This is cool .

I love doing creative different things with my photography. I am so excited for this month. I am photographing a bridal shower that I know is going to be stunning ! And I have the chance to shoot a birth !! Ekkk !!!!!

What a honor to be asked to capture such a special moment in a persons life.

The beginning of a new one.

Yes, I do love my job.

oh, hey everyone who reads this ( I know people do ) in fact i had TWO people this weekend tell me they read my blog !!

WAHOO !!!

Moving on... I started a new blog to document my personal life. Not that I don't like sharing personal things on here. But i wanted a place that I could blog about my family more, my faith , what i am making for dinner.

You get the picture.

The new blog is here. I will still be updating here all the time but it will be sneak peeks for clients and tutorials for the most part.

Please join me over here too. And leave a comment !!

Seriously i live for comments. its vain and silly i know but its nice to know that your words and thoughts aren't just bouncing into cyberspace.

NOW on to the super cool macro picture i took today with my NOT macro lens. Nope, believe it or not I took this



using my nifty fifty ( 50mm 1.4 )

I found the tutorial here. If you have a dslr camera you can do this with any lens you have. Take the lens off and flip it around. Use your hand to FIRMLY hold the lens in place and look through your viewfinder. You have just created a macro lens !!

Now its not going to be the best focus because you cant manually focus or use auto focus. You just have to get really close to the thing you are photographing. Just keep moving in until the object is in focus.

I can't wait to play around with this more. I fully plan on using this trick in October at the weddings I am photographing !!

Leave some love and check out the new blog !! leave love there too !!

lunchtime on Tuesday

Sometimes I avoid blogging because i have nothing profound to say. Not that when I do blog i am profoundy sounding or anything . But I like to have a point ya know.

But today as I was watching Myka finish up her lunch I took out my camera and snapped a few pics. And I really like them .


I need to remember these moments.
cherish them.


She is two years old now. And it will go by fast .

(are all two year olds this messy?)
My ten year old reminds me of that everyday.having kids who were all born in August is emotional overload. No mom should have to go through her babies growing up all at the same time. I guess moms with twins deal with this. If you are reading this and you have twins you will have to let me know if it is double the emotion.

This is my 100th blog post.

And all I have to share are random thoughts.

We are home from our two week stay in Wisconsin. We had so much fun. It was the kind of trip that was good for the soul. I saw my 93 year old grandmother and when I hugged her all was right with the world. I drove down to the Chicago area and saw my best friend and her beautiful babies. Her daughter Sophia and Myka are the same age. I just know that they are going to be the best of friends someday. We were even able to squeeze in a photo shoot while I was there. But More on that later.

School starts in Two weeks !! I cant the song " its the Most wonderful time of the year " out of my head. it may not really be the MOST wonderful time of the year, but its darn close. I am anxious for the routine of school to start back up again. 

Myka learned how to crawl out of her crib !! This has put a whole new spin on bed time. I know its time for a big girl bed but I need to baby proof her room first. *sigh* I really enjoyed having some where to put her when I needed her to stay put.

On the flight back from Wisconsin I sat next to the man who owns all the dunkin donuts in the valley. He was very nice. He didn't complain once that Ashlynn and Myka kept switching seats with each other. Or that Ashlynn had to go to the rest room five times. He even laughed when Myka asked him to rub her tummy. ( he then informed her that mommy would be better at it ).

back to the reason for this blog The pictures,

We did this shoot in Libertyville. The town I grew up in, on the street me and My best friend both grew up on. It was the perfect street to be a kid on. It was the kind of neighborhood where people knew their  neighbors and the kids played together from sun up to sun down.

Fun is a understatement.

to say we had fun on vacation would be a understatement.

We had like superfun !! The bestest fun ever !!! The most fun of our entire lives !!

Ok, I am quoting my 6 year old. but she summed up the trip well. I am convinced that San Diego is the best place to spend the fourth of July in the world. The weather was perfect. Some might say it was chilly. But my Arizona skin just soaked it up.  We watched the fireworks over the water. I took pictures while my husband comforted a terrified baby.

We went to the beach twice .


 And spent a day at Sea world. Shamu was a no go. But the sea lions were awesome.

Now I am getting ready for two weeks in Wisconsin. I hope it rains. It looks like my wish will probably come true. I am excited to sit on the porch of my grandmas house and drink ice tea. I will also get to meet my best friends children and my new cousin.

So excited.


here are some more pictures from our trip.



My husbands grandparents.they have been married 50 years. I cant wait to say that someday :)

lexi and Locks of love

I am so stinking proud of my kid. She is pretty rad. She has been growing her hair out all year so she could donate a ponytail to locks of love. Yesterday she came to me and announced in a very grown up voice that it was time. It was also time for little miss M's first haircut .

sniffle.....
wimper.......
wahhhhhhhhhhhh....

How did my baby get big enough for a haircut ? I must stop blinking. Everything is going by to fast. Lexi is old enough to understand how to be giving of herself. She made a choice to go without so that someone else may have.It makes my heart sing.
Myka is experiencing a new first every time I turn around. I swear she will be going off to college before I know it.

And Ashlynn got her bangs trimmed. My sweet Ash. Her hair has some more growing to do before she is ready to donate to Locks of love. And she has had her first haircut already. She truly is the middle child.

Sorry Kiddo :)

Why did you name her Myka ????

I was not one of those women who loved being pregnant. In fact I loathe it. Most women get these cute little bellies that look like they swallowed basketballs. I got a wide a** and a puffy face. When I found out I was pregnant with number three I belonged to a online forum of moms who were all due around the same time. It was cute how the first time moms took pictures week by week of their ever cutely expanding basketball bellies. But I had to laugh at the thought of doing that myself. My belly was a pile of extra skin and the two tacos I had for lunch. Nothing cute there people. Move along, no seriously, MOVE ALONG !!!
I was barfy for the entire nine months. And not the kind of barfy that eating a few crackers would help. I was zapped of energy and moody ( just ask my poor husband) No sir, me and pregnancy do not mix.
But in the midst of the barfing, weight gain , and mood swings there was one day I always looked forward to ( besides my due date). It was the day we got to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Imagine my shock and horror when the clearly inept ultra sound tech told me not with one child but with TWO pregnancies that they couldn't tell the sex of the baby !!!! The first time it happened with my oldest daughter I left in tears. Swearing up and down that I didn't care I just wanted to know ( total lie, I wanted a baby girl ). But , I was trying to be all mature about things.
My second daughter I was told had spina bifida. So I had lots of fancy high tech ultra sounds. We knew early on she was a girl. And she was FINE :) ( dont get me started on all the tests they insist on putting poor pregnant mommies through).
So my last pregnancy i waited patiently for the day of my ultra sound. My hubby took the day off work, and I filled my bladder to the brim with water. There was no way I was leaving that appointment without knowing the sex of that baby.
But, that baby had other plans. That baby wanted to close its legs and open them for no one. We tried for almost a hour. When i insisted i stand on my head to see if that would put the baby in a better position the ultra sound tech kicked us out of her room.


I was heartbroken.

So that night when we sat down to discuss names we both agreed that we wanted a biblical name. We opened our bible and started looking. As we looked we talked about what we wanted for our child. We knew that we wanted above all for our child to love God and love others. We wanted our child to be a world changer, to be a voice for those without one.
Then my husband remembered this verse......

Micah 6:8 (New International Version)

8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

And that was it. Boy or girl the baby would be Micah. When little miss Myka came into the world we did change the spelling. I think it sounds more girly. My husband thinks I'm nuts. But he went with it. I know she has some high expectations on her. But I think she looks like a world changer !! A clean one :)

It was windy out today.

This time of year is so bittersweet. While the rest of the country is rejoicing in the bliss of springtime and dreaming of summertime, we in Arizona are preparing to hibernate for 5 months.
The past few weeks we have been in the 90's. The sun has been shining down its violent rays warning us of the temperatures to come. To make matters worse. Our air conditioning is broke. I think God is testing me.

But today *sigh* today was a gift from heaven. Today i stepped out into the parking lot of the grocery store and smelled rain. I LOVE the smell of rain. The air this afternoon was thick with it. I was positively giddy as I loaded my children and groceries into the car. Delighting in every cold raindrop that hit my skin. As I closed the van doors and made my way to return my shopping cart, I closed my eyes and pretended i was back in Chicago.

It was nice.

Today was nice.

Rain is nice.

babies with no pants on while they play outside in the rain are nice.

some things.......

in honor of my 28th birthday i decided to make a list of some random things about my childhood and life that i feel like have helped make me who I am today. The good the bad, and the just plain lauren moments.....

1. When i was about 7 years old i was attacked by a bumble bee in my back yard. The bee stung me 5 times before I made it inside. It then proceeded to ram its self into the screen door repeatedly until my dad went out side and killed it. Ever since that day I have been terrified of bees.

2.i grew up right next to rail road tracks. I lived in a suburb of Chicago so the train ran all the time. I never noticed the noise until i moved away from it. where we live now there is a train about a mile away from us. Sometimes I stay up late just so i can hear it go by at midnight. i close my eyes and imagine my old house and rainbow bite bed. It brings me comfort.

3.i once locked my keys in my car with my car running twice in the same day.

4.After my Dad died sometimes me and my mom would stay up late and watch Nick-at-nite together. the theme songs from Mary tyler morre and dick van dyke still make me smile.

5. I choked on a piece of hard candy on a field trip to a fire station when I was in second grade. i actually passed out . I think its why i cant eat hard candy now. i have a insane fear of choking.

6.My all time favorite tv show is Roseanne. i dont know why. i just think its really funny.

7. I met my husband when I was 12. but it took me until I was 23 to realize he was my soul mate.

8.I have known most of my friends since third grade. some even longer.

9. I have ADD. Like for real . So school was always really hard. I wish i would have done better. But i think it fuels me to make sure my daughters do well.

10. i love photography. Duh, I mean I really love it. I feel like when I look through the lens the world makes sense again. maybe its a control thing ??? But it make me complete.

And last but not least.... I got to take pictures of this cute little guy over the weekend !