The entire celebration began Friday night with a Variety Show put on by all in attendace. I wasn't able to be there Friday night due to a wedding, but I hear it was hysterical. Several girls sang the "walk in love" song and another put together a puzzle at record speed accompanied by The Flight of the Bumblebee song! My Aunts sang a childhood game song they all knew, while others danced, wrote songs and recited poems dedicated to Grandpa.

Saturday afternoon everyone got together, split into groups and raced around town for a video scavenger hunt. (Family: The scavenger hunt video will be on the DVD, no fear!) After the scavenger hunt, everyone ate dinner at Aunt Jan + Uncle Bill's house, followed by hours in the dunk tank, fireworks and watching Tangled on the lawn in the dark. It was a magical evening.

Sunday morning by Mom and I began working on the decorations for the birthday party itself, which was being held at my parent's house. You can see a few of the getting ready photos here and here. Early afternoon was filled with pie baking, tying silverware together, ripping fabric for the tables, setting up the Smilebooth and testing our icecream machine!

By 5:00 that evening, slowly but surely, all 52 family members, spaning four generations, assembled at my parent's house under the tree ready for dinner. Ladder ball and croquet followed dinner, which was then followed by running through the sprinkler (prettttty sure T.J. was the only adult to participate in sprinkler time) and the candy scrambles. The ages 10+ candy scramble was defintely more intense than the younger kids! We also had a watermelon seed spitting contest which was so fun and actually a lot harder to do than you'd think.

Just before icecream and pie, we presented Grandpa with his gift. Kami had put together (with everyone's input) a blanket with nine scriptures that remind everyone the most of Grandpa. I know Grandpa was touched. He just kept saying "Thank You", over and over, and over.. trying to look each one of us in the eyes.

A slideshow of Grandpa's 90 years was watched at the end of the evening, followed by a prayer from Grandpa which ended "Lord, I'm not sure what else to say. Thank you. Bye for now."

The entire weekend was truly a blessing and a priviliedge to be a part of. I am so incredibly thankful that I took the time to video bits and pieces of the weekend. I didn't take many photos knowing that my cousin Kris had that under control, but you can see what I did shoot below. The rest of my time was spent shooting video.

Lastly, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who was able to come to the party. It meant more to Dad/Grandpa/Great Grandpa than we'll ever know. And to those of you who couldn't make it, you were deeply missed and thought about all weekend! Hope to see you all again soon! [BC]

Video song: Mat Kearney, "Count On Me"

Smilebooth photos from the party will be blogged shortly and then made available for free downloads online!

Happy Wednesday y'all! [BC]

In the meantime, here are some of the Smilebooth photos from the Million Smiles To Go covershoot!

No, GO! Leave a comment on Feathers in Our Nest and win a copy! It's seriously such a good album. :) [BC]

All photos by Smilebooth

Here's our trip to Vegas all in Fuji Instax photos. I didn't take my digital camera out of it's bag once last week - and that was fine with me!!

Our trip started out with what seemed like the longest flight ever. By the end T.J. and Jeff were starting to look a little crazy (see below). We checked into the MGM Grand late Sunday night and were exhausted.

The next morning we headed down to check in a WPPI and walked the trade show floors for several hours. We found one new company that we are very excited to start working with!!

Monday night we dressed ourselves up and went to the Airplanes and Blazers party. It was so much fun. While I was exhausted, cause the party didn't even start until 1am Pennsylvania time, it was still a blast! The guys looked very handsome in their black suits.

We got to see a lot of people again at the party - like Sarah, Brooke and Ashley.

Here's a photo of Lara and I... and then a photo of T.J. being creepy behind Josh.

The morning after the party, at 5am, we went to a sunrise concert party - but I'll post photos of that later.

The three of us spent our afternoons walking the strip, eating (overly) expensive food and enjoying the sunshine.

On Tuesday night we all decided it would be fun to eat Ben & Jerry's ice cream. How wrong we were. We all felt awful after eating it. In fact, T.J. became very, very sick for the rest of the trip with the flu.

The stores and sky in Vegas are beautiful. I would have taken only sky photos all week, but that would have been boring for everyone but me, so I refrained.

I finally got to meet the utterly fabulous Courtney Brooke! We've been following each other for over a year now and it was so great to sit down over coffee and chat about our lives and love for photography. :)

Our trip ended with us waiting to head to the airport by laying in pool chairs at the hotel for hours.

All in all, it was a great trip. I have more photos to come later this week, so be sure to check back! Like I said before, our trip to WPPI was once again such a blessing. I came back from Vegas feeling excited and inspired for what's ahead - and that's a blessing.

Please click here to visit our IndieGoGo page to give to our campaign. :) Seriously, any amount helps!! We are so excited to add our store to the Park City Mall - and see all of you shoppers year round!

Thanks in advance for giving. T.J. and I are truly blessed to have readers like you. [BC]

Just wanted to share a few photos of our Brooke Courtney Photography booth, as well as the Smilebooth booth.

Happy Monday!

Rules: To enter you'll post a comment on the date you'd like to win. We'll use random.org to choose the winners each day. The winner will be announced the following morning when the current day's giveaway is posted. There are a total of 10 chances to win. You may only comment once per giveaway.

Please be sure to use your real email address when leaving your comments. It's the only way we can tell you if you won!

Thanks and see you Monday for a giveaway! [BC]

During the planning stages of their wedding, I asked Jocelyn via email what her colors were going to be - something I always enjoying hearing about. This was her response!

"Curtis and I met studying in Cortona, Italy, where there are massive fields of sunflowers. So, our colors are the yellow of the sunflower petals, the brown of their centers, the blue of the sky behind them and the pale green of their stems. Curtis and I are both very visual (I am a book artist/printmaker/dancer/choreographer and he is a landscape architect who enjoys graphic design and photography), so colors are one of the things we are the most excited about!"

Needless to say, their colors and wedding were beautiful. Enjoy! [BC]

P.S. This darling couple loves dinosaurs. Hence, the dinos.

We recently spent some time in Florida (view previous post). So naturally I had to shoot some portraits of my dear friend. Words can't express what she means to me.

Enjoy!

Brooke, here. Just wanted to write a brief post to let you know everything that's happening in our world. Here goes!

1. We recently launched our new design company Sixty Seven South. While both T.J. and I have been doing graphic design work for years, neither of us had a place to post our portfolio images for you to see. And now we do! We love creating custom wedding stationary, announcements, invites, t-shirts, and blog sites. We also offer branding consultations and custom identity designs.

2. My brother Taylor has a new site up featuring his videography work, Taylor Courtney Films. Taylor creates fabulous wedding videos, mini-documentaries and is a blast to work with. Be sure to check his site often this spring/summer for new videos and blog posts! Contact Taylor today to get your wedding and/or event on his summer calendar. DO IT!

3. Last but certainly not least, walk in love. clothing has a new site up and running. Check out the new layout, store front, and our fabulous summer products! 

I really don't have much to say, except that these two are a super cute couple and I can't wait to shoot their wedding! Enjoy my favorites. :) [BC]

While hardcore music is certainly not my thing, Road To Milestone puts on a great show!

Here are my favorite shots from our mini-session last weekend. Enjoy. [BC & T.J.]

It was such a blessing to watch these two get married. Keith was precious. And Steph looked beautiful.

Here are my favorite images. :) [BC]

I have some very exciting photos to share with you all. :) Photos of T.J. and I! You'd think, being photographers, we'd have some sweet photos of the two of us... but we actually don't. And seeing how our wedding photography is a nightmare (we still don't have our wedding photos... and we've been married 10 months) ... T.J. and I figured it was about time to get some photos of us.

Our dear friend Jeff came to stay at our house for a few days and shoot us. In fact, both T.J. and I, as well as Jeff, all need new "about us" photos for our various websites, which was the motivation for our sessions.

These first two shots, I took, before I handed the camera over to Jeff for the afternoon. The first shot is of T.J. and the second is Jeff.

For the first couple photos Jeff shot with his camera (cough, cough, a Nikon, cough)... but when I said "Use mine for a few!" (my Canon 5D) ... Jeff made the switch and never went back. Jeff shot all of the photos below, and I edited them this evening. A fabulous collaboration. In fact, I was just telling Jeff on iChat a few minutes ago how much I love editing his photos. It's so exciting! Like a little goodie-bag. I never know what I'm going to get! Enjoy the photos. And to Jeff, Thank You. You have no idea how much these images mean to us. We love you! [BC & T.J.]

P.S. There are so many more awesome shots from this session - someday I'll post the rest!

Steph's an incredible lady and gave birth naturally. No drugs, no crazy hookups, nothing. Just her and Kyle - and lots of breathing. :)

And then, just like that, there he was: Stephen David Atteberry... at 10:33pm. What was almost as amazing as the actual miracle of birth, was how Kaila (now a big sister) was instantly protective, concerned, and overwhelmed with love for her little brother. One of my favorite lines she said, just after Stephen was born, was "Are you going to get in too?".. referring to the bathtub. I politely answered, "No. Not today", when I was actually thinking "You couldn't PAY ME to get in that bathtub!"

In all of the images below, Stephen is no older than a few minutes. Childbirth is incredible. Almost beyond belief at times.

One of my favorite authors, Shauna Niequist, says this about babies, "I think babies really do make you believe in God. They make you believe in God because there's something just beyond understanding about their freshness and fragility and their smell and their toes. When they take their first breaths, and when they land, floppy and slippery, on your chest under the bright overhead light in an otherwise dim delivery room, when you watch their tiny sleeping selves, when you hear their thin wild animal cries, you know, you just know in your guts that God is real, and that babies have been with him more recently, have come more directly from him than our worn-out old selves have....

... It makes sense to me in a new way that God chose to wrap his divinity in baby bones and baby skin. I always thought maybe it was to demonstrate vulnerability, or to identify fully with each phase of humanity, but how I think it was something else. I think it was because babies make us believe in the possibility and power of the future."

[BC]

Despite the freezing weather and snow, the day was beautiful, sunny and overflowing with joy. It was fabulous. Joel and Cali were, by far, the most cooperative bride and groom we've ever had in cold weather. They were such troopers! Thanks guys! :) Also, Cali is wearing her mother's wedding dress! It was altered a bit by removing the sleeves. Isn't it beauuuutiful!?!

Enjoy the following images everyone! [BC & T.J.]