Under Construction...

Our backyard is officially under construction.  We are building an outdoor fireplace and a pergola, and we are doing it all ourselves!  Thank goodness we have some amazing friends that are helping us out along the way.

Although I do stop and wonder why we are building a fireplace when it's currently 109 degrees outside... come November I think I'll be glad we did :)

At least we have some cute helpers...

Evan is HOME!!!

Last weekend I flew to Colorado to take engagement photos for my fabulous friend Shea and her soon-to-be hubby Roger.  Although those pictures will not be ready to share for another week or so... I wanted to tell you what else I got to do while in Colorado...

I got to see Evan!  My "baby" brother has spent the last 6 months in Australia and just recently got home.  He is working in the mountains the rest of the summer, so we met him up at Twin Lakes, CO to go fishing, hiking, and picnicking (ok picnicking probably isn't a word, but you get the point!)  I was SO excited to see him that I just ran up to him and gave him a huge hug.  My brother means so much to me, and the older we get the closer friends we seem to become.  I'm so thankful that the Lord brought him home safely to us :) 

Here are a few shots of our day together... Mom had the camera to get these first few of us.  She is starting to get the hang of the "big" camera!  Back-button focus and all ;)  Love you Mom! 

I know I look ridiculous in this first photo... don't make fun of me... I was SO excited!!!

I know I owe you all some posts on my most recent wedding and two engagement shoots... I promise they will be posted soon :)  Have a great weekend!

Life Lately

Life has been busy as usual lately.  We are working on our back patio this summer, and trying to thoroughly soak up the sun whenever possible!  With no big vacations planned this summer it has been relaxing so far :) 

I often find that I am capturing moments of my life through the small lens of my iPhone, rather than carrying my big camera around on a daily basis.  One of my goals is to start carrying my camera with me more often, however I admit there is something kind of special about all the little snapshots that pile up on my phone. 

Today I thought I would share with you a few of the photos I've taken over the past couple weeks, all taken with the fabulous iPhone 4...

Q-Tip Monster

Q-tips have been disappearing from my house lately at a very rapid rate.  Every couple days I turn around and the little jar of them on the bathroom counter needs to be refilled!  I find this very odd because, honestly, I don't use a ton of q-tips... I mean, don't get me wrong, they're awesome little things useful on so many occasions (see a list of uses here!).  It's just that they seem to be disappearing faster than ever!

I decided that we must have a q-tip monster amongst us, coming in and stealing q-tips while Dwyatt and I are sleeping.  Apparently I was right because this morning the culprit was found, surrounded by evidence...

Weston (aka Q-tip Monster) = Guilty.

For My Dad

Dad,

I just wanted to write a quick note on here to say how much you mean to me.  I look at this blog as my digital "diary" of life happenings and my thoughts.  It's my way of capturing my life here and now.  I want you to know how much you mean to me.  You are the best father a girl could ever ask for.  You have shown me the world, taught me so many things, always taken time to make me feel special, and above all you were always there for me.

Not only did you attend every dance recital, horse show, and school event, you supported me whenever I needed someone to be there for me.   You still do.  You have influenced my life in more ways than you know and I truly hope you know how much you're loved.  I wouldn't change one thing about my childhood, and that's a result of all that you did for me.

You will always be one of the most important people in my life.  I love you beyond words, and I will always be you're little girl...

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Life on the Lake

Summertime is my favorite time of year.  I love the freedom of it.  Freedom to wear light cotton sundresses, live life without make-up, let the wind blow through your hair, and soak up the sunshine.  It also means life on the lake, which is one of the best places to be :)

I love the water, however I didn't really grow up on lakes, so I have always been more comfortable just dipping my toes in the edge and sunning on the beach!  However thanks to my hubby who is practically a fish in water, I'm learning to be a lot more comfortable with my ability to actually swim and partake in water sports!  Now I really love the lake!

This year for Memorial Day we went to Lake Travis in Austin.  This is becoming a bit of an annual tradition for us... it's so nice to visit Dwyatt's family and it always feels like the first true summer weekend! This year was even more exciting because we were able to take our boat!  We bought a boat in January and have been SO anxious for summer to get here.

Finally... summer has arrived!

My niece and nephew driving Grandpa's boat!

Dwyatt surfing behind our boat.  I'm such a lucky girl ;)

Sunset at The Oasis

Doug & Donna

Until next time...

Crawfish... a sure sign of spring!

I have SO much blogging to do.  Seriously, the month of May was crazy, I traveled every weekend, took finals to mark the completion of my first year of graduate school, started a new job at Devon, and tried to find time to just hang out with my wonderful hubby.  So, in an effort to catch up, we are going all the way back to the 2nd weekend of May... 

We traveled back to Mississippi this year for the annual Crawfish Boil hosted by my wonderful Aunt & Uncle.  There are usually around 40 people who spend the entire weekend at their house, cooking, dancing, and enjoying one anothers company.  This year was no exception.  Thinking back each memory of the weekend seems to somehow involve food.  We ate SO much food.  Gumbo, smoked pork, fresh conch salad, and of course crawfish... 350 lbs of crawfish.  Yes, crazy, I know.  I guess this is what happens when you have a huge group of people who all love to cook, no one can stay out of the kitchen! 

Luckily I came home with lots of food to freeze for later :)  We drove this year, thus we were able to bring home more... Dwyatt has since recommended we drive every year!  Ok, here are some pics to recap the weekend:

The best thing about having our Bahamian friends visit us in Mississippi?  They bring fresh conch!  For those of you who don't know, conch shells are the big shells you hold up to your ear and "listen to the ocean" in...  Conch salad is kind of like ceviche, so yummy!!!

And a little spicy... gotta love habaneros!

slicing and dicing! 

This little guy was my favorite crawfish... he loved to pose :)  As a thank you for his cooperation, he was set free in the woods of Mississippi.

Cousin Yann prepping our massive amounts of crawfish...

Me and my hubby :)

Another family favorite: sagnuts (aka: ladder golf) competitions!

The Mississippi clan is the musical side of our family.  The house is always filled with these amazing and unique instruments, such as the drums.  They make for a pretty darn good dance party! 

Cousin Ky serenading us in the kitchen.

Group photo!  We had such a great weekend... so thankful for wonderful family and friends :)



Royal Wedding Day!

I couldn't help but write a short note to say how excited I am about the Royal Wedding today!  Dwyatt thinks I've gone nuts, and can't understand why women seem to care so much about this wedding, but I just keep trying to explain the fabulousness of it all!  (I know I made up a word there, but hey... this is my blog!) 

I really think it all stems from the fact that as little girls we put of pretty dresses and tiaras and dream of becoming princesses.  We dream of the perfect fairytale with our prince, our tiara, and our happily ever after.  All the while boys are outside play war... so naturally they don't understand... I think the mesmerizing thing about today is that it's like watching a modern day fairytale come true.  Kate, who was a commoner, actually lived the dream of marrying her Prince and becoming a Princess.  Beautiful.  I also love the fact that they seem like a modern couple that truly love each other.  Kate is so poised and elegant, and her dress was simply gorgeous. 

I remember being completely in love with Prince William when I was young.  In fact in 6th grade I had a scrapbook of pictures of him... yes, I admit it... I really did.  Though it's embarrassing, I highly doubt that I was the only one.  Today, I couldn't be happier with how my life has turned out, and I'm glad it wasn't me marrying into the crazy life of paparazzi and constant attention.  However, I wish this royal couple the very best, and I hope they truly are together forever. 

I have without a doubt been swept up in the joy of the day.  I hope that one day I will share with my daughter the story of how excited the world was for this Royal Wedding, and how it seemed that the world took a time out to witness a celebration of love.  Even more, perhaps one day, I'll get to watch the next Royal Wedding with my overly excited daughter  :) 

Photo courtesy of Yahoo

This Is Life.

My life is busy.  Crazy busy at times... recently as I have been coping with projects at work, assignments with school, trying to run this photography venture, training for a 1/2 marathon, and still trying to find time to spend with my husband and friends... I find myself thinking, "I really need to capture these moments.  These moments make up my life." 

So, although there are probably some out there that would say that this blog should stick directly to business, I just plain don't want to.  I want to capture more there than my photography ventures, I want to capture life.  I want to look back over these entries and remember this stage, this busy stage, where I was young and free.  I want to capture photos in this "digital diary" that I can one day share with my children and remind them that I too was once young. 

I have had lots of blog posts floating around in my mind lately, and every time I think I should write something down, I don't.  Either for lack of time, or uncertainty that I should put my whole self out here on this blog.  But you know what?  I'm just going to go for it.  Yes Internet, I'm just going to be me. 

For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, I'm not a full time photographer.  Don't get me wrong, I love my photography, and I give my heart and soul to all of my clients.  But for me, photography is fun.  It's what I do when I'm not working.  Personally I think this makes me a better photographer.  I'm not going to be pressed for time and say "you only get a 1 hour session".  When we go take pictures, I want to take my time, I want to enjoy the moment, because I'm having FUN!!!  I love editing photos, and creating something that lasts.  Finally, my favorite thing is seeing people love their pictures.  That's why I'm a photographer, to help people capture moments that they love. 

So my other life?  I'm an engineer... by degree anyway... and I work for Devon Energy.  I'm actually just about to dive into a brand new opportunity that I just "officially" accepted today.  I'm going to be an NGL Marketing Representative starting in mid May!  I couldn't be more excited!  There are only a handful of people in this group, and we are responsible for marketing and selling all of the NGL (natural gas liquids) production for the entire company!  Such an amazing opportunity.  A challenge to be sure, but surely an opportunity to shine! 

I'm also wrapping up my first year of my MBA program.  One third done, yay!!  Only two more years... I can do this!  This summer however, I'm taking a break.  I am going to read some great novels on my kindle, while floating on my boat in a lake somewhere.  I'm going to cook wonderful dinners and drink wine with my husband, and I'm going to spend some time traveling around this beautiful country of ours.  Life is beautiful, I welcome everything it brings, and from now on I'm going to start sharing a lot more of it right here. 

A day at the office...

taken with Instagram on my iPhone