my kind of transformation tuesday

Sometimes I like to look back at the pictures I took a year or so ago, when my business was in the really, really, REALLY early stages. Most of the time I avoid seeing those pictures, though, since I get a little bit sad that I didn't do as good a job then as I could do now. But every once in awhile, I get the opportunity to photograph someone a second time, months (or a year) after their first session. This is what happened with both a friend of mine who let me take some portraits of her, and a couple who had both their engagement photos and their weddings photos done by me. 

And today, I am going to show you a few photos from their first session and then a few from the most recent session. 

A+L Session A (Jan 2014):

A+ L Session B (Nov 2014):

L Session A (May 2014):

L Session B (May 2015):

I have a quote from Ansel Adams sitting in a picture frame on my desk which says, "You don't take a photograph, you make it." The difference between the session A photos and the session B photos isn't the subject...it's me. I have changed and grown and figured out how to MAKE a photograph and not just TAKE a picture.

So there you have it. My kind of transformation Tuesday.

WaFaRa College Work Week 2015

A lot of you may remember that last summer I went to Washington Family Ranch in Antelope, OR to help provide childcare to teen moms while they were at the week long YoungLives camp. This past weekend, I went back to WaFaRa, only this time it was for the college work week. Alongside of 300+ college aged people, I helped to prepare the camp for all the campers who will be coming in just a few short months. 

Last year during the work week, I opted for helping with the actual ranch side of the camp, and I loved it so much that this year not only did I sign back up for the same job, but I conjured my friend to sign up with me. 

The thing I love about the ranching side is that you get to do manual labor (which is something my body desperately needed after sitting in classes all winter) plus you get to see views like this.

 Our group took out fences (above) on the first and last days, and on the middle day we cleared brush (below). 

 Some of the brush we took down to the creek, but a lot of it we piled into burn piles. 

 And we lit a couple of the piles on fire, which was pretty stinkin awesome. 

 This lovely lady beside me is my un-officially adopted/honorary big sister. Her name is Miranda, and she is one of my most favorite people ever. She encourages me to pursue Jesus relentlessly, and to be outside in the sunshine (or rain) whenever possible. Pretty much, I just love her a lot and I am super duper uper glad that she came on the trip with me.

 It's a Washington Family Ranch style bonfire. 

 The third work day was sunny, windy, and absolutely perfect. 

 Le sigh. 

 I literally could have sat there all day long and been perfectly and absolutely happy and content.

 After we had gotten all our work done, the bosses took us down to the cow barn on the opposite side of camp.

 Roping lessons + calf petting + puppy lovin + slobbery horses = best way to end a great weekend.

 This gal cracked me up. She was definitely not happy when the other horses were getting loved on, and was very verbal about her disgust. 

 Our crew, minus our work crew bosses (who were both super awesome and incredibly patient with all of us).

Of everyone that I met, this was my hardest goodbye. (No joke.) There is just something about being around horses and out in God's creation that makes me feel like a whole person. (Also, it didn't hurt that palominos are pretty much my favorite in the history of ever.)

It was a good weekend, and I am so thankful that I was able to go. Now back to real life and work and school and graduation looming closer by the second! 

my beautiful cousin Gretchen

My siblings and I rarely had a babysitter growing up. I remember going to Grandpa & Grandma's house quite a bit, but it was a very rare occasion that someone would actually come to our house. The couple of times I do recall having an actual "babysitter", it was my cousin, Gretchen. This was back before she was officially in a relationship with the love of her life (a boy she met at Yellowstone when they were both 13 years old) and my siblings and I loved to tease her about "de-Merritt" as we (affectionately?) called him. Almost twenty years later, she and Merritt have three beautiful children, and another one on the way! (I guess all our teasing didn't have that much of an affect on them.) 

I don't normally do maternity sessions (in fact the one and only that I have done was around two years ago), but when Gretchen asked me to take some photos of her while she and her family were down visiting, I just couldn't say no. 

The weather was perfect, the model was incredibly beautiful and oh-so-gracious as I tried to figure out what on earth I was doing, and the baby made sure his or her presence was recognized by a few well-aimed kicks. 

Gretchen, thank you for trusting me to document this beautiful time in your life. I am so thankful for you and can not wait to meet your little one! Love, Rebekah

it was a sunny sunday afternoon

happy valentine's day

 (we hope it was a great one!)

oven bbq chicken and other yummy goodness

If you have never cooked and/or eaten anything from The Pioneer Woman, you haven't lived. 

Seriously.

The woman believes in butter. Need I say more? Oh, and she is also hilarious and takes mouth-watering photos of the food she makes. 

Last night, I simultaneously watched Julie and Julia and cooked some food from off The Pioneer Woman's website. The results were that I discovered a new favorite quote, and that the food looked (okay, and tasted) so good that I had to whip out my camera to capture it. 

These potatoes were divine. As in, I may-or-may-not-have-danced-around-the-kitchen-when-I-first-tasted-them kind of divine. Here is the recipe, but in reality I didn't really follow it. I would offer one hint: make sure to not go over the 15 minutes recommended before moving the spuds around...otherwise they will break up (like mine did). Of course, you can always eat the mangled ones before you serve them if this does happen...so maybe just ignore what I just said and go ahead and break those potatoes up! 

I don't even know what to say about this chicken other than, "Yuuuuuuuummmmmmm". I made a homemade BBQ sauce for it (get the recipe here) and it was literally the best thing I tasted all day long. I made the sauce (oh, and gluten-free brownies...but that is a recipe for another time) earlier in the day so it was all ready for me to put together in the evening.  The recipe for this Oven BBQ Chicken is also from The Pioneer Woman. (Seriously! The woman is a genius!) I think the only piece of advice for this would be to definitely let it cook until the sauce starts to brown. I think if I would have left it in a few minutes longer it would have been even more perfect.

I also steamed some broccoli to go along with dinner. Not only does cooked broccoli taste yummy (though the smell is seriously horrendous) but the final product of this plate looked impeccable (at least in my mind).

Drizzle some of the extra sauce from the pan over that chicken. You won't regret it. I promise.

Well, there you have it: Homemade BBQ Sauce, Oven BBQ Chicken, and Roasted Potato Wedges. A dinner fit for kings! 

"You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure - and when I say nothing, I mean nothing - you can come home and know absolutely sure that if you add chocolate to egg yolks and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort." -Julie and Julia

a forever type of love

There are so many types of love in this world. There is the middle-school girl type of love, where pink glitter is the best thing since sliced bread. Then there is the high-school girl type of love, where the quarter-back on the football team is your soulmate. Then there is the college girl type of love, where coffee is your true love and sleeping is better than chocolate. But then, somewhere down the line, hopefully there is the type forever of love where you meet and marry a person who will be your best friend for life, and will stand by you no matter what. 

Alongside the types of love that play a role in your life, there are some moments in life that change you forever. A few months ago, I experienced one of those moments. It was the moment I stood at the back of the funeral home and watched as my Grandma laid her hand on the coffin, looked into my Grandpa’s face one last time, and then slowly turned and walked away. 

It was a heartbreaking moment. But it would have been even more painful if we hadn’t known that Grandpa was with Jesus right then. And it would have been even more difficult if we wouldn’t have had all the amazing memories from Grandpa’s time on this earth. 

The love between my grandparents was a thing of beauty. I really don't know how else to describe it. They fit each other perfectly. They cried together and laughed together, and supported each other throughout everything. Their marriage was a living example of “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness in health, to love, honor, and cherish, until death us do part.” 

It was only three days after celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary that Grandpa went home to be with the Lord. The path leading to that day was long and painful for all of us, but especially for Grandma. The furthest away I have ever lived from my grandparents is two miles. But for the last 8 years, I have lived about 50 yards from their house. Living that close, I have been able to witness first hand the way Grandma cared for and loved Grandpa through the broken hip, the bouts with pneumonia, the terrifyingly low sodium levels, and the moments when he didn’t remember who we were.

This spring, on the way home from the ER after one of the really hard days, Grandma said something that I will never forget. She was telling me about how, when she was a little girl and her family moved out from Ohio, they didn't plan to stay in this area but ended up visiting some people and then just never left. I told her that I was glad they had decided to settle here. She replied, "Me too. Otherwise I never would have met Grandpa.”

The kind of love my grandparents shared is the real deal. It’s not the type of love that gets a college girl out of bed simply because she wants coffee. It’s the forever type of love where, even on the very worst of days, you don’t turn your back on the person you’ve pledged your life to. Watching this love play out in my grandparents lives has been an amazing example to me, but so has watching the affect my Grandpa’s death has had on my Grandma. The burden of missing him is made light by the knowledge that she will see him again in heaven someday soon, because Jesus came and died on a cross in a moment that changed us all, forever. And that right there, is the best type of love.