Spring "chicks" & good friends

Saturday was pretty busy again.
First to arrive was Braelyn for her 1 month shots. The problem was that Braelyn's mom forgot to clear this w/her and she was not super happy about the whole thing. We started at noon and after an hour only got a few keepers. We decided to give her an hour break (because I had a 1:00 session do to) and then try again to see what we get.



Morgan showed up right on time for her outdoor session. The wind made for some really beautiful shots of this beautiful senior.



Then at 2:00 it was back to Braelyn, and she still wasn't thrilled but we managed to pull off a few nice shots. This girl just thought she was starving and wanted to eat, eat, eat. And w/a newborn, you just have to go w/it!



Then we had about an hour to dye some eggs, bake 2 pans of brownies for dessert that night, & make 2 pies for Easter dinner the next day before my next session @ 4:00. (I know this sounds ridiculous, but this is how saturday's are here!)


The last session of the day was my friend Kim and her family. Her mom was diagnosed w/cancer...the really bad kind, so when I heard, I really wanted to take some family pics for them. This is the one thing I feel that I can do for people when they get this kind of news. Her mom has the most positive attitude of anyone that I know. Yesterday was her first day of chemo so I've just been praying, and praying for her.



After their session we grilled some hamburgers and just enjoyed catching up.

On Sunday we were at my in-laws for Easter and we were walking around looking for mushrooms when Jess spotted some baby owls. It was another one of those times when I was wishing I just carried all my gear w/me where ever I go! I took a chance and went back on Monday morning w/a zoom and got a couple of shots of these guys. 2 baby great horned owls...first ones I've seen in the wild. This is the type of photography I would do full time if I could....I just love being in the woods & enjoying God's creation.
Unfortunately momma owls don't usually order any pictures of their babies so the pay stinks:)

spring?

Does this count as spring? I saw snow on the side of the road yesterday, so I just don't know...is THIS spring?

This past week I had some fun w/Morgan at the studio. We were supposed to do a studio session and then head off to Farmington Park to do some outside by the lake....but it was rainy and cold so we opted to put off the outdoor stuff till Friday. Morgan was a blast in spite of the grossness of the weather and we had some fun w/her prom dress and vball shoes...in the same shot:)

Love it!


I also got to drive to Makinaw to meet my new great niece who was born Sunday. She's just 1 day old here and already loves her favorite great aunt:)




This morning I got a call from my sister saying they've had a horse deliver at the Horsemeister barn 3.5 weeks early and could I run over to check and see if it's okay. I grabbed a towel and my camera and thankfully got to use both on this healthy baby girl. Babies being born left and right means it IS spring..right?



Found some of these as I was driving home from the farm....






Yep, definately spring! Bring on the sun!!!

Hit the ground running

That's how it always is after a vacation. You've got to hit the ground running about 90 miles an hour and that's pretty much how it was this time too. Only I felt like we were going 90 miles an hour before we even left for vacation!

I guess I should start w/the story before we even left for vacation. I come from a big family, and by big I mean HUGE. Anyway, the next baby born into the family would be the 100th person and there were 4 different girls expecting but only 2 were really in the running for the title. The day we were scheduled to leave I get a call saying that Anna, my nephew's wife, was in the hospital almost ready to deliver. Now we had gone over this carefully and I had it all worked out that I could go on vacation and be back in plenty of time to take pictures at the hospital, like I do w/all my families babies....and then she goes into labor 2 weeks early!

We were leaving at 4:00 in the afternoon that day, so I didn't think it was appropriate for me to call poor Anna and ask if she could hurry it up so I could still get the newborn pics and get to leave ontime so I just prayed that things would go quickly, and they did! I was able to run up to the hospital around 1:30 and take pictures of little Braelyn when she was just 4 hours old, run home and edit them and email a few off to the new parents, plus burn a cd of all of the pics and drop that in the mail on our way out of town. I think we got on the road by 4:30...not bad!
So anyway, here's my mom in the hospital nursery holding her new little great grand daughter Braelyn Jo.



So that was all before vacation. Since getting home little Jaycie came in to the studio for her 6 month shots, then Heather came out to my house for some 8th grade graduation shots, & Tom for senior pics.








It's always exciting to start shooting outside again, except for the mud! We stayed relatively clean and had some fun in the warm beautiful weather:)

Sunday we went to church for the first time in what seemed like ages to me. I really do miss it when we're gone. Then in the afernoon our sunday school had their Easter Program. I love watching all my cute little great nieces and nephews & my own kids singing songs about Jesus.

It was so hot when we left church we headed straight home for some R&R and David J decided to go fishing. I was just getting comfortable in my lounge chair when I hear David yelling. He caught a huge bass and of course I'd better take some pics. This bass was so big it couldn't even fit into the 5 gallon bucket. Then he caught another one, then Logan & Jess started fishing.




Then because it was sooo hot my younger boys decided it was finally time to do this...




After that we were off to my inlaws for dinner, then back to the playground for vball and some praise singing. It was a great day, super busy, but still lots of fun.

Springbreak!

We are enjoying some really nice weather down in Gulf Shores for the kids Spring break. There have been really good waves for body surfing and we've been playing lots of 2 on 2 sand vball & water football.






The first few days there were dolphins playing in the surf everyday. They were jumping in the air and flipping up their tails. It was so hard to know where to point the camera though so I didn't get many good shots of them.

Yesterday we had a big sea food dinner of fish, crab legs, shrimp, & crawfish and then keylime pie for dessert...yum!




We got up early this morning and watched the sunrise over the pier.
David helped it rise a little:)




We leave for home tomorrow evening:( It goes so fast!