leahmariphotography

Kristene's maternity shoot

2012-01-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Kristene is a very close friend of mine who travels all over the world leading worship. She traveled so much this pregnancy it was impressive!! When i found out her and her hubby jordan where going to have a baby i got so excited and couldn't wait to take her pregnancy pictures. We cut it so close this was only 4 days away from her due date! Wow does she looks great right?!?!

So since we cut it so close there was no rescheduling this shoot and it was RAINING 40 degree gloomy rain. She was a trooper though and thanks to my wonderful photography friend heather and her cute umbrellas we made it a fun shoot in the pouring rain. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Taelynn

2012-01-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

Our good friends nate and tiffany just had there first baby and she is a beautiful little buddle of joy weighing in at 7lb 12oz and 20 inches long. I was so happy to take pictures of her, she was a trooper! :) hope you enjoy

Zach and Joanna's big day :)

2011-10-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

i had the privilege of taking our cousin joanna and her husbands wedding pictures. they got married in san diego and oh the weather lived up to its reputation and was beautifully sunny as was there wedding by the ocean. :) hope you enjoy the pictures :)

For taking pictures we all got to ride in these amazing low riders with hydros and ever thing!

we HAD to stop at Starbucks that is were they met each other :)

The reception was filled with wonderful family, friends and amazing food!!! i think i may be drooling just thinking about it! yup im pretty for i had about 10 tacos. :)

her dad surprised her with a slide show it was so sweet.

Adam and Hannah

2011-10-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

So this wedding i was so thrilled to get to do for a few reasons. 1. shes my cousin and i would get to see family i dont see much 2. It was on the east coast. (if only i had thee ability to hit up all the antique places and transport the treasures home lol ) 3. They got married in a very old church where thank the Lord that it didnt get painted, so it was all chippy and beautifuly old! 4. They love vintage stuff so the decor was so charming. It was lovely and a huge honer to do it. congratulations hannah and adam love you guys!

I was a ball of tears after she gave this to her mom!

her flowers were stunning!!

stunning bride.

i also was a bowl of tear when her eldest brother saw her for the first time. Im tearing up just typing this now :) what can i say it was a touching moment and well im a crier :)

some of my favorite moments are right after the ceremony "the unsolicited bliss" they were so sweet with each other and it melted my heart.

one of my favorite shots of the day

they are surrounded by such amazing people! :)

Her dad wrote a song and recorded it so they could dance to it. It was a totally surprise and once again the tears flowed not just by me this time! haha. It was amazingly beautiful. well done uncle Daryl

I loved watching the mother and son dance. they were so fun and joyful.

This reception was a BLAST!!

Hope you enjoyed looking.

blessings!

beckett

2011-08-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of taking pictures of 5 day old beckett the other day. He did so good and was so precious! The only picture he got mad on was when we tried a tummy picture. He did not like that! hehe.

enjoy :)

The kids summer shoot

2011-08-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

It was time to do a session with my kiddos. Judah just turned 8 and diego just turned 6. So even though it was well into the 100 yesterday we waiting just till before sunset so it would be cooler well and of course its the best time anyways. but lets just say trying to chase the sun before it went down with all the kids was a little crazy haha but well worth it. i just love there little faces! :) :)

Our little miracle Cruz Ryder Cash turns one today!

2011-06-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today our little boy Cruz Ryder Cash Valenzuela turns ONE! i cant believe it was this time last year our wonderful little miracle was born.

When cruz was born It was a fast and furious labor. He Came out, and soon after with out me being able to hold him He was whisked away to the nicu. (daddy follow right behind) Not thinking it was as serious as it was until the head of the nicu came in the room a while later and in a very serious voice said that she needed to talk to me about my baby and if I wanted her to ask them (my mom and bff) to leave. WELL that scared the crap out of me! I said no they can stay! So She starts out by saying, “your baby is very sick.” He breathed in A LOT of muconium and his x-ray is really bad he needed to be inhabited and put on an oscillator to help him breath. He needed 100% oxygen and his body was really acidic."

The next 12 days would be a roller coaster of emotions. with many things going wrong. But in the end all going right!! YAY God!! If you want to read the whole birth story and the days that followed click here.

me finally holding him 9 days later

Im so thankful for the gift cruz is to us! and im so glad we got surprised with this little man (as we were done at 3 hehe). He is a joy to us all of us.

His ONE year old mini shoot :)

We love you little cruzer

stephen and melissa

2011-04-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

So this one has been a long time coming!!! over a year ago some of our closest friends got engaged and i was so thrilled to take there engagement pictures! the pictures went great BUT i was big and pregnant when i took them.....so life got away from me and i only edited a few of them for there invite...well i just got to finish editing the whole lot of um... and finally get to blog them.

i hope you enjoy them! i just love these two!

The johnson family (my brothers family)

2011-04-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

So i got to take family pictures for my older brother eric, his wife candace and there two girls kennedy and selah before Christmas.... yes i know its april! Well better late than never ;)

They are a amazing family! so loving and fun!

I also must add that this may be my longest post yet. i just couldn't narrow it down very well lol.

so here ya go! enjoy

they are just soo cute :)

can we say models!!

My Isabella is 3!

2011-03-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

So for isabellas shoot for turning three we stayed in. Our new house has amazing light!! its a photographers house for sure hehe. Its been raining for days here with little breaks but still pretty muddy so inside it is!

Its my birthday today but yesterday was my most favorite little girl in the worlds birthday. i love that our birthdays are a day apart! i see a lot of spa days and birthday weekends filled with girly things.

Isabella is such a huge joy in my life. shes silly, fun, spunky and always full of character!

We had a great birthday party too with all our wonderful friends! it was a great day!

a great walking day!

2011-01-22T23:21:00.000-08:00

So today i finally got to take pictures of the kids all together!
it was in the high 70's and yes in jan. i love the sun but i LOVE winter. So we need it to come back but until the rain starts up again we are enjoying the sunshine :)
My mom and i took the kids out to lunch at a great place called Grilla bites and then we went on a new trail it was so pretty and the kids had fun playing by the water and exploring. my battery on my camera was almost dead but i had just enough to snap a few shots hope you enjoy. :)

the cannons

2011-01-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

well i wish i could say my house stays clean simple cause im amazing and im the best cleaner haha but having four kids and cleaning is hard! sooo i have help and the couple sisters who trade off and clean my house are amazing at getting my house in tip top shape! I got to photograph there family. lauren just had a baby and as it should be she is the center of attention :) enjoy

Tim and Anna

2011-01-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege to do tim and annas wedding in dunsmuir ca. they were such a fun group! we had a lot of fun! enjoy!

MIA!

2011-01-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

So life has been beyond crazy! after having the baby i have been taking a break for the most part just doing a few shoots. (that i still need to blog about!)

life started getting insane crazy this last month on dec 2nd when we found out we had to be out of our house that we rent (landlord has been trying to sell for months) in 30 days! YES during Christmas season!!! our family is very busy during Christmas. so thanks to my wonderful parents who had someone come help us pack up over the months a few times. i honestly dont think i would have been able to finish with out the help. so between editing pictures, making a few presents for my nieces, making the wrapping for christmas present, packing, cleaning, shopping, oh and we also had a family reunion in utah the end of the month, it was just getting crazy! i wish i could say i had no melt downs but i cant haha. We also are buying a house which is so perfect in side i love it! escrow doesn't close till feb so for now we are living with my parents. which is a big blessing and we all love. So we got back from utah the 31st had our last christmas on the 1st then moved on the 2nd. We got to store all our things in the new houses garage till its ours which is so great! Real fast i want to thank all our friends who helped move it was truly a blessing!! you know who you are! We had a wonderful holiday season even though it was crazy!

hopefully now i can get to blogging those sessions hehe

here are some pictures from our holiday season.

a lot of pictures! i could have picked so many more!!!

our wrapping

my mom and all the grand babies

my girl waiting to turn around to see her new bike

me and my new bench (and part of my table)

Christmas morning

isabella looking ever so cute before present time

judah my oldest boy on christmas morning

diego wearing clothes hehe

one of the main things he wanted! a SNUGGIE!

isabella loved all her presents

a little excited!

she loves her doll house!

our little cruz got tired from presents so he took a nap :)

in utah it snowed a lot!

yummy snow!

diego and uncle eric

my mom and husband found this bridge so i had to go back and take a picture

I LOVE SNOW!!!!!

some snowy horses on our drive

taking pictures on a drive with the window down :)

i LOVED all the houses!

gabe, diego and i went on a sleigh ride it was about -1 but oh so fun!

gotta love dadies kisses

Cruz Ryder Cash Valenzuela's birth story and diary of the days that followed

2010-06-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Cruz Ryder cash Valenzuela birth story

Sunday night June 6th. Around 10. I started having some little contractions more like Braxton hicks, that I could time. They were about every 6 mins apart. I slept on and off that night some were uncomfy but nothing big at all. I had been having these on and off for days now. Well that morning I got up and they had gotten closer together but still no big deal in the pain department! It was weird for me to not know if this was labor or not. With my last three kids I knew I was in labor. So I went on with my morning. Picking out the kid’s clothes and cleaning up a little. My little baby contractions were about 2-4 mins apart. Even though they were this close I still did not know it was labor cause they weren’t very strong. That is until I went to the bathroom and noticed bloody show. And was like ok this is it!

At this point I would just pause with each contraction and focus and breath. But on a pain scale they were about 2 so no big deal. So Gabe hopped in the shower and we got the kids ready to go to a friend’s house. We were going to drop the kids off then and go to my parent’s house and wait to go to the hospital till things picked up more. It was around 9:45am I think when we left the house. They were starting to pick up at this point and I was having to breathe pretty good through them! That car ride seamed like forever long when it was only 15 mins we got to the babysitters house and at this point I told gabe we need to go straight to the hospital these are getting really strong. So he called my mom and told her change of plans and come straight up to the hospital!

Poor Gabe was trying to drive as I squeezed the heck out of his hand and breathing like a train. We pulled up to the front of the hospital and Gabe got someone to wheel me up to L&D while he parked the car. So I am being wheeled up and holding on to the wheel chair for dear life trying to focus. These contractions went from 0-60 soooo fast!

We make it up to L&D and I hear my mom behind me say I’m her mom. Im thinking thank God and I said yes I need her!! the lady pushing me told the front desk she needs a room now!! I got back so fast. I get in my room and couldn’t even change I just dropped my pants and go on the bed lol. They checked me and I was at 4cm 80% effaced and 0 station. I was getting really fuzzy my arms and legs were getting tingly and numb from breathing so crazy. So they gave me oxygen and that helped me stop hipper ventilating. I think it was 10:15 am when I got up there. Gabe got back from parking the car. My grandpa and grandma made it up there along with my best friend and my daddy. Some where in there they got me my iv and hooked me up to the monitors…I do a no drug labor but I do like to have fluids in a iv. I always feel better after my labor with them. I also in past labors after I give birth have had to have pitocin to stop the bleeding. (On a side note, I had been taking red raspberry leaves and evening Prime rose oil and alfalfa for a month now. They help your labors go faster. I was downing tons of these each day! The alfalfa helps with bleeding after birth.) And some point after that maybe like 30 mins they checked me again and I was 6cm 100% effaced with bulging bag of water. And the pressure was crazy like I wanted to push. Contractions were insane! But my mom who couches me was amazing. My head on her head breathing crazy hard. I squeezed her fingers so hard I popped a blood vessel. Every now and then I would hear her say ouch. Oops ☺. My wonderful hubby and Camille got me my soaking wet freezing washcloths. I had a great support team! All of them helping me and praying for me.

I was def at that place where you say im done now I don’t want to do this anymore please help me! I was asking if they could just break my water. They checked me again a little after that I was an 8 and my water broke while she checked me. I think that was maybe 11am or so.

I wanted to push! My doctor had just came in and go the table broke down. I was a 9 with a tiny lip. I started to push and with one contraction our baby Cruz was born at 11:29 am.

It’s the best feeling ever right after you have a baby in my opinion. Your done and get to see your baby and now the fun begins. I had done a lot of research on the test they do after babies are born. And was saying no to all of them besides the hearing test and blood sugar test. As long as the birth is normal and good. I wanted the cord to stop pumping the blood before they cut it to make sure he got all the blood he needed, no vit k shot and no eye drops. Well after he came out there rushed a bunch of green water. Which I know is meconium and not good. So right there they needed to cut the cord early and get him over to the table to watch him. He was screaming but still really having hard time breathing. As my doctor sewed up the tear I was just so excited to be done with labor. I kept looking over there at Cruz wondering if he was ok. I think a few mins had past when they wrapped him up and said they needed to take him to the nicu. So they held him over to my face while I gave him a kiss goodbye. Gabe headed over there with him so he wasn’t alone. I didn’t really think too much about it as far as being serious. I was so wrong!

(This was my first labor I didn’t have to have a shot or bag of pitocin after birth. I must say that has to be because of the alfalfa I took. I am also anemic this time so the alfalfa helped a ton with not bleeding to much. Also the other stuff I took seemed to help in the fast labor part!)

So the next parts are kind of blurry. they got me all squared away and some of my family was saying goodbye and great job. Now it was just my mom and Camille in there with me. Well I have no idea how long had pasted but the nicu doctor and the head of the nicu came in the room and in a very serious voice said she needed to talk to me about my baby and if I wanted her to ask them to leave. WELL that scared the crap out of me! I said no they can stay. So She starts out by saying, “your baby is very sick.” He breathed in A LOT of muconium and his x-ray is really bad he needed to be inhabited and put on an oscillator to help him breath. He needed 100% oxygen and his body was really acidic. They needed to also put in lines through his belly button cord that would go up near his heart. They could get blood with it and measure more accurately his blood gas levels and Because of this they needed to give him a vit k shot so he would not bleed more.
they would sedate him for all of that and in a couple hours I could go see him.

After about 3 hours I got to go see my little boy.

Oh I almost forgot he was not so little he was 8lbs 14oz 20 ½ inches long. He was all hooked up to everything and looked so big in there compared to all the other babies. I could only stay for a little bit cause I was so sore and needed to lay down. I was actually doing pretty well with it all considering. I def. felt all the people praying! And I was in a stat of shock. Like, wait I just had a really fast labor and now my baby is not in my arms what just happened, kind of state.

That evening was very weird not having the baby in there. My favorite part after having a baby is in the quiet of the night holding the baby and just enjoying those little first moments together. So that was sad. they started me pumping and that helped cause I had something to do. And felt like I was contributing Gabe also started to feel sick and coughing that evening. He even felt chilled so he couldn’t go in to see cruz anymore. This was not good timing at all!!

The next morning the nicu doc came in and said his lungs were looking a little better and that the x-ray yesterday was impressive they were so grungy. He was looking a lot better than all his tests were showing. He was pink and everything. His body seemed to be doing the work as he rested and getting rid of the muconium. He was born with a temperature and had been having one on and off. So they put him on 3 different antibiotics to cover their bases. They had also sent off for a blood culture to see if there was infection from the muconium. They did an echo on his heart to see if there was any pulmonary hypertension. They got that back and there was a tiny bit. That second night our three kiddos came to visit us in the hospital it was so great to see them. they had been having a blast with family friends! The boys were wondering where cruz was so we told them and explained to them what had happened and that he pooped in the water and breathed it in so he needed to be watch real careful and have a machine help him breath. well being boys that they are the poop part they got a kick out of and started cracking up hehe.

On the third day the culture came back neg for a bacteria infection. He started to be able to come down on his oxygen and other settings. All was looking pretty good just really slow going. I also had to go home on that day. That was very hard and weird to be loading up the car and just leaving your baby there. Well on day 4 I think he just platoed and his numbers for infection went from 3 to over a hundred. They were thinking about putting him on a 4th antibiotic but then found out it was not bacterial infection it was a viral infection. The doctors asked us so many questions trying to figure out what kind it was. Well since my daughter Isabella was sick and Gabe and Diego had been sick also but was well now. I had also had a little cold thing going on. They thought maybe he had the viral thing we all had. It also came up that a month ago fifth disease went around my kid’s school. None of us ever got it but had been exposed to it. Well Cruz was getting a rash pretty bad. So they isolated him from the rest of the nicu and just incase we had to gown up glove up and mask up. He also only has one nurse all to him self.
I’m not sure what days stuff happened on with some of this stuff it all runs together. I know on the 11th I got to see him lying on his tummy and it was my first time seeing his back. It is so fuzzy with black hair hehe. He stayed at a stand still for days with his infection numbers going up to 140 and his x-rays coming back a little more grungy from the viral infection. He also was becoming anemic. When he was born his numbers were 18 for hemoglobin it then went down to 14 then 10 then 9.5. They were about to have me sign papers after giving me the low down on a blood transfusion. When Doc Jain looked at his labs from that morning and said oh wow they went up to 10.2. She was shocked. So she said we could wait off on the transfusion. This was all the morning of the 12th. That is when he started to improve from the viral infection slowly but surely. The 12th was a good day! They started giving him my milk I had been pumping. They feed him through a tube starting with the culostrum. I also saw him open his eyes for the first time that day.

He had been so sedated but was able to go longer in between doses.Its amazing the little things that you hold so dear when you have not been able to experience them yet. On the 13th thing were looking even better his numbers were coming down for infection and his vent levels got to go down. And doc jain said he is getting better and soon we should be able to take him off his vent. i also got to change his diaper for the first time. it wa sso special to be able to do more that just touch his foot.

I remember one time the nurse asked me to put my hand on his head and his feet to try and calm him down since he couldn't have his meds yet to calm him.. it was great i got to touch him and he calmed right down.
On the 14th his infection numbers went down to 23 they were at 140. Everyday I had been going up in the mornings with my mom and then at night with my dad or mom. Well that night I went up but by my self and I got there in time for the nurse to get him ready for the night. They had switched him over to a new ventilator that let him breath on his own it just gave him oxygen and kind of pushed a little to help him. The other ventilator was an oscillator that was breathing for him 580 times a min at one point. It helped to massage his lungs as well as breath. Because of the new vent and him breathing on his own they could not sedate him anymore. So I helped hold his little arms down as she cleaned him up. He was mad! And was silent crying. But it was so nice to see his be feisty. She weighed him and he was at 8lb 12oz. a couple days ago he had gotten up to 9lb 7 oz from all the fluids. But was loosing that now and not as puffy. I got to kind of lift him up off the table for a sec so she could put a blanket under him. Buy the time I had left he was calm had been fed 30 cc of my breast milk via tube and swaddled up lying on his tummy. I said goodnight and that mommy and daddy love him.

The next day the 15th gabe went to work he was feeling much better. He was not able to see him since he was a day old. I don’t know how he handled it! We werent able to hold him but at least I could see him. Normally I go in the mornings but instead I called and let them know we would be coming in at 1:30 cause that’s when we have a sitter and that gabe gets to come to since he is feeling better yay!! They also tell me they extabated him and he is no longer on a vent! We can hold him!!! He was just on forced nose oxygen. He was at 23% oxygen and room air is 21%. He was so close to being able to handle room air. The nurse said he seems to really like not being on the vent as I can imagine! We got sitters for the kids and went in at 2 pm. We got all gowned up. I sat down on the black swivel office chair with a pillow under my arm ready for this monumental moment! The nurse got all his tubes moved around and I scooted close to the table so the iv and his tubes would not pull. My face was one big smile. He was kind of fussy for a min, which made his heart rate go up, and so all alarms went off. So I got him to calm down and he was just wide-awake looking at me and all around. Gabe was snapping pictures and caught this most wonderful moment. I didn’t cry I think I was to focused and nervous on making him calm and so happy! :) Its so weird to me cause its not that I had not bonded with my baby yet. But after I held him a whole new bond happened!

That night I got to come back with gabe and my son Judah. None of the kids had seen Cruz yet. It was so sweet seeing Judah get to hold him for the first time.

I also got to help give him a sponge bath he was so mad about that but it was good to hear him. His voice was all hoarse from having the vent in so long. Poor guy. But hearing him was just wonderful! Then he got to have a little outfit on.

Judah went out to wait with dad in the waiting room. The nurse told me when you hold him if your boob just happens to fall in his mouth that would be our little secret ;) I was so excited I would get to try to nurse him!!! Well he latched on right away with no problems at all! It was a perfect moment just me and him ☺ …well and the rest of the nicu ;) I had the nurse take a picture. ☺

The 16th I got a call from the nicu at 8 and said they had orders from the doctor that we could have a go at nursing for real ☺. He was now on room air. No more nose oxygen. So I went up there and got to nurse him for real this time and burped him then changed his poopy diaper. Which is very hard with his pick line being in his foot and not being able to take his outfit of with out unhooking the pick line haha. He likes to be snuggled which I love! He likes to be held upright and lifts his head up to look around. He was also not in isolation anymore.

The 17th I went in at 12 to nurse him and the doctor was reviewing his charts and realized he had been on antibiotics for ten days now so he orders a blood draw to check his levels and if they go under 10 then he can come of his 3 anti. The blood test comes back 9.5 so yay no more meds and the pick line can come out! And the mystery viral infection is still a mystery but it's pretty much gone. He still had a little lingering rash from it. His doctor was very please with how he was doing and nursing. Because he was on a vent for so long they were expecting him to maybe have difficulty because of his throat hurting and his ability to suck. But he has had no problems with that. His oxygen levels have been doing great at room air so they took him off that monitor also. He wants to eat more than their 3-hour schedule... I told them yeah my kiddos tend to eat about every two hour or less :) so they are letting him eat whenever he wants now. I went in later that day to feed him and they said to me the words I had been waiting for…”as long as nothing goes wrong tonight you could take him home tomorrow”.…..they said to call the next morning and they would tell us for sure. I also got to give him his first real bath since he was free of all the tubes and lines. He wasn’t that happy with it. But i was so happy I got to give it to him.

So june 18th came I called first thing when I got up at 8:30. They said nothing went wrong and we could come get him in 2 hours!!! Yay!!!!! I was so elated! So my mom came to watch the kids and we left to get our little man. We got up there and scrubbed in for the last time. I fed him, signed papers and packed up all his stuff. He weighed in 8lb 14 oz ☺ his birth weight. The manager of the nicu came over and said bye to us and how happy she was Cruz was going home so soon and that it was a privilege to have him in there. He surprised all of them with how fast he got better for how sick he was. some other nurses said bye and we took some pictures.

Gabe went to get the car and the nurse walked Cruz and me down stairs. We loaded Cruz up in his cute car seat. And this time got to drive away with our baby boy in the car.

We left the hospital around 11:30am. We got home and all the kids greeted us at the door. Diego just had a solid grin on his face and Bella was just so sweet touching his toes, Judah wanted to hold him and they kept asking who gets to hold him first. They all got there turns holding him. It was a wonderful moment!! Now we are all together and a family of 6 ☺

judah had a cough so he had a mask :)

here are a couple i took on his two week birthday :)

Elena Contreras

2010-05-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

I got the great privelage of taking elenas senior pictures. Her mom, dad and her come up from san jose. It was great to meet them there a wonderful family! Elena was climbing trees and getting covered by ants...what a trooper ;) hope you enjoy.

courtney

2010-04-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Now this was such a fun shoot!! she has so much personality! i love her hair and make up she did a great job! My bff had a great idea to take her pictures at the carnival in town. shes brilliant :) i just love the way they turned out.

Mathew and Katie

2010-04-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

What a amazing day this was! I got to go to grass valley, Ca for this wedding. What a wonderful place for a wedding! There were so many locations to shoot at! Mathew and Katie were so much fun and up for anything! I had a very hard time picking what ones to put on here so i and putting a bunch :) hope you enjoy

The boys first Tee-Ball game

2010-03-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

So our boys had there first Tee-Ball game yesterday. Man was it so fun watching them!

the boys friend ethan

play catch with dad

William and Amy

2010-02-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

Now this wedding was so great to shoot. Not just from a photog's stand point even though the light during the ceremony was so perfect! It was much more than that. They had saved there first kiss EVER to be on there wedding day. When the pastor Said kiss the bride it was like fireworks went off. It was also one of the longest wedding kisses i had ever seen. :) It put a huge smile on every ones faces. It is always a joy to see couples cherish each other the way they do!

Jeffrey and kathrine

2010-02-19T10:32:00.000-08:00

I loved this wedding! The church was just stunning and they loved green apples and color! I love colorful things! :) Not to mention they are a stunning couple inside and out!

the Mack boys!

2010-01-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

So i got the great privalge of taking the mack boys pictures there a father and two sons. There son Jared serves us in the military and surprised his family by coming home for Christmas before he is shipped off again. So they called me up for a last min shoot and i was so glad i could do it. here a few of my favs from the shoot.

For those who want to know i held my breath for the up close cigar part ;)

Im back :D

2010-01-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

So im back on the job! we are expecting our fourth baby and as with all my other kids i was sick for weeks and unable to work or do anything not even leave the house. I just layed there :( but im back !!!!YAY!!!! and so happy to be feeling more like a real person. im still trying to catch up on past work! THANK YOU all my clients who have been so patient with me. as you know this is our little surprise baby so i was not planing on not editing your weddings! :)

So any ways i have been a editing mad woman as much as i can :)

here is a picture of our little man in the oven.. yup we are having a little boy :)
so it will be perfect three boys and a girl :)

jamie

2009-10-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well a couple days ago i got to photograph jamie. she was my very first shoot ever back when i started out in photography. It was so fun to shoot her again! her wonderful sister came also and help me out. thanks sarah! they are both such beautiful girls inside and out.

i got to take a few of sarah she is beautiful!

such beautiful sisters

Chris and Alyssa's Wedding

2009-09-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of shooting Chris and Alyssa's Wedding. We got to shoot in a amazing location!! This wonderful antique store Antique cottage and garden. I always want to buy everything when i go in there hehe. Chris and Alyssa are amazing to shoot they know how to work it! Hope you all enjoy these... i had a hard time narrowing it down so there is a lot :)

thanks evelyn for second shooting what a great capture this shot is.

I love his reaction!! He so adores her!!

the bride must eat :)

The brides father was the officiator... this was such a special moment

We got in a few pictures right after the ceremony

reception time!

Boy did they all have fun dancing!

it was a tad loud :)

Andrew and Christa

2009-07-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

These two we so cute and so in love! it was a great privilege to do there wedding.

isabella

2009-06-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Isabella's room is almost done but i just could not wait to take pictures of her in it anymore. so here is isabella in her room :)

My BFF camille

2009-06-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

camille is a most wonderful person who i love to call my best friend! i love her so much she is my sister from another mother haha.

family vacation to sea world

2009-06-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

we had a great time at sea world!! here are pictures :)

Chris and Alyssa engagement Session

2009-05-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

I loved doing this couples pictures! They are friends of mine and we had a blast :)

love affair workshop!

2009-05-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

SO there is a amazing workshop called the love affair workshop that it is my dream to go to and it is in Georgia!!!I want to go because they teach balance in life and business. i feel i could learn and grow so much in who i am as a person and a photographer. i have so much to learn! here is a little video i made for it!

go check out there blog www.loveaffairworkshop.com

fun week

2009-04-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

so it was a fun filled week one of my friends had a bridal shower and it was 80's themed so my amazing cousin joanna did my hair. it was a fun crazy time. i must say i loved it so much i rocked the hair the next day at church :) even singing on the worship team haha. (thanks amanda for taking the pictures of me and my craziness)

here are a couple of my kiddos this week

now this picture is not great but i loved my sons hair in it :)

lopez kids

2009-04-27T15:18:00.000-07:00

i got to take pictures of my great friends kids. Ana is the oldest and CaDey is the youngest. we grew up together and now our kids are friends. we are more like family than anything. we had so much fun. we walked down to the creek next to our house and let the kids loose. i also got a few of my kids with there kids.

here is one of my son and ana

here is all of our kiddos together

The Wenhams

2009-04-15T22:39:00.000-07:00

The family of SILLY faces... back in the day i was a nanny of four and half years for this wonderful family . The youngest, maty was one year old and the oldest katie was ten. now maty is fast approaching teenage years and katie is in college ahhhh man that makes me feel old haha. I had so much fun on this shoot. They have so much fun and made so many crazy faces!!! so yeah here ya go.

Katie and her boyfriend Johnnie

the mallard family

2009-04-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

I got the great privilege of photographing the mallard family this week and go so many fun shots they are such a loving family. here are my favs.

H A I R

2009-03-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

So my wonderful hubbies cousin Joanna marie does amazing hair. The other night she did a friend of mines hair, Melissa. her hair is amazing and looks like extensions but its all hers. Here is a few from the shoot :D

I made it!!

2009-03-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

Im so excited i have been picked to be lauren clarks blog stalker this month. I love her work! if you want to check it out here ya go Lauren clarks blog

backdrop shoot

2009-02-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

well i got to try out my new backdrop stand and white muslin i got on EBAY :D im loving it!! so here are a few pictures from yesterday

photographers unite

2009-02-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

Well I'm am so privileged to have some wonderful photographer friends!! Heather Armstrong hosted us all at her house for a fun get together. She made wonderful food and treats. we talked shop and vented about the wonderful and crazy world of photography!
i love these ladies. each one so different and wonderful at caring the gift! Here is a slide show (PHOTO'S TAKEN BY TAMMY AND KARA)

slide show

amanda shoot done :)

2009-02-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

The wonderful and amazing amanda :D

GO GREEN

2009-02-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

So i have made the choice with this last baby to GO GREEN in the diaper department and use cloth diapers. I line dry all my diapers. It has been the weirdest winter being so warm and with my dryer needing some fixing I started line drying my clothes this week. I'm really enjoying it. everything smells so fresh and clean. It makes me feel like I'm back in time on a farm some where or like I'm Amish and life is simpler. its very therapeutic! It inspired me to take a picture of a shirt i just got from my sister-in-law :)

GO GREEN

ANTM?

2009-01-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

Well today i got to shoot a friend of mine amanda . She is a amazing model! It is pretty much impossible to take a bad picture of her!! here are a few from our shoot more to come later.....

my self

2009-01-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

so i was asked if i had a bio picture today that could be used for ibethel.tv.
and went searching in my iphoto. realizing i had ones from when my hair was dark and curly. well that will not work so i got the tripod out and started shooting away. i ended up with i think a pretty ok one. here it is
But i also had some fun with a few others and thought i would post some :D

NEW CAMERA

2009-01-14T16:36:00.001-08:00

Well it has been a great and busy month!! WE MOVED IN to a new house and are getting settled in nicely. THEN i got my new canon 5D mark ll camera im so excited and have been playing around with it today. here are some of the pictures :)

happy thanks giving

2008-12-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

Well we had a great thanksgiving holiday! we get to have two dinners. one was traditional turkey with lefse and the other Mexican food. Oh so good.
i think its time to hit the gym now!

like mother like daughter

2008-12-01T00:44:00.000-08:00

I got to take pictures of a mother and her daughter. What a amazing mom, she is beautiful inside and out! They were so much fun! The little girl had endless cute faces to make. here are some of my favorites