Senior Photo Shoot – Reina

Austin Texas Senior Photography

After our first scheduled session was rained out (But hooray for rain!), Reina, her mom and I met up for her senior photo shoot at a country club in Southwest Austin. It was a chilly morning to be outside taking photos, but you only get to capture a senior year portrait once, so we went for it with our frozen fingers!

Austin Texas High School Senior Photography

Austin Texas High School Senior Photography

Reina is an accomplished violinist, and brought her instrument along for a few shots. Rather than have her just pose with the instrument, I asked her to play. I loved her reaction as she played an out-of-tune, cold, string instrument with frozen fingers.

Austin High School Senior Photography violin orchestra

That’s true musicianship, people. She can’t even stand to hear her instrument out of tune when I’m making her play it that way on purpose.

Austin High School Senior Photography

I love these photos with her violin. So beautiful.

Austin Texas High School Senior Photography

Reina is also an athlete – she’s on the soccer team at her high school. A true Renaissance woman!

But most importantly, Reina comes from one of the most wonderful, most loving families I’ve ever met. Her mom is just as delightful as she is. Even though she wasn’t planning to get in the photos, I had her jump in at the very end for this one. (Part of my quest to get moms in the picture with their kids!)

Austin Texas High School Senior Photography

To see some more favorites from Reina’s session, please view the slideshow below.

Congrats, Reina!

Jenny - March 22, 2013 - 5:30 pm

YOU are amazing, Macy.
Come BACK!! My next Senior will need photos soon!
:)

Natalie - March 23, 2013 - 8:20 am

Love the pictures,love the girl, love the photographer!

Jan - March 23, 2013 - 12:23 pm

Beautiful! nothing to add — I’ll just say it again. Beautiful!

What is your why?

I just finished reading an advance copy of an amazing book – The Power of Starting Something Stupidby Richie Norton. I’ll have more to say about it next week when the book launches, but I wanted to share this thought:

Richie talks about how we don’t start things or try things because we are afraid. He profiles different individuals in the book who feel that fear and go accomplish their dreams anyway. His advice when you are afraid of trying something or doing something is to examine why.

“What is your personal why? Defining the reasons you’re working toward your high aspirations is the first and greatest way to work toward overcoming debilitating fears. You may be able to squeak by for a short time on will alone, but when the going gets tough…and fear begins to rear its ugly head, you’re in for a rude awakening if you don’t have an equally powerful why to which you’re solidly connected.”

- Richie Norton, The Power of Starting Something Stupid p. 125-126

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I have so many ideas and things I want to try, and there are times when I’m afraid to go for something I really care about. I’m planning to do some journaling in the next few days and figure out some whys. *grin*

How about you? How do you overcome fears when embarking on a new adventure?

And if you’re looking for a great read, I really can’t recommend this more. I anticipated the book would be more business focused, but it’s all about how to live a life that you love. It’s fantastic. Richie and his wife Natalie are the real deal. (And I can’t wait for Richie to come speak at Time Out for Women in Austin this fall!)

You can pre-order The Power of Starting Something Stupidby clicking the image below.

Valentine’s Day – How We Celebrated

I’m a huge Valentine’s Day fan. Since I was little, my dad has always made it a special day by giving us a huge sugar cookie (sometimes the size of a pizza box) with our name in frosting. He still sends them every year. It’s such a fun tradition, and I love getting a cookie every year, but I really appreciate that Valentine’s Day has always been a fun day of love in our family. I also love taking pictures of my kids and making valentines. Here’s what we ended up with this year.

L had a card with candy. I like the way the card turned out.

For G-Man’s valentine, we packaged these cute pencils, notepad, and stamp I found at Target with his card.

I made valentines for my friends too. My friend Natalie had a Galentine’s Day Brunch the night before Valentines Day, and I made a little valentine for all the ladies there with this cute printable from Caravan Shoppe and some delicious chocolate.


My favorite valentine this year was the one I made for Diggity. We agreed this year that we would make a valentine for each other this year. I followed this tutorial and made him a scratch off card with prizes (foot rub, garbage duty, etc.) underneath each heart.

I was excited that it turned out! Diggity made this fantastic video for me.

Hope you had a fabulous Valentine’s day!

Jenny - February 28, 2013 - 9:11 am

Wow! You BOTH scored.