viva new orleans!

we were on the road again this past weekend! this time it was an 11 hour drive to new orleans to visit my cousin, lindsey, and attend the fabulous jazz fest! and what a fantastic time we had :c) it was my first real experience in the south (besides florida) and i enjoyed every bit of it! my cousin made for a great tour guide and took us to the the most superb, hole in the wall, just can't beat, good ol' southern food restaurants. but my all time favorite dish from the trip were some craw fish enchiladas that we got at jazz fest..they were AMAZING! we spent all day sunday at jazz fest, and for fear of the unknown (and a chance of rain) i left my camera at the apt (but there were some awesome opportunities i am sad i missed out on..). i did have my camera on saturday, visiting bourbon street, the french quarters, and the like. but before we started out, i took advantage of the great colors that morning after the rain. the next few pics are of my sister behind my cousins apartment.

here's my sister and cousin waiting for our trolley to take us to the french quarters!

and the three of us excited about jazz fest, photographed by ray.

and ray and i in down town nola (with my cute new hat i bought there :c)

ray's entertainment..the mac

in the next post i'll have some more pics of actual new orleans

it's all about family

this weekend was all about family. ray drove my sister and i down to dallas where we got to see my little sister, bailey, play soccer. my dad, step mom, and their 3 kids live in odessa, tx, so dallas makes for a great meeting ground for us. and this is just the first weekend of family, because this coming weekend we are traveling to new orleans to visit my cousin (and jazz fest!) then family will be in town the next weekend for my sister, kacey's, graduation! can't wait! here's a few (from the many ;c) that i took at the tournament.

a little panning action

and a little physical action!

and best of all...ice cream action! (my favorite :c)

then after getting back in town on sunday, i had the opportunity to take pictures of my friend from work, monica, and her family for a mothers day present! how sweet! our originally planned location of the myriad gardens flopped when we found out that the arts festival was there that weekend (but i got some neat pics while scouting for locations..i'll include one at the end) so we ended up at chesapeake, which turned out great (it's easy when you've got a good lookin' family!)

my first kids shoot! look how well behaved they are!

well, maybe..

this is monica with her sister and brother

what an adorable family

and another

here's a cool piece of art from the festival that spins with the wind (perfect for OK!)

a child's prayer

for those of you who don't know, ray and i are sponsoring a child from ghana through compassion international. he is an amazing 7 year old boy named eric. with our help, he attends a christian school in his own community, and it is amazing to see how God is working through him. we get to write letters back and forth, which are translated with the help of compassion. we send pictures, and he sends us drawings. this is our third letter to get from eric, and i love to hear his passion for God.
the only problem with this? in our last letter to eric, we informed him that we are recently married and have no children, just our fish. in his letter to us, he congratulated us on our recent marriage, and then proceeded with this statement: "i pray for God to give you a bouncy baby boy this year." WHOA! wait a minute. ray says "we are on the 3 year plan", and i say "not now". and the only way we would have a baby now is if God says so. i was okay with that, UNTIL i find out i have an adorable young boy half a world away praying for my future child! now i believe God listens to all prayers, but i also believe there is a special place in his heart for a child's prayer. so where does that leave us? ray is not worried, but after the baby infested week i had last week (my new baby cousin was born, i attended a baby shower, learned of a couples difficult trial for a baby, and found out a close friend of mine is pregnant) i'm not too sure of things. but it's great to know that i have security that what ever happens, its all in God's plan (or a child's prayer).

p.s. sorry for the underexposure on the pic, i can't get the better one to upload.

jeremy and sydnie's "we still do!"

and now for the moment i've been waiting for :c). sydnie is a person i hold very dearly in my heart, and ever since i've started learning photography, i've been begging to take pictures of her and her oh-so-loving husband. now although i've been anxiously waiting for the go ahead, she was patiently waiting for the perfect day, and she did it. we went down to bricktown sunday night in the most gorgeous weather! bricktown is blooming and beautiful, the sun made everything the most gorgeous color (i know now the feeling photographers have when they describe lighting as 'delicious' and 'buttery'!). so, with this adorable couple and the amazing environment, these "we still do!" pics weren't hard to get...

this is on the bridge where jeremy proposed..

jeremy daydreaming..

i see you!

syd's instructions were to give a sexy look, like 'this is MY man!'...she's just too cute to do sexy..

some cuddle time

jeremy showing off..

and like marriage, sometimes you just have to get your feet wet

livin' it old school, cont.

well i had a blast livin' it old school! ian danzinger is the one who graciously gave his services, and he let me participate in this great event. (all my pictures from the event can be viewed on his website, http://ibd-designs.smugmug.com/) sarah, the girl who won the prom giveaway, was a totally fun and down to earth girl. she went to prom with her two best friends, and they were all about being goofy and having a good time, which totally took me back to my high school days. i was grateful to be able to hang out with them all night (i even got a free dinner again!) here's a few shots we took at the jenks river walk. (sarah's in the red dress)

then on sunday i had the blessing of hanging out with my old high school friend, summer dawn.(oh..and i didn't realize this when it happened, but speaking of old school..i seriously dug up and wore some old cross country shorts this weekend, the kind with the little underwear part.. and their soo comfortable, i'm actually wearing them now!) but back to summer.. we had planned on taking some pictures of her and her sister for mothers day, and since that time is close, we took the opportunity to snag a few shots. the bad part was that it was the middle of the afternoon (terrible light) in the prettiest part of sand springs (which doesn't say much). but we got a few..

and then, a little 'monkey-ing' around

in honor of high school

now what mother wouldn't love this!

i love those fairchilds..

livin' it old school

this weekend is a trip back in time for me. it began last night with a double date with our friends, micah and xuan, who just got married last month. we had a wonderful dinner at texas roadhouse, which was made even better when they picked up the tab for our steak and rib dinner (thanks again guys!). then we headed back to their place to see their new puppies.. one thing lead to another and the girls ended up challenging the boys to a game of original nintendo! and of course we kicked their booties (after a couple attempts thought, we made it a bit more challenging by adding some margaritas to the mix). and to top of the old school weekend, tonight, i am going to (can you guess it?)... prom! yes, i will be attending the sapulpa prom in the double tree hotel in downtown tulsa. and yes, mom, i will be there alone (call me pathetic if you want :c) but it's actually a photography job. a couple won several services for their prom night, and one of them is complete coverage with a personal photographer. so here i go, wish me luck!



a tribute..

simple things.

breakfast in bed. a baby shower. homemade cupcakes. a good girl talk. flying kites. a beautiful sunset. simple things. in all the hustle and bustle of trying to stay busy and keep up, i sometimes forget the simple things. today was a day dedicated to simple things. the list above was my day's activities, each of which i enjoyed thoroughly without too much of a worry of what i 'could' be doing or 'should' be doing. sometimes its best to stop and smell the roses.