The Message Board: My Dress

I found this on a forum today, and just wanted to share... It made me chuckle. :)

Sneak Peak..Wedding at Redwood Circle in Balboa Park

Just one to tease you with... I am editing away, and will put up my faves very soon! :) Stay tuned.

Nathan is still not here... :)

And a few more of my faves from the maternity session...





Just loved this one.. I told her that it would be one of the last times she would be able to get pretty without a little ankle biter to help! :)





My favorite. I love not having a studio and being able to make pictures wherever I go. This was shot in front of her sliding window, with her back to the wall. I wanted the light to be on her belly, and the rest of the picture darkened. Of course, Yin/Yang helped a little too! :)



Can't wait to babysit!! :)

Apple Picking in August.. Not for the faint of heart..

So, back in August, I had a brilliant idea. I thought it would be the perfect time to pick apples because no one would be there. I was absolutely right!! But, there is a reason why people don't pick apples in August.... The 100 degree temperature might be one of them!!

We had fun though and I just wanted to share a few memories from our day. :)

We went here... If you see a man who reminds you of William Wallace..don't shout "Freedom" really loud in his ear... He might not like it. And, he might not get it, since his name is Patrick. ;) That and he lives in a teepee...with no t.v.





My son and his friend Trinity... Her mom and I hope they will get married...


Trin making some fresh pressed apple cider...Umm.. delish!


The whole gang.. and no, there isn't a red color cast.. it really was that hot...


The pose I always get from her..




Where we went afterwards to cool off, although after we all drank a jug of fresh pressed apple cider....Pie and Ice Cream may have not been the best idea... Let's just say 1 long car ride home + 4 tummy aches = lots o'prayer that we make it home without... you know...



One happy little baby...


As we were leaving.. come on.. you know I had to! :)

Awaiting Nathan's arrival....

I have known Jessica for a long time. She was in high school when I first met her, and I have watched her grow into a beautiful woman and now she has a sweet baby on the way. When I had the opportunity to take her maternity pictures, I jumped at the chance. We spent the first 30 minutes just catching up on life, looking at the nursey and all the cute baby boy clothes(and yes, I immediately wanted another baby boy), and making sure I could come over and babysit!!

Here is just a sneak peek. Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow and a Balboa Park wedding post soon to follow!





You're a beautiful girl.. and I can't wait to meet your little man!!

And the winner is...

Christina!!!

The battle was a hard one to win apparently.. even people who don't comment on my blog made an appearance. Thank you for all of your effort, and please stay tuned as I love to give away free gift cards frequently. :)

Extra cool points if you know the whole song or if you watch the whole intro... we will be friends for life!!

Ahhh.. the memories....

Though there are 6 of us Scharfenberg children, the memories I have of watching t.v. growing up only include 2 of them. This is because my older siblings were either married, engaged,or heading off to college while I was still in elementary school. So, in some ways I feel like a middle child of 3, since the siblings left at home consisted of my brother Andrew (3 years older), and my sister Amy (2 1/2 years younger).

Even more distressing to me was that Amy was a born tomboy.. do you know what that meant to me.. the girliest girl ever?? It meant that Amy and Andrew often combined their votes 2 to 1 in favor of boy shows like Air Wolf, Knight Rider, and... the A-Team. Now, I made the best of it, by falling in love with the cutest boy on the show, and could watch and dream about marrying the handsome bad-boy ladies man (Face), or the lone crimefighter Michael Knight and off we would drive into the sunset with Kit.

And because we all need a little memory refresher.. I leave you with this theme song.

And.... a $10 Starbucks card will be shipped to the first person who can tell me what show I wanted to watch, but was cruelly out-voted on.

(P.S. Family members are not allowed to comment!!!)

Sorry...

Dear blog... I sure do love you, and I hope you aren't mad at me for not posting in almost 2 weeks. My lovely illnesses that I deal with on a daily basis (Migraines, and CFS to name a few) have prevented me from attending to you. I hope you will forgive me!!

I have been wanting to meet Mr. C and Little Miss K for a looong time. Tara received a photo session as a shower gift (GOOD GIFT IDEA ALERT!!) a few months back, and we had a hard time scheduling her session... I was out of town the whole month of June.. she moved into a new house in July.. you know, life stuff. :) I so wanted to give her sweet bubbas a squish.. and they let me for about 30 seconds.

Little Miss did not have much love for me though, and she cried this sad heart-breaking cry everytime the camera came her way. I was a bit crushed that my love for her was not returned, but after a short nap on the grass, she warmed up... a little bit. :) Mr. C was a great sport, especially after the standard lollipop-for-a-great-job was offered.

Thanks for letting me capture these precious souls for a little while. I have hope that Miss K will love me one day.

A senior sneak peek with a twist...

I had the absolute pleasure of photographing two seniors at the same time... why... because they are twins, and it was such fun! I couldn't stop laughing at the antics of these two.

We went to Mission Trails to find some good backgrounds, and after about an hour.. we were all done. Too many bugs, too hot, and too many Caution:Snake signs. :)I was in dire need of a Venti Iced Tea, so off to Starbucks we went.

Carrie and Luke.. I had a blast, and your pics turned out great. Here's a few to share for now, and I will post the rest when I get back into town. :)

I go to bed late, and get up early, and it affects me the rest of the day. A Soy Carmel Macchiato helps a little, but then my energy flags and I wish I could go back to bed....

But not her... not my highly engertic 6 year old. She had to get up early today too.. and she did not have the aid of a sugary coffee drink to lift away the tiredness. But when we arrived home at 8:30am.. she was already planning on making a recipe and having a tea party, unbeknownst to me.

This girl I love knows that she must ask permission to use anything in the kitchen. This rule was set in place after this same girl at the age of 4 mixed a wonderful concoction of dark chocolate syrup, expensive Italian tomato paste, and expensive French mustard into my carpet.

No...Don't say that.. I wasn't mad at all... Nope.. nary a raised voice left these lips. I was totally in control of my emotions.


So, she knows this rule and trys to abide by it, but all the condiments in my fridge must call her name on a daily basis, because I sometimes come out to the kitchen and find a mixture of red chili paste and soy sauce and mayo and lemon juice and peanut butter... And no, she never eats it..she just wants to mix it up and see what happens.

Today she asked if she could make tea and serve strawberry jam sandwiches to her "friends". I agreed, but should have known she would try to sneak something else in... When I went to light the candles I found expensive sliced Bing Cherries mixed with the jam.

Why does she always have to use the expensive stuff??? I snapped a few pictures of her little party because I do love her and her quirkiness, but if you ever come by and see my lack of condiment supply.. you will know why!

A fun 1st birthday session..

Princess M was turning the Big 1 that day. She was in a very comtemplative mood, and was wondering what all the fuss was about. Her mamma had dressed her in a darling flowered top and pink pants, but try as I may... she would not smile for me. Even when she got a hold of the delicious chocolate cupcakes... nary a smile was upon her face.

Maybe she realized that growing older wasn't all it is cracked up to be...

Maybe she wasn't pleased with her gifts...

Maybe she didn't like some weird lady sticking a big black camera in her face...

Whatever it was, I captured her mood that day. That is what I do. Her serious little face is so precious!

She played with the frosting for about 10 minutes before realizing she could acutally eat it.


Yay.. my patience paid off. She finally took a bite!!


A beautiful Mommy and Me picture...


I look at this picture and wonder.. what are those serious eyes thinking??


Happy Birthday little one. Thanks for letting take some pictures of you. :)

And finally.. the rest of them..

I have been giving you sneak peeks all week at my latest senior session. J was such a cutie and really had lots o' fun posing. She was absolutely a natural...

We went over to a country club, and ran around using their gorgeous God-made backdrops. :) We were very polite of course and said hi to all of the golfers, who wondered why I was laying down in the dirt, or why J was fighting with the trees. :) Our effort paid off, and I think this was one of my favorite sessions to date!



In the words of Christian from Project Runway (um.. yeah.. I watch it!) "Fierceness!"

Brilliant Color..

Another sneak-y peek-y at my senior session. I am having such fun editing these! :)

One Senior..

A sneak peek at a gorgeous senior I photographed Saturday. I love when I get home and have lots of pictures to work with!!




Stay tuned.. more to come!

Shades of Gray....

A recent session... You know me! I love black and white. :) These expressions on his face just kill me!!

Ohh.. my son turned 9 last week...

Well.. it keeps happening. Every stinkin' year, the kids get another year older. I try as much as I can, to prevent their birthday from happening.. but I am not able. :( It ticks me off greatly.... I just don't like the loud time clock that reminds me, as soon as I shut my eyes for a second, my child will be heading off to college...

But see.. here's the weirdness... I actually love celebrating the actual day my child came into this world. Since I was able to talk, I have wanted to be a mom, so it is no surprise to me that I love making my kiddos favorite cake, and picking out the perfect present for them, and making their favorite breakfast, and just making the day all about them...

And they get all this for the low price of $19.99!!!!

Sorry.. I got carried away when I re-read that last paragragh. It sounded a bit like an infomercial, so I just went with it....

We made sure the day was special for him... Here's the rundown of what he requested...
Breakfast - Donuts (Yay.. I didn't have to cook)
Present - Money for gameboy games (Yay.. I didn't have to think)
Cake - Chocolate with Chocolate Frosting (Yay.. oh wait.. I actually had to work on this one.. FYI, I made a Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with a layer of Peanut Butter Frosting followed by a layer of Chocolate Ganache courtesy of Food and Wine magazine.. I know.. I went a little crazy... What's new my people!)
Dinner - American Food with family.. so we picked Red Robin as it was halfway between here and where most of my family lives... (and again Yay.. I didn't have to cook!!)

Here are a few pictures to commerate the day.


My handsome men...



My brother and beautiful sis-in-law... who were laughing at the silly birthday card, which made them blurry. :)


Trust me... it was that good!



And lastly..sniff, sniff.. my sweet bubba's birthday portrait, complete with a Fauxhawk. I love it!! He..well, not so much.. but there is a bright, shiny, silver lining to this post...

..He still listens to me when I style his hair.


For now.

Oh.. and lastly.. he requested some more laser tag with Daddy and friends, so he still has that to look forward too. He is a lucky dude.. and so are we. We love you buddy!!