Best of 09 yet again.

Here are some more.....:)

This one... wow. I <3>

This is just minutes before he fell asleep. This is absolutely darling older sister. Reason I love this picture? The emotion. And the setting. You can just feel her love for her brother, the way she is holding him, looking at him, it is just lovely. And the setting, on Randolph Air Force base. I will never forget this base. You can even see little reminders of it in the background.

This is my amazing Cosuin, that I love oh so much. I loved doing this shoot. It is probally one of the most fun shoots I have ever done. Even though it was on a bright sunny day in the middle of July in AZ the pictures turned out suprisingly wonderful. My favorite part about this picture? Her eyes. Her bright amazing blue eyes melt my heart. They are not that easy to see in the picture, but if you saw it up close, you would know what I mean.

More fun, lots of fun. The background is definitely my favorite part in this one. The AZ mountains, the wimpy tree, the so called grass. All parts of AZ, that are so very familiar to me, and I will never forget.

Needless to say, this is my other cousin.... I don't why I love this picture. But I do. Really. What is not to love?

So that is it untill later..... Hope you enjoyed,

~Rebekah

More best of 09 :)

Here are a few more of my favorites... I have no idea how I will ever post all of them though! It is very hard to pick and choose! But I will try :)

This is another one of those heart-melting pictures for me..... why? Because I love these children dearly, they too put up with me dressing them all up and taking them outside on a wet, yucky day so they can sit infront of the camera yet again :)

But the reason I love this picture even more... is the LOVE you can see just flowing through both of them, their touch, the smile, the kiss. And the fact is, when I am able to capture a moment in time like that, that is what make photography worth it.

Why do I love this one? The composition, I love how it turned out. All the lines are perfect, the black bars behind her draw your eyes right to her, so do her perfectly shaped hands. I love her eyes and the little freckles on her face. And I adore her smile. That smile says it all.

This one... I love the focus. She is out and the flowers are in (focus.) This is one of the first times after getting my new camera I discovered what it could do with the focus. I also love those freckles, again, and the way she is "sniffing" the flowers, yet somehow still very aware her picture is being taken.

Love this one. She is one of my best friends. She is amazing. And one of the reasons I love this picture? The utter beauty. It is jaw-dropping. She is so darn stink'n pretty, and her look of elegance and class. Something you don't see in most 14 year olds. Don't thinks any words I use will explain it. But you can see your yourselves :)

Same girl. Same shoot. Yet another amazing picture. I love this one because it is her. It shows the other side of her. The fun hyper, loving out going 14 year old girl. Yet still her beauty, and innocence.

So hope you enjoy.... still much much more to come!

~Rebekah

I heart faces-Hilarious out-takes

This week over at I heart faces is hilarious out-takes. I am SO excited about it. I have tons of "behind the sence" photos that I have been wanting to show off. This week we get to post not 1, not 2, but 5 Photos!!

So......

This is what you get when you try to photograph 7 kids from age 9-newborn.

This is what you get when it is pouring outside and you have 5 children who are tired of their pictures being taken.

THIS is what you get when someone throws a pillow at the girl you are photographing, and your camera happens to capture the pillow right in front of her face :)

This is what happens when someone is tired, sweaty and hot.

This is what happens when you pull out a extra large camera out when someone is expecting a much smaller one, and then take a picture right away.

Head on over the i heart faces and check out more awesome out-takes!!

~Rebekah

Best of 2009

So alot of photographers have been doing the best photos of the year. I LOVE the idea. So all through the end of Dec I will be post my favorite photos of 2009!!

I absolutely adore this one. These are some of the most precious kidos in the whole world, I adore them with all my heart, and I love how they put up with me time after time of dressing them up and taking their pictures just to do it. This is right after I got my new D90 too, so I spent even longer figuring it out. Thanks guys!

So this amazingly sweet and beautiful girl is actually the cousin of the last amazing kidos! I got the pleasure of meeting her when I went to nanny for her cousin's family. We had a blast, and of course, I had to do a photo shoot of the kids while I was there, this is one of my favorites that came out of it!

This family was such fun to photograph. Not only did this awesome picture come out of the session, but this was my very first "official" LeslieJoy Phtography session!

So that's it for now.. but I have much, much more to post, so I will be back!

Rebekah

2009

Wow. This year had flown by so fast. Really. It seems like just yesterday I was living in TX, it was January and we were going about our busy lives. And now it is almost 2010. Highlights of 2009? There has been way to many, I am so richly blessed, but I will do my best to list a few of the main ones... In January one of my best friends came home with me from AZ and we got to visit and go to Houston together... In February my Aunt visited, we got to go to Dallas, and I got to babysit four kids for a weekend all by myself :) In march, one of my best-friends got to stay with me for a week, a very sweet family I babysat for moved to DC, and I got to go nanny for another family in Aspen. In April came my fourth year of Teenpact, and the consideration that we might be moving to DC. In may it was confirmed we were moving, and I got to attend Teenpact National Convention in TN, which was definitely AMAZING! In June we made preparations for moving, and I got my driving permit. In July we went to Tucson to visit family, and moved to the DC area. In Aug I got to go with another amazing family to Disney world with my brother, (this time just for fun) and started this blog! In Sep school started up again, and I adjusted to life in DC. Oct some family visited for three weeks, Nov we went about our normal busy lives, and my Photography Business (LeslieJoy Photography) really took off. And in Dec I went to visit friends in Curacao, and got my open water diving certification, spent a weekend with an amazing family and got snowed in... and well that sums it up!

As I look back at the year, I realize life really sped up this past year. I am not a child anymore, I have many responsibilities, and lots of things I do with my time. Some how day by day passes like seconds ticking away, soon enough I will be graduating (scary huh mom?) and move on to life out of the house. I will contiue to love the Lord, and pray for His guidance in my life. That is about all I can do to prepare myself. I have really been thinking about this verse latly:

⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

and I love it, I think it applies to so many problems this world has (most of them I have too.) Mainly, He had and has a better plan, one I could never even begin to fathom, and as my life goes on, day by day, His plan for my life will spill out, according to His will. This is all I can pray and wish for, all I want. So as 2009 comes to a close, I just praise Him that He has allowed me this long on the earth, that He has blessed me so richly, and look forward to the future He has for me!

On a totally different note, I have been experimenting with photoshop latley and found out how to do some things that I am rather excited about! Here are a few:

Christmas decorating- and life.

So, since I have gotten home it has been a little (meaning VERY) crazy around here! Not really any stop time... especially time to sit for 30 mins and blog. But I really want to blog our Christmas decorations. This is the first year we have stayed at our house for Christmas in 3 years (the last 3 we went to Tucson where all our family lives, because we lived in TX.) So this year it was very exciting to pull out ALL the decorations and go all out. I absolutely love decorating anything, so decorating the whole house is just the best, (especially with all the joy in the air at this time of year!) So here are some pics of the decorations. I go much more creative this year then I did before. And I really like the result! I did even put up the outdoor lights!

(Alot of these pictures were shot on manuel too!)

After I did the cat's shoot Riley decided to take a try.. (he is not really asleep, but I think it's just too cute!)

I love close-ups!

I love this nativity, my mom's father painted this, it is very beautiful and is sitting in my room this Christmas!

One of my favorite ornaments, I can remember putting this one up since I was little. I love Santa hanging of the ladder!

Same with the Angel, it's old, but there are so many memories with it!

I LOVE string lights up stairs... :)

Our favorite nativity scene, normally put on our mantle, but it does not fit here, so we put it front and center in the dining room.

Our mantle.

One of my favorite spots I decorated. We had a bunch of left over reindeer hats from a party last year, so I thought they would make great decorations for the basement staircase.

Our nativity scene in front yard.

Our wreath. It had never had anything on it before, but this year I got bored of it so I spiced it up a little with leftover ribbon from a sewing project. I love how the colors turned out!

The front of the house. Very simple lights, but I like it, I don't like over wellming amounts of lights.

~Rebekah

i heart faces - "pets only."

So I am not really that big a fan of taking pictures of animals, but then my cat climbed in a bag, and I couldn't resist, then I just had to go and get a good pic for the challange. I will say, it is defiintly not my best, but I am very proud to annouce it is the very first time I shoot completly in MANUEL! I am so happy! Anyways, back to the cat. This is Teal'c she is the cutest fur/fluff/puff ball you have ever seen. She is named after the carecter on Stargate sg-1. When she is in "cuddle" mood she sits and "suckles" on whatever is within reach. I don't like cats at all, but she is fun to have around!

Here is the darling:

Head on over to i heart faces and check out some more adorable pet photo's!

~Rebekah

Airport and home!!

So I am again sitting the the Millitary lounge at the Miami airport!!! It seems like just yesterday I was here, but it has been almost 2 weeks!

So Wednesdeay was not all that exciting, we did go to the beach that afternoon, and collected a TON of sea glass which I was able to bring home with me! Then we walked the nice (marriot) beach at sunset, and burried J in the sand. When I get home I will try to load those pics on because they are very good! Wed night the H's surprised me with a little 16th birthday celebration which was so very sweet of them! Thursady we had a very relazing morning, and afternoon, and then Mr. H, J, Z and I all went snorkeling across the island. It was SO pretty! I still had my disposable under water camera so I got some great pictures. The fish kept swimming right up to me! The wreck was only about 15 ft down so I was able to swim to the bottom look around, and then come up for air with no problems. We also swam around a little but the current was VERY strong, it was crazy! You could barley swim against it. We went to another "drop off" they call it the wall, but it is basically the same thing, just like the drop off in finding nemo with a bit of coral down the side. That night we just relaxed with pancakes, and I packed.

I said goodbye this morning, it was sad, but at the same time, I am very much looking forward to getting home to FAMILY, THE COLD, FRIENDS and CHRISTMAS!!! Going through customs was not problem at all, it was way eaiser then I thought!

So even though the trip is coming to a close. Aww.. life, as it just flys by, no looking back or you will miss even more! Looking back (at the trip) It was an experience of a life time. I got to see yet again, how people live in yet another contry!

Rebekah

Scuba Diving!!

Joyce and I in front of our scuba stuff!

So yesterday was my very last Scuba diving lesson! I am now officially an open water diver! Joyce was back (yay!) And J was allowed to come with us on our last two dives today. It was so much fun! Mr. Hudson came along and took some pictures so now i have pictures of us. We got ready and did one dive, Joyce tested me on just a couple of things, and then we went down for a 40 min dive! We saw all sorts of cool things, yet again. The water's visibility was not good at all though. J and I had to stick pretty close to Joyce so we could see her. She pointed out lost of cool stuff, but right at the begging we saw the biggest fish I or J had every seen. It was a barracuda! That was pretty freaky, it had huge teeth, and was bright blue, and I would guess around 3-4 feet long, I am not kidding! After it swam away we continued on, and I was having fun because I had discovered that you can control were you are in the water just by breathing, (they had told me this, but I didn't really believe them that it worked all that well.) When you breathe in your lungs fill with air, so you rise, when you exhale your lungs loose air and you sink, you can control where you are in the water just by either breathing normally, or breathing more in then out, or breathing more times out then in. It was fun to play around with this! I had only 8 pounds of weight instead of the 10 or 12 I had had the last times. The 10 pounds worked best, but when they didn't have two 5 pound weights, and the 12 pouds woudn't fit in the pocket and was a little too heavy. We mainly used 12 pounds when we were sitting on the bottom doing stuff, becuase other wise I would start floating away! :) Anyways, the first time we went we saw some shrimp too! When we came back we had like a 20 minute break, were we talked with Joyce and Mouse about dutch. That is both of theirs native language. I love listening to them go on and on in dutch.

Us getting ready with Mouse.

We then went out again, this time we went somewhere I had never been before. It was not nearly as pretty as where we normally went, but it was still fun! My favorite thing I saw in all of scuba diving, was the little plant looking things, that when you flicked at them with your finger, would disappear into themselves!

Joyce and I again.

Other then scuba we have been exercising in the morning, (swimming laps in the pool), playing lots of chess,

watching monks, baking stuff, cooking stuff, cleaning the house and kitchen

,

doing lots of school, and science,

and going to the beach. Yesterday morning Mrs. H and I got to go to a british ladies Coffee! That was so much fun, but while I was sitting there I was thinking about how much women are alike. There was a bunch of ladies some from england, Ireland, scotland, texas, canada and more. We were all from different walks of life, but we can still all get together and talk, and talk, and talk (and laugh :) God certainly made us women special!

So that is what has been up with me lately! My time here has just flown by, it is so very hard to believe that I am leaving in 3 days!

And yet another Sunset.

(All pictures in this post were taken by Mr. H, and belong to him.)

Rebekah

I heart faces- sweet dreams

So... The theme this week over at I heart faces is "sweet dreams!" I have so very many adorable pictures of newborns sleeping, but I had just found this picture the other day. It is from disney world, and sweet little Hannah after a LONG last day at Disney was to tired to even make it back to the cabin, so out she went on the bus, and since there was no pillow........ then next comfiest thing was my water bottle! I love her tongue too!

Photoshop is not wanting to work over here in Curacao... so please forgive the horrible post-processing!

Head over to I heart faces and check out the most adorable other "sweet dreams" photos!

Rebekah