We are still settling in and enjoying life as we know it right now. Funny how you forget how much time it takes to just get little things done with a newborn. Even when you have a good baby, it still takes a lot of time to get the normal stuff done. And the laundry…how does a newborn create so much laundry?!

Kennedy and Bristol are totally in love with Tenley. And really, in between the “Girls, get out of her face, that is enough kisses!” I love watching them talk to her and ‘take care’ of her. Kennedy makes up songs when Tenley cries, Bristol sings along sometimes, even though she does not have a clue what the words might be, since Kennedy is often making it up as she goes…

I walked in the living room one day to find Bristol like this:

what made it extra funny to me was the fact that the sunglasses just happened to match her outfit perfectly…

I am in love with these next two shots… Bristol wanted to kiss Tenley while I was taking her picture one day, and I love that I managed to get these…

Then Bristol decided she wanted me to take pictures of her, so I jumped at the chance! I just let her do whatever she wanted, this is my Bristol Bee for sure

Kennedy jumped in for about 2 seconds…

Happy Monday … I hope you all have a wonderful week!

I make it sound all easy and wonderful don’t I? Well, lets keep it real. It isn’t all easy, or wonderful! But, for the most part it is, really. You know, we have those moments where I wonder “what in the world am I supposed to do now?!” with the house a wreck, kids screaming, refusing to do simple things just to see if I will make them, etc. Yep, it happens. But, I love the other moments, and there are plenty of those too. You know, the good ones. The ones where Kennedy asks “Where is my sister?” then both her and Bristol go running to her crib and climb up just to look at her. The moments that I hear Bristol say “Hey Sweetie! Your so cute!” (because really, just hearing her say that is so cute!)

These moments, the good and the bad, the good definitely outweigh the bad.

So far, Tenley is a happy baby…and that makes me a happy Momma!

“Hey Momma”

Happy one week Tenley, we love you!

We are completely in love.

She was born Tuesday, May 1st, 2 days before her due date (that was a first for me!) We are all doing great and enjoying these precious newborn days….

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!

I was happy when the two younger girls came running out to meet me as soon as I pulled up, they were pretty excited about their shoot

Simple detail, but I love how she has her toes pulled up in this second shot…

At one point we told the girls to go crazy and do whatever they wanted – and I love what we got

I posted a little sneak peek from this series of shots awhile back…here are two more that I love…

Their ‘family’ includes a lot of animals (Ashley runs a business called Barnyard Celebrations) so we had to include some of these sweet guys too…

Chip and Ashley, thanks again for asking me to do these for you guys!
XoXo

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 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!

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

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!

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!