Welcome to the first editon of “laura loves…” where I share a few of my favorite things that I currently can’t get enough of!!

Feel free to share some of your favorite things in the comments below! :-)

1. Jayme Dee – She’s so adorable and she has SUCH an awesome voice!! I am hooked on her covers of Cooler Than Me and Baby It’s Cold Outside. Both of which you can download (for free!!) on the link under each video.

2. Ingrid Michaelson – I have downloaded lots of her songs from iTunes, but my current favorite is Parachute. You can download the acoustic version of the song by liking her facebook page, going to the ’12 days of Ingrid’ tab, and clicking ‘download!!’

3. My new roll-top desk!! It’s so pretty and has so many cute little drawers. And I purchased it for only $150!!! Deal of the year. (Thanks, Shannon!!) :-)

4. The Proposal – Sandra Bullock is my FAVORITE actress. And Ryan Reynolds is always a pleasure to look at. And Oscar Nuñez (Ramone) is toooo funny. I finally purchased this movie a few days ago and so now I alternate watching this and…

5. Elf – “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?” “SANTA!!!!! I know him!!!!” “And to finish, we’ll snuggle.” “Francisco! That’s fun to say! Franciscooo.” “Is there sugar in syrup? Then YES!” “I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.” “He must be a South Pole elf…” Yes, I could quote this movie all day long if you let me… :-)

6. Christmas bows make presents look so much prettier!!

I hope everyone is having a nice Monday!

And if not, here’s something to make you smile.

Me. About twenty years ago.

Let’s say you are looking around for the perfect photographer for your wedding. You’re checking out websites, asking for pricelists, etc. You finally find THE photographer who is available for YOUR day. Yippee!! Now what? Hire them to spend all day with you at your wedding? Better yet, hire them for the wedding as well as an engagement session!!

I think it is so important to get to know your photographer. Not just their photos, but the actual photographer. Anyone can look at photos of other people and say “oh, they look so pretty!” Discover how you look through your photographer’s lens. Relax and have fun!

If you’ve picked the perfect photographer for you, you should feel comfortable around them and you should LOVE your photos! If you are happy with how your engagement photos turned out, you can relax and trust in your photographer to get amazing images on your wedding!

I like to make the entire wedding photography process simple for my clients and so I offer a complimentary engagement session with every one of my wedding collections. I put myself out there on the blog and on facebook, but I want to get to know YOU. I want you to know it’s okay to laugh at my lame jokes. I want you to have fun and show me how much you love each other and are excited to get married!

The photos that result from an engagement session are an awesome reminder of how in love you are with each other. You’ve met the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and you’re about to make it official! I can’t stress this enough – HAVE FUN!!

Have you ever received an unexpected letter or card in the mail?

There is something so wonderful about a hand-written note that just melts my heart. Unlike an email or facebook message (which make my heart flutter when they include lots of smiley faces and exclamation points), writing a note takes time. To sit down, grab a pen, and use a stamp, envelope, and cute return address label.

I like to call hand-written notes ‘love notes.’ Whenever I receive a ‘love note’ from someone I’ve taken photos for, I can almost feel them hugging me with their words of thanks and appreciation.

Here are just a few that I have received in the past year. If you look closely, you’ll see that two are from Brittany, who also loves love notes. :-)

p.s. Hand-written exclamation points, hearts, and smiley faces always ALWAYS give me the warm fuzzies. :-)

“sayWHA?!”

Yes, that’s right. This past weekend my family celebrated Christmas. And Thanksgiving. And my birthday. And it was FABULOUS! Lance and I got home just after my brother and his family, and just before the ‘bad weather.’

The next night, we opened presents. Because someone kept asking “When can we open presents? When can we open presents?” And it wasn’t my three-year-old nephew. :-)

Since Jonas got a train set for his birthday, I gave him a train conductor outfit for Christmas!! When I was little, I had a McDonald’s outfit and I played restaurant ALL the time.

Thank goodness Lance has so much energy to entertain Jonas all weekend! :-) In between helping everyone open their Christmas presents, Jonas would come over to Lance and they would pop the bubble wrap used in some of the boxes.

Jonas also likes to snuggle and giggle with grandpa.

Isaac is already three months old!! Did someone say ‘time for a photoshoot?!’

Baby burrito!! :-)

Time to go sledding!

This is how Isaac felt about being outside in the cold:

“Aunt Laura, what does this do?”

“Hold it up to your face and find out.”

Snuggle time with grandma!

And of course I got some snuggle time in as well. Whenever I sat next to the Christmas tree, Isaac would stretch to look at the lights.

Caramel bourbon spice (birthday) cake.

It’s okay to be jealous. :-)

Apparently mom doesn’t keep birthday candles around the house.

“Aunt Laura, how many numbers are you?”

Me and my nephews! What more could a girl ask for on her birthday?!

I want to thank everyone who sent me birthday wishes! I had a fabulous day and it was a great way to finish up the holiday weekend with my family!

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving! This year I was thankful for good health, family, my wonderful boyfriend, new friendships, and everyone who has trusted me in the past year to document their marriages and growing families. And caramel bourbon spice cake. :-)