Emerson is precious. And oh-so-tiny! He is my good friend Julie’s sweet baby boy. (You can see Julie’s maternity shoot here) Actually, he is not quite so tiny now, but when these pictures were taken he was! I plan to get some updated ones of him soon.

When we took these he was 11 days old and though he has been a very good baby, when I was there he only wanted his Momma to hold him! I even went two days in a row and he was just not feeling like being a model. So any creative idea’s I had went out the window and we managed to get these sweet pictures:

Even though Julie is holding him here; it is one of my favorites….

As you can see; he had no intentions of staying in this cocoon!

As you can see, I love baby feet!

Love this shot… Julie and her husband Sean created/built the tree on the wall… LOVE it!

Congrats Julie and Sean! He is adorable!

I love coupons, they save me money

I went to Target to get a box of diapers over the weekend, I was happy to see the $1.oo coupon on the box, then when I stuck my fingers in the handles of the box,I felt something and looked and found another coupon, the ones that sometimes print off with your receipt at Target. Some very nice person obviously didn’t need it and took the time to go and stick it in the box of diapers. I was so pleased! Sounds silly maybe, but it made me happy that someone did that. It was a nice surprise, and who doesn’t like good surprises? It was kinda like getting good mail. You know, a card or something that you didn’t expect when you go get your mail, it makes you feel happy! Or like going to pay for your food at the drive thru window and are told that the person in front of you already paid for it. That hasn’t actually happened to me, but I hear of it happening and it would definitely make me happy!

So, whoever you are mystery coupon giver, Thank you!

And for your viewing pleasure; my girls. Again! They seem to always be my Miscellaneous Monday pictures!

Oh my goodness, this girl does love to swing!

Happy Monday, go do something ‘nice’ for someone today!

Slacker, busy, whatever you want to call it. Either way, I have neglected my blog this week. Again.

I promise to try and do better next week!

For now, I am posting this super quick before I run out the door… two snapshots from our week.

You know, just so you know I am still around!

Bristol Bee:

Kennedy and Mimi “Boewn” (Brown):

Have a great weekend…see ya next week!

I am a creature of habit in many ways. I almost always put my keys in the exact same spot. My cell phone is generally in one of two places – either charging or in my purse. At night I moisturize, brush my teeth then put on eye cream – in that order. I order the same food at our favorite drive in – every single time. (Stuart teases me about this, he’ll say “Have you decided what you are going to get?” on the way up there, knowing that I’ll order exactly the same thing I always order! Hmm, that might could be considered boring….!) Every Monday I wash our sheets, and every Sunday night I blog and schedule it for Monday. Miscellaneous Monday.

But last night I didn’t. I just didn’t feel inspired. I wasn’t in the mood. So I didn’t do it.

I could have done it this morning, but instead I let both my girls lay in the bed with me while we all woke up.  Kennedy talked and giggled in her little ‘morning’ voice, Bristol smiled and watched every move her big sister made (so did I or Bristol might have gotten squished!) and I just laid there and enjoyed every minute of it.

We got up and made our way to the kitchen where I fixed juice, then started laundry (my sheets, every Monday!) I made cookies for a lunch/playdate. Let me take a minute to talk about these cookies. The are delicious. You can find the recipe here. And since I am crazy about chocolate I add a bag of milk chocolate chips and leave out the sliced almonds and toffee bits. But, I have made them with those ingredients as well and no matter how you do them they are delish! Just try them, your taste buds will not be disappointed!

Anyway,  I spent the afternoon with friends watching our kids play while dipping our feet in kiddie pools and just talking. Loved it.

My sister asked if I forgot to blog Miscellanous Monday and I was all  “no… just not really in the mood” then I wondered aloud if people really cared if I skipped a Monday. I mean, not to sound all down - I don’t mean it that way at all. I just wondered, would anyone besides my sisters, Mom, and MawMaw (who claims she has to check my blog just to see my girls, MawMaw I am definitely coming to eat lunch with you soon!) notice?

Then I checked my stats, just because my sister said she noticed I didn’t blog, and I realized a lot of people realized I didn’t blog. Opps. Sorry ya’ll!

So I am sitting here blogging a late Miscellanous Monday post. And you are getting a great cookie recipe out of it if nothing else!

In other random-ness tonight. I would like to say a not-so-random Thank You to my blog readers. To my commentors. To my clients. To my friends and family who encourage me. To other photographers who inspire and encourage me. Thanks to you all. And when I am not feeling inspired to post and instead spend the day chilling out, bear with me, I’ll likely be back because just taking a break sometimes can be refreshing. And inspiring. And I hope that when I do blog you are not bored out of your minds!

And since this entire post is a bit random, I am going to go through my random pictures and post a few here. (my girls of course!) Enjoy!

Happy Monday night! (and please overlook any grammar or spelling errors. Or anything that just does not make sense… it is late!)

Organization. I love it, yet I don’t feel that I am a very organized person. I plan to get a little more organized starting today. I am going to go through closets and drawers and kitchen cabinets.. Oh…. the kitchen cabinets! I am to the point now that while unloading the dishwasher I open one cabinet in particular very carefully for fear that a pan or mixing bowl will come out and land on my toes. I quickly pile whatever I need to in the cabinet and shut the door as fast as I can – willing it to stay put.

It’s ridiculous. And annoying.

I just hope that Kennedy does not realize that the child lock on that cabinet door is not working and she can get into it. Because if she does figure that out then we can kiss organization good-bye!

Speaking of Miss Kennedy Grace… I love her ‘silly faces’….

I also love seeing her love on her sister…

She pushes this train around and says “chu-chu!” as a way of entertaining Bristol… it is pretty cute, I must say!

Happy Monday…go clean out a drawer or something!

Honestly, I think we did this shoot on one of the most humid, hot days that we’ve had this year her in NC. It was SO hot! But this family stuck it out and we managed to get some great pictures.

Meet Jeff and Phoebe and their kids Sam, Sophie and William.

And their ‘daughter’ from Russia here for the summer; Laida.

Loved shooting these two… they make each other laugh a lot! Here Jeff was getting payback for teasing Phoebe about something, and I just love it!

See what I mean? They laugh…a lot!

One of my favorites:

Phoebe had the great idea to use this globe in some of the shots since we were including Laida in the shoot.

Loved both of these and couldn’t decide which I loved more…

Remember I said it was HOT? Well… the kids got cooled off right before I left, by being thrown into the pool!

Thank you again Jeff and Phoebe for asking me to capture these for you… and for a great time!

My little chunky monkey Bristol… oh how I love her!

She had her 4 month check up yesterday; 15.3 pounds of pure cuteness! And she loves her tongue…

Ahh, this one may just need a frame!

Seriously! That smile takes over her whole face.. and always puts a huge smile on my face!

There is that tongue again..

I knew that shooting my friend/cousin/fellow photog Alicia and her two girls, Charlotte and Samantha, was going to be fun. And I was right! She wanted something fun and very ‘summer’. We talked about this shoot, tossed around a few idea’s, she found the perfect location, we were pretty excited, then we got rained out the day we planned to do it

But, we just re-scheduled and had great weather the 2nd time around. She came up with some great idea’s and props (read what she has to say about that here on her blog). and I could hardly wait to make it all happen for her. I LOVE working with props and idea’s and always encourage anyone I shoot to bring on anything, I love to make an idea a reality.

I went to her house, we loaded up her car with all the fun stuff we were going to use, drove to our location, got out, and that is when it hit me. The jitters. I actually got nervous! They stepped in front of my camera and I.got.nervous!

Now, I get nervous about shoots, that is nothing new. But nothing too bad, just a little case of the butterflies, then I get there and do my thing and they all go away. But this didn’t hit till I got there! Suddenly I was like Eeeiii! Alicia is a photographer also, she knows what I am doing behind the camera… And that made me nervous for some reason. However, it passed quickly (thank goodness!) and I had a blast!

The adorable hair posies Charlotte and Samantha are wearing came from McGeeMommy… she is super creative – check her out!

LOVE this one:

Alicia and her girls know how to have fun in front of a camera… and just be themselves, I loved it!

The fresh, cold lemonade that Alicia brought was delish… thanks for bringing me a cup and sharing ya’ll!

As soon as I snapped this next picture I loved it!

I couldn’t decide which I liked best of the next two, so I posted both!

For some reason I love this next one.. Even though it is far from perfect!

Alicia, I look forward to you doing our family shoot! Thanks for rocking it out in front of my camera!

Whew! Last week was a little bit busy (to say the least!) I barely turned on my computer, so this week is going to be a big game of ‘catch-up’ for me.

As for right now I am going to leave  you a cute picture of Kennedy sliding down a sliding board with her cousins Bailey and Allie (you really cannot see Allie since she is behind Bailey) they were here last week from TN staying with Mimi (along with their brother Owen). Kennedy enjoyed every single minute and we are already missing them…

Short and sweet. That is what this post is! Expect to see some great shoots this week… till then, have yourself a fabulous Monday!

‘Round here when we need something quick and easy for supper we eat breakfast.  Pancakes, bacon and eggs are one of our favorites. Last week Kennedy ‘helped’ me make the pancakes, so of course I had to snap a few pictures….

Mmmm, that picture gives me the warm fuzzies…I get excited just thinking about cooking with my girls! I love to cook, I don’t consider myself a great cook, I just love it. And cooking with my girls, well, I am definitely looking forward to it!

She even wiped the counter after she got done stirring the batter..

 Happy Monday… have a wonderful week!