Kenzi | Utah Valley Portrait Photographer

I met Kenzi last semester in some of my classes. We were both studying journalism, and we have kept in touch, even if I am studying Business now. 

Kenzi literally has the most gorgeous big eyes, and she was super tall, just like me!

These were the two first things that I noticed about her. 

She really is stunning.

It took me forever to get these photos edited because I kept having things come up, and I am glad that it did! I learned some new editing techniques that really added to the character of the photos. 

So, Kenzi, here you go.

I hope it was worth the wait. 

Heroes.

My latest obsession.

I have literally had this song on repeat for the last 24 hours.

The Little Flag

This past Thursday was September 11th and also the first home game for BYU football.

As we walked into the game, they gave out these mini American Flags. 

To most people, these are just American Flags. 

To me, these are a reminder of a difficult lesson I learned at the young age of 4.

Anyone who knows me knows by now that anything that could go wrong always does. Any freak accident that could happen has already happened to me.

Keep that in mind while I take you back in time 16 years.

It was late enough in the evening that it was dark outside. Completely dark. My mom was in the kitchen making dinner, and I was in the dining room walking in circles around the dining table. My dining room had carpet.  It was the nastiest brown carpet that was so old it had wrinkles in it from the years of wear on it. In my hand, I held a mini American Flag quite like the one shown above. The only difference was that instead of a hollow white post, mine had a solid black post with a golden ball ornamenting the top.

However, in my imagination, it wasn't a flag at all. It was my microphone, and I was singing into the microphone. I don't remember what I was singing, but I was singing quietly.

As soon as my mom realized what was going on, she said, "Alice Jane, put the flag down. You will hurt yourself."

I knew I wasn't going to hurt myself. 

I ignored her as she continued making dinner. 

It wasn't more than a few moments later, my foot caught on the wrinkle in the carpet. I tripped and didn't have much time to catch myself.

I screamed, but it was too late. 

I felt the flag stab my throat.

The flag had gone in my mouth and punctured my tonsil. 

The next thing I remember is sitting with my dad in the Urgent Care. I was sitting in a chair holding my baby doll afraid of what the doctor was going to say.

I sat with my dad for a while, and he even helped me pick the bread out of my doll's mouth that had been stuck in there ever since I tried feeding her.

There was a fish tank in that doctor's office, too.

I thought it was the coolest thing.

I don't remember anything the doctor said, but I remember having to take medicine for a while. 

I also remember my tonsils being huge until I had them removed in 4th grade. Even until the day I had them removed, you could see a little imprint of the scar from my wound. 

There are two things I want everyone to get from reading this. 

First, obey your mom. 

Second, don't use these flags for a microphone. They aren't really microphones.

The Day I Will Never Forget

With today being September 11th, I thought I would write down everything I remember from this day, just 13 years ago. 

I was in the first grade. My teacher was Mrs. Case. She was tall with short dark hair and glasses.

Just like every other morning, my siblings, my mom and I gathered around the television in the basement to watch TVLand while she did our hair. I was sitting at my Mom's feet while she braided my long white-blonde hair when our phone rang. The caller id popped up on the screen, and it was my Grandma. 

My mom answered, gasped and asked what channel it was on. She picked up the remote and changed the channel to a news station before she had even hung up the phone. 

The first image I saw was two tall buildings. One had lots of black smoke coming out of it. Of course, me being just 7 years old, I asked a bunch of questions. 

My mom explained that these were the two of the tallest buildings called the Twin Towers. She said that someone had flown a plane into the building. I couldn't even fathom why anyone would willingly fly a plane into a building knowing they were going to die. 

My mind raced back and forth between the poor people on the plane and the poor people in the building that couldn't get out. 

Pretty soon, it was time to go to school. 

When I arrived, I asked my teacher if she knew about it, and she didn't. She took all of us to the library where we watched the news with our librarian, Mrs. Evans. By this time, the second building had been hit. 

I sat in the library for most of the day watching, trying to figure out what was going on. 

Then, the first building fell. 

And the second. 

I went home and continued watching the news. My brother and I even drew a photo of the twin towers and the planes that hit them. I still have it in the journal that I kept between my mattresses until the day I moved out last year. Now, it sits at home packed away somewhere. I will find it and post it, though! Most of the page is super black because that was our idea of the smoke.

My mom told me that we were going to war. 

I remember those words haunting me. I was 7. The only thing I had ever been told or seen about war was in history or the movies, where everyone is involved and everyone dies. 

I climbed underneath our table and pulled all the chairs in as far as they could go. This way, I was completely enclosed. I did this all the time when I was little and I wanted to get away. 

Then, I cried. I was only 7, and I was convinced I was going to die.

For the next months, which seemed like years, that was all that was ever on the news. 

Now, as I look back 13 years ago, I understand more of what happened. I understand that I am not going to die in this war.

I got to go to the Pentagon Memorial last year for my We The People class. That was my favorite memorial. It just breaks my heart. 

It is weird to me that this is something they will teach my kids in school, and I will be able to say that I lived to see it. Not only that, but that I remember that day is if it were only two years ago.

A Little Taste of What is to Come

My family went on vacation a few weeks ago, and I have about 200GB of video and photos. I have been working so hard to get everything edited, and it takes a ton of time. I have one video done, and it is almost 40 minutes long, and I still have two more to make. The total time it took to make, render, and publish was about 1500 minutes.

I am literally itching with impatience because I want them all done! I can't wait to show everyone!

This is just a little taste of what is to come. 

PS....you cannot even comprehend how far down this was. I have never had my stomach drop the way it did when my legs were hanging over this cliff. 

Seriously such a rush.

Hopefully here in the next two weeks, everything will be done and blogged! 

Roomies

I have never posted about my roommates before. 

Don't get me wrong, I have had awesome roommates before, but I have never had roommates like I have now. I absolutely love my roommates. I haven't ever had the experience of having your roommates being your best friends, or even looking for ways to be home. It has always been looking for excuses to not be home.

However, that is no longer the case. I LOVE being home. I look for excuses to be home, and it is definitely because of my roommates.

We had a roommate meeting yesterday after church, and we decided lots of things. We set up a cleaning chart, laundry days, and planned nightly scripture study/prayer, weekly roommate dinners, and even monthly roommate dates. IS THIS REAL LIFE? I am so excited to do all of these things with the girls I am living with.

We also had a quick photoshoot after church, too. Aren't my roommates adorable? I had some people even mention that we all look alike. Haha! I have finally gotten the roommates that I have waited so long for.

YAY!

Here they are! Melissa, Kaity, Natasha, Amanda, and Tori.

 

In The Life of a 7-Year-Old

Today, I came home from school and was exhausted. All I wanted was a nap, but I had a few errands that I needed to run, so a nap was definitely going to have to wait. My phone was nearing 20% and for some of my errands, I would need to use it.  I figured that I could definitely just plug in my phone and let it charge while I laid down on my bed for a minute. 

About 5 minutes later, my phone goes off, and I am wondering who would be calling me.

It was probably Aricka. But then I remembered that Aricka was in class.

It was a call from "Home". 

I instantly thought this was really weird because when my mom calls me, she always just calls from her phone. I answered it with the expectation that my mom would want to know two things. First, she would ask about my day, then she would ask if I had met any cute boys today. 

However, that was not the call I received. 

My mom asked if I was in class, and I reassured her that I was not. Then, she asked if it was okay that Brooke asked me a question. I said that of course Brooke could ask me a question! I said yes, and she hands the phone to Brooke. 

Brookie then says, "Hi Alice. I have a big decision and I need the answer today."

I am thinking, "What in the world could Brooke, a 7-year-old, be having a huge dilemma over??"

She then fills me in.

She turns 8 this month, and for her birthday, she gets to pick an American Girl Doll. Her problem is that she cannot pick between Samantha or a look-alike.

I know that anything I say, she will do, so I avoided telling her which one to get until I could really figure out which one she really wanted more than the other.

I imagined the two in my head and started asking questions. The conversation went a little like this. 

A: Do you like long hair?

B: Yes.

A: Well Samantha has longer hair.

B: I know.

A: Which one do you want?

B: I DON'T KNOW!

A: Do you like brown hair or blonde hair?

B: I LIKE THEM BOTH!

A: Do you want to play with their hair?

B: Yes.

A: Samantha has longer hair. You can play with it more.

B: But I can't decide.

A: Do you want a doll that looks like you or not?

B: I DON'T KNOW!

We went on like this for like 20 minutes. She was so distraught. 

Then, I asked her to show them to me. I thought Samantha's outfit was cuter, so I told Brooke that I thought it was cuter. She agreed, but then said, "But I can buy clothes for the look-alike!" Okay.

Finally, I said, "Let's make a Pro/Con list". I had to quickly explain to her what that was, and she agreed. She told me to hold on real quick. She needed to grab something. She came back with a pen and paper. She was going to write it all down! 

Sure enough, we made a pros and cons list, while Hannah watched us. She eventually was the one to actually write it all down for Brooke. After we finished the list, I asked if there was anything else she wanted to add. She said, "Let me look at this." Then, she studied the paper. 

I told her to go with Samantha, but then, the truth came out. 

Brooke FREAKED out. She told me that she really wants the look-alike, but everyone else is telling her to get Samantha. HA! I figured it out. She really wanted the look-alike. She was just feeling pressured to get Samantha, even if she really did want it. 

I ultimately told her to go with the look-alike, and I think she did. 

Yay!

If only the detrimental decisions in my life were about which doll I wanted for my birthday.

I also just adore my baby sister and all of her spunk.

School Started. Blah.

School started yesterday.

I don't have much to say other than this:

I want summer back.

McKenna | Bountiful Missionary Photographer

I met McKenna through a group on Facebook that I am in for sister missionaries. She was inquiring about mission photos, and someone tagged me in the post.

I am sure glad that they did!

McKenna wanted her photos done at the Bountiful Temple because it was "her" temple. How perfect is that?

We originally scheduled for a Tuesday evening, which was great, because I like to do all of my shoots early in the morning or later in the evening so that we can catch the perfect lighting. Because of an issue with the weather, we had to do the shoot mid-morning. I was extremely nervous for two reasons. First, I had no idea what the lighting would be like. Second, I had never been to the Bountiful Temple, so I had no idea what would be there to take pictures with. 

However, the shoot went great! McKenna is such a sweetheart. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her and getting to know her. Turns out, we were both students at BYU last year! She will be serving in Brazil, and she already has her VISA. That is crazy because I have a good friend who has been out in the field for almost 7 months now, and she still doesn't have hers. McKenna will be heading straight to the Brazil MTC! I am so excited for her, and for the people she will get to teach because they get to be with her!

Good luck, McKenna!