Andrea's Shower

This weekend, I helped throw my best friend Andrea's wedding shower! It was a lot of fun. I got to stay with Andrea and her parents (my second parents). It's so funny we feel just like we did in highschool- two goofy girls who laugh a lot together. And now we are both married (or soon to be!) The shower was wonderful- There was yummy food, old friends, and presents galoure!! Enjoy the pictures!

Kansas City

Over Spring Break- Nat and I got to go to KANSAS CITY to see my parents! Were really excited because we hadn't seen them since December. We flew out early Thursday morning, and after a stop in Dallas- arrived in KC around noon. It was a beautiful day, mid seventies and dry so we spent some time outside, and I took some pics of my precious dogsss. Thursday night we went to this amazing tapas place with Nat's aunt and uncle Clif and Lisa. WE hadn't seen them since the wedding either- so it was good to catch up. Friday we ventured to Oklahoma Joe's, a famous BBQ place. The line was out the door!! About 45 minutes later we finally received our plates. IT WAS DELICIOUS!! And definitely worth the wait. I had brisket, sausage and potato salad. YUM. We also shared the best onion rings I've EVER had. After lunch we went to union station in KCMO. It was really cool, got some really pretty pictures. Friday night mi padre grilled out the best fajitas ever! And we watched more. basketball. Saturday we took a walk with the dogs at the park. It was a really nice, semi cool day. I always enjoy a good walk with the dogs- you never know what kind of adventures we will find!! That evening we headed to The Plaza, did some window shopping and went to dinner at M & S Grill. They have the BEST calamari and I had a HUGE shrimp pasta dish.. yum!! Sunday we walked again, this time plus dad, momsie and I spend some QT lounging, we ate some yummy cupcakes and Nat and I trekked back to Houston.

It. was. wonderful. I love you parents! Here are some pictures (more to come when I upload from my "real" camera)

This is Ginger aka "Pinge" Shes the sweetest dog you'll ever meet, also the most obsessed with food.

Pinge and Soph- best friends.

This is Sophi aka "Soph a Loaf" she is the most chill dog you will ever meet.

This is my amazing plate at M & S Grill

Our yum yum cupcakes!

Nat's Fish and Chips at M & S Grill

My platre at OK Joes.


Why are all of our pictures of food? Lol.

Fried WHAT?

On Wednesday, My cousin Christie, Christy, Georgia and I headed to the Houston Livestock show and rodeo. I am always AMAZED by the rodeo. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE THERE. You would think no ONE else was left in houston. The lines were pretty INSANE because of spring break, but we had a good time. We def had our fill of fried goodness, and misc on a stick. Yum!! Next year I'm not going during spring break though.

i would NOT reccommend this place. The sign is funny- but the people are rude and it takes FOREVER. we ended up going to another stand and had our fried snickers in a matter of minutes!

"Cowgirls" at the rodeo

Pre- Concert Rodeo Festivities

Miranda Lambert- Fun times!

Zoo

Spring break.. ahh what a tease. A peak into the life of those unemployed (by choice) I loved it as always and got to do many fun things! Starting with Monday.. The Heston/Anderson Ladies and I (and cooper) went to the Zoo. It was a great day spent with my little loves. Here are some fun pics

Payton Riding the Carousel with Me!

Payton in her sweet Shades

This is what happens when you let your 3 year old niece play with your phone.

the girls after the rain storm! You can't tell but they are soked! Everybody stayed happy though!

Super cooper. Muscle Man. Watch out ladies

Katelyn, Payton and Me at the Giraffes!

busy, busy!

Nat and I had another amazing weekend. It went by SO fast, I'm not even sure it actually happened, but I have pictures to prove it. Friday night we went to one of our favorites, Candalaris with the Baldwins, and Lims. We love them :) And we devoured this:

Plus 2 more pizzas. After that I fell into a pizza induced coma and was asleep by 10. Saturday morning we got up early to babysit our sweet nieces Katelyn and Elizabeth. They were hilarious as ever. Elizabeth looks about 10 times bigger than the last time I saw her, and she's just as smiley as ever. She really enjoyed looking at herself on the camera in my phone.

Katelyn and I played puzzles, had a sweet dance party, and watched mickey mouse! While Elizabeth was napping, I set out to spray paint some chairs to be used for props for my photography! Here the rocking chair is as a work in progress.

It turned out really cute! I also spray painted the brown chair in the background yellow. We used the rocker in one of my photo shoots yesterday and they loved it!!! Ok so Saturday afternoon after we were done babysitting, we headed to Nat's co-workers for a wedding shower. Once we got home from that- I hung a shelf I had been asking Nat to do for weeks :) And did it right the first time I might add :) lol, then we had dinner with our sweet friends Kyle and Caroline Reynolds who were in town from Waco! It was great to see them- we've missed them! After dinner we headed out to Derrick's Tavern to play a couple rounds of darts (well the boys did) The Baldwins and the Ryngala's met us there. I love having a "group"! It was a great time. I did a terrible job of taking pictures this weekend, sorry, none of us!

Sunday we went to church, loved it as always. Sunday afternoon I had two family photo sessions lined up. You can see a preview of those pictures here. (pictures will be up tonight) It was a blast, I am loving this photography thing more and more! My sweet husband accompanied me the whole time, his support means so much to me! AND he was a HUGE help.

In other exciting news, I got my brand new Canon 60d camera this past week and am LOVING it. It's been so fun playing around with it, and I can't wait to learn more about all of its features and settings!

That's all for now, stay tuned for SPRING BREAK!!! Halleluiah! Countdown: 4 Days.

Jokes on HIM!!

Disclaimer: If you are reading this post because of the light hearted title, and you think you need a good laugh, I might go ahead and advise you to stop now. This will acutally be one of my few "trying to be deep" posts.

Usually I use this blog to post pictures and write silly things about Nat and my first experiences as a married couple. But I also think its a cool way to share what God's been doing in my life. So here we go.. A couple of weeks ago, for a reason unknown to me, I was hit with the idea that I wanted to begin to pick back up my long lost hobby of photography. I hadn't really done much with photography since my time in Italy, but for some reason I decided I wanted to start back up. Apparently, it was God putting this desire in my heart because as soon as I acknowledged it, things began to fall into place. An opportunity at the park to take pictures of little ones, a friend allowing me to borrow their camera for the time being, friends who jumped at the opportunity of practice sessions, money coming in for us to be able to afford a professional camera, and a WONDERFUL husband who has been nothing but supportive. The pieces were just falling into place.

I know that it is God who has set this fire of passion with in me, and I am SO thankful, because I have not been this passionate about something, or felt so called to do something in a long time. I believe that the Lord will be glorified through my pictures, and that is an awesome thing to know.

So the other night after I put up pictures from my first session in a LONG time, I was instantly hit with thoughts of doubt and insecurity. I literally woke up in the middle of the night with thoughts of "This is so silly, you can't do this. You're not good enough, no one will want your pictures." I honestly believe that this is the devil trying to get into my path and tell me that I can't do it. The devil will do ANYTHING he can to keep God from being glorified. He is trying to stop me.

But JOKES ON HIM! Because now, more than ever I know that God WILL be glorified through my pictures. HOW? I dont know, but I do know that if satan is trying to get into my head, and tell me not to do it, then I'm doing the right thing. I am even more determined to continue on the path that the Lord is leading me to.

Can't wait to see where it takes me!

BTW if you are interested in checking out my new and improved photography blog its HERE