So… how was your weekend? If you are a Momma, I hope you had a wonderful Mothers Day! But no matter who you are, I hope you had a fabulous weekend

I am happy that I got The Pioneer Woman Cookbook(Thanks Mom!) Oh my goodness, I think I want to try every recipe in that book! Having new and delicious things to cook makes me happy. I sometimes feel like I cannot think of a single thing to make, but I have a book full of yummy idea’s now! And, she takes pictures of the recipe as she makes it… I love that! And, the book also has lots other pictures she took too. Yep, this book makes me happy

Speaking of happy, this picture makes me happy. I took it last weekend while doing a family shoot, and I am completely in love with it!  I have had it in my head for awhile now, just been waiting for the right people, time and place for it. I think these sisters, Lauren and Brittany, pulled it off perfectly!

And while I love the color in the above image, I love the ‘feel’ b&w and sepia gives it also…

Girls, ya’ll are just gorgeous!

Happy Monday everyone

This shoot just feels like spring, and I love it! Here are a few of my favorite shots of sweet little Ally

I think this may be my favorite. It just feels…beautiful. I love the way the light is washing over her, and the way she is looking right into the camera….

Happy Mothers Day to all of you Momma’s out there!

Have a great weekend everyone!

A beautiful baby girl. Meet Harbor Ann:

I think she liked my cozy basket

Congrats Megan and Andrew…she is precious!

I just returned from Walmart. It was quite the trip. If you were there this morning and heard a one-year-old little girl screaming and saying “Na!” (her way of saying “No”) that might possibly have been me. And Bristol, the one doing the screaming. And Kennedy, but she was not screaming. Lets just say, people were staring, I just wanted to be done and leave, but instead had to run back to the same aisle about 3 times because I was so flustered I would forget things. Then remember 5 aisles over. Then they only had one box of Sure-Jell, and I needed more than one box in order to make my strawberry jam this week. So off to Harris Teeter we went, thank goodness for the free cookies they offer kids, that kept her quite for a little while, but I was not fast enough and soon had to deal with fighting over balloons, jumping up and getting the balloon when Kennedy accidentally let it go. And then more screaming from Bristol.

Ah… it was a morning! Motherhood… it can be demanding and frustrating. But oh-so-wonderful, no matter what.

Our weekend….was fabulous! It included these:

Ohhhh yes! I have a real weakness for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts    We also spent a lot of time outside…planting flowers and playing. (these next few were actually taken a few weeks ago. But since it is the same thing we did this weekend, I figured I’d just work them in here!)

Aunt TC…

Here she is looking a bit more normal!

Happy Monday ya’ll!

On a blog we can tell what we want to tell, share what we want to share, and in a way, be who we want to be. Today I’m just gonna keep it real….Not that I am normally fake, but you get what I’m saying…(right?!)

First of all, Friday has snuck up on me two weeks in a row now!  Before I know it Friday rolls around and I haven’t prepared a blog post. Not that I am on a blogging schedule, but when I have shoots to be blogged, I try to blog about every other day. And lets be honest, blogging takes time. So I normally blog the night before and schedule the post to publish the next morning. So, when I realized it was already Friday (again!), there was no way to throw a blog post together this morning. It was all I could do to get myself and my girls out the door on time to get to my shoot (adorable newborn shoot..ahhh!) And Kennedy generally has some sort of meltdown as we try to leave. She doesn’t want to wear those shoes, she wants to take something with her, she wants to walk, she wants to be held, I didn’t do something exactly right, the list goes on. Anyway, I am finally getting around to blogging today – while they are napping

So, that brings us to Cetarium. An awesome band made up of  five guys; Chad, Rodney, Chip, Rodney and Levin. Now, still keeping it real… As I waited for these guys to arrive at our location I sat in my car and called up Stuart (my husband, for those of you who don’t know) and was all like “Babe I am so nervous!” Not sure why I was nervous, maybe because I had never done a shoot that included 5 guys, maybe because I had never done a shoot for a rock band (or any band for that matter) and I was just feeling a bit extra nervous. How would they do in front of my camera? How would I do directing them? How could I make them look ‘cool’ and rock bandish? Yeah, maybe I was overthinking, but that is how it is with me and my photography sometimes. It means a lot to me, I want to love my work and I want my clients to love it.   Anyway, Stu said all the right things “it’s gonna be okay, your gonna do great….it’s good to be nervous, keeps you humble….just go out there and do your thing….. have fun….”  He was right. As soon as I stepped out of the car I didn’t think about my nerves. I didn’t think about the ‘hows’. I just did it. And I have to say, this shoot was SO much fun!

Thank you guys for rocking it out (pun intended!) in front of my camera!  Seriously, I had a great time

Feel free to check out their Facebook page here.

They met in Peru on a Mission Trip. Christin decided to go on the trip out of the blue. She heard her roommate talking about it, said “Hey, that sounds like fun!” and jumped on board.

When she got there she met Randy, who happened to be in her group and happened to live only a short drive from her in the States.

They talked, hit it off, she borrowed his video camera when he left a few days before her and she returned it when she got back home. A few texts turned into a few phone calls, which turned into a few dates, which turned into a wonderful relationship. They fell in love. 

One year later they went back to Peru, this time together. (Christin as a nurse offering medical aid to those in need, I might add!) And that is where Randy proposed. In Peru, exactly one year after meeting, and Christin said “yes”!

I was thrilled to hang out with them one afternoon and capture their engagement pictures… Christin and Randy, Thank you

Love this one!

They share a love for coffee… so of course we had to include a coffee shop!

(they also changed clothes at the coffee shop, so we snapped a few more before moving on)

This shot just feels glamorous to me… I love everthing about it!

(Warning: Random post here…but hey, it’s Miscellaneous Monday!)

I have had a blister in my mouth all week. You know, the kind that hurts really bad… I rubbed salt on it a few times, that normally does the trick. But this one has stuck around. I swished with Peroxide, and lets just say I am not a fan of the bubble-up-grow-in-your-mouth-feeling that gives…But, it does seem to be getting better now!

While driving down the road over the weekend I realized Mothers Day is getting close. So I informed my husband that I would love to have a nice point and shoot camera for my purse…I blogged about wanting one awhile back, but still have not purchased one. And I feel like I am missing out on little moments that I would like to capture. I don’t expect to get the camera, but, I didn’t think it hurt to mention it either

Other things I am dreaming of lately….

• A Shootsac (been wanting this for a looong time now..sigh..one day!)
• A swing set for my girls…especially now that we are outside a lot. And, they both LOVE to swing!  
• This Salt Scrub..I absolutely love this stuff and have been out for awhile now. (I love scrubs, and this one just smells SO good….but I am open to suggestions, so if you have a fav, please do share with me!)
• Getting all of my laundry folded. I normally don’t get so far behind, but I have been up to my ears editing lately and as a result my clean laundry has come out of the dryer and into a basket. And stayed there. I am kinda tired of running to the laundry room every time I need a towel, a certain shirt, etc.
• Getting my in-box cleaned out. I have a habit of seeing something that I want to read/watch/make/try, etc. online and emailing it to myself. Then it sits in my inbox and crowds it up even more. Any suggestions for this little problem? I have created a couple of folders (such as “Recipes” that I put all the recipes I think I’d like to try in) and I signed up for Pinterest awhile back. And while I am sure it will help organize my online likes and things I want to remember, I haven’t taken the time to figure it out. And honestly, the few times I have messed with it I was confused on how it worked! (If you are on Pinterest, please help me out folks!)

What are you dreaming of these days?

Since posts are better with pictures, here is a shot of my girlies

Happy Monday!

These guys showed up with shorts, T-shirts, balls and gloves…. Their Mom said she wanted to capture them as they are, doing what they love. And so we did, and I love it!

Meet Porter and Carter, two very cute brothers

There was a lot of ‘brotherly love’ if ya know what I mean…the kinds that included jumping on each other at any given minute. Trying to see who could get the other one down on the ground!

This next one is a favorite from our day, I love everything about it :)

Haha! Love this!

Thank you guys for a fun shoot! I loved it and laughed almost the whole time!

I mowed our entire yard by myself last week! This is a big deal for me, embarrassing as it may be, I had never done it before.

As a kid, I never really got the chance because my Mom absolutely loves to mow, so she always did it. And as a married adult I hadn’t done it (till now) because Stu enjoys it and used to work at a golf course, back in his college days, where he practiced striping and his golf swing

Now, don’t get the wrong idea here, our yard looks nothing like a golf course! Far from it in fact. But, the two times I ‘practiced’ mowing (in the backyard of course!) I felt like he was watching and thinking “ohhhh no!” Even though he’d give me the thumbs up each time I dared to loosen my grip on the bars and give my white knuckles a break and steal a glance at him. (we have one of those zero-turn mowers, and that is what makes this a bit challenging to me)

Anyway, I jumped on the mower last week while he was at work. I mowed the front yard, the back yard, the side yard, and anything in between. And I was sad to be done after an hour and a half! I loved it. (aside from the sneezing and other allergy-related problems, even though I took Clairton) And while I still had white knuckles part of the time, I felt more relaxed and confident the more I did. So, while I don’t see a lawncare business in my future, I do think I will be mowing my own yard now!

I stepped out of my comfort zone for something else this weekend too. I photographed a wedding! Yes, I.photographed.a.wedding. Eeeeiiiiii! This is not the first wedding I have shot. But it is the first in a while. I normally shy away for several reasons. But every now and then I find myself doing one.

I was a little nervous. But not too bad till I woke up the day of the wedding to bad weather that only got worse. As in lots of rain, high winds and even a tornado! But, thankfully it cleared up (except for the wind) in time for the wedding. And I’ll show you a little peek at what I got….

As you can see, Katie made a beautiful bride and Kemp a handsome groom… and, I think we rocked that sun flare!! I’ll be posting a full post soon….

Happy Monday!

We did this shoot around a pond, and it was quite an adventure! First, Tylan (my adorable subject that day) decided to sling his ‘Taggie’ into the pond. No warning. One second he is happily sitting on a large stone wall beside the pond, the next second he is slinging it over the edge!  The Momma came out in me and I was over that wall and down there getting that Taggie in about 0.2 secconds. Because this Momma knows we can’t lose a Taggie!

After that we almost lost a phone in the pond, it just fell out a pocket and came apart in a few different pieces, somehow all landing on the bridge that crosses the pond instead of going through the cracks of the bridge. At that point we just laughed and said “What is going on here?!”

Okay, enough about our water-related adventures! Lets get to the pictures now

Yes… his eyes are really that blue! I do not do any enhancing/re-touching on the eyes at all.

Helloooo cuteness!

One thing I love about capturing kids is their many expressions…

There is just something about this next one… I love it!

Blowing kisses…