Another year, another group of high school graduates!! My passion for photography is mostly for weddings, but I do enjoy a senior portrait session every now and then – kinda like a stress reliever. :-)

You might recognize Hannah – she’s been helping me with a few weddings here in the Black Hills and now it’s finally her turn in front of my camera! I just couldn’t wait until this summer to photograph Hannah – so we decided to do a mini session this weekend!!

Here are my top favorites, but be on the lookout later this summer for more of Hannah’s beautiful face! :-)

To all the moms+grandmas+godmoms out there.

To the mothers and grandmothers of the brides and grooms I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

To all my brides who have become mothers.

And especially to my mom and soon-to-be mother-in-law.

Hugs and a picture of a pretty flower to you all!! :-)

 I just LOVE meeting new couples! Especially during their engagement. It’s such an exciting time – they’ve been happily dating for a while and now they get to start planning for the rest of their lives together.

Jeff and Emily are such a great match. They met while studying at a bookstore and sparks flew immediately. I’m fairly certain they went to study a lot more often after meeting that first time. :-)

I love how these two fit together – ‘just like a puzzle.’ :-)

Who’s excited about all these extra hours of daylight? This girl!! Now begins the time of year for evening walks and beautiful engagement sessions! :-) Other than all this extra daylight time, here are a few things I’ve been enjoying this month!

1. Words With Friends – I finally upgraded my free slider phone for an iPhone (yay!) and now I can play all sorts of fun games (double yay!) However, I do still prefer Bananagrams over Words With Friends.. because I can use pirate language whenever I want. :-)

2. My BFF – Jill was here for a couple days and we had so much fun eating ice cream and drinking coffee. It’s what we do.

3. “Oh Darling” by Plug In Stereo – I heard it on my Ingrid Michaelson Pandora station the other day and I couldn’t get enough!! Video bonus: they both have amazing hair.

4. Homemade Vanilla Extract – vanilla beans + vodka = yummy vanilla extract!! It takes a few weeks to ‘process’ but after that, it just keeps getting better! Or so I’ve heard. I haven’t used mine yet because I know once I start using it, I’ll never want to use the bottle of store-bought vanilla extract still in my cupboard!

For the past five years, we’ve been alternating holidays between my parents and his parents. But this Easter we were tired of traveling and decided to spend our first holiday alone… together…

But not going to our parents’ meant I had to cook a ham.

I almost changed our plans last-minute so I wouldn’t have to.

And then I discovered hams are pre-cooked… I figured I could handle that.

We found the tiniest ham we could, prepared a chocolate pudding pie, and made a family-size dish of cheesy potatoes (we love cheesy potatoes!!!). But it wasn’t officially Easter without Easter bread mailed from my mom and a basket full of goodies from his mom. Thankfully they both arrived in time.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!