J.'s Guitar Recital

Mr. J. Man had his first guitar recital.

Like a rockstar,

he got up and played "twinkle twinkle little star."

We all sat in the seats proud as can be...

He likes to talk to Chris "Danell" about playing his guitar,

so we were glad to be in attendance.

Nana and Dee with our little musician.

Groupies...

J. with his biggest fans...

Jenny, Addalee, Johnny, and in utero, Baby Cole

J., me, and Mr. Connell

So glad to see J. play at his guitar recital!

We couldn't be prouder of the little man.

xoxo

Panera and the Slab

8 high school girls + me

We met up for dinner and ice cream during summer break...

it's so fun being friends with these ladies!

xoxo

Zac Brown Band

Who wouldn't love an outdoor concert with the Zac Brown Band?

Pair it with some great friends

and we had a lovely night with the Kehne's!

Memorial Day...

...the day we honor the fallen service men and women of our country.

As a sister to a former Marine {and who took that picture on one of his deployments}, 

I know what it's like to pray all day that he'd come home safely.  He did.  

I cannot imagine what it's like for those who's loved ones didn't.

So, today on Memorial Day,

we celebrate our freedom that cost them their lives 

and we honor them.

Thank you to all men and women who served or are serving our country 

and to the families behind them.

I am very grateful.

Outside home improvements

For our holiday weekend, 

Mr. Connell and I have been busy doing some outside home improvement.

Things we've wanted to do for a bit now.  We just chose to do them on one of the hottest days!

We pulled up our sleeves and did the following:

1.  Mowed and weed-eated --- Courtesy of Mr. Connell

2.  Made a concrete paver spot to sit our garbage can on --- 2 may or may not be broken...  Courtesy of Mrs. Connell 

3.  Trimmed the hedges --- Some look like Edward Scissorhands got a hold of them...   Courtesy of Mr. Connell

4.  Planted some flowers --- Courtesy of Mrs. Connell

That picture above looks great until I move right a bit...

That's what we're left with.

1.  A garbage can that's too loaded down to move onto the new paver patio

2.  10 bags of mulch we didn't get done

3.  A whole lotta red clay stains on our driveway  

(We had to dig up about two feet of red clay in our flower bed!)

and Mr. Connell wouldn't want to remember when that 10th bag of red clay we removed busted all down his back (and into his shoes) as he was carrying it to the trash.

Let's just focus on the positive...

All this work has already made the long weekend feel very productive...

not to mention, those flowers really make me happy!

I was even excited about watering them after we got home from dinner at my lovely sister's home.

Hope you're having a beautiful, flower and family filled Memorial weekend!

xoxo

Teeball

Cousin Jenny called.

She needed Chris to be a stand-in "Dad" for her son, J, at his teeball game. 

(The real dad was out of town for business.)

How could anyone say no to this face?

We surely couldn't!

So a couple of weeks ago, 

Mr. Connell found himself on the teeball field...

Main assignment - stop small boys from throwing dirt on each other and direct them to go after the ball as such:

J.'s pretty much the best player they have.

Especially if you ask any of his cheerleaders...

Beautiful little sister,

Addalee...

...who is about to be a big sister to baby girl Cole once she decides to grace us with her presence.

 J, Addalee, and Cole's mother - my cousin Jenny and our seating arrangement:

You didn't see two seats?

Oh, right!  Queen, errr, Cousin Jenny wanted to sit in the shade where there was only one chair.

So this is where Addalee and I sat:

Good thing we moved quickly to get this seat!  :)

I'd take that little person in my lap any day though.  Addalee just melts right in...

You can't sit too long as the family photographer!  J. was up to bat.

Some of the best photos of children come when you get down on their level.  You see the world just a little differently and it makes a big difference.

Do you see that little face looking right at me?!  He's become aware of the camera, so he almost forgot everything he was doing to look at me and smile.

Which is exactly why those are my only two "batting" shots.

The last one is blurry because I saw that face in my viewfinder and was already lowering my camera.

Some good advice is to not to have a child look at a camera and smile every time you have one out.  It will cause situations like the above and/or you'll get the fake smile.  {I will be taking my own advice obviously!}

Running for third and getting a high five after.

There should be dancing on every base.

After the game was over, we took a few pictures on the sideline.

It's amazing how he's changed since I took photos of his teeball game last year.

We love you, J. man!

Side note:  Please say a prayer for a safe delivery, a healthy momma, and a healthy baby girl!

Another side note:  Here's a good tutorial on making animation photos.

Lake day with Chase

Beach bungalow

Dear Mis'er Connell,

Do you remember when we joked that our bungalow would probably be the smallest one on the beach? 

We laughed that it could possibly be a little shack,

but that we didn't care because we had each other.

Then we spotted her.

Our little beach bungalow for the week.

The Fountain of Youth.

You looked at me and then we busted out laughing.

Because, yes indeed.  Our house was a little beach shack.

She wasn't much to look at on the outside {or inside},

but if you look closely, you can see the magic of her.

Our quaint little beach bungalow was right on the beach.

and life doesn't get much better than that.

Amen.

the Kehne Family

Chris and I just returned from one very restful 2nd anniversary trip to the Alabama Gulf Shores.  It was a perfect week {and since it's Friday, I'm still considering this weekend part of our vacation).  I am definitely not setting my alarm in the morning!  One full week of that and I may not know what to do when it goes off on Sunday morning for church.

Before we hit the highway for the 9 hour trip, I made sure to have these photos ready for the pretty people in them.

The Kehne family.

The Kehne's are great friends of ours who I had been looking forward to taking pictures of.  

There is never a dull moment with this family of three {plus one on the way}!

Kate, Emery, and Seth

They have their own family blog.  

You can read all about them and their fun lives here.  Kate's a frequent update-r.

Their home is picturesque (you'll see below), so that was the natural place for us to meet.  We met up early one morning and Kate even had a delicious breakfast casserole made for us to enjoy before our shoot!

Emery is a little shy at first with new people, but perfectly full of personality with the two people she loves the most.  The love between this family is evident.

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.  

-Neil Postman

Pretty Emery looking for a puppy in my lens:

It always helps to get children to look right at me.  :)

Speaking of puppies, to get this on-the-move-all-the-time-does-her-own-thing two year old to look in my direction, I used every animal noise I could come up with.  and probably made some up!  It didn't always work, but at least when it didn't, the parents got a good laugh.

What comes out of my mouth even surprises me in that moment of "look over here!"

However, it's those moments where no one even cares that the camera is around that I love the most.

Emery, being the first born, tends to already like to tell people what to do.  Her favorite command is "sit" for when she wants you to sit by her.  It's so funny!  and here, her parents are directing her to come and "sit."  She thought it was hilarious!

{Em, I am glad to see you're getting a hang of this so early!

I'm a first born as well and turned out perfectly.

Just don't ask my siblings!}

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward."

Psalm 127:3

Kate brought bubbles along our trip around the yard and at last Emery got to experience them...

the little angel.

and the product of her parents' love...

A parent's love is whole no matter how many times divided.

-Robert Brault

The Kehne's and their beautiful family home...

Seth and Katie spent their first years of marriage here.  This is the house they brought Emery home to and the one that holds so many memories for them.  Because their family is expanding {Kate's due in July}, they just purchased a new house with a bit more square footage.  It's a beautiful home, one that they'll soon make new memories in, but this first house will always have a special place in their hearts.

I was glad to get some photos of them and their first family home.

Last but not least, we'll end with this one of Miss Emery, standing in front of the irises, pretending to take a bath:

One of those "father teaches daughter" tricks!

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  

-Elizabeth Stone

Thank you to the Kehne's for the opportunity to take these photographs for you!

It was a pleasure.

xoxo