life, happy hearts, and NYC....

This video gets to my heart every time:) I love to hear my sweet little girl say "happy heart" and "love GOD".

My lovely came back from his camping trip a day early...No complaint from me or the other wives:)

 I absolutely LOVE my job:) I get to be apart of so many special moments for people. This was taken of me by my sweet friend Carissa[who's birthday is tomorrow-Happy birthday friend!]in action at my last wedding...

 I got asked to do a wedding of a lifetime! IN ST. KITTS!!! WoooHooo! Is it March yet?

our gear...

 I found this dessert on pinterest and had to try it. Only 110 calorie cupcake. Funfetti cake mix + spirt zero + cool whip + vanilla pudding on top=delicious and low calorie:)

 Annie Rice got a card in the mail from Goofy, Dickey Mouse, Minnie, and Duck. She carried it around for a good 20 minutes and would just sit and stare at it. She was so excited when I told her she got a card from Goofy. 

 Meet Annie Rice's bff Brynn. She loves Brynn and talks about her all the time!

 I "tried" a braid with a ponytail..since that's a popular hair style that I absolutely love...I'm still trying to decide on the verdict of if I like it on me..

 I love smoothes BUT they are so much better with a little old fashioned rolled oats in them:) YUM!

 She's got a sweet face and lately she's been trying to act mad and fold her arms...That gentle spirit still shines through even though she's pretending to be mad:)

 AND Last but not least, I'm heading to NYC tomorrow with these ladies[Dawn, Anne, and Ashley]..I'm SO EXCITED! These are my 2 dresses for night. Surprise, surprise they are both orange:) After all that's my favorite color! So excited for this trip:) Lots of pictures next week or if you follow me on instagram, I'm sure there will be lots to tell:)

life....and a cookie cake!

WooHoo! My busy wedding season is O-V-E-R! I still have 12 more weddings this year, but that is spread out in 6 months compared to 15 weddings in 10 weeks! I’m very thankful for my job. I love my job! BUT I have ran myself ragged the last few weeks. We have a week of VBS at church and then we are going to the beach for a week! I can’t wait!

Life with Annie Rice has been so much fun lately. Her little personality is growing everyday. She’s becoming more independent, defiant, and chatting up a storm. 

I love that she still lays like this sometimes...with that little butt stuck out!

Last week, I had the opportunity to do a children’s story time of my children's book at Burry Bookstore in my hometown. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, Annie Rice was sick last week and it literally lasted all week. At first she had a temp from Sunday-Wednesday of 102.6-100.6[that was her first fever in a year..], then she just got extremely tired, grumpy, and just wanted to sleep all the time. I was very proud of myself on Friday...I really needed to get in a good 4-5 hours of work, but she just did not feel good. She didn’t want to do anything but stay in my arms. So we watched Beauty and the Beast and she fell asleep. Instead of laying her down and working, I decided to let her sleep in my arms and didn’t work until that night when she went to bed. It felt good to make a decision I wanted, not based on work. I haven’t done that very well the last few weeks..Work has always come first the majority of the time. I enjoyed my time cuddling with this sweetie so much, and about an hour into it, I wanted a nap so I let her sleep in my bed while I napped too! 

Yesterday, she broke out in a rash and scratched it so much, this morning is looked like she walked into a bob wire fence:(

Today, we took a few 2nd birthday pictures. Her birthday is July 6th, but I wanted to go ahead and take some pictures to use on her birthday party invitation. Since her LOVE right now is cookies, I knew I had to make a cookie cake of some sort. Pinterest helped me pick just the right cookie cake:) I honestly couldn’t have picked anything better...This morning when I made the cake, she was begging to eat it before we even left the house! So naturally, she dove right in for the pictures. I WILL be sharing more from our session later:)

It may not look very big, BUT that's 4 dozen cookies!

This is what my little cutie did on the ride home. She stayed like this for a good 15 minutes...

When I got home, I started looking through the pictures. These are a few I LOVE. The one of her crying WILL be framed. It’s precious. After we were finished, we told her to walk to us on the railroad tracks. She didn’t want to walk on those tracks not one bit, so she fell dramatically to the ground and gave us this face. It’s priceless!

How cute is this little ruffle bottom?

Tonight, while Kaz was folding clothes, he told me I needed to get my phone. Little priss put all of my clean underwear around her neck and walked proudly around the house wearing them! I love her to pieces!

not slowing down...

I promised a post last Thursday and it’s now Monday! That tells you a little how my life has been lately! I don’t even think there’s a pause button on my life..Just a fast forward button! That’s how it feels! So this post may be pretty scattered but will hopefully catch you up to date on our crazy fast paced life! 

-I am in full wedding season gear! Since April 7th, it hasn’t slowed down! In 4 weeks I’ve had 6 weddings! I’ve spent about 108 hours editing those weddings! Not including burning the cd’s, putting up previews, actually shooting the wedding, and doing the finances! It’s been CRAZY! Which is a good thing..It really is, but it’s been nuts! In the next 6 weeks, I have 10 more weddings! There’s no time for rest:) BUT I do love my job! I’m very thankful to be blessed with photography...Sometimes I may dread going to a wedding, really just because I want to be at home with my family, but at some point of every reception I think to myself, how lucky I am to have the job I do! It’s fun, always something new, and usually 1 crazy thing that happens! There’s never a dull moment and I get to be apart of a huge day in the lives of so many couples. The only downside to every reception is I ALWAYS wish to myself that I could dance with Kaz at just one wedding! That’s all...One and I would be satisfied! I never get to attend weddings but the next one that I do, I will have a dance with my husband:) In 3 years of doing photography, I’ve never had an accident until this weekend! I completely busted it at my beach wedding on Saturday underneath the pier. My friend and 2nd shooter Carissa said I handled it like a rock star, but honestly I felt like a pathetic looser:) Thankfully a groomsmen caught me on one side, and my camera did not hit the sand! My poor groom wanted me to sit down for a minute, but I just couldn’t. We had to keep going...Only thing was, I couldn’t see how bad the situation was until about 5 minutes later! He could see it right away! My poor legs....but they are healing great and hopefully that will never happen again! 

-The book process has been AWESOME but it’s another full time job! I’m have been slammed! The book will officially be out in stores June 26th, but I get the privilege of taking personal orders before then! In 2 weeks, there’s been around 180 orders! It’s been so neat! BUT it’s definitely a lot of work. I have a lot of speaking appointments coming up at churches, schools, bookstores, etc. The Lord definitely has a plan for this book and I’m so excited to see it unfold!

-This weekend Annie Rice is being dedicated at church with about 20 other children. My parents are coming in town on Friday to watch her on Saturday so that Kaz and I can have some time to ourselves:) I thankfully have a Saturday free[my wedding is on Friday]. I’m so excited for a date night downtown Charleston! 

-I haven’t watched a ton of TVs lately, partly because I’ve been so busy, the other part because I’ve been hooked on 2 shows! We got the Apple TV awhile back and I got hooked on Army Wives and Downton Abbey. I’ve watched every episode and am now to the current season! I’m a little sad that I’ve watched them all because now I have to wait from week to week to watch the next episode, and Downton Abbey doesn’t come back on for a long time! But watching Army Wives has been neat, especially since it’s filmed here in Charleston! I actually signed up to be an extra:) Now, let’s just pray they call me! HaHa! Like I really need something else to give my time too right?

Well, I have a LOT more to tell, but I have to go for today! If my blog postings are sporadic, I haven’t given up on blogging JUST EXTREMELY busy! 

I'm back....

Did you miss me? I've been gone awhile! All for good reasons:) More on that tomorrow! Here's an overload of pictures over the last 2 weeks! All of these pictures were taken with my phone! Sorry for the bad quality!

She loves taking her pants off when she sleeps!

With her EI, Lisa!

Playing dress up with Miley!

Her favorite thing to do! Put our dirty laundry around her neck! She would wear it all day if I let her!

This is how Annie Rice gets around faster! She sits on a book and scoots!