Marvelous Mondays | TeenPact National Convention

After the fiasco of missing last Monday's installment of Marvelous Mondays I'm proud to be bringing you today's post from Dayton, TN where I'm residing until Friday. What am I doing in Tennessee, you might ask? Well, I'd love to tell you, as it leads to the feature of today's post.

TeenPact National Convention

That's right! It's TeenPact National Convention this week, and instead of sitting at home on the sidelines while my amazing husband helps lead a team of incredible staffers and hundreds of students, I have the privilege of tagging along. Not only is it great to see where the organization has come in the last several years (as I was heavily involved, myself, back in 2005 through 2007) but I get to see it through different eyes than ever before; as a photographer telling the story, not only of the week, but of the heart of the ministry. I'm so excited to be here and using my passion to pour into an organization that I'm also passionate about. If you don't know anything about TeenPact, take a few minutes to read up about it on their website. They really ARE changing lives to change the world. And to stay in-the-know on HOW, you can keep up with them on Facebook, Twitter and BEST OF ALL, watch the live stream of events going on this week here in Tennessee! There's a lot of excitement that you'll want to check out (speakers, live worship sessions, student presidential elections, and so much more!), so tune in whenever you have the chance. (Especially during Aaron Watson's session - I may be biased, but I know tons of people would heartily agree. My husband is one incredible speaker. :)

This year's TeenPact Intern Team

Because this event is my entire focus for the week, I'm leaving it as the only marvelously featured item. It's that worthy, people! I hope you'll check it out, and you can definitely be sure I'll be sharing some photos from this week, after the fact. So stay tuned, friends, and thanks for taking the time to read about it. :)

Portraits | Mady & Family

A couple weeks ago I got to head out to the beeeautiful property of Tree Hill here in Richmond to do 2-year-old portraits for one of the world's most adorable little girls. Her mom, Allyson, who is a photographer herself, had contacted me a few months prior and as we communicated about the shoot I got more and more excited about meeting and shooting her precious daughter, Mady.

As most people know, 2-year-olds can be pretty independent and when it comes to photos....sometimes entirely uninterested and uncooperative. But Miss Mady was in good spirits throughout the entire shoot, and even while being rather on-the-go (and incredibly fascinated with the silos - and by that I mean, she knew this word and frequently pointed up to them as we explored the farm. Talk about a smart kid!) she was a dream to work with. She laughed and smiled a lot and, I'm sure you'll agree, is just an outright photogenic child.

Look at her eyes! Such beautiful innocence.

She got pretty fascinated with the grass...

We made sure to take photos of Mady and Momma, too. :)

And some shots with Allyson's boyfriend, Reid, too. Aren't they just a cute little family?

And then Mady went off exploring, so I followed her... :)

And THESE are some of my favorites from the day. Such precious moments of mother and daughter. :)

Then we had a brief outfit change, and went exploring (near more silos!). Tree Hill is such a gorgeous area!

Definitely wanted to grab a few of just Allyson and Reid, as well. I'm thinking these two have a lot of fun together, in life. :)

We finished by checking out one more field.

And these are some more of my absolute favorites. Allyson and Mady are just so precious!

Mady meeting a ladybug!

And to end on another STUNNING photo...

So, as you can see, I had a BLAST photographing this gorgeous girl and this wonderful family! Thanks, Allyson, for having me do your photos and I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I have! :)

Marvelous Mondays | Oops...

You know what's awful? To realize it's Tuesday and that just ONE WEEK after starting my first weekly blog series I've already missed the second installment of Marvelous Mondays.

Good going, Tori. Very smooth. Way to remember to post on Monday once it's the following Tuesday.

And thus marks the story of my blogging life, so far. I have great intentions, people, but it just takes me a little time to catch reality up with those intentions.

SO. Please accept my apology, and for now, lets assume it's going to be an every-other-weekly series...and that not posting yesterday was actually artistically intentional, somehow.... K? Great.

Besides, maybe I was too pre-occupied with finally posting my honeymoon photos yesterday (only 6 months after the fact...) that it distracted me from otherwise sharing something marvelous. But since my honeymoon (in Jamaica!) was marvelous, I'll leave you with a few snapshots to enjoy.

Happy end-of-Tuesday, friends! And really, there WILL be more real Marvelous Monday installments in the future...as soon as my remembering abilities catch up with all of my plans. :)