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I’m thankful for many things, but this little girl tops my list!

Peacocks have wands you know.

Will you look at that face in the middle image?!

It’s been 6 years already? I feel like we just celebrated our 5th just a few weeks ago! That goes to show what this year has been like for us….wonderfully fun and majorly busy. I have no idea how my husband was able to maintain his main job, shoot 24 weddings, keep up with our house and keep some sanity (might be debatable, sorry babe!) during the past 10 months. He not only does all of this, but he does it really well. This is not only a celebration of our 6th wedding anniversary, but a celebration of a new chapter in our lives. Eric has resigned from his position at a company that employs some of the most wonderful people we’ve ever had the privilege to know. Although they are sad to see him go, they seem to be celebrating with us as we continue to successfully pursue our photography business. So today, Eric Campbell, I am not only proud to be your wife, I am proud to be your best friend, your lover and now your business partner. I love you.

This photo was taken by Tim Ivey of Imago Photography.

As I slipped it over her cuddly little arms she said, “Is this my fox sweater?” As if she has been missing it for years, hilarious! Tobi, the amazing lady behind Ivey Handcrafted, designed this hoodie for Madyson with love. We love you so much Tobi! Thank you for your wonderful creation to add to the sweetness of my daughter’s childhood. Seriously, you are a piece of work (:

We love “puuuunkins”.

These three images sum up my child in a nutshell. When I asked her to turn around so I could see the M on her hoodied, she said, “Look at my booty.”

Oh the many wonderful faces of my sweet girl! There’s a story behind each face she makes. I love you sweet Madyson.

Let me also point out that my child has a history of funny faces…..she’s 9 months here.

And 11 months here. As you can see it wasn’t hard being her mother (:

Oh goodness, what do I write to myself on my birthday……I seem to get rather introspective on my birthdays and I welcome the change of a a new number. But this is a big one, or it’s supposed to be big. I remember being 18 and thinking I knew everything there was to know, after all I never really thought 30 was old and at 18 I had arrived at the person I was going to be and that was that. Boy was I wrong! I feel that now at my new number (30), I’m just getting started. I never in a million years would have thought that my life would be as wonderful as it is now. Sure things are crazy at times, being a wife, a mom, a daughter, a friend, a business owner, a photographer, a perfectionist, an over-achiever, a work-a-haulic, the list goes on. Amongst the beautiful craziness that is my life at the moment, I’m very thankful today. I’m thankful for Madyson, for my parents, for my brothers and sister, for family,  for my friends, and for my amazing clients who quickly become friends. I feel like I’m barreling through life at full force, experiencing everything I can along the way and I’m so thankful that I have Eric to have loved and supported me as well as celebrated the past 10 birthdays with me. The picture below that Cheryl Muhr captured last year on my 29th birthday, represents that idea perfectly!

Thanks everyone for the phone calls, text messages, emails and Facebook messages sending birthday wishes.

xo

Seriously, is she 3 already? She’s not a baby, but still has babyish tendencies. She still requests that I “hold her like a baby” so I will take what I can get! Happy birthday sweet girl. On another note, her cute owl shirt and totally hot owl headband is from the one and only Tobi Weldon. Her company is Ivey Handcrafted and I’ve said this many times but she’s so amazing at making a gift just perfect. Be sure to check her out if you have a gift that needs just a little special something extra (:

There’s a story behind every picture right? This is just a few moments after she fell on the concrete so she wasn’t quite sure why I was making her take these pictures…but Barbie band-aids make it all better (:

Can you tell she hasn’t had a nap?

Ok, #1 I had a flashforward moment when I saw this image, I pictured her at about age 13 thinking she’s too cool for school and her mom is SO totally lame, and #2 Why is she looking at me like that?!

And this was her response when asked her why she was looking at my like that!

Whootywhoooooo!!!

This will be the last little thing that I say about Disney World until our next visit. The photo to the left was taken in March 2008 when Madyson was just 6 months old. Most people thought I was crazy for daring to bring a baby to the Magic Kingdom, but really it was easier than this last trip! She’s just as precious as she was then, just a tad more active to say the least (:

I thought I would start a little tradition of taking pictures with her in front of the castle as she grows into a little girl, teenager then young woman. What have I gotten myself into?

If you’ve ever visited Disney, it’s most recognizable how friendly everyone is. From the people welcoming you to the park to the guys cleaning the streets….everyone is so happy to be there! They must pay them really well or have great benefits because it seems like the place to be! Of course it’s hard to have a bad attitude in Disney (:

The Guests seem to be having a good time too…..

Come on, you would do it too!

After the street parade we watched the show in the front of the caste.

Disney has an in/out policy so we played hard at the Magic Kingdom from 8am until about 1pm, then headed back to the resort for a nap. And I mean everyone took nap, even the big kids! We returned right after dinner and stayed until the parked closed…..this is perfect so no one gets grumpy!

Here we go into the park…..

Funny thing, Tigger and Pooh were waiting for us right when we walked in!

This park is so wonderful! There’s fun things to do around every corner.

Look they make the big kids play too!

We are missing two brother’s and Olivia’s Mommy, Ann, to complete this picture, but it’s still lovely (:

Another thing about Disney is it’s really beautiful and VERY clean.

Yea, face painting!

Almost time for the parade and fireworks!

I thought I was yelling at first in this picture, but actually I think I’m yawning. Second, and more important, why is that girl looking at my kid that way?! I thoght we said no bad attitudes at Disney World!

Disney puts on the most amazing fireworks show that plays along with your favorite and most recognizable Disney movie lines. This is the beginning of the fireworks with Jimini Cricket’s voice saying, “I wish I may, I wish I might…..”

We were so close, it was pretty loud, so Madyson didn’t quite know what to think for a few minutes…..

But she got over it and had a blast!

Now that’s a finale!

Wow where do I begin?! Oh yes, princesses, stepsisters, go……let’s first start off by saying that a 3 year old with a little cold at the Magic Kingdom in 100 degree heat can test any parent, but we’ve always had one rule. “No bad attitudes in Disney World!” Sure enough, the moment we rode the ferry up to the Disney entrance, Madyson slowly started to feel better. All we’ve talked about for weeks is seeing THE castle, meeting the princesses, etc, etc. When she falls asleep at night she says she’s going to the castle to fly away with Tinkerbell and to see the princesses, come on, we knew she would be excited!

This trip to Disney this year was actually the location of “Camp Honey”. You see, my Mom, aka Honey, aka Cathy, plans Camp Honey every year. What better place than Disney World right?! Camp Honey’s attendants consisted of her granddaughters, Olivia and of course Madyson. She had a few helpers too, me, Eric, Melissa (my sister) and my Dad, John (aka Granddaddy). I think we had more fun just watching to see Olivia and Madyson’s reaction to everything, it was amazing, beautiful, all of the above.

Enjoy!

These girls are ready for the Magic Kingdom!

I think Olivia is about to pass out she’s so excited! Madyson was pointing saying, “Is that my castle?” And yes, to confirm your suspicions, those are Cinderella dresses and crowns. How else are you to meet princesses?!

The first time she really got a good look at the castle.

We were on our way to Mickey’s ToonTown to meet the princesses, but it was a little early to get in. Funny thing that the Cinderella’s were walking by and ran into Anastasia, Lady Tremaine and Drizella.

They were asking which one of them were going to do the cooking and which one was going to do the cleaning. Olivia pointed to Madyson and said, “Oh she is, she loves to clean!”

The costumes and the makeup were the real deal!

Madyson was having some issues with her dress so Drizella was trying to help her out. Anastasia’s reaction to that was, “Oh can you fix mine too?”

Olivia ran right into the Rabbit’s arms! I love how Madyson’s leg is kicked up, too cute!

Waiting patiently for her turn.

Olivia meeting Princess Aurora.

Madyson was talking about her “pretty pink nails” in the left image, awesome! Of all to say to Sleeping Beauty, guess she thought that was most important!

Little Cinderella meeting big Cinderella was so sweet.

Madyson was overly excited that Cinderella noticed her “glass” slippers.

And finally….Princess Belle. Madyson thought she would plop right down on the ground, after all, Belle was doing it!

Olivia was perfectly poised for this one!

This morning we are heading to Orlando to take her to Disney World. I’m quite positive she’s going to lose her mind….and I’ll be there to document the whole thing (: