Moving to a new city is pretty scary, especially when you’re a sophomore in high school! Thankfully we had these awesome neighbors to welcome us with open arms! Ingrid and her mama Griselda wanted to get some updated portraits of them with her Grandma. These beautiful ladies are the only girls in her family --until Ingrid has a baby girl! Wink! Wink! :)
They were such a sweet group of gals, and they knew exactly what they wanted!   

Love these sweet moments...

   "Don't be nervous"...
Jack said as he gently squeezes my hand while we walk up to the front door of the ever so talented and famous --in the photog world Troy and Aimee of Troy Grover Photography's home!

Easy for him to say he has no idea how big of a deal these people are! How intimidating it is to be in a room with so much talent! Even Promise Tangemanwas there, the awesome web designer that created Jasmine Star's site!!!

We walked in and everyone had already formed their little groups --thank God that my husband Jack was able to come with me at the last minute! Im super grateful because I know how dead tired he was from his long 12 hr shift & it was probably the last thing he wanted to do. But he knew how important it was for me to go so he sucked it and did a great job pretending that he cared about photography lol. He's amazing and I'm so blessed to have him in my life!

So I'm not sure how Troy Grover found me, but when he sent me a facebook friend request I was in total shock! Then when they invited me to their house for a KISS Books event I was even more surprised! I'm just a little fish in this huge ocean of talented photogs that are like the mermaids of the industry! Oh how I wish to be a talented successful mermaid one day! Haha!

When I met Troy he was super nice and he welcomed us with a nice hug! His wife Aimee is adorable and so sweet! I got to network with other amazing photographers Alyssa, Alfreda, Shauntelle, Emma & her husband Josh. They were all so kind! Promise Tangeman is just as cute as she is online and her hair was large & in charge as always! luv it! I was surprised to see how tall everyone was! Troy was towering over everyone! I always thought my husband and I were tall but not in this group of people :)

After mingling and breaking my insanity challenge of "no sweets" by indulging in freshly fried donuts and Sprinkles mini cupcakes I was ready to call it a successful night of networking! Oh and the Kiss books are pretty cool! I'm definitely considering switching over to then for my clients wedding albums! Check em out! Overall I'm so glad I went! It was nerve wrecking but once I threw myself out there and got sweet feedback it was great! I love nice people! I was embarrassed to ask Troy and Aimee to take a photo with me but I'm glad I did because I want memories of these sweet experiences.

So the lesson of today is to take chances! You won't ever move forward in life if you stay in your comfort zone!

Have an awesome weekend! Toodles!!!

“Simple Man" LYNYRD SKYNYRD LYRICS

Mama told me when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say.
And if you do this
It will help you some sunny day.
Take your time... Don't live too fast,
Troubles will come and they will pass.
Go find a woman and you'll find love,
And don't forget son,
There is someone up above.

And be a simple kind of man.
Be something you love and understand.
Be a simple kind of man.
Won't you do this for me son,
If you can?

Forget your lust for the rich man's gold
All that you need is in your soul,
And you can do this if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.

Boy, don't you worry.
You'll find yourself.
Follow you heart,
and nothing else.
You can do this,
if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
is to be satisfied.


- this is my fav song dedicated to my sons :)

These boys are my WORLD! They give me so much joy and all I want is for them is to have a healthy, happy, simple kind of life!  

I know that Im about 4 ½ months late on this post lol but I just had to share these photos of my boys first photo session together! They will look familiar if you saw this post of Maxx’s bith announcement HERE . Lil Jack is 4 years old and Maxx’s was 2 weeks old here with a full head of hair!!!

This photo shoot was part of #47 on my list of GOALS. Slow getting back on track with these old blog posts :)

Here are some of our first photos as a family of 4 that my mom took...

I thought it would be funny to throw in some bloopers because it takes alot of bad pictures to get one good moment lol...
Like the one below! Look at Jack's face he's looking at me like "I cant believe your making us take this picture!" And lil Jack is just picking his nose like "Oh dont mind me!!!" and Maxx is not having it! lol Thats the story of my life! haha!

crazy boy!!!

Having a birthday in the winter has been no fun! It's always raining or too cold to have a cool outdoor birthday party! You have to stay cooped up inside and your very limited to what you can play! Unfortunately both of my boys have winter birthdays too!! Womp Womp!  I still want them to be able to enjoy a good summer party sooooo I thought it would be fun to have an annual KIDS SUMMER BASH! It's a great opportunity for all of the family to get together and have a fun time like the good ol days! The kids will get to have all kinds of fun in the sun!

This years theme was WATER WAR!!! So everyone brought a bucket of water balloons and water toys! I've wanted to have a water balloon war since the 7th grade after having a mini war with my brothers, sis, and a few cousins out in the neighborhood. This Water War was out of control!! The kids, adults, and even grandparents were all getting wet!!! No one was off limits! They even pulled my sister in law out of the house to dump water on her! Poor thing! It was total madness! We all had a BLAST!! But this is probably the last year we will have water balloons because the clean up is horrible!!!! We had a good 500+ popped water balloons stuck in the grass to be picked up! But you definitely have to have one at least once in your lifetime!!!  

I get to check this off of my 100 goals in 1000 days # 67: Plan a Kids Summer Bash

Water balloon toss...

Since EVERYONE was involved in the water balloon war we didnt get any photos of it :(

A cool game that we found on pinterest! Catch the cheeto puff with your head!

You cant have a party without a pinata!!!!

Silly String attack!!!

Thanks to our handsome bbq-ers!!!

This years party was a success! Stoked for next years!!!

Special Thanks to my sister Cheech and our good friend Karina for taking all these photos for us!