Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a day late...but...I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! Mine was wonderful...lots of yummy food and good conversation! I spent the morning at work, I was the mean one who made patients get out of their warm bed on Thanksgiving haha. I got lucky though because they were all pretty cooperative!

I LOVE Thanksgiving food and I wish I was able to eat it more often :) My favorites are the turkey, stuffing, and rolls! Mmmmm I'm already looking forward to Christmas! Who am I kidding, I start looking forward to Christmas on Dec 26 ;) I love coming up with ideas for presents for people and I am almost done with my list this year so that makes it even better! The thing I enjoy the most is having all the family actually get along and enjoy their time together. (Dev's family that is) Anyway, I'm thankful for the time we get to share.


Speaking of things I am thankful for...here's a short version of my list:

*My Fiance-He is patient, loving, and kind.

*My family-They aren't perfect and I'm glad! I feel like I can relax around them and be myself.

*Dev's family-They have accepted me into their homes from day one and make me truly feel like a part of their family.

*My best friends-The ones that I can go to when any of the above make me upset haha They let me vent without passing judgment and cheer me up!

*God-Where would I be without His love and kindness? He is my biggest fan and continues to take care of me!

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the month! December is right around the corner!

Love and hugs,

Brandi Sue

The L kiddos

I always seem to write late at night! I'm a night owl I guess :) Anyway, today was a pretty good day. We had a Thanksgiving Fiesta at work. That's kind of been a tradition for us I guess (does 2 yrs in a row count? haha) We all agreed that we wanted something other than turkey and whatnot so we don't get sick of it before the holidays. It was pretty yummy! Then some of my friends gave me a going away present in the form of a gift card. Which is perfect because now I am going to buy new pots and pans for our house!! Yay! We just threw out our old ones and decided that would be something we would buy before our wedding. Never thought I would be excited about pots and pans...proof that I am getting OLD!!! haha

I have been working on the L pics from Saturday and have some of my favorites ready to post!! This was a special session for me for a few reasons! First, it was the first time that someone came to me and asked me to take their pictures. That was a sweet compliment! Second, it was my first with this many kiddos and non comfortable weather! I was so nervous about this shoot! The mom had so much faith and confidence in me so I wanted to get her the best pictures ever! It started out okay but then when we all got out in the cold and wind I was afraid that I wouldn't get any smiles!! I only had one cry on me though *forgot to bring candy to fix that!!* But we were still able to get some smiles out of her so it all worked out in the end! My third reason why this one is special is because this was my first "paying gig" haha Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the results and can't wait for Mrs L to see all of the images! This is a long post by the way (in case you haven't figured that out already) so....enjoy!!

*This wallpaper and the red one you see later is on the walls of an old farm house that hasn't been occupied in 10 years! It was way awesome and I'm glad Mrs. L found it! I can't wait to take some more pics with it*

*Here is where a sucker would have come in handy...I'll keep that in mind! In her defense, it was pretty chilly haha*

*Lomo effect*

*This picture takes me back to a time when my only worry was what I was going to bring to show and tell. Look how happy and proud he is! I love this picture!*

*Had to put another one on here...too cute!!*

*Now this little guy was all about the pictures! He was so cute because as soon as we started taking pictures he started posing! It made me smile!*

*Blond hair and blue eyes...watch out girls!*

*Brotherly love*

Thank you so much Mrs L for having faith in me and giving me this opportunity! It has really made me more confidant in what I am doing! I can't wait to give you all your pictures!

Well, I'm going out of town for a few days! Devin and I have a Thanksgiving dinner in Norman to go to so we will be spending the weekend up there. I can't wait until I live up there! I love being up there, it's so pretty and happy to me! That sounds silly haha I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Love and hugs,

Brandi

Happy Birthday!

This weekend we celebrated my future father-in-law's birthday! He turned the big 6-0!! OH...I mean 29!!! haha I actually didn't realize what age he was turning until earlier in the week and I was so mad at myself for not knowing ahead of time. I would have thrown a party!! Since he was going out of town this weekend, his wife and I didn't have time to plan one with the friends and family we would have liked to have invited. So instead, we planned a small one with just the immediate family and his in-laws. I got all the fixings on my way home from work and went straight to their house to decorate. Then we schemed up a plan telling Bobby that his in-laws needed to see him real quick. When he came over and we did the whole typical "lights off and yell surprise" thing and it worked! Here's some of my favorite pictures from the evening.

*Sparkle candles that didn't work like I planned*

*The Birthday Boy*

*I can NOT believe she let me take this picture!! She is one of my hardest subjects to capture! :) *

*So while we were there, Dev's Gma had this oriental stuff she wanted us to try. I don't know what this stuff was but it smelled and tasted bad. I caught this picture right after she finished informing us that this stuff "Smelled like..." Well...I'll let you finish that sentence ;) I love moments like this!!*

I can't believe how fast this month is going by! I have lots to do to get ready for the holidays! I love this time of year though so it doesn't bother me. I'm one of "those" people who doesn't mind the Christmas decorations and music being put out right as Halloween ends :) Hope you guys are staying warm! I'm off to work on some more of the L family pics!

Love and hugs,
Brandi

Crazy weather

Good evening! That was some crazy weather this weekend! Saturday I went to Hollis to photograph the L kids and it was soooo cold! I don't think it would have been so bad but the wind was really blowing! I'll post pics from that day later on this week.

Sunday Devin and I organized some of our things to get them ready for moving! I love to organize and sort through stuff and the weather was warm today so it made for a nice afternoon! But now it's back to the work week. Before I go to bed I thought I would share some pictures from a few weekends ago.

A few Saturdays ago Devin, his cousin, and I went up to Quartz Mountain to play some golf. Okay...they played and I took pictures! haha I also asked her to be my "model" for the afternoon so I could practice some more with my camera and get some fun new photos. She's a teenager so of course she was up for it!! The weather was awesome and there were a lot of great places for pics! I can't wait to go back! Here are my favorites from the day! Enjoy!

*All the above photos were taken by/in the old golf pro shop*

*The weather was warm but the water was very chilly! Our legs were freezing!*

*I love these last ones! The color is great!*

Hope everyone has a great week!

Love and hugs,

Brandi Sue

Oklahoma Snow

Hey guys! Haven't posted in awhile sorry! It's been busy around here but I don't feel like writing about that tonight so I'll update later!! Darinda and I went to Lawton today and I checked some people off my Christmas shopping list!! That was fun, I love finding things that I think people will enjoy! Especially when it wasn't hard to find haha. We hit up some of the craft stores...and I had to resist buying Christmas decorations! I want sooooo bad to buy stuff but don't know for sure if we will be in a house by then and I hate to haul more stuff in boxes haha. I thought about buying a tree if I found one cheap enough but then decided that our first tree should be purchased together...not that Devin would mind though if I bought it without him ;) There were so many things to choose from and it just made me crazy to try and think what I would want to use! Annnnnnnway, just wanted to drop by and say hello!! Hope everyone is doing well!

Here's a picture I snapped on my way home from work the other day. Hence my title "Oklahoma Snow" The cotton is actually gone now but it was pretty. I have a love/hate relationship with cotton. Love my clothes....hate my allergies to the season! haha FYI for my fellow photoshop users...I used a lomo effect on this picture. Goodnight all!

Love and hugs,

Brandi

For those of you who want to know...

THIS...is what I do at work all day ;) haha Okay kidding! We had fun with some of the left over candy from Halloween! I could photoshop the tape and our closed eyes out of the picture but I really do have a life (as you can clearly already see from the below pics!!) While I was taking a picture of Tamera and her eyes, she didn't realize that she had an audience of 4 people...including the boss! haha Good thing we have a good tempered boss...the last blog proved that!!

Yeah...I'm bringin' sexy back!

Well it's finally the weekend! Devin and I are going to take pictures for the "save the date" card things I want to make. He's excited ;) I don't know what else we have going on. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Love and hugs,

Brandi

To pie or not to pie?

Recently the department heads at JCMH were trying to come up with a way to raise money for the local community cupboard. With the economy the way it is they decided that asking for money probably wasn't the best way to get people involved. After some brainstorming they came up with a GREAT idea! Employees could buy a pie for $5 and place it in the face of the participating dept. head of their choice! I had planned to bring my Cannon to catch the whole thing but forgot, luckily I had my small camera in my car so I was still able to catch the whole thing! Enjoy!


These brave girls decided that raising money for the community outweighed the risk of pieing our boss! This is what they gave me when I said "look mean"...

So much love! (sorry for the funky red line in the video!)

Here is the end result! She was definitely a good sport and as a group they raised around $300! I decided to record the event rather than pie my boss but I did help pay for a pie so a little girl could get her dad! She didn't want to at first saying, "But he's my Dad!" Once she watched someone else get him though she realized how much fun it would be and someone actually bought her another one haha. She was too cute!

I AM....

Well I have a lot going on right now and don't really feel like typing it all tonight but here's something else to read! Have a great evening!

• I AM …so much more than meets the eye
• I WANT… to have more knowledge
• I HAVE … a lot of faith in others
  
• I KEEP …a camera on me 99% of the time
  
• I WISH I COULD … make everyone happy
  
• I HATE … when people choose to wake up on the wrong side of the bed
  
• I FEAR … making the wrong choices
  
• I HEAR … life all around me
  
• I DON'T THINK … my family will ever get along
  
• I REGRET … not studying more in school
  
• I LOVE … sunny days, warm weather, Sundays, good news, yummy smells, buying things for other people...
  
• I AM NOT … perfect...and I'm okay with that!!
  
• I DANCE … at random times haha I did a happy dance today!
  
• I SING … in the car, in the shower, at work, pretty much all the time!
  
• I NEVER …will give up on those I care about
  
• I RARELY …make appts for myself ie. doctor, dentist, hair, massage, eyes, nails, haha
  
• I CRY WHEN I WATCH … emotional things either happy or sad but only if I am alone otherwise I hold it in haha
  
• I AM NOT ALWAYS …in a good mood, but I choose to be 99% of the time so you probably wouldn't know unless it was bad
  
• I HATE THAT … that people don't want to be talked about and just want to be understood and yet they don't treat others that way, that people let their past dictate their future, that I feel the need to be careful about what I say so that I don't offend anyone but they don't worry about my feelings.
  
• I'M CONFUSED ABOUT …what the future holds
  
• I NEED … to finish my application, resume, photo editing, print pics, organize more paper work for the house, book the wedding photographer, laundry, start sorting through things to go to the house....
  
• I SHOULD … really not be on the computer haha so....

I'm off to try getting some of those things done! I don't have many patients tomorrow so I can get some of those things taken care of since they can't be done tonight anyway. A lot of changes are coming my way and I'm nervous but I know that God has a reason for everything so I am going to trust he believes in me and knows what is right! The week is almost over, hang in there!

Love and hugs,
Brandi

Happy Halloween!

Well I don't know about you but I LOVED the weather this weekend! I think this was the warmest Halloween I've ever had! It does make me think more about global warming though! Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We did!

Devin and I started the evening out by going "Trick or Treating" to his Grandparents and we took his mom's dogs with us for a short walk. They thought my face was cute and his Grandpa made some comment like "Why don't you always make your face that pretty?" haha

Devin, Darinda, and I sat with the door open ready for trick or treaters since the weather was so nice... but sadly we only had a few kiddos! M was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and D, her brother, was a Dallas Football player. They were so cute! M agreed to "model" for me soon so I'm looking forward to that! Darinda's dogs get pretty noisy when anyone rings the doorbell or comes to the door so we had them closed in with the french doors, M & D couldn't pass up a peek of them and I, of course, couldn't pass up this picture! haha

My favorite (I'm a little biased) was my little Clay! For my family/friends who don't know...Daniel is Devin's all time best buddy. (sorry if that sounds corny haha) They have grown up with each other for a long time and have become practically brothers. So it's only fit that Clay is like Devin's nephew and mine...since I'm part of the family too! :) haha Now...on with the pictures!

Clay found Devin's ukulele and started playing with it like it was a guitar. He was too cute! He even knew to move the fingers on both hands! I'd say he has been watching someone play ;)

The first time I asked him what he was going to be he said "Blue race car driver" then it changed to "Blue power ranger" and also "Spiderman". He has the last two costumes but he decided to go with the blue power ranger this night! haha

The boy loves his cars!

And he loves kisses from Aunt Brannie! Okay, not really..I think I got lucky with this picture haha!

Well I need to get to bed! I haven't been feeling well and I don't know if it's allergies or a cold this time but I HAD to get this post done so I hope you enjoy it! Goodbye October!

Love and hugs,

Brandi