happy easter

I guess Easter wouldn't be complete if we didn't make our little girl sit on the lap of a scary looking bunny!

But then my mom made up for it by coming over to deliver us some Easter goodies and she fed Audrie a chocolate marshmallow bunny... now THAT says Easter!
Of course Audrie loved it!

I was really looking forward to Easter this year because Audrie is starting to get just old enough to have fun at holidays. So like a good mommy- I hid her Easter basket for her to find this morning!

She found it and loved all the goodies inside!

I got her a few little books at the Christian book store about the true reason for Easter and the gift Christ gave us all.

Not any deep theology, but she liked them!
"What, Mom? No candy?!"

My mom also got her an Easter hat which Audrie loves putting on her head... but only for a quick second so the pics I got of her in the hat are a little blurry.

Easter Sunday was SO rainy and dreary. But luckily Audrie has an adorable rain jacket that brightened things up! (Jamie is trying to show Audrie how to use the pinwheel here... she really just wants to eat it.)

Audrie's Easter outfit... complete with turquoise jelly shoes!

Our little family.
We went to church with Jamie's family and then had a big Easter dinner with the family in the church's reception hall.

Feeding the babies first. Dylan is getting to be such a grown up little boy!

And of course Jamie's family has to play a few games at any gathering.

Donna competes in a serious game of Mad Gab...

It was nice to be able to use the church nursery to let the babies play after lunch.Look at this cutey! Jess will be turning one in June.

Audrie and Dylan cooking up something good...

Kameron is quite the babysitter!

But nothing compared to my nanny...!! :)

Happy Easter, everyone! Hope you spent time with loved ones and ate too many jelly beans.

Oh wait... I almost forgot to tell you the best part! So when we got to the reception hall for lunch- Jamie dropped Audrie and I off at the door so we would be out of the rain and then he went and parked the car. We were inside with his family for about 3 and half hours. When we were leaving Jamie went to get the car for us... and discovered that HE HAD LEFT THE CAR RUNNING! So for over 3 hours our car was running in the parking lot. Also the heater was on FULL blast so the inside of the car was smoking hot and we had to open the windows to cool off. (And, yes, luckily we still had gas left in the car.) Hilarious.

flower power

Here are the rest of those photos I took of Audrie this past weekend playing in the flowers. And I know it may appear to be a field of flowers but it's actually our front yard. (It was right before Jamie mowed the yard for the first time of the year... lots of clover flowers!)

Somebody please tell this girl she needs a slip under that dress...!

And ,of course, she had to taste test a few flowers, too...

I love my little Flower Child.

headshots by sam

When we were in NYC our friend, Sam, had some fun taking some headshots of Jamie. (Cuz you know that Jamie's BIG dream is to sing and dance on Broadway...) While she was taking his headshots I was that annoying person snapping photos over her shoulder. So she set all the photos up- I just took these over her shoulder. Check out this stud muffin...!!

I even got in on the modeling, too...But the best headshot model of the day was definitely Jason....

If he put this photo on his resume, I know he'd get signed on the spot!

Love you guys... Thanks for the fun photo shoot!!

sneak peek

I have some fun photos I'm working on in my "spare time" and I can't wait to share them with you, but until I finish them I couldn't help but give you a little sneak peek at a few. I took some really sweet photos of Audrie this weekend picking some flowers... can't wait to finish all the others I took that afternoon of her!
And our friends, Kate and Dave, had me over this weekend also to snap a couple quick photos of their new "trio". Here are two that I just had to share...

I'll post a few more of both these groups when I get them finished. So fun!

piano duet

Jim and Emily came over for dinner last week and Ben and Audrie played a pre-dinner concert for us. We were all so impressed. I think Emily was teaching them how to play Clare de Lune, here...

the many talents of audrie

Ok, I promise I really don't think my child is a genius. Audrie's just entering such a FUN age of discovery and learning SO many things every day it is really fun to watch happen. She has about 5 words that she says and we're teaching her new ones every couple of days. She can identify her belly and her hair. She gives hugs and kisses when you ask. She can tell you what sounds a dog and cow make. And there are lots of "commands" she knows (go get a book, play the piano, time to eat... she runs to the fridge, and if we tell her we're "gonna get you" she takes off running and squealing). There are a few more like that that she does. And actually we've officially had to start spelling b.a.t.h... because if she hears that word then she gets super excited and runs to the bathroom door. Of course, like any 14 month old, she gets a little performance anxiety sometimes and won't do her "tricks". But I did try to capture a few on video today... (PS- all her stuffed animals are "babies" according to her)

And a new one for the baby book... Audrie made her first cell phone call this morning. I was mopping the kitchen and noticed she was being awful quiet in the living room floor. I looked over and saw she had my cell phone, but decided to let her keep it while I finished up. A few minutes later I heard my mom's voice saying "Audrie, Audrie...". Audrie had called my dad's cell phone and then hit speakerphone! Maybe next week she'll start texting...

a real shoot

A few weeks ago I did my first "non-friend/family" photo shoot. The adorable Foshe family of four here asked me to take some family photos of them and of course I said YES. (I never pass up a chance to practice my wanna-be photography.)

Their 3 year old little daughter was so cute and so energetic!!

Rahr!!

It was a quick 20 minute shoot but we got some good shots in before the kiddos got tired.

I am still envious when any photographer is able to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time! Not an easy task.

Thanks, Brandy, for letting me meet your super sweet family!

little william

There seems to be a trend developing that whenever I go out of town... my friends go into labor! Our friends, Kate and Dave, had their little baby boy on Wednesday last week while we were in New York. I finally got to go hold him a few days ago and he is perfect, of course!

Here are some photos I stole from their blog... I'm so happy for the new mommy!
When Mel had her baby (a month ago?!) I put photos outside her band room door for her students to see. So I did the same for Kate and the kiddos love looking at them!

Ok, I know his name is William, but I just love "Will" so much that I went ahead and dubbed him that.

And now my friend Carrie (who is due April 20th) is asking me to go out of town again so she can have her baby early, too! Maybe if she wants to pay to send me on a trip...! :)