all boy

so today i decided to take talen out for a photoshoot. he totally hated it. i basically had to blackmail him to get him to even do it for a half an hour. lol. i absolutely just adore this boy. he is so much like me it is scary. we are two peas in a pod. i love his smile, his eyes, his charm. talen josiah stephens is 9 years old and my prince. when i was putting his pictures together, i asked him what his favorite things were and he said ... baseball, mommy, wii, ds, and cartoons. i am glad that i didn't come after cartoons. lol! anyway who knows when i will get another chance to shoot talen so i hope that you all enjoy these photos. love to all. lauri

mya summerfeldt

you know those people that come into your life and they make you want to be a better person, well that would be mya's mom. bridgett summerfeldt is one of the nicest, most amazing woman that i have ever met. she is a nurse and mom and friend. most of all she does it all or at least tries. i had the pleasure on more than one occasion of photographing bridgett, her husband eric, and their son luke and daughter mya. last weekend our boys, her's and mine went to the sj giants sleepover on the field. fun for them. bridgett and i decided to have a girls night with a sleepover, even though she only lives three doors down, it was fun and honestly, i don't like to be home alone. lol! we have been trying to find a time for me to do mya's 18 month photos but life has us both jumping and now mya is 21 months and we finally got to it. here are some of the photos. she is such a beautiful little girl. xoxo

girls day out

okay so i wanted to write about real stuff. i am sort of tired already of just writing fu fu stuff. the truth is times are tough. this last year has be extraordinarily hard. I was laid off from a great job that i loved. paul was asked to go part time for an unknown amount of time. we have gotten behind in all our bills. a little stress. let's top this off with our beautiful daughter is leaving us to start her own life. she is going to msu in montana on august 21st. not very far away. there's been some serious depression in our home. my bff is going through divorce - ugh. paul has made a home for himself at a local church that me and the kids haven't quite warmed up to. i'm trying - just not hard enough. i have been going to school for photography but starting a business is very hard. so, we are trying to get a home loan modification with the help of paul's sister-in-law who works for an attorney. hopefully that will come thru soon and ease some of the financial troubles. we have applied for a discount for our sons private school tuition for next year and are hoping that will come thru. stevie rae has gone to switzerland to be with her bff for a week. life is hard. i know that stevie rae is struggling with how she is going to manage on her own and she is worried about how much she will miss us and her boyfriend. i am praying for her to have the strength to let go and live. i will post more to this as things start to get better. right before sonia left, we did a photo shoot. i would like to post some more photos from that shoot today. love to you sonia! have a great day everyone. lauri

nearly legal

so stevie rae will be eighteen on july 19th. just in time to leave for msu in the middle of august. she is getting really excited about going to college. to celebrate that she graduated from livermore high school with honors, her dad and i decided to through a fun backyard music / graduation / eighteenth birthday party for her. what a really great party. so much fun. hot dogs and salads. live music. wish you all could have been there. here are a few pictures from the event. xoxo