Shots from the Weekend.

It's been a BIG week for me! Apart from starting my graduate program and continuing down this wonderful path I have been guided down, I am learning to juggle fun and school all over again mixed in with my photography business and wedding planning! However, this time, I absolutely LOVE everything I am doing. To say I love school is an understatement. I absolutely find everything I am learning interesting, and the information I am learning is so useful. They say knowledge is powerful, and I feel like everything I am learning in both my art history course and education courses are feeding my brain with knowledge that I think is going to stick around for a long time. With school starting, I have been on cloud nine. My friends and Bryan have even told me it shows. For a long time, I felt so lost as to what to do with my professional life. I didn't feel like I was living or given a purpose. It feels so good to be living and working hard at the things I am most passionate about! I've said it one too many times, but here I go again. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine being a photographer and a teacher so soon, but this path that God has lead me down is an amazing one. I truly feel blessed.

To all my photography clients, have no fear! I plan on continuing with photography and working it in with school. I love it too much to give it up as it brings me an indescribable amount of joy! With that said, I will be sending something to all my clients from the fall season to start scheduling sessions for the spring and summer! I cannot wait to bring my camera out more and start taking pictures with the gorgeous flowers and green trees that are going to begin to bloom in a few months!

As for the weekend, I hope everyone had a wonderful one! One of my goals while I am in school, is to go out and have more fun with our friends. I didn't do this enough while I was at Rolla, so I am going to make sure I have fun. So, to keep with one of my goals, I went out with some college friends this weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday (of course after finishing my homework for the day)! I am excited for the next few weeks coming up as I have some cute babies that are going to be debuting on this blog! Stay tuned. Meanwhile, enjoy some of my "Shots from the Weekend."

Happy Monday!

Newborn: Sweet Baby Savannah.

There is just something about them. Newborns, I mean. They are so peaceful, sweet and angelic-looking and you could spend hours upon hours looking at them. I feel like this is true for every newborn including Baby Savannah. Brad and Crystal were blessed with a baby girl last Thursday at 1:10 pm. Weighting seven pounds and four ounces and measuring at twenty and half inches, she was just perfect. Crystal was a champ and as she retold us the story of that Thursday morning, I told God how thankful I was that both her and the baby had a healthy and happy delivery.

Now, it's no secret that I obviously am obsessed with taking pictures. One day prior to Savannah's birth day, I wrote a letter to Savannah on Crystal's Facebook wall:

Dear Baby Savannah,

You don't know us yet although you will soon enough. Your Uncle Bryan and I want to meet you, so would you please hurry up and let your mum go into labor, so we can meet you! That would be wonderful. Thank you.

We love you.
Uncle Bryan and Aunt Shefy

P.S. If you see a lot of flashing when you open you eyes for the first few times, please don't be alarmed. Your Aunt Shefy has a problem and loves taking pictures. I apologize ahead of time.

With that said, Baby Savannah must have heard my request (so I like to think) and let Crystal, her mum, go into labor the following day! When we went to visit them over the weekend, Crystal asked me to take a few pictures. I turned a few pictures into a full newborn session, and we all had so much fun during the session! I think Baby Savannah got to experience what it felt like to have her Aunt Shefy's camera and flash go off constantly b/c she kept blinking every time it went off or would put her hands in front of her face. It was so cute! All I can say is Savannah is one lucky baby to have so much love from so many people!

Brad and Crystal, I hope you enjoy these!!! I love you both so much.

Shots from the Weekend.

This weekend was nothing short of amazing. Why you might ask? Well I will tell you. Bryan and I are an aunt and uncle to a beautiful baby girl named Savannah as of last Thursday! We received calls from Bryan's mum, Thursday morning telling us Crystal, Bryan's sister-in-law, was in labor and at the hospital already. Seven hours later, Crystal and Brad were a mum and dad, and they were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. So, after the big news of having a new baby girl in the family, Bryan and I packed our bags and headed out Friday evening to see the newest addition of the family in person.

Now, it's one thing to hear you are an aunt and uncle and to see pictures of your new niece on Facebook or through email. It's another thing to actually see her in person. I think I could have watched her sleep all day, ok who am I kidding, all week, month and year. She is THAT precious, and I am partial to her cuteness since she is my niece. If you are asking if I bought my camera equipment then you should already know the answer to that question. Of course!

After spending some time holding her, Crystal asked me to take a few pictures, so I did one better than that. I did an entire newborn session with her. Other than hanging out with Baby Savannah, Frank, Bryan's dad, Crystal and Brad, we got to squeeze a visit to my house to see my parents and brother, to my aunt and uncle's house for a delicious brunch and of course to Bryan's mum and step-dad's house to see both of them along with our other three-year old niece, Carley. As you can tell, my camera did not stop taking pictures after Savannah's newborn session. Liz, Bryan's mum, asked me to snap a few fun shots of Carley taking a bath. Did we have fun?! I can say that this weekend was just plain wonderful.

Hope everyone else had a fabulous weekend. Check back tomorrow for Baby Savannah's newborn session as it turned out ADORABLE!

Shots from the Weekend.

Try and imagine deciding where to live as newlyweds. One person wants to live in a cozy and spacious place. The other wants the city yet safe feeling. One person wants enough room to fit all their furniture into the space provided. The other wants to have a cute study or separate room to study and work in. Both are determined to find a place to call home for awhile.

This situation is not hard for me to imagine b/c this situation basically describes Bryan and I. We have been on the quest to start searching for a new home for us come May, our first home as a married couple. After days of researching online, we narrowed down our choices to two. Both were very different from the other but had some similarities. However, once we saw THE place, we knew this was going to be our home for awhile. Here is the twist. We weren't expecting to find a loft in South Kansas City! We only thought those existed in downtown KC. So, in the end, we ended up winning both ways. We get to live in a loft layout, have a deck with a beautiful view of three gorgeous lakes, feel safe at all times (this place has controlled access and we have to buzz people in to enter our building...I get to live out my dream of living like Monica and Rachel from Friends!), have a pool/sand volleyball court/beach-style pool and live close enough to the area I currently live in and love! To say Bryan and I are excited about this soon-to-be new place of ours is an understatement!

This was the start to an awesome weekend! We got some wedding planning tasks taken care of, hung out with friends and even got to see Avatar in the IMAX 3D experience-don't make fun of how hot we look in our 3D glasses (Bryan told me this was a MUST-SEE kind of movie and I have to say it was pretty darn good!). I am still in awe of how Avatar in the IMAX version is selling out every one of its shows after a month of being released in theater. In Bryan's words, "It is just THAT awesome." I think aside from finding our new home once we get married, we were blessed with some VERY exciting news. Our good friends, RJ and Laura, whom I was supposed to do a maternity session this weekend for, ended up having their precious little boy, Robert Steven Agge on Friday night. We got to visit them this weekend and see baby Robbie who is just so stinking cute! Both Laura and Robert are doing wonderful! I cannot wait to smother him with my camera and capture RJ and Laura being kick-butt parents! They are such a cute family.

Hope everyone had a warm and wonderful weekend. It's supposed to be a heat wave this week with temperatures approaching above the freezing mark, so watch out! It's going to get toasty or at least be nice enough to walk outside without it hurting. Enjoy some pictures of our soon-to-be new place and our goofy 3D pictures (don't judge!).

Happiness.

It was Wednesday morning, and I was reading my emails. I thought I would turn on the TV and see what was on. Now, I love Rachel Ray's cooking shows, so I saw her talk show on and thought why not? I didn't have many plans for the day except to read, stay warm and await the snow we were expecting that day. Well, I tuned into her show on the right day. She had a "happiness expert" on her show by the name of Dr. Andrea Goeglein. While I was still trying to question if there was such a thing as a happiness expert, she caught my attention in some of the knowledge she was sharing with the viewers and the audience.

If someone were to ask you what is the most popular New Year's resolution that people make around the world, what would you guess? If it is to lead a happier life in the coming year then you are correct. Now, she didn't feed the viewers and the audience with some crazy theories on how to live a happier life. She suggested starting with three things:

1. To get rid of the word "but" and replace it with "and." To make everything that comes out of your mouth be a positive statement rather than negative. Easier said than done, but it is a good challenge that I am up for.

2. To smile more. Some might know this, but frowning uses more muscles and there have been studies shown on how people who smile more than people who frown, do live a happier life. Simple enough.

3. To "embrace gratitude." When you feel down, it is a good time to think about all the great things in your life. Bryan has always given me wonderful advice as he has repeatedly stated, "We are all on our own path, and we have to live life to the fullest." Be thankful and you might be able to tell a difference in your outlook on life.

I thought this was fun, and I would share it with friends, family and my clients as everyone begins 2010 with a fresh start. I plan on taking these three suggestions and implementing them in my life!

Hope everyone has a warm and wonderful Friday and weekend!

Newborn: Baby Natasha.

You might remember the Lyeshchenko family and how adorable they were. Right before Christmas, they received a beautiful gift, Baby Natasha. Upon meeting her, you fall into this spell of loving her and all of her beauty. She has eyes that makes anyone melt. Her hands and feet had me in puddle every time I photographed them. To Yuri and Dasha, she is perfect, and I would have to agree with them.

I think the biggest step for Andre, their two-year old boy, was going from the only child to being a big brother. I have to say he handled it with grace and accepted Natasha as his sister whom he will love and protect for life. I was so impressed with the way he showed his affection to Natasha. I remember when my brother was born how big of a brat I was. Let's just say I did not like someone else coming into our family and taking the attention away from me. There are family videos my dad took where he would be filming my baby brother. However, within minutes, I would somehow appear into the video showing my dad my best singing and dancing skills (which are nothing to be bragging about). We all laugh about this now, and I did warm up to the big sister role; I ended up loving Shalin and he is in many of my dearest childhood memories. It is so neat to see how children react to having someone else enter into their family. Andre is going to be an awesome big brother.

Yuri and Dasha, you both are so blessed to have two beautiful, healthy children and one another. I cannot wait to see Natasha and Andre grow together and individually. Have so much fun with both of them; they are gems! Enjoy some of my favorites; I just LOVE the last two pictures. Their expressions say everything!

Happy Tuesday! There is another snow storm headed our way tonight, which will make this snow storm #4 for Kansas City! I love our winters here! Stay warm and safe.

Shots from the Weekend.

The countdown has begun for starting school! Two weeks. Two weeks to enjoy reading, enjoy doing nothing at all sometimes, enjoy having fun with friends and family without a care in the world. I have truly enjoyed my six month vacation, and I am so thankful for having the opportunity to find myself and take control of my life over the past few months. I honestly could not be more thankful for everything God has done for me. I have said it before and will say it again, I am truly blessed.

With that said, this weekend was quite extraordinary. I had one of the BEST New Year's Eve, and it was the perfect way to start, what I think, will be one of the BEST years in my life. I spent this weekend ringing in the new year with wonderful friends and a live performance by some of my talented friends (Bryan even sang a song and he was AMAZING!), eating out at some delicious restaurants, being in good company of friends and my love, doing a newborn session for one of my past clients, finished registering at one of the stores we had started and reading/relaxing! I spent a lot of the weekend brainstorming some New Year's resolutions and here is what I came up with:

* Not to take everything so personally and let some things roll of my shoulders

* To have faith and pray more

* To not judge others and learn to look at their strengths rather than their flaws

* To stay optimistic even at the toughest of times

* To fight fair and to always stand up for myself

* To forgive and forget quicker (credit to my gal, Susie Phillips)

* To find more ways to volunteer and give back to the community

* To stay healthy

* To live life more spontaneously

* To live my motto to the fullest: Love.Laugh.Live

* To keep dreaming big

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, New Year's and has started living by their new year's resolutions! Here's to 2010...it is going to be one heck of an amazing year, and I for one, cannot wait to see what it has in store for Bryan and I!