June Wedding

 "Because every guy wants a girl to teach him how to drive his truck!" Those were the sarcastic, but wise words of Mrs. Thomson to her daughter as an encouragement to maintain her goal of being patient and sitting in the driver's seat of the relationship. From my sideline point-of-view, I'm fairly confident that Rachel does not regret her waiting.  She married an excellent driver =).

There are so many similarities between Doug and Rachel.  I mean this as a complete compliment, but when you spend time with them, you get a sense of a past age of complete manners, chivalry and modesty that makes you think that motorized vehicles should not be in existence right now and that women should still have hoops under our skirts.  They are unique, caring and immediately make you feel valuable just by being a part of their lives.  I'm pretty sure I can count on just one hand the number of conversations I have had with Doug due to him being out of state for most of their relationship, yet I get the feeling he would do whatever he could if there was a need he could meet in my life.  They are nice people, but they would be very quick to clarify to anyone reading this that whatever good is seen in them, it is only because of the grace of their loving savior Jesus Christ.  They are just the mirrors reflecting His glory.   The entire day exuded the gratitude and worship to His feet where it truly belongs.

The footprints that these two leave are priceless.  It was a complete honor to be asked to capture their momentous day.

This is the ring that Rachel's father gave to her when she was younger as a reminder to the commitment of purity and integrity she made.  She gave this ring back to her dad during the ceremony since it had fulfilled it's duty.

Probably one of the sweetest moments of the entire day - Their FIRST KISS!!!! I don't mean the first kiss as man and wife, I mean the first kiss of Doug and Rachel ever!  Isn't that incredible!?

When the newest Mr. and Mrs. were coming down the aisle after being announced as man and wife, I whispered to them, "Go practice!"  They did and lets just say the following images after had some amazing intensity to them!!! ooh la la

 I wasn't lying about the intensity was I - ow ow Rachel!

And yes, I do believe that they will live happily, ever, after...

I thought she was going to be a boy...

I thought she was a boy. I would have bet money 4 years ago that my oldest child was going to be a boy and no one but the ultrasound tech could have convinced me otherwise. So you can imagine my shock when I was, well, convinced otherwise!  I was shocked but not disappointed at all.  We were thrilled for Miss O's existence and have been blessed ever since by the Lord with her crazy and dramatic addition to our family.

I LOVE me those little rosebud lips!

We found out we were expecting and couldn't have been happier!

(2 tests just to make sure)

I decided to go about this pregnancy a bit differently. Unlike with Miss O when I could hardly wait to find out if she was a boy or a girl, I wanted to be surprised about the sex of this baby (yes I'm serious, no, hormones did not transform me into a highly patient, calm and collected Christina).  

The love of my life however, took a whole two seconds to tell me I was nuts and that he wanted to know at first confirmed sighting. Thus began the debate towards me initially trying to get him to join my side (with no budging) to at least finding a compromise where he could find out but he wouldn't tell another breathing soul (it felt like a compromise at the time). We had a scheduled ultrasound for the first week of March so we had to come to a decision by then.

The ultrasound technician was a huge team player (team Christina that is) and promised not to say a word, but instead wrote it down on a post-it note and handed to Justin who immediately (without even glancing!!) stuffed it inside his coat pocket.  It was then that I started to doubt my great idea.  He left to return back to work before me and later told me that he could only wait until the elevator to peek.  The great idea was looking less and less great to me.

I came home and realized that this was a lousy idea (who thought of this anyways?!) and that I was ready for him to tell me...now, that second, not another moment! (hormones anyone?)  Thankfully he talked me out of that idea, reassuring me that he had a great idea of how to tell me at a later time and promised I would not have to wait a month (DYING INSIDE).  If it had been any other person I would have disregarded him in a heart beat, but my husband is a SUPER creative person (much more than me) and I knew it would be worth the wait.  I was convinced by his track record that I would look back and be glad that I didn't try and strong-arm him into spilling the beans now but rather wait for whatever grand scheme he came up with.

It was well worth the wait!

March 27th, my birthday, came and Justin proceeded to spoil me rotten!  I received a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of bright spring-colored flowers at my office.  He surprisingly had asked off for a half day and brought Miss O to kidnap me and take me out for lunch.  When I came home from work at the end of the day I found a super-clean house and a plate full of homemade chocolate cupcakes with candles (pregnant woman's love language)!  Miss O was still taking her nap so when Justin asked if I wanted a cupcake before she woke up I was already reaching for one!  I bit into the moist cupcake and looked down to find that it had filling inside that was.....

Oh and no, I didn't catch the fact that there were mustaches on my cupcakes till afterwards...

BLUE!  We were having a baby boy!  I couldn't believe it, I was speechless for about two seconds right before I blurted out, "I knew it!'

At the end of July, Titus will make our little family of 3 a family of 4 with even girl/boy teams!  We are so incredibly blessed and I can not WAIT to hold my sweet little prince in my arms! 

Thank you to all for your prayers and encouraging words that we have received as a family thus far!  

McCarthy Senior Pictures

It's so cold and snowy out, I thought this would be a great time to catch up on all my past blogging go down memory lane and reminisce a warmer Summer!

I had so much fun taking these images with Mr. McCarthy and he was a great sport! I think I told him about 10+ times that he had the best male on-the-spot smile!  Most guys will get a painful face at first, but not Mr. M! He was Johnny-on-the-spot whenever I would request a smile, and he was so incredibly comfortable no matter if we were taking pictures in the gym with onlookers, or outdoors on a Friday night in front of his school during a football game. The guy has no qualms or lack of confidence.

I couldn't resist a picture of him with his mother.  Between his winning smile and beauty, it was quickly a favorite picture of mine (pretty sure of mom's too).  He's the oldest and the lucky one to experience all of these changes with mom for the first time.  I hope these images bring memories of how proud she is of her son, and how lucky is to have a mom like Mrs. M.

It was so much fun shooting with you guys! Best wishes on your big adventure of post-high school!

Gender Reveal!

I work at a civilian job in addition to my superhero dream job of photographer.  I work with one of the nicest, most beautifulest (yes it's a word, I just made it) lady ever.  There are many different types of pretty girls in this world...ones that know it and act differently because of it and then there's Mrs. M.  She's almost as pretty as she is kind, and makes my civilian job all the more enjoyable...and I honestly don't believe she knows how pretty she is!  Well she's expecting!!! Wahoo! Can  you see my photographer's heart doing jumping jacks with excitement!!!!  

Since I'm pretty adventurous and knew that Mrs. M is too, I was fairly confident that when I begged politely requested to shoot a gender reveal shoot, she would agree.  Not only did she agree to do a gender reveal, but she asked if I would mind photographing it IN REAL LIFE ACTION!  Their oldest daughter had a birthday coming up and planned on revealing the thrilling news to all of their family at that time.  So before anyone in their family knew, I was honored to find out the gender of their wee baby bean (can you say perks of my superhero job?!)!  It went splendidly and after just a few minor hiccups with the balloons, please join with me as we congratulate the M family's littlest member.  It's......A...........

BOY!!!!!

Can't wait to meet you little man!  You are loved so much already!!!!  Even big sister can't wait...ok so she just may be pumped that she got to par-tay!

Seriously, it's impossible for this little boy to be anything but adorable, just check out Gorgeous Grandma with beautiful big sis!

I can't wait to photograph Mr. and Mrs. M's maternity pictures.  MMM (sorry I saw a theme and had to go with it).

Have a glorious week!

Little Miss A- 18 months!

This is sweet little Miss A when she was 12 months old...

Helloooo 18 months!

This little sweetheart is dear to my heart for many reasons, one of them being that she was one of my very first shoots when At Last Christina Smith Photography first began!  So we're growing together! 

 I wanted to commemorate this momentous occasion by making my very first tutu!

She was NOT impressed!

All she needed was for some super fun mommy-gonna-get-you time and the smiles returned!

Happy 18 months sweetie!

The newest littlest Fergie...est =)

Do you remember the beautiful family I was able to photograph here?  Well may I introduce to you the newest little Fergie- baby V.  I had the honor and privilege of spending time with her family all morning and "dressing" her up in different newborn princessy costumes.

For her first wardrobe change - enter Ariel from the Little Mermaid!

For her second costume change enter in - Baby Tinkerbell!

Sleeping Beauty...

and look who was generous and gave us a jewel of a smile...oh melt my heart!

What precious gifts from the Lord are these sweet babies we get to snuggle!

You know I'm going to say it right?  I love my job!

Sunsets with Shae

I don't think that it is accidental that "Shae" means admirable.  She was the perfect model and the greatest of sports to allow me to direct her and take her to several locations surrounding the Carmel area and the best part about the whole experience (besides these images of course) was the conversation.  Shae is as complex and deep as she is beautiful and it was an honor to capture these images of her.  Thank you Admirable.


She is not offended to be referred to as a lioness...

 Did I mention that backlighting loves her?

 Shae, if I ever get a studio, you can bet your buttons this will be a large canvas on my wall.

One of the many things that struck me about Shae was her amazing ability to give me the straight-on gaze without appearing to be angry or suicidal.  This is a very difficult thing to direct people. She is queen of "smiling" with her eyes.