Oh summer, how I miss thee...

Ok, yes, it's only January and I'm thinking of summer. :) It's been so great getting a few days in a row of sunshine and no rain here that I can't help but think of summer! The kids and I have been to the park and the zoo this week and I'm just so thankful for those moments of sunshine! Today I even saw some little pink flowers blooming and I got so excited!

I love all the seasons here in Oregon, but I seem to always get a bit stir crazy end of January, when the winter blues try to sneak up on me. Yesterday Josh noticed that it was a bit lighter outside when he got home from work! Yay!

I keep coming across snapshots from last summer that are still on my computer, and I love looking at them... I can almost feel the heat. The kids have grown a lot since then! Here's a little collage of last summers' snap shots:

A few things I love about summer:
1. Playing outside in our small yard.
2. Finding a nice spot of shade.
3. Going barefoot.
4. How cute kids look drinking out of a drinking fountain (if you can get past how unsanitary it is). :)
5. Popsicles
6. All the fragrant flowers.
7. Evening family bike rides.
8. Outdoor water fountain parks.
9. Buying multiple pairs of sunglasses, because somehow they always manage to get broken during summer playtime with the kids.
10. Driving with the windows down on a warm evening.

I hope you've been able to get out and enjoy some of this wonderful sunshine too!

A Weekend Away

Josh, the kids and I decided at the last minute to go away for the weekend to the beach. It was wonderful and I feel so blessed to even be able to do such a thing! My old brother, Matt, and my sister-in-law, Gina, joined us and we stayed at my dad and step-mom's beach house. I love it there! I can't ever say enough how much I enjoy the Cornelius House. (It's a vacation rental too, so anyone can enjoy it!) It's just so relaxing! Thank you Dad and Janet for letting us stay all weekend!

This little collage of pics I took this weekend shows a lot of my favorite things about staying there.
1. The shower head rocks, but even better the beach house has continual hot water. It never runs out of hot water! Yay for long showers!
2. The reading nook with an ocean view is one of my favorite spots to spend time. I love curling up on that window seat with a good book, and just watching the waves when the house is quiet.
3. Beach time and kite flying is less than a five minute walk from the house.
4. The wall lights on each side of the bed individually dim, giving you perfect light to read at night.
5. Natural beauty is everywhere!
6. Time to slow down and turn off the cell phones (or lose them in the ocean will do it too) and do puzzles... one of the kid's favorite things to do.
7. Every towel there is cozy. :)

The weather was great during the daytime over the weekend and then there was a huge thunder and lighting storm one night. I kind of got scared! It made all the glass in the windows rattle! The kids slept right through it and Josh, Matt, Gina and I played cards and had a great time.

Jude has always had an aversion to sand and will never walk on the beach. It's kind of funny and frustrating at the same time. Well, a few weeks ago he saw a Curious George show where George built a sand castle by the water. Ever since then Jude's been asking to go to the beach! I wondered what would happen when we actually got there. Sure enough he ran straight for the water and was so excited to build a sand castle! No more sand aversion! The tide was super high every time we went down to the beach, though, which I hadn't seen before. It only left a small portion of sand for the kids to play on. Jude got knocked over by a wave when he and Josh got too close to the water and Josh picked him up right away. He wasn't too thrilled to get so wet, ok, completely soaked. Poor guy, I wouldn't be too excited about that either. In the "running for dry land" of it all I lost my cell phone in the ocean. I recovered it when the tide went out, but it hasn't turned on since. :(

One of my favorite memories from the weekend was the kids chasing seagulls. While the tide was really high at one point we hung out in this little stone patio area and some girls were feeding the birds. They shared their bread with us and the kids just went crazy over all the fun! They loved to run toward the birds that were brave enough to snatch some bread and laughed as they watched them take off flying. Josh shot some video of it with my 5D Mark II and it's really cute!

Here are a few other random photos:
This is the window right above the kitchen sink that looks out to the ocean. I remember the day my dad hung these starfish... I love the little things he does. I always enjoy this window and view.

After the storm these logs were left where we had built sand castles the day before. It just looked very "Oregon" to me.

And lastly, this framed picture/painting sits in the reading nook bookcase and for whatever reason every time I see it I love it. Maybe it's because the beautiful window light always makes it pop, or because the shelf it sits on is barely larger than it is and that just makes it extra cute to me. Whatever the reason, I just love it. :)
(See if you can spy this framed painting in the collage up above. Give yourself a nice little pat on the back if you can!)

Happy Friday!

The Winners!

Wow! We had 225 votes and the winning photo beat out second place by the skin of it's nose!! Josh and I recounted two times. Congratulations to our winning photo who has won a 30 min photo shoot, cd of images and an album:
Little Miss Sophia! Is she cute or what?!

And our random voting winner, who has also won a 30 min photo shoot, cd of images and an album goes a beautiful family I photographed back in 2008:
The Greenes (To Africa with Love). I'm so excited to get to photograph your family again!
Here's an image from a shoot of theirs a while back, just for fun! :)


Are you dying to know which photo was 2nd place? It was the oh so adorable little Mr. Elijah!


Thank you to everyone for voting! I can guarantee I will be doing this again next January! Maybe I'll come up with another contest or two in 2010. I really enjoyed it.

A Contest!

Hi Everyone! SO, I've never held a contest before! And I'm really excited to do one! I figure it's a new decade and it's time to do something new and fun with my business. I have another fun idea up my sleeve too, but I need to stew on it a big longer before posting anything about it. :) I also want to credit my fabulous friend Beth for the inspiration to do a contest!

Below you will find one photo from every photo shoot or wedding I did this year. 68 sessions! Wow! No wonder I crashed so hard this winter. Especially since raising two beautiful children is my full time job. But that's why I love my photography so much. I'm able to occasionally get away for an hour and be creative and then have some evenings of editing after the kids go to bed. Josh will hang out with me while I edit which makes it even sweeter.

So this is how the contest will work... like I said, below I've posted one photo from every portrait session or wedding that I shot in 2009. There are so many beautiful faces! Your job is to vote on your favorite photo by leaving a comment below. Click on "comment" and leave me your name, email, and then which photo you are voting for. Each photo has a number ABOVE it, so be sure to put the photo's # in the comment box.

Who wins? What do they win?... the photo that receives the most votes will win a mini photo session (30 min shoot), with the cd of high res images! PLUS, this is where it gets even sweeter, (I feel like I should be holding a skinny microphone right now and have a model in a shiny dress about to reveal this for you) I will be giving that winner a beautiful 5x5 album, like the one shown here in my last blog post) displaying the photos from your winning session and the winner will get to choose their album fabric cover too! Ooooo! :) I'm excited already, are you? BUT WAIT, it gets even sweeter! (Now I sound like a tv infomercial) I will also choose a random winner from all of the voters who left comments (using random.org), and they will also win a free mini photo shoot, cd of images and album! So it's extra important to leave your correct name and email so I can contact you if you win.

Important info... You may only vote on ONE image. If you happen to be in one of the images below, by all means vote for your own photo and get all of your friends, facebook friends, and family to vote for you too! If you booked multiple photo shoots throughout the year and have more than one image up here, any votes you get on your images will count toward your total vote.

Voting will end on Tuesday, January 19th at midnight (the day after the holiday weekend). Winner's sessions will be photographed in the Portland, Oregon area and must be redeemed before April 1, 2010. If a winner lives too far away and cannot redeem their session they may give it away as a gift to someone they know who could use it before April 1st.

These photos start back at January 2009 and make their way to December 2009. Happy viewing and Happy Voting! :)

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