Cox Farms

Several weeks ago, we met some friends at hit up a local pumpkin patch.  We ended up having the most perfect morning.  It was a little windy, but other than that, it was awesome outside.  We've never been to Cox farms before.  Usually we hit up applejack pumpkin patch, but it's further and we felt like staying closer to home this time.  It was fun.  I still think I like applejack a little better, but the kids had a blast regardless.  So that's all that really matters.  And we didn't have to spend as much time in the car to get there!  And all the kids got to pick out a pumpkin.  Which made them happy.  So, we can cross our yearly pumpkin patch trip off the list!  Now we get to paint them:)

 She got all the way to the top and then refused to go down.  In her defense, the slide was really high.  But it was still totally annoying at the time.....especially when there were a line of kids behind her waiting and she had to go all the way back down.

Botanica

Several weeks ago, we headed to Botanica with a friend.  I was taking maternity pictures of Cheryl that morning, and since we had all the kids, we decided to go there so they would have room to play while I did my work too:)  It was perfect weather.  

Sidenote: we also happened to choose the day where they were having a Senior (as in citizen) Expo.  Just think.....thousands of senior citizens, lots of wheel chairs and walkers:)  While we were waiting for Cheryl and Emry to get there, a party bus full of senior citizens pulled up and walked in.....wild party;)  It actually ended up working out perfectly for us because the parts we wanted to be in (the kid parts) weren't quite as popular for the older crowd, so it wasn't nearly as busy for us!

Anyways, since I was there for pictures of Cheryl, I didn't get many of the kiddos, but I did get a few.  

Sweet friends: they held hands pretty much anytime they weren't playing.  It was so sweet:)

This last group of shots makes me smile....I decided I wanted to try to get a group picture of all of my kiddos in front of the cute barn in the children's garden.  This is just a small glimpse into what it takes, and how many takes it takes to get a halfway decent picture of all four of them.  And I didn't even manage with my big camera this time.  I did get a cute one on my phone though.  But these 4 made me laugh.  Not touching their baby brother is a nearly impossible feat as you can tell.  Poor kid.....

 And we finished out the morning with the butterfly house .  There were so many butterflies out!  I haven't seen that many out in a long time.  It was the last week for the butterfly house to be open, so we hit it at the perfect time!

Sadly, we had to leave before the Senior Expo fashion show....Cheryl and I were pretty torn up about it:)

Great morning with great friends!!

Photography Lately

It probably doesn't come as a surprise that I love photography.  I love capturing a moment, and freezing it.  Because really, time flies by so fast.  

So lately, I've been working on photography a lot.  It helps that I have a lot of fabulous friends and family who are willing to let me practice my skills on them.  Because in reality, while I love taking photos of my own kids, the stars rarely align like they did the other day....and getting pictures of them is often a huge challenge.  So I try to find people who want some pictures that aren't used to me sticking a camera lens in their face all the time:)

Here's a glance at my first "belly" session.  My beautiful friend, Cheryl, is due in a couple of weeks with baby girl #2.  Can't wait to meet her and to do some pictures of her!

 Oh newborn....probably my favorite.  Mostly because I just love babies:)  And what isn't cute about a brand new babe?!  I think this could be one of the most challenging stages to photograph because a newborn can get pretty upset pretty easy.  But I got lucky.   Baby of the year right here:)  This is my fabulous friend, Abby's, precious 3rd.  Me and Abby are very similar in personalities, so we get along great and she's become a very dear friend to me.  Plus, she's got a girl K's age and a boy just a couple of months younger than P, so they have bff's their age too!  It's always fun when we get all of our kiddos together.  I hope to take many many more pictures of all these cuties in the future.

 And Sweet V.  This right here is Parker's future wife:)  Maybe not, but those two are just a month apart and already adore each other.  I love to see their sweet little relationship even at two.  I had to get a few photos to document her turning 2, so they got to come over and play.  So fun!  Such a beautiful girl!!

Doing more photography on the side has been a blast.  I love learning and capturing sweet moments for others just as much as I love capturing them for me:)  And thankfully I know a whole handful of people who are pregnant/just having babies in the next several months.