Film festival...check

The Interrobang Film Festival was yesterday and we were there for the opening at 10AM. The documentaries were the first to show and we made it through the first 2 without any technical problems. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as it was time for Eric's documentary to show, the technical problems came and didn't want to go away. The projectors were not used to being on for long periods of time and they would stop and the audio would keep going or the projector would play and the audio wouldn't work. It was one problem after another!
They finally announced that they would close the theater for a half hour to get equipment switched out. So everyone left. We stayed around and like 3 minutes later they told us the theater was running again!! Not joking! Needless to say, we were the only ones there to watch.
It was a bummer but it was all out of our control. Eric's students' films had a much better viewing and the room was full and people were laughing so we were very happy after the mornings disappointment!
Thank you Abby, Jared, Erin, Mike, Mindy, Missy and Mark for coming to support Eric! Seriously, we loved seeing you there and thank you from the bottom of our hearts! You'll have to come over for a private viewing rather than an Interrobang viewing!!

Licht family...

On Sunday we got to hang out with a whole lotta Licht family on the farm!! If you've been reading the blog, you'll know that I have a slight obsession with barns, so I was so excited when we were invited to the family farm to capture the whole family!
For this post I am going to post the images that I'm guessing nobody knew we captured. :) Licht family you know we got the whole clan all set up in the flower garden and on the tractor...but I wanted to share some of the fun surprises we captured! I'm in the SURPRISE kinda mood tonight!
I don't remember what was said or done, but all the pointing and giggling totally makes my heart happy and brings a huge smile to m face!

I love this one because it not only is an adorable picture of little miss Paula, a little piece of Eric and I is included in this image as well...can you spot it? Paula is wearing my shades and you can see Eric's reflection in the shades as he is taking the picture!

The kids pulled the wagon out just as we were getting ready to leave. I had NO idea the kids has been holding out on me all along! At the beginning of the shoot, we had a team meeting with the kids(no parents allowed!) and we created a pact. I realized that I left out one important piece in that pact....to have the kids show me ALL the cool things on the farm! I learned my lesson and was so glad we were still around for the wagon fun!

This one is just p..r..i..c...e...l...e...s..s.. I LOVE everything about this...it is just too sweet for words! That is one proud grandpa!!

Thank you Licht family for inviting us to your farm! It was so fun to have all of you start throwing out ideas for the pictures, you guys are awesome! There will be more surprises to come when your gallery is posted! We will be in touch soon!

{Alyssa} 2009 KandE Senior Model

We had another totally awesome model shoot this weekend! And when I say awesome, I'm telling you it was 3 1/2 hours worth of awesomeness! They drove 3 hours to get here, so we thought we couldn't be out done by the drive...no way!! We had to go longer! :)
This shoot was just a blast because Alyssa, her mom and grandma were up for anything so we took them on a little tour 'o Ames. We went everywhere!
When they showed up for the shoot, they popped the trunk to show me the closet of clothes they brought along. This was the first thing I saw...I think I told her she was my new best friend for bringing this! LOVE IT!!

One of our stops was a basketball court because Alyssa is quite the little stud on the court. We heard reports of the newspaper and TV taking a particular liking to her! :) I wish we were closer and could witness the action in person this fall! They brought her home and away jerseys...and the home and away shoes to boot! Not kidding...she has a different pair depending on the location of play! AWESOME!! (The new best friend thing still stands!)

Alyssa loved the idea of close-ups...and we LOVE to do close-ups....beautiful, just beautiful!


Alyssa, Lisa and Betty - thank you for coming to spend time with us to capture these images! I know the 5AM wake-up call was grueling, but once you see the whole gallery, I think you'll soon forget about that alarm clock! :) Alyssa you were such a trooper, the number of clothing changes you had was awesome! I'm still not sure how you accomplished all that and were still lookin' mighty fine until the very end! You rock girl!!

Film Festival!

This is the message Eric received yesterday! Eric's documentary was selected to be played at the Interrobang Film Festival! If you are in town next weekend be sure to stop by the festival at 10AM on Saturday for the documentary.

The other exciting news is that 4 of Eric's students' short short films were chosen to play as well! They will be playing at 4PM on Friday and 11AM on Saturday. One of his students was the overall winner in his category too...how sweet is that?!? I am so excited that all the hard work has paid off for all of them in a big way! Hope to see you there!

Here is the link for more information.

Little Miss Zoey...

is one year old!! It has been about 7 months since we saw her for her last session, and my has she grown! She completely, totally and absolutely 100% stole my heart this time! As soon as her dad brought her up to me she put her arms out like she hadn't seen me in forever and missed me all those months (this is my story and I'm sticking to it...yes, she missed me!:) Of course I happily took her out of her dads arms and had to talk with her a bit before I broke the news that we had to do a quick change in location. The flood made an ugly mess of the park we had planned on. But the new location was beautiful and worked out perfectly!
I LOVE this image!! Her expression is just priceless and it makes me smile every time I look at it. If you could put a caption on this image what would it be?


This picture totally cracks me up because her dad tried (and tried SO hard) to get these shoes on her and she was having NONE of it....shoes were just not her thing during the shoot. What better place for shoes than on her feet? On her hands of course! I couldn't resist this image because they were totally cute pink sketchers...i think they just look as cute on her hands as they did on her feet! :)


Green polka dot dress coming at cha....LOVE IT!!


I think that I will start referring to Zoey as the greeting card little girl. She has the best expressions and I think this one might take the cake! Honestly, don't you think Hallmark could come up with some great greeting cards with her expressions...just priceless!!


Zoey, you were such a joy to hang out with! I am so glad your dad brought you even though your mom had to be coaching softball...I hope she enjoys the surprise sneak peak! I can't wait to see you next time and maybe you'll even be able to say my name by then!! I know you'll remember me again! :) You stole my heart and I'm pretty sure you're capable of stealing it again!

Ben and Darci are married!

Despite all the flooding leading up to their wedding on Saturday in Des Moines, there was nothing that could keep this celebration from happening! Their wedding and reception was at Sticks, which is a totally rocking place! Who would have ever guessed that a warehouse could be transformed into such a beautiful place to hold a wedding? Everything about the location was perfect, we loved every second we were there capturing everything on video for them!
While I was cruising around town with Darci as we were going from getting her hair done to getting her make-up done, we realized how small this world really is! Darci came to us after a co-worker of hers recommended us as we captured their wedding last year. Darci booked us after talking on the phone with me so we never met in person until this past Monday when we met to talk about the details of the wedding day. So prior to this conversation, our only connection was her co-worker. Well that didn't last for long! As we continued to talk in car going to get her make-up done, we soon realized that Darci's cousin was my softball coach when I was 10, back in NW Iowa! No kidding!! Small world!

Let's get back to the wedding...it was the perfect setting under a tree outside of Sticks with all of their closest family and friends there to celebrate with them. It was simple, perfect and beautiful! To give you a little idea of how simple and laid back it was, they walked down the aisle as husband and wife to Bob Marley's, "Three Little Birds"....loved it!! If that didn't set the mood for the evening I don't know what could!
Darci and Ben, we loved being a part of your day! You and your wedding party were a blast...I could not stop laughing! We are so excited to get your video to you! We'll be in touch soon!
"Don't worry about a thing. Because every little thing is gonna be alright!"

Lakefront property!

That's right Mr. Assessor, come on over and show me how much the value of our house has increased in the last 24 hours! We have lake front property baby! What? The lake has to be permanent, not because of a flood? Shoot!! I guess we missed out on that windfall!

(this is the field looking southeast from our house)
The good news is that we have stayed relatively unaffected by all the water. Even though it is close to us, we are on a big enough hill that we are staying dry and the sump pump has cob webs in it!! Yay!! I HATE cob webs, but if that means the sump is dry I'm a happy girl! :)
I talked to some neighbors up the road today and they said that the floods of 1993 never even made it to our property line, so I hope that stays true for the floods of 2008!

(This is the baseball field to the east of our house. That yellow line is the top of fence to the field!)
This video is a little glimpse at how we spent the evening of our fifth anniversary! I know you are all jealous! :) This video totally does not do the weather justice that we drove through on Saturday night. The rain was hitting so hard that we couldn't even hear the thunder much less hear each other . We hydroplaned once and I thought we were headed straight for the ditch...yikes!!