july & august photos.

at the end of july,

we celebrated my husband's grandmother's 90th

birthday.

we even created her own birthday card.

[when doing this, make sure your driveway isn't cracked. :)]

now, i absolutely do not do photos in the

summer...if i don't have to.

i'm a miserable grump in the heat,

this summer being no exception.

we're on summer #3 of no a/c in our

vehicle, so if i'm forced to go anywhere

during the day, i'm soaked before i even get there.

40 degrees is sounding pretty awesome right now.

i'm sure i'll complain about it soon enough. :)

however, this week i was forced to take some outdoor photos.

i felt really bad for turning someone

down for photos and then doing

this shoot.

sorry!

this is my friend stacie. 

we grew up 2 blocks away from each other,

were in the same 4th grade class [i still have one of her crayons], and then went on to middle school together,

as well.

[4th grade--i'm at the end of the 2nd row, burgandy top,

stacie's behind me in the pink top]

her mom was always my favorite because she

was really tall like my mom.

when your mom is 6ft and all you hear is

"wow, your mom is really tall",

it's nice to have someone around who can relate. :)

she and i didn't get to go to high school

together, but we kept in touch.

thanks to facebook, i've been able to pass

on camera/lens info, help her decide which ones to purchase and even talked her into getting lightroom...just last month. :)

when stacie contacted me, saying she'd be in town and if i could survive the heat to do her photos...well, i'll be honest...

i was hesitant.

it's really hot out!!!

ha.

and then i said yes.

thankfully, it was 80 degrees in the morning.

that day topped out at 112.

whew.

here are a few shots from our morning.

i was so happy to see her mom, too!

thanks for asking me to play out in the heat, stac! :)

antonio: 2 year celebration.

my friend krista is a big fan of disney.

mickey mouse is very present in she and her son's life.

they take trips to disney quite often...

it's more of a second home to them.

i'm sure when i go someday i will have her

put our trip together for me. :)

being the big fans of mickey that they are,

it was not surprising to me to walk in and see this balloon.

krista's son, antonio, turned 2 and asked if i could come

over again and shoot the party for her.

it was fun to see a framed photo that i took of

his 1st birthday party on the wall.

like i said.

they're all about mickey. :)

antonio's shoes were too cute not to shoot.

krista went through a terrible divorce last fall.

now i don't go around telling people personal facts about

my clients, but i mention it to share this photo.

this photo of krista speaks volumes to me.

she put this party together by herself,

including the inflatable.

heck, she took an almost 2 year old to disney

by herself.

this year of "firsts" has been hard,

but she's powered through it and i'm so proud of her.

you're amazing, krista.

thanks for letting me be a part of the festivities, krista!

[and happy 2nd birthday again, antonio!]

purple.

[cheney, washington--fishing lake]

a little photo i came across yesterday.

i may have to blow this up and hang it in my house.

vacation recaps.

finally.

i'm finished.

if you'd like to view photos and read about

'the whyte house mega road trip',

you can read days 1-3, days 4-6 and days 7-11 at

 'the whyte house'.

christmas photos accomplished.

not many people can say that they have christmas photos for their family done in JUNE. 

i can.

we're finally back from my dream vacation

spot, washington. 

i know...there are gorgeous places like maui.

however, i burn really easily.

burning to a crisp and being in pain is not

my idea of an awesome vacation.

whidbey island, however, has water, beaches AND no burning sun, due to a lot of cloudy days.

i could seriously get use to having a view of water to look at everyday.

while we were on vacay,

we had our family photos taken.

i imagine this fall to be a pretty hectic time

around here with justin's trainings, etc.,

and i wanted to take photos in a beautiful place.

i mean, why spend all of that money on

a spot to vacation and not have seriously awesome photos to remember it by??

that being said, i found mikaela and she

worked her magic. 

you can check out her post on the shoot here.

in the meantime,

here's a little sneak peek.

torture. plain and simple.

thought i'd share something a little different.

still photography related,

but i didn't shoot it.

i did edit it, though.

my canadian penpal, beau, recently spent a month in hawaii.

he was actually in kaua'i during the tsunami.

knowing what his work load is like now that he's back home,

i asked if i could edit his shots.

i don't know that i did the right thing, though.

i'm just torturing myself with these beautiful shots!

i thought it only fair to pass the torture on to you. :)

enjoy!!!

LOVE Wichita.

 today i had the opportunity to accompany my husband to work.  as a community policing officer, he has attended LOVE Wichita projects for the past 3 years.  i asked him if i could come out and take photos this year.  we visited his 5 project houses throughout the morning.  projects were completed by Eastminster(3 of the 5 houses), Maranatha and Westlink, where we attend.  there was a lot of painting, yard work, rebuilding and even some critters at the houses.

early morning before shots.

this homeowner had siding replaced, yard work done and a new fence put up by the westlink crew.  her pup needed to come out and inspect the progress(that and he didn't like the banging!).

an eastminster group found this guy when they moved out an old couch. :)

when their first garage door plan fell through,

they made a new plan.

maranatha replaced rotted boards, did lots of painting...

on some super high ladders, too.

one of our very close friends had his house worked on today, too.

he's been battling his kidneys this year, as they've

decided to fail his body and even had pneumonia today.

the young married group from eastminster rebuilt two porches for him, painted, did yard work, all to keep from future oci write ups. 

on behalf of justin and myself, we thank you guys for all of your efforts today!!

the house project with westlink brought out two other police officers, both friends of justin's.

i thought it was hilarious that they stand the same way

whether they're in uniform or not. :)

you can find more photos from the day

on whyte house photography's facebook page.