UCM vs MNU

Hello all! Last night, my husband and I went to the University of Central Missouri Men's basketball game to see one of his students from last year play. He plays at Mid-America Nazarene. It was a pretty good game. Lots of fouls from both sides. The students were gone for Christmas break so it wasn't very crowded. UCM won by about 30 I believe. We sat in the middle and kind of cheered for both teams. UCM is our Alma Mater but we all wanted his old student to do well too. Here are just a few pictures I took from last night.

Vitela

On the blog this week is a few of my photos from the Vitela shoot. We were able to get a fall shoot in before it got too cold. Alexander has so much energy and loved climbing all over the rocks at Cave Hollow for pictures. Sky loved running with him. Alex's funny faces are the best. They had a read along while you walk so we read each page from the book as we took pictures. We did our best to not fall in the mud, although I'm pretty sure Alexander went home a little dirty from climbing. Boys will be boys. I'm sad for all these pretty fall colors to leave. Take a look at my photos below and leave a comment.

Pulak

Hello again! This week, I am sharing photos from my session with the Pulaks. We took these a month ago but I couldn't share them yet because they hadn't told their family that they were expecting a third child. It was such an honor. The Pulak kids are so adorable. Surprisingly for October, it was hot! Almost 90 degrees that day and super windy. Nevertheless, Knob Park was gorgeous. The leaves had started turning. I wanted to post so many of their photos but I gave you just a few. This little family is so cute and there is so much love. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Alps 2

Hello!Wow it has been a crazy week. This week on the blog, I am going to talk to you about my second ALPs class. If you have been following my blog, you know I taught a photography class at the SOMO June Athlete Leadership Program. If this is your first time on my blog, ALPs is college for Special Olympics. The athletes come with a mentor, they pick a degree and they take classes for it. It is currently offered twice a year. This ALPs was held at the Kansas City Police Academy. Great place! My class was offered one time this weekend. I had such great success during the June one, I was really excited to teach it again. Sean was my assistant at the June one but he was teaching his own videography class this time so he couldn't assist me. I had an assistant and she couldn't make it so I asked my husband and he was going to but his schedule got changed last minute so I was on my own. No worries though.

   My class was offered at 8 a.m. so I left Warrensburg, bright and early a little after 6. I got all set up for my class. I had 5 athletes with their mentors which was a perfect number  because we had a camera for everyone to use. It was a chilly day so when we went outside to shoot, everyone didn't want to stay long. I wasn't upset because I was just getting over a cold. The Kansas City Police Academy is gorgeous and being fall, the leaves were changing. The athletes genuinely seemed interested and we had a really good time. One of the athletes was so funny, he kept telling his mentor how to hold her glasses in the funny picture and he wanted to be the model every time. He took so many pictures. Another athlete told his mentor she needed to smile right. When we were going through the pictures we took, he said, "You smiled great in that picture." It was our serious picture lol. They are the best and it is truly an honor to get to teach them. All of the athletes improved so much and did a great job. 4 of the athletes going through ALPs are going to graduate as soon as they finish their capstone project. That's exciting! Sarah is doing hers about photography which makes me proud. Here are just a couple shots from the day.

fall!

Hello people! I am sorry I have been MIA from my blog. It hasn't been on purpose and I don't have a good excuse lol. Last week I did manage to get out in the midst of being sick and get some images of leaves. I love when the trees start changing color. Although this year, I feel like it is happening so fast. This tree down the street from our house is beautiful yellow and orange. I did a double exposure with this first one. I like the look it gave. The red leaves were from some trees at the KC Police Academy. Love the deep red color. There are just a few images but I hope you like them!

A Visit Back Home

Hey all. I finally got a chance to go back home this weekend and visit. I love going home and being in the country. My parents have some beautiful land. When I lived at home, I didn't truly value the beauty of the country. I decided to make this blog post about the farm. We have a soybean field and my dad fixes tractors, so there is never a moment we don't have a tractor in our yard. We also have two cows, Rocky and Everest. They're Casen and Chayten's cows so they picked the names lol. Our cats rule the roost of the farm. The cat in the picture is Chippy which is Chayten's baby. She is such a cutie.  I was able to catch a Monarch this week and I was so excited because I know we have some Milkweed on a road near our house where they hatch. I love all the wildflowers we have in our hay field and I was so glad to catch the Monarch on one. I hope you like the pictures of my home from a different perspective.

Sunflowers!

Hey all! I am so sorry I haven't blogged in a couple weeks. I am pretty excited about this week's blog because I have wanted to see sunflowers for so long. Now these aren't Kansas sunflowers but they were still beautiful. I caught the sunflowers towards the last half of their life. Next year, I will know I need to go a few days sooner. Finding the field was a STRUGGLE. I saw in the newspaper that there was a field in Sedalia. It only gave the street name but said they were visible from the street. I thought how hard can this be? I drive along the street until I see a big yellow field. Oh no.
       I went looking for them and I drove at least 10 miles out of town and the road turned off. I was so confused and didn't know which way to go. At this point, I thought o.k. I went the wrong way or something so I drove back towards town. I was so frustrated. Derrick called me and tried to help me. He looked on google maps and told me if I stayed on the road, I could still make it to Warrensburg that direction. So I thought I can drive back home and I will be on that road so somewhere I have to run into these sunflowers right? I went about 5 miles past where I did last time and finally found them!
       Before I got there, I saw some little sunflowers next to the road so I pulled over and got some shots of them because I thought one way or another, I am getting some pictures of some sunflowers today. The big sunflower field was gorgeous. I had never seen so many. I pulled off on the road and walked over the ditch to get pictures. The ones closest to me were a little dead so I kept on driving down the road and came across some that weren't quite dead yet. I love LOVE sunflowers so I was just in heaven. It was a relief to find them. I didn't stay a long time because I didn't want to trespass on the peoples' property and I had already spent so much time looking for them. I will go again next year. It stinks sunflowers are not alive very long. That's why I haven't made it to Lawrence while they've been in bloom.
    If you've been following my blog, I FINALLY got a picture of a deer last week. I only had about a second to get one, so I am still going to try and get another good one sometime. I was excited to at least get one picture though lol.  Take a look at pictures and leave me a comment. Let me know what you think.