Pizza: Grilled

Chris, the grill master, has been wanting to make pizza on the grill for over a year. He finally took the chance last week using his family's grill. It was a new experiment for all of us so it was fun seeing what worked and what didn't. These pictures are not meant to be a how-to, just a documentation of the process.

The conclusion? Although the phrase "practice makes perfect" certainly applies to grilling pizza, we thought it was a yummy success and one we will practice again! Not to mention I think it's pretty cool to have a fiance who likes to make food. ;)

Engagement Party

     Some people have full blown engagement parties that are mini-weddings, some people don't know what one is! We fall somewhere in between, we wanted to do something fun but simple with minimal planning. While it may not be as proper to throw one for yourself, engagement parties aren't a tradition in our circle of friends so we did it anyway. :) We decided to invite friends for a night of bowling. Bowling is a very interactive activity and there's always food at bowling alleys so it was perfect for us. We didn't take time to photograph it perfectly but we did snap a few frames of the game and our friends. It ended up being a fun, relaxing evening for Chris and I thanks to our amigos!

The groom-to-be:

 The bride-to-be:

 

Of Trusting God and Coming Together

For almost three years, Rachel and I have gone through some of the best and hardest times of our lives together in our dating relationship. We've had rough times in our relationship, but we've also had amazing times where God has worked in each of our lives. Through all these times, we have felt God confirming our relationship in multiple ways. On March 16, 2012, Rachel answered a question that has changed our lives forever.

It was a balmy, foggy day, but we had agreed to take a day during my spring break to just have "us" time and experiment with some photography . Little did she know, I had been planning to ask her the all important question that day.

As she turned around from taking this picture, one that reflects our hope in Christ and the cross, I knelt down on one knee and asked her if she would marry me. After the initial shock, she gave a positive answer and we agreed to spend the rest of our lives together!

 Two Lives...

 Coming Together for God.

 

To say we are ecstatic would be an understatement! We are so blessed to sense God's approval and the huge excitement of our family and friends on our future marriage. The next few months will be some of the busiest of our lives between college, wedding plans and work. We continue to trust God that he will take us through this engagement time and into marriage. Your prayers are certainly greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Scenes of Academia

Chris' that is and mine occasionally when I visit; he is blessed to study here despite the common love/hate relationship one has with academic pursuits. He really does love the challenge and excitement of doing something he was created for!

 Transportation and Nourishment.

The prestigious MetroTech Center has to have interesting art! Yes, that is an alligator climbing out of a manhole to bite a man's coat. On the left side of the man's head there is a dollar sign.

                                                                    "Alligator" by Tom Otterness

Sofia is One

This cutie turned the big O-N-E while her family was visiting so her mother asked me to take her one year portraits. She is such a sweet little "gordita". :)

Red Roses

I got twelve red roses from Chris on Valentine's Day and they got their own little photo shoot. How sweet of him, I know. :) But before you gag, if you are that type, read on.

The other night as I was thinking about this post, God overwhelmed me with an awe of him through these roses (I really don't think it was because of who gave them to me, it was a special awareness of himself). He invented and created their exquisite, delicate beauty, their utter vulnerability yet powerful sentiments that they can represent. The harsh thorns standing like soldiers around their "queen." The natural color and smell that refresh your senses. This is the creativity, power and beauty of God. The rose and the whole creation shout, "There is none like him!" Thank you for allowing me to show off in a small, fragile way a part of your beauty.

UNIQLO

No, this isn't an ad for the store! It has been a while since we posted anything personal so I got the idea to blog about Chris' Christmas gift to me. We went out last week to finish purchasing it and I was impressed with the hipness and innovative technology from Japan (of course)! If you haven't heard of it, Uniqlo is a casual clothing store with locations around the world, including NYC. They have a line of clothing called Heattech and that's what I'm here to rave about. That and the fact that my boyfriend bought me some. :)

You see, I am perpetually cold! The clothes are comfortable, neat, lightweight and warm! Being in the store made me feel all hip and stuff minus the vast number of mannequins that made me feel like I was in a weird movie. Not just standing mannequins, hanging ones, like from the ceiling moving up and down through the three store levels. I think the idea was to scare you into buying something because if you didn't...well, your fate was obvious. ;)

We quickly made our purchases and left, chalking it up to yet another {uniq-lo} experience in this awesome city!

More of the Gingerich Family

Going on 11 years of being married!

Some casual shots of the little ladies. :)

Photobooth

Rachel & I had the privilege of doing a photobooth at Ben & Zahra Yoder's wedding last week. It was great fun, especially with all the props and everyone's expressions and excitement. At the same time, it kept us busy and there were some challenges.

All in all it was a great time! :).

The lovely couple themselves:

Let's hope things started off better than this: :D

Okay, so we got a lot of requests too about how people might get prints of the pictures that were taken of them. The video below is for just that reason. You can also just watch it and enjoy. :D. If you want to order prints, you can check out the Pricing tab above. We're adding a 20% processing fee to these prices for this event. You can then email me at bikerforjc91@yahoo.com (in the Contact Us page). The file numbers are at the top of each photo in the slideshow below. Please include in your email the size of print you want as well as the exact photo that you would like. We will then process your photos as quickly as possible.

So without further ado, enjoy! (The video quality here is a tad low, sorry.)