Question everything.

I've been in a really strange mood lately. I've been just questioning everything! Why I do what I do, why do I run my business the way I do, why do I believe what I do! Definitely probably just a growing up sort of thought process but it's been very interesting!

For instance, I was looking at my wedding packages the other day and thought, "Why do my packages look like this, when everyone else's look like this?" So I decided to completely revamp my 2008 packages to how I want them to look and what I want to include not just what everyone else includes in their packages! Otherwise what is going to set me apart???

This can totally apply to everything in life and maybe it's a little rebellious streak but it's great because EVERYONE seems to be doing the same thing! It get's old after a time! I was just talking to my dad about our church and he was giving me some statistics about the church community today. 83% of the churches in the US are declining! I believe it! They need to rethink the way they "do church"! Because the way alot of them are doing it has not been communicating with this generation! So I thought why not break it down and rethink it all! My dad has this exercise that he does with us alot and it's called "How and Why" basically you take one thing and break it down, like "Why do you brush your teeth?" then you get "because I want my teeth to stay healthy!" "why do you want your teeth to stay healthy?" You just keep going asking the question "why?" to every answer until you get the ultimate answer. Then you can ask the question "How else can I go about doing this? To accomplish the same goal?" It's a pretty sweet way for problem solving and coming up with new ideas!

So what are some things in your life that you subconsciously do but you have no clue why you actually do it?? Is there a better way that you can do it or a way that says YOU rather than a copy? Just some thoughts! I hope you all have an amazing day!!

What the Duck!

My friend Dan posted this hilarious comic on his blog a little while ago from What the Duck! It's so true! I've definitely had so many people come up to me and say this exact thing! hehe!

Switchfoot!!

I love Switchfoot!! They are seriously one of my favorite bands!! A month ago when I was in Nashville with my cousins they turned me onto their Podcast! I definitely got hooked and have been watching these things with my family now all the time now because it is just so hilarious! Check it out here!! Or you can search for it on itunes:)
They did the best music video I've ever seen a couple years ago....here it is:
Their newest CD "Oh! Gravity" is great, it took me awhile to really like it but I finally do:) Check it out!

Girls movie night....kinda.

I love Monday's so much! lol!! It's so great because it's our day off! I work on Saturday's shooting weddings alot of the time and since we're a pastor's family we work non-stop on Sunday's! We try to do basically nothing on Monday. Yesterday was great though, we had a girls + guy movie night! lol!! We had our friend Jake over who is just incredibly awesome because he loves chic flicks!! I bought him this movie for his birthday so he came over last night for all of us to watch! It's seriously one of my favorite movies and I highly recommend it if you can stand a 5 hour BBC English speaking mini series! It's amazing!! :) Jake you just rock!
PS. Completely off subject, but, I ran for the first time today! That might not seem like any big deal but I haven't run since October since I broke my ankle and I don't think people usually are able to run this soon but YEAH!! I'm excited to get back in shape again!! :)

Party weekend!

This weekend has been non stop but so much fun!!
Friday night we went to my brother's end of the year basketball party, afterwards we stopped over at my cousins house, then I headed to my friend Rebecca's swing dance competition! The dance was soooooo amazing!! Rebecca has been a ballerina since she was like 3 and is now getting into a thing called West Coast Swing, and she seriously ROCKS at it!! She just started doing this a couple months ago and has been winning first place at all the different competitions! It's amazing! My friend Debbie and Sam all met up Friday night to see Rebecca win AGAIN!! :)

After watching this whole thing and a couple guys dragging us out onto the floor my friend Debbie and I decided we are now going to take up swing dancing!! YEAH! :) hehe!

Then yesterday Andrew and I got together with my old friend Rhea! We totally grew up together and then lost contact for awhile and have been able to stay in touch now over the internet!! Thank God for Facebook! She is so sweet and it's so funny to catch up with someone when you haven't seen them in forever!

Right after lunch we headed downtown for our friend Faith's birthday party. Unfortunately we were about 2 hours late because of traffic!! I hardly ever get stressed but I got the worst headache after having to drive in basically stopped traffic for 2 hours!! LOL! BUT, we had a blast hanging out down at Navy Pier and going through a super crazy maze, crazy house thing! The above picture is soooo great because I look so tall!! haha!! Afterwards we headed to the mall and I found this really hot lego dude who let me sit on his lap and everything! :) LOL!

Then today we headed out to my cousins house again for a nice relaxing afternoon!! This has been crazy but so much fun!! ....I think I need a massage!!

The Ultimate Gift.

My friend Sam, our sisters, and I just got back from from going to see the movie "The Ultimate Gift." Wow!! What an incredible movie!! It's basically about this guy who's really super rich and has never had to work a day in his life. His Grandfather dies and leaves him an inheritance but he has to go on a crazy obstacle course to get to it and it completely changes his life!! It was an awesomely done movie not to mention the guy was pretty hot which added some definite viewing pleasure....;) lol!! Here is the trailer for it!! Go see it!!! :)

Danielle and Alex!!

Well, I just got back from Florida!!! It was seriously such a great trip!! I'm am so glad that I was able to go! I flew down to Florida on Friday and we headed over to Clewiston, Florida which as you are entering the town says "Welcome to the Sweetest town in the country" Wow! What a high standard to live up to! I did meet some of the sweetest people that made me feel like family! As far as the town, I guess I didn't really get to see that much of it to be able to vouch for that, I guess the reason that that's the motto is because it's like one huge sugar cane farm!! lol!
Anyways, I met Alex briefly a couple months ago when he and this minister that he travels with came to speak at our church! They heard that I was a photographer checked out my site and decided to fly me down to Florida to shoot the wedding!! I was so super excited about this, one because I knew these were some really awesome people, two, this would be my first "destination" wedding! I had been wanting to break into that "market" and finally got the break! lol! This turned out to be a great first one too!! Alex and Danielle are seriously so cute together and both very artsy so I'm so glad they had a vision for what they wanted! It was awesome to work with them!! And I hope to see them again soon!! **CLICK HERE** For the slideshow!!! Enjoy!!

Missing dog?

I've been sick in bed the past couple days and today I finally woke up feeling sooo much better! And JUST in time too cause today was one of the most perfect days outside! I got into an extremely artsy mood and started doing a little photoshoot with my family! It was so much fun! I need to get back into the shooting mode again anyways since I have a wedding in Florida this weekend! Here are the completely random shots that we came up with! Enjoy!
PS.This one of Olivia is my favorite for some reason, I guess the story could be that she lost her big giant dog! lol! She posed like that, asked to use the chain and everything! She's definitely one of my favorite models although she informed me today that it's really just too hard to do a photoshoot! haha!!

So much fun!

Well, I just took DJ to the airport yesterday afternoon and we were all sad to see him go but thankfully he's coming back soon! We can't wait! :)
Friday night we had our new friends Bob and Dawn Davis over for dinner and it was such a blast! They are some of the sweetest people and they run an awesome company called la Storia foto, check it out! Now as I'm typing this I'm looking out the window completely enjoying what looks like spring!! I'm so excited to finally be over with winter and spring just around the corner!! YEAH!

Total slacker....

WOW!! It's Thursday which means I haven't posted anything in a week! I think that's the longest I've ever gone not posting on this blog! I've been so busy doing things but I'm not really sure what exactly I've been doing!!
My friend DJ, came in for the week so we've been having a blast with him and last night after church had a big spur of the moment party over at our house! It was great!! Here is a picture from it! Not really sure why my brother Andrew tryed to sneak in this picture too..but yeah! I'll post more soon when I actually figure out what I'm doing! LOL!

Happy New month!

Well I got back from Nashville a couple days ago to a nice warm home and my family greeting me at the door. The best part was my sister Olivia running up to me, she had lotion and a washcloth in one hand and my slippers in the other. She then took me to the living room, took off my shoes and rubbed my feet!!! There is definitely nothing like home! I LOVE my family!
Every eve of a new month we have been having little parties called the "New Month Party" it' kinda like a new year's party but every month! It's so much fun! We have resolutions and everything! I think it's actually an awesome idea because rather than having new year resolution's you have little baby step resolutions and goals! It makes it alot easier and we can keep everyone accountable every month!
My goals for this next month were: Start new business, work on all my relationships especially with God, work on buying a house, and finish my taxes.
Then the question was asked what would you do in the next month if you couldn't fail???? That is one of the most powerful questions because it breaks you out of those barriers that you've set for yourself into actually dreaming and coming up with things that you really want to do! And GUESS WHAT?? You really can accomplish them if you set your mind and heart to it!
Sooooo what would you do this month if you couldn't fail??? :)
Ps. the second picture is of my cousin Becca at the studio the last day I was in Nashville:)