We will start off with Miss Shelby Hansen, Shelby is the daughter of my cousin Travis and his wife Samantha. She is a dolly and LOVES her daddy's blue heeler Bailey. Bailey was lucky enough to join us for a few of Shelby's 6 month photos. Here are some of what resulted from that session!

These two were certainly best friends! She loved her puppy dog! 

Then we went outside to try out our "Cowgirl Tutu" as you can see it was pretty fun to play with! 

I had to include this one, as it is a "classic Shelby" :) She always would try and stick her tongue out at me when I was taking her pictures! She's such a cutie!

Next we move on to baby Natalie, she is the daughter of Carolyn and Scott Boose. I had the pleasure of going to school with Carolyn and boy did we have some good times. We were pretty good friends all the way through, so it was quite the honor to photograph her little one and to take their first family photos as well!

Such a little lady!

I adore baby yawns!! They are some of my favorite photos ever!

Next up is a senior session. I will admit going into this session I wasn't sure what to expect as I have never worked with horses before! But as I say, I'm up for anything once and the sky is the limit! Miss Sierra is going to be a senior and enjoys Cheerleading as well as her life on the farm. We ventured out to the pastures to get some awesome photos with her horses. I'll let you take a look!  (and the horse thing, must happen again! totally loved it!)

Only a true country girl wears earrings that look like Winchester bullet ends with diamonds in the middle :) I was a little jealous!

This was the last photo of the session. This session was such a blast and her family such a joy to work with! Her father was very awesome and helped with the horses and getting them to the desired location. Thanks again for all of your help!

I'll close out the blog with a few photos from last weekends wedding. It was a fun wedding as I knew a lot of the wedding party. Those always make for a good time. The bride's son was a joy and had some of the best remarks of the day! He was always quick to turn on the charm when he saw the camera! 

I am not sure that golf cart will ever be the same, but it did make for a great photo! The groom and all of his men, such a great group!

The full wedding party. So cooperative considering it was starting to get pretty warm out!

The girls and their "comfy shoes" highly recommended for every wedding!

One of my many favorites from Bryce and Megan's "first look" I love the emotion and excitement here. It is always one of my favorite things to experience with the bride and groom. Congrats Bryce and Megan best wishes to you!

Thanks for checking in and be sure to like the facebook page! www.facebook.com/amomentntimephoto

~ Mal

Hope everyone is gearing up for a great 4th of July weekend! As you are traveling to wherever you will be or getting ready for whatever events you may be attending. I thought I would share with you my day yesterday. Not very often do people pull a fast one on me and actually SURPRISE MEEE! So before we get to the pictures here is the story!

While I was in high school my best friend moved away to Texas, it was between my Freshman and Sophomore year so this has been almost 10 years ago! (wow that makes me feel old!) Since then I have only seen her a handful of times the last being over 7 years ago. We have both moved on in life her getting married and having an adorable little girl and myself opening up the studio and following that dream. Her sister Ashley also moved to Texas and has a beautiful daughter that is 3. I have kept in touch with both sisters off and on throughout the years via facebook and phone. When I found out that Ashley and Madi (her daughter) were coming up for the 4th I was super excited and talked them into making a little further drive into Atlantic to get a session done! I was super excited to FINALLY get to see them and meet Madi! 

I went to work yesterday like normal and waited for them to arrive. My mom came in to wait as well so she could "man" the studio while we were out taking pictures of Miss Madi. Well, I knew something exciting was going on when my mom literally jumped out of the chair all excited going "oh my goodness oh my oh my!!"  I'm looking at her like... Dude, what's your issue? Finally she spit out the words "Stephy is here!" Yep they sure did surprise me!

Now, on to the stuff you are here to see! 

This is Miss Aslynn she is Stephanie's daughter and just turned 1.

Madison was in love with picking the "flowers" :) she thought they were pretty. 

One happy baby in a rocking chair! She kept trying to figure out how to rock it!

Madi would only smile if I talked about pigs in mud... Thanks grandpa Steve!

It took a couple tries but we finally got them both to cooperate at the same time! 

This was out when we went to see Pa Darrell (My Dad) he was just as excited to see the girls as I was!

The girls got to see some horses, this surprised me that they were so excited and amazed by them. I guess I never would have imagined Texas not having to many horses! :) Steph informed me that Aslynn wants one.

I was instructed that the photo of all 4 of them had to be as "country" as possible. When they tell people in Texas they are from Iowa they get responses such as "do you grow potatoes?" or "is that even a state?" so I hope I did you girls proud!

Last is a photo that Steph took while I was laying in the grass with baby Aslynn. I will cherish this photo for a long time! 

Thanks for coming up girls. You certainly gave this photographer a day to remember. :) As to all of you reading this blog, sorry it is such a personal one, but some things are just worth sharing!

As Madi Would Say,

Deuces! 

M

Hope everyone is healthy, happy and had a great weekend! My weekend was full of fun! I had a double session on Saturday and a session on Sunday. Incase you were unaware I am very flexible with my hours and am willing to work most weekends and evenings to make things easy for you the clients. Even tho my store hours are 10am - 4pm Mon-Tues and Thurs-Fri  I will most times schedule sessions past 4pm if need be. The hours listed are just the hours the actual studio is open and someone is present to assist you. 

Now about my weekend! Unfortunately I am unable to share photos from the first session as they are still "under wraps" and haven't been presented to the parents by grandma yet. When the time comes I will be sure to share! The Next session on Saturday was so much fun! It was an engagement session with Jesse and Sarah, their wedding will be so much fun as they were very easy to photograph and went along with about any crazy idea that I had! What made this session so special is that we were able to go onto some family land that had some pretty awesome additions to it.  Here are a few I'll share:

Jesse and his family built this bridge. There was another one, but unfortunately the wind kept us off of that one.

Love this, Nothing better than taking a jeep out in the pasture and a girl stealing her fiance's hat! 

Love this as well

This image was taken on some land where Jesse's family has built a new little get away log cabin, absolutely gorgeous!

Now on to Sunday's session. What a doll! Some of you might remember Mr Kaden from last year in his newborn photos. He was the one all snuggled into his daddy's huntin' camo fast asleep in the weeds. He has now turned one and was ready to party! We had a great time photographing him and couldn't stop laughing during his cake smash!

Probably the next football star!

The best way to eat cake ever! 

You better be smiling now! :) After this we got Mr. Kaden cleaned up ( he was still a little green from the frosting.. oops) and went out to daddy's work site. He had on his official DBC jacket for this portion of the day! 

Hope you all enjoyed this blog! Sorry it is a little short but it seems to be getting late on me! I hope you all have a fantastic week and a safe fourth of July. I have a few things planned so stay tuned for more!

Until Then!

~M

I starte off the morning with the bride Angela and her 5 bridesmaids at the salon while they were getting their hair done. What an awesome bunch of girls. We had a lot of laughs and they were quick to make me feel right at home. Once the hair was done, the nails painted and the make-up on it was time to head to the venue to get hitched!  As it was still windy and humid I was beginning to get a bit nervous about the hair. Once we got to the lake and Mom and I had found the location in which they chose I could not believe it. Not hardly a leaf was moving! The ceremony was perfect, the wedding party hilarious and the couple a joy to work with. Here are a few of the images from the day. I hope you enjoy them as there are many many more!

It's so fun to work with a wedding party that is willing to loosen up and have a little fun with photos! :) After all you want to be able to look back on your wedding day and remember the good times!

Once again, Congrats Chris and Angela! Thanks for letting me be part of your special day. I hope you enjoy everything you see here as this is only the beginning. I wish you the best of luck in your new life together and as a family with Liam. 

Now we move on to another one of my favorite things. If you haven't noticed I sure do have a lot of those! 

I got to see Miss Naomi Masker this morning for her 3 month photos. Oh was she a happy girl! I'm not sure but that may have been because I wasn't putting her in fireman's pockets this time! Here are a couple from this mornings session.

Come on, how can that last one not make you smile! I hope you all have a great afternoon/evening and a good start to your week! Thanks for stopping by!

Toodles!

M

I want to thank RT Motors (AKA Uncle Russ) for including me in his Annual Cruise night, he put on an amazing event and we started the tradition last year of taking a "full lot shot" from an elevated point of view. I have told him various times I am scared of heights but this seems to not matter. Oh well, it's a blast and the photo turns out amazing every year! Here it is:

As most of you know I have 3 nephews and 2 nieces. Well I have "trained" my nieces (mainly Zoey) to be photographed at any given time. However for the first time Zoey asked me to take her picture. Being the photographer I am I did a little happy dance inside and said "Come on lets go find some clothes!" She is such a trooper as it started to rain near the end of our session and she was very cooperative to Aunt Malsy's crazy idea :) Take a look.

As there are many more of her dancing in the rain, she did get a little upset with me afterwards when she was cold. 

Now I must take a minute to thank the Atlantic Little League Board for inviting me out to take some photos. I'll share a couple of my favorites with you now but keep your eyes open in the Atlantic News Telegraph to see if they are their favorites too! 

Last thing I'll close out with is a little preview from this mornings session. What a wonderful family! I wish them the best in their move to South Dakota and with their new bundle of joy when he arrives! 

Thanks again for stopping by! Stay tuned for wedding updates from this weekend! TTFN!

~M

The first session was a blast and definatley "broke things in" as it was with the Tener Triplets: Morgan, Mason and Khloe. 

As you can see they were more than adorable and we had a good time. Even if there were a few tears shed over who had who's bottle. 

June 3rd was the "official opening date" and I thank all of you that came in that day to see me and those of you that sent well wishes or plants and flowers! What surprises. That first week I had multiple sessions set up and kept very busy. Here are a few images from a select few sessions! 

First up was Ximena, She LOVED throwing me kisses and had just turned 2.

The Hepler's came in for a session during the first week being open, what a wonderful fun family to photograph. We had an excellent time and Kate didn't even fall off of the bridge :)

What a beautiful day with NO rain.. yet. 

I also was visited by the Whittrock family. They have two very adorable little girls. Made me think of my two nieces all over again! 

As the first week faded away the realization was starting to set in on what was really happening. I was really doing it, opening my very own studio at the age of 25. I know i couldn't have done it without the help of my family and friends. But most of all my parents, I have two amazing loving parents that have helped me and supported me through this whole process. I can't count how many times I have called them and asked the question "What in the world am I doing" to only hear them answer: "The right thing, we know you can do it and have complete faith in you" they have always been there to pick up the pieces or to cheer me on when I get excited about a new photograph that I have fallen in love with. I know that a mere "Thank You" will never be payment enough for everything they have done through this whole journey so far so I can only hope that I make them proud. That I can succeed in this new adventure and strive for the best. Mom and Dad I truly mean it when I say I couldn't have done it with out you, again, Thank You. 

Now, on with the last couple weeks!!

One of my favorite things to photograph are BABIES! Not only do you get to see one of the biggest miracles but you get to snuggle them first! Miss Brianna came in for her newborn session at seven days old.

Another highlight session for me in the past few weeks was the Myers Siblings. This session was scheduled for Father's Day Sunday and was set to be done as a surprise for mom and dad's 30th Wedding Anniversary. Oh my did we have fun! (Minus me almost hitting a deer!) We ventured out into the wilderness and learned that there are such things as "not petting turtles" according to Chase. This is also known as a snapping turtle. You know boys, we had to stop everything and check it out. :) I am sure now that Grandma and Grandpa have seen these images they now understand why Hallie was SOOO set on swimming that day! Here are a few images from this session.

I'll close out the image section of this blog with Miss Vivan! Oh Miss Vivan! She turned one, and oh is turning one fun! We had tutus, bows and cake galore! However, Miss Vivian would only smile behind the camera! No worries we still got some amazing images and Mom was very surprised when she was presented these from the babysitter!

I'll end this blog here for now, as I have probably taken up enough of your time. However I first want to thank you all for the "likes" on facebook, the kind words of encouragement and the trust you have given me along the way to capture your families finest and fondest moments. I look forward to hearing from you in the future. Thanks Again!

~M