the boys did a lot of chilaxin.

i told staci a lot that day, “thanks for being so HOT!”

his best man, Tollsman, offered comic relief during every part of the day.

gorgeous.

last touch before she was ready to see dave!

right about then, was when we heard thunder rolling in…

thankfully the rainclouds provided some softer light because everywhere was fully lit! eeek!

you belong in a magazine, girl!!

i have no idea what was going on here, but it’s hilarious, and i love it.

i like your scruff. it totally takes your hotness factor up 2 pts.

it started raining. we all ran inside, stared out the window and watched the radar on our phones. the ceremony was outside and only 40 min away.

it stopped long enough for a bunch of us to flip water off the chairs, dry them off, take a few more family pics and BAM! it poured again. boooo. thankfully

staci’s attitude was perfect in that, “we couldn’t have asked for anything else to go more perfect. everything leading up to this point was better

than imaginable, if we have to move the ceremony in…oh well!” you go girl!!

so thankfully, nathaniel green lodge’s coordinator, allison, busted her ass and got the inside ready in no time!

the first few minutes, they both had to regain composure. SO CUTE!!

it stopped raining and we had some down time, soooo what else would we do??? take MORE pics! duh!!

you two are so dang good looking. you both are perfect.

what’s the first thing every girl does the second the ceremony is over? take those horribly high, blistering, uncomfortable shoes off!!

i’m sure a stroll on the cold, wet concrete felt so good.

michael was having a really good time entertaining everyone from the head table as people ate. what a goof!

let the party begin!!!

“from the windooooooows to the walls…”

if you know blevins, then YOU KNOW, this is one of his favorite songs.

get it giiiirl!

as suspected, this wedding was tons of fun.  i think my favorite part about the day was looking at all the crazy cool body art, hair color/cuts and piercings. i felt all

kinds of left out with my blank canvas of a body. it was so fascinating to see, especially the ear gauging! as an artist, my look is quite boring is suppose.

thanks for including us in your exciting day. we were so tired leaving that i was actually able to convince adam to let nori spend her first night out!!!!

it was nice to sleep past 9, i’m not going to lie! heart, melanie and adam

SHE IS: a great friend.

SHE IS: beautiful.

SHE IS: super athletic.

SHE IS: amazing with children.

SHE IS: only 16.

SHE IS: brave.

SHE IS: really smart.

SHE IS: part of a wonderful family.

SHE IS: a middle child. little sister, erin and older sister, megan.

SHE IS: part of a super close group of girls.  they are juniors in high school.

morgan, erin m, erin n, and alex.

SHE IS: an extrovert around her friends, but an introvert around strangers.

SHE IS: selfless in donating her hair to locks of love.

SHE IS: also very sick with stage 4b hodgkins lymphoma cancer.

Two weeks ago, Rachel called me. She was crying to the point I couldn’t understand her words.  She muffled, “I have cancer.” As any person would do,

I welded with tears. I asked her to repeat herself because I was sure I didn’t hear her correctly.  She said it again, “I have hodgkins cancer. I just got out

of the hospital, and they aren’t sure how bad it is yet.”  My jaw dropped, my heart sunk, and the lump in my throat kept words from coming out. What

the hell was I supposed to say? What do I do? The girl who I’ve watched grow up over the years playing soccer year round for me…the girl who’d text

me randomly to stop by and visit us…..has cancer?! I said the only thing I knew to say…”you’ll get through this.”

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for her. She’s already had a couple surgeries, one on her neck, one on her chest.  She’s been in the hospital

since 8/23 and will probably be in saturday. Because of her multiple allergies, she’s had some complications. But friday, she successfully finished

her first day of chemo. At 16 years old…she finished her first day of chemo. It just seems so unfair. I have promised her that I will document this

journey, so soon enough she can look back on all the photographs and show people how she kicked cancer’s ass.  We started with updating family pics

and her senior pics because next year her hair probably won’t be the length she wants it to be for photos. the next day she cut off her hair so she

could donate it before the chunks start falling out. how sweet is that? she’s amazing.  When i hung up the phone that night, it clicked. THIS

was the reason God brought ray, into my life…not just to help our team win all those games!

The image below is the last picture I took that day.  I’ve explained on the blog before how I envision God as “light.” When I looked at the back of

the camera I got goosebumps, then smiled. I realized right then, that God was with her.  The image speaks so much by itself.

If you are on facebook, you can become a fan of a page I’ve created for her. It’s called TEAM RACHEL. Maybe you know someone that has

survived hodgkins and can give her hope, or you maybe you can just leave a message or comment to help her get through this.

Keep that strong and postivie attitude and you’ll do great! Just remember, every time they inject meds into your veins, it’s super powers!

We love you girl. heart, mel, adam, and your favorite baby girl nori.

(in parentheses, i’ll point out which is adam in each )

jesse james and will bill. (left)

(left.)

hilarious and adorable. (right)

i hope they buy pax an outfit just like this.(right)

at least two years later…still rocking the wild west. (left)

eric, you’re special. lol. but for second grade, that “friends” drawing is pretty dang impressive! (right.)

man, you guys were so cool.  (left.)

(left)

this is not a thing of the past. they really still do this. i’m not lying. (right.)

(right.)

adam and hollywood (steve).  his “mr. clean” days.

(left)

adam, jason, farrell, kevin, jeremy, casey,joe, steve, and eric.

adam is on top. eric probably took his last bagel bite.

(left.)

(left.)

this was a couple mths ago. they love shopping. don’t let them fool you.

yesterday adam all the hair off his face and head. he looks at me and says, “do i look older or younger without all that hair?”  i said,

“younger, for sure, why?” him, “because i want to look as young as i can on my 29th birthday!” bahahaha. i love you, wonderful.

this year i got him a bike rack, because it turns out, he can’t transport the baby bike trailor i got him last bday OR his bike in his

small ass mini cooper. lol. happy birthday, dudes.  we love you. heart, melanie and nori.

]]> http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3400 3 http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3372 http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3372#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:06:30 +0000 melanie http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3372 jason’s folks have a cabin in brookville they wanted to go to. it was a little bit of a drive. by the time we got there

it was pouring. so the first 40 minutes of our session looked like this. awesome.

carrie, josie, jaycie, and jason.

this is jaycie. she pretended like she didn’t want to participate but she was having fun, she didn’t fool me.

thank you for blowing a kiss, miss josie:)

carrie finally gave the ok for them to get wet.  yippee!

thankfully no one was afraid of getting dirty, actually, we had the opposite problem, the girls wanted to play in the puddles! lol

can you even tell carrie is pregnant?! she only has a couple months left! they don’t know the sex, but they do know it was be a “J” name!

we headed down the road to some grape vines. how cool! how perfect is this family.

i heart your beautiful little face.

i love my sister sooooo much i just want to SQUUUUEEEEEEZE her! lol hilarious.

my favorite.

jaycie was about over it, so adam brought her back by playing a little “chase the camera!” it worked. adam’s favorite.

adam was dancing around behind me. josie was imitating him. hehe.

josie and adam were best friends by the end. she kept her eyes on him and just grinned her little heart out! ADORABLE!!

i was nervous that day because carrie had to book us like 8 mths out and because of the conditions i wasn’t sure we were getting

good stuff. i actually love this session.   we had so much fun with the girls, they cracked us up. can’t wait to hear what the next

baby is!!!!! we might just end up called him/her “j” because they can’t decide on the names yet! ha! k, family is over for adam

and eric’s bday. i better go pay attention to them. oops. heart, melanie and adam

]]> http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3372 3 http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3312 http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3312#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:53:44 +0000 melanie http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3312

adam loves telling couples to pretend they’re in the first twillight series and to ALMOST kiss like the movie. HOT.

molly, you’re adorable!

adam’s favorite.

meet their kids, toby and ginger.

aaron and i chatted a few days before the sesh about ideas and locations. he really wanted to incorporate the guitar molly bought him. i love that.

aaron being so cute making up a song as he goes.

those are some sexy piercing eyes, friends.

my favorite.

molly wanted to use cobblestone somehow…but it was already pitch black. the cars had to think we were crazy. when they started to come down the

road was when we actually walked out in front of them.  hopefully they saw the camera and didn’t think we were just idiots. ha!

we started the session a little later in the evening so that we could end in the downtown cincy lights. it sounded like a cool idea but it turns out,

ALL lighting is high overhead. not to awesome for photos. we had fun anyway walking all over town, meeting some VERY interesting individuals.

love it.

we ended the session having burgers at midnight by the square. good times had by all. we’re looking forward to their december wedding, hopefully

we wont freeze our butts off! heart, melanie and adam

the immediate family. why are they laughing?…

oh right. katie, ryan’s wife, was being a cheerleader.

the family has grown quite a bit.

jason, austin, ryan, sarah, and michael. way to make your mama proud.

the kids needed to update their ‘good ole senior pictures’ hanging at the house. most parents still have them hanging, and all of us which they’d just take them

down already! lol. i really wish i could side by side these with theirs. ps. becky and mike…wooo wooo.

with larger groups you have to set up everything to the point where it’s hard to not looked suppppper cheesy posed. we will gladly take them for you, they just

aren’t the type of pics that we like to blog. you know? ya, you know. i just wanted to throw a couple of these real quick! have a great weekend! heart, melanie and adam.

few years. lol. they are most famous around here for the story last year of their beautiful girls, hope and grace. the girls were conjoined from their

collar bones down. they became angels shortly after their birth, and i was there with them through it all.  i journaled their story here, in hopes to show

the world what it means to live by faith, not by sight. i can’t believe the day has finally come, now they are big sisters! this is just before surgery.

luci had to schedule her c section because her doctors were concerned with the stress/growth her uterus underwent with the twins. since maria was

nice and comfy, she reached her due date, which was the last chance for her to go naturally. they also guestimated maria to be a big baby so she didn’t

want to risk the health of either of them in delivery. so his folks, her mom and i sat (not so)patiently in the waiting room. an hour and a half seemed no

shorter than waiting through a normal 12-15 hour labor and delivery.  we sat there on the edge of our seats, tapping our feet, jumping

at every phone call and text (none of which were him), waiting for chris to come.  i just love theresa’s  face in this. can’t you just feel her relief,

happiness and excitement for her daughter? we all took a big ahhhhhhhhhh and said, “thank you God!”

i immediately went to recovery. and of course shared some oh so happy tears with luci.

skin to skin. the best feeling in the world. she latched immediately.

maria fidelis klare. translates to: Mary ever faithful. (she was named after luci’s sister who took the name after she became a Sr.)

perfectly plump. she WAS a big girl. 9.7 lbs! 21.5in.  In case you were wondering, she’s off the charts. 100th percentile. wow.

my favorite. lucia, you are just amazing. you’re so beautiful. she kept saying, “i just can’t believe i get to take her home and keep her forever!”

“you have to kiss her cheeks! they are the most kissable cheeks EVER!”

proud papa. his life is forever changed. he doesn’t even know how much this child is going to have him wrapped around her finger. ha!

hilarious.

auntie jess, her older sister. you could imagine how happy everyone is for them. we are all so excited for you two, scratch that, you THREE!!

i mean, really??!? i’m sorry that you just gave birth to a 3 mth old. you thought your back hurt while you were pregnant! oh boy.

there aren’t enough words to to explain how more than anyone, you guys deserve this perfect, healthy baby girl. i’m so glad i got to spend the day with you

witnessing another miracle. i loved every second of it. i cant wait to see the klare family grow…and grow…and grow…and grow… love you guys, heart, mel

their wedding day. yup, that’s right,  they’re having a double wedding this november. i know, i said the same thing. how do you even do

that? i guess we’ll see! aren’t they just beeeeeautiful?

so, why wouldn’t they do their engagement session together?

this is mike, lisa’s other half.

we met them out at their folks house in rising sun indiana. in other words, way out in the middle of no where, they own all this awesome land.

my fav of these two.

here’s matt. he’s SUCH a goof. 

gone fishin’.

their legs are the exact same.

all crissi wanted to do is give him a kiss. he just kept teasing her and teasing her, so this is what he gets. lol. she said she has to keep him in line all the time. ha!

i just love crissi in this. she lights up the picture. perfect smile.

after awhile we drove to downtown rising sun. super cute TEENY little town.  my fav of these two.

in case you’re wondering, every now and then we’d split up and each take a couple, the rest of the time they took turns making each other laugh.

too cute.

duh, how could we pass it up?? yes, matt knows he looks like buzz lightyear. haha.

oh boy. it’s gettin HOT in here.

my FAVORITE group.  i love goofy faces. awesome. one day your kids will totally appreciate this. well, after the days they are totally humiliated by it first. haha.

the best part about east bufoo? (all the years of saying that, i’m not really sure how to spell it!) old falling down barns all over the place. score!

made it back to their rents house just in time for sunset.

this is a typical weekend for them. how relaxing.

seriously, if it’s even possible for this girl to get mad, you’d NEVER know it bc she’s always smiling. i bet you

could punch her in the face and she’d say, “oh geeze, you’re so silly,” with a smile. 

of course they all had to go out on the water. the second they told me their ideas for the sesh, this is exactly what i pictured. so glad we had a beautiful night.

insert little mermaid song here.

adam’s famous shot.

omgsh. this is pepper. apparently over the years she has grown to REALLY like matt. that dog obeys him more than anyone else and he’s

not even with her daily. they call him her boyfriend. shes always one step behind him. it’s the cutest thing i’ve ever seen. how adorable is this?!

this is what sisterhood is all about.

i’ve known crissi since college.  she was in the art department at the mount with us.  she recently came back into my life for a really cool reason. she

replaced me as the art teacher at school. it’s SO hard to say goodbye to the kids, especially ones who you know have really grown close to you.

you treat them as your own and then a day comes where you have to say, “oh, i’m leaving you, meet your new teacher.” i could say that with

confidence because i just knew she’d love them like i did. and just like crissi, lisa is just as sweet. their parents must be so proud

of their girls. the wedding is going to be very interesting to say the least.  i have no idea how they will pull it off, but we’re so excited.

heart, melanie and adam. oh, and by the way, this will be the 4th children’s house teacher’s wedding we’ve shot. funny huh!

]]> http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3238 8 http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3213 http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3213#comments Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:06:00 +0000 melanie http://www.loft3pd.com/blog/?p=3213 the roebel family has officially used Loft3 services more than anyone.  this will be the 3rd and final roebel e sesh and wedding. jules

is the little sister of susie (2nd time i’ve linked that this mth!), who i grew up with.  the lil girl we use to tease is all grown up, and BEAUTIFUL,

might i add. she’s fallen in love with a handsome fella and they are tying the knot next june! it’s going to be loads of fun!  hopefully i’ll be able

to hold it together when i see little jules all dressed in white!  wow, we are all grown up. :-/ i don’t know what i’ll do the day she tells me she’s pregs.

i enjoy how you don’t take life too seriously.

i like your style chris.

julie’s eyes rock.  you can kinda see in this picture, there are 3 different colors in there.

we saw some scaffolding on the side of rt. 50. we pulled over. i climbed up.

i know i’m officially not young anymore…i think boat shoes are sexy on men.

adam’s fav.

it’s been awhile since we’ve been to this part of OTR. apparently they’ve done some painting. what you can’t see is to the left

where the roller marks just kinda…stop. hmm. i guess they got over it. haha! way to work it guys. my fav. (i wonder why?? ha!)

looking forward to the wedding. the other two weddings were off the hook gorgeous, i’m positive this one will just just as magnificent. i’ll be sure

to pack some tissues. heart, mel and adam.

have a GINORMOUS lakehouse on the peninsula that they SO NICELY allow friends and family to use. it is gorgeous. they’ve owned a number of

places on the lake and over the years we have felt so blessed that they welcome us anytime we need to get away. it’s even more fun when all my dad’s

side can join us, but it’s rare since his bro lives in florida. :-/ we are almost completely unhooked while there, with the exception of TVs to watch movies.

though we worked here and there, it was nice to not have to worry about emails and phone calls. we don’t even have reception there so i couldn’t

even email/facebook if i wanted to! it was relaxing and so much fun. this was our first family vaca with nori and my fam’s first vaca in years! with

the addition of the kids, vacation is completely different. for starters, the Tracy’s don’t get out of bed til noon on vaca, this time most of us were up

and functioning by 9:15am! eek!! lol. we spent most the time in the lake or in our pajamas. here’s a glimpse.

nori is so big it makes me sick.

don’t act like your surprised.it was very hard for adam to go back to work yesterday. he got a little to used to this.

maybe you’ve seen this game. you stand like 8ft from a hook and try to throw this ring onto it. of course my dad can’t be serious while playing.

how cute is she? only 5 more weeeeeeks til olivia is here!!

anna loves to point. she knows the word, she just chooses to make you say it for her.

captain ella. shhh, don’t tell rodger a 3 year old was wearing his hat…annnnnd driving his boat! hehe

see what i’m saying? our whole house is equivalent to the first floor.

argh me matey. gee, i wonder who should her this? POPPI!

she loved the wind in her face.

ella had a permanent wedgie all week. poor thing. not gonna lie though, too cute.

every child in and out of my family knows the phrase “NO NO POPPI!” and they wave there finger at him. he aggravates the hell outta kids, but

every single one of them LOVES it. he tortures them, and yet kids go to him before any of us upon arrival. here he kept trying to steal ella’s brownie.

sun kissed faces

jumping off the dock. (even the upper deck)

ben and adam shredding on the water.

ben and i getting thrown around by poppi.

i believe i was yelling, “ohhhhhh SHIIIIIIIIIIIII***!!!” seriously, read my lips. lol.

barely 3 and wanted to get thrown around. dare devil.

i’m sure you’re wondering…adam suntans in his running shorts. they are helping lower the dock to put the boat back in.

morning kisses from nori are the best.

sponge bob sucked them in.

hummingbird central. always 4-5 fluttering above us on the porch. didn’t bring the big lens, this is the best you get.

the tracy family of 5 has expanded quite a bit! another coming soon!

time to say goodbye. booo.

we can’t wait to go back next year.  we had a great time. back to reality. heart, mel