stella's shiner

Yesterday:


Today:


I didn't see it happen, but I do know the girls were playing in between two square tables, that Stella's entire face was covered with Ava's play chef hat, and that it involved a push.

Day 3!

So today is officially my third day as a stay-at-home-mom, self-employed woman. I have to say, it feels a little weird. In a way, it feels like I should be DOING something, even though I don't sit down all day except when I get time on the computer to do some editing (or blogging!) I have worked for someone since I was 15 years old! And it also feels like I gave up total control to my husband to make a living for us, which I know isn't true because I am having a very good first year, and I know without a doubt I will very shortly be making the same, if not more, money than what I have been.

So Ava decided to make the potty training thing super easy on us and this past weekend decided she was ready to go on her own on the big, bad toilet. She's had three accidents in three days! I mean, she's not totally potty trained, we still do diapers at nap, bedtime and when we go somewhere (I'm not ready to tackle peeing in public yet). Here's a very sweet photo of the big girl:


In business news, my website is almost ready to "go live" as they call it, and I can't wait to show it and have potential clients be able to go there first. As much as I love blogging and feel it is an extremely important part of this business, I know most clients are still looking for a good ol' fashioned, easy-to-navigate website to go to first, then can read up more on the life of the photographer through blogging. So stay tuned for the big announcement!

Happy hump day!

jessica & dan's fabulous wedding

Saturday evening I photographed the very anticipated wedding of Jessica and Dan at Roys Barn, this very cool venue off Springhill Road with good ol' fashioned Montana charm. Chickens and rooster wander the grounds, a creek runs through the property, and the upstairs of the barn is this gorgeous wood dance floor where the band played after the dinner. So cool! Jessica and Dan are a very sweet couple with an amazing group of friends and family. Everyone was so fun, it was hard not to jump in on it! ;) Here are a couple of my favorites, and definitely check out the slideshow by clicking here. I am really pleased with the images. Jessica stressed her love for photojournalism, so we spent very little time on portraits and rather just let the day unfold, just as I like it . . .

Enjoy!









This is probably my favorite of the day!


That's your sneak peek, go check out the slideshow! And make my day by leaving a comment!

jessica & dan's rehearsal dinner

Jessica and Dan are getting married tomorrow at Roys Barn off Springhill Road, and held their rehearsal dinner tonight at the beautiful home of a friend in Sourdough Canyon. It was such a fun evening to observe - Jessica and Dan have so many wonderful friends and family they got to visit with, and I loved watching people greet who haven't seen each other in God knows how long. :) I am glad that tomorrow Jessica and Dan will have gotten the greetings out of the way and will be able to focus on each other . . .

Here is the beautiful bride! She was so gracious all evening . . .


And the handsome groom visiting with family.


I didn't find Dan and Jessica together much during the evening, they were each off taking the time to visit with each of their guests, which I thought was so sweet.






This is Jessica with Ryno, the man who will be performing the ceremony tomorrow. I am so excited to see all the little personal touches they've added, I imagine there will be some very meaningful elements to the event.


And Lord knows I know how it is to be pregnant at a wedding!


This is one of my favorites, Dan's brother and his wife greeting their grandparents!


See how fun their friends are?! Tomorrow is going to be a blast . . .


Oh, and their friends have incredibly cute kids!


Jessica gave her bridesmaids these beautiful silver necklaces. It was so sweet to watch them open them together :)




And then Jessica's girlfriends gave her this super adorable hoodie that she wore when the sun went down - love this!




That is Jessica with her mom and sister.


And one last one of the boys!


Can't wait to see them tomorrow! Stay tuned for the wedding photos, they will be amazing, I just know it :)

Good night!

the roof girls party like rock stars

Whew! I have two sleeping children (okay, one . . . the other is perfectly content in her crib, ga-ga-ga-ga-ing to herself and her stuffed animals, don't judge me, she's definitely due for a nap), a Corona with lime, and a few super cute photos to share with you all from Saturday. We first went to Miles' 3rd birthday party. Miles is a little buddy of Ava's, and the two went to day care together for about a year and a half. They seem to pick up right from where they left off everytime we get together! We have plans to force them to marry each other when they grow up :).

So this was THE party to be at because Miles' parents rented a bounce house for the kids. They were even smart enough to serve cake FIRST so that they could bounce their tiny little asses off into sugar-induced comas come 8:00 that night.

Here is the freakin' cutest birthday boy EVER!






Let's back up for a sec - when I got there, he wasn't fully cooperating with having his picture taken. I chased him around, tickled him, and he eventually found safety behind mom's legs, which ended up working out great for this photo :)


And here are some simple, handsome photos of the very sweet Miles Mark Renslow, soon to be a big brother!




And now, on with the guests . . .

Ava and Miles started off filling up some dump trucks with sand.


And quickly moved into the bounce house once it was inflated!


A few of the kids cooled off with a little skinny-dipping in the pool . . .


Stella just got her lifeguard certification so she was on standby.


And here is some other random cuteness from the party. Not a bad looking crew!

This is Halle.


When she got prompted by her mom for a real smile, she showed us her killer grin and pearly whites . . .


This is Happy Lou . . .


And this is Possessive Lou . . .


Ellis is Miles' neighbor, another soon-to-be older sibling! Poor little girl behind her didn't understand my camera and focusing set-up, look at her big, blurry grin! ;)


So here is the little doll. I think she looks like what Stella may look like in a couple years - those big cheeks and blonde hair and cowlick! So sweet.


Riley is pretty easy on the eyes, also. What a beautiful little girl!


This is Rylin, which struck a chord with me because my sister had that name picked out for a little girl forever, and it turns out she's having a boy in a few weeks, but it was fun to meet a Rylin anyway!


And of course, Ava . . .


Ava is exploring all kinds of new fun around the house. This weekend I found (so far) a Juicy Juice box in the toilet and a lemon in the toaster. She's so creative! ;)

After this party, we were on to party numero dos, the annual Solstice party at the Amsdens' home. They pulled it off again, this time with an amazing Irish band, Finnigan Ridge, playing in the evening. Ava was pretty enthralled, also . . .



Here she is with her bad-influence friends. She ran off to find Clara, the girl driving the car here, and before I knew it, I looked over, Ava hopped into the vehicle while it was moving, grabbed onto the Oh, Shit handle, and they sped off like lightening. I think this was completely a foreshadowing experience of my future with this little girl. Lord knows what the girls in the back are talking about - where to get the cheapest Marlboro Lights? Who knows!


Oh, it gets better. Ava got booted to the back of the Jeep, very El Camino-style. No seatbelts? Who cares! The world is ours! Speed it up, Clara!


At least I can always count on Stella, the good child, playing a good ol' fashioned game of Peek-A-Boo with our friend, Cam.


And I am leaving you with actually something very meaningful - this little guy is Fisher. I know his parents, Bob and Katie, from meeting them years ago at my first Solstice party. They were living in Fort Collins, Colorado, at that time, and Fisher was just a little baby. I immediately took a liking to them, and continued seeing them at these parties and at random events. I last saw Bob and Katie a few months back at a restaurant on my lunch break one day, and learned at that time that Katie had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was undergoing chemotherapy and things were looking really good. At this party, it was announced that she had just received a 100% clean bill of health - and I can't even tell you how much this made my entire world. When I'd heard of Katie's illness, I was devastated. She was somebody's mother, somebody's daughter, somebody's wife . . . she was so healthy, so active, so strong. It just wasn't fair. But I imagine it brought this family a lesson they wouldn't have learned otherwise, and for that I am grateful for them. I do believe things happen for a reason. Fisher is a super lucky kid. And his parents will definitely need their ultimate strength to fight off the ladies, don't you think?


Whew! Lord knows what time I started this post, but it's officially 3:07 and I'm pooped. I'm about to venture into my very last week of workin'-for-the-man, I actually have an awesome week ahead of me with a private party to photograph on Wednesday, a rehearsal dinner on Friday, a wedding on Saturday, and then I get to wake up Monday morning to the hum of the birds rather than the wail of the alarm clock!

On a side note, I know a few of my photos on here are a little bigger than others. You may not even notice but this drives me crazy! I hate inconsistency! Anywho, my friend Nate is working on a custom blog for me, and my official website will be launched next week!! I'm so excited, it's pretty beautiful. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

missy and jr, 2nd edition

Tonight I met up with Missy and JR for the second half of their engagement session. They really wanted their photos done with some mountains in the background, so we drove out to Ross Peak Ranch tonight with their doggie, Bridger, JR's guitar, the orange chair, and had ourselves a wonderful time! We weren't sure of the weather because it had started to storm and rain lightly before we left, but we went for it and got some yummy light!

Here is Bridger, who is a very sweet and obedient dog. He never went too far and posed when we asked him to and came after a few hollers . . .


Missy and JR started in on it pretty quickly :)






I loooove this photo, it is so 70's!


Not a bad spot to take an engagement photo in Montana!


This will make an awesome page in their photo guest book album I'm going to be designing for them. Guests have all that white space to sign their names and wish the couple happiness . . .










After doing this second shoot with Missy and JR, I can't stress enough how important it is to do a pre-wedding photo shoot. An engagement shoot is best, but even the rehearsal dinner gives you a chance to get a feel for how the photographer works and helps you just relax and be yourselves and be comfortable in the presence of the camera so that your photos are more natural come the big day. These two just immediately started working the camera, they were even more comfortable than last time. So imagine how amazing their wedding photos are going to be! ;)

Missy and JR, thanks for another super fun evening!

alison and TJ's love shoot!

Saturday evening I met up with the very fun and very sweet Alison and TJ at Chico Hot Springs for some drinks, photos and heavy lifting. This couple is getting married next May at the Gallatin Gateway Inn, which I know is an amazing venue because it is where I got married and we had a wonderful wedding experience. Anyway, I was so pleased to finally meet this couple since we've been in contact by email so much. We had a couple drinks over chit-chat so we could get to know each other a little better, and so they could relax a bit before picture time. ;) Chico is of course another beautiful venue. We started out in this field of flowers right next to the main lodge . . . and this one is probably my favorite of the day . . .





I totally think TJ is making fun of me to Alison in this photo :)


Another beautiful bride, how am I getting so lucky? I can't wait to see Alison in white. I ran a simple black and white action on this photo called Bitchin' B&W. Love the name!


We did find a golf cart for them to make out in . . .


And TJ is workin' the camera in this one!




So about the heavy lifting . . . I brought this old chair to use in some of the photos (which you'll see in the slideshow). TJ was such a gentleman, carrying it everywhere for me. This was one of the last photos taken of the evening as we were walking back to the car, and it's definitely one of my favorites.




It was a beautiful evening and they are a beautiful couple, thank you Alison and TJ! You guys are a lot more photogenic than you think! ;)