dressed in white

so I'm a horrible sister...that's all there is to it! Over the Christmas break, my little sister got baptized and I totally spaced posting pictures from her big night!! It was the most amazing ceremony--even though I was supposedly supposed to speak but was never told...hmmmm haha but my mom spoke as did my husband, and it was just a very spiritual experience (I even cried...I know, crazy!). I'm grateful for the opportunity she had to enter the waters of baptism. She's growing up so fast and we love her so much.

Here are some random shots from her night. oh, and PS. we look awful because it was raining hard in good-ol KY. Oh and P.S.S my mom has a goofy, crooked smile because she had just got back from the dentist and her mouth was still numb! haha good times!

Congrats again to Brook Anne!

The guy in the white is my little brother. He served his mission in SLC south and we drove him home for Christmas (the time he got released!!)

Oh, and ANOTHER THING (sorry, I'm a little all over the place today)...we were in Kentucky and we knew it for sure as soon as we saw this sign at a gas station. We love our hicks. 

there's no place like home

After the most eventful vacation we have ever had, I think Matthew and I can honestly say we're ready to return home. Here are just a few occurances that have kept us on our toes over the break:

-3 flat tires, 2 of which had to be changed in KY even tho we don't have a store here that accepts our tire warrenty...go figure
-1 cracked rim
-1 rear bumper that got caught in a puddle, snapped in half and ripped off
-1 lost puppy--while we were at church my little sister took our 5 month-old pooch outside and she got terrified we weren't there and bolted. After a LONG 2-day search for our little addition, we finally found her. What an exhausting week that was.
-one amazing Christmas in KY
-a great visit to Roanoke VA and Staunton to visit Matthew's family. We love them.
-AMAZING warm weather in KY and VA. White Christmases are not a necessity for us.

And we have a great 24-hour road trip ahead of us. Don't get me wrong, we're not complaining. It's been a great time to laugh together. We just really miss home and can't wait to get back to everything. We miss our photography more than anything. Our clients' smiles are the best and that's what keeps us going. Thank you for all those who have chosen Folks Photography! See you this weekend!

And have a great New Year everyone!!!! 2009 is going to be awesome!!!

reminder--new prices in 2009

Just a reminder for all you who are needing to save a few $bucks$ after the holidays--

We will be increasing the prices of our photography come January 1st, 2009, so if you know of any photography you will be needing in the future, RESERVE YOUR EVENT NOW in order to guarantee our current, super-cheap prices!

Even if your event isn't until May, you can reserve it now and save that much more on your event when the time comes

Just a suggestion :) Have a great holiday break everyone!

out of commission

Hey everybody, just a heads up!
We are traveling back east for the holidays and won't be back until after the New Year so if you're looking for any photo shoots between now and then, make sure you get them in before DECEMBER 19th!

We are willing to accomodate any last minute photography you need done, just let us know. We're pretty flexible!

Again, thanks for a great year everyone! We have loved photographing you and hope to see you again in 2009! Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

-Melissa & Matt (and Molly and Lucy :)

innocent little smiles

This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph the rest of the Willets children. A while ago, I photographed their new baby sister, Geneva. Now it was their turn. I absolutely love shooting little kids. They can be really hard to pose sometimes, but you learn quickly that the best pictures come from the kids just being who they are and playing.

We went to one of my favorite parks in Provo Canyon. The weather was so sunny and perfect. And despite Dallin's tongue he injured at the beginning of the shoot, we were able to get some great shots! He was a little trooper after that boo boo! :)

 A big thanks to Tiffany for letting me take a couple hours to photograph her kids doing what they do best--play hard! They were absolutely a delight to take pictures of!

Here are some photos of the kids. To view more photos click here

A Night On The Square

The weekend after Thanksgiving we went to Temple Square with Matt's family. I forgot how gorgeous it was!! Also, we rode the Trax so we wouldn't have to deal with downtown traffic. Talk about a fun ride! The little ones loved it (ok, I did too!)

I'm so glad we had the chance to go see the lights and everything one more year before we move. Here are a few pics from the night



Reina liked the Trax






Matt's Fam :)





Isn't the temple GORGEOUS at night?!





Little Brielle being adorable as usual


The nativity scene on the reflection pool








Jonah enjoying the windows on the Trax

I'm Feelin A Little Crazy

Last year during a class I could hardly bear, my dear friend Shari introduced me to Elf Yourself. For those of you who do not know what Elf Yourself is, it's pretty simply really, but you'd be surprised how hard it will make you laugh. Seriously. So fun.

Here are some of mine I did of me (I'm in there twice! haha) and my family--

Charleston

Country

Disco

Classic

Oh, and for the record, my husband is not crazy...that was just a hilarious face he made that fit the elves oh so well!!

To Elf Yourself, go to ElfYourself.com

Do it while it lasts tho! They take it away!! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

My New Favorite Toy

So I'm not very good at scrapbooking. We'll just get that out there. I enjoy it when I do it, but I wouldn't call myself a pro. Plus it's expensive. Except NOW you can do it all digitally. Which is so awesome!

I promise I'm going somewhere with this...

I wanted to advertise my discounts on cute scrapbook pages because I thought they would be more presentable, but I just did not have the time to create pages from scratch. But my friend, Cristina, then introduced me to amazing ScrapBlog. Seriously awesome. And free.

So you scrapbookers that need a little help like me, you NEED to check out this site.

Also, if you want your blog template to look like a scrapbook page you can check out Ashley's Layouts! She's so amazing at what she does! She provides templates for every season and INSTRUCTIONS on how to apply it to your blog. AND they're free too :)

I just love spreading the word on free, awesome stuff. Scrapbooking is fun when it's free! :)

Here are a couple more discount pages I did. You can never advertise discounts enough, right?! :) Make sure you take advantage of these before 2009! It might be a while again before you can save/earn so much money!

Happy (kind of early) Holidays everyone!

Do You Hear What I Hear....?

Well word on the street is that Christmas is right around the corner. Can you believe it?! Time comes and goes so quickly. This is just a little friendly reminder to get your last minute pictures done ASAP if you'd like to guarantee our current EXTREMELY low prices on all packages.

Folks Photography will be changing prices and packaging come New Years 2009 and would love to squeeze as many shoots as possible in before then to save those bargain seekers some money!

To check out our current prices, visit our website. Just click on "Information" and then "Pricing".

Again, we're changing our prices in 2009 so BOOK NOW! Also, those who book before January 1st get 20% any package!

Like what you're hearing?? Spread the word!!! Any referral gets you $50!

I know, tons of discounts. We're just feeling oh-so-generous this time of year :)

So book your next event soon to guarantee all current prices and discounts!  Our 2009 schedule is filling up fast!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!! Thanks for such a great year full of captivating smiles!!!!

And once again, layouts are courtesy of Ashley's Layouts. Thanks so much Ashley!

More Smiling Faces!

So these next few photos are very near to my heart. These pics are of a family that I absolutely love! Heather and I used to be in young women's together back in good ol' Owensboro Kentucky. And her husband, Tim, is Matthew's (my husband's) brother. A little complicated, yes, but oh so fun!

Heather is an amazing sister-in-law, and Tim has made me feel so welcome into the Folks family. And their daughter, Brielle, never ceases to make me laugh. She's adorable. On Friday Matthew and I went out and shot some family pictures of their little family. All I can say is Brielle is the cutest! She is so happy ALL the time! And she's so adventurous! Give her something new and she'll just explore for hours! I think you'll see that in a lot of the photos.

I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family. Thanks so much for letting us take pictures of you guys, Tim & Heather! We hope you enjoy your Christmas present (soon in album form) from us! Love you guys!

To view more photos from this shoot, click here

And here are a few (ok, a lot) of photos from the shoot! Enjoy!

I know the glare of the sun kind of washed this one out, but I think it's artistically awesome :)

This isn't the best picture I've ever taken, but look at that little munchkin's face! SO priceless!

Faces+Shadows+Trampoline= such a fun picture!

I told you....little explorer! She LOVED this field! It was hard to get her to focus :)

Air Force Rocks

So I am very behind on my blogging, because I honestly can't even remember when we went to dining out. But oh well, here it is nonetheless! A few weeks ago (I think....) the BYU Air Force ROTC Det 855 had their semi-annual Dining Out which we LOVE! It's just a time when you get to dress up super fancy and eat free food. You really can't beat that.

The only thing that really scares you is the grog. For those of your unfamiliar with this tradition, the grog is a form of punishment used at Dining Out for those who break rules of the mess. These infractions could consist of almost anything, such as not having a perfect uniform, putting elbows on the table, etc. etc. etc. All kinds of stuff.

Needless to say, Matthew avoided the grog one more time! He hasn't been grogged yet...it's good. Because the grog is naaaasty. It's a mixture of anything and everything (sauces galore, cottage cheese, hot sauce, whatever you can imagine) and they make you drink a whole cup of it if you make a boo-boo. AND it's served out of a toilet bowl. I have pictures below. Prepare yourself. It's heck-a nasty.

Sooooo here ya go!

Awwww us <3

Yeah, I have no idea what Matthew is doing here....hmm

Again, no idea what Matthew is doing

THE GROG! Told you! NASTY!!

Matthew thought it would be cool to make fun of me here. One of my favorite parts of receptions are the detail pics, and so he decided to try to take some detail pics of dining out with our little crappy camera. I thought it was funny :)

A blurry piece of cake...what an artistic detail pic :)