Maternity Session--Verkuyl Family

Being that this was our first Maternity Session, I was even more excited to photography Yose, Dan, and their family. Yose is due any week now and her little bump is absolutely perfect. They are brave, patient, people and are not finding out the sex of their little one. We had so much fun photographing this family and getting to know them better. Enjoy!

Her and her husband wanted to include her family in their photos.

 One last photo of Junior, Yose's handsome younger brother--who just graduated High School! Congrats, Junior.

To see more of Junior's Mini Session, look at the previous post:)
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Junior's Senior Portraits

Last weekend Travis and I had a lot of fun working with a sweet family. The oldest daughter is pregnant with her first baby and it was beautiful to see her family love on her little belly. In between some family portraits and a maternity session, we got to take Junior's Senior Portraits.

Thank you, Junior--you were such a good sport and so natural behind the camera!

Now, I am off to continue editing Junior's sister's Maternity Session. Here is a little peek at this beautiful mommy-to-be...

If you, or anyone you know, is interested in a Mini Senior Portrait Session like Junior's, please contact me!

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Refreshing

One fun thing about moving in with another couple is that you get to see what they eat. Does that sound weird? What I mean is that you get to see new recipes that you haven't tried, but that are a big part of their meals. One thing that our new housemates have a lot of is Lemonade. Travis loves it! Last time I went to the grocery store I bought like 6 cans of it because we all go through it so fast. I was tired of just plain ol' lemonade so I spruced it up!

--Slice up some fresh strawberries
--Slice up some fresh limes
I added the strawberries and lime mix to the cup first, then ice, then the lemonade. I didn't want to have fruit pieces trying to sneak in my mouth while I'm trying to drink!
Not only does it taste really good, but it is so summery and refreshing. I'd recommend drinking it outside--just so you get the full summery effect:)

Enjoy!
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Your Child's Self Esteem and Confidence

Travis and I were at a Yard Sale a few weeks ago and he picked up this book.

He said we should get it and I was so excited that he wanted to read something like this! All things kids and psychology are my passion. So, when we were done parusing, I said "So, are you really going to read this?" He responded with "No, its for you." Dang! I asked him with my puppy dog wifey eyes if he would read it and he said yes. So, for 50 cents we bought 52 Simple Ways to Build Your Child's Self-Esteem and Confidence.
Travis mentioned that most of the things in the book are probably things that we already know. Like..."Don't belittle your children" or "Don't ignore them". This is probably true. BUT, don't we all need reminders of the right way to do things? I feel like I need a reminder every day. Basically every time I read my Bible, I feel like I am reminded of something that I know, but don't live out. The fruits of the spirit--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Am I ever exerting all or most of these qualities? No. Do I fall short every day of being the wife, child of God, friend, sister, daughter, etc. that I want to be? Yes.
That is just one example of the many things we need to be reminded of on a daily basis.
Anyways, even though I haven't read this book yet, it has made me think a lot about children's self-esteem and confidence. I think that a lack of self-esteem and confidence in children is one of the biggest issues in parenting and our society. If children had high self-esteem and confidence, would there be so much bullying in schools? What about depression? Abusive relationships? Substance abuse? Childhood obesity--leading to obesity in adults? What about eating disorders? Juvenile criminal activity?
I think that a lot of these serious issues would be less prevalent in our society if children were raised with parents who encouraged them, listened to their questions, said please & thank you--both to and from your child, complimented them on their successes and were there to talk with them when they felt defeated, prayed with & for them, etc. (Yes, some of those things I pulled from the table of contents.)
I am looking forward to reading this book with my husband. We are both thankful to have had parents and people in our lives who were encouraging to us and built up our confidence as children.
I hope and pray that we can be the kind of parents who do the things listed above...and more. Obviously, like most parents, we will fall short of these things and we will not be perfect. But, in those moments, I hope we can explain to our children that no one is perfect and even your parents make mistakes. Modeling humility and being quick to say I'm sorry are things I want to add to my list of 'how to live'.
If you're a parent, I hope this encourages you to work harder--for the sake of your children.
If you aren't a parent yet, I hope this got you thinking about the parent you want to be.
I'll let you know how the book goes. Here are the table of contents do you can look at them. Even the titles of each of the 52 ways will help.

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Friends in cool places

We are seriously blessed to have friends around the map who let us crash their pads. Last week was Travis' week off before starting full time at Chase Bank. So, it was up to him how we spent that time. I'm so glad that he chose what to do because we had a blast! We started out in Sacramento and got to spend a day with our friends Kevin and Krissy. They just got married in June and are total newlyweds:) I just love watching them together--they exert such a beautiful love for each other.
We all walked about 30 blocks around downtown I have no idea where. We walked to see the capital building and then to a cute coffee shop where we had the most delicious cheese plate!!

 Trav and I had never been to the capital. Most of our friends how grew up in Northern California would take field trips here in grade school. That would have been a long field trip from San Diego!

 Kevin and Krissy.

 A pretty church that Trav snapped a pic of while we were walking around.

 We had the best tacos EVER for dinner(We were all starving so the deliciousness was heightened!).We made homemade chocolate chip cookies and played lots of Liars Dice. 

Kevin took some pictures of us making our cookies. Cooking with friends is always so much fun. It is one of my favorite things to do!!

 Here is how our homemade chocolate chip cookies turned out--they were a delicious mess.

We left Sac and headed down to San Diego for the week. I got to surprise my good friend Elyse. I told her that we should skype around 7pm. So, at 7pm I called her and told her to stay on the phone with me because I wanted to make sure that my skype worked. I knocked on her door and said Surprise! She had no idea. (Skype was a great way to make sure that she was home!)

We also got to go to breakfast and coffee with our friends Zac and Lacey. They were vacationing at Del Mar beach with their family. So, we stopped by the beach house and walked over to the beach two days in a row--literally a two minute walk!

We spent one evening with my Dad and sisters at his house in San Diego. My Pops knows how to cook--he made us corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, chicken, and ribs.  He never fails to impress!!

THEN we got to go to Palm Springs for a day and lay by the pool with Elyse, Jose, and their families. It was so hot out but the pool was nice and cold.

I wish I would have taken photos of all of the things we did. I get too protective of my camera when it comes to taking it to the beach(sandy mess), to the pool(water & heat), etc. Next time we travel I will try to capture all of the fun little things that we do!

All in all, we have FABULOUS friends in FABULOUS places. Thank you for sharing your lives with us!

Emrie in the Park

As I have mentioned a few times in past posts, when we were in San Diego last time we took our niece to the park for a little photo shoot. Yes, I am biased. No, there is not a cuter 7 month old baby. (Please don't take offense to that if you have a 7 month old baby.)
Emrie has an adorable stink face. When we were taking photos & it got too bright for her, she would resort to a stink face--squinted eyes, scrunched nose... You'll see.

 Scrumptious baby toes and sweet chubby fingers.

 Are you ready for it? Here it is--the stink face.

 Emrie, her mommy, and a partial stink face. 

 Emrie, we love you so much and had so much fun spending the week with you. Uncle Travis always talks about how cute you are--he misses you. Good job learning to crawl. Try not to make too many messes! Thanks, Morgan, for making her smile for us--Mommy always does that best!