Awesome God

As most of our followers know, I am currently in school working on my AA in photography.  Photography has always been a hobby for me and I'm very good at it.  A year ago my amazing hubby bought me a nice pretty Digital SLR.   A Nikon D60 to be exact. Since then it has been a dream of both of us to have Schmahl Photography more than just a dream.

It's a slow process, but i'm waiting.  Not very patiently though.  God is telling me to be though.  He is bringing it all together, but in his own time.  I am very active as a main photogrpaher for our church which is brining me lots of potential business.  In fact, recently they brought in a professional company to do a church directory.  They took photos of each family.  Of course, they tried to sell the photos and several families were unhappy with their work so I have been asked.

It's God's work. I know that God has given me the gift of photography and I want to use it to praise him.  My favorite shots are my nature shots becasue I love capturing the world HE created.

I am currently reading a series of historical fiction books called "The House of Winslow" by Gilbert Morris and the current book is about a girl who is a photographer for the New York Journal in 1901.  She wants to use her gift of photography to show Gods work and God is telling her to document the immigrants coming in from Ellis Island at that time.  I feel that God is speaking to me in this book.  I feel that he is telling me that he wants me to use my gift for a purpose such as this.  I know it's not to photograph immigrants, but I know it's something great.

                                                   

Family Fishing

It seems as though the Schmahl family has found a new hobby. Both Joe and Ari love to fish! They can't get enough if it. We haven't brought anything home for dinner yet, but it's just a matter of time.....

Idaho Summer

Once again, i'm behind the times. School, kids, and dogs doesn't sound like much, but WOW they take up way to much time. I wouldn't trade it for the world though.

Our trip to Idaho in August was SO much fun!!! We went to TWO weddings!!! I love saying that my in-laws were married. I love explaining how they were re-united after so many years. It's a perfect example that "....love never fails."

Just wanted to share a few photos of our trip.

Easy Summer

So yes, it's been a while since I updated. I'm sooo sorry. I'm adjusting to life as a stay at home mom. WOW, what a job! It's really fun and we are doing very good with the changes. I do start school next month. We have a college up the street that offers an Associate of Arts in Photography.

Things are slowly patching up between my family and I. It will be a rough road and things will never be the way they were.

We are looking foward to our trip to Idaho in Aug. It's always cool to get away. I am personally excited because this is the first time we've been up there in a season that's not late fall or winter. I have no idea what Idaho is like in the summer. I hear it's hot. At least now I can pack light. ;)

Joe and I are still enjoying our church. I have become the unofficial photographer of the church. A role which i accept very gladly.

Not many new pics. They are all on facebook. For our Idaho family we will see you in a few weeks and for everyone else, much love and hope to talk to you soon.

Idaho

Hello Everyone! It has been too long hasn't it? Way to much has happened in the past few months to go into to much detail and to be perfectly honest, I don't want to re-live some of it. I did try to hurt myself almost to death at the beginning of Feb. I am not sure why I put myself to that extreme, but I will explain what I have thought of in the past few weeks. I blame some of it on the anti-depressents I was taking at the time (prozac), and the rest of it on the issues between my family and my husband and my daughter.

I have an amazing family and I have an amazing husband but they seem to see eye to eye. I can't force it and I will quit trying. I can't please everyone and I don't know how to please myself so I have made a hard decision to lay low until I can learn to make myself happy and how to like myself.

On a lighter and better note, we got the opportunity to go up to Idaho for over a week. We left Cali on the 14th of Feb and got home on the 23rd. We had such a good time and I think our family (Joe, the kids, and me) got the footings for the right track. We went bowling twice. Once Joe and I went out on an actual date to the bowling alley and I have to say we had a fantastic time and I enjoyed beating him. Just Kidding. He won all four games. I've never been good at it. It's ok though because it didn't matter who won, just that we were spending some much needed time together. The second time we went with Mom and Dad and took the kids. Ari went bowling for the first time ever and let me tell you what at blast she had. She decided she wanted to bowl everyday. It was to cute.

Joe also took us up to Sun Valley/Ketchum. There are a few ski resorts there. It was BEAUTIFUL up there. I had never seen so much snow in my life. We all enjoyed playing in it. It was a nice drive and a nice time.

I got some great pictures of everything, but I have not finished editing them. As soon as I'm done I will post them. I apologize. I hope everyone who reads this is in good health and spirits!

Ari's Birthday!

So Ari is now 4! I know, I know. It's hard to believe. She had a Kung-Fu birthday party. Mommy and Daddy bought her a big girl bike and she LOVES it! I can't believe she is four! Anyway, here are a few picks of her on her bike and the party and even Kenny having some fun with the cake!

Christmas and such

OK, OK, I got behind. I'm so sorry! We had a wonderful Christmas! It was full of firsts. Kenny's first Christmas and our first Christmas in our new house. It was wonderful. Christmas eve my parents came over and we made Gnocchi and attended services at our church. After church we came home and rocked out to Guitar Hero for a while. We also tracked Santa on NORAD for a bit.

Christmas day we had to wake up the kids!!! Ari was so surprised at the gifts under the tree and she couldn't wait to tear into them! Santa was good to her and brought her a whole new wardrobe!

Kenny also received clothes from Santa, but he was more interested in eating the wrapping paper than anything else.

Hercules had a stocking full of wonderful goodies as well. Santa was good to him as well.

We had Christmas Day dinner at Nana's house. Dinner was FAB as always. She really went all out and did name cards and the whole shebang. Both the kids had tons of gifts waiting for them as well. Aunt Tawney and Uncle Ricky were there and it was wonderful to see them!

The weekend before Christmas we decided to go find some snow. We didn't have to go far, Palomar mountain was covered! Ari had a blast and couldn't wait to build a snowman and then proceeded to kung-fu it down! Kenny wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow and Herc didn't like it much either. We then put some in the bed of the truck and delivered it to my parents so they wouldn't miss out. They quite enjoyed that I think.

Ari's birthday party is going to be on the 11th of January when Sandy is here!

Hopefully I will have more pics soon. I have a lot of work to do on them!

P.S. Here is a link to my photography website: http://schmahlphotography.photoshop.com/

In there you will find tons and tons of pics! Some are not available for download so if you would like them let me know. Love you all!