Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Grateful

Today I am grateful for many things....


I am grateful for new life and the birth of one of my best friend's babies (she is sleeping soundly in the NICU and doing well) I am grateful for another friend's big news of new life soon to come. I am grateful for 2 sleeping children that are amazing little blessings. I am grateful for my husband who loves me no matter what. I am grateful for my family who will no doubt spoil the kids even though they said they would take it easy this year on the presents. I am grateful for two friends/clients that gave my little girl two presents I only dreamed of getting her. I am grateful for health and the way God always provides what we need. I am grateful for God's gift of his Son...yes for this I am most grateful! This is what Christmas is all about and not for one moment do I want to forget it. I am grateful!

Ro - I hope that even though you will spend this Christmas in the hospital, that it will be great. I am so glad you finally got your girl. She is beautiful and I can only pray that she will grow to be a women of faith and beauty like you! Thank you for letting me do her first photoshoot :) Okay the real one is soon to come...if you do not beat me to it LOL

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Blue Sky Sunday

After church this morning we took the kids to the park for a little hike. It was nice to be out of the house after the rain. So many people were out riding their hourses all over the trails. I know that I could never live in a state that rains all the time! I love the blue sky!

I will try to blog before Christmas, but for now....Merry Christmas!


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What I should have said!

Do you have that one kid in your family that is constantly getting into things? I do! My son was fairly mellow as a toddler. He played with cars and blocks. He loved patterns of colors and shapes...but not my daughter. Oh no, she is into everything! She has successfully broken 3 DVD players, plugged the toilet twice with toilet paper, she colored our couch with permanent marker, put a cordless phone and walkie-talkie in the bathtub. The list goes on... We jokingly call her the destroyer! And in all honesty she breaks things all the time. What do you do with a girl like this?!!!


BTW - I hope to soon be done with this old blogspot blog! The pictures are too small. Hopefully you can read the rules.

Monday, December 15, 2008

just breathe!


On Saturday I did my last family session for the holidays. Now I am just wrapping up the last few orders, working on my own Christmas cards (it's about time) and baking cookies and caramel popcorn with the kiddos. With every busy season brings excitement and some sadness. I was very excited because it is truly a blessing to photograph families and capture memories. I am very thankful for the business and for clients and friends that trust my vision for photography. The sadness comes after the shooting is done when I am left alone for hours with my laptop and photoshop. I spent hours at the computer while I read facebook updates of friends going to Christmas parties, baking cookies and having fun Christmas shopping. All the while I was at home in a house that was so messy I don't even want to explain what it looked like! I went through a good two weeks of barely leaving my computer. But now it's time for me to once again see and talk to my family and friends and catch up on the loose ends before Christmas.
These pictures are from my last family session. I want to go back and share a few from each session, but for now I will share a few of these :)

















Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I am still alive!

I am still alive and kicking...maybe not kicking. I think I am shuffling along. I have been so busy doing family sessions. My apologies to my friends that have not heard from me in days :) I promise I will come back to life soon LOL

Well, I still am dying to share all of these sessions that I have been doing, but I want to be able to share all of them and not just a few. So until I have time to post that huge blog I am going to share a few pictures of my favorite little girl.






Sunday, November 23, 2008

Taking a blog break!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be taking a break from the blog for a while due to the Christmas rush. I am hitting a busy next two weeks. It will be hard not to post because I have photos I am dying to share!

There is one thing I wanted to let all of you know about, just in case you do not. I love the organization world vision and all they do for children and families around the world. 10% of our profits go to world vision and most of the time the money donated will be matched up to 5 times to feed children all over the world! Doug and I have sponsored kids through world vision since we were dating. It's amazing to watch our 2 kids grow from across the world. I know the holidays are among us and giving is so important this time of year. So this is a my HUGE thank you to my clients who allow me to be able to give what I do...Thank you!!!

www.worldvision.org

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Beautiful Family

What a beautiful family I photographed last weekend. One of my best friends from highschool (who is also a photographer) is pregnant with her 3rd and she was just put on bed rest. This was one of her great families that she sent my way. Thank you Rochelle for sending them to us :) Back to the session...everyone did great. I felt bad that it was hot and the fires were going on in So Cal. The whole group was great walking all over the park to take pictures. Thank you Paul family for having me photograph you!

How could you not love that face?





Sunday, November 16, 2008

Full of smiles :)

This was one of the best family photoshoots ever! Even though they were dressed for the fall and it was 90 degrees and the air was full of smoke (due to the So Cal fires), the session was smooth sailing. Miss "M" was full of smiles and willing to go where ever we wanted. I hope she had a big cookie or some other treat afterwards :) Thankyou "S" family for letting me photograph your beautiful family!









Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Another year...

How is it possible that another year has gone by so fast?! My kids are growing faster than I care to mention and I wish I could just freeze time and enjoy them more while they are small. Everyone with small kids knows how crazy life can be with little ones running around. I have tried my best over the past few months to just stop and take moments in. I want to remember the way the sun bounces off of Ryan's blonde hair and the way that Kimmie crinkles her nose when she giggles. I want to hug and kiss them as much as possible now. Doug pointed out to me that we are almost half way to having a teenager....what?!!! How is that possible?! Well, for tonight they are still small and I love them this way.

Happy Birthday to my babies!



BTW- I should mention that their bdays are 1 day apart...good timing!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

halloween in review and a bit of news

7:00 am- rush around like mad trying to get Ry in his costume and leave for school
9:00am- get back home and get Kim in her costume...think about doing my hair and makeup
11:00am- pick Ry up from a min day at school
12:00pm- go trick-or-treating in downtown
1:30pm - doug gets home and I have a nice chat with http://www.leigh-taylor.com/blog/ in florida
3:00pm- go for a drive to get Kim to sleep
5:00pm- sit around trying to decide what to do for the night
6:00pm - head off to church
7:00pm- go to the park by our house to play games
8:00pm- 9:00pm- more trick-or-treating around our nieghborhood
10:00pm- put two tired kids, that ate too much sugar in bed!!!
next day- try to figure out if there is such a thing as a candy hangover in kids? We had at least 3 good crying fits and heard several times "can I have candy?"
Overall it was tons of fun! We counted 361 pieces of candy this morning! What do you do with all of that?


Okay now for the news...I am making some big changes! They will take a while and may affect our website, photocart and email. If you have any questions email me at cherylyost@yahoo.com I can't wait for it to all be done, but until then we are working hard trying to get everything up and running!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

A bee and a butterfly...

Today we did a little mini shoot for Halloween. These girlies were too cute and everyone that passed by us loved the costumes. In the last picture you will see my daughter, but the rest are of two cousins. They are so darling!




This just made me laugh. Her hair and bows are too cute!