“sayWHA?!”

Yes, that’s right. This past weekend my family celebrated Christmas. And Thanksgiving. And my birthday. And it was FABULOUS! Lance and I got home just after my brother and his family, and just before the ‘bad weather.’

The next night, we opened presents. Because someone kept asking “When can we open presents? When can we open presents?” And it wasn’t my three-year-old nephew. :-)

Since Jonas got a train set for his birthday, I gave him a train conductor outfit for Christmas!! When I was little, I had a McDonald’s outfit and I played restaurant ALL the time.

Thank goodness Lance has so much energy to entertain Jonas all weekend! :-) In between helping everyone open their Christmas presents, Jonas would come over to Lance and they would pop the bubble wrap used in some of the boxes.

Jonas also likes to snuggle and giggle with grandpa.

Isaac is already three months old!! Did someone say ‘time for a photoshoot?!’

Baby burrito!! :-)

Time to go sledding!

This is how Isaac felt about being outside in the cold:

“Aunt Laura, what does this do?”

“Hold it up to your face and find out.”

Snuggle time with grandma!

And of course I got some snuggle time in as well. Whenever I sat next to the Christmas tree, Isaac would stretch to look at the lights.

Caramel bourbon spice (birthday) cake.

It’s okay to be jealous. :-)

Apparently mom doesn’t keep birthday candles around the house.

“Aunt Laura, how many numbers are you?”

Me and my nephews! What more could a girl ask for on her birthday?!

I want to thank everyone who sent me birthday wishes! I had a fabulous day and it was a great way to finish up the holiday weekend with my family!

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving! This year I was thankful for good health, family, my wonderful boyfriend, new friendships, and everyone who has trusted me in the past year to document their marriages and growing families. And caramel bourbon spice cake. :-)

It’s no secret that my absolute FAVORITE part about weddings is the moment the soon-to-be husband and wife see each other for the very first time on their wedding day. It’s so sweet and romantic and special!

I am so lucky that most of my couples opt to do a ‘first look.’ As soon as they are ready, I arrange for just the couple to meet someplace quiet before we start taking portraits.

I keep my big zoom lens on for these photos so I don’t distract my couple. I want this moment to be for them. So that they can have this time to hug and kiss and hug some more and tell each other how GOOD they look!!

I think I forgot to mention how exciting this is for couples!! Sweet, romantic, special and EXCITING!!

I let my couples have as much time as they’d like to have to themselves. Again, this is their wedding day. They are the ones getting married. And for the rest of the day, they will be talking with all their friends and family who have traveled so far to help them celebrate.

Of course, this is the perfect time to exchange letters or even (surprise) gifts. :-)

After the ‘first look’ I move right in to couple portraits. Doing a ‘first look’ before the ceremony gives us as much time as we want to explore different locations for photos. This also extends the ‘just bride and groom’ time before inviting the wedding party to join us for some more photos!

If you have any questions about the ‘first look,’ let me know!!

My family is celebrating Christmas over the Thanksgiving weekend. So of course I already have all my Christmas shopping done. And of course I have all the presents wrapped. So naturally I have my Christmas tree up and decorated. And you can’t have a Christmas tree up without a Nativity scene set up.

And you can’t have your apartment decorated for Christmas without a whole bunch of tasty treats to munch on!

As I was putting the drizzle on the peanut butter balls, I had Willow Smith’s song stuck in my head. Except I was whippin’ my fork back and forth, splattering chocolate drizzle all over the place. :-)

There might have been a one-person dance party in my kitchen.

I really have no clue what qualifies a dessert as being a ‘tart.’ I would imagine something fancy, bite-sized and lemony. Because lemons are tart, right?

So I’m browsing recipes online and I find one for a Turtle Tart. It looks nothing like what my imagination would call a ‘tart,’ but it does look AMAZING. It has chocolate. caramel. and pecans. and looks fancy.

I am planning on making supper with my dear friend Halley tonight and I thought it would be nice to bring dessert. I had already gathered all the ingredients to make this fabulous ‘tart,’ so why not try out a new recipe?

And just to make sure it wasn’t deadly, I tried a piece. Because I’d hate for Halley to get sick just because I wanted to try a new recipe.

And it was good.

And will be tonight after supper.

And every day for a month because it made a whole 9×13 pan and it is so rich, you can’t eat a whole piece without a glass of milk.

You’re right, my wedding season was over… for my business… but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a guest at a wedding!! :-) I couldn’t help but bring my camera to Montana for my cousin James’ wedding. I didn’t take a ton of photos because catching up with TWELVE aunts and uncles and tables full of cousins takes a lot of time! I can honestly say it was fun to not be the photographer for once… but only because I had so many relatives to talk to!! :-)

My family is very witty. And punny. So seeing this sign as we drove up to the motel, I knew it would make for a lot of jokes throughout the day.

Obviously my dad was not the one to liven up the Dull Kilzer wedding. Here he is taking a pre-wedding nap:

Brayden was also a little sleepy:

Mr. and Mrs. Kilzer!!

My cousins have such beautiful children!!