Madisen {Bridals}

I enjoy photoshoots even more when I get to capture images of people near and dear to my heart. Facebook told me that it was one year ago today that I got to share these beautiful bridals. This sweet friend has known me through some utterly embarrassing junior high and high school years, countless road trips to dance competitions, and hundreds of late night slumber parties. I can't believe that she's been married for an entire year now. She was not only a breathtaking bride, but is a beautiful person inside and out.

Beth Ann {Senior}

In honor of this girl spreading her wings this week and leaving the nest, I had to post some of my favorite senior pictures. I can't believe how grown up and beautiful this girl is! I still remember her first days in the youth group and it seems like just yesterday. She has grown into an incredible and beautiful young woman who is on her way to do big things. I can't wait to see what the future hold for you, Beth Ann!

                            

Caleb & Amy {Wedding}

I can't believe it's been almost a whole year since this couple tied the knot. The weather and venue were perfect and the wedding was a beautiful gathering of family and friends. Happy one year to this beautiful couple!

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Sonja {Bridals}

This session was full of laughter with a dear friend. Not only were we friends through our awesome (read: awkward) junior high/high school phases of life, but her mom was also a youth worker at our childhood church. Talk about having some blackmail on me! The setting and the weather could not have cooperated any better for this shoot and Sonja was absolutely stunning. Thanks for letting me capture these moments!

Through the Lens

On one of my many quick day trips to Norman recently, I decided that an impromptu "learn your camera better" session was in order. So I called up my long-time friend and partner in crime to join in on the fun. Janelle and I took off driving through south Norman until we found the perfect unfenced field to wander through. And it could not have been prettier!

We are both amateur photographers and spent the evening discovering spot metering and playing around with different exposures. Our cameras are still smarter than we are most of the time, but I think we are finally catching up!

And anyone who knows one or both of us also knows that we rarely take pictures without a few crazy faces creeping out. Let's just say that if we ever do become movie stars like we used to think we would, there will be plenty of people getting rich by selling our embarrassing pictures.

Great Gatsby {Styled Shoot }

I recently had the privilege of participating in a style shoot with the talented Jami Leavitt and Whimsy & Wonder Events. We drew inspiration from the Great Gatsby era and added some vintage flair of our own. I planned to post these much sooner, but as they say, better late than never! Enjoy.

Location: Golf Club of Oklahoma

Attire: Red Hot Designs 

Living on Tulsa Time

We have been living in Tulsa for almost 6 months now (crazy!) and I am finally starting to feel like this is home. And for someone who has lived in Norman her entire life, that's a big step. We are part of a church and community group that we love, we have regular games of spades with the in-laws (I know, we're nerds) and we are starting to find new places to hang out and socialize in Tulsa. Daisy even made a whole new group of friends on our first trip to the dog park today. It was a proud dog mom moment!

As most of you know from my Facebook post, I also landed my first big girl job this past week! On March 18, I'll be rejoining the OU family as the Associate Director of Recruitment for NE Oklahoma. I'll be teaming up with the awesome people from Prospective Student Services and bringing the OU experience to all the high school kids in my area. Talk about a fun job! It combines the marketing aspect of my degree with talking about my favorite university. What could be better?!

The other great thing about this job is that Seth and I will now be able to buy a house this year! If you've gone through Dave Ramsey's course, you know renting is a drain on your income that you can never get back (although it is necessary sometimes). Thankfully we will soon be able to plug that drain and finally have a place to call our own.

Like any overeager, first-time home buyers, we have been prowling the Internet listings of homes for sale in the Tulsa area. At this stage in the process, house hunting is pure fun. We ooh and aah over all the new floors and kitchen cabinets and imagine what it would be like to live in the $3MM mansion we found on Craigslist. Soon enough we will have to start the not-so-fun part of loan approval, inspections and all the things we are currently pretending don't exist. But until then, it's happy hunting and happy times for these Tulsans!

Where the Heart Is

Everyone has something that they love—a cause that really pulls at their heart strings. Companies sponsor the charity whose cause their CEO loves, churches start charities for causes that their members love, and people invest their lives in causes that they love.

This post is to share with you about a cause that I love.

If you are connected with me on any form of social media, you probably already know from the multiple posts about my niece and nephews that I love kids. But what you may not know is that kids are also part of the cause that has captured my heart.

Six years ago, I was introduced to a non-profit that seeks to confront child abuse and bring hope into the lives of children who are victims of it. The organization partners with churches across the country and around the world to host week-long summer camps for children who are in the foster care system because they have suffered from some type of abuse. These kids come from home lives that I couldn't imagine in my worst nightmares and they have been exposed to more trauma than most of us will probably experience in a lifetime. What's even more heartbreaking is that their past makes them likely to fall into the same patterns of life as the homes they came from.

For six summers, I have worked at one of these camps and seen the difference that one week can make in the lives of children. As kids aged out of camp each year and new kids came in, I began wondering how many of them there were. So like any good American, I asked Google. In just a few short minutes I was able to find a report from the Department of Human Services detailing all of the child welfare statistics for the state. Although I can't find the specific year that I looked at back then, the current report brings the same heartache when I read the numbers. On average, the camp I attended reached approximately 55 kids every summer. While this number is on the high end in comparison to other camps across the country, it did nothing to prepare me for the numbers I saw on the 2012 Oklahoma DHS report.

I almost couldn't believe my eyes. Suddenly the immense need that Oklahoma has for programs to reach out to these children hit me like a ton of bricks. One camp wasn't enough. There had to be more that could be done to help the other 9,787 kids that we couldn't reach. It was at this moment that God and His immaculate timing stepped in.

Ever since I could drive, I have been babysitting for a family in Norman that have practically like family to me. Little did I know that they too shared the same desire to do more for these kids. During the years that they were involved with camp, they had a vision for a campground that was build solely to accommodate camps for at-risk kids so that more organizations across the state would have a place to host camps and programs. In a leap of faith, they took out a loan and purchased 60 acres of land in the metro area in hopes of one day making this vision a reality. This was the birth of Avalon Campground. Within a week, there was a donation made that paid off the loan completely. God's timing is perfect. For several years following the purchase, God closed the door on efforts to move forward with the campground. As discouraging as it was, they kept the faith that His timing was still best.

And of course, it was.

In a conversation between our families last year, the topic turned to what could be done to reach more at-risk children. As we shared or hearts, it became apparent that we all had the same passion for this cause. Prayer and faith soon opened the door for my family to get involved with the campground. Although there have been many bumps in the road along the way, we found the doors that God has opened for us and been able to move forward in the process of getting Avalon started. From the business plan to the website, God has given us exactly the tools we need at the moment that we need them and we are slowly, but surely, getting closer and closer to breaking ground.

So what's my part in all this?

Well, simply put, (or maybe not so simply) I am the social media manager/graphic designer/marketing coordinator/this-and-that organizer/fundraising idea generator. In short, I do whatever I can within my abilities to help with the process of moving Avalon closer to being able to build the campground.

The current goal (from my side of things, at least) is to raise awareness for Avalon so that people know the name, know our cause and know where we are in the process of making the campground a reality. This week, we launched our Facebook page, Twitter account  and our newest addition, a Pinterest page. If you are on any (or all) of these social media sites, please follow and like us and share our vision with your friends. God is faithful in providing everything we need in each step we take and we can't wait to see how He works in the coming months!

"I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful." -Mother Teresa