Weekend recap!

This weekend was a whirlwind! One thing after another, but it was all great stuff, so I didn't mind one bit!

Friday evening, after work, we headed over to Erin and Jared's for the thing we do best -- game night! We always have such a blast with them; we don't even have to be doing anything crazy elaborate. Just give us some chips and some Disney trivia and we're good to go!

Saturday we had another wedding! It was a fun change of pace from being Downtown like normal, and we got SO lucky with a gorgeous sunset. Of course, we love it when our couples trust us enough to let us sneak them out of the reception for 5 minutes to snag these golden hour shots! We think it's totally worth it!

Sunday was an awesome, productive day. I photographed the baptisms from both of our morning services and it was overwhelming, as usual. Such an amazing thing to get to witness!

Once we got home from lunch we dove right into productivity! Caleb cleaned up around the house, I did some laundry and cleaned out every inch of my car. I emptied the trunk, and even shop-vacced! It feels so good to have a clean car again!

That evening we had an end-of-summer hangout with our church and had homemade BBQ for dinner. It was so tasty! I always love hanging out with these friends of ours! I'm also really feeling some soreness today from an intense game of ultimate frisbee! We also had another baptism that night! So thankful!

Cheers to 26!

Today, I turn 26!! I am honestly blown away by how quickly time seems to be flying (cliche, I know, but it's true)!

Life looks a lot different than I thought it would at 26! I never imagined starting a business with my husband doing something I love so incredibly much. Let alone already photographing over 100 weddings! I never thought we'd start a young-adult small group and get to minister to/build community with people right from our living room. I never thought we'd get to go on as many trips/vacations as we have.

I'm so grateful for all the memories I've been able to make in my short life time already, and I count myself lucky to be surrounded by so many awesome people!

26 feels like a fresh start. I am excited, more than ever, to be joyful to strangers, to give like never before, to make more room for things that I truly love. I am so grateful for all of my friends and family for always making me feel so loved, not ONLY on my birthday, but every day of the year!

Cheers to 26! I can tell it's gonna be a great one!

My blog is 5!

Today officially hits 5 years on this little blog of mine. I honestly cannot believe it! I've met some truly amazing friends, documented some highs and lows, and just had a really great time doing it all.

I'll be totally transparent with you guys here; with the start of our new business last year, I've really been thinking about spending less time here on My Kind of Yellow and more time on our business. This would mean I would still be blogging (just on a new platform) and it would be more photography related posts, with some personal stuff sprinkled throughout a few times a month.

Honestly nothing is official yet, but the older I get, the more time I want to spend only doing things that set my soul on fire (aka spending time with family, my passion of photography, reading, cooking, and connecting with people in genuine community)! Lately I've felt a little stress in keeping up with this blog because I "feel like I have to", and that's just silly. Life is too short for that! I'll tell you one thing that I do love though; connecting with each and every one of you! Whether it be through blogging, instagram, facebook, etc.! It's been so fun!

I'll always love writing, but I think potentially shifting my focus towards sharing the heart behind our business could be more beneficial for me and my sanity for now. I'll let you guys know if this is the direction I end up taking here soon, once I can wrap my brain around what it might look like, etc.! If the decision is to move to a new platform and focus more on photography (and still some personal/lifestyle posts a couple times a month because hey, there are no rules), I hope you'll still stop by to say hi!

For now, I'm spending today reading back on some of my favorite posts I've written, and preparing to celebrate my 26th birthday in a couple of days!  Thanks for always stopping by!

Currently {birthday week}

Alright friends, I'm back this week. I am excited to take part in my favorite link-up, Currently, with Anne and Shea today!

Snacking on: hard boiled eggs. Random, I know, but I'm obsessed. I haven't taken the time to hard boil eggs in probably over a year. But way back then, I found THIS blog post on how to make the PERFECT hard boiled egg and seriously, it's amazing. My Grandma even swears by it now!

Anticipating: my birthday! It's officially a week from my 26th birthday and I'm getting excited! We won't do anything fancy on the actual day (it's a Wednesday) but apparently Caleb has some fun up his sleeve for next Friday! I'm looking forward to a fun, celebratory date night with my man!

Borrowing: the coffee mugs from work. They keep my (candy) coffee SO WARM!

Admiring: all my momma friends out there. You guys work SO HARD! I'm so exhausted after working 8-12 hours a day, your job is 24/7! Special shout out to my sister-in-love for putting on this fundraiser to help get new, educational books in the hands of some sweet kiddos in our area who are in foster care. If you have the means to donate, please consider, and if not, please just share that link!

Purchasing: not much, but we're thinking of getting a gym membership again at Planet Fitness. It's just so inexpensive, and although I can do a lot of workouts at home, there is something motivating about physically driving to the gym to put in a good workout! We'll see!

I hope everyone has a great Wednesday. We're half way through the work-week, friends!

My weekend!

Summer is weird! I haven't been blogging and I can't tell how I feel about it ;) I do miss it, but our lives have been a little crazy lately, so I won't guilt myself over it.

We had an amazing weekend and yet somehow, it's already Monday again! No complaints from me though, I love looking back on all the fun we had. Friday night, I was able to have some girl time with my Nanny. We hadn't had a chance to take her out for her birthday last month so I wanted to make sure we did that! I let her pick the restaurant and she chose Red Lobster. I won't lie, I was pretty excited!

Can we talk about the fact that she is 70!?!? She looks amazing!

Saturday was basically a blur of errand-running and cleaning our place. I don't think I took one single photo! Oh wait, I just checked... I had my 3rd Dunkin Iced Coffee (w/ vanilla swirl) this weekend and guys, I'm a changed woman.

Sunday we spent the day being productive and getting more stuff done around the house. We ended our evening with a pool party with the youth group!

Then we decided it's really time to get serious about our health. I know, it's all about BALANCE but we've been pretty negligent lately and don't want to take our health for granted! So we had a late night grocery trip in our cold bathing suits last night, but hey, I have a fully packed lunch and I'm ready to tackle this Monday!

Hope everyone has a great week ahead of them!

Life lately.

Summer is so weird in blog land. I feel like I can normally keep up with posting, but lately I just haven't felt like it (#sorryboutit). I apologize for the sporadic posts but hope you can hang on for a little while longer! Thought it was time for a "life lately" update...

Last Friday I was able to spend some much needed time with two of my oldest friends! Lyndsie lives in Nashville, and Ashley just told us she is MOVING TO AUSTRALIA!! So we knew we had to make a sleepover happen when we realized it could be YEARS before we're all together again.

Saturday definitely wasn't the relaxing day that we had planned, but it was amazing. I got to see two of my friends from college and finally meet one of their newest additions; Rory! She has the wildest hair you've ever seen!

Sunday we had a great morning at church and witnessed 6 people who gave their life to Christ in baptism! It was incredible. That evening we took the youth group to one of the elderly man's homes nearby and sang him some of his favorite songs. He's such a sweetie!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Our CIY trip.

I forgot to mention we'd be out of town last week for CIY w/ our teens! The high schoolers of our church go to a "Christ in Youth" event every summer, and the last 3 years we've been lucky enough to join them! It's truly a week of transformation for all who attend and although we hardly slept, we've also never felt so refreshed.

The days really do kind of run together, but each day had a little bit of everything (worship, sports, small group time, staying up late, etc.)! Most nights I didn't get in bed before 4am, and between 3 of the days, I only got about 7 hours of total sleep...but spending time with these students makes it SO worth it! Some highlights of our week include...

-FIREWORKS! We were there over the 4th of July, and were able to leave campus to find a local firework show. Guys, we didn't expect much from the small town of Marion, IN, but let me tell you what! They KILLED IT! I've never been so close to fireworks in my life! It was definitely a highlight of our trip.

-Volleyball (everyday)! One of our two volleyball teams made it 3rd in the finals of the tournament...there were probably 25+ teams, so we were happy)

-Breakout! We had one day of extended rec time! So we went to "Breakout" (aka those escape room places); sadly our team made it out a few seconds after the timer, but the other team broke out w/ plenty of time to spare!!

-Staying up until 5AM with my girls talking about anything and everything was amazing. Getting to tell them more about my story and hearing what they are going through brought us all so much closer.

-The Worship! We were lucky to land another great band this year that knocked every worship session out of the park!

-Kahlan's baptism! This was obviously the highlight of the trip. This is why we do what we do. Funny story, Kahlan actually wasn't even supposed to come. We had one student have to back out of the trip last minute, so a friend invited her. Well, little did she know this week would change her life. She accepted Jesus into her heart and asked to be baptized her last night at camp!

I could go on and on about how incredible our week was, but I think you get the point. If any of you saw our instagram stories, thank you for the prayers! We felt them all week. Somehow I always felt rested, with usually only 2 hours of sleep. God is so good. I'm so thankful we were able to take this trip again!

Happy Tuesday!

Life lately.

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you've all had an awesome week. Ours has been a little crazy, and I wanted to apologize for my super sporadic posts lately. I can't promise things will ever be "normal" around here! ;) I figured with a really quiet page lately that I'd give everyone a quick life update!

Last weekend we celebrated our sweet friend, Greta, who graduated high school, and also just turned 18 yesterday! Talk about a big week for her! It was a great time eating delicious food, playing corn hole and hanging out with our church family!

Also the cutest puppy I think I've EVER seen made an appearance...

Monday, we took our own advice and FINALLY got some photos done! My new friend Alex and I swapped services by trading photo shoots for each other! She sent us a few sneak peeks that same night and I was basically in tears. She crushed it! :) these are super low resolution since they were texted to me.

Wednesday we went Downtown for a fun date night! He took me to dinner and then to watch our first FC Cincinnati game! They are a new soccer club as of last year and I don't think we could've picked a better game to go to if we tried. First of all, our seats were incredible, we scored some cheap new shirts, the atmosphere was amazing... OH and I met my favorite NFL player that night, Tyler Eifert (#nobigdeal)!! He was so friendly!

This weekend we'll spend a little time with family, but spend the majority of the time cleaning, doing laundry, and packing for CIY! Next week we'll be out of town with the high schoolers for a youth camp! We'll have a chance to worship, stay up way too late, and grow in our relationships with each other! Caleb and I are so excited to attend for our 3rd year in a row and can't wait to see how God changes the lives and hearts of these students! If you're a praying type of person, we'd love any extra you could send our group's way!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Free weekend!

I know, who blogs about their weekend on a Wednesday? *hands up*

Friday we had one of our last weddings for a while, and I have to say, we're thrilled. I've said it before and I'll say it again; we LOVE photographing these huge moments for people, but we are due for some time off to enjoy life!

Ashley and Brandon couldn't have asked for better weather, but it was definitely WARM!

Saturday we woke up and had an ADORABLE family session with some of Caleb's cousins. They have SEVEN kiddos and while you'd think it would've been a crazy hot mess, it was the polar opposite. Their children were amazing! We had a great time.

After that we headed to lunch at Five Guys, then went to the Star Wars Costume exhibit in our local museum. It's currently on tour in Cincy and it did not disappoint! Very cool to see some original costumes/drawings from the movies!

We spent the late afternoon at home, then had a spur of the moment hangout with Erin & Jared at their house! Lots of fun board games were played, and just catching up on life.

Sunday after church we took my Dad to Red Robin for Father's Day and it was great to spend some time with him and Amy!

I had such an amazing Senior Session on Monday after work with a gal who is basically family. Emilee is my Aunt's niece and so we've known each other for years! Isn't she stunning?? And can we talk about the SUNLIGHT!?

Last night we had another young adult hangout and I'm pretty sure I made the best s'more in the world. Seriously! A reese cup with TWO marshmallows! We all had a great time hanging out, playing backyard games, and catching up on life.

Hope you're all having a great week so far!! :)

Dear Friday...

Dear Friday, I am happy to see you. I've been waiting for you for a while!

Dear Sports Camp, you've made me so incredibly tired, but also so incredibly refreshed all at the same time. What a great week it was!

Dear Lauren & Brad, thanks for making our last Saturday so awesome! Your wedding was GORGEOUS and your golden hour portraits are basically my new faves. I'm so grateful when couples trust us to snag them from their reception for even 5 minutes to get more photos!

Dear today's wedding, I'm really excited or you! The bride and groom are SO SWEET and we're excited to end the night with fireworks (literally)!

Dear upcoming weekends, I am so excited to get to ENJOY YOU! We aren't used to not working and we plan on soaking in every. last. second.

Dear Maddie, thank you for being a dream to work with on Sunday. You were the most chill bride in the world, and I'm grateful you trusted us to tell your story!

Dear Nanny, I have sucked at blogging so I didn't get to write you a proper birthday post. Can we talk about how this lovely lady just turned 70?! I hope I have her genes. She is an incredible Grandmother, and if I turn out to be half the woman she is, I'll be lucky! I love you so much!

Dear Golden State Warriors, you did it!! You're the champs!!!! I was never into the NBA until about 3 years ago when Caleb really started getting into it more. I naturally picked up the team he chose and have actually come to really like a lot of the players (I'm looking at you Thompson & Green)!

via

Dear energy drinks, I freaking love you.Thank you for helping me survive this week of little sleep.

Dear Caleb, it's been a blast to watch you love on these kiddos this week. I'm thankful you're my husband, and that you're still a kid at heart, too!

I'm excited to enjoy a free weekend after the night is over. Looking forward to some fun plans with my man (and hopefully a really long nap)! Have a good one, friends!

The exhaustion is worth it!

So I've been totally MIA this week (and lets be honest, I've kinda sucked at blogging this year in general), but it's for good reason. If you read this post last week, you know we've just had a lot going on! Last weekend we photographed two out of town weddings back to back, and every night after work this week consists of our church's annual Sports Camp. Then tomorrow, we have a half day from work to go shoot our last wedding for a while (we actually get somewhat of a "summer break", woo!)!

I haven't hit the bed before 12:30 any night this week. I've had the same thing for dinner every night. I've consumed more coffee this week than probably all of last month. I've got weird tan lines, a ton of bug bites, and my eyes are hardly staying open.

But you know what? It's been totally worth it.

It's worth it because I see these kiddos learning who Jesus is, some for the first time. It's worth it because of the absolute JOY I see on each of their faces all night long. It's worth it because I get to witness 100+ volunteers work together to pull this event off. It's worth it when you hear some of the kids talk about what's going on in their lives, and we realized we can truly make a difference.

Another perk? Getting to see my adorable husband head coaching basketball. You guys, he has such a way with kids. He's always making them laugh, but he's also tough when he needs to be. It's very cool to watch!

Here are just a few of my favorite moments I've been able to capture this week!

I'm so thankful to be surrounded with people who want to serve others! It's such an encouragement.

I hope you have a great rest of your week friends. Maybe I'll get my act together with regular blogging again someday, or maybe not. For now? It's what works. Happy Thursday!