To a long happy life, my friend!  Cheers!

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness month.  Shanna says that she was able to beat cancer because it was caught in time.  Ladies, it’s important that you have a regular exam!  This month wear teal to remind others about cervical cancer and to celebrate that Shanna is a survivor!

Vanessa and Kino Jr. had a fairy tale wedding.  They were married at St. Joseph the Worker, a beautifully cozy catholic church in McAllen.  Their reception for 500 guests was held at the McAllen Convention Center.  Their wedding was fabulous and the details did not disappoint!  I am so happy that I made the trek to the RGV to shoot this wedding.

Congratulations Vanessa and Kino Jr!

You can see Erica’s blog post about this wedding here.

This is your once a year opportunity to get  a great price on a boudoir session.

I have only ten spots open for this!

January 21, 2012 starting at 4 p.m.

$200 Mini Boudoir includes:

40 minutes of shooting time

unlimited outfits (if you are a quick change you can get 3-4 looks in)

full retouching on all edited images

two 8×10 artistic prints of your choice

a custom designed 3×3 accordion mini black book

champagne, wine and snacks!

Hair and Make Up can be added on for an additional fee.

Album upgrade and additional prints will be avalaible for 10% off after the session.

You are beautiful and it’s time to show it!

Here’s to wishing you and your family a safe and prosperous New Year!  Happy 2012!!  I can’t wait to see what the new year has in store!

Our Christmas was wonderful!  We celebrated our Savior’s birth by attending a traditional Lessons and Carols Candlelight Service at the church I grew up in.  Afterwards we celebrated with our family at my cousin’s house.  We drank and ate until the children begged us to open their gifts.

My children still humor me and let me take their picture in front of the Christmas tree.  They have grown into little ladies for sure.  They didn’t want matching dresses this year but I have to laugh that they still picked out red tops and black skirts.  Not identical but still coordinating. I’ll take it for as long as I can have it!

My Uncle George snapped this photo of us.  I think it was one of the only shots I got of myself from the night.  The girls wanted a picture with Mimmie too.  I think my grandmother is looking better than ever!

The best part of our night was when the girls opened their last present.  It was a gift from Mimmie. We wrapped up 2 Mickey Mouse dolls and the Disneyland Adventures for Kinnect game.   There was a note taped to the game saying “Girls, Practice your moves now because we will be going to see Mickey in February.”  This was the photo I captured right as they realized they were going to Disney World.  As you can imagine there was squealing, dancing and jumping after this.  My grandmother spoils us all.  She’s such a blessing to us!

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

          Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

          Light and life to all he brings,

          risen with healing in his wings.

          Mild he lays his glory by,

          born that we no more may die,

          born to raise us from the earth,

          born to give us second birth.

          Hark! the herald angels sing,

          “Glory to the new born King!”

Each Christmas I make Stollen Bread.  It’s a traditional German Christmas treat.  My grandmother taught me to make stollen when I was in college but it took me several years to master it.  Since we just make it once a year I couldn’t use my normal practice makes perfect cooking strategy.  I was beyond thrilled when I baked the stollen about 5 years ago and I got the thumbs up from my grandparents.  I was thrilled with that accomplishment!

Since I was the only “child” in the family who was taught to make stollen by the master herself (AKA Mimmie) I felt that it was important for me to sit down and write out a more detailed recipe for this delicious treat.   Now that the steps are there it really isn’t hart to make!

Stollen Bread

3 c. warm milk (warm to the temperature of bath water)

2 yeast pkgs.

3 T sugar

3 c. flour

combine and let rise in a warm place.

Then add:

1 ¼ c. sugar

2 eggs

1 stick of butter, melted

3 T salt

2 T cinnamon

5 c. flour (you’ll also need more flour to knead the bread)

Fruit:  chop up coarsely by cutting in quarters

1 ½ c. pineapple

¼ lb. citron

¼ lb. green & red cherries

1 c. raisins

I mix the remain ingredients in a dish pan since it is large enough for me to really work the ingredients together. Mix then let rise again. After it’s risen (which won’t look like much because it is dense) knead on a well-floured board.  You will know it has enough flour kneaded in when you can “spank” the dough and leave your finger marks on the surface.   Form into loaves and let rise some more.  Brush melted butter on top before you bake it.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Cover with foil if the tops get too brown.   After the loaves come out of the oven rub with a stick of butter. Let cool on wire racks and resist the temptation to cut into the loaves too soon.

We have a tradition of taking the last loaf of stollen and freezing it to eat on Easter.  This tied the birth of our Lord to the resurrection of our Lord together for our family.

If you are up for a new treat try baking this bread.  It’s delicious.  I’m tempted to make it again during the year and just adding extra raisins instead of the candied fruit.

Elfward had a blast doing a little graffiti on our family portrait.

Elfward also had fun playing Scrabble.  The girls giggled when they saw that he was about to play “Bootyjuice”.  That’s a family joke in our house.  The girls will come in from out side and say “What’s for dinner?” and their dad will say “Bootyjuice!”  or if I say “What is this mess on the floor?” the girls will reply “Bootyjuice!”  We couldn’t believe Elfward knew our silly word!

One night Elfward took a zip-lining tour in Mimmie’s den.

One morning we woke to discover that Elfward had wrapped the powder room door.  The girls noticed that Elfward writes some of his letters backwards.  I wonder if he’s dyslexic like Clara because she did that for awhile.

Of course, after all of these shenanigans, Elfward was exhausted and needed a nap.  The kleenex box was a great bed and a provided him with a blanket and pillow.  No idea where that eye mask came from.

The girls had a few rough days.  Elfward brought back a warning from Santa.  Clara woke me up at 6 a.m. crying since Elfward told Santa they were bad.  We re-read Elfward’s note again and realized it was just a warning.  The girls agreed that they better straighten up and fly right so Elfward would only have good reports for Santa.

There is not much snow in Texas so imagine our surprise when Elfward snowflaked the dining room.

Can you go fishing for goldfish?  Of course you can if you are one of Santa’s elf!

After our Christmas party Elfward left a magnetic decoration on the fridge.

And imagine the embarrassment suffered by Emmie to discover that Elfward had replaced the stockings with underwear.  To add insult to injury he was hanging out in a pair of her bloomers.  Too bad she couldn’t touch him (that would make him lose his magic!) to get her panties off of the entertainment center. 

After I spent the evening baking Elfward decided to make a flour angel.  Once again…not much snow in Central Texas!

Elfward had a blast playing with the printer/copier/scanner. I wonder who taught the elves to copy their booty?  Santa or Rudolph?

I stayed up late one night making cupcakes for Clara’s class party.  When we woke up we discovered that Elfward helped himself to a cupcake and a coke.

When Elfward hid in the cabinet we almost didn’t find him.

When we got to my grandmother’s house in Houston Elfward dug out my old Lincoln Logs from the closet.  We all got a good laugh at the retro can that was left behind his house.

Who knew they made Elf sized Twister boards?

Yesterday Elfward found my dreidel (a student gave it to me one year when I taught about Christmas around the world.)  He sat with it all day as he watched the girls.  Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends!

This morning we discovered Elfward in the remains of a Hershey Kisses bag.  He must have had a tummy ache because he didn’t return to the shelf until after lunch.

We just have a few more days with Elfward.  He will fly back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve.

For those of you who might have a twisted sense of humor I have an album on my personal Facebook page of Elfward’s alternative personality: Twisted Elfward.  You will find some photos there of what Elfward does when the kids are at school.

I am blessed to be part of an awesome community of photographers.  We are support and encourage daily through our facebook group.  We have helped each other out with the ends of outs of our business. We pray for each other.  And some days we just are silly with each other.

One day someone posted that there were so many great singers in the group (many of which would call and leave singing Heytell messages) that they should make a Christmas album.  And do you know what?  They did it!  From all over the country they recorded their album, had it mastered and released it on itunes!  You see, they are not in it for the fame or fortune.  They are about making music for fun and raising some money for a great cause, Thirst Relief International!!!

Thirst Relief International is an organization dedicated to delivering safe drinking water to some of the most poor countries in the world. Founded in 2005, they have been dedicating their time and resources to save thousands of lives around the world.  To date they have impacted over 200,000 lives with clean drinking water.

Please join me in supporting this great organization–by purchasing one Showiteers Christmas Cd : United for Change, you’re saving one life.  You can purchase the cd for 6.99$ here at this link.

To learn more about Thirst Relief, please read the following, taken from the media booklet of the Showiteers Christmas CD, or visit their website at www.thirstrelief.org to find out how you can help.

I am playing the cd on my ipod as I type this post…and it rocks!  I am honored to “work” with these great people.  My prayer is that this CD will be very successful and save many more lives!

As you know, I office from my home studio in Georgetown.  I love this set up because I can bake fresh cookies for my girls or fold laundry in the afternoon in between tasks for work.  A few Thursdays back I was folding laundry when my phone rang.  Jennifer called to inquire about my basic wedding package.  As we started talking I learned that her wedding was on Saturday, as in just 2 days!

Jennifer’s story is unfortunately one that most professional photographers have heard. Jennifer was going to have a friend photograph her simple wedding as a favor.  Then, just days before the wedding, she receives a call that her friend has had a death in the family and won’t be able to photograph the wedding after all.  In a panic Jennifer starts searching for a photographer who can capture her day!  Plus, on top of everything, Jennifer had set her wedding time before the time change so her beautiful ceremony was set for 5:30 p.m. and sunset was at 5:34!

I am a firm believer that all things happen for a reason.  Had Jennifer’s photographer not cancelled on them I can’t imagine what her wedding photos would look like.  I was pushing my camera to it’s limits.  All of these photos were taken in almost darkness without flash or in the total darkness with only my flashes.

Here is the story of Jennifer and Chris’s wedding.

I met Chris when I arrived at Berry Springs Park.  He was calm and collected.  I chuckled when he would call his bride to ask her questions about the music or other detail questions that would come up.

The Bride was radiant as she walked down the aisle on the arm of her father.

Their ceremony was simple, but so meaningful.  The pastor spoke about love and dedication.  This was not just a wedding but the beginning of a marriage!

Mr. and Mrs.!  It was completely dark  by the end of the ceremony.

The reception was in Granger at the Cotton Club.  It’s a great dance hall with a small room off to the back which is perfect for parties!

And if the wedding planning stress wasn’t enough for this sweet couple their truck broke down RIGHT in front of the reception venue.  Jennifer was such a trooper. She laughed it off and we had some fun.  How many times do you get to see a hitch hiking bride?

Just down the block was an auto supply store.  What better place to memorialize their crazy evening!

Jennifer and Chris have the best attitude.  They laughed and smiled throughout all of the stressful events that tried to dampen their day.  They still had a wonderful wedding and an exciting start to their life together.  Best of luck to you both! I wish you nothing but happiness as man and wife!