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!

I have to say, this little guy did not make my job easy!  Maybe that is one reason I am so in love with these images, or maybe it is just because he is SO stinkin’ cute!  See for yourself:

LOVE the red lollipop sticking out beside this blue ball… and his little legs…

Such a rebel:

Okay, this picture may not be the best, but I love it because it is so real! He just ran up to the garbage can and tried to look in it, so forced myself not to think of all the nasty germs he was touching and snapped a picture instead! (but then we did get him away from it!)

Isn’t he a sweetheart?!

You may have noticed (or not) that I haven’t blogged since last Monday, which is less than what I have been doing lately. The reason? My computer crashed. Yeah. Can I get a big ‘ol “UGH!”?  I think that was the 4th time it crashed in about 5 or 6  weeks, this time I had to replace it. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but hey, I did it. And am still in the process of getting all my files and programs re-loaded.

Today I am going to share with you a few shots that I took last weekend – 4th of July weekend…

We went to the local 4th of July parade:

While Kennedy and I were riding the ride (above) I saw my husband squatting down taking this next picture… I love it!

Kennedy wanted to ride the pony, untill it was time to actually get on it!

Then we had a cookout with friends…

Kennedy crashed at one point!

 Happy Monday!

Miscellaneous Monday is late. It’s still Monday – just late on Monday! In fact, late enough that your probably reading this on Tuesday. 

I haven’t even turned my computer on till now. Well, I take that back, I did turn it on Sunday morning to see how much lemon juice I was supposed to use in a recipe I was making, but I didn’t even wait for it to power on before I walked away deciding to just take a chance on the lemon juice (I used a teaspoon and it tasted great, in case your wondering!)

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! Our’s was wonderful, and busy. I have always loved July 4th. I love cookouts and fireworks and parades and all the fun stuff we normally do on this particular weekend.  I did take a few pictures this weekend, but they are all still on my camera. I’ll try to post a few once I get them off my cards… Today I’ll share with you a few random shots that I am loving.

I love flowers. I love to have fresh flowers in the house, they just make me feel happy! So, I planted wild flowers this year but I think I planted them too late because they really have not done much. In fact, I didn’t realize any had come up at all till Kennedy walked up to me holding one she had pulled up by the roots saying “Momma, flower!”.   I proudly stuck it in a jar of water and put it on our table! I also snapped some pictures of it and really love the way they turned out. I love the simplicity of these, the negative space, the grey tones and the splash of color.

These are a few recent shots I got of Kennedy and Bristol… Bristol receiving a kiss from Kennedy:

Sigh. Pure sweetness.

Kennedy ‘reading’ to Bristol (this was her idea and it melted my heart!)

Kennedy managed to get a little bit of Bristol’s spit up on her arm… but she has a great attitude about it!

 Ah, love those girlies!

Happy Monday – or whatever day it is your reading this! I hope you all have a fabulous week. XoXo

My friend Julie is expecting her first baby, so she and I went out on a hot Sunday afternoon and got some good shots of her and her belly bump.  Now when I say hot, it was hot!  She was such a trooper though, I know she had to be 20 degrees hotter than I was since she is pregnant, but she just kept on looking fabulous and doing whatever I asked!

I used my frame a lot in these pictures, I might have over-used it! But, considering she is an artist I felt like it was fitting for her. Plus I was hauling the thing around so I intended to make good use of it!

love this one:

Love laughter!

I got in my head that I wanted a weeping willow tree in this shoot. I could just ‘see’ her standing among the limbs. And one of the many reasons I love to shoot Julie is she goes along with my visions. If I am feeling something she just goes with it! Anyway, back to the tree and my vision - I got my tree, put her under it, and the wind decides to start blowing! (which did make the heat a bit better but made shooting a bit harder!) I got a lot of this:

It took some patience but I finally got what I wanted:

Julie: You look gorgeous and are going to make a wonderful Mother! XoXo

As I mentioned before, Julie is an artist. If you need any unique, custom art work definitely check her out here!

Shanda and I must have called each other a 100 times  (okay, I am exaggerating a little!) about this shoot. We did it a few weeks ago when we were getting plenty of rain here in NC. It would be perfectly clear one minute then pouring rain the next…. Which caused us to re-schedule a time or two! However, we finally got together on a day that was clear and perfect for a family shoot.

Here are some of my favorites….

Harrison was born a day before Bristol, isn’t he adorable?

I recently got this frame at a yard sale… after taking the mirror out of it and giving it a fresh coat of white paint I think it makes a nice prop! You’ll be seeing more of it in my shoots for sure!

I think Shanda’s eyes are so pretty in this next shot..