I WON!

My cool website is designed by an awesome web design company called Bludomain. They are always having fun contest to win websites, or random off the wall things.
They celebrated being in business for 5 years and did a bunch of give aways, and I joined in on one of the contest.
It was simple. All I had to do was take a picture of myself and hold up five fingers. Then I was one of the lucky contestants to be picked for the lucky 5 finger game and I won a panini maker!!
Seriously, Ben and I have been wanting to get a panini maker for several years and have never followed through. Not to mention, this panini maker is from William Sonoma.

I'm so excited I just had to share with you. Who wants a panini sandwich?

Walther Wedding.sneak peek

I was downloading some images from one of the weddings I had this weekend and just wanted to give you a quick sneak peek.

Sarah.Senior

This is our sweet cousin Sarah that lives in Minnesota. We saw her, along with many other great family members when we went to Iowa for the forth of July. I wanted to take her senior pictures, but didn't think I'd be able to see her again anytime soon, so we did it while we were all there at grandma Cross's house.

Here are some favorites of this lovely lady...


This is a gigantic frame set up at the park for you to take pictures with. How cool is that!

And this is Sarah's personality right here. She is an easy-going awesome girl, full of laughter and smiles.

Caitlin.Senior

I've known Caitlin since she was a sophomore in high school and I never thought I'd be taking her senior pictures already. I think her junior year just flew right on by. I remember meeting her at our church youth group and afterwards she and Jadee (another sweet girl) thought I was goofy for coming up to them and saying hi. I've been taught to be extra friendly to people and I think that scared them a little bit-hehe, sorry girls. Well needless to say, these girls also were in mine and Ben's FCA small group and we got to know them extremely well. I became close with these two girls (Caitlin and Jadee) and it makes me sad to know they are already growing up and graduating next year.
I guess I will stop reminiscing and show you the favorites already...Caitlin all grown up.

Stephen.Senior

I've already started senior 2009 sessions. If you are interested in having your senior sessions look really super cool and way awesome, go to my website at www.cristycross.com and give me your information. You may also send me an email to cristy@cristycross.com

We took Stephen's pictures right after it had rained and the sky was so dramatic. Here are some favorites...

Recently I have had people ask me, "Where do you go on your sessions?" Well in a way, I don't want to tell because its a secret, but it's also not hard to figure out by looking at the pictures. Sometimes the location can make the picture, but also most importantly is the composition. So, find what ever location you want, and work on making a cool picture out of your composition.

Just a friendly word of advice.

The number is...

The number I was guessing was 9! So that means Wrenn is the winner! How fun. I did Wrenn's bridal and engagement session for her last year. I can't believe it's been a whole year and you've now been married for a whole year back in May. If you will email me at cristy@cristycross.com we will talk more about your prize, which is $50 print credit for you to use on your sessions you have already had with me, or if you feel like coming in from Kansas we can do another session :)

Thanks for playing! And thanks for all the sweet comments. You definitely brightened my day.

Sneak Peek...Hailey family

These sweet and adorable girls belong to a sweet and awesome family. They live in Vermont, but have family here in Clovis. This is the second time I've taken their pictures. Last time the middle child was 5 months old and she was the baby. Time sure does fly by quickly. I am very excited to share more with you.

Other sessions I need to post:
Stephen.Senior
Reception from Tara and Gage's wedding
Caitlin.Senior
Sarah.Senior

Sorry I've been slacking. I have two weddings this weekend and will be busy this week. So I hope I can blog more this week, but it might be next.

Keep those comments coming. I get so excited to see new names and hear what you say, because I value your opinion.

good night....

Photobooth

I am doing a photobooth this Saturday at a wedding in Lubbock and Ben and I were trying it out tonight. Here are some images we got. By the way, this was so much fun. I can't wait to do this at the wedding. This is now an option for your wedding. If you are interested in adding this to your wedding, let me know. You will be rockin' with all these cool images.

Yay Dayme, I can't wait for Saturday!!

Who, Me?

New contest**read at bottom
So I received a call a couple weeks ago about winning an award for being the Best of Clovis 2008 photographer. I was so happy and couldn't believe it. It was an award given out by the newspaper here in Clovis and we don't get the newspaper so I had no idea it was going on. People write in who they want to be the winner on several different categories like the best bakery, dry cleaners, hair salon, yadda yadda yadda, photographer. And well I guess several people wrote my name in and I won. I feel so honored and so blessed! I don't know who all selected me, but thank you thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart I want to thank you. If you were someone who wrote my name down for this lovely award leave a comment below so I know and can personally thank you. I would also like to do a little contest if ya don't mind. For the person to winI am going to give you a prize. I don't know what yet, but I'm want to do something nice for you since you did something so so nice for me.

I received this fun certificate and some cool stickers that I can put on my car or in the window or wherever else I may want to brag about this super fun award.
Praise the Lord for this award. I give all the glory to God :)

Contest** Want to play?

I am thinking of a number between 1-10...hmmmm...okay got it. Who ever is the ?# commenter is the winner.

Remember Dusty and Andi?

So I told you way back in June that I was going to post more of Andi and Dusty. And I am finally doing just that. Sorry it took so long Andi! I hope you enjoy looking at these love birds and oohing and awwing over the beautiful bride. I also want to give a shout out to my friend Annie...holla girl :)

I love tweens

I just have to say OMG! Amanda is the funnest girl, no lie. I laughed so hard at her session and almost tinkled my pants. She is a spit fire and her laughs and smiles are so contagious. I brought along some props for her session, because I wanted to create a magazine look for her. One of my props was one of my Annie Leibovitz books about women and there were some jaw dropping pictures in there that gave us all a good laugh. I really love this combination

Amanda's looking at the book...she must of found something interesting :)

Thanks for stopping by. Comments rock my world and Amanda's too.

Name Collages

Erin Duggin is a friend of ours that lives in St. Louis, Missouri and she does these cute collages as well as paintings, photography and many more creative crafty things. She is a sweet mom and wife, and owns her own business. You should go check her out and see all the creative juices she has goin' on.

I love these collages and I've always wanted to do something like this, but never make time. Erin does them so well and has cute letters to chose from. Click here to visit her site

My boys...

These are the two people in my life that bring me great joy.
This is a post dedicated to Ben, because he is a sweet, lovable and devoted daddy. MUAH!

40,000 hits

Right now I'm singing, "hit me with your best shot, fire awaaayy." Thanks everyone for getting me to 40,000 hits on my blog.

Also, I wanted to announce I was chosen to be Best of Clovis 2008 Photographer. I'm so excited and completely taken back. I feel so blessed. I couldn't do any of this without God being apart of this business. Praise the Lord :)

I'm back!

We are back home and had an awesome visit in Iowa. I have many many phone calls, emails and orders to get to. If you placed an order last week, I am working on them tomorrow and this weekend. Same goes for emails and phone calls. Thanks for your patience

Dusty & Andi

I will be out of the office until next week visiting family in Iowa. If you have placed an order in the last two days, I will fill those orders when I get back and get them to you as soon as possible.
Please leave me a message if I'm not able to answer the phone, and I will return you call lickity split when I get home.

Okay, business duties done...time to share some fun

I wanted to share with you the session I've been working on this evening. After bible study with some super fun girls I came home, had a yummy swiss grilled cheese sandwich Ben made for me, got my tunes and podcasts ready on my ipod, and worked on editing images for the web galleries.

This is a session I did last Tuesday of Dusty and Andi, a couple from Georgia. I would love to post more, but I'm on a time crunch so I can only post this one for now. It seems appropriate to post this with 4th of July wishes because Dusty is in the military and left last Thursday (I forget where exactly). Andi and Dusty got married the Friday before he left, and then we took what were to be engagement pictures on Tuesday. Since they decided to go ahead and get married before he left, we got to do engagement pictures as well as "the day after" photos. I loved it! I haven't done any "the day after" sessions yet so I was pumped. They were an awesome couple to work with and I felt so special by Andi's enthusiasm towards me taking their pictures.

When I get back to my computer next week, I'll post some more...

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY