LOVE!Did I mention that her parents home sits on the most gorgeous piece of property? Because it does! Did I also mention that Amber is gorgeous?!? Because she is Aaaadorable! Gotta love a bride who’s willing to sit on both the deck of a pond and the front porch steps in a wedding gown BEFORE the wedding!!

“30 years AND counting! I am so excited to be able to nominate my sweet, loving parents for your photo session.  These amazing two people will be celebrating their 30 year Anniversary this May and I could not think of a more deserving couple for this special opportunity. The selfless, unconditional love they share is absolutely beautiful and can be felt by anyone around them. Their marriage is one that inspires everyone and serves as the perfect example for newlywed couples (like me and you!). They have made it through the good times and the bad times and still love each other more each day.”

Though Katie’s submission was not selected as the winning story, she told her parents about entering them in the contest, and they loved the idea so much, they wanted to have the session done anyway. Instead of having pictures of just the two of them as Katie suggested, they decided they wanted pictures of their whole family. So, after celebrating their 30th anniversary together in Mexico, I met up with these 5 lovely people last week to get some portraits of all of them together. Since Katie and I graduated high school together, it was definitely nice to reconnect with her, and catch up on all the wonderful things in this adorable family’s lives!

Sweet G (and M!) family – I had SO much fun with all of you last week. Your energy is contagious, the love you all have for one another is infectious, and Matt definitely kept me laughing with all of his antics . I hope these pictures will forever remind you of how much love and admiration you share, AND will commemorate a fabulous 30th year for you, mom and dad.

A few fun facts about this family: Jeff and Sandi (center) live in the same subdivision as my parents and have for years. Because of this, Katie and I went to elementary, middle, and high school together! Katie (right) and Holly (left)  are both ER nurses, and work together in the same hospital. Matt (far right) might just be my favorite of them all simply because he is a fellow Red Raider

30 years and counting

And one of the newlyweds. Love it!

Isn’t she fantastically gorgeous!?

Seriously, I want to know how I can take a swim in this gene pool!! Could there be another family with this many beautiful women?!?

Friends who’ve formerly graced the blog Rebecca and Allan:

The whole gang!

This moment really made me (and everyone else at the wedding) giggle. Christian’s two best men were his older twin brothers. Since he wanted both of them to feel equally as important and equally as ‘best man’, he had both of them hand him the ring when it was time. The expressions on their faces were the best part

Going through the reception images, I just kept seeing vibrant expressions on everyone’s faces. It looked like they were all having so much fun (which they so were!), so I wanted to do a collage highlighting the fun. Christian’s face in the center picture really makes me laugh

CANNOT get enough of those gorgeous eyes!

- Blogs. I must admit I have a small obsession with reading other people’s blog. There are quite a few I check on a regular basis, most being other photographer’s blogs, because really, it’s like my gossip magazine. The way most people feel about wanting (needing) to read the latest celeb news in US Weekly is how I feel about checking photo (and baking, and non-photo) blogs.

- Schlotzky’s. Yet another of my obsessions favorite things. My cousin Morgan (Hi Morg!!) came to visit from Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, and apparently they don’t have the deliciousness that is Schlotzky’s in PA. I feel bad for her. Especially since I may or may not be eating there again today. And I say ‘again’ because I may or may not have eaten there once this week already.

- Big Brother. Yes, I realize how lame it is that I watch this show. I can’t help it. I used to watch this show all the time, but stopped after several seasons of less-than-desirable house guests. Somehow, I’ve gotten myself sucked back into this season and can’t get enough. If you’ve never seen (or heard of) Big Brother, they take 12 people, put them in a house together, and film their every move. They have no TVs, no internet access, no cell phones, no radio, nothing. All they have are a few amenities (like a pool, pool table, exercise equipment, etc) and each other to keep them occupied day in and day out for the duration of the show (which I think is about 3 months). Each week, the house guests vote to evict one person from the house, slowly eliminating all 12 players. At the end, the last remaining player wins $500,000. Of course there’s drama and alliances that form, but I think the most intriguing part is what people will do when all their normalcies (i.e technology) are taken away, and all they have to do is socialize. Inevitably from the group emerges a leader, a drama queen, a person who’s main goal is to stir up trouble, and so many other personalities; it’s good quality entertainment I tell ya! I’m a dork. I know this. But I’m good with it.

- Saving the best for last: My Husband. Yesterday was our sweet Sammy dog’s 1st birthday. How (almost) one year has passed since we brought that tiny little pup home, I have no idea. NO idea. It really has flown by. Anyway, in honor of Sam turning one whole year old, my seriously awesome husband stopped on his way home from work, and picked up a very special treat for him. There is an “all things dog” shop that Jeff often has a meeting by, and because he loves our hounds just as much as I do, he decided to actually stop in this shop he sees so often to bring home some goodies for the dogs to share. So, when he got home from work, we celebrated Sammy’s birthday by watching our 3 dogs demolish a dog friendly birthday treat. It’s things like this that make me fall more in love with my husband everyday. Ahh, the simple things, right?!

THE birthday treat

For those of you that know dogs, Jeff was assured the chocolate looking substance covering this peanut butter smelling treat was not chocolate, but yogurt. 100% dog friendly. 100% adorable.

The birthday boy: day one, year one. My how he’s grown…

Happy Friday!!

I met my sweet husband for a quick lunch this afternoon. We chatted, we ate, then he headed back to work and I headed home. Thanks to XM radio, I was flipping though stations on my drive when I got to 90′s on 9 and the Backstreet Boys were playing. To pay homage to my childhood obsession, I let Larger Than Life blare into my speakers and may or may not have sang along. I’m not saying I did, I’m not saying I didn’t. Ok, I totally did. And it didn’t stop there. Oh no, internetland, I proceeded to sing BSB while I let the dogs out, while started a new load of laundry, while I typed some e-mails. That’s when it hit me that on a nerd scale of 1 to 10, I’m definitely a 15.

So today, I celebrate being one of those people, a 15, for no other reason than because I can

And because I can, here’s a few shots of my boys…

What you can see in this picture is Jackson’s purty new hair cut. What you can’t see is him shaking like a leaf because it started thundering while we were outside. Poor Jack doesn’t care much for storms!

Sweetest face ever

Seriously, he has a problem. Yes, that is 4 tennis balls sitting around my Sammy. And he was playing with all of them.

Happy Thursday!

Before getting to the images, I’d like to give a big shout out to my friend and awesome photographer, Scot, for coming along to help me shoot Christine and Dave’s wedding! You rock, Scot!!

Christine and Dave – I must say, I’m totally bummed that your wedding has come and gone because I had so much fun photographing you two! I loved how much we laughed and talked, oh and the pictures we got weren’t too bed either Much love to you both and many blessings in your life together!

This little gem is one of Scot’s. See why I think he rocks?

I love a fun wedding party. I especially love a wedding party that when told to “bring it in close”, they literally bring it in close!!

Dave is a talented singer/guitar player so he decided to sing Christine a song during the reception.