• personal

    halloween thaaaaangs & stuff

    If you are familiar with the show thats alluded to in the title of this post, you’ll know whats coming up. A few shots of my favorite things in the neighborhood for Halloween today & tonight. Pictures of the kids coming soon, just wanted to get these up tonight before I’m too drunk to function. Which should be really, really soon. (I earned my wine hard today and must’ve walked no less than 10 miles today. No, really!)

    Love everything about this spooky picture, but especially the shadowy black figure in the background.

    Every year this house does something fabulous for Halloween, usually scary guys, zombies, creepy clowns, etc. This was the first year they did anything with The Walking Dead. And if you know me at all, you know I was freaking thrilled beyond belief!! The characters look like the characters, even down to their stances. I mean check out Michonne in the background. And Carl. Rick even has his bandaged hand. And all Daryl is missing is his wings on the back of his vest. Ok, the moon isn’t from tonight but it was perfect to include anyway. So there you go. Now I’m gonna go polish off my 3rd glass of wine. Happy Halloween!

  • children & families,  personal,  travel

    a trip to tampa

    Luckily, we have friends that are good enough that I can basically invite ourselves to their house for a weekend visit. Which is pretty much exactly what happened. So happy to see my U of Miami friend Nate (friends for 27 years!), his fantastic wife Colleen and their gorgeous little girls at their new(ish) home in Tampa. We crashed at their house for a long weekend to sorta celebrate my birthday. Didn’t take the camera out much, but had to get a few shots for them. We had a great visit with lots of laughs, wine, range time, wine, food, wine, swimming, wine and the hot tub. And wine.

    Never believed I would have lived to see the day that this would be happening.

    A few instagram shots from the weekend. Visited our niece Rachel and Kristen at U of Tampa. Took the girls out to dinner. Nate took me to the range. Omg, so fun!! And he fixed my technique on the handgun so I was doing much better. Private Benjamin lives, reflected by an almost stroke I gave the poor guy talking about my plan to get a Tiffany blue Glock. Girls in the backseat of the Mustang convertible John rented for us.Those eyes. These are the sweetest girls I have ever met. Ever. Yes, Nate was ready to kill me. So basically nothing new to see here, move along. Miss you guys so much. We’ll be inviting ourselves back again soon…be ready.

  • personal

    playgroup BBQ

    Known these awesome people since Jack & Patrick were 3 months old at Gymboree. Who ever would’ve predicted that 15 years later (!!!) we’d all still be friends. Not to mention throwing another ton of kids into the mix! Ray and Maureen were nice enough to host a summer BBQ for all of us. Celeste and her girls flew up from Georgia, and the only ones missing were Maureen and her crew but they just couldn’t make it in from Michigan (luckily, 2 days later the boys and I went to Michigan to visit for a few days so we did get to see them too). Hopefully some year we’ll ALL be together again at the same time in the same place.

    The original 7. (new picture. top row: jack, patrick, beau. bottom row: molly, kerrin & ryan. old picture, the same except Connor on top left.) They still look exactly the same, only huge.

    Jack, Connor, Beau, Ryan, Kerrin, Molly & PatrickAnd in 2014, its pure chaos! From left, back row: Ali, Kerrin, Molly, Jack, Patrick, Beau, Mac, Ryan & Peyton. Middle row: Johnny, Joey, Timmy, Eli. Front row: Teddy & Luke. (not pictured in this one: Bridget)Utter chaos.We always said these two look kinda alike. The girls.The boys. The moms!! These are my girls. Love them so much!!!And a picture from Michigan. Jack, Connor, Katie, Patrick, Timmy & Spencer. 

     

  • personal

    braces be gone

    On the one month anniversary of getting them off (yes, I’m THAT behind on editing!) after 5.5 loooooooooong years of many, many appointments, I’m finally posting the before and afters of Jack & Patrick’s braces. We were all so happy to get them off. So freaking happy!!!

    Jack on the left, Patrick on the right the morning of the getting them off appointment.Last time with braces, ever.

    Jack on the left, Patrick on the right after getting the braces off. Such a difference!! I’m still getting used to it a month later. March 2009- September 2014. Jack.
    Patrick. They look like completely different people, but still sorta the same.And now we get started with Timmy. It had better not be another 5 years. I can’t take it.

  • gymnastics,  personal

    erin @ gymnastics

    Always wanted to try my hand (my lens?) at dance or gymnastics photography since I find both so much fun to watch. Luckily, my friends daughter is a gymnast so I snuck into a meet (actually 2 meets) between client sessions and got to shoot for a while. I learned some stuff- the first being this is way harder than I thought! The lighting is tough, catching the action without knowing the routine (especially on floor) is difficult, and that Erin is even more amazing to watch in person!   Vault was the first event, and I only caught that first pic- utter concentration, love it. Beam made my palms SWEAT while watching/photographing. 

    Floor is my favorite. This girl rocks it!! I, however, need to get better at capturing the big moves. She got so many medals, I lost track. (1st for floor). But I liked her expression in these.  I need more practice, but I hope you liked what I did manage to get.