I usually don't like to share "super personal" stuff on our blog because to be quiet honest, its intimidating... but I would love to share this blog post with everyone today.

When I was little I would always wonder about my future (I actually still do that all the time). I would wonder what my first kiss would be like, who I would marry, what my job would be, and occasionally I would think about my beautiful DAUGHTERS. I'm not sure if you caught that, "I would dream about my daughters". Well if you have been following our blog for a while, you know I am married (to my amazing husband Mark), and you know I have two sons. When I was only a few weeks pregnant with Wyatt I remember walking around telling people that I "didn't care if I had a boy or a girl, I just wanted a healthy baby". Later when I found out I was having a boy I burst into tears. I then realized that I wanted GIRLS! You are probably wondering "how on earth is she admitting this on her blog", wait for it, I have a point... Then Wyatt was born. MY LIFE CHANGED... FOR THE BETTER! He is our everything, my joy, my love, and one of the reasons I wake up every morning and try to be a better person. Now with Oslo here, that feeling is even more magnified. It's amazing how when you have your own ideas and dreams, God can just come in and completely rock your world with a better reality. I feel so blessed to have the family that I do! This past weekend I made one of my "top five memories" of my life. We went to home depot to get our Xmas tree.... we spent most the time chasing wyatt and keeping Oslo happy, but when we got home it became "magical". Christmas music was playing in the background, Mark was cooking dinner, and Wyatt was handing me ornaments one at a time so I could hang them on the tree. I'm not going to lie, I cried then, and Im crying now. Again, God is truly amazing. The dreams I had as a girl are nothing compared to what has become my reality :)

I am wishing all our blog readers, friends, and clients, an AMAZING, and blessed holiday season!

A few weeks ago my family jumped on boat and headed to Catalina Island for my dads B-day. I'm not going to lie I was not excited about this trip at first. I have been to Catalina a few times in the past, and each time I found the trip to be boring! Well this time there was some major excitement. We brought the WHOLE FAM (my sister, brother in law, mom, dad, mark, and the kids), and it was a blast. We rented a little beach cottage that was only a block in from the water. My family decide before hand that each "couple" would take a turn making dinner for the family and organizing a game afterwards. The night we played Jinga, I have never seen my " kindergarden teacher mom" more competitive... it got a little crazy for a minute. During the days we spent walking up and down the beach and keeping Wyatt from drowning in the ocean.

Mark grabbed a super cute shot of Oslo... and he tried to take some of the scenery  ... I think I was that annoying person that kept jumping in his shot. "sorry babe".

Any-who, enjoy your monday morning :)

Almost two year ago I was shooting a wedding and I heard a woman call for her son, "Oslo, come here little man". I turned around and the cutest toddler was standing behind me. Unlike Wyatt's name I knew immediately that my next son was going to be named Oslo from that moment on. I wasn't even pregnant yet, let alone thinking I wanted another little boy, but I had my  name picked out. When I went home Mark felt the same way I did about the name. We were in love! A few months later I was pregnant.... Its a boy!!!! .... It's baby Oslo. On April 16th Oslo was born and he is our biggest love muffin! I love him soooo much and can't believe he 4 months old already!

Here are two photos of him that we will treasure forever :)

Mark and I are super excited to board a Airplane and head to NYC. We will be there August 7th -11th teaching mentor sessions, classes, and shooting. We were working on one of our Customized all day mentor session "game plans" and thought we would share all the info with our blog readers.

When we do any type of mentor session, we always try and make it 100% customizable to you. Once we know what you want to learn and talk about we make a game plan. Usually the game plan starts at a coffee shop and ends at coffee shop, since we are addicted... And of course we take you out to a nice lunch if it's an all day mentor session.

We LOVE teaching, and "talking" Camera, photography, editing, lighting, Inspiration, Business, Mindset, and work ethic etc...

We opened up another full day of teaching while we are in NYC, so if you would like to set up a mentor session, class, or photo shoot with us, now is your last chance! Email us :)

Click the image to see a Hi-Res version of the itinerary... also, don't be lame and rip off the design that we worked hard creating. :P

This past Monday I got to Throw and host my good friend Jessica Norwoods baby shower!!! Jessica is a great friend of mine, and I feel soooo lucky to have her as a friend and in my life. She is having a little boy in just a few weeks so I know my little Oslo is excited for his new friend to arrive!

I had LOTS of help with this shower! All my great girlfriends in the wedding industry pulled together to help design this super cute Teal and Green Owl themed shower. Thanks Lindye for all your help designing and crafting, you are honestly brilliant! Amber, your invitations and signs were super cute! Wendy, I felt like I was in a restaurant, your food was outstanding! And Brooke, I could of had 5 cupcakes, they were soooo delish!

Invitations and cute papers signs: typologie and co

Design and coordinating: Lindye Galloway

Dessert bar: Simply Sweet Cakery

I had to post a cute one of my little nugget Oslo with my good friend Nellie

Mark and I had such an amazing weekend with our boys Wyatt and Oslo! Of course as you all know, it was Fathers Day yesterday, so we decided to spend time being a new family of four. Im not going to lie, having two kids can be a handful....but it is moments like Wyatt falling asleep on me while watching Modern Family, Oslo giving me the biggest "trout mouth" smile, and Wyatt laughing so hard while taking his nightly bath that makes our lives AMAZING and truly BLESSED!  I wish we had more time to share about our family on our blog, so it is my new goal to post more "personal" posts in the future.

So for this lovely Monday morning, here is our 1.5 year old rockin' out to the sound of his own laughter :)

This one melts my heart because it’s Wyatts version of “flexing his muscles”. LOL!

Every time Mark and I add another great client to the Mark Brooke Family we have them answer a few fun questions. Well, tonight I am wide awake! I drank my late cup of coffee (9:00pm, I know that is not late for most people, but I lOVE my sleeep), and I am ready to rock! So here are some fun questions that we ask our clients, and so now it is time for us to answer them and share them with all of our blog readers.

We have some super exciting news!!!  The Mark Brooke Studio is finding another awesome studio location to meet all our Rad clients in. It is sad to see the old studio go (pictures below), because we have met with so many amazing clients, built some great wedding albums, and edited tones of epic weddings.... But there are better things to come for the Mark Brooke Studio. We have been on design blogs for weeks planning out the new design and mapping out the future/direction of Mark Brooke Photography. We are building a new website as well, so in the next few weeks there is going to be some great new changes.

Stay tuned for more studio updates on Twitter.

A few months back i did a shoot for my band. it was really fun, and almost self portrait like... since i had to set the camera and lights up and trigger the whole system with a pocket wizard. we shot em in the skeeziest hotel i had ever seen, but it was radical.  Here is a sample song if you wanna see what we sound like... and here is our freshly created FB page...

Mark and I have been wedding photographers for almost 5 years now! Its nuts to think how quickly time has flown by. When we first started our business we knew we wanted to ultimately HAVE FUN and be different. and still 5 years later I can confidently say our clients are FUN, and different from the "typical" bride and groom. We LOVE THEM ALL!

With that being said, I thought I would share a few smiles/photos, that have warmed our hearts the past few months....

(watch out there is a little to much PDA happening in one of these photos, lol).