why you need the shootsac.” Send the emails with the photos to: flamingo@shootsac.com 

Big news–there’s another way to win a shootsac! BECKER is also running a contest! Go to his blog and tell him what you’d do for a shootsac and get another chance to win!

Jessica and Becker

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For the next few days we will be in the digital darkroom working on the 2 weddings we just shot this weekend so we are going to be busy doing that but in the meantime here is something cool to check out…

Our Niece Chelsea

I got an email from my sister in law Keli who is married to Mark’s brother Jon. Their oldest daughter Chelsea is deaf and she has been vblogging using her signing to communicate with ppl out there in vblog land and the Wall Street Journal picked up on it and interviewed her for an article they were doing..check it out!

 http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB118134342938629622-lMyQjAxMDE3ODAxOTMwNDkzWj.html

We will be putting up a few images later today to tide you over from each wedding….so keep checking back…

Secret Project

Last but not least our secret project is cleared for publication so were going to be posting it later tonight as well! So be sure you check back for that too!

K

Today is our second wedding of the weekend – WHEW!! Our only double booked weekend so far this season. We’re tired from yesterday but very excited about today’s wedding – it’s at the Empire Mine State Park which is a gorgeous setting. Our good friend Randy is coming along to help us shoot since this venue is also a little spread out.

Here is David & Susanna’s engagement slideshow.

It’s already hot here this morning so we are glad we are heading to the hills today!

This week will be a busy one, and we’ll post the slideshows as soon as we can for these weddings!

Have a great day!