This wedding was one that was close to my heart and it was an HONOR to photograph it.

Gonna let the photos speak for themselves ’cause Cori and crew have been very patient allowing me to move prior to blogging…..love to you all sweetie.

Cori has “that look”. You can’t practice it in the mirror, you can’t learn it in a class, you either have it or you don’t have it…and Cori has it. Some of my favorite photos of her are those I got when she didn’t know the camera was on her. It’s that “inner beauty” thing…

Getting ready to walk out the door to see Matt for the first time – holding the hand of Matt’s sister. Love that!

If you know Matt you know that he’s not serious very often…but when he is…not bad Matt!

“the look.”

Cori & Matt rented a trolly to take us downtown before the ceremony for pix. Cori & Matt stood in the back the entire trip enjoying the amazing fall day God gave us. Hair? Makeup? No worries – it’s your day brides! Enjoy it, soak up the sun & wave and the people who honk at you!

One word. Color.

Again – I usually looooooooove the shot before……

……the shot I love.

Sing it with me….going to the chapel & we’re….gonna get ma-a-a-ried!

Matt showed his true colors during the ceremony. An embrace for his dad…not a hug…an embrace.

And a moment of humor during his kiss…the only thing missing was a little bell “ding” sound!

Congrats Matt & Cori!
Wedding pix will be posted next week!
~M

Well blog…Saturday is moving day.

All of the lists have been made, the U-haul has been rented & friends are lined up to help. The cookies are ready for the kids last day of school party on Friday and supplies are bought for their first day of school on Monday. The scheduled photoshoots have all been completed, the deliveries have all been made and the thank you notes have all been delivered.

That means there are only two things left to do.
1. Say goodbye.
2. Actually do it…move.

The thing is, I don’t do goodbye. I do “see ya later”, “talk to ya soon” and “we’ll be in touch”, but I don’t do goodbye. I lean heavily on the fact that a still have a lot of our life here in the falls. I lean on the fact that FB is only 2 hours away and that my friends have future trips to DFW scheduled and so we are already planning on hooking up during those times. I’m leaning heavily on some things that maintain my ties to WF.

As for the other “thing”…no real real way to avoid that one… we are moving.

So blog – I’ll be honest – I’m not sure exactly how I do this.  I find myself in a new place, I’m on my blog…and I have no words….

Thank you blog.

Thank you Wichita Falls.

Thank you for allowing me to turn a crazy “if I could do anything I would…” into my day-to-day.

Thank you clients.

Thank you friends.

Thank you.

THANK YOU.

~The Benoit family

~photo by my friend, Deedra Folmer with Photo[e]motion

Last week was so rainy and yucky that all of my W21 kiddos got pushed to this week…my last week in town…not gonna lie, it was a crazy day yesterday – but it was fun to do that one last push from behind the camera with 3 of my favorite little people

Ty

Carlee

Connor

I love all of you little ones. Cya next month…not sure if it’ll be on your turf, my turf or somewhere inbetween but I’ll see ya never-the-less!

~M

Matt & Cori.

Amazing wedding…

Laughs, love, kids everywhere, a trolly, amazing colors & at the end of the day…a marriage.

That is the good news.

The not-so-good news is their wedding was the weekend prior to our move, so, it’s gonna be next week before I can get to editing, blogging and sharing their pix (like they care..they’re in Mexico right now dipping in the ocean, soaking up the sun and swimming with the dolphins)  :)  Thanks however to all of your friends and family for being a wee-bit-patient with me. Trust me, I’d much rather be editing pix of you than painting walls – but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to sell a house!

More to come soon!

~M

Camille lives around the corner from us, in fact Garrett is planning on marrying her big sister. We did a last minute shoot with very little planning, absolutely no stressing and as usual – THOSE are the kind that work out best.

Thanks you sweetie – you’re gonna make a great maid-of-honor one day.

Thanks again for the trust Natalie – we’ll miss seeing you “around the corner”
~M

Those of you who know me closely probably know that I’m pretty private about my faith, but having said that, I can also say that I am growing in that faith.

I have been doing a lot of “looking back” in the past month and in doing so I am seeing God’s hand in so much of my life here in Wichita Falls. He planted me literally next door to a family, a woman named MaryAnn in particular, who has made a huge impact on my faith life. He stretched me through churches to finally land me in a place I can call “home”. He has given me strong friendships, surprised me with peace in choas and challenged me in social circles.

I find myself, for the first time in my life, taking time every day to dig into my Bible, taking time to “be still”, and taking time to pray. I’ve always been real good at praying throughout the day. I pray in the car, I pray walking my kids home from school. I pray when I fold the clothes, stir the soup and before every shoot, but it wasn’t until recently that I took time to sit in silence, for a period of time, and focus on nothing except prayer.

I was talking to my BFF Holly last week and I was telling her about something I received from PineCove. It was something the speaker shared with us as he also struggled with his “prayer life”.  As I told her about this “prayer guideline” he shared with us she said “Wow – that is awesome.  Can you write that down for me?” Since that day I’ve had it in the back of my mind to share this “guideline” on my blog, but I’ll be honest – it’s not my style. It’s outside of my comfort zone.

Well, this morning I decided what the heck….I’ve been outside of my comfort zone for about 4 months now so why not, right?!

If you’re not a “praying person” that’s ok….move onto your next blog-stalk-site, no problem.  If however you are like Holly and I and you find yourself sitting down to pray, really really pray but instead find yourself answering your phone, getting up to move clothes from the washer to the dryer, making your “things to do today” list or falling asleep – who knows….maybe this will help you as much as it has helped me.

Again – this is not My tool that I came up with through divine intervention.  I’m NOT trying to preach or give an impression that I’m trying to help your prayer be as good as my prayer.  This is simply an area of my life I’ve struggled with and I’ve found a tool that helps, so I’m just gonna to share a great tool I was given.

How do you pray?
This is how I pray.

I literally have a Prayer Cheat-sheet. (hey….if a Pastor can use a cheat-sheet a photographer can too)

This “cheat-sheet” is based on praying for different things every day. (this is another thing I like, it keeps me from praying for the same things over and over)

Ok – so here is how it works….

1. Pray for God to protect this time and lead your prayers to His will.

2. Give thanks.

3. Give God all of the pain, anxiousness & forgiveness you are experiencing.

4. Pray for your spouse. (These areas are loosely based on a book about what a man needs from his wife.  E-mail me if you want more, the list if different for men to pray for their wives)

Mondays=Intimacy. Tuesday = Affirmation. Wednesday=Response. Thursday = Friendship. Friday = Respect.   Saturday – his relationship with Jesus. Sunday = his faith life.

5. Pray for your kids. (I love this part…he did parts of their body)

M=Head=Faith. T=Brain=Mind. W=Heart=Soul. Th=Hands=Works. F=Body=Health. Sat=Feet=Future.  Sun=Faith life.

6. Pray for Me. (These are loosely based on the Fruits of the Spirit)

M=Love & Mildness. T=Joy & Modesty. W=Peace & Self Control. Th=Patience & Chastity. F=Goodness & Kindness. Sat = My relationship with Jesus. Sun=Faith life.

7. People in my life who need Jesus in their lives

8. Friends & Family

9. Other who are on my heart.

10. Give Thanks.

I hope you get as much from this as I am getting.

God Bless Ya….literally.

~M

Hey gang – gonna do another quick update again…  I’m finding that again as I talk to my amazing clients and friends around town the past few weeks I’ve heard a lot of the same questions – so here ya go.

No – I’m sorry, I can’t accept or schedule any more shoots.  I do have a few that I”m doing but all were scheduled prior to my move plans.  I am honoring those plans, but I’m not accepting new shoots.  I’m sorry for this.

Yes – I will be continuing photography in Farmers Branch.  I intend to take some time off to take a moment to breathe before I start up full-throttle again.  I’ve got some plans to give the blog, website and my business image a bit of a facelift.  In general I plan to start back up, but to do so slowly.  My main focus, especially in the initial months, will continue to be my husband, kids and family.

Yes – if you come to Farmers Branch I would looooooove to photograph you!!

KEEPING IN TOUCH:

Please do!  I’m only 2 hours away but I’m on facebook so be my friend!

e-mail:mbenoitphoto@gmail.com Please note: my old e-mail, mbenoit@sw.rr.com will not be working soon.

My Blog and Website will also remain the same and you can ALWAYS find me here.  :)

As far as our family – we’re doing pretty good around here.  The house is being shown a lot but no offers yet, but that’s ok, it will sell.  We have found a school for the kiddos in Farmers Branch, in fact we’re going to be there taking a tour Monday.  We have tentative plans to move to FB at the end of October/beginning of November, I’ll let ya all know as soon as we have solid plans on that front.  We continue to do what I’ve been calling a Nestee plunge into our faith in a lot of areas, but, I’m finding that behind that scary and somewhat blind “plunge” God’s got my back and has provided a nice, safe landing all with perfect timing.  His plan for our lives has unfolded with a peace beyond my wildest imagination – so – we continue to trust in His plan and timing instead of my to-do-list and iCalendar.  ;)

I can’t express to you how much I am appreciating the e-mails and comments.  I’ve had people call or e-mail me out of the blue the past few months and they touch my heart more than you’ll know.  Thank You for taking the time and for your kind words.  If I could wrap you all up in a big ole’ hug I would, but know that I”m taking them all to heart.

Have a great weekend everyone – I’ve got one more final push of photo shoots coming up in the next few weeks!

~M

Once upon a time there was a little boy-Connor.

He visited me every month to take pictures, and this month, we did the naked-baby-shoot.

Little man Connor was as happy as a peach in September, he always is!

He smiled the entire time, he posed for the camera and yes…

like most naked-baby-shoots, he peed on the backdrop.

He made my job easy, he made his mama happy,

and one day he’ll meet a princess and they’ll live happily-ever-after. I’m convinced of that.

Thanks for another great shoot little-man.

The End.

~M

….sigh.
Carlee.
September.
2 months old…. already.

Carlee is smiling all day long now. She is trying to talk so when I play with her she stares at my mouth and tries to talk back but it just comes out as coos. It is amazing. Love love love this little girl!

Love you baby Carlee
~MiMi

…..why oh why do these babies inist on growing up so fast?!?!

BabyTy is truly one of the happiest most content babies I’ve even known. Every month he just makes my job easier and easier! He’s growing up into quite the cool little dude! During this shoot I put him in the grass, on the wood chips, in a tree (literally) and on a cold hard rock – he didn’t thnk twice about any of it! I just love this little-man!

~M