Weekes Family Portrait Session at Gardner Village in South Jordan, UT - Utah Family Portrait Photographer

I was so excited when Cali emailed me a few weeks ago to see if I could take some photos for her. Her sister Charlene, (you might remember her family pics taken up at 25th street) referred her to me - so I knew she had to be beautiful - and I am so excited because in a few months I am also going to be taking their pictures at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple for their sealing. Such an exciting time for them!!! I can't get over how dang cute little Boston is! He is so dang adorable! Enjoy!

For more of Melissa Papaj Photography's work and pricing visit her Salt Lake City, Utah Wedding and portrait photography website here.

Weekes Family at Gardner Village - Sneak Peek

I will post the full session soon! Enjoy for now!


To view more of Melissa Papaj Photography's work, please view my Utah Wedding Photography website.

My Big Boy Turns 6!!!

I can't believe my baby boy is six today...I was sitting on the couch last night thinking about how I had gone to the doctors earlier that day and she said...go home and lay down, do nothing, because my blood pressure was off the charts and they were going to induce me the next day. I got there that morning at 6:00 and they gave me the petocin around 7:00 and I had my baby boy 12 hours later vie emergency c-section. We both had a crazy rough delivery and he almost never made it into this world...after flat lining three times and the night in NICU - he was healthy. He came out fighting and hasn't stopped since. :)

I took this when he was 6 months old...in September 2004
I took this right afterwards for Halloween on my aunts dog Dominoes...

And here we are six years later...

Things I love about Kenyon is that he is a fighter (not so much beating people up - but very head strong) ...some people wouldn't see that as a good quality and somedays it really gets him in trouble, but I love it! I would definitely say that Kenyon is a very resilient child and he has always just adapted to whatever life has handed him. In the past six years, he has had his tongue clipped (2 weeks) ear tubes (twice) pneumonia (three times and twice in the hospital) and finally a year and a half ago his tonsils out...since then he has been quite healthy, aside from his asthma. I also love that he likes to keep his room clean for the most part. He is very sensitive and always senses when he has done something to hurt my feeling and is quick to apologize and give me loves.

His favorite food is Spaghetti.

His favorite place to go is Golden Corral.

He wishes for toy motorcycles and a snowmobile like dad.

His favorite color is blue.

He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up.

He loves to draw, paint and color.

His favorite TV show is Curious George.

His favorite movie is Spongebob.

ABC Channel 4 Utah News

So last night channel 4 news aired my story about Sean Peele's copyright infringement. If you missed it want to see it, you can view it here...the typed story is there, but on the top right corner, you can view the video piece.

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top%20stories/story/Local-photographer-has-work-stolen/5QKiBxBsVE-MuCR155EHnw.cspx

Copyright Infringement Story on Channel 4 ABC News

Hey all - Just wanted to let you know that Channel 4 ABC News Utah is going to air a piece about Sean Peele's copyright infringement of mine and many other photographers images tonight on the 10:00 PM news!
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So watch and tell me how much better I am behind the camera instead of in front of it :) Thanks everyone for your support!

I feel completely VIOLATED!!!

I don't even know where to begin right now. A photographer, Sean Peele - or so called - photographer has decided to steal my images and put them on his website as his work! I seriously don't even know what to say and can't believe someone would stoop so low! Here is the link to his website: http://aglimpseofyouphotography.com/index2.php#/gallery1/2/

Easter Sunday

So this Easter was a busy one - as always -but fun and much better than last years - I wrecked my car -on the way to an engagement session -the night before so we didn't get to color eggs and do all the fun stuff, plus I felt awful on Easter. So this year was much better. We colored eggs the night before...here was our setup...

This was easter morning...our colored eggs and a picture of the kids with their little Easter baskets full of eggs.
My sweet hubby got me some pretty flowers...and the kids made a PAPAJ egg :)
Then they went to my great grandma's house and had lots of candy...
I love how Hailey is looking at Kenyon here...
After leaving great grandma's we went to Grandma Bonnie's house (Matt's mom) where she made a gorgeous and very yummy Easter feast - as always. And we finally came home...around 8:00 in the evening. I really didn't take too many pictures of the day though because I am trying to enjoy my family a little more and be part of the action instead of always being behind the lens :) Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Weekend Getaway to Yellowstone National Park - Valentine's 2010

For Valentine's, Matt took me to Yellowstone for a quick weekend away and we had such a nice time. We really didn't see a lot of wildlife and the amount of snow (or lack thereof) was worse this year than it has ever been and it was actually quite warm. The average temperature for the two days we were there was 11 degrees farenheit - and usually it is about -11 degrees, so I was pleasantly surprised by how warm it was there, but a little dissapointed there wasn't more snow. We were only in the park for one day so these are pretty much all taken on the same day. ENJOY!

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We stayed at Three Bear Lodge in West Yellowstone and loved pretty much every minute of it...I especially loved their branding - which they had burned into all of their furniture :)

These were the elk along the Madison River which are the only elk that do not migrate out of the park for the winter. They drink from the Madison which doesn't freeze but is also full of highly saturated minerals such as sulfur. The minerals cause early tooth decay in these elk so their life expectancy is much shorter because their teeth rot and wear down to where they can't eat their food and they eventually starve to death. SAD :(
A pretty landscape of some falls through the Madison pass...
Some trumpeter swans...
On our way up to Artist's Point we were able to see a little bit of sun...
My sweetheart and me
Another little bit of sun (the majority of the day it snowed like CRAZY!)
When I took this shot it was snowing big time and I was on a windy cliff. Do you remember my post from our September Yellowstone Trip of Artist's Point? Well, here is Artist's Point all frozen over. I don't think it is nearly as impressive.
I thought this might make a cool Christmas Card...What do you think?
Hot Springs in the snow...
Okay, so I know, I got a little crazy with the coyote, but he was absolutely gorgeous and I could definitely tell he had never been shot at because toward the end, he started getting very close to me- walking straight at me...AWESOME!



I liked this one where he was playing in the snow :)




This was taken the next morning on our drive home as the morning fog was just starting to burn off...

To view Utah wedding photography or portraits view Melissa Papaj Photography's website or click here for wedding blog entries.