Ashley {Guthrie, Oklahoma Portrait Photographer}

Ashley and I are like sisters. Well, we are pretty much. And we've done like everything together. Almost. We've skied together when it was -20 degrees, had sleepovers together, went 4wheeling together at 6 AM, swimming together, butchered chickens (yuk.), shopping, played basketball, volleyball, tennis and all kinds of other crazy sports ;), wrestled each other (we won't mention who won that match!), ran away from weirdo dudes in the mall, watched You Can't Take It With You and rolled on the floor crying our eyes out from laughing so hard, went ice skating without breaking any bones, sabotaged my brothers closet and dressed up in their hunting gear, laughed at ourselves 'cause we're both so blonde, stayed up all night... and to many other things that are better left unsaid. But you get the idea. We're pretty good friends. ;) So when she asked me to do her pictures I was beyond excited! Especially 'cause we always have the amount of fun that should be illegal- and of course that happened with her shoot. We lost track of time, got a litttttle outta control and took over 1200 pictures. Um, yeah. I had no idea I could take that many of one person. But when its lil sista Ash... psh, of course I can.

Loooove You Ash!! You are totally a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e. :)

Sonic: Summer's Best Friend

If you know me, you'll know I'm in love with Sonic. Wait. Maybe you're like my dear little Ellie and ya don't know about Sonic is? Okay, you are SO missing out! Its this awesome drive in place. They have fast food, just like any other joint- cold cokes, slushes, limeades, ice cream and tator tots. But I adore happy hour. Its every afternoon from 2 - 4 and all their drinks and slushes and all that LeGiT stuff are half price. Yeah, that makes a huge difference when cokes are $1.49...or something like that. ;) haha!  And what makes it reeeally amazing is, there's a Sonic less then 12 minutes from my house. So yeah, I'm pretty sure the girls that work there wonder if I'll gain 57 pounds over the summer since I'm probably their best costumer. I just can't not stop there, especially since its right on my way home. But, I don't hardly ever eat food there so that's how I justify it- I just get their drinks. And exercise. ;) You know what makes it even better?! We've made so many amazing memories there. Hanging out at [close to] midnight with friends there after Volleyball and laughing till we cried , going there after church with the fam, making LOTS of frequent stops there with my big sis, chilling on the tables with my brothers and friends, (and being the only girl there- I guess that's what happens when you are so close to your big brothers and hang out with them whenever ya get the chance. And their guy friends come along. Which also happen to be my guy friends. ha!;) .....and, taking my little siblings there on a stinkin' hot saturday afternoon to cool off with icy cold cokes, slushes and limeades. Ain't nothing better! ;)

Oh, by the way- this is the thing you walk up to and tell 'em what you want. In case you were wondering... ;)

 Helpful Tip: if you don't wanna use your straw, you can be a red neck like my brother and just use the lid. Works alright. ;)

Yummo.  

I adore this kid. Needless to say, she loves sonic just about as much as I do!






annnnnnnddd, I think only in Guthrie, OK is there a sonic right in the middle of a hay field (well, pretty much). Gotta love chilling with cold drinks and little sibs while these tractors are hard at work baling hay less then 30 yards from ya. Just for the record,  I love Oklahoma! :)
Oh and did I mention that one night my brothers and another dude ran out in this field and rolled one of the hay bales around and found a dead snake on it? Don't worry, I supervised them. And yeah, we just do crazy stuff like that. ;)

I guess his lid thing  fell through so he asked for a spoon. ;)  And yes. That's my reflection in his sunglasses- I did that on purpose. (not!)

I've trained him well. He's a huge Sonic fan too. I guess we all are? Ha!

Um, yeah. Cool, Refreshing, Icy, Deep-Dish Deliciousness.




So THIS is one thing I looooooooove about being a big sis- getting to take little bro's and sisters with me to all kinds of fun places and making tons of special memories. To Sonic. To the snow-cone joint. To walmart. To movies.
Yeah, I just love all the people in my life. I'm preeeeetty blessed.


....annnnd, blessed with a Sonic nearby too. ;)

Mud Puddles

Yeah, where I come from, Rain is a good thing.

Lillian {Oklahoma Children Photography}

Little kids are so much fun. Just so you guys know. ;) So of course I loved doing a shoot with this stinkin' cute kid last night, my veeeeerry favorite Lillian!  She's almost 18 months and absolutely has the knack for stealing hearts. ;) Gotta love it! She's walking now and it cracks me up just watching her - I'd say its by far the cutest thing ever. Least I think it is. But maybe that's because there's no longer any little people in our house and I forgot how much I missed that. :)

can somebody please say a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e?!

 "whoa. its a flower?" [don't tell her its fake.]

Never mind. I think she figured that out. ;)

 "such a biiiiiiiggg world out there, huh."

 And then she decided she didn't like this whole "getting her picture taken" thing. I'm sorry child, your to cute not to take pictures of.

Some boy is sooo going to fall in love with those eyes one of these days. Wow. hehe ;)

Yeah. You can say that again.

What do ya do when you're tired of having a camera stuck in your face for the last 15 minutes? Stick your tongue out at the photographer of course. 

 or fold your hands and don't make any eye contact. ;)

 I can't get over her eyes. They're just major.

"really, can somebody please tell me where my mommy is?  I'm looking for her. "

the end.

p.s. She usually smiles about 98.2% of the time but...for this once, I wasn't on her good side since "Mommy" wasn't in sight. Poor kid! [there. are you satisfied Kate?! ;)]

Rainy Day {personal}

Its a muddy, slosh-ey, rainy day on this little farm. And I'm still trying to figure out this whole "blog/website" thing. I'll have it all down  in no time (I hope?!), but for now I'll at least act like I know what I'm doing. Hello, I'm Country Strong, I can handle this! At least that's what Kristen says. ;)

So while I'm still getting this site under control, I'm gonna post something reeeeally random. Where I come from, we have lots of red dirt. Which, when it rains, turns into red mud. And then its a Really Big Mess that certainly makes doing chores a [sometimes wonderful] adventure. Especially when you think you just slid in the mud and you look down and realize you slipped in something else. And its all over your boot now. Um, thanks, black cow! That was a lovely gift you left there for me. ;) I didn't take a picture of that. This is just the mud, trust me.

And on top of slipping around in "cow pies",  its a potentially hazardous situation when this really angry guy is giving you the death stare through the barn window. He completely scares the living daylights outta me- in case you were wondering!

But he'll be a good lil' boy once he's been taken care of. And won't try to take my life anymore. At least I hope not? ;)

He might not try to take my life, but he wouldn't think twice about taking the life of little buddy Charlie. I have no idea what in creation he's doing carrying around a soaking wet paper towel, except that he loves making new friends and maybe this is the newest one? Um...its looks a little on the limp side, there's a possibility it passed out. I'd move on if I were you, Charlie. Just sayin'!

This new calf is one of Charlies "real live" friends, not a wet dead piece of paper. I'm totally not biased or anything but I'd feel safe saying this little girl is by far the cutest one this year! Oh wait, she's the only only one that's been born so far. ;) But, there's more coming. She'll have lots of buddies before she knows it!

(she doesn't like it when she thinks mom left her forever. "don't worry babe, mom is right there behind you!")

So. so. soooo much rain. 

 Too much mud.

Okay. These three goats and I, well, we have an intense love-hate relationship. That means, they love and adore me and I...kinda hate them 96.7% of the time. Imagine trying to carry a huge bucket of grain through their pen to get to the calf pen on the other side, so when you go to open this gate, here's what happens. They stick their blasted little heads through and push with every ounce of strength they can muster against me while I'm on the other side of the gate pushing against them with every ounce of strength I've got, in effort to get it open. And so the gate isn't going anywhere. Grrrreat. My Lovely Big Sister says I should be stronger then 3 goats but I just say I was slipping in the mud and couldn't get a firm footing. Seriously. But, after I do finally get the gate open because I am stronger then 3 goats (yeah Besh! I'm country strong, remember?! ), they decide that the "hay" on my head would be a much better treat and proceed to bite and pull out every hair they possibly can while I try to make the fastest possible exit before I go bald. I really do love my sister and her goats- except for these three. Bless their little hearts! ;)

Even though I don't get along with those three especially 'cause of the rain, I love how fresh and green its made everything. And I love how the sun comes bursting through the clouds after its been raining for a long time- kinda reminds me of how, no matter what difficult things or hardships we're going through, there's always reason for it even if we can't see it now, and God is always faithful and he will bring us through it, just like he brings the sunshine after the rain. :)

"Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness"

Thank you God for Red Barns. [ignore the gate in the sky that got in the way of the camera.]  

:)

 And THAT'S probably the random-est post anybody could ask for from a photographer. But hey, I needed to get something up on this lonely little place before I get some photo shoots posted. I didn't force anybody to read it. ;)

[It's not ugly anymore! You guys know who you are that will "get" that. ;)]