Today my girls come home from a weekend in TN with my in-laws…I can hardly wait to see them….to hug and kiss them…to hear their sweet little voices….

In case you need translation, that would be Bristol saying “I love you sooo much!” I just happened to catch that sweet video last week

While they have been in TN having a great time with their cousins, I have been nesting. Again. This week is the week of my due date (Thursday), and I can hardly believe it is here already! I am so excited. So close to holding my sweet baby. Now, I am under no illusions that I will actually have a baby this week – but we are a lot closer than we were!

Boy or girl? Soon, we will know! Meanwhile, I plan to continue blogging recent shoots… Happy Monday!

Today’s post is random, so shall we dive right in?

Awhile back I went to snap a picture of my Mom with Kennedy. My Mom squatted down thinking Kennedy was going to stand next to her, but Kennedy thought she was supposed to sit on her lap, when she did they both went down! And considering I have a bad habit of laughing when someone falls, this caused a few laughs

Lemonade. I love it, especially this time of year… it just feels so spring/summer and refreshing. I always make my Moms recipe, and lately, my fridge hasn’t been without it

And in case you want to try it… just squeeze about 1 1/2 cups of fresh lemon juice, 2 cups of sugar, and stir together in a gallon pitcher full of water. I do strain my lemon juice, because I don’t like the pulp

I finally ordered a canvas of one of our wedding pictures. Yep, only took me about 4 1/2 years to do it! But I looooove it now that I finally have it hanging on my wall. I ordered from a company called Fabness after seeing a crazy good deal on Living Social. I like my canvas’ from Shutterfly and Canvas on Demand better – I think the quality is better. But for the price I paid for this one, I am happy ($29.00 for a 16×20)!

It is hanging in our bedroom, and it changes the entire feel of the room. Here is another angle:

And in case your wondering, this is the picture I mentioned that I love in Friday’s post.

I kept my sweet niece Mya awhile back…Kennedy and Bristol love to entertain her, and this time they dressed her up in a bunch of necklaces…

Here is a video of them in action….

And while I am posting videos, here is Bristol singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (still haven’t gotten her ‘rocker version’ on video!)

And lastly, a video of them having a birthday party for Minnie Mouse….

I love when an image causes the viewer to feel something.

I think sometimes the feelings can come from a memory of that moment. Or of that person. For example, one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day is one that the photographer (Kelley Clayton) took while Stu and I looked down at each others new rings. We were not posing, I didn’t even know she had taken the picture, but the memory of that moment makes me love the image even more.

Or maybe we see an image that captures our childs expression perfectly – the way we know it. Or sometimes it is an image of someone we don’t know at all, but just by looking at the image we can feel the laughter, or the love, or the happiness that seems to be captured there. Other times we may not be able to put our finger on what it is about the image that reaches out to us, but we just get it.

I took a few pictures of Kennedy and Bristol this week that I love. If you read this blog much, you know how difficult I find it to take great images of my own kids. These were un-planned, done on different days. But I love them for the same reasons, I feel like these images capture their personalities perfectly.

First up, Bristol. We were having ice cream and she was making sure to get the last of it out of her bowl, my camera just happened to be sitting nearby so I grabbed it and got these:

Haha! Don’t you want to just laugh with her?!

Saturday Kennedy came to sit on my bed with me while I worked on my fingernails. She went through my box of supplies asking what each thing was, trying to file her own nails, and just talking. I am often inspired by light, and realized the light was really pretty right then. So, in hopes she would just keep being herself, I pulled out my camera and kept talking to her – and started snapping pictures. Love how these turned out

Thanks for looking…have a fabulous weekend!

Meet Maria, Neil, Gage and Dash….

We got together in March for a family shoot and it was SO windy! But, they were all troopers, and we had some really cool buildings on their farm that we used to block the wind
(score! cool barns in the pictures and less wind action!)

I have to admit, I am really loving these next few!

Something about this one… I love it so much!

Thank you guys so much for asking me to capture your family

Flashback to Easter Sunday…..

My family is big, and I love it! We got together on Easter Sunday at my parents house and I pulled my camera out to capture our day…here are just a few of my favorites:

First, we had an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos:

Love the fact that Tori can wear a girly girl dress while climbing a tree to get an egg! Tori, you rock girl!

love these!

Check out Bristol’s crazy hair! I just had to post all of these

Love, love, love!

there was some basketball being played…

My cousin Katie and I got together for a quick shot since we are both preggo and due soon…she is due tomorrow(!) and me, 2 weeks from Wednesday

A few more shots from the trampoline…

And then we were off to play/watch the kickball game…

I’ll end with this shot because I love it… MawMaw and Poppa…

Happy Monday everyone!

Taking pictures of my own children is challenging. Especially when I try to get pictures of them together. It seems like they are never into it, they give me a fit, and my patience runs out fast! I guess it is because I am the Mom and the photographer. I find myself telling Moms all the time “don’t worry about it, let them go…we’ll get the shot…” If only I could practice that more with my own!

On Easter Sunday I didn’t get any pictures of Kennedy and Bristol dressed in their matching dresses… so I decided it wasn’t a big deal, we’d just put the dresses back on later in the week and get the shots. Which I did, trying hard to not make a big deal of it the whole time. (the bigger a deal it is, the more they disagree it seems!) Anyway, it only lasted a few minutes before they were all “Okay, I’m done!” but I do like what I got…I had more idea’s and hopes, but I’ll roll with what I can get

Going through these pictures makes me wonder… in a few short weeks, will we have another sweet girl? Or will our world of pink be crashed with blue? As a Mother, I of course just want a healthy baby, but I have to admit I’d love to experience a boy and all that they are Either way, boy or girl, I am so so excited!

Brittany and Mark have two adorable boys, Holdyn and Stratton, we got together awhile back for an urban shoot. And these, are just a few of my favortites

Love these two of the boys together!

Brittany, thanks again for asking me to do these for ya! XoXo

Yesterday morning as I made dessert for our Easter dinner with family, Kennedy came into the kitchen, looked at me with her big brown eyes and asked a loaded question for a 3-year-old… “Momma, what makes your heart happy?”

Really? I love that kid. I replied that her hugs and kisses makes my heart happy and she broke out in a big smile and delivered one of her hugs and kisses right then.

I got to thinking about it later and realized that I have heard my Mother-in-law tell her that she and Bristol make her heart happy…Kennedy does not forget anything and apparently decided to find out what makes my heart happy. Ahhh, the precious moments of childhood, and Motherhood. (lets just not talk about the sassiness that has become my 3-year-old lately!)

I really don’t have a blog post prepared for today, and since I am busy with editing and shooting (among other things), I decided to concentrate on getting up a blog post for tomorrow, since it obviously didn’t happen last week! But…I just had to share a little peek of the cuteness you have to look forward too….this dude rocks

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter…I’ll try to blog some pictures from our Easter Sunday later this week.

Happy Monday to all!

I am half asleep while typing this… it is Sunday night, and I am posting this while the girls (and the hubby) are sleeping, knowing that when my feet hit the floor tomorrow it will be non-stop go-go-go. For the rest of the week. Yeah, that may be a little dramatic, but that is how it feels! Last night after listening to me move from room to room doing anything and everything and basically leaving a mess all over the place while cleaning out and organizing other things, Stuart looks up from the couch where he is snuggled with the girls and says “Babe, are you nesting?”

Um yeah. I think I might be. Now could you please go clean out the shirts you no longer wear from the closet?!

Apperantly I think he should be nesting too. Poor guy.

Only 4 weeks and 2 days (but hey, who is counting?!) till my due date, and I am feeling it! The need to get things done, the feeling that every other person says to me “wow, you are out there!” and “looks like your about ready to have that baby!” but they mean well, I have taken no offence so far, which is saying a lot for a hormonal pregnant woman

Okay, moving on now…

I am going to share a few sneak peeks of the sweetness I’ve had in front of my camera lately… since blogging does not always make my ‘nesting list’ I am a little bit behind But, I’ll be sharing the full posts in good time, I promise!

First up is Sol, always a joy to have him in front of my camera….

Violetta…love her gorgeous blue eyes and pigtails!

This little bundle of sweetness is only 9 days old, I just pulled this shot off my camera from doing his shoot today…. (Liam)

And this cutie is big brother to little Liam…

Happy Monday everyone! Thanks for looking

Getting a big family together for a family photo shoot always takes a little bit of effort (at least!) but so worth it
Meet the Watkins:

We got together a couple of weeks ago and captured their family, as they are today…

Momma and her boys…

and with her girls… well, daughters-in-law

‘MawMaw’ with all her grandkids….

The 3 oldest kids wanted a picture together…

Often, it is the ‘in-between’ pictures that I like best…here are two that I love from this shoot….

 Thank you all so much for asking me to do these for you… XoXo