There Goes My Life...

The sweetest family.

Meet The Bankstons. I know Christine has been waiting to see their photos from our session last week. This is one of the sweetest families you could ever hope to know.

Christine is one of the teacher's at Stewart's pre-school. Carter and Stewart are the same age and are great friends. They just finished taking swimming lessons together a few weeks ago. They had a little playtime together after we finished our session. Julie and Molly are also the same age and have been friends since pre-school.  They also had swimming lessons together a few weeks ago.

They are just the sweetest kids. Carter has the most beautiful blue eyes, and Julie is a brown-eyed beauty.

Once again I used the home of my friend, Lucy Cowley. The Cowleys live on the most beautiful farm and have such a gorgeous home. After we had taken several photos there, I asked Christine and Boo if they would mind driving over to our house. I had been down to our hayfield just a couple days before and knew that the hay had just been bailed. There is nothing more beautiful than a field full of round bales of hay. We stopped by the house and got my antique bench that sits in the foyer.

After a few family shots, we took a few of Christine and Boo. They will soon be celebrating their 10th anniversary!

I love kids growing up in the country. I have so many wonderful childhood memories myself of long summer days on the farm.

A couple family shots playing with some shadows.

 

I told Christine before our session that I didn't allow any stress in my sessions. I think she was worried a bit about wardrobe. I know even the best husbands don't really look forward to family portraits. I keep that in mind and try to make it as painless as possible for them. Boo really paid me a compliment when he told Christine on the drive to our second location that "This wasn't too bad." So see guys.  It's not all that bad! LOL!

Christine, I hope you like the preview. You are a wonderful person, and your children are proof of what wonderful parents you and Boo are. Thank you so much for letting me capture this stage in your family's life.

Scrapfest.

The scrapfest continued yesterday. I cannot believe I scrapped 5 pages in the course of 24 hours. And honestly, I probably didn't spend an hour on all 5 of them put together. I just love it when pages fall into place. That is so much better than struggling with one page forever, and I have done that MANY times!

I did the first page from our vacation a couple weeks ago.

I am in love with Gina Cabrera's June 2009 Idea Book. If you've never bought one of Gina's Idea Books, you don't know that you are missing. One of the best values in digital scrapbooking!

Then I scrapped a page of Elizabeth's major accomplishment this summer. Used Erica's cool mask and once again, Gina's June Idea Book.

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Then last night I put together a super quick page of Molly and her friend, Lucy.

Wish I could get some more scrapping in this morning.  I still have soooo many pics to scrap since it has been so long since I did any.  Not to mention the vacation books I have started or need to start. Just have to get some work done this morning, and then the kids have a play date with some friends. Guess it can't be all fun all the time. ;-)

Hobby I love.

Last night I did something I haven't done in a long time. After Chris went to bed, I stayed up late and scrapped two layouts. Scrapping used to be pretty much an everyday thing for me. Work has started getting in the way. Heather finished up a new kit yesterday, and I had to scrap as soon as I had downloaded it. Funny how her kits do that to me!  When she told those of us on her team that she was finishing up a 4th of July kit, I told her that I didn't take any photos this holiday. Can you believe that?! But like all her July 4th kits, it is already one of my favorites. I love how versatile they always are. First I put this one together.

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Then I did this one. It is a little more the theme of the kit.

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Hurry on over a get the kit. It's on sale through Friday!

Over the weekend I committed to not doing any work (other than to place a few orders), and since I didn't have much else to do Saturday morning I scrapped a page about Molly's birthday party using one of my all-time favorite Jen Caputo sketches! Yep, that was only 6 months ago! I guess just celebrating Elizabeth and Stewart's birthdays reminded me that I still had not scrapped Molly's.  Very happy with how this one turned out.

So that's three layouts in three days. Maybe I'm getting back in the swing of my old hobby! Won't be much of that today though....have lots of work to do.  Better get to it!

A quilt on the grass on a summer afternoon.

I can think of nothing more southern. Meet the Thurmans, a wonderful Tennessee family. They moved her a few years ago from Chattanooga with David's work. Christy teaches Kindergarten at my girls' school, and that is how we met. She is one of the sweetest southern belles I have ever met. She asked me if I would come to their house to take some family portraits. They built their home about three years ago on beautiful rolling hill acreage.  It was the perfect backdrop.

Christy wanted to also get a few shots of her and David together. They, like so many of the rest of us who have been married for a while, have failed to get photos of just the two of them since having kids.

Christy looked so beautiful (she always does). I loved her dress. When I got there she laughed about it seeming funny to get all dressed up to stay at home. ;-)

Their boys are such gentlemen.  Cody is going into the 8th grade this fall, and Andrew will be in 2nd grade. Andrew kept me in stitches! The boys have this cool tree house that they have paid for themselves. They have earned money and paid for it one board at a time. Such a great lesson to learn!

I thought that they would think I was crazy when I asked them if it would be OK to take the rocking chairs from the porch and put them in the middle of the road. They didn't even blink an eye and just went along with me. ;-)

David had actually found a spot in the backyard that he thought would make a good backdrop near sundown. I couldn't agree with him more. Love this one of he and Christy.

I promised Andrew that when we were finished with all the family shots we would get a few of him on the trampoline. He pulled out all his tricks for me. He's so much fun!

What a wonderful family! Christy is the queen of the house, and is so lucky to have three handsome gentlemen living with her. Being the true belle she is, she offered me some sweet tea before I left. Gotta love a G.R.I.T.S!

Birthday backtrack.

Today we are celebrating our country's birthday, but last weekend we were busy celebrating Elizabeth's 8th birthday. I guess you could say that we celebrated her birthday for two weekends if you count our fun trip to Atlanta to the American Girl store there.

We have told the girls that they could have their ears pierced when they turn ten. I have been thinking about it lately and decided that Elizabeth seems responsible enough now to have them pierced. We told her that she could if she wanted, and she jumped at the opportunity. She asked me what it would feel like, and I tried to prepare her. I wasn't going to tell her that it wouldn't hurt. With her fear of shots, I was really surprised at her being so excited about it. Chris and I were both shocked at how braze she was! She was so giddy!

She got a little tense at the piercing moment but held tightly to Chris' hand. As soon as it was over she said That wasn't bad!

I have already posted what we did the morning of her birthday. We had so much fun as a family at the Run for Ella! I was so proud of our girls!

After the run we went home and got ready for Elizabeth's birthday party at Build-A-Bear! First we met her friends in a mall food court for cake and ice cream.

Then it was time for some bear-building fun! 

Elizabeth was so excited to see her girlfriends from school.  They are the sweetest group of girls! Everyone she invited came! What a great group of friends!

It was a great day! Elizabeth was in the makeup her friend, Heidi, gave her before we even got  home!  Earrings and lip gloss...she is growing up!

She had a great day celebrating. But wait! It's not over yet! On Sunday night we had a family cookout at our house!  I had asked her if she wanted Mrs. Carla to bake her another cake for our family party and she said that she just wanted me to bake her a Sun-drop cake. Yep, we even cook with the stuff! LOL!

I was so glad that my Grandpa came for the party. He will be 96 next month and doesn't make it to all of the kids birthdays these days. I had to get a photo of him and the birthday girl. You might recognize him from the July issue of Creating Keepsakes. ;-)

She is really growing up. Seems impossible that she can already 8-years-old. She is such a sweet, caring, intelligent young lady.  I am so very proud to be her mom!

Mask and cape optional.

There is a lot of excitement at our house today! We will be celebrating Stewart's 4th birthday tonight in Super Hero fashion! I am so excited! Can't wait to kick off the holiday weekend with a cool birthday party! Excited about having fun with friends and family! can't wait to see my little Super Hero crazy with excitement!  It's gonna be fun!

Hope you have a safe and fun 4th!  Now I'm off to watch the kids stuff a Spiderman piñata!

Summer vacation part 2 - Tybee Island.

So I had been lamenting over how I wished we could go to the beach this summer. We usually go to the beach on fall break, but a summer trip is always nice, too. My very smart husband suggested that we drive on over to Tybee Island for a couple nights after we finished with our American Girl weekend in Atlanta.  You don't have to ask me twice to go to the beach!

We got there late Sunday afternoon and checked into our condo. The condo was nice, but it was when we looked outside towards the beach that Chris and I felt our excitement wane. We had spent a wonderful weekend in a bed & breakfast on the North Beach of Tybee a couple years ago for our anniversary. We weren't prepared for what we saw when we stepped out onto our balcony. A very crowded South Beach with lots and lots of traffic. The kids couldn't wait to get their feet wet, so we went downstairs and headed across the boardwalk. I feel like I should mention that we are a little spoiled when it comes to the beach.  We go to Amelia Island on fall break every year and are used to basically having the beach to ourselves. So granted in the middle of the summer every beach is most likely crowded. What concerned us most was the carnival that was setup directly in front of our condo....

We went to dinner at The Crab Shack. Chris and I had eaten there on our anniversary trip and really enjoyed it. We ended up sitting outside and it was VERY hot. The kids (Elizabeth especially) were not happy!  We did manage to get a Father's Day photo while we were there.

We thought it was odd when we got back to the condo that the carnival wasn't running... That's a little foreshadowing for you!

After the kids were in bed Chris and I talked and agreed that to the kids it wasn't going to matter how crowded the beach was. It was the beach. We were going to spend one day there and make the best of it. We decided to get up early and stake out our claim on the beach. My friend Raven sent me a message that night telling me that Miley Cyrus was supposed to be in on Tybee. Maybe we would be lucky and run into her! A little more foreshadowing for you.

As we were leaving the condo the next morning we met another vacationing dad in our complex. He told us that we would probably want to go down to the lower boardwalk because they had the beach in front of our condo blocked off for Miley Cyrus' movie. Say what?! Yep, that carnival that we expected to be running all night.... It was actually Miley's movie set!!!!

So we made our way down to the beach.  We were smart getting up early and found us a good spot. The kids wasted no time.

Stewart took up his favorite beach activity. Digging in the sand.

The beach filled up the later in the morning it got, but the Monday morning crowd was much more family-friendly than the Sunday evening crowd.  We decided to go inside for lunch and to rest for a little while. As we were walking back to our condo we noticed the large crowd gathering at the other boardwalk. We went on up to our condo and waited on our balcony for Miley to arrive.  We had a great view from our balcony, but this was the time I was wishing I had brought a better zoom lens with me! Ugh!

Here's a little closer view.

We could have stood down at the boardwalk and gotten a much closer view, but it was pretty nice to be able to sit on our balcony and watch. I would walk out onto the balcony from time to time and watch them film.  It was really neat. We could see every thing! The scene that I watched them film over and over again was of Miley walking through the carnival and getting knocked down by a handsome volleyball player. Yep, she hit the sand over and over and over again.

We went back out after lunch and a naps. I love this time of the day on the beach.

And I love watching these two play together on the beach. :-)

I also love how much Elizabeth loves the beach. She is my beach girl!

 

After getting all cleaned up...

 

(and watching Miley arrive back on the set) we went for a late supper at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. Oh wow! Delicious!  I cannot believe in all our visits to Savannah we had never eaten there! We will on our next visit!

The next morning it was time to head home. We drove by the lighthouse so the kids could see it up close.

We were only away for four nights, but it seemed like so much longer! This trip as one of our best ever. From the American Girl store to hearing Stewart yell, Miley, I'm your biggest fan! It was a trip as a mom I will always treasure!

Double the fun.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting twins Taylor and Luke. They turned 2 on Saturday (the same day as my Elizabeth's birthday!)!

They brought along their family with them.

Given a little while, these two probably could figure out how drive themselves on over. They were quite the pair. Luke was all smiles. Such a happy little guy and Taylor seemed to be the more serious one. We had a lot of fun!

Here is a favorite of just the guys. This is Dad and big brother, Hunter.

Of all the family ones I think this is my favorite. Not your straight on family portrait, but the candid ones are always my favorites. Everyone just looks so happy!

We were sitting under this huge magnolia tree. It had gorgeous blossoms on it. Apparently, Taylor didn't think they smelled very nice though! LOL!

Great setting for some guy shots. Hunter and I will have to have a session in a year or two when he is senior!

The two older siblings, April and Hunter, were a lot of fun! Love this one of the two of them.

After the twin had a quick outfit change, we spent a little time on the porch. I love this swing. So did they!

2-year-olds can be quite challenging, but these cuties were perfect! They made my job easy! Taylor and Luke, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!  Shannon, I will have the rest to you soon! Hope you like the preview!

I have to thank Lucy and Ewin Cowley for lending out their home for the afternoon. They have such a beautiful place and were so nice to let me borrow it for our session.

Summer vacation part 1 - Atlanta.

Ever since last summer when I visited the American Girl store in Chicago I have wanted to take the girls to the one in Atlanta.  As a group of moms we were just giddy, so I knew the girls would love it. We had talked about it on Spring Break, but it just really wasn't in the budget then.  So I knew that was the one thing I wanted to do this summer.  We decided to make it a little vacation/birthday trip. 

We told the kids we were going to Atlanta for vacation, but we didn't tell them what we were going to do when we got there. I thought it was so funny that they didn't even ask.  Molly was just excited about swimming in the hotel pool!  I packed the girls dolls both a little suitcase, and told them to bring them along. Elizabeth said that she didn't really want to bring Kirsten, but I encouraged her to bring her with us.

When we got to the hotel, I told them to bring in their dolls. I knew from talking to my friend, Jeff, that the hotel had a special check-in just for the girls and their dolls. They still had no clue anything was going on. Then when the desk clerk started talking to them about everything they were going to get to do..... pure excitement.

The next morning after a wonderful breakfast at the hotel restaurant (included in our package, BTW), we headed to the American Girl Boutique and Bistro.

As soon as we entered the store a nice lady asked us if we were celebrating a birthday.  She gave Elizabeth a sticker to wear, and the rest of the day she was given extra special treatment! All the employees wished her a happy birthday as they walked by.  We didn't have reservations for the bistro, so we went there first and put our name on the list for lunch. Then we headed straight for the hair salon.

Molly picked out a cute style for Molly, but it was Kirsten that really needed some work. Against the advice of her mom, Elizabeth had taken Kirsten's hair out of her braids.  That plus her sleeping with her....well it was a mess! Kirsten's hair was one of the main reasons I wanted us to make this trip! LOL!  Her hair went from this....

to this! AMAZING! If I hadn't have watched them fix her hair I would have thought it was a new doll. Miracle workers!

Since Elizabeth was the Birthday Girl, she got to go behind the counter to have her picture taken with the stylist and Kirsten. They also gave her some nail polish stickers for her doll.

We did a little shopping. Just a word of advice: give your girl a limit before they start shopping. We gave the girls a dollar amount that they could each spend and that worked great. They could basically both get a new doll if they wanted plus a couple of outfits. Molly was smart and picked a package that was on sale. Elizabeth decided on a Just Like You doll and a new outfit for Kirsten.  They both got a few extras, also.

Then it was time for lunch!

The dolls had their own seats and menus!

Molly helping Molly decide what she wanted to eat.

Of course they were hungry, too!

We were surprised when our waitress brought an ice cream sundae to the table for Elizabeth. We all sang Happy Birthday to her. Like I said before, they really made it a special day for her.

It was big enough that all three kiddos shared it!

In case you were wondering, Stewart didn't get a doll, but he did have a good time!

After lunch we did a little more shopping and then headed back to the hotel for some swimming. We paused for a photo outside the store. Note: Chris had already made one trip to the car with bags!

This might have been a girly trip, but even Chris had a good time watching his girls. And something I will never forget.... as the girls were playing with their new dolls and clothes that night in the hotel room I overheard Elizabeth tell Molly,

Molly, we are the luckiest girls in the world!

Yep, that makes everything we do as parents worth it. I love my girls (my boy, too)!

Now for all of you that have asked me about our trip:

I looked at the different hotels that offered American Girl packages, and this was the only one I found that included pink decor for the rooms.  This is an awesome package and we thought a great deal. For $129 per night we had an American Girl room complete with pink decor (right down to the pink towels), an American Girl bed for the doll that we got to bring home with us(we stayed 2 nights so got 2 beds), milk and cookies brought to our room each night for the girls and their dolls (there was enough for Stewart, too), a gift card for a free ice cream sundae in the hotel restaurant(they also gave Stewart one), delicious breakfast for four (they didn't charge us for Stewart either), and matching robe for the girl and doll to wear while there (the girls each took a turn). We got all that for basically the regular price of a hotel room. I (and the girls) highly recommend it!

Run, Birthday Girl, run!

So proud of my Birthday Girl. Elizabeth celebrated her 8th birthday today by running her first 5K! She had a new PR for one mile 10:50! So very, very proud of her and looking forward to running many more races together.

Molly and Chris partnered up and both did their first 5K, also! Was so glad that the girls' Aunt Angie and Aunt Paula also joined us! It was a great event!

Now it's time to get ready for a fun party with friends at Build-A-Bear! We're celebrating all weekend. Make that all week!