I just had a John Deere wedding, now I have a John Deere Senior.  Lynne is total farm girl so I made sure her pictures reflected that.  The outside shots were taken at her house.  She has a wheat field that just about surrounds her house.  How perfect is that!!  First off, my favorite photo….

Lynee brought her best John Deere buddy Kaylee to get in a few pictures too.

I tried to get these up as fast as possible because Billy brought her over for pictures so I am sure Nikki is going nuts wondering what we got. 

The main reason for the trip to Danville, IL other then seeing Dena was to photograph the Budweiser Clydesdales.  Dena’s husband Eric is the General Manager for Earl Gaudio and Son, which is a Budweiser Distributing Facility.  He is also the grandson of Earl Gaudio. 

Anyways, to celebrate the building on their new warehouse they brought the horses to town.  I was there to photograph the experience for them, and it was an amazing one.  The men (5 of them) that travel with the team were great to work with.  I got a ton of great shots and left there feeling like I had 5 new friends.

Here are some of my favorite photos….   they exercise the horses in the morning, some get lead like the picture below and others even get rode. (you can see the riding pics in the slideshow)

Manny (the lead driver) loading up one of the horses (I just love how Bud the dog is running along side of him)

Eric and Dena

Me and Dena

The horses stayed at the warehouse and on Saturday did a private show, but on Monday they were at a Mall where Dena has one of her Hallmarks.  A ton of people came to see the horses.  It really is amazing how the guys handled getting around the cars and people.

Here is the view from the driver’s seat.

This just goes to prove I take my camera everywhere I go.  (I couldn’t believe how nice the bathrooms were in the warehouse)

Wanna see more pictures check out the slide show I made… SLIDESHOW no music this time but some great behind the scenes pictures.  I started out with some shots at the warehouse and then the horses.  The horses were kept at the warehouse and the show was put on a few miles down the road at the mall parking lot.

If you want to see the Budweiser Clydesdales they will be at the Taste of Chicago next.  Thanks Hitch team for letting me take so many pictures.  You guys were very professional and put on such a great show.  And huge thanks to Eric, Dena, Carol, Davey and Liz for such a fun time!  Not much more important in life then good friends!

Many of my reader’s probably know Dena (Singleton) Guadio, but did you know she owns SIX Hallmark stores. (Dena’s Hallmark Site)  Yeah, isn’t that crazy.  Liz (from Elizabeth’s Garden) and I took a road trip on Sunday and Monday to go see Dena.  A local newspaper was doing an article on Dena for their business section.  I got to read the article and it is awesome.  Hopefully it will be online so I can post a link.  Anyways, she needed a headshot for the article so I came to the rescue.  We also visited a couple of her stores.  Here are a few photos from our visit…. first her headshot…

at her desk (she has a huge fancy clean office- mine is in my dinning room and a mess)

I thought it was neat that she had her name on candy, and I had to throw the webkinz in the picture in honor of the horses being in town.

These are must see card’s in the Hallark Stores.  Go to www.hoopsandyoyo.com and check them out.  I love them. 

And of course I have to get in a picture too.  (most photographers don’t like their picture taken.  Not me, I am the first to jump in front of a camera, and if there is no one to take it I just hold out the camera and take it my self. 

Thanks Dena for inviting us over.  You have been a great friend and I am so thrilled that you have had so much success.  We talked on our trip how awesome it is that us three girls.  (me, Dena and Liz) are all business women.  We believe 4-H had alot to do with it!  Thanks Starke County 4-H and everyone that helped us fullfill our dreams!!

We just got back from camping and there was a message on our voicemail from Brad letting us know his baby girl was born.  I am sure it was killing him that he couldn’t get ahold of Bob right away.  When my kids were born  Brad was one of the firsts that Bob called. 

Anyways, she is a cutie.  Bob says she looks like Grandpa Brian.  (I kinda’ agree).

Here is alittle info about her…..  She has two great parents named Brad and Jana, she was born June 21st at 11:15 am (Brad tried to call us at 11:16  LOL just kidding) She is 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long.  She really is a cutie pie.

Okay, enough talking about her, here she is…

she’s talented, one day old and already holding her head up…

see she looks like grandpa…

Bob took a picture of me holding Harper. (I better get in the scrapbook, save room for this picture!!!)

*Later I will post the rest of the photos I took in my storefront on my site.  Password will be Harper’s last name.

-Harper Hazelton’s photos at the hospital

-Dena’s Hallmark

-The Budweiser Clydesdales on tour

I had an awesome session with these two.   I got a ton of favorites to post.  First off, I don’t know which I like best of this shot, posting all three.  (first two are natural light the last is off-camera lighting)

I can’t wait until your wedding!!!!!! 

This wedding was special.  I have known Brian his entire life.  He is like me, we grew up living around here and once we got married we just couldn’t live anywhere else.  We will forever be in Brems right Brian!!!  He topped me though, he even got married in Brems at the Davis Weslyan Church.  (yeah I drove about 2 miles to get to the church) 

I have known Amber for several years.  I have done photos of her and her sisters.  Plus everyone in the farm community knows her and her dad.  They both work at John Deere.  Which I think is awesome that father and daughter work together.  That doesn’t happen often.

Both families were awesome to work with, and made my day so enjoyable.  Thank you so much.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  I will post the proofs online in the storefront of my site by tomorrow.

my fave ring shot ever………  

since we were only two miles from my house we did some quick shots in the studio…

Sassy….

“Hot!!” (what Amber said when she acidently seen this shot on my camera screen)

my fave shot of the day! (these next few shots were taken at their house)

I am proud of this one… (not easy to capture Jeff smiling naturally).

Lots of dancing…  

I even got out there on the dance floor with my mom. Thanks Gwen for grabbing some shots of me!!  Dave had to get in a picture with us, because he knew that was his ticket on the blog.  He admitted at the wedding that he is a blog stalker.  (Hi Dave!)

PS… Who else can’t get the John Deere Green song out of their head???

In John Deere Green
On a hot summer night
He wrote Billy Bob loves Charlene  Brian loves Amber

We spent part of Sunday at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson.   We loved it and plan on going back again some time.  Everyone there was awesome, they were so good about answering questions.  If anyone from there is reading this, I just want to say THANKS!!  And here are some of my favorite photos….

first are a couple views from the train…

the guy in the yellow was from the museum and he was awesome, he rode with us on the train and told us all kinds of fun facts

here is my crew on the train…

Here is the big steam locomotive that they are working on.  If anyone has alot of money and doesn’t know what to do with it send it their way, it would be realllly cool to see it running.

Once again thanks Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum for an awesome Father’s Day.  I know both of my dad’s loved it!!

I can’t wait until their wedding, should be good times with lots of awesome friends.  Here are just a few of my faves from their engagement session. 

25 years of marriage WOW! and I am pretty sure they dated a long time before that.  I am happy for you guys.  I had fun with this session, espicially with Hunter who I thought was going to slobber on my lens about 10 times.

I normally avoid doing shoots where we cram several things into the same session.  Tori needed maternity pics, family photo and some fun shots of Mason.  Well, I wasn’t going to say no to someone willing to drive all the way from Osceola.

Mason wasn’t in the mood for pictures, he has teeth coming in, ears were bothering him, luckily grandma Bonnie stopped in to help get us some smiles, and then he found Brandon’s bike, and really it wasn’t hard after that.  Here’s a few of the images I captured…