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Babies and Kids: Peyton.

Peyton took one look at my camera and me and ran the other way. No joke. What did I expect? A two-year old to sit down and give me his best smiles. I asked him to just look my way. He smiled, gave me that sneaky two-year old expression and ran the other way. I asked him to sit still for one moment so maybe, just maybe, I could grab one cute picture of him. What did he do? Smiled, laughed and ran the other way. That is when it finally dawned on me. He is two. Two years old. Meaning, he wants to have fun, he wants to play and he wants to be able to be free. In other words, he wants to be two years old.

Now, I do not have any little ones myself, so I can never speak from a mother's point of view. However, I have dealt with my share of toddlers especially in the two year old range, and the more I am around them, the more I realize, to get the best pictures of them, you have to be fast with the camera, you have to be energetic and most of all, you have to be playful with them.

As soon as I put aside the whole let's-sit-and-smile and decided to play with sweet little Peyton, I got to see a whole different side of him. We played the tickling game, we played hide-and-go-seek and best of all, I got some of the sweetest hugs from this little man. And, this is why I absolutely love photographing kids. Somewhere in between the tickling, the hide-and-go-seek and the sweet little hugs, I got some of the best pictures from Peyton. I got to see that genuine smile, that free spirit and those eyes that sparkle when he saw a dog running around. I got to witness that two year old spirit that ran so wildly yet so lovingly.

Kelle, your husband and you are so lucky to have such a fun and spirited little man on your hands. He is just the cutest! I hope you enjoy some of the shots I got of him. xoxo.

Shef's Kitchen Creations: Vegetarian Chili.

It's that time of the year when I start seeing Halloween candy in the stores, saying good-bye to my summer dresses and saying hello to Anthropolgie's fall collection, leggings and boots, eating pumpkin anything, gazing at colorful trees, smelling firewood burning, dreaming of how to decorate our home with holiday decorations and of course eating delicious comfort food that make my heart and stomach sing a tune I recognize oh so well.

One of the things Bryan and I love doing is cooking delicious, gluten-free recipes especially this time of the year. Most of them are pretty healthy, which is a major plus. Some of the recipes are ones we find on the Internet or watch on the Food Network Channel, follow and add our own ingredients to make it even better. So, I am hoping to share from time to time some of our most favorite gluten-free recipes. I will make sure to add modifications for those of you who love the glutes so have no fear!

The first recipe that will be making its debut is the Vegetarian Chili. It is something I found through the Gluten-Free Checklist. However, Bryan and I have added some of our own ingredients and made it to our tasting. It's not only a great comfort food for when the weather is chilly outside, but it is inexpensive and filled with lots of protein and healthy goodness. Enjoy!

Equipment Needed:

Slow-Cooker

Colander

Ingredients:

1 can of amy's kitchen organic black bean vegetable soup

1 can of red beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of Great Northern white beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans

1 can chopped tomatoes, undrained

1 can Rotel tomatoes, undrained

16 oz. frozen super-sweet corn (this gives the chili some amazing flavor!)

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 container of mushrooms

3 Tbs. chili power

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 Tbs. cumin

Dash of salt and pepper

Directions:

In a slow cooker, combine black bean soup, beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, and bell pepper. Season with garlic, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin and salt & pepper. Cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 9 hours.

Modifications:

For those of you who love your chili with meat, add chicken or beef.

Add dollops of sour cream and cheddar cheese. Eat with gluten-free crackers (or glute-filled crackers for those of you who love the glutes), Fritos or some homemade cornbread! Enjoy your home smelling like awesomeness!

Family: The Beckers.

Nothing beats being a photographer and getting to capture memories for your friends. Especially friends you have known for quite some time. Enter the Becker family.

Mark and Emily have been good friends of ours since college. Bryan and I actually watched them both exchange their vows in front of family and friends just about two years ago. Before they knew it, they were expecting a little one who has blessed their home with smiles, lots of silly faces and has given them great joy. Their baby boy, Davis.

Mark was a football player back in college and your all around tough guy, but he was the kind of guy you just cannot help but think is going to make one amazing dad one day. And, he lived up to my expectation of it. He is completely in love with his little football star and his awesome wife! Emily is and always was meant to be one amazing mama. She has a heart of gold and is one of the kindest people I have met. Together these two make up a great team of parents and husband and wife.

As for Davis, he is just about as cute as babies can possibly get! I mean this little guy had me laughing more than I could take with his silly facial expressions and his amazing little side tricks he picked up. He is about the happiest little guy I know of and is a perfect creation of Mark and Emily's best features!

Mark and Emily, it was so wonderful to see all three of you again! I am pretty sure the guys and I had a blast taking pictures of all of you especially Davis. Hope you love my favorites below, and be on the look out for a little package being sent your way! xoxo.

(Shout out to our friend, Sean, who came along to help Bryan and I during the session! You rock, Sean!!!)

Family: The Webers.

She has eyes that sparkle. And a smile that is too contagious for words. He has a laugh that is music to my ears. And an independent personality that makes me think he is going to grow up to be a very successful young man. They are both sister and brother. Their names: Grace and John Peter.

At first glance, seeing these two, I could not help but think how stunning they were. They were full of smiles and full of personality. John and Tamara are the proud parents. And, you can see the glow on their faces when they are laughing at something silly they say or do or the cuddly hugs they get from their two little ones.

I love when I get sessions with little ones because you really can never tell what you will get from them. From my experience, you pretty much get a mix of their happiest, saddest and funniest emotions and I am lucky because I get to capture it all. Grace and John Peter kept me on my toes throughout the whole session which I LOVED, and my most favorite part was when no one was looking or paying attention, I captured a smile from John Peter!

John and Tamara, I hope you enjoy some of my favorites below. They truly did come out fantastic, and I hope you love them! I am just going to come out and say it, your kids need to be models! xoxo.

(The one below is my absolute favorite from the session! That and the one that looks all Secret Gardenish.)

My Kind of Therapy.

The other day, after the storms passed, Bryan and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous 70 degree weather and go for a run. As we were running, I took a long deep breath only to smell fall in the air. My most favorite season for a number of reasons. One being that every year, it takes me back to my memories of when I was 14 years old. Around the beginning of fall.

Out of whim, I decided to try out for the cross-country team when I was a freshmen. To this day, I have no idea what made do this considering the fact that I HATED running! I mean despise-would-rather-jump-off-a-cliff-or-go-sky-diving-hate. However, I need to go back and thank that 14 year old Shefy because cross-country changed my life for the better. It helped me get to who I am today. See, I stunk at running. Like it was ugly watching how bad I was. I specifically remembering one race where there was a girl walking who was passing my running self. Talk about utter embarrassment. Especially when you are freshmen in high school! I am pretty sure I wanted to quit about five million and one times. However, I never did. Why? Because I had some awesome coaches, teammates and parents who believed in me more than I believed in myself. My coach in particular was the one who gave me the nickname "Shefinator" which has stuck with me over the years! I think the name speaks for itself. He is the same coach who attended my wedding and I probably owe him a lot of thank yous for the confidence he gave me each day.

I worked incredibly hard that year. At the district meet, I hit a personal record and was one runner away from qualifying for state. I wanted it so bad, so much, that I told myself I would work REALLY hard, so I can make it to state the following year. During that winter, I trained and trained. I ran when it snowed, when it sleeted and in my basement in circles when my mum thought I was crazy for running outside when it was below freezing. Track season came and as the guns were shot off in the first race, I ran my little heart out! So fast that there was a 200 m gap between me and the next girl. As I ran through the finish line, I saw the looks on my coach and teammates faces. They were floored. Needless to say, my speed improved, I trained hard the entire summer, rocked it out during the next cross-country season and made it to state! To this day, this is one of my biggest accomplishments. It made me who I am today.

I guess you can say, if I never ran cross-country, I would have never gone after the impossible like engineering or photography. It made me understand how far you can go if you work hard, are very determined and believe in yourself. And, if for some reason someone tried to stop me, I just need to go all "Shefinator" on them. Just ask Bryan. He will tell you what happens when you are on my team when we play any kind of game or sport for that matter. Let's just say there is a reason we are not allowed to play on the same team anymore!

Every year, when I smell that hint of fall in the air, it brings me back to this story of my cross-country journey. And, each year the moral of the story is different depending on where I am at that point in my life. This year, the moral is not to give up. Ever. Starting in photography and trying to learn the ins and outs of owning a business is not easy at all! However, doing what you love and working hard to get there is SO worth it. I guess I owe it to that 14 year old Shefy and running. Running is just my kind of therapy.

Have an awesome weekend! xoxo.

Heather Cole's Playshop.

The phone started to ring. My heart was pounding. I kept thinking, the worse she could say to you is I am busy or I cannot talk right now. I did not know what to think honestly, but I kept thinking the worse because I was THAT nervous. As soon as I heard her voice on the other end, my heart was at ease. I knew in the first five minutes, she was going to be different. Very different. I asked if she had a few minutes to talk. She said of course. I told her my story. She didn't have to listen to it. But, she did. She briefly told me her story in return. We shared a few laughs in between. At the very end of our conversation, she told me to come to her workshop. She said it would change my photography and my business. I looked over at Bryan, and all it took was one smile from him to know I should take the leap. And, that is how a friendship began with a photographer I look up to not only for her remarkable photographs but her love for life, photography and her family!

On that beautiful morning, I joined two other gals at Heather Cole's studio to learn everything from photography to business to everything in between! Within nine hours, I changed my entire outlook in hopes to run a more efficient and successful photography business. By the end of the day, I felt like I was going to fall over because of how heavy my brain was with the information I learned within those nine hours! The entire time, I kept thinking this woman is AH-MAZING! Here she was in my shoes six years ago, not knowing anything about her camera or Photoshop and now she is one of those photographers that has worked with and knows some of the other fabulous photographers I look up to in the industry! In fact, her very first workshop six years ago was with Jasmine Star, Jessica Claire and some of the others from good ol' California! But, here is what I LOVE about Heather Cole. She is not scared to help others like myself starting out. She openly welcomed us into her home, showed us how she edits, how she works during a session, how she uses the sunlight to benefit her photographs and how she runs her business so it benefits her family and her in the end.

Below are some of my favorites I took during the Playshop when we went out to shoot! Heather and her family are outrageously beautiful! Seriously.

Heather, all I can say is that in six years, if I am half as successful as you are, I will be very grateful! Thank you thank you thank you times one million for showing us what happens when you take a leap of faith in life! Thank you for showing us what happens when you work VERY hard. Girl, you are ridiculously fabulous, and your love for what you do shines through your gorgeous photographs and blog!!! xoxo.

I Do: Sean and Susie.

It gets me every time. And every time, the deepest part of my heart gets all choked up and it does not understand how to feel. Oh, but it gets worse when I know them. When I love them. Like family.

At 2:00 on a gorgeous Saturday, all heads turned to the back of the cathedral as the doors opened. There she stood looking like an angel. Breathtakingly beautiful. And, while every single head was turned to the back, my head turned towards the groom. My heart tugged, and I had to fight every tear that was ready to pour down my face as I looked at him. There he stood, with that smile, that look of complete unconditional love for the girl that made up his entire world.

Later that evening, Mr. Phillips walked up to the dance floor and was handed a microphone. He spoke about Sean and the first time he met him. He instantly knew Sean was going to stick around for more than a few months. He knew Susie had found her best friend, her husband and her partner-in-crime in one man. He looked at Susie when he told her she had the kindest heart, which she does. He ended with telling them to never go to bed angry, to always love one another through the good and bad times and to always be best friends like he is with Mrs. Phillips. You can only imagine, at a table of some of our best friends, there was not a dry eye there.

And that ladies and gentlemen is why I love love love LOVE weddings. I love that first look, I love the speeches, I love the smiles and I love that it is always a happy occasion no matter what. Oh, and while I am being honest, I LOVE the desserts! I blame my sweet tooth!

The day was special in every way possible. Mostly because I watched two of my best friends celebrate their love for one another. The same two people who fell deeper and deeper in love, went through some tough times yet some really amazing times and have transformed from college sweethearts to husband and wife over five years.

Sean and Susie, Bryan and I wish you many many many happy years of a fabulous marriage! We love you more than I can ever describe in writing. We cannot wait to go on vacations together, have little munchkins, love and embarrass them, go to their weddings and have all kinds of memories in between! Have a fabulous fabulous honeymoon! xoxo.

(I should mention that I was not the photographer for this wedding. The amazing Derek Cadzow from Love and Life Photography and his second shooter, Tracey Bartmann-Leek from Timeless Expressions Photography were the photographers for this oh so fabulous wedding. I was just a bridesmaid with a camera capturing some fun moments along the day and practicing what I love doing-photography!)