Luke | U.S. Marine

   
   Earlier this month, I had the wonderful opportunity to fly to Minnesota to visit my best friend Kara (previous post) and her family. I did their family photos one of the days I was there, and had a blast. When the rest of the family left, I stayed back with Kara and her brother - my good friend Luke - to get some spiffy shots of him in his dress blues uniform. Luke is a Marine and has been in the service for over 2 years already. His journey has led him from boot camp and training to Okinawa, Japan for two years, to now California and eventually Afghanistan. He's a strong man with a servants heart and he loves to laugh - or more accurately, make others laugh! And he's good at it, haha. Not to mention, he's a great model. ;) I think the majority of the time we spent together was just all smiles and laughs and inside jokes. We had such a great time! Can't wait to do it again. 

We couldn't be taking ALL serious photos!

I took these next few in Duluth, MN, where Luke, Kara, and I spent my last night together. I had fun playing with the lighting and teasing Luke about the GQ quality of these. ;)

As a final thought, please be praying for our men that are proudly serving our country and laying down their lives for us every day. God bless America!

Kara | Photoshoot

Hey everyone, finally I've had the chance to blog again! And I'm VERY excited to share these particular photos with you. This is Kara, my sweet and lovable best friend. The two of us were apart for almost 7 months, one reason being because we live in two different states and the other because Kara spent 4 months overseas, doing ministry in Israel and London. We were counting down the days until we'd be able to see each other... finally it came! One of the days we had here in Chicago, we visited Cantigny Park - a beautiful park with a memorial, museum, historical house, and more. I didn't expect to be doing an official photoshoot of her that day, but it turns out the lighting was just beautiful and I couldn't resist! 

I love Kara's smile and the way she just lights up a room with her energy and wit. She also is quite good at working the camera. ;) Needless to say its a pretty easy job capturing her best moments. I was blessed to be able to have this day with a friend, and am excited to finally share these photos that have been hiding in my computer for two weeks. Yay! Enjoy.

Cantigny Park is filled with beautiful spots and fun things to see. One of my favorite features is the military tanks that are scattered across the park in one particular area. It was one of my favorite things to do growing up, climbing on the tank, hanging from the cannon, and pretending to "get the bad guys" with all my siblings and cousins and friends. Kara got a little piece of my childhood and tried it out for herself:

She got it down! Lastly, we stumbled on the pretty little waterfall you see in the last photo I posted of her above. It was fun dangling our feet in the water and getting some sweet photos of it. The water looked amazing, blue and clear and bubbly. Just thought I'd share these extra goodies with you cause I personally thought they were pretty cool. ;)

Meet Wesley

 So I'm not sure why I had the sudden urge exactly, but for some reason, the past few weeks I have been really wanting to buy a fish. I would walk past the floral isles of the department store I work at and see the vases, stones, and plants... and the idea formed in my head. I want to combine all of that and put a fish in the vase! Just so happens that we sell a vase with a little sheet of paper inside that even has instructions on how to do this. Pretty simple. Self explanatory. 

So needless to say, I took a trip to the pet store with my little brother, and he helped me find the perfect one. 

Another motivation for this is the fact that I am redoing my room right now, so I wanted to spruce it up a little bit with some color and mood.

Now maybe you're wondering about the name? Wesley. "As you wish..." Farm boy. Ring a bell? The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, so naturally the first name that popped in my head was the main character's. It stuck. 

And here he is! Haha. Spontaneous decisions are sometimes the most fun.