WAIT NO LONGER Emery makes her debut!

Emery's Slideshow
YES YES, it's been 2 weeks ALREADY! Wow, how time flies! I had hoped to have this up much earlier, but as life would have it, when you are the recovering mom of 3 AND the photographer/slideshow preparer, these things take much longer than planned! =) We are so excited to finally share some photos of our newest addition to the family, Emery Kate Garbett! She is such an angel, seriously the best baby and I of course couldn't be happier, I have done my time and was DUE for a good baby! Please pray it stays this way for me! Emery was born February 13th and despite a little bit of jaundice where she had to stay in the nursery under lights for 24hours, she has been very healthy! If you've seen one of my babies, you've seen them all, she is a spitting image of her brothers, the exact Garbett Mold. She doesn't like to show her eyes much and often sports a scowl on her face, but she's so far very easy to please! Big brothers Brennan and Dawson have taken well to her. Dawson insists he CAN feed her anything he wants, but is thankfully gentle, attentive and not too jealous of her. Brennan is quite the proud older brother, he constantly washes his hands and asks to hold her. He wishes she was bigger already so he could play with her. Reuben is super cute with her and like always, very helpful to me as well! And I of course am just enjoying the girly stuff and enjoy looking at clothes for her or getting her dolled up. This is Emery's first of many slideshows. Click HERE to watch it.

Announcements have been ordered as well, they are my best yet (if I do say so myself) of course they are probably overkill, but girls are just so fun and I have waited a LONG time for this little girl =) If you want one and weren't the lucky recipient of my hoilday card, please email me your address so I can be sure to get you one. I tried not to share all the great photos as to not spoil the announcement! Thanks for so many well wishes family, friends and clients!

And baby makes 3!

We are so very blessed to welcome our little baby girl to our family! She arrived Wednesday, timing it right with her expected due date despite my desire for her to come early! She's such a good baby, her brothers love her and mommy of course is enjoying playing dress up with her! It's been a very tiring few days and I can't wait to get more images to share, but this will have to hold you off for now! We are so thankful for the well wishes and prayers on our behalf and look forward to sharing more of her with you soon!

My new toy

This right here is my newest toy, the first of a few purchases I am making to add to and improve my equipment for my business! This is the Canon fixed 35mm 1.4L lens! It rings in for the low, low cost of $1100 =) and will hopefully be worth it's pricetag and then some! This lens is also the difference between amateur and professional photographers and their overall image quality! So many people don't realize that ultimately the money isn't in the camera you own so long as you have a decent camera body, but your money and your quality is in your lens! I only own "L" series lenses made by Canon and this means the lens is made with the best glass you can find/buy, this allows your image to be sharp to begin with allowing you to enlarge with better image quality overall and ultimately avoiding soft images. Today I decided to try it out and with Dawson at my feet all the time, he was the chosen subject =)

This image was taken inside with just window light on my wood floors. Usually indoors I would have had to increase my film speed to at least 400 if I don't have another light source, but this was taken at 200 ISO. The beauty of this lens is that it opens up to F1.4 and while that may be TOO technical for many of you, it allows a lot more light into the lens and creates a greater depth of field! THIS was the sole purpose for my purchase of this lens, F1.4 will allow me to shoot indoors easier and also be great for weddings. Shooting in low light often makes photographers have to slow the shutter increasing your chance of blur...or you up the film speed but this decreases the image quality and increases the grain in your image.
Enough about the technical stuff/photography lesson! These last two images were taken through my window...my dirty window might I add! I couldn't decide between them but again I was impressed with the clarity and exposure since I didn't have direct frontal light on Dawson! I can't wait to get to play with my new toy even more...surely this baby will give me some chance to practice with it!

A Trip to the ZOO!

Today we took a trip the Wildlife World Zoo and the boys sure had lots of fun! I was a bit hesitant at first as it was more expensive than the Phoenix Zoo and it's smaller I think, so I was thinking that it wouldn't be worth it, especially since we would only have about half the day for play...but I think in the end it was worth the price and I couldn't have stayed much beyond that anyway! I can't believe we've never been here since its not a far drive from our side of town!!

These are the "baby white tigers" you often see on the commercials for the zoo! They were super cute and playing with eachother, Dawson enjoyed watching them through the glass!
These things are SOOOO COOL! This mama Tamarin is carrying not one but TWO babies on it's back and it just runs around and they can just hold on! It was quite impressive! I am also loving the clarity since this photo was taken in a dark exhibit through the glass! Everyone else had their point and shoot cameras with flash...I love being able to do this =)

I watched an exchange between these two colorful birds...the bigger one wanted more space and finally went over to move the other over with his head...it was comical.
All my favorite boys...
As you can see Brennan is officially in that STAGE of silliness and I struggle to get a normal look from him for a photo!

For the first time ever we have a small pet turtle for our kids...the turtle found his way to our friends garage and then they passed him onto us which was supposed to be temporary but Reuben couldn't give him up! The boys do love him and he's pretty low maintenance, so I have gotten over it. But today, there must have been SOMETHING in the air getting to Reuben, after checking out this turtle he's convinced it's the new "PET" our family needs in our backyard! He was pretty excited about it since the turtle just walks around eating grass! Keep in mind the photo doesn't truly depict the ACTUAL size of this beast...um, not happening by the way =)

The GIRAFFE...definitly one of the BEST reasons the additional cost of this zoo is worth it, you get SOOO much closer to the animals...look at this Giraffe, he is so close to me I can reach out and touch his FACE!! This was the highlight of the day for the kids...you can walk up on this platform and hand feed giraffes! Brennan was a bit nervous but gave in, Dawson never thought twice, he was READY!!

Check out their long tongues that roll in and out of their mouth!
A couple of shots of Dawson feeding them with the help of dad. I didn't have my widest lens so these were the best shots I could get!
Here's one of Brennan reaching out to feed. It just looked so much like the giraffe was sticking his tongue out at Brennan...kind of funny.

This was Dawson's other favorite part...he LOVES trains and could have watched this one all day!


Last but not least, who would have guessed that penguins can live in this climate? Apparently they can and do...look how close I am to this little guy! They have an outdoor area with water and a cooler indoor area to go into as well! That's all for our zoo trip, it was my hope that the zoo would send us to the hospital afterwards, but all my best efforts seem to fail, I think I am going about this the WRONG way and maybe I will now try to just sit back and RELAX and see if THAT will work =) We'll post photos as soon as our baby girl arrives ANY day now!

Stephen and Holly Johnson

Wow...another wedding edit complete! Yipee! I seem to really be having a hard time catching up with this pending baby on the way! This is Stephen and Holly a super cute couple who was married in the Mesa Arizona Temple. They were so fun and laid back to work with! I hadn't met them before the wedding since they booked me last minute, but I was so pleased to work with them and so glad it worked out for both of our schedules! Here are some fun shots from their wedding. Holly was glowing and just couldn't wipe this cute smile off of her face!

I like getting different angles with this water feature at the temple. It makes for a very peaceful image.
Here they are after the wedding with all the family and friends celebrating!
To view a slideshow of more of my favorites including family and friends click HERE.

39 Weeks

It's no secret...we're having a baby and despite all the denial in the world...she's going to come whether my husband and I are ready or NOT! So, I am officially 39weeks and I have decided I better get READY! My work isn't finished, my bag not packed and at the same time I really want to go into labor! But, on the other hand, I could stand to have a few more days to tie up loose ends, especially so I don't leave too many clients hanging! So, it's my goal to finish as much as possible before this little girl comes! Here are a few pics my good friend and another great photographer Marnee took of me and the boys a couple of weeks ago! Despite hating myself, I was quite happy that the boys look so cute!! They were so good too!
Thanks Marnee for the visit and for taking these so I can remember why NOT to have another baby =)

"SWIPER NO SWIPING"

Got kids? Then surely you've heard this phrase some 1000 times from Dora the Explorer! Our kids are very vivid dreamers and they often talk or cry out in their sleep. Actually this past Christmas Eve, Dawson even hallucinated consistantly reaching and grabbing for fish, monkeys and bees which he SWORE were in our room. In his defense, he was running a fever and after about 10 minutes of this behavior I was ready to take him to the ER as he was so convinced and wouldn't stop reaching for them! Anyway, so two nights ago I heard Dawson's little feet come running down the hall as he was crying, calling out for Daddy! He came in the room and through a load of tears said, "Dad, Swiper just swiped me on my back and it HURT." I couldn't help but laugh out loud, which Reuben later told me was so rude...but seriously it is funny isn't it? So he proceeded to show us where and remind us how much it hurt before cuddling with Daddy and falling back asleep! Gotta love their imaginations!! This photo is from a few months back that I don't think I have ever posted...