danielle is older sister to my good friend sara whom i don’t see enough. one of the life long struggles is to have balance in your life among friends, family, and work and i so wish i could spend more time hanging out with my awesome friends but sadly, i don’t see them enough. so danielle and i have been ‘linked’ for some time now … i use to dance in her basement and wear all her dress up clothes. she was the ‘cool’ sister sara and i always wanted to spy on and listen to her phone calls … yeah, we were cool.

so happy for these two and waiting to hear the good news. my vote … ehhh … is a girl. but really i have no idea. but its a rule i have to cast my vote.

how fun is this too, what seems like YESTERDAY … i photographed sara’s second pregnancy [don't judge it was a long time ago] and seriously … how beautifffullll are these girls?!! and by looking at sara’s kids whom i’ve photographed numerous times … HERE and HERE and numerous other sessions i never got to blogging, to name a few … they make cute babies. so i’m sure this baby lamers will be to die for!

again, thanks. so honored and flattered and just love their whole entire family and how they are always so sweet to ask me to capture exciting times in their lives! SUCH SUCH SUCH a sweet couple. Enjoy ;)

xoxo

Leah

praying for a safe delivery and thinking of these two, mainly amanda ;)

xoxo

Leah

tara and i took a road trip over to dearborn and the weather was beauuuutiful. lauren and the girls got ready at a hotel while the boys had fun trying to figure out their tuxes at lauren and kyle’s house. sidenote : we almost stole their cat. it was so cute and friendly so i had to snag a picture of it! we headed back to the hotel where the two finally got to see eachother and boy did things feel better after that. their first sight was so beautiful, definitely a favorite time of the day of mine. they were wed in a beautiful catholic wedding and after enjoying some time at a random wall i found (God totally threw that one down for me! it was awesome!) we headed over to a reception filled with yummy food, friends and family they love so dearly, and lots of fun dancing.

it was such a treat to drive and be apart of your wedding day, lauren + kyle. blessings on your future!

Favorite Road Trip Jam :: my dad and i had the baddest bestiest jamming session known to man kind. but this was one of my favorites, especially while driving through indiana.

Favorite new purchase :: scored me some lauren conrad heels yesterday, on sale! woot woot. can’t wait to rock these huge heels!

Favorite new ‘AWEEEEEE’ photo ::

Favorite Room :: have I blogged this before because i’m in love! The floor, staircase!!! … everything!

Favorite Bridesmaid dress idea :: love these flowy dresses for a bridesmaid dress, and in different colors! how fun!

Favorite Quote … aka STORY OF MY LIFE :: but working on it ;) … this usually is the case when dealing with my family members. so that makes it okay.

Favorite new found blog :: Eat yourself Skinny

Favorite Laugh :: my dad shared this video with me while down in Kentucky and I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. And now I can bet this saying will be stuck in your head for the rest of the weekend. your welcome.
 

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We shopped for a full day going from store to store, we found a few things right away but we were really struggling with my little brother’s bed. I wanted something masculine that would last him through his teenage years until he moves out. Which will probably be at the ripe age of 35 because he is the baby. I finally got the idea … why not MAKE his headboard PINTREST style :) Ohhhhh pintrest. Gotta love it.

So I pitched the idea to my mom, but it didn’t even matter. I was sold on my own idea. The new home owners were already tearing down parts of the old barn and the barn wood from Jalen’s childhood home was laying on the ground outside. He is 13 and totally into being a cowboy. Riding his horse, country way of life, maybe someday he’ll appreciate that his bed is made out of his childhood barn that he spent so much of his time in when he was younger. I love history and the fact that this had a story … I was pumped!!! Not to mention it would save my mom some mucho bucks!

So I gathered the wood and made Lucas [brother in law] and Matt get to work. It was so fun watching this come together. Beer was involved but it still looks amazing, Lucas is a very talented builder! So although we’re not done entirely with Jalen’s room … its coming together nicely. He is part Indian so we added a cowboy/wolf/indian theme to it. Love the rustic look. What do y’all think?! Don’t mind my iphone photos. Its as good as it gets for now. ;) I have plans to add an over-sized basket full of blankets, a small dresser and we need a nightstand with a lamp still. All with time …

the making.

the finished headboard. if you can’t tell due to my terrible iphone pic … we went with a grey quilt plus the wolf blanket and pillow from pottery barn.

the inspiration thanks to pintrest. and to make sure i give credit where it is earned … designsponge.com featured this project done by 508 Restoration and Design. There is a step by step DYI instructions.

happy thursday! i’m currently finishing up some wedding photos, going for a run, emails, running errands, and off to watch some vampire diaries! woot woot! Busy day! What do you have going on today?!

xoxo

Leah

So here’s to 25. Last Saturday i celebrated my twenty fifth birthday and had so much fun thinking about the future years and reminiscing about the past quarter of a century. I was really looking forward to a low key celebration with just my family and that’s exactly what i got. There was one main thing on my birthday list this year and I’m so spoiled to have gotten it! Matthew surprised me with some skydiving tickets! I’m so excited to jump out of a plane this summer [with a parachute please]. Its been on my bucket list for so long and I finally get to cross it off. I actually bought some tickets years ago for Matthew and we were on our way there and they called us having to cancel due to weather. Which we were fine with. Then life got busy and Matt got scared and we never ended up doing it and my tickets expired. So now this is really going to happen. Still not sure if Matt is going to jump with me, he’s scared.

Saturday was a busy day. It started off at midnight still driving home from shooting a wedding in dearborn. Sleeping in on a Saturday was awesome and lunch with my mom, Matt, and Brittany at Salt + Pepper in Holland. Followed by an amazing pedicure and shellac manicure with Brittany treated by Matthew. Super relaxing and i love my spiffy nails. Shortly after our spa day we headed for another restaurant and met my whole family at Crazy Horse [one of my favorite restaurants] and then headed back to my parents for cake and ice cream that Brittany set up. She is totally nesting right now, which was awesome for my birthday celebration.

Sunday I followed my birthday with a fun spontaneous trip to Kentucky with my dad. He had work meetings and I tagged along for the road trip and it worked out awesome that I had no meetings or shoots so I just worked on my computer and edited while he was in meetings. Followed by dinners, long talks in the back of his pick up, and huge jamming sessions during the drive. I absolutely love road trips and admiring the scenery. We saw some amazing farms and may have stopped at an antique shop. I love it that my dad appreciates antiques as well.

It was a great weekend/start to my week. I’m still going strong. I claim the whole month if you didn’t know. So we’re still going.

Excited for whats to come in the next years. Can’t believe I’m 25. Time flies. And to think I was 16 when Matthew and I met. We talked a lot about that this past weekend and how much we’ve both changed and grown since those fun high school days.

p.s. Thank you so much for everyone voting for the hair color post last week. Its a long story but I basically ended up just being TOTALLY in-decisive even after the votes and going with the fastest hair color. It was either foil my whole head [super thick hair] or do all over color. So I wasn’t super excited about it but just ended up going dark. Now, I love it! Tara did an amazing job and I do see how it looks so much more natural on me than blonder. So for now, I’m a brunette again.

A glimpse into my weekend.

i absolutely love the shots of aidan cuddling with his daddy too. i’m pretty sure andrew will cherish those forever, his little baby all snuggled up in his arms. it was so great meeting you andrew and capturing you interacting with your son. with just our short time spent together i loved watching you interact with aidan and seeing how amazing of a father you are to him. lucky boy … and super cute might i add. he definitely is going to be a ladies man. and not to mention, he has quite the personality. enjoy <3

xoxo

Leah

had to share this crying shot. we all have one right?! i know i do, they are keepers.

i loved his outfit that andrew said his a  ‘just like his daddy’ kind of outfit.

stud.

happy tuesday!

so lets talk color. i have posted two boards that are more of a dirty blonde and also one that is darker browns. i am all over the spectrum today. i have been super blonde, dirty blonde, lighter brown, and even super dark. i personally don’t like to change my hair color due to the seasons so just because summer is around the corner doesn’t mean i need to be blonde. in fact, being darker … i would want to be tan and seeing that i don’t tan in a tanning bed, i would say that it would be a good choice for summer. looking at these photos though, i can see i’m leaning towards the blonde/brown mixture. LOVE lauren conrads color, very natural … but also in love with julianne hough, kate beckinsale, ashley olsen, mary-kate olsen, mila kunis, jennifer aniston, kristen cavalliari, selena gomez, along with nina dobrev. a lot of women walk into a salon and expect the stylist to be a miracle maker and make them look like these celebs … i personally understand tara isn’t going to make me look like any of these gorgeous woman … so i’m really trying to take in consideration my features and what we’re working with here.

cut. so as you all know, my hair is super long. i love it. i cut my hair short after getting married only because it was something i had never done before. my parents wouldn’t let me cut my hair when i was younger and it kind of became a fear of mine. so looking back, i’m glad i did it. but i can’t say i want to ever have short hair again. it just wasn’t me. i didn’t feel like leah. i won’t say NEVER, but not right now. the only thing about cut that i’m debating is to have some layers, face framing [kind of like julianne hough in the movie footloose] or to keep it the way it is. super long layers [i have to have SOME layers because my hair is so thick] but looking at nina dobrev’s hair along with kate beckinsale … i love the long face layers.

so there it is folks. while writing this its making me realize how ‘all over the board’ i am right now haha. t minus four hours until i get it done so i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear your thoughts. when i’m SUPER indecisive, i thought why not just share on the blog this fine afternoon and see what my followers think?! maybe share what direction you think i should go in?! or even a certain number you are loving?! i’ve never seen #8 in person and thinking that would be super fun and different. can’t make any promises though … who knows i might look the exact same … which is okay ;) happy tuesday!

xoxo

Leah

i played around with my black and whites this time and would love to hear what you think of them. i’m always trying to grow and evolve my photography. so just another experiment. hope everyone had a relaxing easter sunday and as always, happy monday! its my birthday week … so lets do this!

xoxo

Leah

xoxo

Leah

favorite quote ::

favorite bedroom :: if only I could have a white comforter … but i would rather have zoey ;)

favorite new time waster :: love passing some time/wasting some time on ‘draw something’ find me and play! i’m a pretty darn good drawer ;)

favorite laugh :: thanks to my BFF aaron for sharing this with me … my favorite is probably day time night time game, or of course … helen

favorite party decor idea :: my guests might be seeing this cute idea at brittany’s baby shower ;)

favorite look :: sweater + lace skirt

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