Bryn & Tiffany: Sunrise at Folly Beach, SC

Here they are! The long-awaited sunrise beach photos of my brother and his sweet, beautiful girlfriend:

(above) Look at that stance! Can you tell that Bryn has been attending The Citadel for almost two years? The way he stands drives me bonkers because he looks so stiff!

(above) My favorite! Finally got Bryn to loosen up in front of the camera :)

Thanks, Bryn and Tiff, for getting up SUPER early on a Sunday morning so I could experiment with sunrise lighting :) Love y'all!

Super LAME

That's how I feel about my lack of blog posts lately.

I won't make excuses. I'll just fill you in on the last few weeks and hopefully do better at updating from here on out :)

• In addition to my full-time 50 hour per week job, I've started scheduling family and kid photo shoots on Saturdays and Sundays. 'Are you CRAZY?!,' you ask. Yes. Most definitely, I am. I LOVE photographing children and building up my clientele...even if it means working 7 days (and close to 60 hours) a week sometimes. Wedding season is getting ready to kick into high gear soon, too (I shoot weddings with this guy, remember?). Our first wedding of the year is this coming Saturday. Yippee!
• My family came to visit this past weekend! Bryn was on Spring Break from The Citadel...so he, Tiffany, Mama, and Daddy made their way up to our house to celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early (with a PUBLIX cake, nonetheless!), shop, eat, relax, and go to Elevation. We took the LYNX light rail into the city to Elevation's Uptown campus on Sunday and enjoyed lunch together before my family had to get back to Charleston yesterday afternoon.
• Sam and Toby are growing like WEEDS! Toby is talking in complete sentences now and is most definitely too heavy for me to carry around on my hip like I used to. Sam is smart as a whip and has fabulous handwriting these days. He has started playing tee-ball, swims like a fish, and knows how to play more songs on the piano than I can count on both of my hands. Have I really been with Sam and Toby for more than a year-and-a-half?! Wow...

Stay tuned for those beach photos of Bryn and Tiffany I've been promising to share for the past few weeks. Here's one of my favorites:

Leave it to me to pick a black and white photo as one of my favorites from a colorful sunrise shoot :)

Skylar and Cole

I was invited over to take photos of these little munchkins on Sunday afternoon! Aren't they gorgeous?!

Skylar (almost 2) and Cole (3) were so much fun to photograph! Skylar would have much rather been watching The Jungle Book than posing for my camera (but who wouldn't?!). I definitely got my workout chasing Cole around and LOVED shooting in the Williams family's beautiful, completely shaded backyard. Here are a few of my favorite moments from my time spent with Skylar and Cole:

I hope to see you again soon, Williams family!

Red Birdie

Today is the first day of SPRING! Yippee!

One of my favorite parts of Spring (besides the 70 degree weather!) is when the birds come out to sing and fly around. The boys and I love to go to the park and see how many different kinds of birds we can find.

I have lots of fond memories of my childhood, but one of my absolute favorites involves those cute little "red birdies" we've seen flying around a lot lately.

When my brother and I were little, we lived in a house with a huge picture window in the living room that overlooked our big, beautiful yard. He and I used to sit there for hours while we watched the birds play and listened to them sing. Every time Bryn saw a Cardinal out the window, he would point and scream, "My red birdie! My red birdie!"

Bryn honestly thought every time he saw a Cardinal at our house or around town that it was the same bird. Any time anyone in the family would see a Cardinal, we'd say, "Look, Bryn! It's your red birdie!" It made him so happy :)

Eighteen years later, I still think of my brother every single time I see a Cardinal fly by. I can't help but smile and think to myself: Look, Bryn! It's your red birdie!

The Half-Dozen and A Rubber Chicken

Aaron and I had a great time with the "Half-Dozen" this past weekend! Apparently, our Nintendo Wii was the highlight of us coming to stay with the kids and they thought Aaron was the most fun babysitter EVER. Go figure. He still claims he's ready for kids any time now. He also told the "Half-Dozen" that six kids isn't enough. Eight or nine is his magic number.

Ummmm...absolutely NOT.

Here is a photo of three-year-old Annaliese hugging the rubber chicken I won at a photography seminar last week:

More on the rubber chicken later ... :)

Sick

Whew! Sorry for week-long blog break.

Aaron and I had a great time in Charleston this past weekend...but I caught some weird sickness on Saturday and am just now starting to feel like my normal self again. After my fever reached 103.8 degrees on Sunday night (my brain felt like it was frying!), I decided it was time to go to the doctor on Monday morning. The doctor diagnosed me with a "severe" sinus infection, prescribed me a Z-Pak, and sent me on my way. My fever persisted until last night and now all that remains is a nasty cough and some chest pain. I'll take a cough and chest pain over a chills, aches, and a fever ANY day.

I've spent most of my down time sleeping and resting this week, so I have lots of photo stuff to catch up on! Check back next week for:

• Sunrise photos of Bryn and Tiffany at Folly Beach
• Holden - 4 months

Aaron and I are looking forward to spending this weekend with the "Half Dozen"! Read about last year's adventures here and here :)

It's About Time!

Last May was the first opportunity I had to see my brother (who attends The Citadel military college) march in a parade at school.

What made that particular parade more special than any other during the year was that it was the Graduation Parade honoring the 2008 Senior class and my brother had just completed Recognition Day a few days before. All of the cadets were in full dress (you know - grey pants, white shirt, jacket with tails, and a BIG, rediculous black hat with feathers on it) and they looked SHARP!

After 10 months of trying to "unzip" the photos from my brother's girlfriend's thumb drive, I finally got them off and decided that it was time to edit them.

I LOVE these photos. They're not the best photos I've ever taken, but they're very special because they never let me forget how hard my brother works and how proud we are of him.

My Mom took the photo above a few days before the Graduation Parade (on Recognition Day). I think I know who I got my gift of photography from :) Bryn is on the far left in the front row.

Aaron, Hobbes, and I are going home to Charleston this weekend and we're so excited to see my family. I have a few photo shoots lined up while we're there and I can't wait to share them with you when we return!

Snowed In

There's nothing like stomping around in 4 inches of snow while dressed in pink pajamas and polka dot rain boots :)

It snowed in the Charlotte area last night (for the third time this winter!) and Aaron and I woke up to snow and lots of ice on the ground this morning. I have spent most of my "snow day" cleaning the house, doing laundry, and ironing...but I did take a few minutes to go outside and take some photos.

I know I've had lots of "photo blogs" lately, but I promise to tell some cute stories about the boys soon!