day o pumpkins

Our Saturday started with a birthday party for my friend Melanie's little boy who turned one. I didn't get a pic, but she threw the most fabulous Halloween/Little Boy party! Mel always has THE cutest decorations and adorable birthday cakes. It was great to see friends there and let the kids run wild together for a bit.

Then we headed to our friends, Troy and Jonny (our friends from NYC that moved to Fayetteville) who invited us to a Pumpkin Carving Party.

I swiped a couple of these photos off her Facebook page! Thanks, Jonny! :)

Annie kicked the party up a notch by pouring a gallon bottle of bubbles down the slide. Yikes!

Audrie impressed us with her baseball skills that I didn't even know she had!

Jonny, Troy, and Huck (and their sweet pumpkin carving skills).

 Then our friends Candace and Trent came over for dinner and we decided to carve even MORE pumpkins!

 Really we just wanted a reason to roast more Pumpkin seeds...ha! It was a fun night hanging out with the Leas.

I'm really trying to stay more caught up with the blogging! I know it will be fun someday to look back through the books I put together of my blog posts and "remember when". :)

photography galore

As I mentioned, I've been doing several fun photo shoots lately. 

Photography is such a bittersweet thing for me right now, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE taking photos and each photo shoot is so unique it's fun seeing how it will all play out. But then when I get home and have hundreds of photos to sort through and edit, I'm like "ooooh, right. Now I have a ton of work to do in my SPARE time".  

But once I get my act together and finish the photos- my favorite part of the whole process is giving someone their photos. Bringing that happiness to someone is really super fun!

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Ok first up, I did a newborn shoot for the same family whose maternity pics I did a month ago. This baby was truly the most laid back baby I've ever seen. She put up with me for way longer than any newborn should have to. I even stuck wings on her back and she was cool with it!

PS- little insider tip here... this is a purple bath mat from Target. (And yes, we had extra heaters around for this sweet baby!)

This is usually my sign that the photo shoot is over.

 Up next is my friend and former coworker, Shannon, had a new baby girl and asked me to snap a couple pics of her newborn. Again, another chill baby. Maybe I'm only remembering my own daughters and how they came out of the womb with their list of demands, but this little baby girl was another laid back baby.

A few months ago a friend of a friend asked me to do a family photo shoot INSIDE Razorback Stadium. (They had a cousin who worked for the Athletic Dept and he let us in.) Honestly I was a little intimidated, but decided to go for it. It was lots of fun and I'm glad I said yes. 

 It was tough to position around the glaring sun but we worked it out and got a ton of pics.

My former neighbors in Cave Springs asked me to do a family photo shoot back in August. I always love how Gina puts together the colors for their clothes. I know that can be hard for some people, but Gina always does great!

 I can't believe how grown up her kiddos have become! Beautiful family!

My long time friend, Jaclyn, wanted me to snap some photos of her family of five. Let me tell you, photographing teenage girls is a dream! All I would do is point in the general direction of where to stand and they walked over and BAM- struck a pose. Easy!

And with a family this stylish, how can you go wrong! A photographer's dream.

Ok, this may be my favorite photo I've taken in a long time. What a gorgeous girl who is not afraid to embrace her own style and be different. 

Ok, that's what's been happening inside my camera these days. Thanks for tuning in.

are you still there?

Do you want to hear the excuses for me not blogging or should we just skip that and I'll just make up some story about how I've been practicing for if I'm ever in the Witness Protection Program?!

Seriously, I almost forgot how to log into Blogger to even do this post. Then I checked my stats and saw that two people are still reading my blog, so I thought I better post something for their sake.

So here you go! (These pics are totally out of order, but it's all I can muster up the energy for right now.)

 I have been doing some fun photo shoots and yes, Kate, I will blog about them soon! :)

 We took the girls camping and HAD A BLAST. My friend Jenny blogged about it so check out her cute photos of the kiddos running free in the wild outdoors.

 Audrie went to Grandma Cornett's one weekend by herself, so we had just ONE KID for a couple days and it was pretty awesome.

 Our beautiful brown eyed girls.

A friend on Facebook sent me this photo of Julia Roberts as a child and said it resembled my girls...!

 Spending some quality family time.

I was impressed by Jamie's ability to read and drink his coffee while the girls pretend his legs are a pirate ship!

Jamie unloading the bikes for a Sunday afternoon ride on a Fayetteville bike trail.

I asked the girls to sit on the bench and wait while we unloaded the bikes.

Annie in her happy place!

I guess this notice is better than them saying "please brush your daughter's hair tomorrow"! ha

Growing up too fast.

We drove down to Greenland to watch Jamie's cousin play quarter back for the Green Forest Tigers.

School is still crazy busy, but starting to settle into somewhat of a groove these days.

Painting leaves!

Playing an adapted game of badminton in the yard.

ChuckECheese bday party for Camryn Lea!

Couldn't find Audrie for a minute, came outside to find her putting on her own cabaret show in the front yard. (she had already thrown off her white glove there on the high note)

Each week I let the girls pick out two books at the Library and this is one that Annie picked this week. Interesting choice. She said "mommy, it's a birthday book!"

I little DIY project I did last week. Complete with fabric in the back wall and drawer. Fun!

Jamie had his booth at the craft fair this past weekend, so he was crazy busy getting ready for that! He sold several lamps and had fun talking to the million of peeps that stopped by his booth in those two days. And was even featured in the newspaper!

We met Trent and Candace at the Walton Arts Center to take the girls to see the Broadway tour of Beauty and the Beast. It was phenomenal!

Went to Maggie Moos for Ice Cream and Jamie snuck a kiss from his cute date. :)

Two weekends ago I went with my mom, sisters, and nieces to a cabin the woods for two days! It was great to catch up with them and let the girls run wild in the fresh air.

I was testing the self-timer on my camera and almost made it back to my seat!

Cuties!

We snapped a photo before it got dark, so Sydney and Denise are not pictured. It was a fun girls weekend!

 My mom and sister, Coleen, cracking themselves up about something. :)
It's so great to be back home where we can spend time with loved ones more often!

I will try to be better about blogging more frequently! Thank you, my two readers, for hanging in there. :)