SIMPLE PLEASURES

We really don't have a lot of toys for our baby. Yes, I do feel kinda guilty. But when a cup is the neatest toy in the world, who needs to spend $50 on a toy? In case you were wondering about her outfit, she is in her pj's. They are like a potato sack. It cracks me up when she tries to crawl in them. I love this girl!

WHAT MATTERS MOST

As I sit at my computer watching all these fires affecting my family and friends my heart grows heavy. It's a horrible feeling seeing pictures of your home town look like this...

I feel very helpless. I'm praying very hard for those affected by all these fires. 

These events have got me thinking about what matters most. If I had to leave my home at a moment's notice, what would I take? 

The one and only thing that comes to mind is my family. I would want my family safe. They matter the most.

9 MONTHS

We took my baby's 9 month pictures last night. She did not want to cooperate. I couldn't get her to smile or even look at the camera half the time. I was also really bummed out with the lighting. I'm going to take more pictures of her next week when we go visit my family in Colorado! Hopefully she will smile for me.

STYLE

One of my biggest struggles with photography has been trying to define my style and make it stand out. You may have notice I changed the design of my blog. I wanted something much more clean and simple. I'm sure my blog design will change again as I try to fine tune my style as a photographer. 

When people look at my pictures I want them to feel refreshed, almost as if they have taken a drink of ice cold water on a hot summer day. Yes, I'm a visual person! ha ha! My goal is to make my style feel pure, simple, and real. We are taking family pictures tonight as well as my baby's 9 month pictures. I hope to be able to portray this style as I take our pictures tonight. Wish me luck! For now, here are just a few images from our life lately.

SOMETHING NEW

At the very beginning of my freshman year of college, I was warned by multiple people to stay away from the baseball players. Often people would say, "Those baseball players are bad news." I seriously thought, sure no problem! Next thing I knew...I was married to a baseball player. I promise you, I found a keeper! My first two years of college I spent lots of time at the ball park watching my hubs play ball. I loved it, and I have really missed it.

My cousin asked me to come and help her do the photography for a baseball tournament in July. I went up North on Saturday to test the waters at a tournament that was going on. It is something very new to me, but I'm up for the challenge! I plan to go up North and practice a little more before the big tournament takes place.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

Scrapbooking, scrapbooking scrapbooking! I love it! I have been really good at keeping up with my baby's scrapbook, but our family one is lacking. On pinterest I have been seeing lots "project life" scrapbook pages. Basically you do one layout a week that displays what you did that week. I love the idea and decided to start it with our family scrapbook. Technically you are supposed to start at the beginning of the year, and I just started mine for last week. Better late than never, right? Here is the spread I just finished for last week.

What I love most about this layout is when I look at it I remember everything we did that week. Perfect journal for me!

Here are a few random pages I have also just finished. I'm not very original with my layouts. Also, if you were wondering, I get most of my digital scrapbooking stuff from design house digital...I'm a big fan of that website!

MR. & MRS. VUYK

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Vuyk! In case you were wondering how to pronounce their last name, it sounds like vike. So like bike with a v instead of a b! haha! We are so excited to have Ken in the family. These two are so cute together! 

I wasn't sure who was taking pictures for their wedding, so I brought my gear just in case. I feel really bad that we didn't talk before hand and discuss what they wanted for pictures. We took about a million group pictures and by the time it was their turn for just the two of them, they were pictures out! I totally remember feeling that way on my wedding. We didn't get a ton of just the two of them, but at least they did a bridal session with both the bride and the groom!