Happy Friday!

This week was insane, and I am exhausted! Yesterday was particularly hard. Just felt like the Devil was doing his best to hit me from every angle but I'm happy that in the end I won. I switched my perspective and decided to keep a smile on my face (after a semi-breakdown in my car on my lunch break but we won't talk about that)! ;)

This week was honestly a huge blur so I really don't have much to say, but I DID want to pop  in and say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND to my favorite momma's out there...especially these two! My Momma and my Grandmother. They are incredible.

Thank you both for raising me, and always keeping me laughing! I truly don't know what I'd do without you both. I hope you have an awesome weekend!! You deserve it!

Shout out to all my other momma-friends, too! You're all KILLIN IT and setting the bar so high! You inspire me everyday!

Caleb and I are thrilled because we have no plans this weekend, and that hardly ever happens. You better believe we're soaking it UP! Enjoy, friends!

My sister.

For some reason, I never got a sister growing up. I always wanted one (even though my friends said I was lucky since I didn't have to share all my clothes), and it wasn't until I married Caleb that I finally got my wish!

Caleb's brother was dating Erin, and we met back in 2009! We took those first few months to get to know each other and chat occasionally, but we really solidified our friendship over the next year or so. It came so naturally; we always had something to talk about, and quickly realized we could communicate with just a look. We basically spent everyday at work on g-chat and never ran out of things to say. How does that happen!? ;)

I could write out every memory stored up in my brain and it would probably take months, so I won't do that...but I thought I WOULD share a few... like the time we recreated a dance photo at each of our weddings just so we could have a side by side ;)

...or the time we planned a couples trip and spent the BEST week in Punta Cana together!

...or the time we finished running our first half marathon together hand in hand!

...or the time we spent probably 8-10 hours making the most ridiculous "wax paper chandelier"...this craft was probably not worth the time it took to complete, BUT having something to focus on while we chatted until the late hours of the night? Totally worth it.

or the time you kept me fed all wedding day, helped everything to go smoothly, and looked at me at the reception and said "we're finally family!", and we shared a tear filled hug.

Honestly, it's hard these days to find someone you can truly be yourself with. Someone you trust with either the biggest news or the most embarrassing secrets. Someone you can go to for advice and not feel judged. Someone you can laugh with over absolutely nothing. Someone who gets excited about the same things in life (like clearance candles, puzzle races, and birthdays!). Someone who will rush over when you need a tight hug or just want to make a good batch of buffalo chicken dip. Someone who would answer the phone at 2:00 AM even though she's probably insanely tired from constantly being a rockstar mom/wife. Someone who you look up to in so many ways, and know that they'll ALWAYS be there.

Erin! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Words cannot accurately describe our sisterhood, but I'm so thankful for it! You're so encouraging and I'm proud to call you my friend. God sure knew what he was doing putting us (and the guys) into each others lives, and I'm excited for all the fun that lies ahead in our future! You're one of the best friends I've ever had and I'm thankful you're stuck with me forever. I hope you have an AMAZING 30th birthday...you absolutely deserve it!  Love you! Lets celebrate!! <3

Great tacos, better friends.

Friday I had a fun evening out at Olive Garden with a few ladies from church to celebrate a soon to be momma of 3! We "sprinkled" her with diapers/wipes and some cute little girl outfits :)

 Caleb went to play basketball with some friends on Saturday, so I did some editing while jamming out to some music for HOURS. As in, the 3 hour playlist I created? Yeah, I heard a few songs twice...which means I listed to the playlist in its entirety, ha!

Early in the day, we got a text-invite from our good friends, Josh and Marie, to see if we wanted to come by that evening (along with my Aunt and Uncle). Somehow the stars aligned and we were all able to make it to their new home - about 45 minutes away. After dinner Josh even said "I can't believe I just randomly texted all of you this morning to make plans, and now you're in my living room!". We haven't seen Josh and Marie (and their amazing little gals, Nora and Charlie) since my birthday last August, so it was awesome to spend some time together. They made the tastiest tacos (pork + pineapple salsa + feta cheese); holy deliciousness! Marie - I need that recipe!

The night was full of long conversations about anything and everything. Nora and I put on a "show" for everyone and sang a few songs because she was too nervous to sing by herself, she called me her best friend in the entire world, and told Caleb multiple times "I'm your girl, Caleb" I MEAN?!!?! Melt my stinkin' heart.

Sunday, we had a morning photography consultation, so sadly we missed church, but it paid off because the sweet couple booked! We talked for nearly two hours in a crowded Starbucks (the Bride is a fellow lover of skydiving and donuts, so you could say we were fast friends)! We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around before hitting up my in-laws for a homemade pizza bar and the Superbowl. I have to say, I'm sad the Falcons couldn't pull out a win, but it was a great game to watch! Also I LOVED Lady Gaga's halftime performance. As crazy as she used to be, she kept it somewhat modest and girlfriend has incredible pipes.

I hope you all had a fun weekend and aren't TOO sleepy this Monday morning! Enjoy your week, friends!

A full heart after a quick weekend.

I got a last minute invite to hang with two of my favorite girls on Friday, so after a quick dinner at home with Caleb, I was off. I love that these girls could've been doing anything with their friends on a random Friday night, but they wanted to hang out with me! I'm so thankful for them and the fun we had together! We watched RV (seeing Robin Williams on screen nearly made me cry!), learned a little bit of John Legend's "All of Me" on the keyboard, and of course, played with every last Snapchat filter there was!

Caleb texted me and told me he went to my Aunt and Uncle's to watch Hacksaw Ridge (again) with my Uncle since he hadn't seen it, so when I left the girls, I went over to their place and watched it with them! Seriously, such a good movie.

We slept in Saturday and after Caleb made breakfast we each worked out. I REALLY didn't want to, but Caleb convinced me that I'd feel awesome afterward, and of course I did, so I'm happy I did it! We really just lounged around all day doing a lot of laundry, cleaning and napping.

I made some BBQ Chicken Stuffed Peppers for us for dinner and they were SO good! You need to click this recipe and make it tonight!

After dinner we spent the rest of our evening with some of our best friends doing what we do best; GAME NIGHT! Erin and I of course won our traditional puzzle race (yes, those are a thing in our households), we played a hilarious game of Disney Monopoly and I discovered my love of Racko!

Sunday was pretty freaking incredible. We slept in (whoops) and even got to cuddle our adorable nephew for a while and hang out with E&J some more!

THEN! I was able to photograph (actually, I was one of about 10 photographers that were split up into 4 groups) TWO styled shoots at a local venue called Urban Artifact. This was a project we'd been working on putting together for a couple of months through our Tuesdays Together group, and it was so fun to see it all come together. I haven't uploaded all of my own current photos yet so for now you get this google photo to paint a picture for you...

via

The point of these two "styled shoots" was to showcase all of our creative talent within the group and to give everyone more portfolio material! We've got everything from photographers to videographers, florists to calligraphers, bakers and event planners! You name it, we've probably got it. It was so much fun to spend a few hours snapping away and getting to shoot alongside some other photographers! The point of this group is "community over competition", and it was really cool to see everyone work so hard on something and see how BEAUTIFUL it turned out.

Over a month ago one of the sweet event planners reached out to me to see if I knew anyone who'd want to model for us and I had an answer for her right way; Olivia and Sean! They are adorable and so SO in love and it was so great seeing her yesterday!

If you want some awesome behind the scenes footage check out The Rising Tide's Instagram story from yesterday! It was a lot of fun! Since I don't have them uploaded/edited yet, here's a quick #backofcamera sneak peek!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Of course it went WAY too fast, but what else is new?!

Hello 2017!

Having another short week is such a blessing. I swear, three day weekends just make me a happier person! Friday evening, Caleb had some friends over so I stayed upstairs and had myself a me-night. I watched 2 documentaries (Minimalism and one on Tony Robbins), Zootopia and listened to a 45 minute podcast, all while editing randomly, snap chatting my disappointment that Caleb promised me Chipotle and then brought home BBQ #firstworldprobz... but all in all it was really nice to have a night to myself! I need to schedule time like that more often.

Saturday we slept in and just relaxed all day until it was time to head over to Erin and Jared's. This has kind of become our tradition with them! We love it! This year, their other brother and his girlfriend also joined us! We had a great time playing board games, exchanging funny stories, and ringing in the new year together!

I'm so thankful that Caleb's family are also great friends! We have big dreams for 2017, and we're so excited to get it started!

Sunday we slept in again and since we didn't have church, we decided to clean up like crazy. We took down all of our Christmas decorations, cleaned all the nooks and crannies of our home (I'm looking at you ceiling fan...ew), and relaxed after we finally made dinner. Then we popped in Deepwater Horizon; highly recommended!

Yesterday we were lucky enough to both have the day off and we definitely took advantage and slept in (again), but then got moving with our workouts. I'm loosely following the TIU challenge and while I didn't pay for it, they give you a few specific moves and then it said "45 mins of cardio" so I chose this one and HOLY CANOLI, I thought I was going to die. Can't wait to see where I am in a few months!

Also this morning I was able to get up early enough to swing by Erin's to spend time with her and the most adorable nephew in the world...so you could say this day is looking up! ;)

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Laughter, rest, repeat.

I can't explain how amazing it was to have FOUR whole days off to enjoy with friends and family. It was like hitting the big RESET button on my soul.

We normally spend Thanksgiving day with my Dad's side of the family, but he's currently on vacation so we switched it up this year and spent it with my mom's side of the family! My mom is still in Maine on her nursing assignment, so we all missed her, but we had a great time! The day was full of family, one deep fried turkey and one roasted, tons of homemade sides, board games and way too much laughter!

Say hello to Pioneer Woman herself ;)

Thursday, after all the time with family was over, we headed to a few stores and got some fun deals, and stayed out WAY too late. Friday we got a LOT done. We felt like real adults ;) we visited Caleb's grandma in the morning, de-cluttered, donated stuff' we seriously got rid of so much junk in our house! We crashed HARD that evening and watched a movie, and seriously passed out on the couch around 9:30!

Saturday, after throwing MORE stuff away and doing an insane amount of laundry, we watched the OSU game and phew! It was a nail biter! Luckily, we pulled out a win against the team from up North ;) and then we were in full on CHRISTMAS MODE! We decorated for a good hour or two and just had ourselves a blast. It's always one of my favorite traditions with Caleb, bringing up all the decorations from the basement and finding new places for them!

Olaf and that sign may or may not be my favorite decoration ever.

My girl Lyndsie was in town and reached out last minute to see if I was free for dinner! I'm so glad I went, even though I was exhausted from decorating, because she and I don't get much time together anymore and we laughed our heads off for hours.

Sunday was deemed the laziest day of our lives; and I kind of loved it. Once we got home from church we witnessed one of the saddest Bengals losses in history (so THAT obviously wasn't fun), but it kept us glued to the couch. We watched an insane amount of Impractical Jokers after that - we're hooked - and had cinnamon rolls for dinner...go ahead, judge us. But we literally didn't do anything but park it on the couch most of the day.

I am so thankful for time off with Caleb! We don't get that much anymore and it was much needed. I really hope everyone had a fantastic break and got to spend it with those you love the most!!

What I'm really thankful for

I love what November represents; being thankful for things. I love seeing my Facebook feed brighten up with people and things that my friends are truly thankful for! I'll never get tired of that. I haven't done any sort of "thirty days of thankfulness" post, so I thought I'd list a few things I'm truly thankful for today.

My insanely hilarious, goofy husband. For constantly making me laugh, pursuing me daily, and challenging me to be better.

All of our teens. These girls feel like my little sisters, but Caleb and I feel like we have an extended amount of siblings with these guys. We get to hang with over 25+ teens weekly and pour the Word of God into them and its just so amazing to watch them grow!

Having these guys as our best friends. Erin and Jared feel less like "in laws" and more like actual family. I love that we can all communicate with just a look (Bridesmaids, anyone?) and have so much fun together! Whether we're road-tripping down to Tennessee, or simply having a spontaneous game night. Everything is an adventure when the four of us are together!

Having warmth during this cold season. It's easy to forget the things that we have that others need so desperately. One of my youth group girls just started a Go Fund Me page to raise money so she can make approx 150 blankets to keep the Cincinnati homeless WARM this Winter! It makes me tear up thinking about her kingdom minded heart and how much of a difference she's going to make this holiday season! If you'd like to help by donating, or simply sharing the page, click here! THANKS!

These girls. I love them to the moon. Lyndsie, on the right, has been my best friend since 7th grade. We've been through basically everything together. We grew up together, we went through silly breakups with boys, and we were roommates in college for a hot second. I love that I can be my extremely weird, awkward self around each and every one of these ladies. The two in the middle are girls we met when we were in college, Becca and Angie. I know any of them would do anything for me, no matter how long its been since we've seen each other!

All of the amazing women in my family. Seriously, I hit the jackpot with them.

Getting to serve others by living out my passion; photography. I'm so thankful God blessed me with this gift and that I'm able to give others memories they can literally cherish and look back on for a lifetime!

My few blog friends (but really real life friends because I've met them all) that I talk to almost daily - you know who you are!!! Hiii Becky, hiii Anna!!

My in-laws! They are always willing to do anything for us. I'll never forget when I got a flat tire, and they were there within minutes. Or their excitement when they found out I was going to be their daughter in law! :)

My Dad and his wife, Amy! Although we don't see them near as much as we'd like, they are always willing to be there for us. My Dad isn't a very emotional man but I'll never forget those tears he cried on my wedding day. It wasn't a moment we captured on film, but its one I'll hold dear to my heart forever!

I could literally go on all day about the things I'm thankful for; my car, food, our income, a roof over our heads, clean water, our wardrobe, our health, french vanilla coffee :) and so on and so on! But I don't want to keep you here all day.

One last thing I'm thankful for though...is YOU! Yes, you! The readers (those who comment and those who don't) who encourage me to keep doing this blogging thing, even when I suck and don't feel like keeping up with it. I am so thankful to have each of you here almost every day with me!! It means so much you all listen to my rambles :)

Thankful for our weekend!

First I just have to say, YAY for a short work week! I'm very thankful to work for a company that allows me to not only have Thanksgiving off, but also Friday as well! I plan on spending LOTS of time relaxing.

I mentioned it last week, but Caleb and I started leading a Young Adult group within our church (for seniors in HS to age 24). This is more of a transitional group for the teens leaving youth group (which we actually help lead, too, so it'll be fun to see them grow) and going into adulthood/working/college life! Friday was supposed to be our first meeting, and we got some unfortunate news that our original plans would no longer work (a bonfire near woods with dry air and a burn advisory in the county do NOT make for ideal conditions). Instead of freaking out, Caleb and I decided to make the best of it and come up with Plan B. He had the brilliant idea of having a low key pizza night (where he also hosted my birthday surprise) in the party room at Donatos! Everyone loved it and a few of us even went across the street to Starbucks afterward. We spent a total of 4ish hours talking with everyone about life, their situations, their jobs, and just excited to grow in community together!

YAY for my first red cup of the season. I don't go there often so I was excited

My personal goal for this first meeting was for at least 10 people to show up, well, including Caleb and I, we had 13. It was so fun to hang with all of these awesome people. They have some amazing ideas for our group and we can't wait to see it all come together! We've invented "Frismas" (Friendsgiving/Christmas) that we're planning in a few weeks and cannot wait for! It is awesome to have a new community of people to spend time with, and grow in community with!

Saturday was a good mix of sleeping in, relaxing ALL DAY (it was amazing, seriously), and spending time with our best friends in the evening. It was Jared's birthday and so we planned a game night with he and Erin! It's always so fun and I'm so thankful we've made sure to continue with our tradition of game night over the years!

Sunday we heard an amazing message at church about us all having unique talents/abilities that we can "bring to the table", which was so perfect for the upcoming holiday! After church, we headed to Caleb's parents for a Thanksgiving/Birthday/Bengals celebration; unfortunately we didn't stay more than a couple hours because Caleb wasn't feeling very well. We're hoping its just a quick virus that he can shake soon! Sadly, the Bengals loss was pretty ugly! But the time with family was awesome, and the food was incredible! Yay for leftovers!

I'm so thankful for our weekend off. I also can't believe we have THREE more before our next, and last wedding of the year. We are so thrilled to just BE for a while! I hope everyone had a fun weekend, and can enjoy a short week before Thanksgiving is here!

Well that was awesome.

Last night I touched the turf of the Bengals field! It was kind of a freaking incredible experience. Yeah yeah, its only pre season, but it was pretty awesome, still, and I'm not ashamed with my level of excitement! ;)

My old college friend Olivia asked me to join her for the game, and I hadn't seen her in years! It was honestly just such a great time seeing her and getting to catch up. I actually was there to capture when her then-boyfriend proposed to her back in 2013! Such a sweet moment that I was thankful to be a part of!

So last night, I picked her up, we grabbed Chickfila, then headed down to the stadium. It was so surreal to be standing literally 10 feet from some of these amazing athletes (hello Tyler Eifert. hello AJ Green, hello Tyler Boyd)...

Although the game wasn't amazing, it was still so fun to be there. We truly couldn't have asked for better weather. At kickoff, it was low 70's and felt amazing. Really put me in the mood for Fall. Too bad the temps this weekend and next week will be high 80's/low 90's.

So that concludes my friday post...it was basically the highlight of my week so that's all I've got! Hope everyone gets to enjoy a nice LONG weekend! We have one wedding tomorrow but we're extra thankful for the Monday that we get off to spend together.

Make it count, friends!