many years ago - 10 years to be exact - i encountered a beautiful korean girl named natalyn at an ol' bbq restaurant. (her first words to me were, "how many? ... okay that will be 30-45 minutes, here is your pager that will buzz when your table is ready"). hehe.
the next week, i decided to apply for my first job ever at this restaurant.
after being hired, i met this korean girl, got to know her, we became best friends, became attached at the hip, worked side by side for 3 years, were inseperable and laughed A TON!!! ... and the rest is history. :)

at the same time, i met a native boy named jared that also worked at this restaurant.
we too became friends, shared inside native jokes (such as shipkicker and playing with sticks in the dirt...) and had some fun & silly memories for my 3 years working with him.

a few years later, these two friends of mine got married! then moved to germany. then moved to hawaii. THEN had a kid!!!!
my life is so much sweeter with these two friends of mine in it.
i love that after all these years, we can still get together and laugh so much while making new memories and reminiscing the old ones.
jared serves in the army and i am so incredibly proud of him for the amazing father he is and for the service he does for our country.
natalyn is a wonderful mommy and i'm also proud of her hard work she puts into her education and motherhood. :)

last month, i had the WONDERFUL opportunity to vacation for 2 weeks and visit jared & nat at their current home in hawaii with their ridiculously and amazingly CUTE baby - annie.
of course i couldn't leave hawaii without snapping a few family photos of them. not only is hawaii and beautiful place to do photo shoots - my heart was bursting with happiness as i got to photograph my family/friends.

LOVE YOU so much my maria maheeah and shipkicker!
i look forward to a lifetime of friendship and more memories with you!

ps. the last image is my memory lane picture i just had to add. i believe we were all in high school!!! :)

enjoy!

last month, i was able to travel to my home state of new mexico to photography my cousin, johannah's wedding!!
to put it in perspective, johannah's mother and my mother were pregnant with us together for a few weeks - so basically - johannah and i have literally known each other our entire lives and my very, very early childhood memories have her and her family in it.
i could go on and on with memories of us as kids, our summers together and all the crazy things we did but then this post would never end.

i was so deeply honored that she asked me to photograph her big day.
and i'm so happy for her future with matt.
they've been together for 7 years and it was such a joy for all of us to see them both marry and be merry. ;)
their wedding was beautiful!!! from the jewelry, flowers & chapel!!! and the reception was quite eventful!!
it was a such a good day filled with so much love and laughter.

this was my first wedding to photograph with an official assistant.
my best friend, amanda, was able to join me to help where needed and even got photo happy herself as she took photographs on her own!!
it was so hard for me to narrow down all the images to just a few - so you'll just have to see a ton of them!!

congratulations matt & jo! i love you both VERY dearly and wish you the best in your future lives together and with God!
enjoy!

once upon a time, a sweet friend of mine booked a shoot in march. after countless attempts, we finally were able to meet up in july. all were happy and merry. and they lived happily ever after. :)

no seriously. becca and i had to reschedule at least 4 times due to rain. it's as if is was meant just for july. but nevertheless, we connected, caught up on life, laughed and had ourselves a good time.

thank you becca for being so amazing, encouraging and letting me be a part of your/our "celebration" times. :)
love you dearly.

enjoy!

i've said it before. i'll say it again... :)
there are those families/people that we photographers develop a relationship with by years of photographs.
rob and joleen are those people for lyrics.
i was honored to photograph their engagement, wedding, bridals and now... 2 years later i'm photographing their first maternity pictures!
this has got to be one of the hottest maternity shoots i've done to date.
we battled the heat, mosquitos, wind & pre-storm weather... but they were troopers!

congratulations rob & jo!
you two hold a special place in my lyrical heart. :)
love you and wish you and your new family all the best!!!

enjoy!

ps. one of my many favorite pics from this set is the curfew picture. we all titled it, "kids! this is what happens if you stay out past curfew!" ;)

the gaytan-gutierrez wedding was one fun wedding to photograph!
the ceremony was beautiful and the reception was ONE! BIG! PARTY!
lots of fun, laughs, dancing and loving.

congratulations adrian & lindsay!!
i wish you both the best in your future lives together!!

enjoy!