Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

This year has a lot of first's. And the first's are super fun! Especially looking for a Christmas Tree. Jp and I love Christmas time and the season, so we made sure we got a tree sooner than later. We got our tree last week and we love it. It has made us more than proud. So the journey began with searching the city of Corona for trees. There weren't too many places, so we didn't have to search too far. We only had two spots to check.. hehe..

So, we got to our first spot and it was nice and clean... but... the trees weren't covered. Who knows how long the trees had been sitting there. Even though these trees looked really nice, when you touched them, the pine needles would fall so easily, so we knew this wasn't the place where we wanted to buy our tree.



Being a little disappointed, we went to our next stop and these trees were nice and green, so searching down aisles, we spotted this cluster of trees, and when we saw the big one in the back, we knew this was the one...

A little unraveling and moments later, she was ours and ready to go home...=)
The perfect height, size, and color. It was way greener than some other trees we saw...

Yup, it truly was the one.

So the husband got it ready to go...

So we took our 10 year old Christmas tree to celebrate our first Christmas as husband and wife. We are a young family the three of us. Since no one likes my ultimate child name, our Christmas tree's name is Wolverine!!! way cool!

Through the front door we go, and into our humble abode.

Some decor, but of course, I buy the wrong sheer.

I love traditions, but they are tiring..haha. But I love the fact that we did this as a family. I didn't do it alone, and he didn't have to do it alone. We enjoyed it together. I love that!

So a lot of our friends buy their annual Christmas ornaments, and I'm too pooped to go out and get one, maybe later on, so for now... look at our annual very first Christmas ornament... all of them! Isn't it great!

I don't know if many of you are like my husband, but he was super geek when we found some LED Christmas lights... but I have to admit, they are awesome, blue and bright, and saves energy... way worth it!

As the tree is almost done, we don't have our star or our skirt, so for now.. 150 ornaments later...part of our very first Christmas tree!

When we get our tree topper, I'll show you the rest... it looks funny right now..hehe

Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire

jackfrost nipping at your nose...

well..

Not really...hehe.. more like smores cooking in our fireplace....even better if you ask me! tonight was bummy night to just relax at home after a long week at work. We get to spend time with each other with smores and watching the fire and hearing the crackling of the wood. Ssoo relaxing!

He did the cooking, I did the eating...



So, he has a technique about his smores...it has to be perfect, so, first things first, the marshmallow goes into the fire...



While it gets soft, he makes sure the marshmallow gets put on fire, so then, it really melts the chocolate...



and the results... uber-yummy!



probably not the healthiest, but after a long week of working and commuting, you gotta treat yourself every now and then..

It's almost Christmas!

We gave a Rockin' Thanks...

So our Thanksgiving was awesome this year. For our first thanksgiving together, we thought we did pretty well. Our first and hopefully not the last thanksgiving party was a blast and we hope it happens every year. We went to visit my brother in law's family for lunch and then headed home in the afternoon and 4 hours later of cooking, we had dinner. But I cheated, my mom cooked the turkey, and boy was it an awesome turkey!!! Here is our moms together... they are so cute!

It was nice because all the cousins came over and played rockband till 2 in the morning! This is my brother in law, my husband, cousin, and my sister's boyfriend...



This is my sister and Sebastian. Sebastian is an awesome dj... Check out his website...
DJ ETHOS



Not only did we have a rockin Thanksgiving, I had an awesome birthday...a rockin' birthday. There were so many things going on and so many parties in a row, and not enough pictures were takin, but i caught a couple... So cute...





To all those who were able to celebrate my birthday with me, thank you so much. I had so much fun... Oh, and for the people who didn't leave till 3 am... thanks for locking up..haha. I guess I'm the new Michelle... We love you guys!

Washington Workshop

So the same weekend we went to Oregon, we also went to a Photography Workshop with MeRa Koh Photography. Me Ra was our wedding photographer who actually showed us something that we want to do as for a living is something tangible. We can actually do something we love for a living. I mean, we like our jobs, but if we can stay home together and work together, that would be awesome!

So it started with a meet and greet on Friday night over cheese and wine...yummy! Then a full weekend of learning and applying. It was such an awesome weekend meeting new friends from many other states as well as learning new things with photography. We learned about lighting, using more of your camera and dealing with business scenarios. They definately showed us the real side of the struggle of running your own business, but the fact that they are a husband and wife team and how they pull through it is awesome.

There were a total of 4 models but I'm only going to post our favorites! I think I posted about this like months ago, but Jp and I shoot so different. In the last post, he usually knows how to capture details and I usually go for the fit as much as you can in a picture. It was kind of hard to do that becuase there were 20 of other people wanting to get their shot in. So fitting everything means fitting everyone... and you don't want everyone in your couple shots, but Jp set this one up perfectly. He envisioned it, and asked everyone to move aside for a couple of seconds....and the results are awesome.

Jp is really learning how to set up a shot and you get results like these...

I still like the fit everything in kind of shot, but I had a totally different eye this time around. This is Jp's favorite picture that I took, but I think I can find other ones =) On the other side of the picture, everyone was standing there and I didn't really like the angle or what was in the background... so I was trying to figure out a way to get them and no one else, so I had to shoot no where else but up. And here are my results...

This workshop was totally awesome... I would totally recommend to go to one... She was awesome because she teaches in a way that is super easy to understand. She also uses models that just about anyone has, kids.... She teaches how to capture their kid moments without interrupting them and letting the shot go by... She really has a gift and it shows in how her 5 year old business has progressed... what an inspiration!

Mateo and Oregon

The rest doesn't matter...haha. Well, the husband and i journeyed out to Oregon to visit Jp's best man and the fam. We went up during the perfect weekend with perfect weather, pretty trees, and yummy food. If you don't know Jp and I, we love food, and it was good. Especially the wil atlantic salmon...so good! Anyways... Mateo is so cute! He would give us our wake up call by jumping in our bed

After getting ready for the day, Jp and i fell in love with the Zaporteza's tree. This tree was awesome!!! I don't know if the leaves are still there, but this tree was really cool. The color was so cool and really big, but not only was there 1 of them, but 2! That was really hard to see, but really cool!

They have a huge front yard and since it is a corner house, it was full of trees and event here backyard was so nice... minus the 2 dead plants Tiff killed..haha... But really, Their house is beautiful and it looks like a house house.... Fully and nicely decorated, clean and really broken in... it really is a beautiful house...haha... Jp and I were taking notes aside and thinking of how we can decorate our house cause really, it looks like it's out of a catalog, they probably don't think so, but it is... I didn't post pictures of the interior cause you have to go to oregon to see it...hehe

After an awsome lunch that I wished I remembered the name of it, but when I find out, I'll be sure to blog on it, cause I had the best and only Salmon Hash I have ever had... So the fam brought us to Portland and we did a lot of walking and some sight seeing... Well... Jp went sight seeing thanks to Albert... but that's a whole other post...haha

Day two, we got our wake up call from Mateo... gotta love it, and this time, Albert fed him before we left to go shopping at Nike... cause when your at Nike, your there for at least 2 to 3 hours... and I didn't realize this, so Mateo wasn't hungry anymore, but Jp and I were starving.



Since we were starving, we went to McMenamins. This restaurant is located in an old school. Cool concept, but really weird...

We had to walk down these halls to get to the restaurant... scary! I was even afraid to go to the bathroom by myself...so i had the hubby escort me...it was super scary...

But did Mateo care....not at all.... He was havin a blast!

The cool thing is that Tiff is learning to use her camera, so she was capturing some cool shots while we were there...

Even after eating all that food, and all that playing, Albert let Mateo fly a little bit...

Okay, this last picture is here for a reason... This hand is famous!!! The magic comes from these fingers =)

Even though this was a short trip, I had so much fun and it was so beautiful. It is nothing like California. They have huge old trees and we have tall palm trees... The weather is different, but the town has so much character. I can't wait to go there again and spend more than two days with them. Not to mention the guest room's matress. So comfortable! Thanks Zaporteza's for letting us visit. We will be back sooner than later... see you guys for Christmas! haha... See you in Vegas..haha

earl + cheryl = married

We are going through a couple of changes at the moment, but we couldn't resist...

First, there is going to be a posting bonanza this weekend! We need to talk about oregon, washington, the workshop, and the wedding! well, the wedding is going to have to wait a little bit, and you will see why in the next paragraph, so stay tuned for a first class ticket to oregon and washington. Now...

Earl and Cheryl were married on november 10th and had such cool style. From the dress to the city pictures to the reception details. it looked so awesome! with the style of their wedding, everywhere you looked, there was always something to take a picture of. That could be why we have over 2000 pictures to sort through!!! Yup, I said it, 2000 pictures...but the wedding was a blast!

This post isn't to show the slideshow... but just a teaser of what is to come. I didn't really want to show who this couple is yet, becuase they are so cute! but just a couple shots to get your feet wet, cause really, there is a lot more to come!

The shoes... you gotta love the shoes. There is another picture to represent how Cheryl branded her wedding, so keep tuning in. They were so classy looking...

Jp really has an eye when it comes to really feeling the moment. When I look at this picture, and I always say this, but it looks so quiet. This shot is right after the sponsors put the cord and veil over the couple, and the prayer was after. I think John really captured the moment.

This picture meant to much to me... the pressure of the day and what is to come and just of what is expected of you as the bride and groom truly melted away when they were just walking together hand in hand. Seeing Cheryl and Earl before the ceremony, there is no way you can't let the big day get to you, but during this time, I believe they actually were able to look at each other and just think...we just got married ... and enjoyed each other as husband and wife for their first hour of marriage.

To Earl and Cheryl, the wait will totally be worth it! We hope you are having an awesome time on your honeymoon and can't wait to hear back from you guys when you come back...

check out their movie trailer with
*** Red 5 Studios, a Calomay Production***

Transition Stage

Hello People!

It's been almost two weeks since we posted, but so much has gone on. We had our first wedding on Saturday and it was so fun! The bride was so beautiful with such an awesome dress! Well, we have so much to catch up on and so much to post on and will update everything here soon! Don't worry...

brian + jackie = engaged!!!

We just got back from a 4 day awesome trip from Oregon and Seattle. We spent some time with our good friends Albert, Tiff and the funniest one of the bunch...Mateo. The latter part of our trip we were in Seattle for a photography workshop. But more on that later...

Right now, we want you to meet brian + jackie. Yay! they're getting married!!

This shoot was special because first of all, it was our very first engagement shoot, such a perfect day to have it, and with an awesome couple! John has known jackie for about 5 months now and seemed to have a general interest in our work, so she asked us to do her engagement shoot...so cool! jackie and brian are getting married back east so i thought it was totally cool that they had some pictures from southern california to start it off. We wanted to do something super special to present this, but that was taking tttoooo long, so here it is....

Beauty for Ashes Photography

world premiere slide show...just click on their names!
***** jackie and brian *****

Thank you so much for waiting to see them, we love them especially the ones right below... again, congratulations on your engagement, and happy wedding planning from here on out... it's going to be so beautiful...

here are some of our favorites...

Please, give us some feedback, so please leave a message, we would really love to here what you guys had to say!

John and Lauren
Beauty for Ashes Photography

True Bella

Okay, we are guilty. True Bella had her photo shoot quite awhile ago, it was so long she went from being the only child to a RUNNING, older sister. It is so amazing how much time flies...Ruby, the mother was actually pregnant with baby #2. The parents haven't even really seen these photos, so we hope you absolutely love them! We actually had this shoot back in January! haha ...

Well, I wanted to start off these series of photos with her feet, cause it shows how small they were back then, and also how much she uses them now.

Haha... True's...when is he coming home picture...oh no Ruby!


I think this photo might have captured how she was...very quiet and well behaved. She seems so quiet here...

So True's parents discovered she was allergic to something a little late...haha. They found out she was allergic to dairy and what a journey it was to find out what it was. Not only a journey, a sacrifice because her Mom loves loves loves chocolate, so a few sacrifices where in mind. Well, her being allergic to dairy, it made her skin really dry and I thought post process work was needed, but I hesitated. This was a time in her life and family where this was True. Spots and all. Praise God it was nothing life threatening, so some of the shots, they were left in. Only because this is what I knew of True back then... SSOOO Cute red spots and all!

During the shoot, she was sooo good! I think she started to like the camera because we would find her looking at the lens a little more and more throughout the day!

I love this picture my husband took (detail shot) since True is a little bit older, she is more independent now, but at this age, she could barely hold her bottle without her mom. I also love this because it shows how small her hands are in comparison to her mom's. So different in size and represents how much Ruby guides True in her life. It shows how much Ruby's hands are involved in growing her and showing her Christ.

So cute!

So, by the time we went outside, she was getting really tired and irritated with Beauty For Ashes Photography...Sorry True!



So True is an older sister and is running all over the place...we can't wait to have photo shoot #2 with her and her sister. With better equipment and better knowledge of our cameras, we can't wait! So Ruby and Ben.... how 'bout it?