Thinking Of You.....July Ann

I still remember when you asked me to be your 2nd baby's God mother... We knew each other well before that but that's what brought us sooo much closer together.

La Comai...That's what you used to call me. I remember spoiling you while you were pregnant with Junito. We were inseperable during that time. 

When I think of all the things that followed, I realize we made a lot of memories together....we had so many good times together. 

It's amazing how one person can really impact your life. You were the vessel God chose to use to introduce me to my husband.  After all, it was at your house that I met my husband, your brother-in-law...Our lives blended in such an amazing way. 

One memory that I will cherish.....is a little secret we shared at my wedding (when you said "the guys are entertained let's go get a shot of tequila")  shortly after the guys decided we should all have a shot...and oh boy, we realized...we really shouldn't have.  That's just one, but there are many many memories I hold dear to my heart.

I would have never have imagined that life would be that short for you. If only things could have been different.  The years passed and distance came between us. I wish I would have discovered facebook a little sooner....so we could have kept in touch so much more.

If there is one thing I learned from the tragedy........ It is that tomorrow is never promised. We should always tell the people that we love how much we love them when we have the opportunity. Never go to bed angry and enjoy the little things in Life that matter. 

It's been 2 years since we lost you but you live in our hearts forever.

Rest In Peace July Ann.....You will never be forgotten. 

In memory of her.....the image is a self-portrait.  Along with her favorite quote.....

I'm pretty, but I'm not Beautiful, I sin but I'm not the devil, I'm good, but I'm not an Angel -Marylyn Monroe

You get what you pay for....

You hear it all the time, That's too expensive, who wants to pay that much when you can get it for less.  Well I am and have always been of the mentality that you get what you pay for.  I strongly believe in Quality vs. Quantity.  You can essentially get the same product at a lesser price depending on Where you shop, but it's really not the same product. It's just not built the same. It is more likely to fall apart in less time.

I have been known to do crazy things like sit on the floor, until I was able to buy the right quality sofa. Why you might ask....I'll tell you.  You can buy the lesser expensive sofa and have it fall apart on you after a couple of years, OR you can wait until you can afford the more expensive one and actually SAVE money.

How? Well.... the sofa that you paid more money for isn't going to fall apart as easily and will last you longer.

Anyway....The same can be said about your Wedding Album. Let's face it you want your great grand kids to be able to enjoy the heritage.  Sure, the album might look the same but...Can it stand the wear and tear and last beyond a lifetime how it's supposed to?

I have decided that I want to offer my clients the best....That's why I offer Leather Craftsmen Albums.  They have stood the test of time and it is an amazing product.  It's worth that little extra that you pay.  Here's a peek at the quality of the album you could have if you hire ME as your Wedding Photographer.

Trust me it's definitely worth it. I have digital photo files and they barely get looked at.   It's the albums that sit in the living room that get all the attention.  ;)

Happy Sunday!!!

My baby Turned 7....Part II

Soooo...We saved the Cake for later....just so all the family could be here.  Many thanks to all of you who made it.  The cake was delish and we had a great time. Here are some of the pics...Enjoy

This last image is with the cousins that made it all the way from Florida...Thanks Guys for being part of the special day =)

Makin Lollipops

Creative I AM ;)

I was recently helping my neice make some lollipop's for her baby shower.  I have been known to be a little creative.  I have a tote full of rubber stamps, paper, gitter glue, ink...all that fun stuff.  We created some baby rattle thank you tags and wrapped the lollipops in Ribbon (my favorite).  We made baby carriages, rattles, saftey pins and even a priness tiara.  It was a ton of fun and little bit of work.  Time shared with family even while doing crafts is time to be cherished.

I tried to document the lollipop making but I kinda had my hands full of chocolate ;) So I didn't get many images, as the chocolate won the war. LOL.

So here's just a few images that I did manage to snap.

Enjoy!!  Happy Friday!!!

Expecting the unexpected....

Babies are blessings from God, although sometimes they come at unexpected times. However cute and lovely they may be, they do some amazing things to our bodies.  It's becoming more and more common to document these changes.  I had the oppurtunity to do this session and I am amazed at the outcome.

I don't generally like to toot my own horn..but in this case I feel like I captured in a wonderful way exactly what we were looking for. Although this session was scheduled and cancelled numerous times, when we least expected it is when we had the opportunity. So we seized the moment and I was able to create these Amazing Images that she will one day be able to share with her baby.

In the words of the man who holds her heart.....She is the sexiest pregnant lady he has ever seen ;)

Blast from the Past

I've been doing some digging into my older hard drives.  I've been taking a real hard look at the types of images I produce.  I realized that I, like most Photographers, pick out my favorites from a session, then I walk away. I am quite happy about what I've chosen and consider them to be the best.

However, If you know me at all you'll know that I'm shutter happy ;) so there are quite a number of images are taken during a session.  These cameras shoot alot of frames per second so it's easy to get a ton of images. So what happens to the ones that you don't "choose" you ask? Well....they sit on a hard drive hoping to be discovered someday.  =)

I was choosing some images and screen sharing with my good friend and Designer Manda Koolis and she discovered a session that I had barely touched. It was a few years back so they were buried pretty deep. I am constantly taking images and editing so it's the rare occasion that I am looking into a different year's files. When she asked "Why aren't those on your website?" I said....hmmm..."that's a good Question".

I realized then, that some of these amazing images hadn't even been edited. Well I think it's about time they were discovered and Shared.....So here they are.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.  Happy Wednesday!!!

My Baby turned 7....

My Baby Boy turned 7 this weekend. He is a big boy now. We are saving his big birthday celebration for the end of the month since all our family will be visiting. However in order to make the day special we baked a cake, put a few candles on it, and sang happy birthday anyway =)  We also gave him a birthday present as well.  He now owns a skateboard. Yikes!!  No worries though,  he's covered in protective gear from head to toe ;)

To My surprise he told me that what he really wanted was a BABY BROTHER!!!  Triple YIKES!!!!  Oh..you know as a mom, I really want to give the kid what he wants...but Ummmm "NO!" "Sorry!!" "That's not gonna happen!"  Daddy's response to that was "How about a FISH" jajajajaja!!!!

I guess he'll just have to be satisfied with the family birthday party and maybe a pet fish...LOL

Anyway, in light of his Birthday I wanted to share some images.  I take his picture every year for his birthday (and even when it's not, really).  Please note...He was a big inspiration for me to study Photography and you'll notice the difference in the earlier scanned images. The first image was actually a film camera...

He's eating his 1st Birthday cake and really enjoying it.

His 2nd Birthday was a Nemo Themed Birthday Party and he got to be a Birthday Prince.

Birthday #3 was a firefighter birthday party.

By the Time he turned 4 I don't quite remember the birthday party as much as I remeber following him around with a camera constantly ;) BOY was he cute...ketchup on the face and all.

When he Turned 5, I was experimenting with Studio Lighting I was taking soooo many that I just found this gem the other day when I was looking through my files. And Yes the watermark is new, Not from when he turned 5 ;)

He is a ham, this was on his 6th birthday and by now he is a pro in front of my camera. We had cupcakes in the shape of a 6 this year. They were yummy. 

Here is his 7th Birthday Picture...He now has his two adult front teeth....but he is still all the baby I need ;)  

I am so Blessed to have this little boy that I can't thank God enough for allowing me to have him.