Michigan Trip!

Holy cow! Can it really have been a month since I blogged the last time. That is ridiculous! If you look at the Mollie Jane Blog you will see why. I have been crazy busy. Now, the wedding part is dying down for the season, I'm pretty glad about that, I need a break, feeling a little bit burnt out. But now booking season starts, so I am re-doing the website and blog and along with designing client albums, hopefully designing a few more sample albums. So I will still be super busy, just in a different way.

Anyways, I am going totally out of order, but in September we went to visit Carlos' family in Michigan. I will have to say I lucked out in a HUGE way with my in-laws, they are the best! We had such a great time and it is an absolutely beautiful place, all of the green-ness and the trees I was blown away, much different to the dry west. If it weren't so freezing cold there in the winter I would live there in a heart beat.

I wish that I would have taken more pictures, but a lot of the time we were just hanging out, which I loved! But I think we captured the essence of the trip. Fun!


Can you imagine? This is my sister-in-law's BACKYARD! It is gigantic, like a park, you can't even see all of it in the picture. I will never have a yard like this, sad.
Yep, they have a stream, loved it. I really had to keep repeating to myself "lots of snow, -20 degrees, lots of snow, -20 degrees", to keep myself from being so jealous.
Playing with the kids.

My cute nieces :)


HOT!


We went and played laser tag one night. SO fun! I'd never done it before, I was sweating when we got done.
One day we did a family photo shoot, since we didn't know the next time we would all be together. We went to this awesome historical park that I coveted. It was beautiful. If we lived in Michigan I would never run out of spots for pictures.






Our complete family picture. Pretty happy with how it came out!
After our family pictures we went to Detroit to get pizza. They had been talking about this Chicago-style pizza all week and finally we went. It had the sauce on top which I didn't really think I was going to like. People...it was THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER SUNK MY TEETH INTO. Not kidding, I am still craving it!! It is a good thing we live very far away from it or I would be FAT. If you are ever in Detroit it is called PizzaPapalis, DO NOT miss it.
And just for the record...Detroit is REALLY nice, not at all scary like I thought it was going to be.

We had such a great time. I can't wait to go back.

My First Print Ad!

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a lady to advertise in a program for a beauty pageant for little girls. It is going to be featured on Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC. Usually I just erase those emails, but the pageant is going to be here in Costa Mesa and I really would like to turn my business towards more portraits (that will be easier to handle when I am a mommy someday) so I said yes. I designed the ad tonight and I was pretty excited about it.

San Francisco Trip

This summer Carlos and I have had so much fun! And now I am just getting around to blogging about it. At the end of July/beginning of August we were able to go to San Francisco and Oakland. I had a wedding there and so we decided to make a trip out of it. I had never been to San Francisco and Carlos served his mission in Oakland and so we wanted to visit. I really cannot express how much FUN we had.

The first night we got there we checked into our hotel room and then took the Bart into downtown. We wanted to go to Fisherman's Warf, but got some not so great advice so we ended up just walking around downtown and the Port of San Francisco.

The second day was filled with tourist stuff and I loved it! Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so fun to see it in person and to walk around. Carlos loved it because he could always see it from his mission but he was never able to go to it.



One of the places at the very top of my list to visit was the Palace of Fine Arts. I think it is so beautiful and I have seen it in a million movies and I have always wanted to go there. (I would love to do wedding pictures there - maybe someday). It was different than I had pictured it, but just as beautiful. After that we hit up Fisherman's Warf (kind of not as exciting as I expected it to be, but whatever) and we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe on Peir 39 (I think that was the number, it was the pier with all the stores and restaurants).

Another highlight was Lombard Street. You have to drive up this steep, steep hill on the other side in order to drive down it. I was driving and after freaking out in stop and go traffic on the hill I let Carlos take over, it was so scary! But it was worth it. Carlos made some friends with a group of Asian tourist ladies, I was laughing SOOOOOOOO hard. I love that picture!

Our next stop was McAllister street. I had to have a picture with a sign that said McAllister St in it. For some reason I didn't get a picture to put here, but there are a bunch in the slideshow at the end.

And then off to see the Painted Ladies. Now this was A LOT different than I pictured it. I've seen it a ton in movies and on Full House of course and I just had it in my head so differently. It's kind of in a ghetto neighborhood actually. But it is very cool to see it all in person. I had to get a picture of Carlos in front of them because the first time that I met him in person, when he answered the door at Cecy and David's, I was trying to be cool, but I lost it because he was so hot and I remember thinking that he looked like Uncle Jesse. He was wearing a black button-up collared shirt and a leather jacket with boots. Yummy!
After that we were so beat that we headed back to our cute little hotel room and ordered Round Table Pizza and watched movies. It was the perfect vacation because not only did we get to visit a place neither of us had been but we actually got to relax also.

The next day there were a couple of things that we wanted to do. Tops on my list was to ride a real cable car. Dream come true. I got to hang off the sides and everything. The day before we drove past Chinatown and it absolutely amazed me so I added that to are list of things to do. It was so fun to walk around. It really felt like I had left the U.S. and was in China. And we also went to Ghirardelli's (I think that's how you spell it) square. But after that we headed to Pleasanton on the other side of the bay, where our next hotel room was, to check in. Then we went to have dinner with some close friends of Carlos' from the mission. What fun people! It was so fun to hear about Carlos as a missionary. I know that he is a great man, but it is fun to hear it from other people.

The next day was our day in Oakland and Carlos showed me around his mission (at least part of it). Our first stop was the temple, of course. It is amazingly beautiful! I would love to do a wedding here someday! We spent a lot of time in the visitor's center. Carlos spent a lot of time there as a missionary so it was very special to him. And then we wandered around the temple grounds. We spent a lot of time there and I was so happy, this was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. The picture below, the lighting isn't so great and Carlos will probably hate the picture of himself, but the moments before this picture was taken were my very favorite of the trip, it was very special to me.

I mean really, how beautiful is this temple?! I am a very lucky girl.

I have TON more pictures in the slideshow so check it out.

WATCH OUR SAN FRANCISCO SLIDESHOW HERE!!!!!

The Drama that IS Our Family Portrait...

So you would think that because I am a photographer that my family would be so used to having their picture taken that I would be like second nature, but, my friends, that is NOT the case. I will be the first to tell you this is not a great picture, but it is the best we could do. I was bummed, no one (okay, some) were not cooperating. But...this is my fam. Look at my face, this is the last set up that we did, I look so beat, hahaha. I don't know the next time we will ALL be together. Since our last family picture we have added THREE family members, so it was definitely time. I love you guys!!!! Next time will be better :)

Something that I will miss about Redlands and Chloe's New Haircut

We are moving to Costa Mesa on Monday and I could not be more excited! But there are some things that I am going to miss about Redlands. I love it's small town feel, it has the cutest houses and downtown. It is such a nice, established town, that is not normal for the Inland Empire. I am also going to miss our ward. As soon as Carlos and I moved in they put both of us in with the youth, we taught Sunday School to the 14-16 year olds and I taught Beehives (12-13 year old girls) as well. We got to know a lot of the adults, but we really grew to love the youth and I am going to miss them a lot. So on Tuesday we had anyone that could come over for a pizza party and then we went and got yogurt at Ohana's. It was so much fun. I'm really going to miss these kids.


We got Chloe her summer haircut today. She looks so stinkin' cute and so big. I can't wait till Phoebe gets here and they can play.

Jasmine Star Workshop!

I think that everyone has at least one person that is an idol, professionally. Jasmine Star, for the last year, has been one of those for me. I follow her amazing blog and it gives me inspiration for weddings or shoot in general and for my business. I feel really lucky that I live so close to so many amazing photographers, so when Jasmine announced that she was going to be giving a workshop in Orange County I jumped on it, a good thing too, I think it sold out in like an hour.

I really was an amazing experience! It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I met amazing photographers and we became really close in the couple of days that we knew each other. It was great! Plus I learned so much that I will incorporate into my business and shooting. I think it is so important to keep learning. I believe in always moving forward, realizing that you don't know everything and you can always be better.

Here are some pictures from my AMAZING day.

When we got there there was yummy food to eat and cute center pieces, plus we had our own pad of paper and pen, plus a note from Jasmine. All the details were perfect (as I expected them to be).



Yes, that is me sitting front and center (on the far right). I was there to learn, and learn I did.

There was a shooting portion of the day, yes, again, that is me front and center. Under this cool exterior, I am really a big nerd :)

These are some of my favorite shots that I got during the day. The models were Mark and Tiffany and, if you can believe it, they are an actual couple. Jasmine shot their wedding a year or two ago. Can you imagine what their children are going to look like? So hot!











These are some shots of Jasmine in action. She really is a great teacher. I had so much fun getting to know her and learning from her. I even got some advice from her and her husband, JD, about shooting/working with your spouse.


This is the awesome group of people that I spent the day with (plus, some of us got together in Newport the night before to shoot and have dinner) we had an absolute blast!Me and Jasmine!
Good times!!!!

Our New Home!

So, we are finally making our way down to the OC. We rented an apartment in Costa Mesa this afternoon. Oh my gosh! It is so amazing, so much more than I thought that we could get. It is 2 bedrooms and 2 baths and gigantic! It is almost twice as big as our apartment now. Plus we are on the top floor and so we have vaulted ceilings, it is so pretty. My pictures are going to look so small on the walls. Oh well, I will just have to get new ones :)

Okay people, it is within WALKING distance of South Coast Plaza. For those of you that don't know, it is a FABULOUS mall. It is directly across the street from the performing arts center and in an awesome neighborhood. We have everything that we could ever want (Target, movie theaters, IKEA, Subway for Carlos, Crate and Barrel, etc, etc, etc) within a few blocks. Plus Disneyland, in good traffic, is 15 minutes away and Newport Beach is like 10 minutes. Yes, y'all, I am going to live 10 minutes (maybe 15, depending on traffic) from the beach. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imaged. I am just so excited. Oh, and did I mention that it comes WITH a washer and dryer and refrigerator (I have be renting a frig and spending quarters on laudry), I feel like this is such a luxery.

Another nice bonus is that the grounds around our apartment are so beautiful that I can easily do shoots there, especially kids or senior shoots. Perfect!

We can move in June 30th. I can't believe that is less than a month away! But we wanted to do it before my family came for our beach house vacation. I found some pictures on the internet of the place. I will take some when we move in cuz these are all tiny and nasty.


This is our floorplan. Yes, I will have a walk-in closet. Kind of stoked about that. Our bedroom will be the back room and the front room will be Carlos' office. We are going to sell our kitchen table since we really never use it except to collect junk and mess and I am/want to get a cool wrap around desk and book shelf and make the dining room area my office. We are gonna love it and I am so excited!
This is the main pool area (I think there are 3) and inside is the awesome gym, climbing wall, movie theater, business area (that could be great to meet with clients).

The pools have these awesome cabannas and you can bring your Ipod and plug it in.

How cool is this little area?!
The gym has everything that we need. We can save a little money and cancel our gym memberships, plus we can walk!