Marcus Edwards 4/22/14 Marcus Edwards 4/22/14

Showering Karen

A little over a week ago, my wife Janie and our daughter, Rheya, had a very full weekend.

A weekend of baby showers. 3 in fact. And one of them I photographed.

Janie, planned and designed most of this one, because Karen is family :)

Karen and Brian, and their 6 year old son, are expecting a new member to the family very soon. We will be looking forward personally welcoming the new little one to the world in early June!

Florist: Hanna Style Designs

Cake: Cindy Rocek

Desserts: Shannon Trafton

Hand made bow ties: Kyle Anne Lucks

Styling, design, and artwork: Janie Rocek

Marcus Edwards 3/17/14 Marcus Edwards 3/17/14

A little surprise for Shannon

Janie has 2 other sisters, and "technically", Shannon is her cousin.

But "really" she's Janie's 3rd sister.

Shannon was Janie's MOH (Maid of Honor) at our wedding. She really stepped up to the plate and not only filled the role, but she friggin' OWNED it. She spearheaded our "Battle of the sexes" paint war, she was instrumental in her "position" as MOH, and she was simply invaluable to Janie on our wedding day. She took being the Maid of Honor very seriously and did a tremendous job.

So now Shannon had this birthday coming up and Janie wanted to plan something special and she went at the task with guns a blazing.

She planned this out for months, designing the details, the artwork, painting a couple of my backdrops, etc. She really poured herself into it.

She found The Studio in Denver and made the arrangements to have the surprise party there.

So on the day of celebration, Janie and I drove down to Denver and Janie got setup in a hotel suite to do her hair and makeup while I was out of sight in another hotel room.

The day before, Karen (Janie's sister) had driven down to where Shannon works while she was away and put this on her desk...

(Karen wrote the poem)

And so she did..

And Shannon was driven from Colorado Springs to Denver, blind folded while her "captors" kept quiet.

They brought her to Janie and the blindfold was removed.

And Janie sat her down and took care of her hair and makeup.

Now, Shannon was all ready for the night, even though she didn't know what was in store for her

When she was done, Lindsey and Amy (her "captors") took her away and off to dinner. In the meantime, Janie and I drove to The Studio and started setting up for the party.

She setup the decorations with the help of family and friends, and I setup a studio to take pictures and got ready to shoot the night.

When we were ready, Shannon was brought to the site blindfolded and was walked to where her family and friends were waiting for her, to give her a warm and welcome SURPRISE!

AND THE PARTY WAS ON!

**Janie removed the labels and washed all of the bottles and filled them with her own cocktails with hand made drink tags**

**Karen, my sister-in-law, made the food. I can still taste these cookies. They just melted in your mouth.**

**Cindy, Janie's mom, makes the most fantastic cakes. Well, pretty much everything she makes is great. But she IS famous for her cakes.**

**Our daughter, Rheya Lee, decorated some bricks used to hold up a sign. Aren't these cool?!**

Now I want you to pay attention to this one. This is just an example of how creative Janie is. The bottle is wrapped with pages from the Bible. And the purple and green flowers are made out shipping / packing peanuts.

**Janie prepping the doorway for Shannon to break through**

**And then the moment arrived, and Shannon burst through the doorway.**
**Ok, Lindsey kinda helped (shoved) her through**

**Yep, that's a pillar in front of you Shannon. Put on the BRAKES!**

**One of these 3 is not like the other..**
**Disclaimer: Karen, Janie's sister, was NOT drinking** **alcohol. Just a prop for the photo :)**

**Bass Elements were onsite to crank up the tunes and kept the party going strong all night!**

**Lindsey showing off her wicked dance moves**

**I know that technically, this is not a good photo because of the back focusing that** **occurred.**
**But I couldn't resist sharing this one because our good friend Monica here, who on her worst day is nothing less that graceful, got reintroduced to gravity and the floor.**
**It's awesome that everyone is just standing their laughing at her rather than trying to catch her!**

**My wife Janie ripping it up on the dance floor**

**Shannon is having so much fun, and almost everyone around her is pretty much oblivious to what just happened in front of them**
**Love this one!**

**Yah, great party for sure.**
**Thanks for being born Shannon :)**

Marcus Edwards 11/14/13 Marcus Edwards 11/14/13

Rheya Lee is 5!

Rheya Lee turned 5 a few months ago. I look at her and can see the beautiful girl that she's growing in to.

We were going to do an outdoor portrait like last year, but Janie had another idea, which turned out really cool and a lot more fun.

The clean up afterwards, well....

I set the camera down to make some adjustments to her scarf and Janie picked up my camera and took this.

I LOVE the look on her face

(proud daddy here)

No children were harmed during the making of this pillow fight

The clean up was a chore for sure

Totally worth it

Marcus Edwards 9/3/13 Marcus Edwards 9/3/13

A battle of the sexes

A couple of days before Janie and I got married, her Maid of Honor, Shannon, created a paint war in the park for us. The concept was for the brides maids to come in old brides maid's dresses while the fellas showed up wearing groomsmen outfits. We tried to look as "unique" as possible before the battle.

Janie and I had to run to adjacent nearby trees and dress up in an outfit while our team mates protected us from getting attacked with paint, and at the same time, trying to attack the other team.

Us guys did great! Ok, not as great as the girls did. We were out numbered like 3 or 4 to one, and those girls are some pretty good adversaries!

NOTE: I didn't take any of these photos. I couldn't because I was in the battle!

Carolyn Trafton took the photos and she did an amazing job!

Janie just before the battle