Antonette, Gary, Marley and Malia Sneak Peek

My weekend ended with photographing Antonette, Gary, Marley and Malia. I had a blast and here's your sneak peek: (I promise to write more about the session later. ;-) )

The beautiful parents:

Ben and Rachel's Sneak Peeks

We have been SUPER busy this weekend! Friday I shot an event for the Public Relations Association at the University of Houston. Today, I shot Rachel and Ben's engagement pictures. AND tomorrow I have a maternity and family shoot. Whew! Talk about lots of editing.

Rachel and Ben are such a great, fun couple. They're so playful with each other and it shows in the images. What was SO funny about this session is that we shot it in and around the Toyota Center area - across the street was a "biker" get together - it got SO loud at times from the motorcycles that we couldn't hear each other. THEN, we saw people walking from the parking lots dressed like they were attending a Dungeons and Dragons costume party. It was the STRANGEST thing! Turns out there was an anime convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center and people attended dressed up as their favorite characters. One person even wore a head dress that looked like Pikachu. Talk about eccentric!

Rachel and Ben ~ Hubby and I had a great time and here's your sneak peek:

The AWESOME slideshow, complete with one on one basketball, will be up in a few days. :-)

Jeremy's 30th Birthday Party

Last Saturday, Hubby and I, along with my sister-in-law Lisa, hosted a birthday party for my brother -in-law Jeremy. It was a pirate-monkey themed party. I'm not going to even begin to explain what it means or the origins of its conception, etc. I'll just say that everyone was decked out in monkey and pirate attire.

Hubby and I have been working over the past 3 weekends getting our backyard into party ready condition - this included many, many runs to Home Depot, endless hours of painting, laying down flagstone, planting and so on. I would be remiss not to say that my studly, man of all men husband along with his roly-poly father did most of the flagstone work in the freezing rain.** And when all of that was said and done we STILL had our house to clean. To make a long story short, last Saturday, we were SCRAMBLING to not only clean our house but also to ready the backyard, decorate and start the food.

At any rate, people showed up, we had food, drink and all the karaeoke you could handle. (My mother-in-law is a Vegas DIVA at heart. :-P )The party was an overall success and we're looking forward to having the next one.

Click Below for the Slideshow.

Click HERE to purchase prints.

**the "studly, man of all men" sentence was written by my Hubby

5 miles???!!!

Hubby and I decided that we would like to run a marathon. It's such a HUGE goal and we like nothing better than a challenge, right? For me, training for this is going to be tough. You see, I'm not a runner. In jr. high, I was always picked last for basketball, softball and when it was time to run the track - I walked. :-P For exercise, I prefer "fun stuff" like kickboxing. If I've had a bad day, I'll go to kickboxing class, visualize the person (or persons) I'm mad at and punch, kick and jab away my frustrations. I also have a roly-poly body with short, stubby legs - which doesn't lend well to speed or stride. Whereas, Hubby is 6 feet tall, has long legs and a super-fast metabolism. I've told Hubby he has a big job ahead of him because I'm stubborn and can get mean when I'm cranky. He knows this. . .and assures me that we'll push/support each other and cross the Marathon finish line together next January. So here we go!

Last night was day ONE in the quest to get me (and hubby) to run a marathon

We took two of our dogs, Buddy and Lizzie. Todd had Buddy and I had Lizzie. I run sooooooo slow that Lizzie was in a fast walk - not even trotting! :-P I felt so bad for holding her back that I gave her to Todd so she could run at full speed. (she's a border collie so running is in her genes)

When we arrived at the track, Hubby determined that 4 laps equals one mile. After two laps of walking/jogging I was DONE. My thighs hurt, my side hurt and I felt like such a wimp. My hubby kept pushing me to keep going and being me I fought him the entire way. Around lap 6, my legs were so tired that I couldn't even jog anymore! Literally, I would try to kick up my heels and nothing would happen. :-P I wanted to stop but Todd had it in his head that we were going to do 10 laps no matter what!

After those 10 laps (2.5 miles or so we thought), I was tired and grumpy. I couldn't believe that I was THAT out of shape that I couldn't even walk/jog 2.5 miles.

Fast forward to this morning. . . . .

My body feels like it did way more than 2.5 miles, so I pull up the neighborhood website to find out how long the track is. Todd was WRONG! 2 laps = 1 mile, NOT 4. Which means we did 5 miles NOT 2.5!! No wonder I was so tired!

Now, I don't feel so bad. ;-)

We plan to go for runs everyday with a few breaks and will register for smaller races around town to get us in the groove. I'll keep everyone updated on our progress. :-)

Puerto Rico!

We're headed to Puerto Rico! :-)

I plan to spend my days on this very hammock taking naps with only the sound of the waves crashing on the beach to wake me.

Once in awhile, I may switch locations to:

Besides doing absolutely nothing, :-) we also plan to explore Old San Juan:

Hike the El Yunque Rainforest:

Ever being the scientist, my Hubby wants to go on a road trip to visit this:

because it'd be, "So cool to see one of the largest telescopes in the world!" BTW, it's the Arecibo Observatory. For you movie buffs it was featured in the movies Contact and James Bond Goldeneye.

I think he should do this instead:

I NEED to buy the water housing for my point and shoot digital camera for when we do this:

Cool, huh? The water glows in the dark! :-)

*sigh* July can't get here soon enough!

any guesses?

Which Caribbean island are we headed to?

coming soon!

a brand new website! :-)

so EXCITED!

We just booked our summer vacation! Clues:

1 - We've never been.
2 - It's in the Caribbean.

Any guesses? :-)

Have I shared this?

Last month, my baby neice, Malia, celebrated her 1st birthday! Malia and I have a special connection - everytime we're in a room together my Aunt will go on and on how Malia's looks just the way I did when I was a baby. What do you think?

Aren't we adorable!!?? ;-)

Click HERE for Malia's 1st Birthday Party slideshow.

Kirk and Erika's Slideshow!

As promised, I've uploaded Kirk and Erika's slideshow! Enjoy!

Click HERE

Erika and Kirk's Sneak Peek!

I have a case of the Mondays!

Well, I had another busy weekend which ended with Erika an Kirk's engagement session in downtown Houston. These two are so funny and goofy! At times, it seemed like they were making me laugh MORE than I was trying to get them to laugh. The best part was hubby and I teaching them how to "dip." Poor Erika probably got dizzy from all the practice! :-P

Enjoy the sneak peek and the slideshow will be up sometime today. :-)

I'm sick. . .

have been home for the past two days and there are no signs that I'm getting better. :-(

I did go outside to get some fresh air and caught this little guy hiding in my rosebushes:

last weekend. . .

Last weekend we were soooooo busy building our brand new patio! Check it out:

We started EARLY Friday morning and my hubby and father-in-law 'almost' finished Saturday evening. The weather was CRAZY! Friday started perfect - a nice 70 degree, blue sky spring day. Saturday - we awoke to cold and rain! Because our goal was to finish this project, my hubby and father-in-law worked in the rain AND finished most of the job.

Ironically, all I did was supervise and I've been sick the past two days - they did all the hard work and they're fine. Go figure!

Check out our last outdoor home improvement project:

BEFORE

and

AFTER

Happy Easter Everyone!

We have been BUSY this weekend! I can't wait to show everyone what we've been up to. Stay Tuned!

Ailynne's 30th Birthday

I finished editing the images from Ailynne's 30th Birthday Party. Check out a preview of her pics:

CLICK HERE to view the slideshow set to music.

Introducing. . .

janelle lynn photography's new business manager!

ain't he handsome. ;-)

My hubby, Todd, has been promoted to Business Manager! Previously, he had been regulated to "assistant" - schelping bags, holding the light stand, uploading CF cards, etc. :-P He'll still be working in those capacities but will also take on all the administrative stuff I'm starting to get bogged down in. In terms of client relations, administrative stuff includes: collecting contracts, payments, placing/mailing album and print orders, album design and communicating with clients regarding their orders.

His e-mail address is:

todd@janellelynnphotography.com

So, if you receive an e-mail from him, know you're talking to my "better-half." :-P

Image Info: The setting is our front driveway, using the car headlights and off camera flash for lighting. Very modern and edgy. . . :-)