farewell blogger

well friends, this (i think) will be my last post over here at blogger. i am officially migrating my blog over to my new custom blogsite at www.illuminatephotography.com!

it's a very exciting new chapter in the life of illuminate photography and i hope you'll swing by and check it out!

session photo book

i just finished working on a photo book for one of my very favorite clients. stephanie had me come over and photograph her and her mom and her two beautiful daughters before they went to see the nutcracker ballet for christmas. boy, i'm really catching up on the jobs this week! it feels good!

here are just a few of the page layouts in her 7x7 book. you can check out the rest of the book here.




i so love designing photo books! now i've got to start working on my next photo book project putting together a sample book using this awesome family's pics from their fall session 'cause guess what?! photo books are part of my new packages... which will be officially rolling out next week! so i figure i better have a few samples, right?

i'm getting excited! and also feeling a little pressed... in a good way! i work so much better and more efficiently with a deadline. and i can't wait to roll out all of my new changes coming up! i just tweaked my plans a little bit on the new website design. it's gonna be awesome! and less expensive. and less work. win. win. win. oh yeah, i'm a happy camper.

more christmas pics

christmas 2008! wow. so i guess i'm a little behind on working on my personal pics, huh?

and another fun thing i learned this week is that my monitor needs serious calibrating. don't worry. i ordered a calibrator the other day. it should be here by monday. i know you were worried. i ordered some test prints from my new printer and realized my monitor is brighter and more yellow than reality, so now the perfectionist in me wants go back and color correct all of my pictures before i post them, but in keeping with my new resolution to be more real, nope i'm not gonna fix 'em. here they are... a little pale. oh well. that kid's still cute, you gotta admit. although in these christmas morning pictures it looks like we need to get him out in the sun a little bit more. =)

so can you guess what jonah's big gift was for christmas this year?!

thanks once again to our wonderful friends the noes we were able to give jonah a gently used riding device. last year was the cozy coop they gave us before we left illinois for texas. this year we busted out the big boy tricycle that's been hiding out in the garage all year. and look... his feet actually reach the pedals!

i love this picture! this was one of the test shots i ordered as an 8x10. i can't wait to find somewhere to hang it up.



this was jonah's 2nd favorite gift this christmas... a matchbox lightening mcqueen. i do believe jonah has him sleeping in bed with him tonight.


he can't even stop playing with "cars" long enough to look at the camera.

we were dog sitting my sister and brother-in-law's pooches over christmas.

"good moose... no moose! my bike!"

"thomas tracks" from grandma & grandpa. another favorite this year. i love when jonah says "henry". it sounds like "hungry".

dave's sister leah and her boyfriend scott and cousin kaleb and scott's daugher madyson came over for christmas dinner. scott made an awesome seafood lasagna. here's jonah and madyson takin' a spin around the house. it was cute. madyson was steering and pedaling, and jonah was just happy as a clam getting a free ride and thinking that he was steering.

whoo, all that bike riding and excitement made me hungry! when's dinner? i'm ready.


merry christmas, y'all!

what's the right way to spell y'all anyway? y'all or ya'll? anyway, merry merry!

hope now

so some kinda big news... dave was laid off on monday. apparently his company is doing some "right-sizing" and decided to eliminate his territory.

dave and i have both been praying that something would change with his job. he's been traveling soooo much lately with no end in site and it was just really taking a toll on both of us. dave and i are both confident that God is up to something amazing and we're actually excited to find out what it is. dave got the news from his vp of sales at 1:45 on monday afternoon and by 5pm he already had an interview set up with one of his company's customers that he used to work with. so because of that (and many other things) we trust that God is truly in this situation and has been preparing us both for it.

the other amazing thing and i think a big reason why when i got the news i didn't freak out is that for the past month God has been showing me nothing but passages about trusting Him. dave actually told me last week that he was concerned that something might happen since it was so evident that God seemed to just be shouting at me "trust me!" (proverbs 3:5-6 and psalm 37:3-7 in particular).

and i have to say at this point it almost feels a little bit crazy. i honestly did not feel one ounce of worry when dave told me the news. and God has really just been giving us both that peace that surpasses understanding in the midst of this seeming storm.

i just love philippians 4:4-7. i have it stuck to my bathroom mirror... "rejoice in the Lord always. i will say it again: rejoice! let your gentleness be evident to all. the Lord is near. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." what a great reminder.

and then on the radio this morning they read this verse and it just jumped right out at me. i know that james 1:2-4 almost seems counter intuitive, but that's what makes God's Word so intriguing... "consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

consider it pure joy while i face inevitable trials? huh? but what if i don't want to be mature and complete? oh come on! sure you do! what could be more fun, right!?

thankfully romans 1:2-5 gave me some insight into why in the world this even remotely makes sense... "and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

oh! so it's because through these trails God grows my character. and that character is producing in my heart hope. and hope, man, what a concept to think about. God is the God of hope. he has the capability to fill us with joy and peace if we just trust in him. and when we do that we will simply overflow with hope. we won't even be able to explain it.

so really this just all comes down to hope. wow. and that sentence just reminded me of this amazing song by addison road called "hope now" and so i went searching for it on youtube so you could hear it and i found this video by the band talking about hope. great great stuff if you have a few minutes.



and here's the actual music video to their oh so lovely song...



lyrics:

everything rides on hope now
everything rides on faith somehow
when the world has broken me down
your love sets me free

when my life is like a storm
rising waters all i want is the shore
you say i'll be ok and
make it through the rain
you are my shelter from the storm


ok so changing gears just a bit. even though my brain and my heart both get it this is nevertheless a trial. so if you're reading this and feel led would you please say a prayer for us? please pray that dave would find another job soon and that God would provide for us so that we can continue to save for a house. also please pray that God's glory would shine through this situation and that God would continue to give me gentle reminders to persevere in trusting Him! God is good all the time. He will not leave us or forsake us. and if we just continue to delight ourselves in Him he will give us the desires of our hearts. His Word says it and i believe it.

and please let me know how i can pray for you. are you facing a trial? are the waters rising? i hate to sound like a cheesy Jesus commercial, but if you have questions or want to know more about this crazy God who can give you peace in the midst of it all, drop me a line. he's for real, yo.

and i just couldn't put up a post without a pic. these are flowers we got for faith's birthday last year (gosh, i can't believe she'd be almost 4 on march 7th. it's coming up so fast!) and this is my all time favorite verse about hope and joy and peace and trusting God that totally just fuels me...

too late for christmas?

as i was working on something else this afternoon i came across the pictures from christmas day this year and realized i never put them online. and since dave's on the road again this week i thought i'd share this pic of jonah and his favoritest daddy from christmas 2008.

jonah gettin' his praise on...

happy valentine's day!

boy, those dance lessons from christmas time are really paying off...

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seriously. how much does my kid rock? seriously.

really really serious about his music on his rad "air guitar".

mad hatter angry rock drummer face.

just playin'! i just can't be mean for too long.

rockin' out with daddy. it's a shame neither of them could ham it up even just a little, what with mama taking the pictures and all.

"oh my gosh. dada you're so funny!"

see, i know a little air guitar myself...

"so a guy walks into a bar with a duck under his arm..."

"it gets funnier every time! let me tell it again..."

wouldn't it be awesome if jonah and his little friend preston really do grow up and are in a band together. this will be their album cover. mark my words. and they'll use it in their rockumentary too.

these pics were from the rock star daddy / kid party at our church last weekend. my kid and our church have something in common... yep, they both rock.

caption please

cousins are the best

jonah with his cousin katarina. can you tell neither of them mind having their picture taken?

the photo lean...

oh kat! you're so fun!