For Jeff

Last weekend I met another wonderful military family out at the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens...although it was a lovely winter morning, it was still a bit chilly! I'm amazed that Kim has been a military wife for 20+ years! I'm praying that the remainder of this deployment goes quickly for you all and that your husband stays safe and healthy. These families are truly a special kind. Scott, their oldest son, leaves for his basic training in just a few weeks. We made sure to get some nice photos of him and his sweet girlfriend - Brittney - to take with him :) Good luck at training Scott...and Joey enjoy your high school years!

All the very best to you guys! Thanks for contacting me, it was great to spend the morning with you. I hope that these photos can bless your family during this time...thank you all for all the years that you have given to serve!

Chelsa

Myles Schaefer Gilbert

As some of you know, Ben and I spent New Years in Colorado visiting his side of the family. Although it was great to see everyone, the best part was finally meeting this little guy - Myles Schaefer Gilbert, our first nephew. The name "Myles" means soldier. Born with Downs Syndrome, Myles and his parents have already battled through so many health issues in his young age. You can read more about their journey on their blog - Gilberts Nuthouse.

These are Myles' 5 month pictures! We had a heck of a time doing this session, but it was fun! The first major challenge was lighting. It was 10 pm, so we had no natural lighting. Gilby remedied this by setting up those huge construction lights - bright and hot! I should have taken a photo of our set up. It was photography challenge to say the least. All in all I think we got at least a few good ones!! I hope you guys like them :)

Chelsa

My Snow Angel & Resolutions

January's Quote : "Life is tough. I recommend getting a manicure and a really cute helmet." ~ Curly Girl Designs - live imperfectly with great delight.


Happy New Year! Ben and I had an amazing Christmas celebration with my family in Canada, and then were blessed to be able to see his family for New Years (those photos coming soon!)...it's been some time since I blogged! Here we go again....

This lovely lady is my younger sister, Taylor. She is one of my favourite people to photograph because she is always up for shining for my camera and letting me play :) Plus she is super fun, funny, brilliant, bold, glamourous, & not only a great person but a truly loyal friend.

Doesn't the winter snow make for some awesome photos?! I love it!!! It was a fun treat :)

Okay, so what are your New Years Resolutions? I haven't truly made any in past new years, but this year is a little different....I don't know, maybe because I am older and I find as you get older staying motivated becomes more and more your own responsibility! Remember when you were younger and doing things like keeping your brain stimulated (school) & staying active (because you played school sports)...weren't really options!

So here are my official 2009 Resolutions :

- Do more yoga, and just stretching in general. - Go to the gym at least (bare minimum here) once a week - and try to do a spinning class once a week. - Read a book a month (anyone looking for a book club?) - Try out a hot yoga class (is that what it's called?) at least once (total). - And keep up with Sudoku (I joined the bandwagon over Christmas thanks to Ben who was the first person to successfully teach me).

I have plenty of more things I would like to do in 2009... these are just a few things that I think I can realistically do each month to stay active and healthy :) Please comment and share a few of yours!

Family Christmas Photos in the Park

My friend Heather asked me to do their family Christmas photos this year! You truly are a beautiful family.

It is crazy that Christmas is in a week, and it has been mid 60's here...way too warm for Christmas!

So here are a few good ones from the session, I hope you like them!

Pee Ess - This months book is "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd....we are going to have a get together sometime in January over it..If you want to want to be a part of this get in touch with me :) (It is SO good so far!!)

Blog Worthy Movie Titles

Since my man has been Armying it up the last couple weeks, I have been educating my movie/book palette....and there are definitely some noteworthy titles to share! This is a good post for those of you like me who get to the movie store and have NO clue what to rent. These are great choices!

Finishing up "Time Travelers Wife" ... in fact we have our book club get together tomorrow...definitely a noteworthy novel! It is a great love story...the plot and writing is so very brilliant.

My sister in London recommended "Amelie" as her favourite french movie. AMAZING. I loved it. It is adorable, clever, colourful, and fun.

Tonight's watch was "Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day" based on the novel by Winifred Watson. Definitely would make a great bookclub book. The movie is just great!! It will make you smile :)

And then of course I had to watch "PS I Love You" and cry my eyes out!

Soon to see "Mamma Mia" and "Baby Mama".... they look like fun too :)

Thanksgiving Love

Ben and his folks - Dick and Jane.

I love this one of Derek and Karyse! When you are around them it is so evident how much they love, respect, and admire one another.


My beautiful mom and pops..



I LOVE these portraits of my mom and Karyse!!


It is pretty impressive. Three years running Ben and I have been blessed to spend American Thanksgiving with both sets of parents...and always a sibling or two...this year my cousin Karyse and her husband Derek came too! The neat thing is that we are never in the same place. Colorado. San Antonio. And this year in Asheville. Nice work family - we had such a great time with you all...thank you so much for making the effort to see us!

A little post processing fun...

I didn't mention in my post "Sunday Couple" that the session was for Chris and Sonya's two year anniversary...but it was! Love and marriage is sweet isn't it!? Well here are a few more piccies for you all to enjoy!

Sunday Couple | Chris & Sonya

Due to scattered thunderstorms yesterday, we decided to wait until this morning to do a portrait session with our friends Chris & Sonya...it was worth it! We found a gem of a spot downtown to take portraits... and despite the strong light from the sun, it created some deliciously romantic lens flare, which was only the cherry-on-top to how gorgeous this couple is.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do a session with you! It was a lot of fun, and I especially am loving going through your images...hopefully this "sneak peak" is fun for you both before the guys head to the field :)

Talk to you soon!

Charleston, South Carolina

Cypress Gardens...where that awesome scene in The Notebook (and The Patriot) was filmed!





Above: In the garden of the Boone Plantation...



Ben and I had an incredible Veteran's Day weekend! Our friends - Matt & Johnni, also stationed down in the South - met up with us in the beautiful Southern and Coastal city of Charleston, SC. Matt & Johnni humoured me as I basked in the abundance of incredible places to take portraits....actually we all had our fun taking photos this weekend! I do not even know where to begin posting, but this is a start.

It is pretty cool to meet up with this wonderful couple. Ben and Matt have been buddies since Elementary School, and all three of them have gone through High School & University together. What a fun weekend, thanks again you two!

Cotton Fields in Autumn

Wow, is Autumn ever wonderful in North Carolina! This is my first Autumn here, and a few weeks back, I was delighted to discover cotton fields! To those who grew up here I am sure this is so normal, but I have never seen it before. So today, I got out of my car to touch it and document it! Actually, the fields are half way cultivated (is that the word you use for cotton?) by big tractors already, so by this time next week I might not have found any to photograph. And for those of you up north who have never had this wonderful experience, it is pretty cool. They bundle up all this cotton into big huge rectangular bales, even bigger than the big round hay bales! I wanted to get a photograph of those also to show you, but didn't want to risk the traffic on the 2 single laner....

SHiNE in Wilmington

My friend Annah - CEO of SHiNE Christian Magazine - called me last minute on Friday to see if we'd be interested in doing a shoot at Wrightsville Beach, NC and at the Wilmington Fair on Saturday. I am so glad we went because the location, the weather and of course the models were gorgeous!

It is so exciting to be a part of what God is doing through Annah's vision for the magazine. She has some major conference calls with people in the high end cosmetic industry this week - and I know that God is using this woman to further His Kingdom in a super cool way!