Engagement Session: Dorothy & Merrill

I met Dorothy about 4 years ago at a job and immediately liked her! She has such a wonderful presence about her; she's warm, loves to laugh, and her smile is infectious! I was so happy to hear that she and her boyfriend had decided to start a new chapter in their lives: Marriage!

Dorothy and Merrill were a blast to work with! Their love for one another is so evident and genuine.  Their shoot was at Veteran's Lake- the setting of their first date! I'm a sucker for romance and was happy to capture some important places from their dating time together.

Special locations like the view on their first date...

or a fallen tree where they sat and talked to get to know one another...

and the picnic table where they shared their first kiss...Dorothy and Merrill, I can't wait to see what God has in store for you! Many blessings to you as you enjoy this special time of being engaged!

After all...

We love because He first loved us 1 John 4:19

Jordan: Senior Pictures

Whoa, what a crazy month and a half it has been! Sorry for not keeping up on the posts but I'll make it up to you by showing you this good looking guy. Meet Jordan! 

Jordan and his family moved to Kansas about two years ago because his dad Bill was called to serve as music minister at our church. Each person in this family holds such a special place in my heart. In fact, Jordan's sister Leyna was my first photo shoot! Check out her and her sweet honey HERE. This family is such a blessing to know so when his mom Penny asked me to take his senior pictures, I was so honored. 

We were able to take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather we were having in November. Seriously, this weather has been amazing! Like, 60 and 70 degrees in December amazing. I'll take it! We started out with Jordan giving in to his mom's request to wear a dress shirt. You know, for the mom and grandma pics that will be put on display :-) Momma knows best- he looks great!

After a bit though the hat and t-shirt came in to play.

If I didn't know better, I'd think he'd done this before.

Hold onto your hearts ladies!

Mom's choice makes another appearance!

Jordan, you were so fun to work with and my job couldn't have been any easier! Enjoy the rest of your senior year! 

Fun in the Fall

Meet the Putmans!

I met Shelley through fellow photographer Betsy Robinson. Betsy is a fantastic photographer and thanks to her I was able to photograph this amazing family. You should really check out Betsy's photographs on her Facebook page, Betsy Robinson Photography. Really. I'll wait...

Because of this introduction, I was able to capture some truely beautiful moments on this fall afternoon. Shelley was great and had some amazing concepts in mind for their family pictures. We scouted out locations and she had every outfit planned to the max. Shelley, you've got great style! Isn't she sassy?!?

She was so organized that we were able to shoot in several different locations- the first right in their backyard! Because of her fellas' love for camo we were able to get a great scene by just adding Old Glory- enter a beautiful Americana photo!

I love seeing a couple who have such an obvious affection for each other. Shawn and Shelley were so relaxed around each other and that made my job really fun!

Can I just take a moment here to brag on Preston? I mean, really! A two hour photoshoot can test the patience of anyone, much less a nine (almost ten!) year old. Plus, he had to watch his parents KISS! Preston, you are awesome and your cool factor is through the roof!

Thank you all for allowing me to capture these moments for you. I hope you look back on these photos in the future and nothing but great memories come flooding back to you!

Role Models

This past weekend was quite eventful: Arkalalah (if you have no idea what this is, we can't be friends anymore- ha!), Fall Break, and a family wedding.  During the wedding I was able to snap some shots of this cute couple. 

Nope, they aren't the bride and groom, they're my parents! These two were high school sweethearts and I must say the sweetness has carried through for over 35 years. Aren't they cute?

One of the things I love the most about these two is their ability to be silly. If you can be silly around someone, you know you've found "the one". I know this because I am a complete dork around my hubster and he still asked me to marry him. :-) Their love for one another is evident in their everyday interactions. What great role models to look up to!

I hope Matt and I are as adorbs as these two when we've been married as long!

Love you two!

There were never such devoted sisters...

Please tell me you got the title of this post. If not, go watch White Christmas. You must! Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Crosby! Yes, I know it's only October but promise me you'll watch it if you never have. I even own it! It is seriously up there as a favorite movie. I'm a sucker for a musical. 
Whoa, sorry there. Tangent. Back to the main focus of this post :-) 

There is something so special about the bond between sisters... at least that's what I've been told :-) I love my brother but I always wanted a sister, too and I remember asking my mom if I could have a sister when I was younger. I vaguely remember her laughing... Anyway, all of this rambling brings me to my point. This dynamic sister duo is Savannah and Serenity.

I've known Savannah and Serenity for a couple years now. I met them when they started attending youth group and they have been so fun to get to know!! These two sisters let me pick them up before youth group early one night and we went to town. Literally. We wandered around the downtown area and were able to capture some great shots!


Savannah is the older of the two sisters. She is such a sweet girl! Soft and serene is how I would describe her. She didn't give me many full blown smiles but when she does, wow! Savannah is a natural beauty and she shines from the inside out.

Serenity is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. She is the younger sister of Savannah and has the greatest giggle! Her eyes are so soulful and can go from thoughtful to mischievous in a flash. 

Oh those eyes!

They were so much fun!

Thanks girls for allowing me to take your photographs! I may need to ask my mom again about a sister...

Fireplace Wall Project

The hubster and I just purchased our first home and we are in the throws of "making it our own". We've painted- still not quite done. That darn master bedroom is still laughing at me. A couple weeks ago the hubster was put to task on a honey-do list because I had a vision. A vision that had to happen. Soon. My obsession, er, inspiration came from this blog post by This Nest is Blessed.  So my sweet, trusting, and handy hubster manned up to help make my vision come to life! Gosh I love him :-)

 Actually, it was a really simple project- and really affordable! This project took about a day and a half- an evening to stain wood and an afternoon to mount the wood on the wall. After calculating what the damage would be, not only time-wise but cost, this project was a no brainer! Materials totaled to about $40 and it looks like a million dollar wall! Well, maybe not million, but a couple hundred at least. I wanted something special. Something custom. Enter the hubster!

My hubster, Matt. He's swell :-)

We started by purchasing the wood from Lowe's. It was less than $11. Um, can you say cheap?! Each package had 6 pieces of 8 ft. pine planks and for our surface, two packages were plenty. 

Matt started by cutting the pieces down to the right size- for us it was a little over 7 ft. 

After cutting the planks down to size, we used two different Minwax stains, espresso & grey. I wanted a bit of aged look to the boards and the combo of these two stains did the trick!

Now for the fun part! Using finishing nails so the heads wouldn't be seen, we started tacking them to the wall. The boards are super light so we weren't too concerned with finding the studs but if you are concerned, you can find studs to nail into.

 

As you can see, the recessed cable and power box had to be worked around. Since we were going to put the TV on the wall we didn't worry about bringing the wood right up to the edge. If we hadn't made plans for the TV we could have notched out the wood make it flush against the edge but this saved us time!

By the time we got to the bottom there was about an inch left of the wall to cover. We had one piece of wood left but because we measured wrong on a previous plank (oops!) we cut it in half and pieced three strips together to get a perfect fit. The planks were thin enough that Matt was able to cut it down to size with a straight edge and a utility knife. We puzzled it all together quite nicely and since it's at the bottom, no one will ever notice. :-) 

 

And now the finished wall...

Tada! Gorgeous! And the wall ain't bad either ;-)

I'm in love!

Now on to the the TV mounting... AKA the real reason Matt was so keen on re-doing the wall. Yes, the truth comes out. His doubt about the project was greatly lessened by the promise of a new TV. Boys and their toys! 

A little measuring here and there, find those studs, and voilà!

I love the way this turned out! The wood is just aged enough to warm up the room.

Custom wall? CHECK! 

A few fall decorations and it's done! 

 Now to tackle that master bedroom...

Pieces of My Heart

If we are friends on Facebook, you know this to be a fact- I love my nephews. This is evident by the millions of photos I post of them. Millions. Just the thought of my three nephews makes me smile! 

Andrew is Matt's brother's son. I am so lucky that I married into this family. I gained two wonderful in-laws,  another brother, two sisters and a nephew- not to mention my crazy awesome hubster :-) Andrew is our oldest nephew and he is brilliant. No lie. He is sooo smart! And he loves his popsicles! The don't live in town so the times we see them are precious and unfortunately few and far between.

Isaac is nephew numero dos. He is six going on seven (this coming December!) Goofy to his bones and the most tenderhearted fella I've ever known. He loves animals, drawing, and of course ninja moves.

Noah, or Noah-bug as I call him is the epitome of ornery. You wouldn't know it by looking at him- I mean look at those eyes!

Take your eyes off him for one second though and who knows what new adventure has begun! At this very moment I bet he's giving his mom and dad a run for their money! Spider-Man, Legos, and whatever his big brother is into is exactly what makes this little man tick.

Yep. These three are little pieces of my heart that make me smile, laugh and are the recipients of many future hugs!