too cute

When I was taking pictures of Analee the other day, I got this one of Alayna. I thought it was too cute not to post.

I've seriously neglected blogging lately:(. Life is so crazy! It's really hard to believe that next week, I will be 4 months away from getting married. Time has really flown by and I know it's not going to slow down. It's really exciting, but also kinda' scary when I think about all the stuff that has to get done before now and then. When I got engaged, I pushed a lot of stuff to the back of my head and decided I wouldn't worry about it until May or June. Well May is almost here!

It is so nice to now have a house! The closing had been scheduled three different weeks, but the third week it actually happened. The Lord really blessed in that situation as Matt and I never thought we would start out in such a nice place. Now I'm looking forward to cleaning the place this weekend! I love seeing dirty things come clean.

It's also been nice to have my future in-laws around for a little while. We've enjoyed getting together with them and the three J's.

Well, I'm sure y'all are tired of me rambling -- until later...

roses

Here's just a quick picture I took with my phone's camera of the beautiful roses Matt sent me. These are so huge and they aren't even all open. Thank you Matt -- I love you!

some faves

Here are some of mine and Matt's favorite pictures that Susan took for us. I loved all of them and it was really hard to pick out some favorites. The ones she put on her blog were on the top of my list, but here are some more that the two of us really like. You'll probably be able to figure out some that were his and some that were mine. :)

This is the spot we got engaged...

Thank you so much Susan for taking our engagement pictures! You did an amazing job and we are very happy to have these.

past.present.future

I'm behind on blogging and I am attempting to catch up. The beginning of March, we had Tj and Susan's kids for a little over a week. We had lots of fun and I loved having kids around to photograph. :)

This little girl has so many fun expressions! She doesn't say very many understandable words, but she has her own way of communicating. I loved how she called me "mama" -- so sweet! She also really loves Matt and she LOVED when he was around. She would usually go to him over me. 

One word to describe Josiah ---- ENERGY

So present life --- wedding plans are coming along good. Matt and I got quite a few things accomplished Monday night and it's all becoming real to me. My dress is ordered and I seriously can't wait to get it! Unfortunatly, I have to wait awhile.

I guess this would fit the past catergory better, but oh well. It was a lot of fun photographing the wedding on Saturday! It was a great first experierence and I can't wait to get to do more in the future, Lord willing. I was surprised but I wasn't really nervous. Once the wedding actually started, I did get kind of a nervous feeling, but it went away. I didn't have as much time as I wanted with Joy and the girls, since it took longer for them to get ready then planned, but it worked. I found out some cons to being known by everyone in the church AND being the photographer, but the overall experience was great! I seriously could do a lot more! Check my other blog for wedding pictures. I have a couple up as a preview for all those that have asked me. I'll have more up once I have them done. I guess that would be the future. :)

olivia

A couple weeks ago, I took Olivia's one year old pictures. I loved photographing this litte girl. She is such a happy baby and is growing up so fast! She did a wonderful job and was very content the whole time. You can see more pictures here.

here it is...

my photography site...

beach trip -- friday and saturday

Friday--

On Friday morning, some of us went down to watch the sunrise. We weren't there quite as early as we should have been to see the sun peek over the horizon, but it was early enough to see a beautiful sky. We couldn't have asked for better weather that day. The forecast actually showed rain for Friday and I was really praying that it wouldn't rain. Thank God it didn't!

 

The dads went out early with their sons to go jogging...

Kenna in action...

Three of my beautiful nieces...

Matt and Layne -- this child loves Matt

Suzanna wrote "I like playing at the beach" and Ella wrote her name.

I first thought this was as person, but the artist said it was a giraffe.

Popular little girl!

Playing in the sand...

This little girl was dumping sand on herself.

Tj built this sandcastle. Matt and I did the wall around the castle. I have a finished product picture below. It became a popular castle and everyone that walked past stopped to look at it. A lot of people took pictures as well. The next morning, the castle was still standing and people were still taking pictures of it.

Abel and Brandon

The 1 year old!

Hannah and Livie

On Friday night, we all went to a nearby park, ate pizza and let the kids play. We then made a quick stop at McDonald's for ice cream and went back to the hotel. The hotel let us use the banquet room again that night so we hung out in there and played games. The hotel was great with us and were very helpful. The breakfast room was really big and they had a nice big breakfast. They also let us use the breakfast room for lunch on Friday afternoon. We cleaned the hotel out of chocolate chips cookies the two times they brought them out at night. They were good!

The kids loved having Uncle Joe around...

These two were together all weekend!

Saturday--

On Saturday morning, Susan did engagement pictures for Matt and I. The three of us had a lot of fun and St. Augustine was such a cool place to do them. I can't wait to see how they turned out. I know they'll be great thanks to my awesome sister who is an amazing photographer. 

We made a quick trip to the Fort before heading home.

  

I had a really good weekend and it was great to spend it with Matt and the rest of my family. I would've love to have the entire family there, but was happy to have the ones there and enjoy the time together. We've never done anything like this and I really want us to do this again one day as we all had an enjoyable time.