A Spring Engagement

Spring in Utah is a funny thing isn't it? One minute its pouring rain, the next its capri weather and then you look out the window and there's 3 inches of snow! It makes planning photo shoots a little tricky and as luck would have it, it had been raining all morning the day of this session. I called a couple hours before the session to see what this awesome couple wanted to do and they said "well it looks like its going to be sunny so lets do it!" 

SURPRISE The sun did come out, it was beautiful light and we got some fantastic images! I am completely in love with these pictures and can't wait to get them finished so I can show them off!

Sister Missionary Pictures

This pretty lady has decided to serve a mission for the LDS church.And no joke this was the fastest mission call I've ever heard of! Seriously, 5 weeks! In that time this girl packed up her life in NY moved cross country to get home and prepare to leave for her 18 month mission, talk about CRAZY! 

Thankfully we were able to fit her session in a very short time frame that she had and get some amazing pictures of her. 

You are going to make a wonderful missionary!

and against their wills a family with mom and sister!

Sweet little family

The rain literally stopped the moment I pulled up for this session, SUCH a relief! I loved everything about this session from their outfits, to their personalities to the sweet little boy that kept me smiling the entire time! 

Astonish - Jenn

Sometimes we just need a picture that reminds us how beautiful we really are because, as women sometimes we forget! What we see everyday is woman with professional makeup and hair done and a professional photographer taking their pictures and then airbrushing them to "perfection" I don't think they have it right. In fact I think the magazines have it so wrong!! Perfect beauty of a woman doesn't have one look or one size, its found in every woman! Even the moms who feel completely worn down and haven't made it out of their sweats at 4pm because they've been cleaning all day and up all night with a new baby, or the business woman that is completely frazzled by Friday and feels like a mess and just needs a drink or a nice warm bubble bath or both! 

The thing I love the most about an astonish session is that I get to show those everyday woman just how beautiful they really are! The beauty that is seen by their husbands, their siblings, best friends, parents and children!! 

Meet Jenn, I've known her for over 10 years! She is absolutely gorgeous to me. She's also pretty funny and always laughing, which makes her a blast to be around! I hope Jenn can feel as pretty as I think she is! 

OpLove

Starting off the week with a random post. 

As most of you know, my husband served in the US ARMY, his contract with them ends in another year and his status  will be changed to "honorably discharged veteran" Its funny to me because I think its a bigger deal that he is a soldier then he does. To him it was just a job, but to me it means SO much more then that! He willing enlisted in the middle of a war ready to fight for the things he believed in,

The 13 months that he was in Iraq were some of the scariest of my life, we weren't married yet but that doesn't make the stress or worry any less when someone you love is in the middle of a war zone and you check the news multiple times a day making sure there weren't any soldiers killed where he's at, or when you are trying to skype for a few mins and you hear a huge boom in the background and he says "gotta go that mortar was close and somethings on fire" and then you don't hear from him for a few days! There are no words that can explain the experience, nothing that can comfort you of the unknown, and nothing that can make you happier than a phone call that shows up as only 3 digits. 

  The picture below is one that I took of a couple just a few weeks before the husband left for deployment. To me it represents a lot of different things but mostly that even while he is deployed he will always be there with his family. Thinking of them, missing them, wishing he could hug the bad days away and kiss his babies to sleep at night. While a woman is pretending to be so strong so that her children never have to worry about daddy because mom said he'll be ok, while inside she is breaking down because the carpool, school, work, housework, bills and every other daily task is piling up. 

When my husband was deployed people would tell me how strong I must be and that they could never do it, it would be to much and to hard for them, but if they could have counted the number of tears I cried in that 13 months they might not think I was so strong. 

Sometimes we are stronger then we think. 

If you are a military family facing deployment or have someone coming home soon and you are interested in a free photo shoot please visit Operation Love for more information

and if you are interested in sending a letter of gratitude or encouragement to a soldier but you aren't sure where to start please visit Letters to Soldiers because not all soldiers have someone back hope rooting for them, and there are a LOT of soldiers that need a little extra support!