13 Lovely Be-YOU-tiful ladies:

So I have been in the process of moving with my family and so have been very tardy on getting these up on the blog. Sorry! But a little while ago I had the opportunity to do a spree photo shoot with 13 lovely young ladies as a part of my Be-YOU-tiful campaign. If you have not heard about it you can do so HERE. 

I had so much fun with these girls! For a few of them, to get them to smile I had said "pretend that band New Direction is behind me!"... the smiles and faces I got with that were hilarious! Thanks so much for the opportunity ladies. You are all just as beautiful on the outside as the inside!!

I Picture Hope: Beth

This is Beth. She is one of the sweetest ladies I know. Her and my mom have been really good friends for years. It has been a hard struggle for Beth, even though you will never hear it from her. It has been about 4 years since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I asked her what helps her to stay positive, her response was "the support from friends that went through it and my faith." She is such a sweetheart! 

I then asked her what specific things does she struggle with? She says she has Nueropathy in her feet. Which she explained to me after she must have seen the blank look on my face. It is basically TOO much feeling in her feet. They have a constant prickly-thumbtacks-electric shock feeling. She also has Lympadema in her right arm. Which is where her arm swells up really badly as a side effect from the removal of her lymph nodes. 

What a brave and courageous lady! She even said being bald did not really bother her too much. 

Beth also told me about her mother who died from breast and ovarian cancer at age 72. And she thought she was home free when she passed that 72 age mark when she was diagnosed the following year. 

I asked her what were her goals that she had set for herself to help her get through. She said "just do it! Just do it for my kids. I did treatment more for them. I was not going to do it cause I saw what my mom went through. But the fear I saw on my kids... I did it for them. And I know that the Lord is going to be there." She said that the things that brought her the most peace through out her struggles is helping someone else, trusting in the Lord, and laughing! A LOT! 

What an amazing, BEAUTIFUL woman this is! 

After I took a few of her, her and my mom wanted a few of them together. I loved seeing the friendship and love between these two courageous woman. What an amazing example they both are! Thank you!

I Picture Hope: Kay

This was my very first IPH session. I Picture Hope is an organization of professional photographers and makeup artists that provide FREE photo sessions to women who have, or have had breast cancer. 

This session was very important to me as it features a woman VERY important to me. A woman who is THE greatest woman in the world- my mother. She has been in remission for about 20 years now!!! She was 43 when she was diagnosed and when asked what she did to stay positive, her response was "helping other people". She went on to say that some of the things that she struggled the most with was blood clots and a never ending tiredness. She never wanted to look into mirrors because of the loss of her hair affected her so much. When I asked her for some specific things that helped her to make it through the most difficult times, she said that she wanted to be here to raise her kids. And that she always wanted to be a grandmother. She said she always told herself "if I can just make it until my kids are out of high school" then everything would be ok, even if she did not make it. Because SHE wanted to be the ones to raise her kids. And if she could just make it until they are all done with high school, then that would be ok. 

Well I am VERY glad that my mother has made it so much longer. She has influenced my life for the better so much and I hope that I "grow up" to be just like her. ;) So enjoy a few of my favorite pictures that showcase just how beautiful my mother is on the outside as she is on the inside. 

Be-YOU-tiful: Rebecca

This is my lovely niece Rebecca who was awesome and let me take some pictures of her for my 

Be-YOU-tiful Campaign website. I wanted to take a variety of more pictures... unfortunately the Flagstaff really WINDY weather would not let us go outside. :( But we got some really great head shots! Have a look at some of them. Thanks Rebecca for being such a great sport! Next AZ trip we will have to have another shoot!

Baby girl Julia

Here is this adorable little girl Julia. She is about 5 months old and was NOT very happy to see me. ;) We were still able to get some good shots of her ever loving cute-ness though. And those pink converse shoes....  Girls got style! Thanks so much guys for letting me have so much fun with this cutie. I am surrounded by boys, so I love it whenever I can get in my girly tutu fixes. ;)