Shanel, Brian and Bryson

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of photographing a beautiful family. They definitely take the prize for the most well dressed family ever.
Bryson just turned one:

I loved the time I spent with you guys and can't wait to get together again. I hope you love your photos!

Albums

The mailman and I are best friends this week. All the bills came last week and only fun stuff this week.

I received Heidi's albums today and they turned sooo good! She already picked them up but I took some pictures to show you:

I know some of you are thinking about ordering your albums and I just wanted to let you know that I'll be out of town from 08/16 - 08/24. If you are in a hurry, please get your orders in this week. Thanks!!

Official

While I still had a monthly paycheck I had ordered myself a nice little anniversary gift. A Shootsac! Well it arrived today and I can't wait for my photoshoot on Saturday. I think that I secretely believe that just by having the shootsac on me during the shoot will automatically improve my skills. Not to mention how it makes me feel "official".

Even the box it comes in is pretty:

The Other Martha

My sister 'affectionately" calls me Martha Stewart. We actually really don't have that much in common except for the fact that I love decorating and throwing parties. I'm really great when it comes to choosing the napkins, centerpieces, creating themes and even choosing the menu. However, that's where it ends. I have no other Martha Stewart like abilities. Or I guess I didn't know I had them. Ever since resigning from my job last week I've been cooking up a storm. With my mom on the phone giving me directions, but cooking up a storm nonetheless! I'm so proud!

When I opened up the oven today to check on my eggplant parmigiana I thought to myself "Oh my gosh, I made that! And it looks so good it could be on the pages of a Martha Stewart magazine". So I need to call my sister and tell her she was right all along. I do have a little bit more of Martha in me than what I used to believe.

One un-Martha incident I had today was to open the oven and stick my whole face in there right away. Don't do it. It hurts. I thought I had burned my eyeballs out. Don't worry though, I can still see just fine.

If you are reading this and you don't know me you are probably thinking What's the big deal? right? Well, let me tell I've been married for 5 years and this is the first time ever that I've ever cooked anything. So yeah, it's a big deal people!

Camping Trip attempt

If you remember my account of our last camping trip, you know that I'm far from being a camping pro. This last Saturday we went camping and I was determined to be the perfect camper. Ummm, stay tuned...

Anyways, saturday morning we left for Sedona to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We thought it would be great to get out of the heat and save some money by camping (which always adds a little extra fun).

Even though we had originally planned on going to Sedona, with everything that happened last week I had told Curtis I just wanted to stay here and not really go anywhere. That is until our friends David and Sherri called and asked if we wanted to meet them in Sedona. They used to be our neighboors (when I lived with Curtis in his bachelor pad), but have since moved to Chino Valley. I've missed them a lot, so we decided to go. It was soo great to see them. It was truly a gift to be able to spend time with them and their kids. An awesome anniversary gift.

This is their 6 year old son, David. We actually met because of David. I was out in the parking lot and saw David (the dad) holding David (the baby) and because he was just the cutest baby ever, I had to go and introduce myself and offer to babysit. I was actually his first baby-sitter! Isn't he so handsome?!This is Brinly, their four year old little princess. I really love this little girl.This is Savannah. They met her through Big Brother Big Sister but if you saw them all together, you'd think she was their daughter too!
So back to the trip. We met them at Tlaquepaque (-pretty sure I misspeled that!) had lunch together and then went swimming and fishing.
Here's Brin ready to hit the water. I just LOVE this picture.



There's something about being outside, really enjoying nature that really does a body good :) Even if it means touching frogs, worms and fish.

Now back to the camping part: Camping was great! We found a really nice spot with some shade in a camping site that had a bathroom! A real bathroom, with plumbing and running water. When I walked in the bathroom I felt like the luckiest girl in the world! It reminded me of a mall bathroom. It was super clean and it even smelled good. I just knew that all my camping problems were solved and that this would be my perfect camping trip.

So we got everything set up (and I felt really good about my camper self that I actually knew how to set everything up) had a delicious dinner, followed with some s'mores, saw some shooting stars, talked about aliens, talked about life, thanked God for each other and our many other blessings and then decided to go to sleep. At this point I was feeling pretty confident that after this trip I could seriously consider myself a true camper. That's when we realized that we forgot the one thing I had said about 78 times I was not going to forget: our pillows. No problem! I can roll this sweatshirt into a ball and voila we've got a pillow. Well, not really... It was really uncomfortable, but I was not about to ruin my newly found reputation of a perfect camper. So I tossed and turned hoping to eventually get comfortable and fall asleep. Oh yeah, and remember the part where I said we wanted to get away from the heat. Well, that actually did not happen. It was super hot.

I cannot tell you how happy I was when at 12:30 am Curtis said that we should probably leave as there was no way we'd ever fall asleep. So we got up and threw everything in the car and made the 2 hour drive home. On the way home I mentioned to Curtis that I was super happy to be going home but sad to miss out on the delicious breakfast we had planned.

I had one of the best nights of sleep in a while and woke up this morning (it's morning until noon right? :)) to the delicious breakfast we had planned. Thank you hun for the most unplanned but amazing anniversary and for another incredible year. I love you so much. Thank you for your patience, your kindness, your support, your hardwork and your love.

The Melseks

I had so much fun photographing this family. They are so young, gorgeous and laid-back.

Brother and Sister

Abby and Thomas were soo cute! Thomas was super shy and would not crack a smile or look at me and Abby was the complete opposite and all smiles from the start. I love it how siblings can be so different. I had a lot of fun chasing after them, but the best part was watching them together. Brother and Sister, such a special bond.


Just look at these eyes! She's such a doll!

Abby's first carrousel ride:Abby's rare non-smiling moment. Soo gorgeous!Thomas avoiding me...
But once the carrousel got going, he just couldn't help himself:


Christy, thank you so much for allowing me to spend time with you and your kids. I truly had a wonderful time. I hope to see you all again soon :)