Soccer stars....WATCH OUT MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER!

Here is what turned out from the shoot of 60 soccer stars and their teams Monday night. Learned a few things and it's your lucky day....I'm gonna share them!

1) 9 year old girls are WAAYY more well behaved than 9 year old boys. I guess I knew that before but only having girls, I truly am clueless as to the difference in maturity levels between them at that age! Only wanted to hurt one kid.... JUST KIDDING....sorta....

2) If you try to be organized, you won't be. I only know about 6 of the 60 kids so I was seriously worried about matching Johnny So&so's order with his cute little picture so I wrote each frame number by their name on my roster. Only thing is...I didn't figure out that was the way to go until I was over half way done. Der...have I told any of you lately that I am blond?? And proud of it, by the way, but blond none the less.

3) If you do it, they will come. Really....my dream of a photography business is NOT lining up a bunch of kids in poses and charging their parents reasonable fees to do something they certainly could do themselves. It appears that the "posing and printing" business is a good money maker, though. Huh...while I'd rather be taking shots of the beauty in our world, God has given me several opportunities lately to do shoots that make me money to pay the bills. Who am I to turn that business down (ok...truth is I asked for this gig)? God has a plan, God has a plan, God has a plan....that's my battle cry these days. :)

4) Yes....I have mad skills on PhotoShop. DO NOT ASK ME FOR TIPS. I just closed my eyes clicked here, clicked here and the above "Memory Mate" appeared. God is soooo good to me. :)

That's it. All orders are printed (I pick them up today) and will be delivered to parents next week. I still can't believe how smooth this has all gone. AND...I got to hang out with all the little future MLS stars. I will be keeping these on file so when they are famous maybe I can get a gig taking their posed photos then too. :0

JC is my BFF....GOOOOAAALLLLL!

FAMILY....No blood required.

Man....He did it again. God has such a cool way of teaching me lessons! And this is a good one so keep reading....

This past weekend I had two photo shoots. Both taught me some things about life and how quickly it can pass you by if you don't pay attention. As you all know, I'm starting a new business and with that comes the challenges of finding work. Many of the shoots I have done so far have been family or friends...a few paying customers but mostly freebees to get things rollin'.

Anyway, as you also know, my younger brother Brad and his family live in Virginia. He was back in Iowa for a few weeks and spent some time with his "family" while here. To make a long story short, Brad was very lucky as a junior high/high school student to meet a family that lived here in Des Moines when he came down for a basketball camp or something. The important part here is that the Meskimens became his "family"....truly in every sense of the word. On Saturday the Meskimens were together for a baptism so I was allowed (ok....I strongly suggested that they let me!) to take some shots of the family together. Jolynne (mom of the family) lives here in Des Moines, Jen (Jolynne's daughter) and her daughter live in Las Vegas and Brent (Jolynne's son), Mary (Brent's wife) and their son live in North Liberty, Iowa. Jeez....this is taking too long to explain. HANG IN THERE...I'm getting to my point! This shoot was with one 1.5 year old, two 2 year olds, an 8 year old and an (almost!) 10 year old. Challenging, yes, but very fun.

After that shoot I went to another one with 4 kids -- 3 in college and one in junior high, their parents, an aunt and 3 cousins. This one was also full of cool happenings...the third child in this family was leaving for California to begin his freshmen year of college. He was nervous but excited and anxious.

Here is the moral of this blog and what has taken me so long to get to....top 4 things I learned on these 2 shoots:

1) FAMILY....NO BLOOD REQUIRED. It was so obvious to me that my brother, his wife and kiddos and all of the Meskimens are FAMILY. Who ever said you have to have the same blood in you to be a family? The love that came from each of them...the way they interact with each other, the way the kids all play together...they are a FAMILY. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

2) WHENEVER POSSIBLE....take a former music teacher with you to a photo shoot! Mary was a music teacher in her former life and her voice...beautiful...saved the day several times. You can see in the pictures below some of the smiles...it's because she's singing. Too bad she lives a few hours away...I'd hire her in a second!!! :)

3) DON'T BLINK....in a matter of three hours I saw children...babies really....to young adults going off to college. We forget how quickly our children grow up! Many times I have caught myself saying "Oh...I can't wait 'til you move out!" when my kiddos are being....well, KIDS...but now I have a different perspective. I believe God was showing me to slow down...enjoy my children while I have them because before I know it they will be out the door!

4) GOD GIVES US THE CHILDREN WE HAVE FOR A REASON....I truly believe that we are handpicked by God to raise the children we are given. Every child has his or her issues, but when they are specially placed with us by God it's for a reason. We are each challenged to raise them the best we can....to teach them the ways of the world and when they grow up and go off to college, we celebrate the work we have done and pray that the wings we helped form, with God's help, will allow them to fly.

Here are some of the pictures from the Meskimen shoot....I'll add some of the Bean shoot as soon as I have them completed. It was absolutely my pleasure to be a part of both of these.

JC is my BFF!

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands! Clap...clap!

THIS ONE MAKES ME LAUGH....As soon as I put the camera down, this is what happened....everyone started running around, getting ready for the next shot! It was so funny. Look at Jolynne....she just laughed. I don't even think anyone knew it happened...I didn't really until I saw this! :)

Huh...

What a weekend. I spent 6 hours Saturday shooting action shots at a 3v3 soccer tourney then spent an hour or so with an adorable 2 year old and his parents. So many things happened I can't even begin to get my head around it all or even know really where to start.

First -- the 3v3 tourney. I just walked around taking random shots of players and coaches so that we can use the photos in next years promotional materials. As I did that I had several teams ask for team photos. Many asked me if they would be for purchase...gave them my card and said send me an email. :) In the last few weeks I have been thinking about getting into wedding photography...scares me to death as I've seen one too many episodes of "Bridezilla"! Having never done a wedding, it's hard to get someone to hire you without examples/experience so that is a hurdle I have to overcome if I decide to go down that path. About halfway through the day a lady walks up and asks me if I do wedding photography! Gave her my card and told her I hadn't done one but was looking into the possibility. She seemed excited and she said she'd call.

God hears us when we talk. I just know it.

A team of about 14-15 year old girls walked up shortly after this and asked for a team photo. One of the parents yelled "Tell her about the ribbon on your socks!" so I bit and asked what it was. At closer look it said "R.I.P. JJ"...I had immediate goosebumps as they explained that a 14-year old friend of theirs had died last Wednesday from an accident on a 4 wheeler. They were going through what no teenager should ever have to and it was tough to watch them. Totally my pleasure to take their team picture....see below. What a cool group of girls.

I honestly believe that God puts people in front of us to remind us of certain things or show us how He is working on our behalf when we don't even realize it....you know....making our "crooked paths straight." Looking back at the 3v3 tourney and what has come out of it, I see God molding me and allowing me to show Him in me to those who cross my path. What a blessing for me!

Later that evening I spent some good time with a 2 year old named Dylan and his parents at a park here in Waukee. He was absolutely adorable.

We were almost done with the shoot and there, at the other end of the park, was a beautiful hot air balloon getting ready to take off. You should have seen his face! Then....God's timing is so good...a firetruck pulls up to make sure the hot air balloon is going to go up ok! WHAT A DREAM! A firetruck for a two year old boy! We were allowed get some shots of Dylan and the truck. The photo above is Dylan after he got to sit in the firetruck and one of the last photos I took. You are probably wondering how I see God in this but I certainly do. I've got a new photography business going and not that the shoot was going bad at all, it wasn't, but how many times does a photographer get a setting like this one without setting it up! I believe that God has a master plan for me and my business and He is doing things to make it easier for me to get my job done well.

And I'll take all the help I can get!

JC is my BFF!