Our Cruise!

Ok, here they are… pics from our cruise. i know you’ve been waiting.

These are just a few of the oh so very many pics i took on our cruise a couple weeks ago. Our Ship, the MSC Poesia, was absolutely gorgeous! I loved it… very classy. It was an awesome cruiseline in my opinion. We were worried bc we had never heard of it before. It’s fairly new but some friends recommended it to us, so we took a shot. I’m so glad we did bc i LOVED it! However, i’ve heard some not so good reviews about one of the other cruise ships with the same line, so maybe we just lucked out on a good ship. (Poesia) They always had something going on and everyone was extreeeemely polite and helpful. This was my hubby’s 4th cruise and my second, so we kinda know what to look for and we were both pleasantly surprised. Also… anyone the age 17 and under gets on for FREE. Yes, free. How awesome is that!?

Anyway, I can’t say enough good things about it. It was 8 days and STILL we did not want to go home. Maybe our next one will be a two-weeker!

This is called “The Zebra Bar”… the whole room is decked out in zebra print. It’s where alot of the stuff happened… karaoke, skits, etc. Fun!

This was a gorgeous staircase leading up to the theatre from the Zebra Bar.

THIS is the movie theatre. HOLY COW can you believe this is on a boat!? Awesome!! We loooved it!

This was one of the lounges they had. You just go, hang out and order some food and drinks. Loved it.

Our view of Puerto Rico from the ship. Saying goodbye

Just a shot of the side of our ship

Nassau was one of the places we went and i loved it! This is my little munchkin in a really cool chair in Atlantis.

Still in Atlantis… View from upstairs looking down into the huge Aquarium.

Some really cool paintings on a really cool ceiling.

Downstairs looking in the aquarium.

Outside in the cute little town! I could SO live here! There’s even a starbucks!!

Felicity with the Atlantis Castle in the background.

A beach in Nassau…

My hubby drew this in the sand. I thought it was so cute

This is my nephew, Matthew, Jr., who went with us. I just had to throw this pic up here as well because… well, look at him!

Our ship is all the way to the right. Disney is far left and Carnival in the middle. When Felicity saw the Disney ship she went crazy! She saw the Mickey Mouse ears and knew right away what it was. Nooowww she’s begging to go on a Disney Cruise. I told her to start making a collection in her piggie bank.

Me and my hubby, Aaron. Thanks to my brother in law, Matt, for taking over the camera for a sec to snap a pic of us

Well, hope you enjoyed the pics, bc we sure enjoyed taking them!!!

Blessings! – JL

Holly & John

I’m back!

My hubby and I took our 3 year old on an 8 day cruise two weeks ago and i’ve been trying to catch up on all my work ever since. There will be more on that in the next blog, but for now i’m going to share some images from an engagement session I did this past weekend…

Holly has been one of my great friends ever since first grade and i was so honored that she asked me to photograph her wedding (this coming June) and her engagement session as well. We had such a great time and they were both troopers for enduring this cold weather that came upon Florida all the sudden… again. It goes back and forth so we never know what it will be like outside, but these two did so good we forgot about our goosebumps and just had a great time. You can’t even tell it’s winter with all the the nice green palm trees (it IS Florida…) but if you could have only seen me in my eskimo attire you would get the point.

Enjoy! ~ Congrats to Holly and John!!!

Thanks! – JL

8 days…

Yes… that’s right. 8 days. That is how long I will be M.I.A. as my hubby and I are taking our 3 year old on a much needed vacation. I am super excited about this bc we have not taken a vaca since our 1 year anniversary which was 5 years ago. I am going to leave my laptop behind (woohoo, go me!… this is a first) but I will have my phone which has internet (hopefully) so I will try to keep up with emails. If you need me, send me an email, but if I don’t respond you know why. Just hold off for one week and then I will return!

Anyway, I can’t leave without posting something. Here are a couple of my fav shots from a session I did two days ago. This little boy… ADORABLE! His hat… CUTEST EVER! I want one.

See you in a week!

xoxo, JL

All American Boy

I was so excited to do this session. This little kid (Gabe) truly is the “All American Boy!” Blonde hair, blue eyes, representing the United Stated Military …His mom and I had such a great time playing around with all the props for the photos. (Okay, so did Gabe!) His dad works in Aviation and his uncle is in the US Army, so we had plenty of things to work with.

Taking these pictures reminded me how constantly blessed we are to have our troops fighting for our freedom and also made me think how proud I am of our country and I pray we are continually blessed by the Lord. May we never stop praying for America!

Hope you enjoy these and don’t forget to say a prayer for our men out there fighting for us!

Be Blessed!

- JL

The here and the now

Well, it’s another late night for me. I’m trying to catch up on my work from my wonderful Christmas time off. So that means trying to keep up with my blog, which means many late nights, which means many late night snacks! Ahhh, so that will probably turn into the need of a gym membership. Do you ever wish we could rewind time back a few decades when things were a bit simpler? Maybe even rewind a whole century.

On the other hand, I should probably be focusing on more positive things of the “now-a-days” like being able to keep in touch with friends with the click of a button, or being able to drive to the grocery store in a heated car in the winter since our grandparents apparently walked everywhere in the snow, or even having the convenience of using my flat iron on those days when the weather decides to bring static electricity to every strand of my hair. So, I guess when you find time to focus on the positives, the stress of life doesn’t seem so bad after all!

Anyway, let me try to get back to finding a point for this post.

I guess photography takes stress away from me even if I have to stay up til the wee hours of the morning editing and designing. It’s something I love to do and I think it’s all worth the few circles under my eyes easily made invisible by concealer.

So, here are a few stress free pictures from a recent session that made me smile. …enjoy!

That’s all for now. Hope you have a stress free week!

xoxo, JL