When I decide to do something new, I sometimes tend to go a little bit overboard. My wonderful, supportive husband can attest to that! 
I can’t go out and get *just one* to try it out, I want one of everything! This year I decided to plant a garden. We have a great space in the back of our yard for a garden (at least that’s what everyone has been telling me for the past two years) and I figured I have to pull weeds there anyways, so why not? Annika and I took a trip to the local nursery and I filled the back of my SUV with little plants. I was so excited to get home and plant them all in pretty little rows! That was pretty much the extent of my knowledge of gardening. It has rained so much this summer and I am convinced that is the only reason my garden has survived. Now that the rain has backed off my garden is not looking so hot! I definitely do not have a green thumb… Hey, I do good to keep the kids and the dog going strong!
Here are a few things I have learned from my gardening experience:
1. Standing there watering the garden is boring.
2. Who ever says pulling weeds is relaxing is crazy.
3. I haven’t a clue what to do with all the herbs I planted.
4. The plants don’t give off a little at a time. When they are ready, they are ALL ready and you have to figure out what to do with them all before they go bad.
5. I would much rather go to the grocery store and buy what I want, when I want it.
I did pick some zucchini that looked ready the other day. They are still sitting on my kitchen counter because, frankly, none of us are all that fond of zucchini. (If anyone has some good recipes, I would be ever grateful!) Even if I get nothing else from my $45 worth of plants, I will consider this a success because I now know that gardening is not for me!
I knew I would have more that I love as I edited them. Here are a few more that caught my eye…
Doesn’t she just look like a little Barbie doll standing here?…
One for fun — I love the great summer colors they chose!
…and just like with so many of our sessions, one of my absolute favorites it one that my very own Junior Photographer did…
After about 3 weeks of rain, it turned out to be a gorgeous day for a wedding! Here are a few of my early favorites of the happy couple. I’m sure I will have more once I get them all edited.
When I was quickly going through and picking out my favorites, I didn’t realize they are all of them kissing! I guess you can tell what my favorite newlywed pose is!
Q: What do you get when you combine a great location, a gorgeous dress, and a beautiful bride?
A: Awesome bridal images!
Tegan was given this adorable nickname by his sisters several months ago and has stuck. I had the opportunity to play with the sweet little guy when he was just 6 days old!
Check out these two cuties! Mom didn’t want the boring baseball pictures that they do for the teams so she came to me for something a little different.
We had the opportunity to go to the practice run of the Hill Air Force Base Air Show earlier this month. It was great and there were a tiny fraction of the people as there were during the actual show. (I know because I went back the next day.) We got to see all kinds of cool stuff…
As you can see, they were thrilled with the whole thing… 
These 3 are too cute! I had a great time photographing these brothers and their boards.
People seem to think that I have 3 willing models any time I want to practice or play around. Wrong! It is so much easier to photograph other people’s children. When I drag my children into the studio, I am happy to get just one or two that I love.
I get a whole lot more of this…
and this…
than I do this…
And a whole lot of this…
and this…
before getting the one I love…
This happy couple is getting married this week and Annika & I are photographing her Bridals later today…
I grew up in the water. I grew up in Texas and my Grandparents (who we just about lived with because they lived so close to us) had a swimming pool. I don’t remember a time that I didn’t know how to swim. We never took lessons, but when you are in the water that much you just figure it out.
My kids… not so much. We decided to put them in swim lessons. Yeah, that was a total waste of money. The instructor would ask the kids if they want to, for example, blow bubbles under water. We would see all the other children’s heads disappear as they attempt what she asked and ours nodding their head back and forth in a definite “no.” I told her a few lessons into it that I am not at all opposed to her telling them that they don’t have a choice and they will do whatever she wants but she told me they are taught to leave it up to the children to do it at their own pace. I knew then and there that it was money that would have been spent better otherwise. I have just resigned myself to the realization that my children will never be little fish unless we move to Texas or Florida or somewhere they can live their summers in a swimming pool.
I think Chase’s face says it all:
Really, though, it wasn’t all bad. Once the boys found out that the instructor was not going to make them do anything they didn’t want to (i.e. getting their ears in the water) they didn’t mind it so much.
James looks thrilled, right?
I did get James to put his face under the water… once… If I remember right, I had to bribe him with something.
Annika actually enjoyed the lessons. Her only issue was when the instructor wanted her to go under water without holding her nose. She told me over and over that she can’t do that and every time I would tell her that is why she is taking lessons — to learn. But alas, the instructor caved and allowed Annika to hold her nose. Another $30 down the drain.
Megan looked gorgeous in her beautiful dress! Thank you for choosing me to document this special time in your life!
One day James came to me with a special request. He wanted me to do some pictures of him. Imagine my surprise… and excitement! We had fun for a while, just the two of us, with James taking control of where the session was heading…
And then I found out that the only reason he wanted me to do pictures of him was so that we could do this:
Oh, well, I’ll take what I can get.
Congrats to these two darling graduates! Annika & I had the pleasure of doing their Senior Pictures.
These are safe to show now, since the happy couple was married last weekend. Here are a couple favorites from Cristy’s Bridal Session
They had a great elevator in the house where we did her bridals, too!
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