A Visit Home {Family Portraits}

A dear friend from high school moved away several years ago to Washington with her husband who is in the Navy.  She is fortunate enough to come home about once a year to visit and if I'm lucky her twin makes the trip down from NJ for a few days.  On this particular visit I got lucky and was able to spend a couple of mornings with the both of them and little Miss Olivia.  The first morning was spent in Summerville at Azalea Park...thank you to Maegan Bell for pointing me in the right direction ...and the second was spent preparing food for Olivia's Baptism Luncheon...well watching Mrs. Causey mostly and enjoying several glasses of wine!  I walked away with a few of Mrs. Causey's recipes that I can't WAIT to try ;)

I love these girls (that includes you too Mrs. Causey)...and Chris your not so bad yourself!

The Rubino Family...+ one on the way :)

There are such a lovey couple...

Little Olivia was wiped out by the end!

Caroline's twin and my NJ Housewife...sorry Heather had to throw that in there!

Nothing but laughs when I'm around these girls!

A Day at the Beach {Spring Break Adventure}

My two little munchkins are enrolled in a 2 year old program in West Ashley at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Weekday School and they had their Spring Break last week.  Charles and Dawson have been dying to wear their bathing suits and get their feet wet in the ocean.  So I decided to tackle Edisto Beach and invited along one of their classmates, Allie, with her mom and little sister Emma.  It was still a little chilly and pretty windy, but all in all it was a great afternoon and the kids loved it!  Charles was the brave one and kept venturing a little bit deeper each time he went in.

They are now infatuated with sharks and after reading several books about them, Charles can't get enough.  Every little river or waterway we cross over he asks if big sharks or little sharks are in there.  Today we visited a friend for a few minutes and he asked her, "Do you know about Mako Sharks?"  He went on to tell her they were the fastest sharks in the ocean and pretty aggressive.  I will be bragging about this for awhile ;)

Hopefully this won't keep them from being water lovers!

Jumping Waves

Emma loving the sand :)

Finally! A Boy for Jennifer {Newborn}

For a little over a year I have been cheating on my husband...with my gym girls.  For awhile, up until I've had a few setbacks that keep me from the hard core workouts, my schedule revolved on getting to the gym to work out with "the girls".  A small group of them all met a year ago February in boot camp and I shortly joined them.  We are all moms with children at different stages and I tell you they have seriously saved my life a few times.  Each one has a different perspective on life, marriage, motherhood (between the 7 of us we have 27 children total), and everything else under the sun, so they are my go to girls for advice! 

Jennifer is one of the youngest moms with the most children, 4 girls, one bonus son, and little Chase. Sara and I were so excited to finally meet him and have the pleasure of photographing him.  We are so happy Jennifer finally got the little boy she's been waiting for.  He has a lot of sporting experiences to look forward to with his mom ;)

Enjoy!

I absolutely LOVE this picture of his face.  This was taken with a group of shots where he was giving the funniest facial expressions...wonder what caused them, hmmm?

Every time we have a newborn session I always try to incorporate these adorable blocks and it just doesn't EVER work out!  I know Chase is screaming, but this is probably the best picture we've gotten with them...

The future sports fanatic :)

William +4 {Easter Morning}

In a previous post I spoke of my bonus son, William, and I introduced you to his newest brother Wesley.  Well on Easter Sunday William's mother and I arranged a portrait date to try and get a picture of William with all of his brothers.  It was a crazy morning with 3 toddlers running in different directions and a little infant not being able to fend for himself against the gnats. 

I'm hoping this will be an annual event.  I love seeing William when all his brother's are together and I am so lucky Lauren and I share the bond we do.  Thank you to Lauren and Nick for braving the mid-morning gnats and taking time out of your busy Easter morning to help me make this happen!  Looking forward to next year ;)

All the handsome fellas...

Wade with his little buddies...can you tell who my sneaky one is?

Lauren is going to have her hands full when William becomes interested in the girls...such beautiful eyes!

And one last little scenery picture...

Spring Has Arrived!

Spring is always a welcomed season!  Every Islander looks forward to bringing out their flip flops, cranking their boats up, and throwing on a tank top or bathing suit.  Here on Yonges Island you know Spring is in the air when you hear the buzz of bumble bees, smell the wisteria about to bloom, and see buds on the dogwood trees...oh and when your husband is practicing his turkey calls :)

The insects have begun to emerge...



Time to bring out the mason jars to collect caterpillars...I think we have about 7 right now!

One of my mother-in-laws beautiful roses

Not sure what kind of flower this is, but thought it was pretty leaning against the post...from my mother-in-laws yard.

Time for lazy Sunday afternoon naps...

We are all too familiar with the pollen in the air...we are reminded of it daily when getting in the car.  I have to run my wipers every morning to get the fresh layer of pollen off the windshield...be careful wearing white ladies!

Oh how I look forward to blackberry picking!  I drive past this field full of blooms promising me blackberries in a couple of weeks...

The azaleas were a little late blooming this year, but it was well worth the wait!  If you haven't been to Azalea Park yet, you need to make the trip!  It is in full bloom and beautiful!

Enjoy your Spring!

Ava Jane's Birthday Celebration

My boys and I had the pleasure of celebrating Ava's 1st birthday a few Saturday's ago.  And who can resist a 1st Birthday celebration?  It's such a milestone for parents and baby!  I took this opportunity to practice my indoor photography and using my hot shoe flash.  I was pretty happy with the end result.

Meggan is quite the crafty one.  The theme for Ava's party was pinwheels and here is the little take home treat bags.

My beautiful friend and crafting partner, Meggan, with her birthday girl.

Ava not sure what to do with her cake...

Charles of course knowing what to do...

This little cutie is one of Ava's older brothers, Jack.

Present time...

Spring Has Sprung ;)

What a morning we had with 4 children, a rabbit, 2 ducklings, and swarms of gnats! Luckily the rabbit enjoyed playing dead and the ducks were still small enough to keep in their little box once we were done with them.
I have never seen a rabbit so laid back and easy going before. At one point Emma, the youngest of the 4, was chewing on the rabbit's foot, picking the rabbit upside down, and grabbing fistfuls of hair. The rabbit never even flinched!


And now for the boys...

Usually the pictures I get of Charles his eyes close during that 1/25oth of a second and I get a shot of him with his eyes half open or completely closed. Every once in a while I can get a good shot, and I've learned to use the rapid fire setting so I can take multiple shots. Here I wasn't so lucky...this was intentional and Charles' strong willed personality shines through.


Do you think he's the more serious one?

My little D that loves the camera :)


Thanks to Holly for supplying the animals!