Since I met Jessica from Modern Moments, we have become such great friends! We have so much in common, and we work extremely well together. She has amazing style and puts things together like I only wish I could! I just can’t say enough good things about her and her family. I think if I could describe her in a few words I would choose: stylish, outgoing, charismatic, fun, upbeat, extremely talented and am amazing mother. But if I had my choice, I’m sure I could write much, MUCH more about how super-duper-awesome she is.

Jackson is one of the sweetest, funniest, most adorable little 4 year olds I have ever met. He has such a sweet personality, and he is very outgoing. He’s got a lot of energy, and is pretty fearless. I had such a fun time photographing him as the little Rockstar that he is!
Jackson is having a Rockstar themed birthday party, and I knew that Jessica would have something awesome up her sleeve for his shoot. Of course, she didn’t disappoint (she never does!), and Jackson showed up wearing hot pink, a leather jacket, worn out jeans, and of course, a faux hawk! He also had an awesome guitar en tote, which he played for me- you should be jealous, he’s really good!!! We shot in downtown Portland, in the Pearl. It was a good mix of urban and industrial, which is what Jessica had envisioned for his photos.

Enough blabbing, check out this sweet little guy!

He has such a great personality!

Thanks for being such an awesome Rockstar, Jackson! I am in love with your photos!

Jessica got to work right away on the birthday invitations! You may remember the adorable invitations that she made for Emerson’s birthday, she is seriously talented!
Check out the super cool tri-fold invites she made for Jackson’s party. I am in love with how she wrote “Send fan mail to:” in the return address spot!! (Sorry about the weird lighting on the invitation pics, it was REALLY dark out, and I didn’t edit them that much)

She even included a CD with some of Jackson’s favorite music in some of the invites! I think with his adorable face, and her incredible design skills, this will be one party that her invitees won’t want to miss!! I wish I could attend, but I’ll be away this weekend with my lovely boys for a surprise mini-vacation.

I can’t wait to see how the party turns out, I have no doubts that it will be fantastic!!!

Jessica, you are seriously a Godsend!!! I am so so sooo glad to have met you, and I am VERY excited to work on more fun projects together in the future! I think we are creative soulmates!!

Oh, and Jackson, YOU ROCK!!! (He wants to marry me, hehe, I adore him!)

“Of the countless ways we can show love to one another, five key categories, or five love languages, proved to be universal and comprehensive—everyone has a love language, and we all identify primarily with one of the five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch.”

At the end there is a quiz that you take to determine which of your love languages are the strongest. My top results were “Receiving Gifts” and a tie between “Words of Affirmation” and “Quality Time”. Everyone speaks all 5 languages to some degree, but it’s natural for most people to have a dominant one or two.

This was no surprise to me by any means. I value gifts, little and big, immensely. Whether it’s a quote written down on a napkin, or a beautiful sparkly something, it has the power to take my breath away. I also love giving gifts! I feel like it’s a great way to show that I’ve been thinking of someone, and I always put great time and effort into selecting and preparing special presents for people.

I believe that this is why I love photography so much. When you take someone’s photo, and then give it to them, it’s a very special gift. No one can ever relive the moments that have passed, and memories fade with time, but a photograph lasts forever. Those little moments frozen in time to remember and hold on to forever. There’s just something so special about that.

So it was to my complete surprise when I opened my mailbox this evening and there was a “You Have a Package in the Manager’s Office” slip sitting atop my mail! I racked my brain trying to think of what it could possibly be… did I order something? Did Mark order something? A print order? A large envelope from the insurance company (you know, one of those horribly ridiculous packs of paper that they are required by law to send out once a year or something.. waste of trees!) None of those. I raced up to the office since it was about to close, and eagerly handed her my slip.

“Ah!” she said as she turned around and picked up a medium sized brown box.

She handed me the box, and it was sealed with SAINT CUPCAKE PACKING TAPE!!!! Saint Cupcake?? But, who? How? Why??? What was in there?! My mind went racing, thinking who would be so nice as to send me something so amazinly sweet and awesome… and what was in it?! I thanked the manager and raced back to my apartment. Once I got in the door, I cut the tape and opened the package.

The glory of it all. I LOVE this place. It is the first cupcakerie I ever stepped into years ago, and I’ve been in love ever since. My good friend is friends with the owners of the place (one who is a graphic designer superstar– in case you couldn’t tell..) How gorgeous is this presentation!?! I flipped the card over…

Of course!!! My lovely bride (and friend of MANY years) Jesse from last Saturday’s wedding! She had asked me for my address and I thought nothing of it. WHAT. A. DOLL!!! At this point I have serious little pink hearts floating all around me, I’m so happy. Pink + cupcakes + amazingly gorgeous packaging/design= DROOL!

I realize that it’s not just cupcakes, but an entire “Saint Cupcake cupcake kit”!!! What the heck!? Completely amazing.

Six un-frosted cakes, 6 containers of different flavored frostings, six spreading sticks, and six little baggies of sprinkles! No sparing on the presentation, this is completely adorable and to die for! Not to mention tasty!1

Naturally, I had to take some fun photos of my kit before indulging

Hot fudge!? That’s my fave!!!!

pink, pink, and more pink!!!

a pile of frosting cups!

Thank you SO much Mr. & Mrs. Thiel & the Davis’s!!! You totally made my day SO much sweeter (literally & figuratively!) You rock, and I was honored to be a part of your special day!!!

Now, something sweet for you… a sneak peek pic from your wedding day!!! Enjoy!

Now if you’ll excuse me, IT’S CUPCAKE TIME!!!!

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But first! How weird, that today at lunch, I got this fortune

because just yesterday i was reading this great article about how to price your photography! Random, right?! Well anyways, I thought it was weird.

Ok, onto the weekend!

Friday night started off with a bang! Our President at work took our whole team out for bowling, pizza, and drinks So we only had to work a half day, and got an early start to the weekend! Man, I love my day job sometimes! There’s nothing like getting off a little early after a crazy busy and productive week, sure makes you feel good!

Before our photo shoot on Saturday morning, we stopped for some pumpkin spice lattes! (all of these photos were taken by my friend Tonja’s daughter, Madi- photos to come soon!)

Another fun thing we did this weekend was go to this AMAZING restaurant- Por Que No?
I can’t believe I’d never been there! The food was absolutely amazing, and I fell in love before I even ordered! The entire restaurant is colorful, vibrant, and full of life! I couldn’t help but snap away with my little phone! They even had delicious fresh juices– mark and i had guava coconut! YUMMY!

SO yummy! It’s definitely on our faves list now! Mark had been talking about the place for a while, and he ended up going with our friends Chauncey and Jonelle a few nights prior- it’s one of their favorite spots as well, so they were excited to show Mark the ways of the place

Mark and I also got our photos back that we had done from Kevin Russ, THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!
I am so in love with them, I almost cried when I saw them… he is the BEST! I’ll do a post about them soon so you can all see

And of course, a trip to Trader Joe’s! I love love love that store! Not only do they carry delicious foods for super low prices, their packaging is ADORABLE! I literally buy things from there just because I like the box! Maybe it’s the graphic designer in me, but they get me every time!!! Prime example:

Also- the Steelcut Oatmeal (get it in the frozen section!) is my new fave breakfast!!! Why doesn’t all oatmeal taste this good?!!? SO delicious!

and one of my baby, just because he’s too cute for his own good!

2 blogposts in 2 days, man i’m on a roll!

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