A Little Imagination

As the weeks are going by, I am almost baffaled by how big of an imagination my girls have.  They are always play cooking and taking care of baby.  This week Ashley did something that just made me fall in love with her all over again.  I was fixing breakfast in the kitchen and I heard her tell Emily that she had to go to work.  I didn't really check in on them because they were still making noise so I continued cooking.  I hear one of their chairs move and then complete silence.  Any mother knows that when there is complete silence and kids, it's not a good thing.  I peeked around the corner and to much of my surprise, Ashley was sitting in her chair in her play kitchen facing the sink.  She kept looking at her fingers and looking up.  I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures before she even realized it.  Finally, I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I'm working, see 'puter'."  My little girl was acting like she was typing on a computer. 

Friday we went over to visit with our good friends that just had a new baby.  I call Kristi my cousin because I have known her since I was a baby.  We actually have baby pictures taken together.  She married one of Chris' really good friends and they just welcomed their first child into the world.  I can not wait to take his offical newborn pictures but until then, I had a little practice since I had my phone and backdrop in my car.  I think it turned out pretty well, what do you think?...

The girls had so much fun hanging out with Baby Ethan and they loved his soft hair.  Chris got a few snaps of the girls as they played as well as me...excuse my messy appearance...

Emily loves hanging upside down and doing anything dangerous. 

We had a great day Friday and hope you did too :)

Our Family Day

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  Chris and I decided that we needed to use one of his vacation days to actually do something fun and family oriented.  So what did we decide to do?... Take the girls on an adventure!

We started the day with a trip down to the beach.  We had the t-top down on the jeep and even though it was hotter than hell, we survived!  The girls slept most of the way down to the beach but once we got on the beach they woke up and were pleasently surprised where we were.  They kept saying "Beach mommy beach!"

They loved seeing all the seagulls and seeing the waves hit the shore.  Too bad Ashley had an ear infection or we would have totally let them out on the beach to play.  The last time they were on a beach was also the first time they were on a beach.  Maybe next trip we can let them play. 

From the beach we decided that we should take a ride on a BIG boat.  The girls were totally excited about that and were very anxious to get on the boat.  This was their first time on the ferry so of course we had to take pictures...

Oh how they enjoyed the boat ride and we got to see dolphins. 

We then made our way to the Railroad Musuem in Galveston on 25th street near the cruise terminal.  They really really enjoyed the train musuem.  They played with all the extra gadgets they had on display and just squealed with excitement. 

We now know what to get them for Christmas...

...and by them I mean Chris too...lol!!

We then road to Kemah and suprised them with an actual train ride that they have on the boardwalk.  They were so very surprised and excited to ride on a choo-choo train.

and that was the end of our day!  They slept pretty much the entire way home and are still talking about boats, and trains today.  I am so glad we got to take them to see something they really enjoy.  I've already started looking up party decorations for a train party come January.  I wonder where we can rent a trackless train for possible train rides?!

Next TEN pounds

I guess when facebook sees that you are posting about eating right and working out, it automatically post ads for weight loss pills, diet, and other weight loss miracles.  It's kinda irritating to see stories/ads that suggest that these "models" have lost 20lbs in just 2 weeks.  How is that even possible?  And who are the people that are actually believing such crap? 

I've done the "crash dieting" and the pills and the shots and the wraps, anything that I thought would give me results the quick and easy way.  Even though most of them did give me quick results, the gratification was fleeting and the weight came right back on.   

Almost 8 weeks ago I made a decision that I was tired of being 175+ pounds and tired of just being tired all the time.  I want to be the active mom that can keep up with her kids on the play ground rather than the mom that just sits on the bench and watches her kids play.  I want to live a long a healthy life and show my girls that you can do anything you set your mind too.  Eight weeks ago, I saw an ad on Facebook that my dear friend Derek posted, Exygon was having their 99 days for $99, and I had extra money burning a hole in my pocket.  So why not do something that was going to teach me dedication, hard work, and show me good healthy results in the end. 

It's been a long 8 weeks but I am happy to say that changing the way I eat and getting active, has proved to work.  Yes, I crave those Buster Bar Blizzards from Dairy Queen, and yes I crave those Mexican Pizza's from Taco Bell, and even though I hate to admit it, I did LOVE those chicken nuggets from McDonald's.  I look at that food now and even though it smells good and I know it will taste good, all I see are those calories I just spent 1-1/2 hours at the gym, working my butt off to loose.  I do have days that I slip up and share a small blizzard with my girls, but I feel so extremely guilty afterwards.

I am so very excited that I have lost my first 10lbs on my weight loss journey to get to my desired weight.  Now I just have 40 more to go but I will be taking it 10lbs at a time.  I am going to start posting some low-cal recipes that I just love and what my girls have ended up liking as well.

Have a blessed Tuesday everyone!!!

They are growing like weeds.

I really need to try and keep up with my blog more.  I didn't realize how fast time has gone by and how much the girls have grown.  They are keeping me busy and I am slacking on taking pictures of them.  Between shooting clients, taking care of them, and working on my fitness journey, I haven't made time to take really good pictures of them.  What's really bad is that Chris and I have been married for going on 4 years and we have YET to get family pictures taken.  Maybe that is something I can ask for this year for our anniversary. 

This past month has been a really hard one for me and for my little family.  I came to realize that someone I thought was a really good friend, turned out to be someone I never really knew.  I trusted this person and thought I saw who she really was but she had the wool pulled down very tightly over my eyes.  It is heart wrenching to loose someone you thought was a really good person but in the same way very liberating to get such an evil person out of my life.  Meanwhile, our outside cat, Honey, decided to have kittens... 6 of them, so we thought.  Then on May 25th, our sweet sweet dog, Buster, passed away unexpectedly.  We have no idea why or even how he passed away but he passed away during his mid-morning nap.  We buried him under the tree and he now has a beautiful cross laying across his grave.  We are going to put the cross on a stake and put it in the ground.  To this day, the girls still ask about Buster and it breaks my heart.  His kennel is still up and even though I want it taken down, I think it will be really hard on Chris to actually take it apart.  

Then a couple weeks after Buster passing, I was backing out of the driveway and thought all the kittens were moved out of the way and I was wrong.  It broke my heart that I could even do that.  Like why didn't I double and triple check to make sure they had all moved.  Breaks my heart still because I had to watch him pass away, and then had to bury him.  What's even worse is last week, another kitten got hit and Chris had to bury that one as well.  So this month has not been the most wonderful month at all.  Then to add another layer on our horrible pet month, Chris' 10 year old cat, Brooke, has come up missing.  We have been looking for her for 2 days now and calling for her everytime we are outside.  I just hope she turns up somewhere and is fine.  This has just been a horrible pet month for us. 

Now onto the girls!  They are almost 2-1/2 years old and YES! they do have their terrible two moments but they keep me laughing.  They are talking so much and developing such cute personalities. 

We switched them to "big girl" beds and it has been taking some getting use too because they now can get out of their room and come wake up mommy and daddy.... at all hours of the night.  I feel like I have newborns again...lol!  The summer is starting off great and the girls are in love with the water.  Every day they ask me to go swimming.  I walked them down to the spray park in the neighborhood and they are now hooked. 

They even call their bath time, Swimming.  It's so cute but so bad when it's raining and they are demanding that I take them swimming.

This month they are loving anything that has to do with noodles.  They love slurpping them down and making a mess.  They also love "chocolate" toast which is just nutella, but somehow they manage to get it all over their face.

Now for me... I was on facebook one day and saw that Exygon had a special going on: 99 days for $99 and I just so happened to have some extra cash on hand.  I notified Diana of the special and later on that day we were both at the gym signing up for a membership.  It was one of the best spontaneous decision I have ever made.  We have been going to the gym 4-6 days out of the week 1-2 hours a day and 6 weeks I am down almost 10 pounds and have lost over 10 inches off my body.  I have a new found evergy and really enjoy going to the gym.  The girls LOVE it too, so much they sing "I secy know it, I work out" as we are heading to the gym and they make me replay the song over and over again.  They get so excited when they hear we are going to the gym and that just pumps me up even more.  Everyone says that in 4 weeks of working out and dieting you can see a difference in yourself, so this is my 4 week progress pictures...

So that's what has been going on in my life the last couple of months.  Be on the lookout for some more blogs here soon. 









Pushing Pause

Over two years ago, when I found out I was pregnant, I was over the moon ecstatic.  We have tons and I do mean tons of pictures of the girls so far but only a few family portraits. 

Today I saw a post on facebook about a letter that was left on the doorstep of a photographer.  It was a heart wrenching letter from a lady that cancelled her session with the photographer because she just couldn't see spending that much money on prints.  Instead she spent the money on other material items.  Days went by and she got some unsettling new from her doctors that she had cancer and that she didn't have much time to live.  She will be leaving behind a husband and two kids. 

That letter hit real close to home...

Right before thanksgiving we got some news about my grandmother. She has been diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma and luekemia. She is doing great with treatments and has 6 more to go. Me, being the photographer I am, brought my camera with ...me on Christmas morning. It was then I noticed my grandmothers hair thinning and how much weight she has lost. She has gotten weaker and the twinkle in her eyes are dim. It was at that moment that I knew we needed a family picture. I am so glad we got them all together because it's the only family picture I have with all my family including my two year old twins.  Even though it's not the best picture in the world, it's one that I will forever cherish.  Pushing that little shutter button on my camera is so much more than that, it's pressing pause in our busy lives to remember what we have.

What's your passion?

Passion - any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

My passion is photography, what's yours?  When I pick up my camera, it's like I am in a totally new world.  Everything pretty much goes silent around me and it's just me, my camera, and my client/subject.  I see everything is a completely different angle.  What others see as just an over grown field I see as the blades of tall grass dancing with one another, the rays of the sun making the grass look like glitter.  Now put a beautiful woman in a bridal gown in that field, and it's MAGIC!!  That graffiti tagged building you think is tacky, is a building that has personality.  But not every session has to have a unique background.  Just the simplicity of a piece of plain fabric with an adorable sleeping baby in front of it, makes the perfect "awww" moment.  I have clients ask where the best spot is to take pictures...my answer...the perfect spot, is you and your loved ones in front of my camera.  As long as there is love and emotion being emitted from my client, there can be no bad location. 

I've been asked why I don't charge as much as other photographers, and that I need to really go up on my prices.  I have a hard time doing that!  Photography is not really a job to me, yes it helps pay the bills.  But if I had all the money in the world, you would still find me taking pictures.  Just because I don't charge and arm & a leg to take beautiful pictures, doesn't mean I am not confident in my passion.  I love every place I shoot, and love everyone of my clients.  For someone to allow me into their life, their family, and capture memories, warms my heart.  To see the love that two people share, and to freeze time for them, makes me happy.  Years from now, people are going to look back at pictures and recall those memories.  Without pictures, without cameras, and without photographers (amateur or professional), how will your great great grand kids, remember you?   

All because of you...

So this past week I had to get some completed photo shoots off of my laptop because I noticed that it was running really slow.  Moving them all over to the external drive, I noticed that I have already completed 46 sessions this year so far.  THAT'S AMAZING!!!  Then I went and looked at 2009-2010 and saw that I only had 53 sessions with those 2 years combined.  So my business has grown A LOT and I can not thank my clients enough for making my business what it is today.  It's pretty amazing to have some many people rooting for you and putting your name out there.  My returning customers are amazing and have become great friends of mine.  Here are just a few of my sessions through out the years that have put a smile on my face and really attest to my decision of starting my own business doing something that I love to do.  

There is a lot more people that have made an impact on my life and to each and every one of you, I am so grateful to have as life long customers.  Thank you so much for letting me capture your memories every year.