Sweet 16?

Hey everyone!! Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days! We went on a little mini vacation up to Wisconsin that I'll post all about tomorrow:)
On Saturday night my sister Natalie had her birthday party! Even though her real birthday was more than a month ago...any birthdays around Christmas always kind of get lost so she decided to have her party now! It was so much fun! She had about 18 friends here so it was crazy! Natalie and I have been finding creative ways to work out the past couple weeks since I'm now back on my feet and one of the ways is dancing! We decided to learn the theme dance to "Highschool Musical" and it's SUCH an amazing workout plus it's fun! Anyways all her friends are obsessed with highschool musical so we all learned the dance together!! It was hilarious! Afterwards we were trying to come up with some other games to play so we taught the girls the "cup game" here is a video of both the dance and the cup game! So fun!!(I wasn't going to post the part with me dancing but Natalie almost slapped me because of it so...yeah..WE'RE defininately white and nerdy with NO rythm!!..LOL)
Here is the **slideshow** from the night!
PS...The reason the title is sweet 16 is I TOTALLY thought through the whole party that it was Natalie's 16th birthday!! I have no clue why..but then when I was talking about it everyone is like "NO it's her 15th!!" I refused telling them it was her 16th until Natalie told me it was her 15th also! What a great sister I am!! HAHA!

What should you be doing?

I've had a super busy weekend so this is all I can post until tomorrow....anyways I saw this sign at Jimmy John's a couple months ago and found it last night when I was going through some pictures. This is really important! What are the steps that we are supposed to be taking now so that we can actually live the life we are dreaming of? :) I know mine!!!!! GETTING MORE ORGANIZED!!! But...definitely while in the process enjoying every minute of the ride!
I love you all!! Have an amazing night or morning...whenever you are reading this:)

Captivating!

I was just going to post this on my Dear Natalie blog but thought it was so important so I decided to post it here too!
So I just finished the book Captivating yesterday and it is seriously the best book I've ever read(besides the bible of course)!!! It took me about 6 months to read it cause when I read I like to really dissect the book so I get all that I can out of it, and plus I it was the busiest time of my life!! lol! Anyways, I highly highly recommend it to every woman!! It has totally changed my life! When I went on my little retreat a couple weeks ago this is what I read most of the time because it just really speaks to a woman's heart in a way that I have never seen another book do!
The 3 main things that the book talked about that a woman's heart longs for:
1. To be romanced
2. To to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure
3. To unveil beauty
The way it talks about doing this is unbelievably simple but so important!
One of the things is offering your true heart to people without fear of being rejected, it's risky but God did not give us these hearts to hide or bury but to come alive and to minister to others with them!
Another very important part that I read and God is really working in me right now is worshiping.
I have found that whenever I really like something I LOVE it and it becomes almost a god in my life! I remember I used to like a band when I was younger and it just became all that I would talk and think about! I was just sharing what I thought this fault was in my life with one of my friends yesterday and she said "THAT IS YOUR STRENGTH!!" I was taken back for a second cause I could not see how this could be a strength! But she went on to say when you turn that same attention to God that's when it is your strength! So my weakness then becomes perfected into my strength!
Lastly, in this book it talks about how a girls never ending question is: Am I lovely?
And it shows that we really try to get this question answered by everyone else but really the only one who can truly answer it is Jesus!
So yeah..Incredible book..drop everything you're doing right now and go out and buy it! The authors also have a book for guys called Wild at heart I haven't read it but heard it was excellent! I love you all!! Have an amazing day!

Cuteness!!!

Yesterday, my mom woke me up asking me if I could babysit last minute for our friend Schlyce's baby Lily for a couple hours that morning. So Natalie and I went out to their house and ended up staying the whole day and just talking with Schlyce! It was sooo great! Schlyce has had a major part in my company and life the past couple years and it is so awesome how refreshed and revved up I get everytime I spend time with her! She is such a huge blessing! Anyways we babysat again this morning for Lily and she is just so adorable! You might remember her from a post a while ago... So I did a little photoshoot of her today since we haven't done one in a long time! Here is her **slideshow**

I love Chicago!! :)

I'm so not into alot of sports unless it's Chicago and they are winning some championship!! lol! Like watching the last couple games of the cubs ABOUT to make it to the Championship(maybe next year). And the Sox winning the world series a couple years ago! Now it's the Bears turn!!! YEAH!!! I'm so excited!!! We just finished watching their game and they're going to the Superbowl baby!!! Definitely proud to live in Chicago now:) Even if it is terribly cold!! LOL!
Love you all!

Mucho progresso!!! :)

It's amazing how much progress you get done when people help you!! lol!! What a thought! I've had Mark Collins come over the past couple days and blast through all the album design and ordering!! Which is such a huge load off my back plus he does it so well that why in the world should I do it?? I trained my sister Natalie how to go through and edit all the photos after a wedding and get them sent to Pictage so now I'm FREE!!!!!!!! Yeah!! I'm really excited! So what do I do with all the freedom you may ask?? Well...


BABYSIT!!!!! LOL!! I've rarely babysat in the past couple years because I've been so busy and my sister Natalie usually steps up to the plate:) But tonight since she is at another babysitting job I get to babysit the 4 younger kids! It's been fun! Oli, Jules and I all had a dance party in our princess dresses!! Olivia like's to change her dress about every 3 minutes or so but it's so cute!! :) And JuliAnna just wishes she could walk so much but loves just standing in her port-a-crib and bouncing up and down! After I laid them down(and Oli changing her outfit for the 7th time of the night) Mark, John and I watched Get Smart and told spy stories! It's been a fun night and I love spending time with my brothers and sisters even if they are....screaming right now...oops!!...gotta run!! Have an awesome night!!
Sarah
PS. the video is a little scripture verse that Olivia learned in school! She's pretty smart!:)

Geek party!

My friends, DJ, Kevin Swan and Nathan Holritz are full time photographers. Now when your a full time photographer, photography is your hobby but also your life! So you have to find ways to entertain yourself! Anyways they were at a big photography convention this past weekend. While they were there they figured out that this little remote control that comes with the Macbooks will control ALL of them! So they went around to the different booths and messed around with the computers!! SOOO hilarious!! I'm so thankful I have a PC! No hacking for me!! LOL!

Our friends:)

We just added a new section to the website called "Our Friends" under the "Info" section! I'm usually pretty skeptical about recommending just any wedding vendors because I want the very best for my clients! So as I find the best(the ones I would use for my own wedding) I'll add more up there:) Right now I have 3 different ones to start with but they're so fun!! Check it out!
Have an awesome day you all!!

Mary and Tim - So cute!

Last night we shot an absolute gorgeous wedding for Mary and Tim!
My sister Natalie and I met with them several months ago to talk about their wedding and as soon as we sat down to talk it was like just talking with long time friends!
So when we got to the wedding it was no different which made for an awesome day! Mary planned everything so well and amazingly stayed super calm the whole time(which of course makes everything go sooo much smoother!) These two have such an adorable story of how they met! Basically they both went to highshool together and a dance together then 13 years later ended up dating and getting married!! How cute is that?? I chose "When did you fall" by Chris Rice for the slideshow song, even though I have used it for another slideshow, because Mary said it totally sums up their story together:) Here is the **slideshow**
Enjoy!!
I love you all!

When it rains it floods!!

Ok...as I sit here trying to figure out what project to dive in first I realized that I haven't posted on my lovely blog in a couple days! :)
First, I had a seriously amazing retreat and I think I'm going to do that like every 3 or 4 months or so because it is really so important! I believe that the bigger that your influence and responsibility you have the more time you need to spend with the maker of all these things!! Cause he's the only one who can give me exactly what I'm supposed to do and then I can stay on track!! It's awesome!
Second, at the retreat I brought one crutch because I was still sort of needing it as I strengthened my muscles again but I didn't use it once!!! I'm so excited and we returned them yesterday!!! I'm finally completely done with that!!! Wow!! :)
Lastly, once I got back from the retreat I started putting my year together and realized that I am going to be traveling a ton in the next couple months so you can see all that in the "schedule" section of my website! One of the things we are doing this year is only shooting 20 weddings so that we can REALLY focus and give an awesome product to each individual client. Right now were filling up super fast and already have 10 booked and several more in the works so if your on the fence about booking now is your chance! :)
I love you all!! Have a wonderful day!
Ps. the last picture is a couple of us from church wearing these super sweet sunglasses some random person gave to us! LOL

Gone Fishing.

On Sunday afternoon I got home and my dad asked me to drive him to the rental car place to pick up a car so that he could go on a retreat. I started driving and I was talking to him how much I need to go on a retreat soon too...and he was like "Why don't you just come and get a cabin too??" so I started thinking about it and decided what better time than now?? I LOVE living on the edge like this! It totally keeps life exciting! So we headed out Sunday night for Starved Rock State Park. It's so gorgeous out here! Even in the dead of winter! (the pics above are some I grabbed off their website, cause I forgot to bring my card reader!) I got my own little one bedroom cabin and it's great!! Just to have a time to get away, get quiet, read, pray, and evaluate goals and ideas:) I'll be back tomorrow revived and energized for the new year!!

I love you all!! Have a wonderful day!

Joy and Eric!!

Hey everyone!!!
Well we just got back from the first wedding of the season!!! It was so much fun! I was really excited going into it because I've had a nice 2 month break to get all revved up for another season! Joy called me a couple months ago while I was down in Nashville to ask me about shooting her wedding and we totally hit it off great!! So I knew her wedding was going to be awesome to shoot! It was a very small intimate wedding with about 20 guests but it was perfect!

One of the reasons I really love my job is because it's all about family! Weddings are when the family all gets together even if they haven't seen each other in ages so it's awesome cause every wedding I go to I feel like just another part of the clan!! It so fun! I love you all!! Here is Joy and Eric's **slideshow**! PS...Just in case you couldn't tell they are ADORABLE!! :)

Reminiscing...

Wow!!! What a year 2006 was!! It is amazing the things that happened that I had NO CLUE would at the beginning of the year!! It has seriously been one of the best years ever! I traveled to California a couple times, the Domincan Republic, Tennessee, Missouri and a couple other places that I can't even remember! lol! Shot 16 weddings(my goal was 20 but 16 was PERFECT!!! Seriously!)
So now for this next year since I have my photography business more under control and systems set up it's time for a new chapter!! yeah! I'm so excited to see what will unfold but I know God has awesome plans!! :)
I just realized before I started typing that I have been blogging now for over a year now and it has been seriously amazing! When I first started I had no clue what I was doing but after a while caught on and it has been such a blast!! I love it! :) I was looking back at the old posts and found **this** one! So...one year from then..again it is Alyssa's birthday today except now she's 25! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Lyssa!! Love you!! :)
And I love you all! You all are amazing!
Thanks for the 28,709 hits too!! WOW!

SAPpy Party!!!

The Sarah Anne Photography(SAPpy) peeps: Andrew Barlow, Debbie Garon, Sarah Barlow, Natalie Barlow, Jake Preedin, Sarah Chellappa, Mark Collins. Whew!! This has been a whirlwind couple days!! I definitely have some blogging to catch up on cause so much has been going on!!
On Saturday night the whole Sarah Anne Photography group got together for a holiday party!! It was so much fun! We went to an Asian place called Big Bowl which has seriously amazing food and it's really hip! So fun! Everyone came dressed up so of course we had to get TONS of pictures!! I think we were totally annoying the people around us cause we all had cameras and did little photoshoots right there in the restaurant! LOL! But hey, you only live this life once! Mine as well enjoy it! haha! Here is the slideshow from the party!! Enjoy!!!
PS..the second picture is what we use to get that windblown effect for shoots instead of using fans;) LOL!
PSS...Also, here is a little video from that night:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope you all had a great time last night!
My sister Natalie and I decided that we wanted to just chill last night rather than go to any big parties...so we went over to my friend Sarah's house to watch a movie and just hang out! It was so refreshing not having to do anything but just sit on the couch!! We watched Highschool Musical, (which is such a great movie - I know..we're dorks..lol!), ate eggrolls, and drank sparkeling grape juice...LOL! It made for the perfect night!
I hope you all have an amazing new year!! :)