I have been asked to share some info about the pagent coming up since I have so many people that visit my blog every day.  If you or you know someone that is interested please let them know.  Here is some info from Christy….

The 2010 Miss Kankakee Valley and Miss South Bend Scholarship Pageant will be held on Sunday, September 27 at 4 p.m. CDST at the Knox Middle School in Knox, Indiana.  Females between the ages of 13-24 who live, work, or attend school in Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Pulaski, St. Joseph, or Starke counties are eligible to enter.  The coordinator for this year’s pageant is Christy Messer, 2007 Miss Kankakee Valley and recipient of the Hoosier Leadership Award in the 2007 Miss Indiana Pageant. 

The winners of each title are eligible for the Miss Indiana Pageant in June, 2010. The Miss Indiana Pageant will be held in Zionsville, IN. 

Contestants for Miss Kankakee Valley and Miss South Bend are judged and scored in the following categories:  Personal Interview, Swimsuit, Talent, Onstage Question and Evening Wear.

Contestants for the Miss South Bend Outstanding Teen and the Miss Kankakee Valley Outstanding Teen are judged and scored in the following categories:  Personal Interview, Fitness Wear, Talent, Onstage Question, and Evening Wear.

Crowned in 2009 were:  Leanna Ross, Miss Kankakee Valley 2009 from New Carlisle, IN; Mindi Hoffman, Miss South Bend Outstanding Teen for 2009 from Columbia City, IN, and Autumn Schumacher, Miss Kankakee Valley Outstanding Teen for 2009 from San Pierre, IN.

“We are looking at an outstanding field of competitors in the upcoming pageant.  This is a great opportunity for young women to win scholarship money and compete in the Miss Indiana Pageant next June,” Messer said.

For information or to obtain an application:  e-mail misskv2007@gmail.com or call 574-806-7435

My favorite of the day…

I think it is so cool how the girls at NJ make senior jeans.  Arielle’s are super duper cool.

Arielle’s boyfriend Jeff is such a sweetie.   I am glad he came along.  Plus he did an awesome job at holding the reflector for me.  (Thanks Jeff!!)

Here she is with her lil sis and her mommy!

Arielle is a fun girl.  She is ALOT like her aunt Angie.  She even does the rolling eye thing just like Angie does.  (I should have got a picture of it so we have proof to show her she does it the same way, someone needs to video tape it)

Arielle and her boyfriend helped out at her aunt Angie’s Family Session (remember the family with the 4 girls).   We had lots of fun, but it was also super crazy.  Glad Arielle’s senior session was alittle calmer.  Of course we still had crazieness, that is what happens when someone brings a dog and balloons to a photo shoot.  LOL

BTW thanks for leaving the balloons, the kids LOVED them.  That was really nice of you guys.

Warning!!  Lots of Cute Pictures Coming your way…

At the end of the session I got some bubbles out that I had left over from family reunion.  Well, I could be wrong but I think Daddy had the most fun out of everyone, and I think Jacob’s favorite part of the bubbles was watching his daddy.  Oh how I love this next shot…

Jacob is such a little ham.  I am so glad for Diane that we had such an awesome session.  I met her at Elizabeth’s Garden when I did the bunny shoot and she mentioned about wanting to do a session with me.  She was super excited about getting pictures done, I am so glad that Jacob was so good.  Thanks you guys for such a fun time.  Jacob is so lucky to have awesome parents that love him so much.  Hope to see you when he turns one.

The above photo is Patricia with her mom.  They are both such sweethearts.  We had such a nice time talking during our session about what I have to look forward to when the kids grow up and are running around with activites.   As you can see in a couple shots we had to deal with wind during her session, which is good and bad.  I love the wind blowing in her hair, but it was tough to deal with that day.   Luckily I have lots of good spots around the house that has windblock.  Well girls, I hope you have lots of fun this fall with all the athletic activites!  Oh and spread the word for me, I am loving all the John Glenn folks that have been coming here lately!! 

The Guys…

The Girls…

And the KIDS….

Cliff, I have no clue what Brooke’s grandmother told you, but by the look on her face you may want to just do what she said.

Surprise guest was at the reception.  Elvis rocked the house!!!

While Elvis was singing to Cliff’s mom….

Brooke’s Dad was getting his own song from Marilyn…

WOW!  What a day it was.  We have had such a nice cool summer and on Brooke’s special day it is so hot and humid we were all melting.  Oh well it was a good time despite the heat.  Elivis and Marilyn were awesome.  I even got my picture taken with Elvis… (excuse the hair it started out down and actually looked pretty good but then I couldn’t stand it sticking to me so I threw it up without even looking in a mirror)  Brooke laughed at me for getting my picture taken with Elvis, but I am like, when will I have another chance to meet Elvis.

Thanks Brooke and Cliff for the fun time.  I hope your honeymoon was a relaxing one, you both deserve it!

Emily you are so beautiful!!!  Had to share lots of photos because, well, I am a horsey girl!   I had so much fun with Emily and her mom, oh and her sisters too.   I hope you have a wonderful Senior year!

One of my favorite newborn shots of all time, I just love it.  Braden is in his daddy’s saddle.

This is another favorite!  Abby I showed Bob and he said “aww, that’s cute” 

Braden peed right after the shot of Jeff kissing him.  Thankfully he missed his daddy and just got the towel and floor alittle wet.

And one last one that was two funny I had to share…

I wish I was writing how much fun this session was but well, it was a long session that was filled with lots of crying.  However Abby and Jeff had so much patience and stuck with it and got little Braden to sleep so we could get some awesome pictures.  I am so thankful they didn’t give up.

I hope you guys love the pictures.  I am always so honored to be a part of special moments in people’s lives, espicially for Abby who I is such a sweetie.

I got a facebook message this morning from Brooke.  I shot her wedding yesterday.  The first line in the post said.. “Thanks so much for being my photographer!!”  It made me feel really good about myself.  It also reminded me how important it is to go the extra mile.  I am saying this because Brooke is happy I was her photographer yet except for a couple glances of the back of my camera she hasn’t seen a single picture of the wedding yet, but she is glad I was her photographer.  So she is happy not about the photos I produce, but about the fact that Bob and I helped make her day go smoothly.

I think all of us that are in the service industry need to remind ourselves to try to do a better job then what our clients expect.  Brooke didn’t expect me to have bobbi pins on me.  When I pulled them out she was shocked and appreciated she didn’t have to go back to the dressing room to get some.  I don’t claim to have all the answers or to carry everything with me, but if it can be fixed with duct tape I’ve got it covered.

Thanks Brooke for making my day with your facebook comment, and I am so glad I was your photographer too!!!

Wanna know why Nick was smiling so big in this picture….

Well, this is who was up to bat…

The picture above is Nick’s grandma.  We shot some at her house on the lake and she decided to come with us to the baseball field.  I am so glad she did.  She was so stinkin’ funny.  There was one point in the shoot Nick’s mom had to remind me to take pictures of Nick, because I was busy cracking up over his grandma. 

Since she was such a huge part of our photo session and did an awesome job of getting smiles out of Nick I told her I had to get a picture of the two of them together.

Big thanks to Nick, his mom and grandma for such a wonderful evening by the lake.  Could you tell I didn’t want to be done, I was having too much fun!!!  Oh, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend with the family.

Love her little rubber duckies…

I love it when seniors bring someone special, here is Kelsey’s sister. 

Kelsey is my kind of gal.  I can tell she does her own thing and doesn’t follow the crowd.  (that is totally how I am) We had a good time at her session however, it wasn’t fun that every other minute we had a gust of wind and she had to refix her hair.  That darn wind just wouldn’t stop for us!  Oh well, we got some awesome pictures despite the wind.  Thanks Kelsey for being such an awesome gal!!!  I hope you have a great senior year.  And tell the other Kelsey I said hi.

I love this shot….

I have known Angie for years, we did the 4-H thing together.  She is super mom!  I know how much she does with the kids, with the catering business, and volunteer work so I thought maybe just maybe that her house would be alittle messy and I would feel alittle better about myself.  I was wrong!.  Oh well, I am just one of those people that can’t do it all and I am okay with that, as I sit at my messy desk and look at all the laundry that is on my dinning room table.

Wes and Angie have awesome kids.  They were so easy to work with and they were so polite.  After we were done they even asked if I wanted to for ice cream with them, which I would have totally took them up on the offer but I had just had a root beer float at the Jernas Family reunion just moments before I went to their house.

Angie also has a super mom, I am so glad Wilma stopped in to get a picture with Angie and the girls.  Wilma has always been so good to me.  I have great memories of working with her and her late husband in the 4-H building checking in 4-H projects.

Thanks so much Angie for asking me to photograph this time in your lives.  I hope we come up with a super cool arrangement for your family room.  PS… Huge thanks to Ariel for the help on the family picture with the kids lined up.  I would have never been able to do that by myself.  P.S.S  Hey Wes, I was thinking about your pink shirt today and if we make the pictures bw then your shirt would be grey.  (just a thought)

I REALLY like this shot… (giving myself a self high five right now LOL)

Raven is super cool.  I thought it was awesome that she would travel all the way from Portage to have me take her senior pictures.  Huge thanks to her friends in Knox that told her about me.