You heard me, I’m going on a holiday!!! I will have zero/none/nada/zippo access to a phone and internet starting now until the 12th. Yep, it’s just going to be me, my man and the sea…. AND everyone else on the cruise ship.  Oh well, the more the merrier right?! {Let’s hope} Either way I am pumped up for a much needed, beautiful, fun filled week on the Mexican coast!
If you need me you can email me and I will return your emails when I am thoroughly tanned. {wink}

Stephanie is adorable and funny and so much fun… AND she has a million and one pairs of colorful tights. {This alone makes her a FaNcY fav in my book}. We all know I love myself some colorful tights!

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them.  When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope?  We have two options, medically and emotionally:  give up, or fight like hell.  ~Lance Armstrong

A couple of weeks ago I had an awesome opportunity to  take pictures for this wonderful family. They have been through a lot due to the devastation and heartache that comes with cancer. This great man (And when I say great, I truly mean GREAT) fought endlessly through his first round of Chemo/surgeries  and expressed how happy he was to finally have eyelashes, eyebrows and the hair on his head again. Even with his discomfort you could see the true love and happiness that he has for his family. Before our session his daughter called and warned me that he wasn’t going to come all dressed up which I told her was just fine with me. I was excited to capture him as he really is. He is purely a country man and has worked hard on his ranch for years. He and his wife have been married for 47 years and I can promise you that they interacted the same as any giddy newly wed couple that I have met. This session was so inspiring for me and it really made me appreciate the little things in life. As of last Monday he has now started his second round of treatment. He seems to be a fighter but none the less my prayers will be with him and his family. What a good man.

Such a fun session I had with Dave and Laura. They are getting married in March and they have planned a Renaissance themed wedding, kilt and all. I am way excited to shoot their wedding! They are such a great couple and as you can see they are truly in love. Enjoy!

Senior pictures are the most fun sessions to shoot. Olivia is SO beautiful and she has the most fantastic style. I posted more than I usually do but it was too hard to choose…
Hope everyone has a fab weekend!

I know… I am officially the worst blogger ever, very bad me. I hate to use the excuse of being busy but, what can I say… BUSY is all I’ve been up to and my poor little blog was one of the last things to check off on my “to-do” list. I am now 2 birthdays down with only one birthday and a baptism to go. I have scheduled my shots (eek) for Fiji and just FYI, we have made some awesome progress within the last few weeks. I truly can’t wait to get over there and meet everyone and document what they’ve been up to. I have some awesome sessions coming up but first I wanted to post some belated birthday pictures of my very own man, Will. I love this little guy so much and I can’t believe 6 years have already flown by! Really!? I can’t grasp that my babies are turning into little men. Sniff. We brought all of the boys out to take some pics because I figured Will wouldn’t give me more than 20 seconds of camera time. I was so pleasantly mistaken! He never likes to be in front of the camera but he had fun. I covered him in kisses after and ended up grabbing just a few shots of his brothers.

Anyway, I’ve missed you blog.

Hope everyone has a happy week. Enjoy! UP NEXT>>> I am SO excited to post these… I will try to be a better/faster blogger…

Hello my poor neglected blog.
I’ve missed you slightly….
Although, I must say I have been very preoccupied with ALL three of my kiddo’s birthday coming up.
This means 3 birthday parties.
3 birthday cakes.
3 pinatas. (because a party isn’t a party without one.)
Lots of game planning.
Lots of invitations.
LOTS of kids…

Wish me luck.

First up for the birthday pictures is my oldest. I honestly can’t believe 8 years has flown by! How did this happen???? Austin is my little angel and the second I laid eyes on him I was changed forever. Kyle (The hubby) was away for military training when Austin was born. I feel like it was yesterday (so cliche, I know. But true.) that my dad dropped me and my tiny new baby off to our little house. The front door was almost completely covered to the top with snow because a record breaking snowstorm hit the previous day. I was only 18 years old (CRAZY!!!!) and I had know clue what in the world a mother was supposed to do with something so small and helpless. All I knew was that I was in love and I was determined to figure motherhood out. Eight years later I still haven’t perfected motherhood, but none the less I love my kids more than anything in the world and I am sad that time goes by so fast.

Enough mushiness…

The following pictures were taken for Austin’s baptism announcements/book.
In our church (The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) upon the age of eight, a child has the decision to be baptized and confirmed a member of the church. We really wanted Austin to make the choice for himself. He, as you can see chose to be baptized but, his one request was that he was to be dressed as Nephi (His favorite scripture hero) for his birthday pictures. (Mostly, I think he really just wanted to have a bow and arrow in the pictures.) Anyway, he was a crack-up when I was taking his pictures. He kept on saying, “This is very realistic, right mom?” or, because it was cold out, “It’s fine mom. A real warrior can handle the cold.” So funny… So Austin.
Anyway, onto the pictures. Hope everyone is having a fantastic beginning to the year.

If you are interested slip me an email at serena@serenagene.com or give me a call at 435.760.5220.

Other news:

This is my first post of 2010 and let’s just say I planed it to be likened unto the New Year’s eve tradition of “the big apple” drop in NYC.
Happy New Year!!!

…. wha? Just kidding, I really didn’t plan it… a normal apple would be a lame comparison to the excitement of New Years welcoming. None the less, my next section of images just so happen to involve a beautiful little girl named Lea who, as you will see, brought along some apples and some of her favorite books.
I would also like to mention a belated THANK YOU to my amazing and beloved clients of 2009! It truly was a wonderful year and the journey of photography has provided me opportunities I’ve always hoped for. In this upcoming year, as I have mentioned before I will only be taking 1 to 2 sessions a month but I plan to be working on plenty of projects that I am SO very excited about. Just one of those, of course is going over and documenting our water mission for the villages of Kadavu, Fiji in April. I am so excited and I feel so humbled to even be a part.
Aside form all of that I look forward to sharing 2010 with my wonderful husband and my terrifically energetic kids. I have a hunch that it is the start of a wonderful year….
xo,
Serena Gene

Oh my goodness… I can’t believe Christmas is almost upon us! As you may have noticed I have already been neglecting my blog due to the hustle and bustle of the season. Everyone’s prints are ordered, I’ve survived the stores, crossed of my gift lists, and I’ve eaten more than my share of fudge, bread, cookies and anything else that is without-a-doubt toxic for my body. I am now ready to relax for a day or two before we head off to our long awaited trip to… Disneyland!!! The day after Christmas last year we decided that our next Christmas was going to be spent at Disneyland, so… Christmas is here and we are about to spend a week in beautiful southern California. Our kids keep saying… “It will be the BEST Christmas ever!” Love them!
Due to the fact that I am going on holiday, this will be my last post before Christmas and possibly before the New Year. I have some really fun sessions to post but they are going to have to wait because below my family xmas pictures I’ve given you an overload of info that is so fun. The first of which is close to my heart, the second, is a little promo video that could possibly be close to your “special someones” heart…

Have I made you curious now???? Go ahead… scroll speedily past my family/shmamily pictures and see what’s with the buzz….

Ladies!!! I don’t want to over look Christmas but I can’t help but get excited about Valentine’s Day!
Watch and see… {I suggest you scroll down and turn off my Christmas music before you watch the clip}

Whew… I hope you survived that super long post!?
I truly hope everyone has a very merry and safe Christmas!
xoxo
Serena Gene