The Monroe Family Blog

Baby Eli

2009-04-12T22:14:00.002-05:00

My friends Colleen and Ryan recently had a new baby. They had two daughters and just added their first son to the family. His name is Eli, and I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph his first days of life! His is sooooo adorable! I can't wait until he is 6 months old, so I can go back and take more portraits of the little guy.

Easter

2009-04-12T22:04:00.003-05:00

Today is Easter, and as I reflect on the real reason for this holiday, I thank God for His greatest sacrifice! Had he not given his only son so that he could die for all of our sins we might not be here today. I am eternally grateful for His gift to us, and would have loved to have been there when Jesus rose again! What a sight that must have been!

I have posted a few pictures from today's events. All of the neighbors on our street got together to have an egg hunt in all of our front yards. It turned out really good and the weather was beautiful! After the kids hunted all of the eggs, we stayed and hung out in the neighbor's front yard for the rest of the afternoon. The kids ended up missing their nap, but had a blast! That meant early bedtime tonight, which is always good for me. :)

Tonight we also went to visit Ellen in the hospital and wish her a happy Easter. Her back seems to be healing well, and hopefully she will be released within a month or so (maybe that is just my wishful thinking).

Engagement Portraits

2009-04-12T21:53:00.002-05:00

My friend, Juanita, and I recently booked our first wedding! The wedding isn't until May 2nd, but we recently shot their engagement portraits. They are such a nice couple! Here is a sneak peek of their engagement shoot.

Our new puppy!!

2009-03-05T07:58:00.003-06:00

We decided to get a new puppy! Finally!!! I have been wanting one FOREVER, and finally the wait is over. We wanted to get one now so that we could work on training before Russ leaves for Basic Training and A School. Our new puppy is a Red Heeler and once trained should be a very smart dog. :) The kids are so excited too. He is still too young to bring home, so that was hard explaining to the kids. We should be able to bring him home sometime between March 15-21. I can't wait! Here are some pictures from last night.

Random Pictures from February

2009-03-01T22:30:00.003-06:00

I wanted to share some pictures with you from this past month. The year seems to be breezing by so quickly! Kacy will already be 3 years old in just 2 days! These pictures were taken at various times (going to the park, getting ready for Church, and just hanging out). It is so nice having Russ at home so much lately to spend more time with us.

Cody is now in T-Ball!

2009-03-01T22:26:00.002-06:00

Cody just started T-Ball and had his first real practice this past week. There are 12 little 4 year olds on his team, with pretty much every dad out there helping coach. It is so cute seeing all of those little boys playing baseball together. Here are some pictures from his first practice.

A Day at the Bike Park

2009-03-01T22:17:00.002-06:00

In Blockhouse Creek Subdivision there is a small dirt track for bikes with lots of cool hills. We have taken the kids a few times, but every time we go I seem to forget my camera. This time I finally remembered it! Here are some of the pictures of the kids going on the hills. They are getting so big!

Girls Morning Out

2009-03-01T21:48:00.003-06:00

Saturday morning Juanita and I went downtown to look for some really cool places to shoot (pictures). We just booked our first wedding and engagement shoot, and wanted to get a head start on exactly where we would be taking the couple for their engagement portraits. We both kind of dressed up so that we could take pictures of each other along the way. (We wanted to see how the backgrounds looked with a subject.) We had a BLAST! I love having outings with her. The only downfall was that it was so windy and freezing cold that we had to stay in the car during a lot of the morning. The wind was crazy! At one point we laughed so hard we were crying! I had thought I saw some really cool doors down this alley, so we made the block and decided to go down the alley to see. We got stuck behind a trash truck that was picking up trash from all of the dumpsters along the alley. There were at least 20 dumpsters. The alley was a tight fit, so once we were in, we were in for the whole thing. The smell of the truck started to penetrate into the car and make us gag. The truck was also leaking some really gross liquid from the back each time it would crush all of the trash! Just thinking of it makes me laugh. I guess you had to be there. We also had breakfast at this little coffee shop/bakery. It was really yummy! Anyways, I wanted to share some of the pictures we took of each other. I can't wait to take the engagement pictures in some of these locations.

Shelbster

2009-02-23T13:41:00.002-06:00

I LOVE these pictures of Shelby. She is so pretty! If you can believe it, we took the ones of her in a blue shirt in the front yard of my dad's house. They are some of my favorite pictures of her of all time. :)

Valentine's Day Pictures

2009-02-23T13:08:00.004-06:00

The kids and I went over to Juanita's house to take some Valentine's day pictures. It was quite hard to get Kacy to cooperate with me. I can take 100 pictures of the kids and in every one Cody looks the same and Kacy has a totally different expression on her face for every single picture. It's funny to go through them fast. It's like she is in a movie on a movie reel. haha. She is a good subject to get her real personality. :)

My Sharp Shooters

2009-02-23T13:02:00.002-06:00

We set up some targets in our backyard for the kids to shoot Cody's air gun. I got some pictures of Kacy's first time to shoot it and Cody teaching her how it's done. It was too cute!

Maternity Shoot

2009-02-23T12:55:00.003-06:00

I recently got the opportunity to take maternity pictures of my friend Colleen. She was the one who watched Cody before I became a stay at home mom, and is now on her third baby. She is such a cute tiny pregnant person!

Houston Trip

2009-02-23T12:25:00.004-06:00

Not long ago the family took a trip to Houston to see the Supercross races. While we were there we went to Keemah and had lunch at Joe's Crabshack and drove around the area to see the damage from Hurricane Ike. Here are some pictures of us while were were having lunch. As soon as we got home Kacy went into her room to get her shoes so that we could go outside. I thought she would just go get her shoes and socks and bring them back to me so that I could put them on her, but she came out of her room with them both on. She had tried her hardest to tie her shoes. I couldn't help but take a picture!

Bridal Portraits

2009-01-08T11:10:00.004-06:00

Over the Christmas holiday my friend, Juanita, and I had got the opportunity to do a bridal shoot together. Juanita has a photography business as well, called Alluring Aspects. The bride was Juanita's husband's cousin, named Tati. She was such a pretty and easy subject, and the pictures came out beautifully! I wasn't able to make it to her actual wedding, but I am sure it was awesome! Here are some pictures that we took of her.

Christmas at Mimi and Papa's House 2008

2009-01-07T15:50:00.003-06:00

The day after Christmas Russ, Shelby, Cody, Kacy and I loaded up and left for Dallas to have Christmas with my mom and step-dad (mimi and papa). Friday we had a post Christmas dinner and opened presents. Saturday we went shopping for pretty much the whole day, and Sunday we went to the Ranch to hang out and ride 4-wheelers. Russ brought his new toy (AR15) and Cody brought his (AK47-airsoft gun). The boys were in heaven. We rode the 4-wheelers out to the back of the property and saw the old farm house that is on their new piece of land, and then the boys got to shoot their guns at some old targets out there. I even took a shot at it. :)

Your Life Portraits

2009-01-07T14:00:00.004-06:00

Last year I started a photography business called Your Life Portraits. I haven't done many jobs for money yet, however I have done lots of work over the past few months and have quite a portfolio going. My goals for the year are to create some better business cards and flyers and to start advertising as much as possible. I also plan on creating a website before too long. I specialize in infants, children, families, senior pictures, couple/engagement and bridal pictures. I would also like to get into photographing weddings sometime this year as well. I will keep you posted on how things progress over the year.

Blessings in Disguise

2009-01-07T13:48:00.002-06:00

The day before New Years Eve, January 30, 2008, Russ was laid off from his job as a builder for Meritage Homes. It was quite a shock that his name was on that list, but many other really good builders were also laid off that day. Although this situation has the potential for lots of worry and anxiety, I thank God that I am able to sleep peacefully each night knowing that he has a bigger and better plan for us. 2008 was quite a year for us. For those that don't already know, we sold our first house last December 2007 and moved in with my dad, while we built a custom house in Liberty Hill. We moved into our new house in April, however 2 months into living there we decided to put it on the market to sell. That is a whole story in itself, but lets just say we had until February 2009 to get it sold or we could potentially have a forclosure on our hands. :( We were blessed tremendously by God that we were able to sell it within 4 months of it being on the market in this economy! And we were able to make a pretty good profit and get ourselves 100% completely out of debt! Hallelujah!! We found a rental house in Round Rock and moved in right before Halloween. So needless to say, this past year has been a fun roller coaster ride. I know for myself, I have really learned to let go and let God do his thing. All of this has also brought me to a closer relationship with God, so in my eyes, this year was our most blessed year EVER!! And I know this one small setback won't really be a setback, and that it will just be one more blessing in disguise! I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us!!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-06T10:29:00.003-06:00

This year we had Christmas at our house. Chris and Shelby spent the night Christmas Eve so they could be there in the morning when the kids woke up to see what Santa brought them. We all set our alarm clocks to wake up at 6am, thinking they would wake up around then like they normally do. Boy, were we wrong. My dad showed up around 6:15am, and we continued to sit around for about 15 more minutes and then finally gave up. We ended up waking them up. They came out of their rooms so groggy and went straight to the couch to curl back up and close their eyes. As you can see...Kacy got a kitchen and a doll house (that were all set out unwrapped), and cody got a bunch of smaller things (walkie talkies, binoculars, etc that were all unwrapped as well). We had to coax them to get off the couch to see what they got. I don't know about you, but I don't remember knowing any 4 year old kid that didn't want to wake up REALLY early on Christmas morning. After the presents had all been opened everyone else started showing up. Russ' parents, and their friends (Billy and Kay), Bonnie and JD (my dad's friend and her son), and Jack all came to enjoy the wonderful food and fellowship. It was really nice to be surrounded by friends and family and to reflect on the true gift that God gave us...the whole reason of Christmas! What a blessing!!