Joyful Family

I'm finishing up the last of my orders before the holidays and I had to post this proof of an accordian book.  The Ericson family was wonderful to meet.  They love their newest addition, Malia!  Her adoption from China was recently finalized and they chose to send out some accordian brag books to some family and friends.

 

If you haven't seen the newest featured item yet, they are wonderful hardcover mini-albums!

Check it out!

Wow.

Maura and Steve are so much fun!   When she suggested we meet at a tire shop/junkyard, I was THRILLED!  I have been dying to try some fun shots and this was the perfect couple to have some fun with.

They are obviously madly in love and they were completely at ease....to the point of being fun and goofy...I am going to have SO much fun processing the pictures.  My only problem....how to pick my favorites!  I think that these two are some of them.  Now I just have to narrow down the 100 or so other shots!

2 + 1 = Family!

I had the joy of shooting Doug and Susie's wedding almost a year ago....They were married in a unique and fun ceremony at the Dell Diamond.


And now they are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl!  I am thrilled that they asked me to take Miss A's pictures.  She is so sweet and just a little bit stubborn.  She did NOT like to be on her tummy at all, but she loved being in the spotlight.  I am sure she smiled on purpose ~ no baby has that many smiles unless they are happy! I had a tough time narrowing down the pictures because she is so precious!

Congratulations Doug and Susie! 

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season is rapidly approaching! I love everything about this holiday, the crisp air, the festive decorations and the Christmas Cards in the mail! I have two families that ordered cards already~don't forget to place your order soon to ensure they arrive with time to mail them to family and friends!

FAIRYTALE

FAIRYTALE
Originally uploaded by Life Happens

My daughter wanted to wear her flowergirl dress yesterday (for a wedding-but not as THE flowergirl) and we took a few minutes to get a picture of her with her Little Red Riding Hood cape for halloween. SHe actually let me take pictures for a whole 2 minutes!

Thanks to my mother in law for the amazing sewing on both projects!

Shaw and Sowden Wedding

Seeing a family come together in love is one of the most wonderful things in the world. Shawndel and Jeff's marriage was one of those moments. Will, Georgia, and Elliot joined them in making this marriage more than just joining 2 people, but in creating a family. They were married under a 2 hundred year old oak tree, celebrating with family and friends from around the world.

It was a fantastic party and a night to remember. Here are just a few sneek peeks! More to come soon!

Christen and John had a fantastic wedding. There were dancing grandfathers and grandsons, friends and family all gathered to help them celebrate their new life together. (Can you tell that I love weddings?)



As always, my favorite pictures are those of the newly married couple. We took a few minutes to escape from the party and catch the perfect sunset. Nothing compares to the look in the eyes of a couple that is truly in love.

Dana Stone has invited you to join the US Army Wives team at Kiva

This is something that I've dreamed of doing for a long time and I'd love to see others take part in this!

I want to recruit you to my lending team on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join my lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you're a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva "count" towards our team's impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team's collective portfolio, so our team's overall impact will grow!

Check out the US Army Wives lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=2034&_isc=576569be-ed2a-102b-9b86-b71337deb4ea.

Thanks,
Dana Stone

Stealing the show.

This little guy captured my heart and nearly stole the show! He is the ringbearer for a wedding tomorrow and I snapped this at the dress rehearsal. It's a good thing that Christen and John are so wonderfully happy and in love....otherwise this little guy might be hard to resist!

Alyssa

Wow. Wow is all I can say. Alyssa was so much fun and she was willing to try almost anything.....including running out onto a really long and really narrow bridge for this shot.




I am so glad she did. I have had this picture floating around my mind for a while now and I really wanted to see if I could get it out where others could see it.

I also wanted the overly done, kinda cheesy jumping picture, but the line of cars was getting kind of long, so I'm happy with this!

Check out a few more of the amazing Alyssa.

New Venture

I'm going to be offering some products from a local vendor and I have requested some samples and while it was tough to pick just two, I chose to have her make a pillowcase with the adorable Eli and a canvas tote with the Grismeyer family!

Watch this site for pictures of the products!

I'm including pictures of the des

Goin' to the chapel......

Christin and John are so obviously in love. It was wonderful to watch them together. They are a perfect couple....except for the height difference! Poor Christen is only up to his armpit unless he slouches a lot! I guess that she will be wearing lots of tall shoes if she wants to sneak up and give him a kiss on the cheek!I can't wait for their wedding in October!

Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

So cute...I love her stuff!

Bride to be....

I just couldn't wait to share this with you! Alyssa is an amazing woman and a beautiful bride-to-be. We had a blast on a trip to Salado to take her bridal portraits.

She was so happy and energetic...dancing enthusiastically! She was so brave when I asked her to climb onto a sandbar....and stand in the center of a narrow bridge with cars flying by.

This was a wonderful morning with Melissa and Alyssa....Melissa is an amazing make up artist, so let me know if you need her contact information!

Looking for an Actress?

Katrina is such a beautiful, energetic woman. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to meet her before she becomes famous! So if you are a director looking for the next big star....check out Katrina!

We caught you kissing!

How fun is this family-to-be?
Poor Shawndel was trying so hard not to laugh while they were kissing....they are such a loving, happy family! I will be shooting their wedding in October and we took a few shots for their twist on a guest book. They are having all the guests sign a 16x20 mat with (a different) family photo. But I just loved this one!

Cute but Crazy.

Brothers and sisters we will always be,
A couple of nuts off the family tree.

Siblings are wonderful things....and this picture is wonderful too! Sydni and Eden are great kids but the faces they (and their siblings!) made at today's session were so funny! As I look through the shots, I find more and more fun shots like this.

But unfortuanately not all the kids were this happy.....

New Shoes

NEW SHOES


As excited as Ryan was to be playing at the park, nothing was nearly as interesting as his new shoes. He showed me no less than 4 different times how he could unvelcro and readjust his shoes! He was so much fun!

I am glad we moved the shoot up~Texas is blazing hot and I was starting to sweat from chasing him around! He was a blast!

I do offer customized storybooks...they come framed, matted and ready to hang! 10x20 storybooks with 3 5x7s are only $18! Want more pictures? I have a larger size that holds 5 5x7s for $35!

Cutie Pie!

This is one of the cutest babies that I've ever seen! He was such a well behaved, happy child. We spent some time playing at the park this week and he was simply adorable.

His dad will be home from Iraq soon and I'm sure he will love these wonderful pictures!

Please excuse the mess!

I'm currently updating the website so please be patient if it's offline....all will be up and running very soon!

Great Griesmyer Family

Oh my gosh, this family was amazing!

I have to link to an article I wrote on my personal blog about Suessical the Musical. Rebekah was the director for this fantastic performance. (If you see her name listed anywhere on the billing at VLA....GO SEE IT!) Gushing aside, this really is a great family.

We had a blast playing in their backyard on the lush green grass (yeah, I'm jealous...I'm only good at growing weeds!) and the kids had so much energy. It was so much fun to watch them in action.

When all is said and done, no matter how cute the other pictures are, this one is my favorite. I keep coming back to it because it just shows how much love there is in this family. I'll probably post some more soon!

Adorable Addition

I love how I had the opportunity to see the B. family grow. Our daughters are close in age and I remember seeing their youngest as she grew from a tiny baby to a bald toddler to the adorable little girl she is today.

It was wonderful to finally meet the newest addition, Eli. He is simply adorable. It was an interesting shoot...he was not particularly interested in cooperating....but he was so cute. I did get a few good shots in and I'm sure I'll kidnap him later on to take more pictures!

Happy Sister....Angry Baby

The best part of this shoot (for me, anyway!) was seeing the joy and happiness in "Peaches" face when she held her little brother. They obviously love each other and it was plain to see she was thrilled to be a big sister.

Unfortunately, he was a little less happy during the shoot. In my defense, we did get some happy baby shots, but I actually loved this one. His cranky, angry face was adorable. His mom thought so too! She picked this one to send to the family!
I'm looking forward to seeing Peaches again. She is a natural in front of the camera and she will be coming to see me for her own photo shoot when she has her birthday. You should have heard how excited she was! I've never seen a kid that happy about getting her picture taken!

The Cutest Baby?

I just had the opportunity to photograph an adorable little girl. The same day that Sam kept sticking her cute tounge out was the last day of a "Cutest Baby Contest" So I grabbed a shot and entered it before the deadline. I think she is pretty cute....wish us luck!


I also had the blessing of taking her pictures when she was brand new....check out how much she has grown in the last 6 months!

AK and Katie

AK and Katie are so cute! I keep coming back to these pictures because I just think they are fantastic~I loved their fearlessness and how much they loved each other. They really were a joy to shoot.