my girls

I know that August is still summer, but because school always started back up in August, it just makes me think of fall.  Now that August is here, I feel like I can breathe again.  I had such a busy June and July.  It was a really neat time for my photography career to be booking up so fast and being on the go all the time.  It was pretty tiring too though, and I'm going to enjoy this next bit with more down time.

There was one weekend in July where I celebrated two of my favorite girls!  Rachael married AJ and we had Johhni's baby shower!  Rachael was absolutely stunning on her wedding day.  I loved that I got to be a part of the day.  Johnni and I were both personal attendants, which was fun since we got to hang out together doing wedding duties.

We went with the wedding party to the salon to help out and join in on the fun.  I also got to bring my camera and snap a few of Rach getting ready:


It was nice to just be excited for Rachael.  Johnni and I were talking about how leading up to your own wedding day, you just want it to be your turn.  Even though you're happy for friends getting married, it's hard not to long for your own special day.  After being married, you're so glad your own is done with and you can just sit back and enjoy other people's weddings.  Does anyone else feel that way?
I love this one because it's totally RACH!  I realized I really liked taking photos of close friends because I know their looks and personality to capture. 

My college roommate, and wonderful friend is having a baby this fall!  I couldn't be happier for her and her husband.  Although I am a bit sad I'll have to wait to long to meet their baby girl because they moved to Alabama not too long after college... I will be ecstatic for Christmas time to see Matt, Johnni and their little one.

Because they do live so far away, this was the last time Johnni will be in Iowa before her baby comes.  She couldn't come to town and not get a baby shower!
This is Matt and Johnni's first nephew, Connor, with Grandma!

We did a "question" game at the shower.  Ahead of time, Matt answered a bunch of questions about Johnni, the pregnancy, and looking forward to their daughter.  Johnni then answered the same questions in front of the group to see how similar their thoughts were.

They are SO in sync because they basically answered them exactly the same.  My favorite question was, "What is the strangest food you've seen Johnni eat while pregnant?"  Matt answered "not that strange, but she eats dill pickle spears all the time... and for awhile she ate a lot of Cheetos." :)

Johnni's answer to the same question was something along the lines of, "Well, its not that weird but I eat a lot of dill pickle spears.  I also ate a lot of Cheetos."  Everyone got a kick out of that!

I love my big 'Ol camera :)  But I do bring a camera to less things than I did a few years ago.  I still have my little point and shoot, it's just not as fun to me anymore.  To bring my "big one" is such a commitment.  It's large, heavy, and can be a bit obtrusive for every day events.  As shown below, some of my friends (lovingly they convinced me) made fun of me as I documented Johnni's shower.
August will be fun too!  Coming up I have a newborn session, senior session, family reunion (not mine:), a wedding, and jury duty!!!  I'm really hoping to purchase a vehicle in August too.  I thought we would have gotten something by now, but it's just so hard to decide!  We keep going back and forth on makes, and models, and our price range got a bit too high for my comfort zone, so we toned it down in the past week to something less.  It's just such a big decision.  We've also wanted to fence off a good portion of our backyard and have been talking about it all summer.  Sounds like we have a lot to do before fall officially starts!