Children: Cate, 1 week

How perfect is she?

My sister's new baby, Cate, is progressing well and we are praying she will be able to go home soon! The last three months have been crazy long and I think our whole family is craving our typical, everyday routines again!




Cute flower headband, right? I thought so anyway! I found the flower in a scrapbooking set and sewed it to a baby headband! I think she looks crazy cute in it!

Here's the announcement I designed that my sister chose! If Cate doesn't melt your heart...

Kauai: Rick and Ashley Mini-Shoots

Have I mentioned, these two individuals are INCREDIBLE? Prior to our recent Hawaii wedding, we spent a few days learning about the island of Kauai with personal tour guides - Rick and Ashley! These two spent a bit over a year working on the island and were so eager to show off the incredible beauty of the island to Sarah and I! While we saw so many phenomenal locations, we also had two models! Rick and Ashley were so great to us and we can't thank them enough. And on the flip side, I think they will love to have images of the two of them during this special time in their life.

This shot is from our way down from Waimea Canyon. We drove all the way to the top of the canyon and it was too foggy to see anything. Bummer! I guess that means we have to go back again someday!


This shot is from what they call, Glass Beach. The area used to be a dump. I checked with Ashley and she explained that over time, the waves turned all that broken glass to sand and there is other debris on the rocks around the beach. Either way, this was one of my top favorite places we went to! Rick was a trooper after getting wet by a crashing wave about two minutes in! In one of Ashley's photo albums on Facebook I saw a pic of this tree. I told her we had to go back!


We drove up the north shore of Kauai to the Kilauea light house. It was blazing hot but we got a few fun shots! The view was phenomenal!!! I have tons of "just scenery shots" that I'll post soon too!



We ended our drive up the north shore with a stop at this dry cave across from Ha-ena Beach Park.

Children: Alexis

This is our beautiful Goddaughter, Alexis! Alexis is our niece on my hubby's side. I love having cute nieces and nephews to model for me all the time! I'm getting anxious for Lexi to be more mobile so we can go outside next time!



This little girl NEVER stops smiling! I am a huge exaggerator but in this case - no way! She is always smiling and giggling! Love her!




I think we wore her out! Look how sleepy and sweet she turned toward the end! Can't wait to see you at Easter, Alexis!

A bit of me Friday: A Day Late

Whoops a daisy! I missed Friday! Dang! My intensions are always there, but my follow through is terrible when it comes to my blog lately! I'm going to attempt to prepare a few posts ahead of time this week and see how it goes!

I thought I'd share a few pics of the new business cards I recently designed! In the last few years of running my own business, I've focused so much on the creativeness through photography that I lost the fine arts touch that I always vowed to keep as part of my business brand. I have tons of ideas how to incorporate more art into my photography and hope to implement more and more or those ideas throughout the summer (once school's out)! I need to update my site and blog and hope I can pull off the "look" I envision. The same goes for some advertising pieces and albums as well as my packaging! Just thinking about it gets me all excited!!!

The front of the card features Caitlyn and Geoffe with a sweet new font I found!

And the back is fun with a little drawing I made to imitate me holding an old camera!


Keep watching for changes!!! Oh, and I almost forgot - I got a card a few days ago saying The Locket was nominated for KCRG's A-List! Awesome news! I'll touch again on that later!

A bit of me Friday: Family Room

I LOVE to decorate and dream of a job where I can decorate for a living, specifically using photography as an element in every design! Doesn't that sounds phenomenal? For now - I'll keep dreaming and decorating my own home!

My hubby and I finally bought our first home last fall and we are slowly getting it put together! The first room I finished is our family room. The shape of this room is really long and skinny so I needed to come up with a unique idea for that long stretch of wall. After many different ideas, we decided on a suspended photo wall and went to town! The outcome... I love it, I love it, I love it!!!




We bought our two white couches at Ikea and built our family room around those. I figure I can change the room as often as I want with white couches to work with. The two chairs were bought next. After searching stores online, in Chicago, and in Des Moines, we found a great deal on a look we were going for at Slumberland. The TV cabinet was something I've had for a long time. It was originally a deep red but I painted it black and embellished it with silver hardware. The coffee table is from Ikea too. I printed a huge photo to fit under the glass and I change it from season to season. Sometimes I have little boxes of fake grass on the table, but right now I have this sweet bowl filled with split peas and topped with small disco ball ornaments. My younger brother built the shelf shaped like a branch and gave it to me for Christmas. Right now it is my favorite part of the room! Many of the accessories are from Ikea, with several of my own touches mixed in. I went with a black and white theme with just a few touches of color brought in from the colors in our kitchen.



All of the photos on our "hanging photo wall" are photos from my travels. There are images from Florida, New York, Italy, New Orleans, Prague, and Iowa. I love the combination of color palettes and that each photo tells such a personal story! We bought the tracking and hardware at Ikea and the chain at Lowes. I had the shop teacher at my school cut masonite for us and I painted them white. After drilling small holes in the boards, I glued the photos down and measured out the spacing. I love the white borders against the dark gray walls!



I hung obnoxiously glittery ornaments from the tracking and from our new ceiling fans for Christmas. I took my trees down a long time ago, but kept the ornaments up much longer than I probably should have because I loved them so much!




Next, I'm on the hunt for a new floor lamp for the room. I imagine one that hangs in an arch and is oversized. I dream of ditching the TV cabinet one day and putting in a fireplace at the end of the long room with a flat screen above it on the wall. I can't wait for school to be out so I have time to tackle another room!

Anytime: Hallelujah

Thank you Lord for the sun today! We have had so many foggy, dreary days lately, that today just put me in a good mood! As I walked to my car on my lunch break this afternoon, it even smelled like spring! I don't know how to describe the smell of spring, but it was fabulous! And I heard birds chirping too!

On my drive home from school, the sun had come out and I felt like I was dreaming! I love snow, but I'm done with it for the year and was so excited to see the sun making the fields golden! I am so excited about upcoming shoots and events I can hardly wait!

Introducing.....

the long awaited -

Cate Hazel



She is simply beautiful! Just a gorgeous little peanut! My sister, Eve, was due with her third child toward the end of April. To everyone's surprise, Eve's water broke January 2nd! The long journey to the goal date of March 5th, 6 weeks early, was a long haul! Although it was tough to leave her family behind, we were lucky I live so close to the University Hospital! I could stop nearly every day and help pass the loooong sixty-some days in the hospital. The outcome was soooo, so, so worth it!!! We were praying for at least 4 pounds, and she was 5 lbs. 2 oz. Crazy prayers being answered!





I love Cate's name! My mom's name is Mary Kathleyn, but she has gone by Kathleyn her entire life. My dad, and only my dad, calls my mom Kate so that's where my sister Eve and her husband got the name Cate. Hazel is our grandmother's name. They chose to go with a "C" rather than a "K" because their other daughter is named Caroline Helen.

More pictures to come once we're able to hold her!

Kauai: Chad and Allyson

You've seen this couple before! Sarah and I shot Chad and Allyson's wedding in northern Iowa this summer. Allyson is our Hawaiian bride, Ashley's younger sister. We did a mini shoot with Chad and Allyson before Ashley and Rick's rehearsal dinner.



I love the orange glow of the sun in these images!



Another Hawaiin sunset!



This was the beach Rick and Ashley nearly switched their ceremony to at the last minute! This beach was gorgeous but the spot they ultimately chose was just perfect! I'm glad they shared this pretty spot with Chad and Allyson!


The first few images were shot on top of that cliff. We heard that a lot of people get married at the top of it. From the bottom it looked super high, but it only took five minutes to walk up it!

I loved Allyson's pink dress against the rocks!