Home Sweet Home...was a long time ago.

I'm a wee bit behind here in the blogophere.
I'll ask you to forgive me as school has started and I am once again a workin' woman.
But let's catch up, shall we?

I got to visit the glorious state that I call "home" for two fabulous weeks in July.
My time there was filled with wonderful people [and babies--who are, of course, people themselves...but super adorable little people and therefore get special mention], trips to the pool, exhilarating hikes, tiring bike rides, breathtaking views, clean mountain air, sandy toes, What Not to Wear and relaxation.
It refreshed my soul.

Upon my slightly bittersweet return to Tulsa, I decided to fulfill a dream and got my own kitten :)
His name is Oliver [Ollie for short] and even though he wants to gnaw on my fingers and knock things over, he is precious and I'm entirely smitten.  Not that any of my Instagram followers would know...

Pretty quickly after that, the days started to fill up with teacher-y preparations and events.  Of course there was also time for friends, lunch dates, fireworks and drive-in movies :)

Then there was a random and rather spontaneous trip to Texas to return to my old stomping grounds [Teen Mania] to see the class of CCMers I met on the New York trip graduate, as well an excuse to go back to campus after six years aaaaand celebrate the ten year anniversary of CCM.  It was fun!

We started school [my fourth year of teaching--how nuts is that?!] on the 19th and this year is filled with all kinds of new adventures and even more surprisingly, some consistency!  I am at the same school and in the same grade level as last year and while that may sound like nothing to you, it's never happened to me before and I am grateful.  But to keep life interesting, there is a new classroom, a new position as lead teacher and an OSU intern for the first two weeks :)  I have a sweet bunch of kiddos this year and things are going swimmingly thus far.

Labor Day is around the corner and will launch one of a few upcoming trips this fall--St. Louis, then Columbia, Missouri just a few weekends later for Kaley and Bekah's half, hopefully an October jaunt to Arkansas with the lovely Chelsea, and fingers are crossed for a Fall Break adventure to Florida with my fabulous friend, Lauren.  

If that wasn't enough to stay busy, I begin training next week for my second half marathon, am staying involved at church with babies, singing, photography, small groups and running, and am filling my weekends with the pursuit of photography :)

Life is good and I am blessed to live it!

Ellerbruch/Brunner {family}

I've been best friends with Ashlee for almost 15 years now.
I've known her youngest siblings since before they could walk and talk.
I've helped out with their birthday parties.
I've gone on their family vacations.
For an only child, being around a big family can be a lot of fun.

Which brings me to the past week.
Ash's sweet dad invited both of us to go on vacation with them to Black Butte Ranch.
Of course we said yes.
And I had the opportunity to take family photos for them while we were there, as a smalllll token of my gratitude.
Teenage boys are hard to wrangle and there were bugs, cow patties and barbed wire involved, but we had a lot of fun and I'm happy with the results :)

[Click Click Click]

Please allow me to catch you up on the last month in the world of Dearheart Photography :)

I did my first shoot for church in April during the Unite My City event.  We sent volunteers to the Laura Dester Shelter and to Crisis Pregnancy Outreach and I was able to spend a little time in each place.  It was a pleasure getting to serve in this aspect!

May was a busy month for weddings and I second shot for Artworks twice.  It's always fun to see new venues, work with new people and learn new things.  I also love seeing my shots make it into the facebook album! :)

A friend of mine has a videography/photography company and I shot dance studio portraits from him a few weeks ago.  Studio lights, backdrops and poppers made for a steep learning curve for this natural-light girl, but it was great exposure!  I will hopefully be doing some more work for him, including learning the ropes of videography!  I'm really excited :)

I shot Joshua's newborn photos last summer and was shocked that it was already time to do his one year photos!  I met his fab family at Haikey Creek Park and we explored with the little man and got some great shots!  

Last weekend, two of my friends from college got married and invited me to do the photo booth at the reception.  I took some photos at the other events as well and had a really great time enjoying the California sunshine and my college friends!

I'm gearing up for a headshot session tomorrow, preparing to reveal my new logo this weekend, discussing a photo devotional project with a ministry here in town and excited for the summer!  Bring it on :)

Backtrack! Birthday.

I am a Type A personality.

I like to plan and organize and schedule.

I don't do spontaneity very well.

[Those of you who know me well are probably nodding in agreement]

So when it comes to my birthday, I am the party-planner.

I always know what I want to do, where I want to go, who I want to be with, etc.

I am the one who chooses the restaurant, makes the reservations, creates the Facebook event or whatever the evening calls for.

For some reason this year, things were different.

I couldn't seem to make a decision to save my life.

Unbeknownst to me, my poor, fabulous friends were attempting to put together a surprise and I was unintentionally making their lives ridiculously difficult by changing my plans every two seconds.

The afternoon of my actual birthday, my friends are I were all at a birthday party at Bounce U and afterwards, the Graddys left to "run some errands."  We made plans to meet at McAlisters for dinner soon, and then Kale and I went back to her apartment to pick up Marilyn.  Mer distracted me by asking millions of questions about the photography workshop I had attended that morning and Kale conveniently needed time to finish my card and wrap my present.  All the while, Bekah and Graddy were feverishly decorating my apartment.  I almost ruined the surprise 18 times or so by calling the Graddys, misinterpreting a text, trying to leave Kale's apartment early, etc.  

Despite me, my friends managed to pull it off and when I walked into my apartment, I was totally shocked.  It was green-themed: pistachios on the table, green balloons and streamers everywhere and two [delicious and homemade] cakes frosted in green icing.  They even all dressed in different shades of green and the girls painted their fingernails to match :)  I changed my mind again and decided on a whim that I wanted comfort food...so off to Cracker Barrel we went for pancakes and mac & cheese.  Needless to say, our experience there was quite the comedy of errors, but it'll make for a good story someday!  After that, we went home and opened presents and cards.  This words of affirmation girl loved all the fabulous, thoughtful words and gifts.  And then we concluded the evening by watching a movie.

It was a fantastic birthday and I am so blessed to have such thoughtful, patient, wonderful friends.

*As a sidenote, I had plenty of non day-of birthday greatness too :)  I got presents and cards and bear hugs from my firsties on the Friday before, as well as one of my favorite annual traditions--birthday pedicures with rooms :)

 

I also got great presents, a card and a nice phone call [including two musical renditions of the birthday song] from my loving parents.

I am a blessed girl and I am looking forward to a wonderful 27th year!

Pennington {family}

I spent last Sunday afternoon shooting the sweet Pennington family in downtown Tulsa.

Alycia is my principal and her boys are very active with football and band.

I'm impressed that she convinced her boys to take family photos, and in color-coordinated outfits no less.  Needless to say, I wasn't shocked when they we're "done" after 30 minutes ;)

Here are some of the shots I managed to snag before the boys' patience ran out:

Clark {family}

This is Ben [and his sweet daughter, Aubrey].
Ben and I go way back.
After high school, we both attended the Honor Academy in Texas and Ben was in my brother core.  Fast forward many years--we both end up living in Tulsa and attending the same church!
Small world, huh?!

The weather was touch and go on the day of our shoot, but we made it work.
Little Aubrey is a mover and a shaker, so getting pictures of anything but the back of her was challenging ;)
I think I burned a few calories chasing her with the camera.

Here are a few shots from our session:

Jaxon [six months]

This is sweet baby Jaxon.

I got to shoot his three months photos and had a fabulous time with his family, so when they asked me to come back for his six months photos, I was delighted :)

It's so fun to watch this little man grow and change.  He's bigger, more expressive, more curious, more verbal and certainly squirmier than he was three months ago!