Philippians 4:13

Life is FULL of surprises, some good, some bad.

One evening at Hideaway, my friend Brittany showed me a lump in her neck, it looked weird but no big deal…surely it wasn’t anything serious! But I suggested she get it check out.

A week later, Brit went to the doctor. I remember texting her about an hour later, after I thought her appointment would be over. I didn’t have a worried bone in my body…until she wrote back and said “It isn’t good.”

After many tests, biopsy’s, days of waiting…they discovered that the lump was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Cancer? How could Brit have cancer? She is my age…healthy! It was a shock.

However, I was instantly reminded of the verse Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

This is such a powerful verse. It helped me get through the worst tests through college, running a marathon, and now it will help Brittany fight cancer.

Brittany’s dad bought these bracelets to help remind us that through Christ Brittany will get through this!

And because of this reminder I am not afraid! I know that Brittany will kick this cancer in the BUTT and walk away stronger than ever.

Read Brittany’s full story here.

Please pray for Brittany and her family while they take this journey!

Puppy Love

Here is some puppy love (via my iPhone) to start off your Tuesday right!

Happy Tuesday!

Sunrise

I love running in the mornings and watching the sunrise. But unfortunately my camera is a tad to big to be running around with…so I only get to snap photos with my iPhone.

Well my dad loves sunrise’s too! Every chance he gets to hunt…he does…but he spends 70% of the time taking sunrise pictures and the rest hunting. (He may or may not admit to that!)

So when I see a pretty sunrise I almost always text a picture to my dad…like these two:

but then my dad sent me this…

I mean how gorgeous is this?!?! This deffinatly trumps my iPhone pics!

Happy Thursday!!

Cards and such…

I get SOOO excited when I see clients (my friends) send cards with pictures I took on them! I know I have done my job if they are proud enough of the photos to send them to family and friends! Here are a few (via my iPhone) cards I have received with pictures I have taken!

This wedding announcement was the first one I received! I am pretty sure I did a happy dance in my kitchen when I opened this in the mail! 🙂

I took some engagement pictures for Stacey and Brit just to test out my new lens! Luckily my new lens is GREAT and she decided to use one of the photos for this save the date!

I took lots of family pictures for Christmas. This family is so great (I am kinda in love with Henry, the big brother)! I was so excited when I got this card with the family pictures I took!

I love this baby announcement for many reasons! 1. Its pink (who doesn’t like pink) 2. Its animal print….and if you know this baby’s mama then you know this is PERFECT! 3. I just think this baby is soo soo precious! Especially with those wings on her back!

Well that is all for now! Happy Wednesday Y’all!

10 Reasons Why MY DAD is the BEST!

Today is my Dad’s birthday! So here are 10 Reasons why my Dad is the BEST!

1. My dad is the BEST hunter around! Seriously. 2. My Dad is willing to do just about anything, like take me sledding….even when I am grown up!3. My Dad gave me my first SLR camera!! 🙂

4. My Dad is an awesome photographer!5. My Dad is an OSU fan and went to OSU where he met my mom! 🙂6. My Dad cheered me on and helped me finish my marathon! (He even helped me train a few times!!)7. My Dad paid for my school and allowed me graduate DEBT FREE!! THANKS DAD!8. My Dad takes pictures of everything…no moment goes undocumented! 🙂9. My Dad always supports me, especially on the most important day of my life!10. My Dad is just plain awesome! 🙂

I hope you have a FABULOUS DAY!

(Which by your emails of all the ducks you have shot so far….looks like your day is starting out pretty fabulous!)

Supper Club: Cattleman’s

Remember last summer when I said the Warwicks and the Weavers were going to start this great thing called ‘The Supper Club’?!? Yea… well life happened and it came to a screeching halt. BUT don’t worry….we are starting it again!!! 🙂

So after the wedding this weekend we decided to celebrate by going to Cattleman’s, a restaurant in Oklahoma City that is on our ‘Supper Club’ list.

Here is a little refresher on the criteria.

Food, Cleanliness, Atmosphere, Price, Service and Overall.

Each of us rank each category from 1-10 and then we take the average of our scores to make a final score. So here it is…

Food: 7

Cleanliness: 6.6

Atmosphere: 7.3

Price: 6.8

Service: 6.5

Overall Score: 6.9

We ended up waiting in line for an hour and half before we got seated. But the steaks were good. Our conclusion was that we probably wouldn’t go there again, unless we happened to be in the neighborhood and there was no wait!

PS. While we waited, Nina and I went to a cute little shop….and found this pink piano! How cute is that?!?!

My First Wedding….as a photographer :)

For the last few years I have been obsessed with wedding photography. I look at wedding blogs and stare at photographers blogs/websites every day! It is a dream of mine to be a wedding photography someday.

During 2011 I had 2-3 inquiries from couples about me being their wedding photographer. Each time I would get super excited for the chance to photograph a wedding….then it would fall through. Whether it was someone just looking for a freebee or decided to go another route! I started to get frustrated, maybe I wasn’t meant to be a wedding photographer? What if nobody ever decided to take that leap and use me even though I had never done a wedding before!?!?

(Ok….I will stop being dramatic)

Anyways….one day my friend Caitlin asked me to take her and her fiance’s engagement pictures!! (Remember them?)

So during their photo shoot caitlin says “So Emily….I don’t want you to feel pressured…and you can think about this before you commit but would you like to be our wedding photographer?”

I think my response was “OF COURSE!!!!!! I DON’T EVEN NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT!!!”

So after much preparation, lots of research and practice I rented the equipment I needed and headed to Edmond on Saturday for the big day!

Brian came to be my second shooter. I think he had as much fun as I did! I took over 1,000 pictures (so I will be editing them for the rest of my life!) 🙂 The day went perfectly. My equipment worked perfectly, there were no last minute crises and it was very relaxed! Caitlin and Ryan were the PERFECT first bride and groom to work with…and I mean that whole heartedly!

I don’t think Caitlin knows how grateful I am that she allowed me to be a part of her big day. Not only did I get to share this day with good friends but I am now able to say I am a wedding photographer!!

I haven’t had time to edit many pictures…but here are a few sneak peaks from her big day!

4 pictures down…..only 996 left!!

🙂

Snow Day

I haven’t felt 100% the last few days (thank you allergies) so last night I decided to lay low and just stay home. It started getting late so I decided to let the girls play outside one last time before bed and when I opened the door….THERE WAS SNOW EVERYWHERE!!!

I had no clue it was even supposed to snow! This is Reece’s first time to see snow and she loved it! She kept bring balls of snow back inside the house, so I had to throw them back out so they wouldn’t melt everywhere! 🙂

Happy Snow  Melted Snow Day!

Weekend Recap…A Little Late

I know its already Wednesday and I am just now updating you on my weekend…but its been a little busy around here! My weekend started with a run (a short run due to my allergies) but watching the sun rise made the morning cold worth it!

Shortly after this little pup came over! We (and by we I mean mostly Brian) puppy sat Miss Rosie! She is a CUTIE PATOOOTIE!!

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I took tons of pictures this weekend of Caitlins Bridals and of Mr Brooks…but I will show you those later….but here is what happens when I start editing pictures….

Sally likes to be in the middle of the process…

And Reece just likes to make things more difficult.

(p.s. we had JUST gotten back from a trip to Bruams….so that explains why I took bundled up, or at least that is my excuse!)

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All I have done these past few weeks is edit pictures…non stop. As soon as I get some done…I will show you what I have been up to! 🙂

Happy Hump Day!

Resolutions

It wouldn’t be a new year without some resolutions, right?

Here are a few of my ‘New Years Resolutions’

1. Get in Shape (duh)

2. Save Money….like crazy.

3. Be more fashionable (aka…wear less sweat pants out in public)

4. Buy fancy heals that I will probably only wear once a year.

5. Run a half-marathon

6. Create a Crafty/Mancave

7. Check off some things on my “24 before 25” list!

I am sure I will think of more…but for now I think that’s a good start!