the ash family.

i loved photographing this family.

i've known rod (the dapper father) for about 5 years now, and he's one of the sweetest, funniest, most stylish men i know!  and he's raised two great, wonderful kids who share that style gene :)

i think i'm going to go bed early.

sweet dreams everyone!

xoxo

-maddie

*merry christmas, lovelies*

i know it's the end of christmas day, but i just wanted wish you a beautiful day anyway :)

my christmas was just fantastic!  it was a warm, cozy, family-filled day.

i've been super busy with work and family things, that i've fallen a bit behind

on anything blogging/photography-related.  i do have a few picture posts

planned for the weekend though!

much love!

xoxo

R.I.P dear Fish . . .

i will surely miss you.

tara and brett-engagements.

i don't know if any of you remember me posting the below photo a few months ago, but this is what the mountain looked like the day we took tara and brett's engagement pictures in the beginning of October.

we decided to start higher up on the mountain, then make our way down to the leaves.

we drove up pretty high and that's when it really started to snow.

after we got our snow shots we headed down the mountain, a little bit, and when i got out of the car, i could not believe how neat the mountain looked!  i had to take a picture.

i'll admit . . . at first, i was hesitant to go through with this shoot.  the weather wasn't supposed to be this bad.

down in the valley, we only had light sprinkles, but it was freezing and the clouds warned of much, much more- and i was worried tara and brett (and lee and myself) would freeze and that my camera would get wet and ruined.

but, as soon as we got up to the tall trees and falling snow, a rush of energy came over me.  the backdrop was just gorgeous!  dare i say unbelievable?  we went from heavily falling snow, down to fall-leaves and moisture, then finished up down even further at the sundance lodge with poooourring rain!

and if tara had let me talk her out of this,  we wouldn't have gotten the fun shots that we did, so, tara, thank you for insisting that we just go do it :)  (**note to self, DO NOT LET WEATHER GET IN THE WAY OF A SHOOT.  CRAZY WEATHER = CRAZY AWESOME)

........................................................................................................................................

tara and brett are very special.  they've been dating for about 5 or 6 years now!  they love to have fun, go on trips, and be adventurous.  they're usually the ones trying to get everybody up off of their lazy butts and to go out and do something crazy!

tara, brett, i'm so excited for you two!  thank you for sharing this fun day with us!!

well gang, it's friday, i'm going to get away from the computer for a while!  lee and i have a wedding to shoot tomorrow and we're super excited :)

hope you're all having a great night!

-maddie

oh mikki, you are a doll :)

my good friend mikki is a magnificent photographer!

we work together at the mortgage company, and about 2 years back,

when i decided i wanted to get into photography, i found out she was interested in photography as well, and boy, did she take a hobby and run with it!

she and her husband are brilliant photographers, and their work will make anybody drool.

you must head over and check her out! you may see a few familiar faces in her most recent shoot :)

p.s. this shoot was SO much fun, and chloe and i had a grand ole time trying to be model . . . while being cheesy in a few other shots of course ;) hehe

sunday.

i think i have the world's cutest dad.
today, he went out to shovel the driveway, but then to our wonderful surprise,
he decided he was going to build a snow sculpture.
he used to do this all of the time when we were kids.
he would make a giant "snow head" with the snow removed from the driveway,
and we always got the biggest kick out of it!
there would just be a giant 5 foot head, usually with a huge nose and mustache, just chillin on the lawn.

well, today, he brought the tradition back, and i was so excited!

at first, he decided to make a snow bear.  this was his inspiration.

i walked around and took some pictures of our christmas decorations while i waited for the results.

when i came back to him, he told me he wanted to make the bear an elephant.  i said "then do it!".

so, "do it" he did.

me and dad.

see, isn't that adorable? :)  i love my dad.

well, today, i'm actually starting to feel somewhat better, the best i've felt all week.

i'm going to continue to relax for the rest of the day, then start full-steam back with editing and blogging tomorrow.

i've sure missed you all!

dear blog.

sorry i've been so absent the past week, i've been oh so sick with a cold/flu.
i spent 3 full days in solitary confinement, being avoided by everyone
because they were afraid of getting sick.  i managed to go two whole days
without a verbal conversation with anyone (except maybe myself), drank little to no
coffee, and i ate soup for almost every meal.
except for tuesday.
i wanted wendy's chicken nuggets on tuesday.  i wanted them so bad.  i would have given my left
boob for chicken nuggets.  luckily my little brother is a sweetheart (sometimes), and he
went and got me wendy's (of course i didn't give my left boob for them, that's gross. just my debit card.).
i also got caught up on grey's anatomy. would you believe i watched 11 hours of the show on monday??
yeah, i know it's crazy, and the whole time i kept thinking something more serious was wrong
with me and that i was going to die of cancer or something.

today i managed to get into work, but by the end of the day, i was wiped.
now, i'm back in bed watching Dog the Bounty Hunter and Cold Case while feeling sorry for myself.

do any of you get super emotional when you're sick?  i do.
i literally become a mess.  i cry, i whine, i think about all of the healthy
life-style changes i'm going to make when i feel better . . .

on a lighter note, i've got some photo-shoot posts coming this week that i'm excited about!
now, if i could just get feeling better!

i think i may just take a hot bath, drink some raspberry tea, and pop in a movie.

goodnight!

improv everywhere.

you can't leave this website without smiling.

seriously.  

some of these videos made me so happy i started crying.

i had to close my bedroom door because i was embarrassed.

improv everywhere is one of the neatest ideas ever.

and i love that their mission is to make people laugh, smile, and have a story to tell.

some of my favorites: 

it makes me so happy to know that there are people like this in the world.

i hope i'm a witness to something like this someday.

also, it came as no surprise to me that katie sokoler from color me katie is involved!  she's brilliant, adorable, and just seems like the happiest, sweetest person ever.  

gosh, how fun would it be??