Madeline + Brian

When Jen and I arrived at Madeline's parents to take her "getting ready" photos we gasped at all of the great details. The house...amazing. The dress...gorgeous.



The bride...beautiful.



Madeline and Brian didn't get married at the courthouse, but we stopped by after the ceremony for some pics since they are both lawyers.





And then we went to a few other spots along the way.





The reception details were so sweet...





and so were Madeline and Brian. Click here to see a slide show of their big day.

Congratulations you two!

Yuma, Colorado

Some of our closest friends, Chad and Sarah, live in Colorado with their three sweet girls. They're the kind of friends that feel like home. The kind that you always feel good being yourself around. You know, those sorts of friends.

While they used to live near the mountains, this year they made a big move to the plains of Colorado. They moved back to Chad's home town of Yuma where he is running for sheriff. We are pretty darn proud of him and loved seeing these signs all along the road as we drove in to town...



Chad and Shane tend to immediately start acting like 14 year old boys when they get around each other. Its oddly adorable.



It was a great weekend to be in Yuma. It was Old Threshers Days and Chad and Sarah's new house happens to be right next to the fair grounds. There was all kinds of small town wonderfulness...





and sunsets like this right out their front door...



Lots of porch sittin, tea drinkin, talking and relaxing. And of course we had to do a photo shoot. Here are two of my favorites. My beautiful best friend with her big brown eyes...



And the whole fam on Chad's family farm...



Click here to see a lot more of their shoot. The music is "Free" by the Zac Brown Band. Even though Sarah suggested "Club Can't Handle Me" by Flo Rida. Just didn't seem to fit :).

first dance class

I'm getting ready for a wedding tomorrow, but I had to briefly check in because today was Marlie's first dance class...



I simply could not handle the cuteness.

Have a good weekend!

Sarah + Len

Sarah and Len were married over Labor Day weekend here in St. Louis. Sarah was a gorgeous bride, and Len a handsome groom. We could not have asked for more beautiful weather.



Aren't they cute together?



Click here to see more photos from their big day. Much thanks to the marvelous Emily Southerland for second shooting for me!

hello again

Hello again. I have been opting for sleeping instead of blogging as of late. I'm just pretty wiped out by the end of the day. Things I've been up to...

- shooting (a wedding here, a senior there) sneak peeks coming soon!

- napping when I can

- wrangling monkey pants

- trying not to barf

- belly dancing (its not cute at 10 weeks pregnant)

- seeing old friends (It was so fun girls!)

Yesterday was miss Monkey's first day back to preschool. Lets compare last year to this year...



I cannot believe how much she has changed this year. Gone are those chubby cheeks and legs, and little sausage fingers. I miss them. By the way that pose she is striking was totally her idea. She is quite the diva these days. Complete with her bear "Princess" and that ugly purple dog purse which contains and even uglier rat type stuffed dog. Oh she is so funny. This is an awesome age. She is much more of a little helper and sidekick than ever before. I love it.

Today I am wrapping up some work and packing. We decided to ya know...just take off to Colorado for a few days. Its just how we roll. We are nuts. But there are some people there we love a lot, so here we go!

One more thing. What's cuter than Mr. Nug, Monkey Pants, and Lily Bean all sitting together?



Nothing! Have a great weekend!

Jen got hitched and Marlie was the flower girl

On Saturday my friend Jen got married. Jen is usually my second shooter when I shoot weddings and it was pretty fun to see her be the bride! I wasn't the photographer, these awesome ladies were, so I got to be a guest for once. Very nice! I was, however, mother to the flower girl.

Here she is all dolled up and I must say...adorable. These few photos were taken during a brief calm moment before the ceremony.



Doesn't she look so sugary sweet? I mean she is, I love her, but here is the true story of her flowergirlness.

As soon as we arrived to the church Marlie decided that her legs no longer worked and would not...could not walk anywhere. She cried until we would pick her up.

She freaked out when I got her dressed. She cried when anyone looked at her in her little outfit. I handed her her flower ball to practice with and she immediately flung it on the floor. Awesome.

There are no pics of her walking down the aisle because I was too busy waving fruit snacks in one hand and silly bands in the other trying to bribe her to walk to me. Shane ended up holding her hand the whole way. Oh well.

The icing on the cake? When she tooted..loudly during the very quite prayer time.

Oh my word. That kid.

But she sure is cute...bruised legs and all.



I couldn't resist snapping a few of Jen and Chris of course.





Jen had so many fun details right down to her awesome shoes. Congrats you two! Love ya!

the deets

Thanks for all of the sweet comments! We are excited too. Sorry to leave you hangin like that but we were headed out of town for my sweet friend Jen's wedding. I'm back with some details for ya.

I'm due April 9th. That makes me a little over 8 weeks along.

I know that's kind of early to be sharing the news, but we've seen the heartbeat twice in the last two weeks so we are feeling pretty good about things.

Why so many ultrasounds so early? Well, remember that whole kidney stone thing? Horrendous pain, lots of meds, surgery? It turns out I was pregnant that whole time and didn't know.

We were planning this baby so as soon as I got the ER that day I told anyone who would listen that I might be pregnant. They did multiple tests (blood and urine) to double check and see if I was. All of the tests came back negative. I asked if it could be too early to tell and made sure they understood that we were trying. "Nope" they said, "You aren't pregnant. If you were we could tell."

So, imagine our surprise when after I finally healed up from the kidney stone debacle and had two positive pregnancy tests at home. It was more of a scared feeling than happy, realizing what all this little baby had been through.

However, things look just fine so far. My OB is of course aware of the situation and has taken care of us with extra tests and has reassured us that everything looks good.

So, there you have it. Number 2 is on the way! Marlie is pretty excited though I'm sure she doesn't really know what's coming. I'm feeling pretty cruddy but trying not to whine too much. I'm having a little bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that its not just going to be the three of us anymore. But, I remember having the same thought about the two of us before Monkey Pants came along. So, bring on the big stretchy waistbands!

Tomorrow I will tell you more about Jen's awesome wedding and the little stinker of a flower girl. I mean really, where were her parents?