What a Week!

It has been nuts this week, the kind of week where your kids eat spaghetti three nights in a row for lack of time to cook anything else. The kind of week when you are constantly catching yourself saying "oh no, I forgot to do (blank).." and "I wish I could find time to (blank)". You know the one I am talking about, right? The week that you hear yourself saying to your spouse, "honey, I will pay you a thousand dollars if you make the phone calls for founding parent board this week..." or"the garbage disposal is broken baby, but I can fix it if you just tell me what to do..what? you want me to go all the way out to the garage to get a wrench? Never mind, i don't have time, i will just wait for you to come home." Yes friends, it has been insane around the Butler household. But in a good way. We went away for our anniversary, we saw Def Leppord and Poison, had a ton of really great photo sessions and finally deep cleaned and de cluttered the kitchen (it was a necessary evil, I was afraid we were all going to get staff infections if I let it go any longer.) I learned a lot of interesting things about myself this week that I would love to pass on to you faithful readers.

1. A hotel room with windows that look into the shower from the bedroom is awesome. And not for the reason you think. When I first saw the room all I could think was "great, now i have to suck in the whole time I am showering" and I did, but I also discovered that if you stand just right, you can watch tv while you shower, awesome, right?

2. I am a Fuh Reak (that is 'freak' but pronounced emphatically) about nachos. And cotton candy. If nachos are on the menu, I am ordering them, and even if the chips are stale and the chicken doesn't look cooked all the way, I will eat every last chip. And cotton candy? There was a cotton candy guy at the def leppord/poison concert and I made Mike buy me some, and I ate it all, every last fluff of it, before Poison even took the stage.

3. If your littlest child has diarhea and a butt rash from said diarhea, it is not a good idea to let her butt "dry out" before putting a diaper back on, but if you must let her run around in her birthday suit, at least be smart enough to let her stand on a blanket for easy clean up. Because she will poop on the floor.

4. If your child asks you very loudly whether the person helping you in the drive through is a boy or a girl, you should just assume that your food got spit in because it probably did.

5. When Paiges pet dies, it is ok to cry with her.

6. If you are shooting an anniversary party and during a key moment when the father is reading a touching tribute to the couple, and you lean over the table to get a good shot of the emotion on the couples face, you should check and make sure there is not a burning candle where your hair is. Because seriously, nothing can ruin the timing of a lovely poem like hearing, "do you smell something burning? Oh my gosh, its my hair, ahhh!!" True story... Just happened about three hours ago.

7. Tripods are friends. With a tripod on a pretty night, you can get a shot like this.... Sorry there is no cute border with my name, too lazy, but did you see number six? my hair caught on fire, people, I am going to bed!

Jason and Christine

Christine and Jason were married on Friday at the Salt Lake temple. The day was hot, the temple was crowded, and you could not wipe the smiles off of their faces. This couple is so much fun, and so happy together, it was a joy to shoot their wedding photos. Surrounded by some mighty spunky family and friends, they danced the night away at the South Mountain Golf Club to the musical stylings of The Sensations, an amazing, talented group that quite honestly knocked my socks off with their abilities. I must stress the fact that I would invent a reason to throw a huge party just to invite these guys back to play, they were fantastic. Please note, if you are planning a wedding or party of any kind to which I will be invited (either to shoot or to regale you with my hilarity) consider hiring this band, it will make all the difference in the world to the fun level of the event. Click here to visit the website.

I think I must list a few of my favorite parts of the day, in no particular order (you may note that most of them have everything to do with me, but I can't help it)

1. I got toasted at the wedding lunch.

2. Christine has lovely taste, I adored how the reception was decorated, I adored the dress, I loved everything.

3. They blew my pictures up and displayed them all over the room.

4. Jason's friend Brian and my brother Brett helped carry our stuff around during the shoot and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants at their antics.

5. My assistant Linda took some incredible photos which were way better then anything I could have gotten and I love her to pieces.

6. the clouds rolled in at exactly the right time and place to make it easy to do pictures on the golf course even though there was no shade as far as the eye could see.

But enough chit chat, lets get down to the nitty gritty, the preview pictures.

Jason and Christine, Thank you, it was a pleasure.

Linda got this shot, LOVE YOU LINDA!!!

And this one..

Why do I love making people dressed up in their finest jump in the air so much? It is truly an illness of mine...

First dance as Mr. and Mrs.

Isn't Jason dapper?

As Promised...

Here is the slideshow for Kaley and Brad, the music was written and performed by the very talented and lovely Stephanie Smith Maybey, if you are interested in getting the music, contact me, I have connections!!:)

http://carriebutlerphotography.myshowit.com/kaleyandbrad/index.html

Playdate preview slideshow...

We had an AWESOME Save Brett playdate last night, arranged by Amber Packer of Bloomin Memories , we went down to one of my favorite spots by these docks with a big party load of kids and mommies and we had a blast!!! A big thank you to all those who participated, and big kisses to my lovely and talented second shooter, Linda, and to Kayla who volunteered to baby wrangle, I feel so lucky to have you.
Here is a little slideshow preview for you moms anxiosly awaiting. Amber, FYI I was not up till 4, just 2:30 getting this ready. (it wouldn't have taken so long but I got tricked into watching Paul Blart Mall Cop, which incidentally is like a really bad version of Die Hard, only there is no hot Bruce Willes to distract you from the story) The rest of the pictures will be uploaded to my gallery in the next few days and you will get an email with your links, mommies... Until then, I hope you love the previews!

www.carriebutlerphotography.myshowit.com/amberpacker

LOVE!!!!

Love. Love, love love!! We had such a great shoot last night with Kaylee and Brad, it was one of those hot, still, August nights, you know the kind when the sun is throwing off an amber glow and the world is quiet? Very romantic, and this was just the couple to fit that atmosphere, both sophisticated and sassy, I don't like to play favorites, but this couple is definately at the tippy top of my list:) Stay tuned for the slideshow, there were too many favorites so I have to put one up!

Look at all the sass... Love it!

I don't know what he was saying but she kept cracking up outta no where.

Grandma's Potato Salad

I made potato salad to bring to the Butler Family dinner today. Not just any potato salad, but the special potato salad that I learned to make at the feet of my mother, as she learned to make it at the feet of her mother, and so on. Ever since there has been Hellman's Best Food mayonnaise and Lawry's season salt the women in my family have made this hot German potato salad. And it is D-E-Licioius, if I do say so myself. So awesome in fact, that as kids, we would sneak downstairs after bed and steal bites out of it where it was cooling in the fridge. My mom would invariably wake to find the foil pealed back and at least 8 spoonfuls missing. The potato salad is not easy to make, it takes a lot of literal slaving over a hot stove, although as I made it today it occurred to me that while a task of this length would ordinarily drive me to swear, I enjoyed every second of peeling those hot potatoes straight out of the pot. With every potato I was reminded of being a kid, of watching my mom on Fourth of July morning armed with her kitchen towels and paring knife.
A house with 8 children and two parents is bound to have its fair share of turmoil, and our home was no exception, it seems as though we kids were always getting up to something. Like the time we filled up water balloons and hauled them up to the tree house and pelted our neighbors grand kids that were there visiting. (the sissies ratted us out) Or the time we let out our dog out and she bit the kid that lived down the street. There was the time my brothers got caught hauling shopping carts to the roof of the library and throwing them off (trust me, not the worst thing they got caught doing as crazy youth, or even the dumbest for that matter..) Or when we girls talked the otherwise innocent neighbors into forming a toilet paper posse and sneaking out to TP the *Smith home (*name has been changed to protect us from them ever finding out who it was..) so badly that the home was unrecognizable from the street. There were times when we would all 8 get sent to our rooms at the same time and we would make up songs about getting out and shout them at the tops of our lungs. (I think I better teach Paige to sing the "can we come out, can we come out, can we come out, rockin, rockin" song, it was awesome) There was that time that in an effort to hide from his church teacher my little brother climbed up onto the basketball hoop and had his buddy raise it up till he was stuck on the ceiling.. and no kid that lived within a two block radius can forget when we filled up an old water bed mattress with air, put it on the trampoline and paid kids to jump onto it from the balcony. Couple these things with the intricacies of running a household on a tight budget and lets just say my parents did their fair share of yelling.
Yes there was a lot of turmoil in our home. But Potato Salad day? That was a good day. Was it because we were so happy in anticipation that we were better then normal? Was it the ritual of my mom feeding that first spoonful to my dad to see if it needed more onion? Was it the proud look she wore knowing that she had just made something so delicious that it would postpone even my brothers from the days antics? The world may never know, dear readers. But as I made my very own potato salad this morning, guess who wanted to learn how to make it? Paige and Mia. And they were so good the whole time! Anyone want the recipe?