Nathan & Joanna | First Anniversary portraits {Biloxi, Mississippi portrait photography}

Have you ever met people, and even though it's the first time you've ever been around them, you feel like you've known them for years? That's how we felt when we met Nathan and Joanna. They started coming to our church this summer and we've had the most wonderful time getting to know them. They have been such a blessing to us! We're so sad they're going to have to move later this year but we're trying to really enjoy these last couple of months with them. :)

Nathan and Joanna are celebrating their first anniversary- today, in fact! I was so excited when Joanna recently asked me to "just take a few pictures for us!" I laughed because, if you know me, you know I don't just take a few pictures! It's usually more like several dozen or maybe even a couple hundred!

I met them at the beautiful new Biloxi Visitor's Center, right across the highway from the iconic Biloxi Lighthouse. I've been by there a couple times over the last few months and knew it'd be the perfect place for pictures- it certainly turned out great for this shoot!

Here are some of my favorites- hope you enjoy them!



















  They recently found out they're expecting their first little one! So happy and excited for them. :)





  The first time I ever walked in the visitor's center, my jaw dropped. This staircase is gorgeous (I wish I'd gotten a full-length picture to show you!) and the light streaming through the windows is even more beautiful.


















Thank you so much, Nathan and Joanna, for asking me to take pictures for you! Congratulations on your first anniversary- may the LORD bless you with many more wonderful years together!

Because of Jesus,

Rebekah

Memories and Melodies: Summer 2012 | Personal

It's been looking a lot like this around this blog lately...

But I've decided to dust off the cobwebs (ha!) and give you a fun little recap of my summer.

  We met up with friends a few times for frozen yogurt...



Took a trip to Texas...







  I got this great big wonderful Texas-sized mug when we were there. I love it!











  I made a grand mess in the kitchen putting together two apple pies for...
  The Fourth of July!


We had some dear friends stay with us for a couple days in July, and took the opportunity to make this scrumptious recipe.....ohmygoodnessgracious it was so good!


Rachel had never been sightseeing along the Coast, so we decided to remedy that. :) We had a delightful time showing her all of our favorite places, including the Triplett-Day drugstore in downtown Gulfport, the small craft harbor in Biloxi, and the quaint little downtown of Ocean Springs!





















We had lots of birds visiting all summer, including this (hilarious) cardinal who wanted to take a closer look. :)








The view from Snodgrass Hill at the Chickamauga-Chattanooga battlefield is one that I will never forget.


  Or the view of Lake Junaluska. It was so good to see it again!





  The sky was black with storm clouds for a couple of days in August...

  But, praise the LORD, we were safe and sound and Hurricane Isaac didn't affect us too much.

  We've seen some gorgeous sunsets this summer...



Celebrated a couple birthdays (both of my parents)...

  And kept a close eye out for hummingbirds! This year we had several who stayed around our feeders, and they're almost too quick to be captured with a camera lens...so I was thankful to get these shots!






(These aren't edited in the least, by the way. The light was that gorgeous!!)

  Sarah and I have enjoyed attending a dear friend's volleyball games...





  (Not edited, either. It was amazing...)



And now we come to the other part of this post. Music!! Those of you who know me personally know that music is a very big part of my life. Photography is just a hobby in comparison! So I was so.so.so.excited when a friend from church loaned me this mandolin!



  Hunter Hayes was absolutely right when he said that mandolin players spend half their time tuning and the other half playing out of tune...but it's so much fun to play!!!



(In case you're wondering...that's a Kawai piano, Rogue mandolin, Yamaha acoustic, and Washburn classical. I play all four...not equally well! But I love all of them!)
One of the things I love about summer can't quite be captured in a picture. It's getting in the car and driving down the road and turning the radio on. If I'm not in the car, then it's going on YouTube and listening to song after song after song.
So here are some of the songs I've enjoyed this summer!
First of all, I'll start off with my favorite "summer" song...it takes over my brain for about three days every April or so, right before summer gets here and I just want it to hurry up and get here so bad:
Til Summer Comes Around by Keith Urban (shot at the Santa Monica Pier in California - is that a gorgeous place or what?!)
If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed a lot of this guy's stuff:
I won't talk your ears off but suffice it to say...as a musician, music teacher, and lover of music in general, I think he's the best thing that's happened to the music industry in a long time. Hunter Hayes is genuinely talented. Look him up on YouTube or read about him online if you want. I'm not one of his biggest fans (dubbed Hayniacs) but I have a very great appreciation for the talent and hard work he puts into everything he does.
Worth a listen....he wrote this song for the movie Act of Valor:






In June we discovered the lovely Jillian Edwards, who's engaged to Steven Curtis Chapman's son Will:


  Speaking of SCC, I absolutely love his rendition of the hymn Morning Has Broken:
  And I've been listening to these songs a lot lately, too:


  That about wraps things up for how my summer was!
The air is finally a bit cooler (it actually didn't get over 80˚ on Monday!!) and it's starting to feel like fall. Well, what little "fall" we get down here. You northerners are fortunate when it comes to fall weather, that's for sure. :)
I've made some wonderful memories and enjoyed some wonderful music the past few months. God is so good. So faithful. All that He is and all that He does will never cease to overwhelm me. I hope that you are as thankful as I am for His grace and the memories you've made and the music you've heard this summer!
Because of Jesus, Rebekah