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I felt like a little kid when I woke up Thursday morning to a nice steady downfall of snow. It didn't take long before there was a beautiful white blanket covering the backyard. Carter was really excited too... the first thing he said when he saw that it was snowing was "I am gonna go make the biggest snowball, ever!" He quickly bundled up, put on his cowboy rainboots :) and went out to complete his mission.

I got one last beautiful view of Santa Barbara overhead as I began my long flight home yesterday morning. It was a bittersweet flight... I was happy to be headed home to my family but I was sad to leave all of the kind and incredibly talented people that I met there.

This weekend at David Jay's was AWESOME! Friday night he invited a bunch of amazing photographers to come meet all of us and it was great to get to network with all of them. Then later that night the 10 of us sat around and got to know a bit about each other and where we all came from and what led us to where we are today. We also got to spend some time focusing on the things we learned last year and the things we want to improve upon this year.

We woke Saturday morning to this amazing view! It was so beautiful.

We all visited for a while over breakfast and then we got down to business.

DJ talked to us about controlling our w's (what we do, where, when, and with whom) and making sure that our business serves our life and that we are not serving our business. After a yummy lunch and an afternoon of more great info, we all went out to Pirahna's and had some really good sushi and then headed out to mix it up a bit with a night shoot in the rain.

Shooting in the rain was a definite first for me. Once I got over my protectiveness of my (NEW) camera and the fear that resulted from that, I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to step outside of our comfort zones and see the images that we were able to get by trying something new. Tim and Andrea watch out - I may be calling you next time it rains ;)!!!

This was my favorite shot from the shoot. I just love the natural warm smile that is on her face and the way her head is turned.

Sunday morning we discussed the shoot from the night before and DJ shared some priceless tips on workflow which I can not wait to put into practice. Then after lunch he put us in the shoes of our clients when we had take our turn in front of the camera.

As you can see here we all had a good time with this one!

Sunday afternoon Mike Larson and his sweet wife Rachel stopped by and chatted with us about some of the great things he is doing with his business.

Mike and Rachel are also developing a non-profit called Love is a Choice to help couples work through problems and create a great relationship by learning from the experiences of other couples.

To wrap up the afternoon DJ encouraged us to take risks, find meaning in what we do, and help others to do the same. It was a great way to wrap up the weekend, even though I don't think any of us were ready for it to end!

So now it is back to life, and time to turn knowledge into action!

Congratulations Sterling and Stephanie!

I had the priveledge of photographing the wedding of this amazing couple from Kansas City on Saturday. They got married at the Veranda Inn in Eureka Springs.

It is a great venue for smaller intimate weddings. Their wedding was at 4 pm and they bravely ventured outside into the cold for a few pictures afterwards.

I promise to be a better blogger! :).

But here are some pictures from two of my sessions last week.

Little miss Maddie, came in for her 3 month session on Tuesday

and showed off her sweet little smile!

And her cute little toes!

And then this precious two week old little girl came by for her first major photo shoot... I think we wore her out!