Stress Reliever and Found Pictures :)

So today, I was feeling a little bit of stress in my life. Even though I have less work with shoots and weddings, but it is booking season and so it is a little stressful making sure I have enough work for next year. It's no fun, this is my least favorite part. I'm sure everything will be fine, but I go through this every year :) So, I needed an escape. So I convinced Carlos to stop working for the day and take a "Stress Reliever Day" for me. We only went for a couple of hours, but it was just what the doctor ordered.

Carlos with Handy Manny :) Hola!It was a pretty slow day so we got some pictures with the characters.

This one is my favorite. Mickey and Minnie together!!!

"C" is for Carlos!
I loved it! For me, it really is the happiest place on earth. Thank you to my Carlos for putting up with my obsession. He is so patient and wonderful.

Also, tonight I found the pictures from our Laguna trip and The Ultimate Disney Experience. YAY!!!! I was so sad that I had lost these. It was so much fun and I wanted to have something to remember it by.

In our hotel room there was a giant jacuzzi. So cool!

We took a sunset walk along the water. So beautiful! I love living so close to such beautiful places!




Our cute little family!When we came back to the hotel I found this. I have such a sweet husband!
In the morning we took a walk on the beach in front of our hotel. It was a private beach and we were the only ones on that part of the beach so we let Chloe run free. She loved it! It was so cute. I had super cute videos, but those did get lost. Sad.



Our hotel!

These are our pictures from the Princess and the Frog viewing (which comes out tomorrow - everyone go see it!)
We got to meet Pricess Tiana. They also had EVERY other princess, but we felt weird going around to every princess, especially because I think we were the only people there without kids.
They had yummy cupcakes, that made my tummy happy.

And then we took a tour of the studio.
After we got home we got in our comfy clothes and made dinner and watched tv together. Ohhhh perfect. I loved this whole weekend.

Lately...

I have some catching up to do. First...

Toy Story Date Night (October 8, 2009)
One thing I LOVE about living in California is being able to go to Disneyland whenever I want (within reason), I live less than 15 minutes away and so we have gone a lot. I was so excited when I saw that they were going to do the Toy Story double feature in 3D! So we made a Disney night out of it. We went and had dinner at Disneyland and then went to see it at Downtown Disney. It was so fun! It was the first time I had done a double feature. I loved the movies, but it was a little long. Can't wait for Toy Story 3!




Brandon's Birthday (October 14, 2009)
This year Disney let you in for free on your birthday and so I have taken all of my nieces and nephew on their (except Megan, I was shooting a wedding in Utah). Carrie Beth came with us and we had a blast despite the rain. I love Disneyland at Halloween, it is decorated so cute! Second only to Christmas.








We go stuck on the Matterhorn. :(
We saw Stacie and her family there! How fun was that?!


Then we went to Utah to visit the fam (October 21st-26th)
I love going to visit my family in Utah! We got to do all of my favorite things: eat at Cafe Rio (rumor has it we are getting one in the OC - but I have seen anything for sure), BYU football, and Temple Square. We did have some excitement. When we were driving up to Logan to visit Laura and Nate we got a flat tire on the freeway in Centerville and police officer (answer to prayer) had to stop traffic on the freeway for us to get over to the safe side of the freeway and then helped us change it.

Chloe got to come with us! She was so good and she loved hanging out with Phoebe! I'm not sure Phoebe felt the same, Chloe is a hyper puppy and Phoebs is used to a pretty chill life.
Carlos and the police officers changing the tire on the side of the road.
The tire!
We drove from Vegas to Logan. It was a VERY long trip! Plus I was getting sick :( We stopped in Brigham City and got Pizza Hut. Since we had Chloe we had to eat in the car. I don't even care, I love that dog!
At temple square. Cute little Eliza. She thinks the temple is where the princesses are. To bad she wasn't older when Carlos and I got married, she would have loved that!


She is so cute, I miss that little girl!

Ohhhh, we love visiting the temple. Reminds us of the day we got married. Such a beautiful place!

We ran into a friend of Carlos' from his mission at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
We got to go to the Homecoming Game. It was so much fun leading up to the game. There was so much hype. ESPN was there, we were playing TCU so it was this huge thing. Well, the game SUCKED! We got killed, I swear, they played like a high school football team. I was very disappointed. But, my faith was renewed when we beat Utah last week.

Halloween: (October 31, 2009)
I'm a little bummed! I lost a bunch of pictures from Halloween. I NEVER do that! I had such cute pictures of Carlos, Chloe and I. We got Chloe this cute lady bug costume and I lost the pictures, bummer. But here are a couple.
The trick-or-treating group. You can kinda see Chloe's costume.

The Ellen Show (November 12, 2009)

This was a long day! Carrie Beth got us stand-by tickets to The Ellen Show, but she ended having school that night so she couldn't go. So Megan got to come with me. We had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive to Burbank. We were there by 9am and were at the very beginning of the stand-by line. At about 9:15 they gave us numbers and told us to come back at 3pm. Have you been to Burbank? There is not very much to do there for that amount of time. So we decided to pay $40 each to go on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. I am so glad that we did, that was seriously the highlight of the day. It was the best studio tour I have ever been on. It was 2 1/2 hours long and we got to see a lot of stuff, a lot of cool stuff.

This is Megan, on the tram for the tour.

The first area we went to was the back lot. Does this ally look familiar to you? Our tour guide asked us and I, pathetically, knew. It is where Monica and Rachel stood when Monica was trying to convince Rachel to talk to Jean Claude Van Dam on Friends! That's cool!

This has been in a bunch of movies, but it was also where, on Friends, they stood to watch Marcel tape his commercial and they all sang. Hilarious!

This is where the famous Spiderman kiss happend. Cool.

This was the entrance to the hospital on ER


This is Central Park. So small, I know. But on any show when they are taping a scene with Central Park, this is where they tape it. This is where Phoebe did her crazy run in the park on Friends.

This is the only picture that I got of it cuz they made us put our cameras away right afterwards, but we got to go on the set of Eastwick. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that show (unfortunately it has been cancelled), but they were still taping when we were there and I got to see all of the spots that I see on the show. How fun!

This is where they taped Friends.
Ummmmmmm, DREAM COME TRUE!!!! This is the actual Friends couch and set! I nearly jumped and shouted when we walked in the room. They set this up when Ellen interviewed Jenifer Aniston and Jay Leno interviewed the cast and they had such a good response that they kept it up. I really could not have been happier.

They had to set it up differently, but all of it was there.


The cool Batman cars.



After the tour we went and got food and then to the mall, just to kill time and then headed back to wait in line. We ended up getting in. We were so excited. We were towards the very back, of course, but when she danced up the aisle she came pretty close. But, honestly, I was pretty disappointed. She ALWAYS gives stuff away. We got nothing. Now I'm all bitter when I see her give stuff away. Dakota Fanning, P. Diddy and, from Dancing with the Stars, Derek Hough and Joanna Krupa danced. I think my favorite part was when Joanna ATE IT while she was dancing. I really wanted her to get voted off. But when I watched the show on tv, they edited it out, I was so bummed!



Disneyland again (November 23, 2009)
I wanted to go to see all of the lights and to see the fireworks. I LOVE Disneyland at Christmas time. Wow, that was a busy day. I didn't take into consideration that it was Thanksgiving week. Carlos waited for on hour and a half for the fireworks to start to save us a spot and, guess what, they canceled the fireworks show because it was too windy at the last second. I was so bummed. Oh well, we'll have to go back to see them.










I had a bunch more picture on my little camera, but my memory card decided to freak out. I can't blame my camera for my lack of Thanksgiving pictures though. I just didn't take any pictures. Shame on me! We went to Rancho and, with Carrie Beth and Jay and their family we went to Claim Jumper for our Thanksgiving dinner. Mom and Dad weren't coming and neither one of us wanted to cook, so we went out. Afterwards, we went and saw Old Dogs. That was a fun day.

For our 2nd anniversary we went on Monday and Tuesday to Laguna Beach. I am really bummed that I lost all of these pictures. It was such a blast. We stayed at the Best Western right on PCH across from the beach. The whole trip was so nice, I guess we'll have to do it again now :) This is our hotel:

So small, sorry, it's the only one I could find. It was so nice though. It had a big Jacuzzi in the room. Loved it.

Then Tuesday afternoon we drove to Bubank to the Ultimate Disney Experience. We got to see the Princess and the Frog before it came out and then have the Ultimate Disney Experice, which really should have said "The Ultimate Disney Experience if you are under 10". There wasn't much for Carlos and I to do. I did get a picture with Tiana (the new princess) and we got to go on a tour of the studios, which was a little disappointing, especially after going on the Warner Bros tour. But it was cool because they had never done anything like that before. It was a good time.

These are the only pictures that I have from it. And I'm so glad that I do. They took these there and we could download them. Princess and the Frog was ADORABLE!! I loved it. Go see it!


Okay, I am officially caught up! I'll try and be better so I don't have to do these eternal posts anymore!

New Mollie Jane Photography Blog!

Yay! I'm so excited about the new blog. I'm am still fine-tuning things a bit, but still go check it out. Don't worry, I am in the process of arranging some new headshots. Laura has already told me that I look tired, so that picture is only temporary. A new website coming soon too!

Cambria!

We are going to go back in time for a little while. In July I had a wedding Santa Cruz, so on our way home I took Carlos to some of my most favorite places.

After our wedding we went to Monterey. I hadn't been there in sooooo long! We walked around Cannery Row and I saw a sea otter! I LOVE sea otters! It was fun to see one in the wild. We went to dinner too, I wish I could remember the name of the place, it was a Mexican restaurant, DON'T go there! After we left there, we walked around for a little while longer and then went to check into our hotel. As we were walking out of the lobby I started getting super dizzy and it was all down hill from there. I have NEVER been SO sick in all of my life. The world was spinning, I couldn't lift my head up, I was puking. It was horrible. I thought I was going to die!!!

In the morning, I was still so dizzy, not puking, but I couldn't keep my head up for very long. Carlos thought we should ditch the rest of the trip (he was so cute, so concerned), but the next leg of the trip was CAMBRIA. My very favorite place in the whole wide world. I was not going to miss it. So I laid my head back, we bought some motion sickness pills and we drove south on Highway 1. By the time we got to Cambria I was feeling better, I was able to walk around, but I had to lean on Carlos. I really felt like such an invalid. But I was going to enjoy Cambria. Seriously, ever since I was little, I looked forward to the day when I could go to Cambria on vacation with my husband, this really was a dream come true for me.

The next day I was at about 90%, things were looking up. We went on a fun morning walk along the coast, we went and saw the elephant seals, went hunting for moonstones on Moonstone Beach and made a stop in San Luis Obispo. It was such a fun trip despite the food poisoning. I can't wait to go back. Hopefully in March with my mom and dad!

In Monterey. So beautiful. I want to go back and go to the aquarium! Below, that little dot in the water is the sea otter. I was bummed I didn't have my 70-200mm lens with me, I could have gotten a really great picture.


On Highway 1, just outside of Big Sur. So insane! Beautiful!

It's a family tradition! Main St. Grill. One of the only reasons I miss eating red meat is their tri-tip sandwiches. Legendary.

Carlos didn't have a choice of what he wanted, he had to eat a tri-tip sandwich as a proxy for everyone in my family. They were all green with envy that we were there. Can't wait for the day that we can all come together again. We are a much larger group now, so that would be interesting, but so much fun.

At Heart's Ease, one of my favorite stores in Cambria. It is a gardening store. Yep I live on the fourth floor of my apartment complex with no possibility of having a garden, but I still love going there. Someday I will.


This is a house called Nit Wit Ridge and it is made out of nothing but trash. It is awesome. They actually give tours through there, how scarey. Next time we are doing it!

Another family tradition. An early morning walk to the tide pools. So peaceful. I love it.
I really thought this squirrel was going to attack us! It had no fear.


Do a little dance...
I was happy to be there!



This is our hotel, the White Water Inn. I highly recommend it! It is perfect!
When we got back to our room they delievered our breakfast.



We went to see the elephant seals. It really is an amazing sight!





Yet another family tradition, searching for moonstones along Moonstone Beach. Carlos decided to try and make an impression on the beach with his face. I look over and see this:


It didn't really work, but it was sure funny to watch!



On the way home we went to the Apple Farm for some homemade ice cream. (Turns out their ice cream maker was broken, bummer)

Our 2nd Anniversary!

Can you believe it?! It is our 2nd anniversary! It is kinda weird. It feels like, in some ways, that it has been longer. In a good way, like I really can't imagine not being married, or what life was like before we were married. But then I think back to that day and it feels like time has just flown by.

I really feel like I am the luckiest girl in the whole world. I can't believe that a guy so handsome, so wonderful would want to date me, let alone MARRY me! He is the BEST! I cannot wait to see what the rest of eternity has in store for us.

Thank you, baby, for loving me!

Michigan Trip!

Holy cow! Can it really have been a month since I blogged the last time. That is ridiculous! If you look at the Mollie Jane Blog you will see why. I have been crazy busy. Now, the wedding part is dying down for the season, I'm pretty glad about that, I need a break, feeling a little bit burnt out. But now booking season starts, so I am re-doing the website and blog and along with designing client albums, hopefully designing a few more sample albums. So I will still be super busy, just in a different way.

Anyways, I am going totally out of order, but in September we went to visit Carlos' family in Michigan. I will have to say I lucked out in a HUGE way with my in-laws, they are the best! We had such a great time and it is an absolutely beautiful place, all of the green-ness and the trees I was blown away, much different to the dry west. If it weren't so freezing cold there in the winter I would live there in a heart beat.

I wish that I would have taken more pictures, but a lot of the time we were just hanging out, which I loved! But I think we captured the essence of the trip. Fun!


Can you imagine? This is my sister-in-law's BACKYARD! It is gigantic, like a park, you can't even see all of it in the picture. I will never have a yard like this, sad.
Yep, they have a stream, loved it. I really had to keep repeating to myself "lots of snow, -20 degrees, lots of snow, -20 degrees", to keep myself from being so jealous.
Playing with the kids.

My cute nieces :)


HOT!


We went and played laser tag one night. SO fun! I'd never done it before, I was sweating when we got done.
One day we did a family photo shoot, since we didn't know the next time we would all be together. We went to this awesome historical park that I coveted. It was beautiful. If we lived in Michigan I would never run out of spots for pictures.






Our complete family picture. Pretty happy with how it came out!
After our family pictures we went to Detroit to get pizza. They had been talking about this Chicago-style pizza all week and finally we went. It had the sauce on top which I didn't really think I was going to like. People...it was THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER SUNK MY TEETH INTO. Not kidding, I am still craving it!! It is a good thing we live very far away from it or I would be FAT. If you are ever in Detroit it is called PizzaPapalis, DO NOT miss it.
And just for the record...Detroit is REALLY nice, not at all scary like I thought it was going to be.

We had such a great time. I can't wait to go back.

My First Print Ad!

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a lady to advertise in a program for a beauty pageant for little girls. It is going to be featured on Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC. Usually I just erase those emails, but the pageant is going to be here in Costa Mesa and I really would like to turn my business towards more portraits (that will be easier to handle when I am a mommy someday) so I said yes. I designed the ad tonight and I was pretty excited about it.