Ekim & Stephanie

Here are a couple of pictures from Ekim and Stephanie's engagement session. They are such a great couple, and we had a great time walking the streets of Laguna Beach together :) The wedding is in September and I couldn't be more excited so check back,

but for now enjoy these pics ;)

Brandon & Trisha

This wedding was like forever ago, but for some reason I never got around to posting it. This was a really fun weddding and Eric and I made some great friends. Trisha and Brandon are so fun and easy to hang out with...to bad they moved away right after there wedding. I also have a NewlyWed Session with them that I never got around to posting. Anyway their wedding was great and I have the pictures to prove it :)

Eric captured these shots with the sparklers, and I am oh so glad he did

(and a little jealous too, but just a little)!

And they lived happily ever after :)

Janey, Janey, Janey

Janey is ending her first year in high school, (and really I can't believe it) so we celebrated with pictures!!! I remember when me and Eric took her to sea world for her 5th birthday...she was so cute, and now she is beautiful. Sometimes it makes me sad that we all grow up and everyone changes, but I guess we just have to squeeze all we can out of life and cherish every stage we go through because as cliche as it sounds it goes so fast. I mean really you blink and 5 years goes by. I wish I could just freeze some moments long enough to soak it all in, but I guess that's what pictures are for :)

What the heck is Notebooking?!

By request I am going to start doing homeschooling posts. Usually it will be a SHORT Fun Friday activity...fun recipes for kids, making a EASY solar system, color mixing, etc. For now we will talk about my latest obsession... NOTEBOOKING! (and the crowd goes wild...okay maybe not). My kids have done so much bookwork this year that I decided to set out on a search for new, FUN homeschooling options. That is how I discovered notebooking. It is kind of like scrapbooking for kids, and by the end of the year they have an awesome colorful binder that they will (hopefully) treasure forever...and it will help them (again hopefully) remember all of the stuff they learned. You can use notebooking for any subject. I am starting with science and Bible. You can create your own notebook pages or you can be lazy like me and use already made ones. http://www.notebookingpages.com/ has tons of free pages that you can try, go to the site and click on free resources. All the Bible ones are free and it goes all the way through the Bible with 100's of free downloadable pages from the Old to the New Testament. By the end of our journey through the Bible I hope my kids have a deeper understanding and something they will always reference and remember. Also Apologia has awesome notebooks already spiral bound that go with science textbooks (exploring creation through astrology, exploring creation through botany) check them out at http://apologia.com/. There are tons of resources on line or if you have any questions email me at heather.negrete@yahoo.com. Don't add this to your already full workload, let it take the place of something, and for young kids keep it simple (a picture, collage, or a sentence or two).

Happy Notebooking :)

Here is a pic that has nothing to do with notebooking...just a fun fieldtrip

Baby Evie

This is my niece Evie. She was born with so much hair which to me was so strange (my kids had hardly any). She came out all cute with a ladies hair style ready to pose for the camera. It was fun taking her pictures...well she probably didn't think so. Here are a couple of shots from the day. Isn't she adorable :)

Celina & Amaya

This is Celina and her little girl Amaya. That's right Celina is a mom...don't be jealous. Amaya just turned one a couple of months ago and is so, so cute!! Celina decided to surprise her mom with some pictures of the two of them for Mother's Day, and I was more than happy to oblige. Amaya was not exactly thrilled to have some weird lady (me) following her around with her camera, but despite that we still got some great pictures!

Nicholas

This is my SUPER talented cousin Nicholas who's graduating this year...CRAZY!!! He is a great, great person and I am honored to know him. He researched his locations and they were perfect...first we cruised Echo Park, then we mosied on over to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. We took some awesome pictures and he plays a mean jazz sax.

Presenting Nicholas...

Mike & Irene Engaged

Irene is my cousin in-law so I have known her for awhile. Her and Mike are so cute together and obviously very in love(anybody who is with them for 5 minutes can see that). I could not be happier for them both, and lucky me I get to shoot the wedding. It's at the end of May so check back.

p.s. I am going to TRY to be a faithful blogger (I have tons of shoots to post & a couple of weddings). I have been trying to get the website together, plus my kids sports (which by the way are EVERY day except Sunday), and homeschool, AHHHHHHHHH I have a headache just thinking about it. Anyway you are probably thinking blah, blah, blah...more pictures!!