Thank You to all my customers

Another year has passed and with the blessings and good wishes from all my clients, the year has passed successfully for me and my business. I want to thank all my clients, who have believed in me to capture their precious memories.

I never intended to push my photography to do full time. With many words of compliments and encouragement from people to do so, I have enjoyed focusing more on photography! I am excited to start a new year with some new idea's.

I have earned good friends and trustworthy clients. I have enjoyed each and everyone of you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Happy Holidays from my family to yours!

Christmas baking

The girls didn't have school for 3 days due to the weather. We decided to do some baking a little early. Kasey put on Christmas music, and we got started.

I kept pulling cookies out of the oven and wasn't sure if we were going to have room to put them all! They were a big help in keeping up on the decorating part.

I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures while they decorated. I walked in the other room and came back in and they were putting the left over icing to good use! Kasey had her camera out and they were taking pictures of themselves.

The girls and I had a wonderful time doing holiday baking!

Two Cute little guys

I was going back through old posts and saw this one sitting in a "Draft State" This one most defiantly was suppose to make the blog!!!!

These little guys did an awesome job. These 2 are the cutest little guys I know!!!

Will.... I call "Boots" had a little accident and needed his forehead super glued shut.... I think it just shows the rough little guy he really is. He is all boy!! Leah asked me if I could get rid of the scar, I told her I could. But I am thinking I am gonna print a big one for myself with no cover ups :)


We had a beautiful day to do pictures and they both were so good! Leah let me take them by myself, so we had more playing than pictures :)

Great looking families!

I have had lots of great looking families.... and I am not keeping up with posting them and their stories on my blog!!!

I have enjoyed seeing old friends again, I have enjoyed seeing Men get their pictures taken that I never thought I would see getting their picture taken, and enjoyed just seeing families together just for a nice family picture!

These are just a few I have had to go back and find... I have had lots of great ones!!!

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This is Ben and Suzanne and their beautiful little girl.

I grew up out in the country and within a 4 mile radius was a group of us friends and we would all ride bikes and meet up and hang out. Ben was one of the youngest trying to keep up with all of us and I tell ya, he could keep up fine!! If anyone knows Ben... I can tell you that he did use to be a little squirt!! He has grown up to be a fine young man and has 2 beautiful girls in his life!!

I absolutely loved their colors!!!! So yes it is OK to break rules and you don't all have to be in the same color!! :)

This is the Clarey family... I use to babysit for these boys and it just amazes me how big they have gotten. Her oldest boy is one of the sweetest little guys I know. He was one of my favorites when I babysat!! :) He is going to grow up to be a very good young man! The little one was such a quiet little guy, just wanted to do his own thing. Now he is so funny!!! Just teasing and being silly.

This is Natalie and her family. I met Natalie a few years ago at a bachelorette party. I could never get her name straight because I met her as "Noodle" And so she has always been "Noodle" to me. She is such a sweetie! I really had a blast with her in St. Louis. I met her husband once but had never met her son, so it was a pleasure to meet her beautiful family.

And last but not least Dave and Trish! I have known Trish a long time... I can't even think back to how I met her? I think I have always just known her :) Dave..... Dave and and my dad are friends and so I have known him since I was too young to remember! Can you believe this guy would hide himself from a picture!!! Ha Ha I Know men don't like to have their picture taken. Like I said he is friends with my dad, so I knew how he would feel about having his picture taken. Trish and I talked for a long time about pictures before they actually got them taken. Wasn't sure it was going to happen, but it did! They have a beautiful family and their pictures turned out wonderful!!! Dave I am proud of you for getting a family picture taken and you are going to be so happy in the future that you had these memories captured!!

Happy Holidays!

I will be on vacation starting Friday December 19th until Monday January 5th. I will answer all emails January 5th.

I am almost done with my new site!!! Just a few little things to do and it will be ready. I will prob. just wait until the new year to get it up and going. Some things are changing!!!!

I will no longer carry the coffee table books
I am doing away with basic packages. I will keep the larger ones as that is what I am selling the most of.
I am going to start carrying what I will call "Easel Prints" These are just square prints mounted and look great on and easel to place anywhere in the house. My friend from Oklahoma was pushing me to carry these a year ago and I just never got around to it. I am hoping to get some designs made with some "Saying" and a design to place around the home or to give as gifts!! I am excited to get myself in gear for these!! I will plan on having some parties for these too :) Something different than just pictures will be nice.
Everyones proofs will be private with password protection.

With everything else.... I was too stubborn to ask for help on my new site, and it was frustrating at times, but I did it on my own! I am excited to get it up and going and I'm very happy with the way everything looks!!! I have said before, I am not a big flash fan at all!!!!! This is quicker than most flash sites I have been to.

Everything else will pretty much stay the same.

I am looking forward to Christmas and excited to get spring here!!! I know that is rushing quite a few months by, but I am telling ya, I don't like winter!!!!!!! I have sat around in my P.J.s everyday for a week!!! That is about all you will see me doing this winter.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I am keeping up.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Things have been crazy busy this year!!!! I am keeping up, but I am not sure how? I have had a lot of great sessions and been a good sport about having to stand out in the cold!! :)

I have been pretty good about coming up with a unique idea for our own cards every year, but this year..... just a plain ole card is going out. I haven't had time to prepare for the idea I had. I have had several people say they couldn't wait to see my cards this year. Sorry!!! I will send the idea out next year.

I did a shoot for the Knearem's, yes they are private so no one can see... but when some of you get your Christmas card from them, your gonna love it!!! I was cracking up the whole time I did this shoot! When Jes was telling me about it and drawing me the picture of what she wanted in the Bank, I couldn't stop from laughing at her laughing. I knew it would be cute, but being there and doing this shoot.... I couldn't stop laughing!!!!! These cards are absolutely adorable!!!

When I get the ok to post it online, I will post a few!!!!

Thanksgiving

We do Thanksgiving at my house for my side of the family. I have been to the store 4 times in the last 3 days trying to get everything ready. I am still not sure I don't have to make another trip to the store?

I am defiantly ready for some Turkey, mash potatoes, and pumpkin pie!! I know I have everything bought for that! :)

This Thanksgiving Day, let's remember what we truly have to be thankful for. Let's take a good, hard look around us and realize that while we may not have everything we want, what we want is not always what we need. Thanksgiving is all about God and thanking him for the gifts of life, love, joy, and more. I hope that we all take a little time and reflect on all we have to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Christmas too soon?

Well I have had my Christmas stuff up for a couple weeks now. I know.... it is way too early!!!!

I will be the first one to gripe about going from Halloween to Christmas.

My Christmas stuff for pictures was in the back of the attic behind all the other house Christmas things. So I had at least 20 Christmas boxes laying out in the upstairs hallway, in every one's way. It didn't make sense to dig out and put back, so I just left them out in the way for awhile.

One afternoon I told Craig I was going to set up Christmas, He had already given me orders "NOT BEFORE THANKSGIVING" a week before :) I am not usually this early, but I tell ya, I have to be in the mood to dedicate an afternoon to setting up, and I was in the mood. So I got started.

I am not a big shopper after Christmas... It has always seemed silly to me to buy Christmas stuff on sale after Christmas... maybe because I am broke after Christmas, so why worry about a sale for something the next year? I don't know, but I don't usually do it.

We have always had our what I call "Big full Christmas tree" in our "entryway" room (this is a room off our front living room) Well that is all my picture area now. Since we have built our family room, I couldn't put our big full tree back there as there was no room. We used a small tree in our family room and put the big full tree in the dining room. Well it didn't seem like a nice enough tree, so I had made the comment for 4 years, I would like a big tall skinny tree. After a couple years of saying that, I was walking through walmart "After Christmas" and saw this tall skinny tree, really cheap! Like 80% off cheap. So I bought it!

This is the first year I put this tree up, and I was starting to sweat it a little bit as I climbed up on a step stool to put the top part on. I was not sure this 9 foot tree was going to fit! If you knew my history of buying real trees over the years, you would understand why I was sweating it. If this tree didn't fit, I didn't know what I was going to do! I was just in Aw after seeing it up! I didn't have to screw it to the floor, to the wall, or cut 2 foot off of it to make it fit. So I was very excited to see it up and looking so beautiful and it fit perfect for our family room!

Needless to say, the "Big full tree" didn't make it out of the attic this year :( When we remodeled the kitchen and dining room, there ended up no room for it. Too much stuff in this house??? Probably!!! :)

When Christmas is over, I will be ready for Spring!!!! :)

Modeling

Tiffany contacted me about doing some pictures for modeling. She had and interview with a company and needed some pictures. I was very excited! This is right next to being my favorite kinds of pictures, next to Motorcycles!

I was so excited that Tiffany let me put them online for people to see!!! I have had several modeling type that I would have loved to be able to show off, but I do understand people don't like their picture plastered all over the Internet. At least until they are famous!!! :)

I knew I had taken a lot of pictures and I tried to narrow them down, but it was very hard with this session! It never fails.... they pick out pictures they like and I am not sure I am that crazy about, so I just add them all!

Tiffany did send me a text and told me she had got accepted! I haven't had a chance to talk to her and find out how her next step went. Congrats Tiffany!!!

Little Hunter!

This is my little niece Alexis. I just got done with a shoot and they had come by to visit. I walked in the family room and saw her and was cracking up with her camo and pink house slippers on. I had to set everything back up and take her in for a few shots.

I know the coloring on here isn't that great, but that little girl has the most beautiful eyes ever!!

She has such a cute little personality!

I'm way behind on blogging!

It has been absolutely crazy around here! I know..... I am way behind on keeping up with my blogging. I have had lots and lots of really fun shoots and lots of beautiful families!


Here are some pictures of my daughter Kasey and her boyfriend Todd we did for fun. She came home and fixed a big supper for everyone and invited Todd out to eat and then we done pictures for fun.


I thought I would have more fun then they did, but I'm not so sure. :)

The loss of Jordan Fox

I have lots of people ask me, what is the blue light in your car, are you on the fire dept? I am on the Shelby County Rescue Squad. We are called out to wrecks that provide emergency operations. Our job is to free an injured person from a wreck, we sometimes assist the fire dept, or help ambulance personel. I have been a volunteer Rescue worker for about 7 years. I am not sure what brought me to do this? I have always worked around the medical background and a sense of helping people has always been a part of me.

I was called out to a wreck Sat. November 1st. When I arrived, I was faced with a fatality of a young boy that I knew. I was also faced with the mother of this boy being my best friend.

That Saturday morning I watched my friend go through the worst thing she could possibly ever go through in her life time, the loss of her son. That was a day that had an impact on lots of people lives.

I have had so much time to sit and think and watch her pain. I felt a hurt with in myself that I never knew existed. I have experienced the loss of a loved one, I have worked around death, I have seen many car crashes. But I have never experienced watching a friend hurt so much.

I see these young kids going through the hurt and pain and it takes me clear back to my high school days when we lost a classmate. I remember the hurt and pain I had felt like it was yesterday. I often think back to the loss of that friend and the memories I had with him and I always will. I know these children will do the same. Memories are such a great thing to have, with out them, we would have nothing to bring a smile to our face.

We are never promised tomorrow.

To help keep his memory alive, Jordan’s mother and father founded the Jordan Fox Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarship will be awarded to a graduating senior in Jordan’s class of 2010.

As a friend of the family and a photographer, I have chosen to contribute to this memorial fund by donating a portion of the proceeds from every senior portrait session booked with me by a student in Jordan’s class. I will donate 25% of the total cost of the session plus an additional $10 in the senior’s name.

In their graduating year, I will provide something special to honor these seniors and the contributions they have made to Jordan’s memorial.

Christmas cards

New Christmas cards are here! Here are a few designs I have worked on..... I am hoping to get some more made, but we will see how well that works out. Things have been really crazy the last couple months.

Be sure to check out my website for all my card selections.

I am going to be getting Christmas stuff out tomorrow!!!! Wish me luck! :)

Matt

This is Matt and we had the windiest day in all my photography history! It is a good thing he didn't have long locks or we would have had to cancel pictures :)

Matt was a lot of fun to hang out with.... he has such an outgoing personality. He plays Football, he Bow hunts and he is on the Fire Dept as a volunteer. It is so nice to see young kids helping out their community and doing a variety of different things.

I know Matt was tired of hearing me say "Don't Squint" and believe me, I know how hard that was with not only with the sun but the wind blowing 80 mph. He did a great job and we had a great day together.