I know these two love birds from the small group I attend at Redeemer. It’s been so much fun getting to know them and learning more about their FUN personalities.

Amanda is super creative, too. So that always adds an awesome touch.

a sweet friend from church let us play on their property and use their cows in the background. haha!

the first time I talked to Amanda and Ted about engagement photos, he said he wanted to flip her over his back. Way to make it happen, dude.

ice cream makes people happy :)

Ted is in Med school, and Amanda is in PT school… Both which require an insane amount of studying. So the library seemed like the reasonable place to go.

ahhh gotta love west texas wind!

hey pretty lady!

my sweet bro-in-law let us use his tandem bike. it was perfect!

we had to go visit the fake cows too :)

and then of course, end our session with some shananigans. SO FUN!

First off, I must say that narrowing down these photos was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do! I mean, it was even difficult bringing it down to 200 for my facebook album. Whew.

Anyhow, I don’t know why I put so much pressure on myself to have the perfect blog post about our time in Guatemala. I’ve had this nagging thought in the back of my mind, trying to figure out how to paint a pretty picture of our trip and wrap every aspect of our time there into one little entry. Uhhh can we say impossible?!

I tried my best to pick some of my favorites, along with some that really capture what Fundaninos is. And I’m sure I’ll be talking about this trip for a looong long time… Especially when the website is up and running!

Also, just in case you missed the last couple posts about Guatemala… A group with my church, Redeemer, went down to Guatemala for a week to spend time at an orphanage called Fundaninos. Our main objective there was to build them a website (which sounds A LOT easier than is really is, come to find out). But really, what it came down to, is that we were there to love on those kids. And we did, by golly. And they loved on us like crazy, too. They were incredible.

some of us gringos with the kids… the bottom left picture is what we did for three solid days – sat in an office, working on the website, editing photos, going through tons of text about the orphanage and about the kids. Also, we didn’t have any music… so you can only imagine the sing-alongs that took place :)

ahhh roberto :)

what we woke up to every morning… it was beautiful!

the directors of the orphanage… so amazing.

this was a common sight… michael with diet coke and coffee, and the kids looking at the computer

girls just wanna have fun!

and boys do too!

precious.

the directors and their kiddos. we had a mini photo session :)

adios!

It was my first time to met Kaitlan and Nathan, and not only did we hit it off, but we discovered that we have about 3920853 mutual friends. SO FUN!

We bonded over Dr. Pepper, a beautiful sunshiny day, and you know… the whole Red Raider thing :)

Kaitlan and Nathan met when they both worked at the United Spirit Arena at Texas Tech, and Nathan also proposed at the United Spirit Arena. So we started out there for some sweet, sentimental pictures.

such a sweet, sweet couple

rawr!!

love their expressions in this one

for real guys!! those are some dang good serious faces. the practicing most definitely paid off ;)

Senior in college, that is. Elizabeth is graduating from Texas Tech and she’s headed to Dallas the day after she graduates!

I’m back from Guatemala! Goodness… what a whirlwind. An awesome, humbling, exciting, beautiful whirlwind.

It will definitely take me a couple days to gather my thoughts and photos for a FOR REAL blog post about my trip to Guatemala, but for now… Meet Sandra.

One last post before I leave for a week…

I’m headed to Guatemala Saturday morning and I simply cannot wait! Last night, my hubby asked me what I’m most excited about. I thought a bit, and I said, “the kids… I can’t wait to meet them.” And even on top of that, the fact that I get to use something I love and something God has gifted me with to help out this orphanage a bit. That’s so cool.

It got me thinking back to the summer before I went off to college. I went to Costa Rica with a medical team and we stayed in a little village among the people, played with kiddos, and I TRIED to assist the dentist and optometrist. And all the while I took pictures with my little point and shoot.

Now I have a big girl camera :)

And just because it’s weird to blog without a photo, here’s a couple photos from that Costa Rica trip way back when. Gosh, that was 7 years ago… YIKES!

I know I know… me and humidity are NOT BFF. And we weren’t back then either I guess :) But how cute is this sweet little boy?

Lubbock found it fit to rain 5 days straight. So not only did Caitlin and I get to wear raincoats and carry umbrellas, but we also marched through some of the deepest, nastiest puddles I’ve ever seen. Yay for rainboots, eh?

With all that said, we made it work! Caitlin is adorable and her mom, sister and cousin were troopers as we did a mini tour de Lubbock amidst the downpour.

Hello, internet friends.

You peeps might remember the lovely Tracy and Joe. Before we did their engagement session, Tracy and I were talking about ideas for Save the Date cards. She had the adorable vision of writing the wedding date on their feet – which turned out so so cute! And we were both inspired from an entry over at Design Aglow. So we weaved those ideas in and out and came up with this!

Tracy made the letters with colorful scrapbooking paper – it’s just the funnest thing ever!!

Me: So basically, y’all are about to flirt it up hardcore for the next couple hours.

Kaylyn: Oh, we’re so good at that!!

She wasn’t kidding, folks. These two were flat out adorable, and they just couldn’t get enough of each other. I kept hearing sweet little, “i love you’s” throughout our session, and it made me so happy. It’s a fun feeling knowing you are capturing something truly genuine and fully heartfelt.

Ah yes, and not to mention… It was COLD and WINDY the morning of our session. Kaylyn was a huge trooper, and we showed the West Texas wind what’s up.

giggle, giggle, giggle

they could be serious too… just not for long :)

it was common for a pose like this…

…to turn into a pose like this… i LOVE it!

and yes, it’s most definitely okay to have some fun and even be a little ornery

how sweet that they had some parental support along for the ride! so so sweet.

These two lovebirds met on the Texas Tech track team. Michael threw javelin and Katie ran – which brings me to something fascinating. Am I the ONLY person who didn’t know what the Steeplechase was?? If you don’t, you should totally google it. That’s what Katie did in track and I was totally impressed.

Another fun fact… I first met Katie as her barista when I worked at Starbucks. Yep, I made her coffee. Now I make her pictures… haha that was cheesy.

Onto the beauty!

We started out at the track, of course.

primary colors, anyone?

good thing these two are athletes, because that tree branch was pretty darn high

hello, pretty light!

and hello pretty eyes!