Precious in the Sight of the Lord | Murrieta Portrait Photographer

^{1 Peter 3:3-4}

³ Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; ⁴ but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 

A couple of weeks ago, I had spent some time with some of the girls and women from my church. It was an evening where we could all get together, study, eat, and just hang out while the men in our church spent their evening participating in their "man day."  Us girls did girly things like have a mini photo session that correlated with what we would study later that night, make Christmas cards in front of a crackling fire place, and just study our roles as women; the way God intended us to be.  We snacked, talked, laughed, and most of all learned from and encouraged each other. I had such a great time and I can't wait for the next one. Here are my favorite pictures from earlier that day. 

A little more personal | Murrieta Portrait Photographer

I've been so lazy about blogging... this needs to change. I take pictures everyday of things Savannah and I do together, things that we do as a family, or just every day photos that never get shared. I think from now on, I will start posting a lot more of my personal photos on here. Not just my sessions with clients, but things in my daily life that I document. 

This morning, Savannah and I baked some blueberry muffins. We do this quite often, and she never gets bored of it! It's so fun to do things like this together. Especially with baby #2 on the way, moments like these with my daughter are so precious to me. It's memories like these from my childhood that I cherish with my mom.

 Greasing the muffin pans with butter (Making Paula Deen proud)

 Just one of the perks of baking :)

 All finished and ready to eat!

 The grapefruit looked so pretty.

 "Cheers Mama"

I think she approved of her pastry skills.

Officially a home owner! | Murrieta Portrait Photographer

My husband and I are officially home owners! We moved into our new home in Murrieta on the 9th and it's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun getting everything personalized to our liking. It feels so good to be able to decorate, garden, and do whatever we want to our house to make it really feel like home. We've been making daily trips to Home Depot, Lowe's and the local antique malls and stores. We are antique junkies! I love rummaging through what most people would think looks like a pile of junk to find something that is beautiful, or something that I can make beautiful again. Things just aren't made like they were before. Most of the furniture people get nowadays won't even last 5 years it's so cheaply made. Particle board is now the norm...how sad is that? We have a few projects to finish, but once they are done, I will post pictures of our home. So exciting!

These last [almost] two weeks, I have had a lot of time to spend organizing and unpacking since I had no internet or cable until yesterday. I was going a little bit crazy (I'm not going to lie) but it was definitely a necessity for things to get done around here. I get distracted a little too easily with the computer. :) I had some time to try and organize my computer folders...I am still nowhere near finished or how it needs to be, but at least I started to attack the beast of a mess my computer is. I came across some photos I took of my husband a couple of years ago. I don't know why this one isn't printed! I love it. Isn't he handsome? I just started my photography and had decided to use my husband as a model for a fun shoot during some leave days. On the drive down to the harbor, it got super foggy which was really random and I couldn't have been any happier about it. It added so much mood to my nautical theme that I had planned for. This was a really fun shoot. We coudln't stop laughing at him being "model." But I'd definitely hire him! ;) Anyways, just because every post needs a photo, here it is! :) Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. I have some exciting sessions coming up soon, so check back often!

My Girly Girl | San Diego Portrait Photographer

My little girl just turned two at the beginning of the month. I know everyone says it; that the time goes by so quickly when you have children. But seriously...in hindsight, it's a blink. I love Savnnah's quirkiness, voice, growing vocabulary, humor, personality, and just everything about her. (Yes, even those "terrible two fits; her face is still cute!) The last few months, Savannah's been so interested in my makeup. I always gave her my powder brush and let her rub it all over her face to appease the whining and crawling toddler up my legs. Lol. But today, I gave her some old blush and obnoxiously bright pink lipstick I had to play with also. Can you tell she loved every moment of it? She was giggling, puckering, and looking at herself in the mirror less than an inch away. It was so funny.  I remember playing with my mom's makeup in the 80's and I was just drawn to her hot pink lipstick and blushes! Now...what I want to know is where the heck did my hot pink lipstick come from? Must have been in a sample gift bag...but Savannah can have it. :)

 Oh the joys of being a girl!

Grounded...

I am now just swinging back into a normal schedule after a horrible month. My dad was just released out of the hospital a couple of days ago and is now living at home with us. In a crammed nutshell, He was in the ICU under an induced coma with a ventilator for 9 days, and recovering another 3 weeks bed ridden all from double pneumonia, a lung infection, the flu, and renal failure. As a renal transplant patient, he has no immune system, so this did a work on his body and the Dr's didn't think he was going to make it. He fought through all because of the Grace of God and now is living at home with me since he can no longer walk due to the massive amounts of steroids pumped into his body during those 9 days. If you have tried writing me or getting a hold of me in the last month, I apologize. Please try again. Hope everyone has an amazing day!

Here is a photo of my sister who flew out from East Texas on a days notice once the hospital told us how bad things were. 

My Little Lady... | San Diego Portrait Photographer

At the shoot with Vinny & Savannah, there were Lady Bugs everywhere. Here are some behind the scenes pictures of Savannah holding one after wards with Dada.

Stragglers

Here are a few stragglers from yesterday's shoot. :)

Young Love

This is my daughter Savannah and her best friend Vinny. You may remember him from the pumpkin patch pictures in October. But, because of the wonderful weather we've been having in San Diego, I really wanted to do an outdoor shoot. Everywhere I go, there is soft, new grass from all that rain we had a while ago.  This was a last minute shoot, and I found this location just a couple hours before... If you know me, I love antique/Victorian, shabby chic, and all that good stuff! So this was a lot of fun. :) Vinny always tries to hug and kiss Savannah, and she normally doesn't go for it. But today...as you can see, she was all for it. Such a little model.