Hubby's Graduation

YEA!!!!! The day has arrived.This is the reason we moved to Texas and started over to make a wonderful life for my hubby to get his MBA @ Texas A&M. And this weekend Matt finalized the deal. HE GRADUATED!!! yippy! Thursday Matt had his first graduation at the Business school, and then on Saturday he had his big graduation with the rest of the university. I am so proud and excited for Matt, his opportunities are endless. We have enjoyed our time here in Aggieland and have made friends for a lifetime. Who can forget the Aggies and all of their traditions. Hopefully soon we will be on our way to bigger and better things because now hubby is going through the treacherous job search to hopefully find the job of his dreams, or one close enough.  Below are a few pictures of the weekend.

The Graduate crossing the stage! go hubby!

 

All that for a piece of paper! 

 

aww. handsome hubby posing for me. 

 

of course, I had to jump in for a few! huggs!

 

We definitely could not have done it with out Matt's wonderful parents!  (aren't they cute)

 

And, Matt couldn't have made it with out these guys either, his best buds Cale and Clint!

 

                 But of course, you cannot forget the Aggie Ring. Now this is what we came here for.

To celebrate, we had the best cake ever! Cookie cake!

The Smith Family

Today I took some pictures of the Smith family. Actually I took there pictures twice today! Traci is my Mary Kay lady and a friend from my ABWA (LWEN) group. She asked if I would take their family pictures and also if I wouldn't mind taking a few of her husband working. Her husband Brian is a pastor @ Community Bible Church, so I was more than happy to oblige. We went to downtown Bryan for a few family pictures . Let me tell you, 4pm on a sunday afternoon in Bryan is the place to be if you are a photographer or if you want your picture taken. I counted at least 5, yes 5, photographers down there. I haven't ever seen that many in one place. Not even in downtown New Orleans, City Park, or Baton Rouge. I guess when you are in a small town you don't have a lot of options, unless you want to stand in a pasture or next to a cow. Which is pretty cool sometimes. Well you see below why everyone was in one spot. There is an old marquee sign for the Queen theater that is no longer in use. It makes for a great picture  though! Oh, and did I mention how good looking this family is. Traci has to put up with all boys in her household so I can see why she had to get this cute lil put named Millie!

the Queen Theatre. Millie's first appearance.

Traci, isn't she fabulous.

MILLIE! isn't she cute in her lil jacket! Love this pic of Traci.

The boys hamming it up! They were a trip.

Christmas Wish list

Remember when you were a kid and the Big Toy book would come in and you would go through and mark EVERYTHING you wanted for Christmas. Then you would hand it over to your mom and say "Here you go mommy, this is everything I want for Christmas" and she would say "ok sweetheart" and then turn around and say "yeah right". Even though my mom never said that to me, we all put things on our list that we wanted and well, quite honestly knew we wouldn't be getting. Well, I made a "wish list" this year of things that I want, although knowing I won't get all of them, but maybe some of them. (I was a very good girl this year Santa!). So here are a few items that are on my Christmas list this year.

1.The Kelly Moore Bag- This is the super cute camera bag. I am in the market for a smaller on-the-go camera bag for smaller shoots and this would be perfect sitting on my hip. I love all of the fun colors she has available. I am still trying to decide between the fuchsia or the gray bag. My favorite part is that if you are out traveling or somewhere nice you can bring this with you and no one would know it was a camera bag. Kuddos Kelly on such a *hip bag!
 

2. Nikon Lens and D70 Camera- This camera is just beautiful. Just look at it, doesn't it make you drool? seriously though. Ok, I love the movie feature (although I don't know if I would really use it) and I love that it has GPS geo tagging. There are many more things that I love about this camera but I won't go into much more detail. I love u D90, please call soon!


3. Actions-Kevin Kubota is one of the many people that make actions for photographers to add that extra *zest* to your images.

4.Photo workshops -
For the love Workshop - is a workshop put on by Christian woman and men photographers who bring you back to the country where you get a chance to dwell in God's creation and where you get to talk to other photographers and learn from each other. Every morning would start with a daily devotion (which is much needed but never really done) then out to photograph the world (or the mountains).
Love Affair Workshop- Ok, don't let the name fool you. This workshop is about your love affair with photography and building your business. This is the workshop I REALLY would love to go to. Four wonderful women photographers come together and teach this amazing workshop each year. Hopefully this year will be my year to go.

5. Kitchen-Aid stand mixer- I thought I would throw this in to see if anyone was paying attention. This is what I REEEEEEALLY want for Christmas!!! Well, whenever I get in my Betty Crocker/Bakerella/Pioneer Woman Phase, which has been quite often lately, thanks to all of their yummy blogs. AND wouldn't it look great on my already cluttered kitchen counter. Dont'cha think?
 

Book signing w/ PW, (pioneer woman) Ree Drummonds

So my friend and co-worker Heather sent me this blog called Pioneer woman...hmm, ok, well I am not a pioneer and far from it, I'm from the city suburbs and even though I dream about living in the country,  we don't really live in it, (although surrounded by it) so I thought ok, lets see what this country girl has.  Well, she has a huge website full of information. I don't know how she comes up with all of it. She is a jack (or Jill) of all trades. SHE IS JUST LIKE ME!!!! (well, to an extent) I was soo excited. She cooks, does crafts, takes pictures, and etc. She was a city girl who married a country boy, ahhhh. haha...but thats ok,  I love my finance man! Anyway, she just published her cookbook, so Heather and I drove to Houston to go to her book signing. She spoke to everyone for a short while and then began her hour(s) long book sigining part. On a side note, while she was talking to everyone, I got to talk to a few other ladies there and they all coveted my camera. hehe. I felt so cool. We had a few hours to wait till we had to get in line for the signing (they gave us color coded cards that had assigned times) so we went to the Katy Mills mall (love that place) and did a lil window shopping.(wink wink). When we got back to the signing we only had to wait about 10 mins. Awesome. (we had heard that in Dallas, people had to wait in line 7 hrs). Ree was so nice, although we didn't really get to talk to her, we were so excited to meet her in person. Oh, and a perk for going to see her at the book signing was that we got super cute shirts that say pioneer woman on it and it also has her book tour on the back (sounds weird I know, but its super cute). Be sure to check out her website, its a wealth of knowledge, photos and tons of funny stories. Here are a few pics from the day.

PW during the question and answer time.

More questions and answers

Heather in line waiting

Me in line waiting. (yes, that is a rubber ducky in my hand. We gave it to PW b/c it was maroon from aggieland, or bath and body works, but he was maroon, so he was automatically an aggie.)

Heather, Ree (PW) and Me. 

 

                              PW and Me. ( I look so nervous, I'm such a dweeb)

The Jacksons

This weekend Matt & I went back to our old Alma Mater in Ruston, La. Even though we did not make the game, we got to see a lot of our old friends from college. We actually went to take family and birthday pictures of my best friends from college, the Jackson's. DeJunne' and I have been best friends from day one of college. REALLY! I miss her and her husband greatly, especially her lil boy Noah, but she is unwilling to move to Texas anytime soon. haha. So we will just have to visit more often. Thanks to Aarin for letting me borrow your flash, I can't believe I forgot mine.

                                             
             Noah in his daddy's shoes and hat. Isn't he precious!

Our Anniversary!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HONEY!
Today is my 3 year anniversary with my best friend, dance partner, counselor, secret keeper, travel confidant, photo assistant, college sweetheart, and everything under the sun! Its been a wonderful 3 years, everyday is a new exciting adventure. I look to the 99 more years we have together! LOVE YOU MATT! 

 

The Meier Family

This weekend I had a couple of photo sessions so I am trying to finally get them posted. Here is the Meier family. I work with Dave and he so graciously bid (& won) on my photo session that I had offered as a charity item for our work fundraiser. We took our pictures here in College Station @ Research Park, by the George Bush Library. Its a really pretty park, but you have to watch out for all of the dogs. They like to come and jump in the ponds and play around. I got clobbered by a cute (but big) dog named Hudini. The Meier family was so fun and probably my second easiest photo session ever. Here are a few of the pictures from this session.

Stella

Last weekend while in New Orleans, I also had the pleasure to take Stella's Christmas pictures. Her mommy and daddy are our family friends, so we were sooo excited to hang out with her while she let us take her pictures. She is such a happy child and I have to say was the easiest photo session I have ever had. Sorry Scarlett it took me so long to get these up!

Here is Stella telling me to tickle Scarlett with the flower

This is Stella's little dance after I did tickle Scarlett. She is such a fun child!

Talia's 1 Yr session

This weekend I also took my niece's 1 yr old pictures. We were in City Park, taking pictures of Little Stella, (pics to come soon), so we took Talia's pictures there also.

I love the cake pictures. I told my sister we had to do these, I think before she was even born. So, it was a must! Talia did pretty well with it. She just ate the icing, but she had a good time with it. Look at her cute smile.

Sean's SR. pictures

Here are a few pictures from my nephew Sean's SR. portrait session this wknd. We went to River Town again, in Louisiana. This time, I found a few more locations that I had not spotted before. I love this area! I was really excited when we found this old run-down Ice house.  enjoy!