Las Vegas Family Photographer | Barrette Kids

Hey Everyone! This blog is near and dear to my heart as the subjects are all my (soon-to-officially-be) Nephews and Niece!  Eric and I were recently in Wisconsin for a few days and while we were there, we made a day trip down to Illinois to see his Sister, Brother-in-law, and their 4 kids.  All between the ages of 3 months and 6 years old!  Three month old Geneva is our only Niece out of the bunch, I guess the 4th time was the charm ;) Needless to say, they have their hands full and I was seriously exhausted after spending one day with this crew.

We arrived at their house around Noon, just in time for the two older boys to get home from school.  We all had lunch and soon after the boys needed to burn off some energy so we went to the park which is literally in their back yard!  I basically followed them all around with my camera and mostly got shots of the kids playing.  We were able to get just a couple of "posed" photos and I use the term "posed" loosely for reasons, well... you'll see!  Here are a few of my favorites from the bunch!

John climbing on the equipment.  This won't be the last time you see him climbing in this blog!

Leo speeding down the slide.

Adam just smiling :)

Here are all three of the boys in the best pose we had all day!

Baby Geneva asleep on her Mom :)

Leo did NOT like his photo taken and he made it pretty clear to me... but he can't help but show his excitement while on a swing!

Here's what I mean about trying to pose these guys!  "Leo being Leo" is what I like to call this one.

John seriously has some climbing skills.  He's so good at it and his concentration while doing it is actually really impressive for a 6 year old!

Adam's chunky swinging legs!

I had to start sneaking up on Leo to get photos of him.  Here's one of my favorite sneaky ones :)

And for the finale, we've got the whole crew together!  Although not really concerned about smiling for the photo... I still like this one a lot.

These guys are a lot of fun and I love them but I think we'll be holding off on having kids for a while...  Or maybe just hope for girls ;)

Thanks for reading!

Just for fun | My Trip to Boston to Visit My Sister

Hey Everyone! So I've been posting so many blogs for "work" lately, that I've decided to write a personal one!  (And I use the term "work" loosely because I love what I do so it's tough to call it "work" sometimes!)

A couple of weeks ago, I went to visit my Sister, Marie and her Husband, Kevin in Massachusetts.  My Mom had a trip to visit them planned and when I got engaged in May, we decided I should fly out there too so us girls could go wedding dress shopping together!  I did find a dress AND shoes!!!  I can't post photos of my dress for obvious reasons, but I will give you a little preview of my wedding shoes:)  They are Valentino and when I saw them, I seriously HAD TO HAVE THEM!  I can't think of any more perfect wedding shoes!

From the side....

Alright, now that we have the shoe photos out of the way, on to details about my trip.  The first night of my trip, Kevin's parents were visiting them also and our trips overlapped that one day.  Kevin went to Maine to pick up some fresh lobster straight off the dock for dinner!

Ugh, pretty gross huh?  Now I shouldn't say "lobster", I should say "lobsters"!!!

He bought MANY lobsters!  10 or 12 if I remember right.  I have eaten lobster before... but I've never had to get the meat out of the lobster myself before.  It grossed me out so much that I barely ate that night:(  My big sister had to rip the tail off for me!  I guess I'll always be the baby...

The next couple days consisted of dress shopping in multiple stores in Amesbury (the town my sister lives) and then Boston on Newbury Street!  I found my dress at Vera Wang and my shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue on Newbury St.  I never knew how exhausting dress shopping could be.  It's actually sort of tough to get in and out of these things that are just layers and layers of fabric.  Not to mention the stress of being in my underwear in front of total strangers to are helping me get into the dresses!  It was all worth it though.  When I put on my dress, I knew it was the one (even though a different dress brought tears to my Mom's eyes...) and finding my shoes that day was the icing on the cake.  Now I just have to wait 5-6 months for my dress to be made and 1 year to wear them both!

The last day that I was in Boston, my flight didn't leave until about 9pm but my Mom's left at 11am... so me, Marie, and Kevin went to the Boston Harbor and other parts of Boston to walk around, hang out, and take some photos.  It's too bad our mom wasn't around for it because it was a lot of fun and it's where I took the most photos on my trip!

We took most of our photos playing what Marie calls, "The Photo Game" where you give your subjects a scenario and then they react as if they are in that scenario...  It was really fun and I'll try to remember what scenarios we were in for these photos...

I think this one was, "Pretend that you just got asked to dance at your first Middle School dance"

I like to think that my expression says, "Oh me??  I can't believe you picked me!" and Marie's expression says, "Oh yippie!  I get to dance!" hahahaha!

This photo was, "Pretend that Kevin just won the Presidential election!"

We came across the Pirate-looking ship and Marie is looking out to sea for trouble...

Then we came across an old bridge at the Harbor and I made Marie and Kevin take some "normal" photos for me:)  Kevin grudgingly did so, but I'm happy he was a sport because I love these two!

After the Harbor, we walked further into the city and came across this cool carousel!  We started playing the "Photo Game" again, but I can not remember what our scenario was for this.  Whatever it was, I like our reactions:)

Just my pretty sister...

After all this walking around, we ended up back at the Harbor and went to an awesome Italian restaurant.  Right outside the restaurant there were these benches that had really high backs and Marie and Kevin were excited to see benches that were, "their size"!!  Marie is 6'1" and Kevin is 6'7".  You can see his excitement at this find...

After dinner, we went back to the car and I went to the airport.  It was a really fun time and I'm so excited to have my wedding dress and shoes!  It was such a great experience to have my mom and my sister there.  It was a once in a lifetime experience and it couldn't have been better!

Sorry for such a mishmash of photos but I hope you enjoyed my very personal blog:)

Thanks for reading!

The Story of how the Love of my Life Proposed!

Hey Everyone! Five days ago Eric, the love of my life proposed to me!  Eric and I have been together now for a little over 4 years but also dated in High School for a couple of years.  So we "technically" started dating when I was 16... almost 12 years ago.  We kept in touch in College and stayed friends.  We've always had an undeniable and unmistakeable chemistry which apparently brought us back together for good:)

The Proposal:

Eric and I had gone on a hike in Red Rock Canyon about 4 years ago when I was visiting him in Las Vegas while he was playing in the World Series of Poker that summer.  It's a beautiful hike where you follow a natural spring up part of a mountain to an old Miners cabin made out of stacked stones and a wood roof.  The first time we were there we carved "Eric + Mary" in the wood.

The day before Eric started playing his first World Series of Poker event this year, he suggested we go on that same hike again before he would be sitting in a poker room for 1.5 months straight.  "It would be nice to get some fresh air," he said.  At the end of the hike this time, we went back into the cabin to find our names carved in the wood of the roof.  Sure enough, there they were 4 years later!  I sat down on a rock in the cabin for a couple minutes to relax after hiking all the way up there and Eric went outside.  When I got up and left the cabin, I turned the corner and Eric was on one knee:)  I was so shocked that I don't remember his exact words, but they were something like, "Mary, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?".  And then he pulled out the most beautiful ring I've ever seen!

So it goes without saying that I said "yes".   Eric is an amazing man and he has made me extremely happy for many years.  I am on top of the world and can't wait to marry him next year!

Thanks for reading!