More of Catherine and Travis' awesome Addison engagement session!

Here are more photos from the totally rockstar engagement session that I shot with Catherine and Travis. In case you missed part one you can see it here!





I love Catherine's ring, so pretty!






I don't do many 'looking at the camera' shots, but when I do.. I make them count!




Shut up with the sexiness. Seriously. Hot.






Jump, jump!




Yay!

Happy Anniversary Robyn and Danny!

Today is Robyn and Danny's one year anniversary! Here are a few of my favorite images from their wedding day.

Small town Texas

Today we went out with my brother, his roommate and his girlfriend to celebrate his birthday. He's in the reserves and he'll be doing his military duties on his birthday, so we decided to do it today. However, I don't have time to work on the pictures right now, so I am just going to post some pictures I never posted!

When I last went out to visit my grandmother, I did some 'drive by shooting' as we passed through several of the small towns that sit along highway 80 between here and there.

We also stopped at a Southern institution, particularly loved by small town people in every little town in Texas.



That about says it.


Hmm, I can only imagine what the local residents thought when they saw me taking a picture of the Dairy Queen sign. :)


File this under things that make you go "hmmmm..."


I love this building.


Old timey drug store sign.


My mom is coming into town (she's on her way down right now) so be expecting quite a few family posts this week. :) I think I'll probably be able to post today's pictures on Thursday!

MS Society Walk in Addison, TX

This morning Brian and I got up really early to participate in the MS Society walk that took place in Addison. It was 35 degrees with a wind chill of around 26 with snow flurries. Yes, snow flurries. It was very, very cold.

I did take my camera...but I left my gloves on. :P Even with them, my hands were freezing! I also didn't really stop much to take pictures, they are really all walk-and-shoot pictures. :)

So, here are a few snap shots from our chilly morning!



We first met up in the parking lot at Brian's office. This is the view from the car window, where it was nice and warm.


Dante was ready to get his walk on!


Rascal, one of Brian's coworker's dog.


There were lots of really cute dogs there wearing all manner of clothing.


And we're off!


More walking!


Dante knows where to go.


Despite the frigid temperatures, everything was going fine...until tragedy struck! We stopped at the rest area, and I was trying to pull up my socks with my be-gloved hands when I managed to bend back the nail on my right hand middle finger, in a bad way. It hurt, a lot, and when I looked at it, I saw I had bent it back so far down the nail bed that it was bleeding. I've bent my nails many times, but never this bad! Of course, I had to take a picture. Since it was my shooting hand, I had to hold the camera in a very unique manner, and I'm pretty proud of myself for managing to even get the shot. Too bad there isn't a picture of my creative picture taking.



This was after I wiped away most of the blood. It didn't hurt too bad while we were walking, but once we were done and I was warming up in the car, it really started to throb. It actually hurts every time I hit a key on the keyboard with that finger, which is not a lot of fun. But the good news is, it's not my index finger, so I can still take pictures without pain. :)


Dante taking a breather, with the wind in his face.


This is on the way back, up over this rad bridge.


YAY!!


Go us, we made it to the end.


It was only 3 miles, which honestly isn't too bad. It would have been great except for the icy wind. But, I'm proud of us for toughing it out to help support a worthy cause!

After the walk we went with some friends to eat at IHOP. Sometimes you just need hash browns.

Hope you are all having a great weekend so far!

Music Video Friday - David Bowie

This video is so sweet, I am talking vintage 1969 baby Bowie and sweeeeet 1969 video effects.

David Bowie - Space Oddity (Original version!)

Save Jodie - Aplastic Anemia

Amanda, one of the volunteers with the North Texas Cat Rescue sent me this story, and asked if I would mind sharing it with my blog readers to help with exposure. But, of course!

Here's the site: http://www.savejodie.com/

Taken from the front page:
"In November of 2008, Jodie Gee went in for a routine physical and mentioned to her doctor that she noticed some bruises on her body over the weekend. A few days later, she was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia, a bone marrow disorder, which means that her marrow no longer produces any red and white cells or platelets necessary to fight infection, clot her blood, or carry oxygen through her body. This came as a complete surprise because she was in great physical health prior to that.

"Jodie is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend – She is caring, creative and has a giving spirit."

Jodie is now in urgent need of a life saving bone marrow transplant. She needs 2-3 blood or platelet transfusions per week in order to maintain an adequate level of health. Common viral infections, such as a "cold," are now life threatening to her. She now has to limit her contact with friends and can no longer care for her children as a normal mother would. Even holding or kissing her small children could be dangerous."

What is Aplastic Anemia? Here is some information from Wikipedia.

"Aplastic anemia is a condition where bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells to replenish blood cells.

The term 'aplastic' means the marrow suffers from an aplasia that renders it unable to function properly. Anemia is the condition of having reduced hemoglobin or red cell concentration in the blood. Typically, anemia refers to low red blood cell counts, but aplastic anemia patients have lower counts of all three blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, termed pancytopenia."

If you are from the Dallas/Fort Worth area and you want to find out information on how to help Jodie, please check out her page! You can also visit the facebook page by clicking here.

Rockstar Roadtrip: Jeffersonville, IN (the finale!)

On the 18th, Brian and I slept in.. again.. Then we got up and we went out to lunch with uncle Gary and Brian's cousin Andrea (sorry, no pics.. next time though!). Then we headed up over the river to see Brian's Granny (Mom's side) in Jeffersonville, IN.



A picture of the cool old bridge.


A picture of the cool NEW bridge, as we were driving on it.


A super rad vintage-y sign and diner place.


Brian's Granny's dog, Precious. She was funny.


Brian with his Granny, and Precious. :)


After we visited with Brian's Granny, we headed back to the uncle's house where we had been staying, and got everything ready to go. We just lazed about a bit and then we were off, back to Texas! I already posted a cool shot I took of the sky on our way back, I really didn't take too many, since the sun was setting as we were off. But, as we were driving, Brian goes "Hey, do you want to get a picture of the Colonel?" with about two seconds warning.

I gave it my best.... shot.. :)


Hehe! They also had a big giant poster of some famous journalist from Kentucky/Louisville. Diane Sawyer, I think? Those were the only two I saw, but I imagine there are more.


We drove all night, so no pictures from the trip home. We had a great time on our trip, but we WERE glad to see our fuzzy kids again. :)

Rockstar Roadtrip: Saint Patrick's Day (the extended version)

Okay, we're back home, but I still have more pictures to post from our time in Louisville! I honestly didn't try too hard on Saint Patty's day to do anything ah-mazing, but I had my camera with me at all times just to snap pictures of family and any possible shenanigans.

Brian and I slept in pretty late on the 17th, and for the most part didn't do much during the day. Hey, we were on vacation, after all. We went out to eat at this little Mexican place that was quite tasty and very fresh. We got to see more of Brian's family, yay!









After that, a few of us went out to a bar, including three of Brian's uncles.




Brian's uncles Pat, Dee and Gary.


Brian, his cousin Pat (yes, that's Uncle Pat's son, one of them), and the uncles.


It's dark, yes. But I still love it. I'm never IN pictures. :P Ken (Pat's roomate), Pat, Dee, myself, Pat and Gary.


SHENANIGANS!!


As the evening progressed, Brian and I played with the camera a bit. Since I didn't happen to bring a tripod with me, these are a bit wobbly, since they're hand held.. but they're pretty fun.




Ghosts! (You like my "I'm trying to stay very still" face?)


A couple more green dancing shots.




Yay!


Okay doke.. I'll have pictures from our last day up tomorrow.. stay tuned. :)

Jessica and Daniel's beautiful outdoor Texas wedding!

The couple of weeks leading up to the wedding had been gorgeous, with sunshine filled days in the upper 70s. Then, four days before the wedding, we were mysteriously transported back to January type weather with several days of rain and highs in the upper 30s. Despite this, when I saw Jessica at their rehearsal on Friday (the 13th!) she had a smile on her face.

The day of the wedding, the weather decided to behave itself and everything went on as planned. It was gorgeous! I was absolutely in love with the red pomanders and the fountain backdrop was perfect.

I love SO many pictures from this wedding it was super hard to choose which ones to blog. There are almost 40 blog images, and trust me, there could have probably been twice that many!






And the bride wore...


Jessica's sister and Maid of Honor, Megan, did her make up.


Love this shot!


Love this one too :)


While I was with Jessica and the girls, Brian was upstairs with the guys.


In the dress!


Gorgeous!


The boys had one for the road.


You may ask yourself.. is that a ring shot on Rock 'em, Sock 'em robots? You would be correct.


We grabbed some shots of Jessica out on a back porch with beautiful light!


I can't decide on my favorite shot of the guys.. is it this one.. or..


..is it this one?


Don't forget the girls, they're rockstars too.


Then it was time for the ceremony! It started right on time.


Jessica had six honorary bridesmaid's as well as her 'official' bridal party. They were all equally important, and I love everybody's coordinating-but-not-matching outfits.


The bridesmaids each had their own style of dress and shoes.


Here comes the bride...


This shot makes me want to cry. You can see how close Jessica and her dad are. Great shot by Brian!


Let's get married!


Sealed with a kiss.


Officially Mr and Mrs.


Everybody all together.




Loooooove this one.


You could see traces of what had been, but they were too happy to care.


Another fabulous one by Brian.


Instead of a standard cake, Jessica and Daniel had a cupcake tower!


Reception details, including a cool bookmark with a slot for pictures from the photo booth that they had!


Jessica and Daniel's first dance.


While they were dancing, the DJ announced that the next day was Jessica's parents wedding anniversary. Twenty-nine years, if I remember right. So, they were invited to come out and share the floor. It was so sweet.


Jessica dancing with her Dad.


Daniel dancing with his mother, who was all smiles the entire day.


Jessica finding a handy place to stick their photo booth photos. ;)


There was no cutting of the cake, but there was feeding of the cupcakes!


Bouquet and garter toss always make for some fun action shots.


The maid of honor and best man gave their speeches. Megan's speech to her sister even brought tears to my eyes.


Jessica and Daniel left to a parade of sparklers!


Jessica and Daniel - thanks for letting us come and party with you! Hope you had an awesome time on your cruise!