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Ummmm, seriously?

No we aren’t twins, but if we were she would definitely be the prettier one! This past weekend I went to Texas for a visit with my family. I hadn’t photographed Melissa in a while and with beautiful weather like this it would be a shame not to! We made a quick stop off the highway for just a few minutes. Isn’t she beautiful?

Love you sissy!

We quickly realized that we had no pictures of us together when we arrived at the airport to leave, oops!

You make obscene noises with your mouth that sound like they should come from somewhere else! (especially after kitty and doggy noises fail, as well as monkey and bird noises….those apparently only work with children)

More from this impromptu session later…..

This was my purple tutu when I was a little girl. I’m over-the-moon ecstatic to see my little ballerina wear it. It needs a little steam to get those wrinkles out  because I stuffed it in her Hello Kitty suitcase to bring on our Gatlinburg trip as a surprise.

She’s not in ballet class or anything like that just yet, but she calls it her princess tutu (:

As I’ve mentioned before we went to visit the outskirts of Gatlinburg last weekend. Among our stops was a park that was recommended to Olivia by a lady at a country store. She said that all the locals go there and that’s certainly the place we wanted to be! It was a short drive through the forrest with a beautiful mountain spring to our left. We had a little picnic near the water then headed down to the creek for some relaxing fun. Eric lives in the woods and has always loved being outdoors….it’s not a surprise that his daughter would love it too!

I’m so glad we brought Mady’s rain boots because she loved the water around her feet and picking up rocks at the water trickled by. She would laugh hysterically when bigger rocks would splash. She picked up the biggest rocks she could find and chunked them in!

A tiny bit adventurous don’t you think?

Thanks Josh for letting me get in a few!

Madyson loves her Uncle Josh.

Olivia and Toby in the distance.

You must think we do nothing else but drive north for sanity. That statement isn’t actually far from the truth, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be north! We’ve always loved to travel and now that Madyson is a little older it seems to be getting much easier. This past weekend was planned for quite sometime with great company to say the least. My friend Olivia (very good friend and makeup extraordinaire) was offered a cabin by her mom’s friend Mrs. Warr. So that she doesn’t go without mention you may also refer to Liv’s mom as Mama Jo. I’m thrilled that she’s got friends with cute cabins in the mountains for us to take over. It offered fabulous views and a perfect hangout for 4 doggies, 1 baby and 5 adults (unfortunately Eric couldn’t come with us this weekend, we missed him terribly!

Thanks Mrs. Warr for such a wonderful treat, we are ever grateful to you!

There’s many more photos to come including a trip to the Smokies National Forrest as well as a special session with the Clarks. Until then, here’s just a few from our first afternoon…..

Self-timer + impatient doggies= awesome photos.

Told you they were the coolest. In case I haven’t mentioned, these two sweet babies have LOTS of tricks. Although Beasley’s “play dead” and “sit pretty” are very entertaining, Blue beats him by being able to open the refrigerator, retrieve an adult beverage, deliver the adult beverage and go back to close the door. Yes. It’s the truth. I think now I’ll have to upload a video for proof right?

As promised I am posting some pictures of Blue and Beasley. Blue is my brother, Josh’s border collie and Beasley of course is Madyson’s brother…..and they are very close friends. See for yourself.

PS: I’ll be posting several pictures from our trip this weekend….stay tuned!

I feel wonderful about today being the 40th day of my commitment to blogging. I’ve enjoyed the feedback so much that I will continue to post almost everyday, or every other day. Thanks so much to those that keep reading and for coming along this small journey with me.

I’ll end this quick post with a cute pic of the person who inspired me to start this whole mess!

Love you Tobi!

This awesome weather has me reminiscent of beach time! This was Madyson’s first trip to the beach in March of 2008. It’s also the infamous paci clip/purple nurple incident. For those unfamiliar, it’s when I won mother of the year award for clipping Madyson’s paci clip onto her bathing suit AND her chest. I wondered why she was so fussy when she wasn’t hungry and it wasn’t nap time. Then I quickly realized I had clipped the sharp, metal part of the paci clip to her skin and suit! She didn’t scream until I unclipped it to take her suit off. Oh memories!

My sweet mother is my number one fan (besides Eric of course!). The job that she has requires her to travel around the country so she’s constantly meeting all sorts of cool people. Enter the fabulous April. She and my mother met on an airplane in 2008 and I don’t believe that April was engaged then (or maybe she was) but my mother was sure to give out one of my business cards. April says she knew after hearing about me from my mom and seeing my photos that I would be her wedding photographer. How lucky am I?! April and I met in passing at a bridal show and then again to discuss wedding details this past fall….we were a perfect match. But not as perfect as her and Jonathan! I had so much fun getting to know you both better. I enjoyed Jonathan’s antics to make April laugh…especially when he spoke in Spanish?! You guys are so silly but so wonderful together.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would talk more about April’s involvement in choosing this location. One of her friend’s father has an art studio on the top floor of this downtown building pictured below. I love it when a couple chooses a special location for our session. Especially when it allows me to photograph in an original location. It gave their images a unique touch. Isn’t the balcony of this building beautiful? Although the elevator was broken and we climbed 9 flights of stairs, it was completely worth it! The rain held off and the light was perfect.

To view a slideshow of even more images, click HERE.

We went inside just one floor down from the art studio to get a few images. This building is being rennovated from my understanding so the room was totally gutted. The window light was AH-mazing!