Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner ;)

I decided a week and a half ago that I wanted to focus some attention on some sort of project to keep my mind moving forward rather than dwelling. There was an ad on the Valley Wedding Pages website (http://valleyweddingpages.com/) advertising a Wedding & Quincenera Fair and I thought about attending, not as a bride, but as a vendor. The idea seemed like the perfect project... but it was in less than a week so I had to put my brain on overdrive and prepare myself to show my photography. One of my brides said I should participate as a vendor because it really helped her, as a bride, narrow her choice of wedding vendors. So when the idea came across, I ran with it. And my mom did too, as a matter of fact every member of my family did as well as Chris and his parents. It was such a group effort for almost a week non-stop. But more details on the wedding fair tomorrow because today I wanted to announce the winners of the Engagement Session from Sunday's wedding fair.

Thank you to all the lovely couples and gals who signed up for the session. I was excited to see who the winner was and giddy about calling them later this afternoon. For all my other couples who attended the fair and happen to be reading this, Thank You! Thank you for taking your time to visit my booth and speak with me. I wish you happy wedding planning and a blessed marriage! I hope we get a chance to work together :)

Have a beautiful afternoon my dear friends :)

Open Letter.

To you who has broken my heart, I forgive you. More than that, I will pray for you.

I have neglected to write any new posts for a mere and simple reason, I am sad. I have poured myself into my work because I can be quiet behind the lens and still be productive. But when given the opportunity to write, I can't help but pour my soul out. For almost two months I have cried myself to sleep endless nights. My heart has broken into more pieces than I ever thought possible. I fight the anger that is inherent in human nature. I must not allow myself to feel angry for the things that God has planned. It is a struggle for the human mind to comprehend many things that take place in our lives. But a word of advice, don't try to. Just take the events that happen and have faith, always have faith.

I may never know who has broken my heart but I forgive him, her or them.

So to show you, whoever you are, that I am strong and still a strong believer, I leave you with this picture. I may cry, but I am strong. I've been working on many new projects and needed a picture of myself so my mother happily obliged. She is such a trooper and I could not go through this without her by my side. God is always looking out for me.

 Dear God, I need you.

The blessings we call children... Baby Ryan

I consider myself to have a strong nurturing personality. I want to help everyone and care for them. At only 5'2" I seem to think I can protect others from the unfortunate evil things that co-exist in our world. Weird, I know... But it is just in my nature to be caring and want the best for everyone around me. I think this is why I am practically a second mother to my younger siblings... I've helped to care for them since they were born so they are ultra-special for me.

As I sit and wonder about all the future blessings God has in store for me I often imagine what it would be like to have my own children. I think I'd be a great mother... my five chipoodles are basically my children and I care for them dearly. I can't imagine loving a chihuahua so much more than I do mine... until I think about what the love for a child must be like.

When I began this photography career I never thought I would be photographing babies. I love children, dearly. But the thought of holding a newborn scared me. I liked to carry them when they were big and easier to hold, made me feel safer for them. As I have aged, however, and many of my friends began to marry and have children, I have been exposed to so many newborns over the past year. So much that I love itty-bitty babies so much more now and I can't wait to carry my own.

At the moment, though, I am quite content with photographing many more of them so I can help capture irreplacable moments for happy and blessed parents - like Leiah and L.T. I've known L.T. for a few years now and had the opportunity to attend his wedding when he married his beautiful wife Leiah. The two of them, I think, balance one another. L.T. enjoys to talk and be funny. Leiah seems a bit more quiet. The two of them together have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy and I am more than sure he will inherit both of his parent's personalities.

Baby Ryan was born in August and because time did not permit, I was unable to photograph him until he was three weeks old. Regardless, he was itty-bitty and such a good baby, probably because his mommy did all the work and I just photographed him :)

Leiah and L.T., thank you for allowing me to photograph your sweet baby boy. Baby Ryan, I wish you every blessing in this world :)

Happy Saturday my dear friends!

Engaged ♥ Krystal and Larry

In elementary school while everyone was growing taller I stayed the same. Being short was some type of oddity in my school... everyone else was taller and I was little. After fifth grade, elementary was over and I was moving on to the bigger school... MIDDLE SCHOOL! Still, I was one of the smallest students and now it was so much more obvious because there was a ton more tall people, great. Then I joined music class and in I sit next to this little girl with lots of curly hair. Her name, she said was Krystal. We both played the flute and we were both oh-so-little. Actually, I am almost sure Krystal was smaller than me. Regardless, we became absolute best friends and I fondly remember giggling and doodling during band class.

Krystal taught me how to draw Mickey Mouse on my sheet music and I taught her how to play scales, I think. As the years passed we grew centimeters and remained still shorter than others. But our friendship remained and then we hit high school. Krystal and I no longer had every moment to hang out with one another but we always remained friends. After high school graduation this amazing networking tool was created, you may have heard of it... Facebook anyone? and it became easily accessible to reconnect with many past friends. Krystal and I soon became friends again and I am ever thankful because I had missed her.

After so many years, different things have changed in our lives although our height remains the same. Krystal and I shared many things in common many years ago and it makes me smile that in a way we still do. We both have an amazing person to love and love us back... Krystal is soon getting married to her high school sweetheart. And I find it creatively fit that we both ended up with a heart on our left finger ;)

I am beyond thrilled to be photographing her wedding and very excited for all the great things unfolding in her life. Krystal and Larry share an amazing love that is evident in their quite, intimate and timid moments. The peaceful stares and glances they share evoke simplicity and love. It's perfect. I am more than sure they complement one another. Don't believe me, see for yourself...

 Have a lovely Sunday and always keep your faith. ♥

Portraits ♥ Mitzi & Gals

Whoah! Today is Wednesday (soon to be Thursday...) and Mitzi and her DZ gals have hit the blog. Mitzi celebrated her birthday last week and had scheduled a portrait session for herselve and some of her Delta Zeta sorority little sisters. The session turned into mini-session for the girls and ended with some fun group photos. It made me very happy that Mitzi wanted to shedule another session with me after we shot her Senior Session back in May. 

When I met with her earlier this afternoon, she was radiating with a large smile on her face. I'm little, but Mitzi is way more little than me.... so I saw this short and spunky young woman walking towards me and I knew she had something to say. And she did; Mitzi has been accepted into a Master's Program at a great univeristy and will be leaving the Rio Grande Valley soon to begin a completely new chapter in her life. I am so excited for her. I have known her for about four years and I know we will continue to cross paths both as Delta Zeta sisters and friends in the future years.

This spunky brunette has traveled the world at such a young age... a student here at the local university, a student at Georgetown in D.C., an internship with Toyota in San Antonio, and a spontaneous trip to Paris!!! She's wild, isn't she? In reality, Mitzi is ambitious. She's beginning to conquer the world in her own way, I know it. Mitzi I am very happy for all the great new things opening up in your life at the present moment. God will continue to bless you with many, many more. Good luck and I hope this wasn't our last session ;)

Here's Mitzi and some of the gals...

God Bless Always!!! ♥

Weddings, Engagements & Laundry ♥

Howdy! It's Sunday early evening and the night is quickly approaching in my area but the day is merely commencing for me. Sunday has been a quiet and beautiful day...while my loved ones enjoy a much needed vacation I am here working harder to meet deadlines and make sure I clear up my weekdays for the upcoming week so I can come home and relax daily. For the past three weeks I've been making the rounds on valley weddings... both as a guest, photographer and both. This coming Saturday will be the first free Saturday evening in a while... I am so looking forward to it! 

I woke up early this morning for an engagement session at a really fabulous location. I had been looking forward to photographing the couple at their upcoming wedding venue because I love the earthy feel the pictures would yield. Unfortunately, the location became unavailable at the very last minute so I had to think quick and improvise.. and I did :) 

I have lots of chores to catch up on as well as work, so for now I move on to my to do list and will attempt to finish laundry. But I'll leave you with one shot from today's engagement session..... full post coming later :)

I hope you had a great weekend!