sound advice

Check out this great blog that I found thanks to the always entertaining Rockstar Diaries. I have no idea who these people are, but I adore this photo.

Images via 1001 rules for my unborn son.

meet josy

Meet my cousins newest addition to their family, Josette Elizabeth Mariana Gary! Isn't she darling! We can't wait to meet her in person, but for now we will have to get our fix by looking at great posts like this one!

birth story

I am sure that many of you are aware of the amazing work that Mr. Johnathan Canlas does. My new favorite service that he offers is shooting your birth story. Now, I know what you are thinking, weird having a photographer in the room with you. Well, since I am pretty sure it will be one of, if not the most defining moments of our lives I can't think of a better time to have a photographer there to capture it since I won't really be in a position to capture the moment myself (I think Mr. Reece will also be a little preoccipied.) I just think it would be so great for someone to capture not only the first few moments of your little ones life, but take in all the details as well.

You are probably also thinking- yeah nobody wants to see that much of you. Well Mr. Canlas being the uber-talented photographer that he is captures it so tastefully and beautifully that there is absolutely no ick-factor. See his beautiful birth stories, here, here & here. Trust me they are so worth looking through!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is my Grandma Carol's 89th birthday! Even though she is not feeling her best, we hope she has a fantastic day filled with family and of course spice cake with brown sugar frosting and candy corn's! We love you!

movies

The September Issue
Which I tried to see during the film festival last January and it was sold out every night. And now of course it will not be playing in Utah, so I guess I just have to wait some more!


The Invention of Lying
Two words: Ricky Gervais. Do you really need anything more? OK I will give you two more: Tina Fey. Yeah- this one should be good!

C.B.

babies!

I am an Auntie again! My dear Marianne gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Josey today, 8 lbs and healthy. I wish I could be in Tacoma right now! We love you guys and we can't wait to meet her!

And to make things even better our dear friends Justin and Traci had their little Penelope today! We are so glad everything went well and she is just gorgeous!

just in case you didn't already know

we're expecting and we are so excited!!!

happy birthday marianne!

A very Happy Birthday to my favorite Marianne! I so wish I could be there on your birthday and for your new little one's birthday! We love you!

annie leibovitz

In light of the great Miss Leibovitz's legal woes, I thought I would post a few of my favorite Annie Leibovitz images. Before I even new who she was she was making an impact on me. My mom let me get my first Vogue when I was 12 and I loved to just sit in my room and take in all the images, most of which were Annie's. I actually blame her in part for my magazine obsession, I love the images so much I couldn't throw them away. When I got married Mr. Reece made me pick my top 20 Vogue & Vanity Fairs to keep (which was a major undertaking seeing as I had a subscription every year for 10 years.) Her work is just so beautiful and complex you can stare at her photos and see something new you hadn't noticed before. I hope she gets to retain the rights to her massive body of work, either way I will continue to love her work.









Images courtesy Google Imaging. All photos were taken by Annie Leibovitz.

my not so little reds

They grow up way to fast. Check out the rest of these great photos here.

california polas

I am just so sad that this film isn't being made anymore. I guess I will have to switch to the Instax. I applaud their version of the Polaroid, but why couldn't they make them square?

your opinion please

I entered a photo contest, the grand prize -- Film is Not Dead Workshop Scholarship. There are a few rules. You had to shoot film, and you were to capture Utah in one photo. I decided to be bold and try out my brand new Holga camera for the contest. After 2 rolls and some expensive processing these are the only 2 shots that even remotely turned out. (And yes I did have a minor heart attack when shuffled through a bunch of black pictures.) I had decided to not enter the contest, after all it should be your best work right? Mr. Reece convinced to just go for it, so I chose the first image that you see below.

Here's where you come in, do you think I should have submitted this at all? Can you tell what either of these images are and if so do they "capture Utah?" Should I have submitted the second image instead? Let's have it, your honest opinions.

san clemente

We went down to San Clemente, CA with the Tieks for some much needed sunshine and beach time. We didn't get much sunshine but the company and the beach were still fantastic.



Jackson's version of "see no evil." He had some great facial expressions.




Could these kids have been any cuter? My goodness that family has adorable children. Who by the way, don't ever really cry or fuss, they just spend their days being sweet. May I be so lucky.




We got to go to Huntington Beach on probably the coldest day of our weekend. We still had lots of fun and this kid had the time of his life burying himself.





Kenny and Jill took us to the Beach Pit (which I may have misheard the first time and thought we were headed to the Peach Pit and I got really excited. If you get the 90210 reference you will understand my excitement.) The food was delicious, best cornbread I have ever had. I am still thinking about it. One of these days we will have to go back and go on an eating tour of SoCal with Kenny and Jill as our guides. Those two know where to find good food.





Luke and I took off to Glendale to have some authentic Armenian food. Luke did some research and found Palmer International Cuisine, which is a hole of a restaurant with the most amazingly tacky decor maybe ever. But the food is just delicious. Luke was in heaven, he really hasn't had good Armenian food since his mission. It was one of the top 10 meals I have ever eaten, and that is saying something. Armenian food is just tremendous.



Our last night was spent having a great meal (thanks Brady's) on the beach. The men played a rousing game of Bacce and I ate my body weight in s'mores. Needless to say a perfect end to our trip!





The drive home was long, everybody was pretty worn out. And may I just say, Cohen may be the best traveler ever--he was absolutely delightful the entire drive down and back--he complained less than I did and he is only 14 months old. I salute your parenting Tieks!




If you are ever driving just outside of Baker, CA you should really stop at this Market. It is surprisingly clean and air conditioned inside. Plus the staff alone is worth stopping for.
A huge thank you to the Ward's for letting us stay in their beautiful home and introducing us to Swirlz! And thanks to the Tiek's & Brady's for a great time in California!

salt lake polas

slc

Just off Pierpont, Salt Lake City.

a girl can dream

OK, I would LOVE to go to this! If you haven't seen Johnathan Canlas's work you need to go here immediately (and when you look at it keep in mind he ONLY shoots film, it's amazing.) Oh I want to go SO bad! Any ideas on how to earn a crap load of money in a short time?