Loving….

Warm spring mornings when we open the door right after breakfast and go outside to play. (this sure did not happen this weekend, we were back to winter-like weather)

Our hammock.

The tulips in full bloom in our front yard. (note to self; plant more this fall)

Flip Flops - especially Kennedy’s sparkly pink ones

 The idea of fireflies dancing in the night (or lightening bugs..whatever you want to call them, I love ‘em!)

The jeans I got for a deal off Ebay.

Finding new recipes that I like (like this one, Thanks to Hannah over at Farm Chick Paints)

Wisteria; it is in full bloom right now and I love seeing it growing wild all over the tree’s as I drive down the road.

Cherry Lemon Sundrop

My Friday night at home with the fam. (it included Deep Dish Pizza, Salad and Itilian bread for dinner, playing with the girls, and finishing a good book – Something Blue by Emily Giffin)

A children’s book called Mrs. McGee’s Coconut (it is currently our favorite book to read)

And these pictures of my girl (Kennedy)… I was sitting at my desk working on my computer, she was sitting at the kitchen table drawing. She turned around to talk to me for a minute and I decided to grab my camera and try to capture the moment. And for once, she did not refuse! (I am refraining from putting 50+ smiley faces here!)

She even suggested that we move to the floor for a couple. I kid you not!

What are you loving today?

Have a wonderful Monday!

Just a few shots I got from Bristol’s little party we had for her…

This gorgeous cake came from Daphne’s Simply Southern Bakery and I loved it!  I wanted to include bumble bee’s since we often call Bristol “Bristol Bee” and I just love how cute it turned out!  My Mom made the adorable cupcakes…

These pin-wheels made for a cute party favor…

Love this shot of Stu stealing a kiss from the birthday girl right before he lit her candle; reminded me of him getting one of his first kisses right after she was born…

Another thing that impressed me about this cake is the fact that it was icing, not fondant. So it was super easy for Bristol to dig right into! (nothing wrong with fondant at all, in fact, I thought that was what we had till she dug in… I was just impressed they got it so smooth!)

We thought it was funny she kept digging into the same spot

Then she decided to take everything off the top

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Just a few cute shots I got of Ally awhile back… You may remember her with her brothers and sister here.

Have a wonderful Thursday everyone

I did a shoot for my cousin’s, Jillie and Quincy, before Christmas for Christmas gifts for our grandparents and their Dad… (was there a lot of ‘for’s’ in there?! Yeah, I thought so!) Okay, I am half asleep while posting this… I am amazed I am even getting it posted at all. I’ll just stop typing now and post my favorite pictures

Just some random-ness that I noticed

Sally (their dog) got in some of the pictures too…

Wanna know how cold it was that day? Cold enough that the ducks walked on the pond instead of swimming in it. Brrrr!

Thanks Jillie and Quincy for bringing on your awesome-ness in the freezing cold! Love ya’ll!

Ahhh, My sweet Bristol turns one year old today!

How did we go from this:

To this, in such a short time?!

Oh how I love this child!

Bristol, Happy Birthday my sweet girl. I love you so very much!

A few more from her Birth Day:

Daddy getting some of his very first kisses…

When the room cleared out and I was supposed to be getting some rest, but was on that ‘high’ you get after having a baby, the “all I want to do is look at this precious baby and hold her and even though I am exhausted and need the sleep there is no way I can sleep right now” high… I looked over and saw this:  (totally melted my heart to see this proud Daddy just standing and looking at his 2nd little girl)

Daddy and his two girls:

And here she is yesterday:

XoXo

I decided to skip Miscellaneous Monday today because it is time I got done posting my pre-Christmas shoots. I mean really, I am doing spring shoots now and still blogging stuff that I did before Christmas! Time to get those wrapped up… (pun intended..heehee!)

So, today I bring you the Hoinkes Family. You may recognize Sol, the youngest member of the family, I have taken his pictures since he was a newborn. But this time, the whole family got in front of my camera

Love these of Madi… she is just so sweet!

Sol was not into getting his picture made outside. (did I mention it snowed on us that day?!) Anyway, for Sol it was all about exploring instead of taking pictures. So, once we were done we went back to thier house and got some of Sol. He showed me his stocking:

And his dance moves:

Love this shot:

Typically I would blog tomorrow (I am not on a ‘set’ blogging schedule, obviously! But I do try to blog on Friday’s….) but tomorrow I will be participating in the For Japan with Love day of blogging silence. I heard about it over on MomTog’s blog and decided to do it myself.  

Anyway, back to Tiffany and Gabriel This Mother/Son pair braved the freezing cold back in December. They shed their coats, jumped in front of my camera and totally rocked it. Not even kidding.

The day would not have been so cold if it had not been for the wind; it was so windy! But, it did make for some good hair blowing shots!

These next two might just be my favorites from the day:

But then, I love these too!

Tiffany, I am looking forward to doing that warm-weather shoot we dreamed spoke about that day as we ran to our car to get warm! Haha! Thanks again for asking me to do these and braving the cold

Cecilia is a single Mom. Her oldest son Gerardo has leukemia. When her boss (who happens to be a friend/client of mine) found out that Cecilia had never had family pictures taken, he and his wife, and Cecilia’s co-workers, arranged for me to come and do pictures for them.

They are  a beautiful and loving family and I am honored to have been able to capture them with my camera. This is a favorite shoot of mine to date, for many reasons, but one being the raw love and emotion that they were not afraid to show. They simply stepped in front of my camera and hugged and held and laughed and kissed. I gave little direction – there was no need for many words. But I feel like these pictures speak volumes.

Gerardo is sweet and kind, and so loving towards his Mom…

His two-year-old sister Amy adores him!

Andreas is 12, adorable and not into kissing and hugging on his Mom in public!

Near the end of our shoot I asked if there was a certain picture that they wanted to capture that we had not yet gotten. Gerardo and his Mom spoke in spanish for a moment and then he turned to me and said “My Mom would just like a picture of us face to face, looking in each others eyes.” That is when I got these next few, with tears in my own eyes…

What she asked for was so simple. Yet so meaningful. And as they looked at each other he bent down and kissed her forehead…

To everyone who had a part in helping make this shoot happen for this wonderful family; Thank you.

I am sure that Cecilia feels that she received a gift, but when I walked away that day I feel like I was the one who had received a gift. Funny how when we give, we often receive, unexpectedly.

Spring is in the air….

and we are loving it…

XoXo

Crazy as it may seem, I sometimes feel like I don’t take enough ‘anytime’ pictures of my girls. I get so caught up in other things and forget to just pull out the camera and snap a few pictures. Well, generally the camera is out, I just don’t always grab it! But, I did exactly that when I walked down our hall the other day and found Kennedy and Bristol playing on the floor together. I thought “ah, the laundry can wait” and I went about the business of capturing them - in the moment.

Love. Laughter.

And this laughter? Makes me laugh!

Happy Monday!