catherine | newborn | novi, mi

God has certainly blessed christopher and i. you see, He introduced us to some pretty amazing friends, the k family, who in turn introduced us to brian and sarah. both mothers were pregnant when i met them. and both allowed me to photograph their precious miracles.

o sweet catherine. your curious eyes look out into the world, eager to explore all of God's creation. welcome to this wonderous world.









catherine has such a fun big brother! they are so sweet with each other. the two will be unstoppable!

baby k | newborn | plymouth, mi

oh, sweet baby k... you are more precious than words can describe.

my dear friends m&j [k] have been so kind and generous to christopher and i since we've moved northville. i don't know how to repay them for everything they've done for us. for now, these photos will have to do. thank you m&j for letting me into your life and capturing these precious moments.

maddie and ariana

a little something i made last night for my dear friends, alan and emily. so blessed to have friends less than 4 hours away. :)

Maddie and Ariana from Yen Minns on Vimeo.

civilization.

i'm back! what a week and a half without the internet will do to you...

at least i had my phone for gps...

so we are all moved out of our old apartment and moved into our new one! much thanks goes out to christopher's aunt ann and cousin craig. these two helped us load up a 17' truck. apparently, we have a lot of stuff. we also had a third story apartment with three flights of stairs. not a lot of fun. when we thought things were going great, and we were making good timing, ann and christopher were putting the last of the things into the truck when ann fell of the back of the u-haul! she broke her hip and was sent to the hospital for the next four days. honestly, she was an amazing trooper. christopher didn't even notice that she fell because she didn't even make a noise. however, craig saw it unfold. we couldn't possibly have had better help and family that day. to drive four hours to help us pack up and then have to go to the hospital all on our account? i just felt terrible.

ann convinced us to go ahead to northville to unpack while craig and ann went to the hospital. she's such a sweetheart. honestly. so christopher's supervisor had told us in advance that he'd come help us that day. when he heard of ann's unfortunate accident, he called up the help of another guy from their workplace, his amazingly strong wife and their cute either 3 or 5 year old daughter (christopher thinks 5, i think 3. we can't decide). she was helping us bring the smallest of boxes up the stairs and helped me push large tubs from the back of the truck to the front for the big guys to carry. :)

so for the past week and a half, i've been unpacking. alone. so really, if you're bored, don't hesitate to call. i'll be here. unpacking. it's the story of my life.

but my wonderful hubs surprised me with internet to the tv yesterday morning... so now i have netflicks! yay for civilization!

tune in for pictures to come.

happy tuesday.

a family of four.

we have a very special announcement to make....

we have another puppy!

meet connor.



connor is a 7 month toy poodle. he's scared of everything imaginable, eats like we never feed him, gets into trouble every half hour, runs into walls, and most importantly, he's a lover of my legs. that's right. he loves my legs. when i'm cooking, he has to either sit on my foot or lay behind my feet. when i'm sitting, he needs to be in my lap. when i'm walking, he shoves his nose into my calves every single step of the way. that's just downright crazy. why today, he even started gnawing on my toes like they were his chew toys! either i have some pretty stinky feet or this dog is just straight up insane.

this is all i have of him so far... but just you wait. this superstar will rock my blog just as much as he's rocked our world.



o and please excuse the mess... trust me, it's far worse now that i'm in prime packing mode.

hump day ramblings.

in the midst of unpacking this apartment, looking for a job, finding christopher a job, looking for a another apartment, and packing this apartment all up again, i just haven't taken many pictures. it's really sad.

but i do have a bunch of randoms for you!

i forgot to mention in the chicago auto show post that i rented a nikon 24mm 1.4 lens just to see how good it was. besides for the fact that the lens was not calibrated to my camera, so back focusing occurred, it was a beauty. i did some test shots first off.

mmm... m&m...





our beautiful new Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary pictures carved out of wood. i got that rosary in italy. each bead has the an image of the Immaculate Virgin Mary on it.

**update: christopher said it's not wood... how sad!!!! it's mass produced... so it's made out of plaster. depressing.



i couldn't resist taking a photo of him. he just looks too good to not.



i miss that lens. i can't wait until i save up enough money to buy more lenses! for now, it's just back to my regular lenses.

here's a picture of a very lovely lady by the name of linda. she owns a shop called fenton flowers and gifts. i went in there one day to try to spread the word of my photography services, and she was so kind and helpful! she's really the only person in fenton that cared enough to talk to us. it's so sad that we have to move away.



i found this picture just chilling in my photo archives. i'll miss our balcony view. so beautiful! i can't wait for summer!



and lastly, i have a couple of cuties sleeping. this first one is a picture of my cousin's baby, audrina, taken this past thanksgiving break. the second one is of christopher and macy taking a nap during my finals week down in manhattan, ks. o the beauty of little sleepies.





i hope these pictures brightened up your hump day! only a couple more days and it's the weekend!

nostalgic.

no. i'm not homesick. but right now, i long for those days when i hummed to myself on the swing, sun softly shining down. i want my childhood back. i want to see my grandpa. i want to share a room with my sister and play with our barbies and 3D puzzles. i want to poke at my baby brother, nguyen (who is 5 years younger than me) in the crib. i want to take my bike and ride through dirt mounds in the new development section in the neighborhood pretending i was an extreme mountain biker. i want to eat cheerios in the cry room of our old church.

take me back... before college wore me down, before high school stripped me of my shy veneer, before the awkwardness of middle school, before the days of gossip, girl drama, and every boy that broke my heart.

take me back...

before the divorce. before the backstabbing. before deciding between who gets what, what child gets to see which parent and when. before the lies, cold stares, and built up anger.

my favorite memory is the sweetest memory of my childhood. i'll hold it close to my heart. back when my parents didn't fight. my sister and i loved each other. the sun shone ever so softly...

it was a sunday. i don't remember nguyen being there, so i had to be 5 or younger. my sister, anh, only 2 years older, shared a bedroom with me. we laid down for a nap. i remember peacefully waking up to the sun shining on my face. the curtains waving in the summer breeze. i sat up and saw that my sister was waking up as well. we walked out to the kitchen. it was the cleanest i can remember it ever being. but one thing was left out. two big lollipops sticking out of a vase on the counter next to the fridge. we ran to the counter, grabbed the lollipops and went in search of a parent. and there was my mom, ironing clothes next to the basement door. the sun was all around her and filled the basement. it was beautiful. she just smiled and said, "did you find the candy? those are for you!" anh and i sat on the couch in the basement, ate our candy, and watched willy wonka.

i don't remember my house being so full of sunlight. i don't have another memory with such a feeling of pure innocence.

that's me on the left. i was cute back then. my sister, anh, is so loving. she's on the right.

don't worry, the nostalgia won't last long. i just needed to get it out there. i miss the earliest days of my life.

trust.

i am well overdue for a post. like 4 or 5 months overdue? yes. yes yes yes. my last legit post was pretty much me venting out to the world. really to not many people since not that many people know i have this blog. well, maybe several people know about the blog but they don't comment? i digress. i was venting 4.5 months ago because i just couldn't bear the stress anymore. i couldn't bear the weight of the world on my shoulders alone. i needed to talk. i needed someone other than christopher to hold me up.

but i didn't feel like i could just call someone up and randomly butt into their happy little lives to complain about my problems. enter: my blog. my blog serves as somewhat of a de-stressing mechanism while still informing family, friends and the occasional random blogger about my life as i see it.

so here, you're going to find a compilation of blogs. everything ranging from my personal life, whether it be my joys or my tears, to life as i see it through my lens is up for grabs.

i hope that i will keep updated with this for at least once a week. i'll just go ahead and set the bar low on that one. hopefully i can get up to at least 4 times a week.

moving along... here's an update on our lives... sit back and enjoy the show.

post wedding

it has been 40 days since christopher and i walked down that aisle and 31 days since we've moved up here to michigan. and what a glorious roller coaster it has been! we've been trying to get settled in, finding a church that where we feel comfortable, getting christopher settled in at school, finding a job for christopher, keeping in touch with friends and family, all while trying to enjoy the beginning of forever together!

right now, christopher is at a job interview. we've been hard at work on this for some time now. we could have prayed more. would could have applied to more places. but really, life has just been a whirlwind of things. i pray so much that God places christopher where he is meant to be.

in God's hands

the day after our wedding, christopher's mother's side of the family met for breakfast at our hotel. christopher's grandpa bill sat by us and told us wonderful stories of his past marriage and his earlier years. afterwards, he took us aside, held our hands and told us he may not see us again, so he wanted to say a prayer with us. he asked God to bless our marriage and our health. while he prayed, i thanked God for allowing christopher and i to have this moment with grandpa bill. i thanked Him for this glimpse into grandpa bill's life and for the example christopher's grandparents have given us.

yesterday, we found out that christopher's grandfather passed away back in kansas. i'm not sure how to handle this one. it's been 18.5 years since my own grandfather passed away, and i still tear up about this. i mean, i was only 5. but i knew my grandfather. and i know he's in heaven. and i know that grandpa bill is up in heaven, reunited with his wife.

i am SO happy that christopher's grandparents get to meet my grandpa. i feel so relieved that my grandpa is able to meet some of christopher's family. it means a lot to me. with those three up there, i know that they will watch over us, praying for us and our marriage. i feel so blessed to have family in heaven rooting for us. it makes the hard times a little more bearable.

trust

we still have many obstacles to overcome in the next few months. find a job. find a church. survive the michigan roads. get christopher up-to-date on his school work. finish unpacking. finish thank you notes. (yea, i still haven't sent out thank you notes from a wedding that happened a month and a half ago... go ahead. judge me all you want.)

however, even with all these obstacles, the greatest obstacle we have yet to tackle is to completely trust in our Lord. with complete trust, we have nothing to fear.

Alan, Emily and Baby Madelyn

Back in April, I had a great time meeting up with some friends I just hadn't seen in a while. Sadly, they are going to move to Ohio where I won't get to see them much, but I am so glad I was able to have fun taking some pictures of their beautiful baby Madelyn and catching up with them before they left. Madelyn has such a personality! She takes after both parents. They are an absolutely wonderful couple. Here are some pictures from our shoot!















My friends are great, and I cannot wait to see them again!!!