Meet Talia....

Meet Talia....we went out on T.H.E. hottest day of the year and only lasted a half an hour (Not even kidding. When I got home, I saw on the news that the heat index was 111!!! I can't believe we didn't melt sooner!). Can't even tell you how pretty this girl is even when she's sweating to death!! We go out again next week, but I wanted to post my favs so far.

My favorite of the day....

Can't wait to see what else we can get on a much cooler day! More to come....

Meet Sierra....

Sierra is a senior at ADM and the captain of Alli's high school soccer team. I absolutely love taking senior photos. It amazes me what these kids know and to watch them transition from being in high school to getting ready for college is pretty cool to see. Sierra is a smart kid, a great soccer player and you can just see the potential this kid oozes. Her world is just coming to life and with so many choices and things up ahead of her its very exciting! And....she takes great photos. She knows how to pose....I barely asked her to do anything. So....check out my favorites from our shoot and watch out world...HERE SHE COMES!!!

JC is my BFF!!!

Stadium shots -- 2 seniors and a little sis....

Yesterday we finished the senior pictures for Steph and Kelsi at the Waukee Stadium...it's pretty new and I think the pictures turned out great. Kelsi's mom has had me take action shots of her youngest son Trevor and figured since Kelsi and Trevor had some pictures, she better get some of her 10 year old daughter Hallie too! I love families with lots of kids. :) See below my favorites of Steph, Kelsi and Hallie....

Tonight it's me and 60 or so soccer super stars in the VSA of Waukee U9 Academy program! I get to (yes...I consider myself lucky to get to do this!) take the team and individual pictures of each of the Academy kids. These are kids, boys and girls, who have a love of soccer and talent above the regular recreational level but too young to play at the competitive level....meaning they are talented (yes...my Carli is one of them!). They are learning like crazy, getting better and better each week and will someday be playing some where in Major League Soccer....I just know it. Lucky for me to get to shoot them when they are little peanuts! :)

Meet Hallie....



Homecoming was last Friday at Waukee...the stadium hadn't been cleaned up yet (it was yucky) but Hallie sure had fun!

CAN YOU SAY SASSY?!?!?



Have I said yet how much I L.O.V.E. black and white???



My favorite....how sweet and innocent can a kid look??


As always....JC is my BFF!

Steph C. -- UPDATE

So I already posted on this shoot a while ago and said I'd update photos when I got them done. After the computer fiasco, and God's wonderful, miraculous fix (hee hee), I am ready to show you some of my favorites of Steph. She is a beautiful girl with a bright future ahead of her. She tried so hard NOT to smile in the serious ones....made me laugh when I reviewed them because she just can't help but smile....and then I can't help but smile!!! Here goes....

Steph trying not to laugh.... :)

Steph and Kelsi are best friends...

Yes...she has a cast on her foot and yes...I made her climb down steep rocks







I L.O.V.E. black and white....



My personal favorite of all the pics of Steph. I don't know why and can't really explain it. She just looks so...OK with who she is maybe??


THANKS, STEPHANIE, FOR BEING A WONDERFUL MODEL!!!!!

JC is my BFF!

P.S. They both play soccer...Steph not so much these days with a broken foot...so I thought it would be fun to play off that. This is as mean as I could get them... :)

Kelsi J. -- UPDATE

Kelsi is the BFF of Steph (see post below)...She was fun to shoot because the girl just knows how to pose...a complete natural. She was leading me half the time on what she wanted and where. She had great ideas and picked out some things she wanted to do when I was shooting Steph so it was great and made it easier for me! Another great kid with a bright future...if only I could keep getting shoots with kids who are smart, beautiful, funny (you will see what I mean in the pictures below) and naturally a model!!!

BFF's Steph and Kelsi...

Yes...we were standing in the middle of the road and we had to move out of the way when cars came. It's a busier road than I thought!

Headin' down the road of life...



She could NOT wait to get on this!!!

Inside the covered bridge at the park...kinda different...

Yes...she is hanging from the rafters. I swear...I don't encourage this behavior! (I do laugh though....) :)

See...a natural.

And my favorite of Kelsi....

THANKS FOR BEING A WONDERFUL MODEL, KELSI!!!

JC is my BFF...

Toilet paper, soccer and a double header photo shoot!

WHAT A WEEKEND. It started Friday morning when I got up and let the dog out. I could only laugh at the sight that was my yard. There, in two of my trees and all over my car, was toilet paper. Yep....it was homecoming week and we got TP'd. Alli had warned me the night before that it might happen but we live about 7 miles outside of town so I thought the odds were against it. I initially told her I'd be mad if we did....but I just laughed. As I was pulling away on my way to work you could see little pieces of toilet paper fly off my car....I looked like someone who had just walked out of the bathroom with it stuck to their foot. Ugh....having a teenager! Wouldn't trade it for the world. :) Oh....and by the way...they TP'd MY car and barely touched hers which was parked right next to mine. Pay backs....they are so fun.

Saturday morning was the Fall '08 KinderKicks clinic for VSA. I have worked it for the last several years and this year Alli was a coach. See pictures below of all the kiddos who attended....nothing like a bunch of 4, 5 and 6 year old kiddos to wake you up in the morning!!!

Then on Saturday evening I had the pleasure of taking Senior pictures of two seniors from Waukee. I have yet to get through all of them but we had some funny ones I wanted to share. These two girls (Kelsi and Steph...or as Kelsi spells it "Stefff") are beautiful, funny, smart and will 'fo sho' make an impact in this world somewhere, somehow! One is interested in being a special ed teacher and the other doesn't know yet but her mom was talking about pre-med classes in college. Whatever they do I know it will be awesome. Can't wait to sort through the pics and see what we got. I learned a lot....I do know that I very much like getting to see a quick glimpse into the future of the kids I shoot. Gives me hope that our next generation is going to do great things! And don't worry girls....I will put your good pictures up here too. :)

JC is my BFF!