Ella turns 1!

Ahhhh, fall.

It is my all-time favorite season.

I love the smells, of course -- the crisp morning air, the fires burning outside, the pumpkin EVERYTHING {is it just me or do these sound like Bath & Body Works scents??}.

I love the sights, too -- the changing leaves on the trees, the beautiful blue skies with bright sunshine, the fires burning outside.  :)

I even love the clothes.

Wait, what?

Yes, I said the clothes.  SWEATER WEATHER!  And jeans, and boots, and scarves!  I'm kind of obsessed with scarves.

Okay, enough about fall.  Suffice it to say, fall is a GREAT season, and especially to have a birthday in.  And our friends, Jon and Nicole, just celebrated their baby girl's 1st birthday this past weekend.  They hired me to take photos but we wouldn't have missed it!  Nicole celebrates a birthday like I do -- with LOTS of details!

It was so much fun celebrating Ella.  Here are some of my faves from the day:

Happy 1st birthday, Ella!  And congrats to you, Jon & Nicole, for making it through your first year of parenting!  We are so grateful to have y'all in our lives, and look forward to seeing that sweet girl grow in the years to come!

Happy birthday, Taylor!

A couple of weekends ago, I had the honor of taking photos at Taylor's 2nd birthday party.  Taylor is the daughter of friends of ours in Wilmington.  She had a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party and it was so much fun to be there!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day...

[dancing with Minnie] 

[such a fan of all the details] 

Happy birthday, Taylor!  So glad I could help you and you family celebrate your special day!

Cora Beth turns 5!

Wow, can't believe 5 years have passed since this sweet girl was born.  My niece's birthday party was last weekend so we made the trip to Lexington and had a great time celebrating...

 

I would like to mention how upset with myself I STILL am for forgetting my camera at my mom's house before heading to the party.  I remembered to bring it with us on the trip, but between remembering gifts and ice cream, stuff for Deacon, etc. I forgot.the.dang.camera.

 

So these photos were taken with my phone/instagram.  And that's okay in a pinch.  I just really wish I'd had my camera.  It is what it is, though.  The important thing is that she (and we) had a good time at her party.

 [Pin the Lips on the Frog -- so cute!]

 

 [Argh, mateys.]

 



Bear turns 2!

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity-dog!  Any Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fans out there??  Ooo, we are, we are!  Our nephew, Bear, turned 2 years old last month and my brother and sister-in-law threw him a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed birthday party at their house.  It was fun!  I think everyone had a great time...

 

 

Four, already?!

I don't know how 4 years have passed already since our family gained a precious little girl named Cora Beth, but that is what we celebrated last weekend -- her 4th birthday.

So when your daughter is born in the dead of summer, you look for the coolest way possible to celebrate...which means POOL PARTY!

We celebrated at her Nonna's house in Lexington since they have a pool.  The party began at 6pm so the temps had cooled down considerably, and it was very overcast.  So overcast, in fact, that the sky dumped a fairly big thunderstorm on us before it was all said and done.  It's okay, though, because by that point, most everyone was out of the pool anyway, eating cake and watching the birthday girl open her presents.

It was a good time and she racked up, as usual...

Okay, so let me just pause here for a minute.  Cora Beth is now to the age where she can tell you what kind of party she would like to have to celebrate her birthday.  And bless their hearts, my brother & sister-in-law asked her what she wanted.  And then had to scramble to make it happen.  She wanted a "pink tool pool party".

Uuuhhhm, okay.

:: whispering ::  How are we gonna do THAT??

Okay, okay.  I've got it -- we'll have it at my mom's house, right?  Cuz she has a pool.  So there's that part done.  And, and...we can get her a new pink bathing suit, huh?  That can be the pink part.  So now...the tools.  Hmmm.  What if I just make a cake and we stick some plastic tools on the top?  How 'bout that?

Sounds good to me.

Oh, and then your awesome sister can find a cute little tool set to give her as a gift! She is the best aunt! :)

We love you, Cora Beth!  Happy 4th birthday to you!

Happy 4th birthday, Addison!

I had the priviledge of witnessing the sweetest thing this past weekend.  One of my dear friends has a daugther who turned 4 last weekend and they had a TEA PARTY for her birthday party!  It was the cutest thing -- so girly and fru-fru.  PERFECT for all these girly-girls at Addison's party.

Bekah did so many amazing things to make it special for Addison -- lots of sweet little girly details, and I had the best time photographing everything for her so she could enjoy the tea party with her daughter.

Here's a sneak peek:

Happy birthday, sweet girl!