I heart faces~Teens

When I found out about this weeks theme I was so excited, seeing as how it applies so well. Since I am a teen myself, and spend lots of time with other teens, I tend to have lots of photos of teens, so at first I thought picking just ONE would be very hard, then I remembered a shoot I did last summer of my sister's best friend. This absolutely beautiful young lady is so much fun. We spend hours just playing with outfits, goofing off, and being teenage girls.  I was SOO happy with the result of the pictures though, and when I remembered it today I just knew that I would choose one of those pictures :) Now I did have a hard time choosing just one of them, but I knew I wanted a picture that represented just plain simple teenagehood (those words do NOT belong together!) :) But anywho, here she is. The drop-dead gorugous, Texan, fun, amazingly funny, cute, girl that I love so much!

Head over to I heart faces and check out the other amazing Teen photos!

P.s. Also check out this weeks guest judge, Jamie Delaine, and AMAZING teen wedding photographer. She is such an inspiration to me!

~Rebekah

Changes... :)

As you have probably noticed, I made some changes to my blog. I thought it was about time I got in the summer spirit. So there you go. A new design, new header and new background. I hope you like them. The feet in the picture are my mine and my siblings. We got our family portraits taken back in april by an absolutely amazing photographer Emily Hayes (emilyhayesphotography.com) And this is one of the photos I specifically requested. I LOVE how it turned out.

Also, I will no longer be posting photos from shoots on here, I am opening up a new blog, one just for LeslieJoy Photography! I hope to have it up and going very, very soon!

I hope to start posting more often over the summer.. (now how many times have I said that?) But I really do hope to get in the habit of posting.. we will see :)

Another fun picture from our portraits.

~Rebekah

I heart Faces "All about Babies"

So I was SOOO excited when I found out this weeks theme would be all about my favorite subject... babies! I <3 everything about babies (baby gear, cute little baby clothes, babysitting, and of course babies themselves) I have only done two newborn shoots, but I hope to be doing a lot more soon! This is from my most recent newborn shoot. I had a really hard time deciding what photo to post, but when I saw this one, their faces just melted me. :) I also wanted one from a bit of a different perspective.

Head over to I heart faces and check out some more awesome "all about babies" photos!

~Rebekah

I heart Faces - Play

This week over at I heart faces, the theme is play!! it is such a fun and open theme... I had a hard time at first when I was thinking about which photo to post. Then I remebered this photo I took a few days ago and thought it was just perfect!!

I sat this cute little guy on the ground, originally trying to get some handprints for his mother (those are the ones you see on the fridge behind him.) But then, the project got a little bigger. I should have known!! All I will say, is thank the Lord for washable paint!!

I love comments, and critiques :)

Head over to I heart faces and check out the other great play photos!

~Rebekah

I heart faces- flowers & faces

This is one of my favorite little girls in the whole world. When I was babysitting her the other day she came running up to me, and her adorable 3 year old girl voice she said, "Bekah Bekah!!! Look at my flower! Please take a picture, please!" So of course I couldn't resist, and in the back of my mind the whole time what if I heart faces does a flower theme? :) he he. 

Head over to I heart Faces and check out the other A-MAZE-ING photos!

~Rebekah

A long time.. equals lots of stuff.

So yes. I have been really bad about posting. And I know I have said that a lot this spring, but I have truly been really busy. So I am going to do a very quick over view of my month in pictures... :)

Cherry blossoms at the festival, in early April :)

Preview of a shoot I did... more coming soon of this cute girl and her amazing family!!!

Another amazing shoot, with some of the cutest 2 month old twins ever!!

Lunch with my AMAZING sister at red robin on Sat. 

And last, but most certainly NOT least, some of the cutest children in the world, and I get the pleasure of babysitting them. :)

~Rebekah

Bubbles

So it was a beautiful spring afternoon, I was babysitting, the twins were asleep, so I decided to take the boys and head outside! Boy did we have fun. We spent almost an hour going up and down the driveway in the wagon (yes, I did ride, and yes I had a blast!!) When we got a bit tired of wagon rides, we had some bubble fun. :) 

So Mr here did not quite get the hang of it at first.... but it was so cute to watch

Still not getting it even after a lesson from Ms. Rebekah.....

Better, but no bubbles yet. I felt so bad for him, by this time he had been sitting here like 15 mins! He just wanted those bubble to come out SO bad....

Ok so getting bored now... :)

So finally Success! Oh yeah!!! I was so proud, and he was so happy!

Look at that smile! Priceless!

Now this Mr. on the other hand was an old pro, but he was so fast I couldn't catch the bubbles!!!

There we go! I love the exspression on his face, priceless, again!

~Rebekah

Youth Retreat- March 27-29th 2010

Last weekend my youth group had a retreat to Ocean City MD. It was just an amazing, life changing experience! And besides, I got to spend the whole time with my absolutely fantastic friends!! These are just a few...

You have probably seen this before, on my last post, but I LOVE this girl, and this photo :)

Ultimate Frisbee on the beach!!! How much better can it get?

I love feet, especially on the beach :)

I also love righting stuff in the sand. 

~Rebekah

I heart faces-Dramatic Black and White

I have not done any bloggling let along I heart faces in a while, but I decided to buckle down this week and get some things posted! So here is my Dramatic Black and White photo. 

This is my amazingly beautiful friend Bethany. The only thing I don't like about the photo being black and white is that you can not see her AMAZING blue eyes. But she is still very pretty in B&W :) This was on the beach this weekend, it was freezing, but we still had TON of fun :) I do realize this photo is not all that extremly dramtic, but I love her smile.

So head over to I heart faces and see some more amazingly awesome dramatic B&W photos. You will not be disappointed!

I delight

I am in Aspen. I have been having an amazing time. I have been doing just about everything I like to do, and almost nothing I don't like doing. 
I have been getting up early, I have been getting children out the door, I have been on a schedule. I have been surrounded with children at all times. I have been able to have control over a lot of things in my days. I have not been doing much school. I have been having little smiling faces around me all day. I have been carrying a baby on my hip half the day. I have been cleaning. I have been cooking. I have been helping other women that I look up to. I have had time with just adults, and adult conversation. I have been texting with friends. I have been eating wonderful food. 


All of the above give me wonderful Joy. Every single thing. I will admit some of the things, (like cleaning) I do occasionally get tired of, but not very often. Today, for the third morning in a row, I finished cleaning the kitchen, and got out the vacuum to clean the rug under the table. As I was starting to move all the chairs, this task, which I had honestly loved doing the last two mornings, started to seem tedious. And that started a train of thinking which has been running through my mind all day.... what is Joy? How do I have joy all the time?


Well first here is a couple quotes that I found, and really like:
Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself
Mahatma Gandhi

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Thich Nhat Hanh  So. What is true Joy? how do I find it? Well, as I have been thinking about it all day, one main thought keeps coming back to me. Especially after vacuuming this morning. It is: This is Joy. Not that we are happy while doing things we delight in, but that we search for delight in everything. In every small task, in every hardship, and in the happy times. And that God, be our first, true, source of Joy. This is what I am striving for, and I can only accomplish with the grace of God. ~Rebekah