Beautiful Fall Weekend

We had a gorgeous fall weekend here and we enjoyed it!  My Dad surprised us with a weekend visit so we had a great time catching up with him.  Whitney also gave Ana Kate a badly needed haircut.  Rather than the usual ‘tiny’ trim we cut off about 3-4 inches and got rid of all the ‘scraggly’ ends.  It looks quite a bit shorter to me, but also much thicker.  Ana Kate is loving it because it’s much easier to brush now.  Saturday afternoon I took a few pictures of Ana Kate.  She wasn’t too into at first, but finally started posing.
  
The time change threw us off a bit on Sunday, but after relaxing all morning we did some shopping.  Late that afternoon we explored the trail near the Crystal Bridges museum and it was beautiful there.  Ana Kate had a wonderful time and actually asked me to take her picture.  She also made some new friends by the time we reached the end of our walk.  : )

We’ve been working on a couple of home projects that are almost completed.  I’ll be putting together a post of before/after photos soon!

It’s Been Awhile…

but we're still here. I don't even know quite where to begin. I almost can't believe I haven't posted in over a year.....a year! Yikes! We've celebrated holidays, birthdays, an anniversary. I had surgery in the spring and spent most of my summer recovering. And...most recently Ana Kate started Kindergarten and shortly after turned 5! I can't believe my baby girl is in Kindergarten....where did the past 4 years go?
So, first of all: Why has it been a year? Originally I think I was just burned out after doing the 365 project. I loved it and kind of hated it all at the same time. I love that I have every day of 2010 documented, and I love having the photos, but at the same time it completely burned me out on blogging and photography for a while. I haven't taken very many photos in the past couple of years. I also burned Ana Kate out. She started running from me every time I grabbed the camera. We are finally getting back to normal (as normal as it gets around here) and she likes having her picture made again, and I miss photography and blogging. I also really miss having our lives documented, so that we have it to look back on. So, here we go. Let's see if I can keep it up. : )
Just to update on what's been going on around here. I had a surgery in the spring (hysterectomy) to help with some issues that I'd been having and I also found out I have hypothyroidism the week I had surgery. So between some surgery complications and adjusting my thyroid meds I had a crazy summer. It was basically filled with doctor's appointments and trying to take it easy at home. I was finally feeling back to 'normal' by the end of July and I actually feel pretty good now which is amazing!
Towards the end of the summer I joined a summer bible study and some of ladies were asking me if Ana Kate was going to Kindergarten in the fall. I told them I wasn't really sure since she wasn't going to be 5 until the end of August, but I was encouraged to check into it. So, I did. Obviously she couldn't start public school because the cut-off here is August 1st. I hadn't really planned to send her to public school anyway though. I wanted to send her to private school, so we scheduled an interview and evaluation and before we knew it Ana Kate was enrolled in Kindergarten! I am so glad we did it. She loves school and has the most amazing teacher! We just had her parent teacher conferences today and she is on track and doing wonderful! I feel SO blessed that we found the right school for her. So, I'm sure I could say more, but I'll just add some pictures to complete the update. Oh....did I mention that Ana Kate got a puppy at some point in the last year? And we ended up with Whitney's puppy too. Not sure how that happened, but we now have two new dogs in the house. : )
Some pictures from last September 2011:

View Full Album

Family Vacation from October 2011:

View Full Album

Christmas Pictures of my girls:
 
 
Ana Kate enjoying the gulf coast in April and Whitney’s 21st birthday cake:

Ana Kate’s First Day of Kindergarten:
Happy before leaving home….

Not so sure at school, but she ended up having a great day!
 
Ana Kate and her new puppy:

I have the birthday pictures somewhere, but I can’t find them.  I will add them to this post when I figure out where they are.  Hope to update more often now that I’m back on track.  I got a new portrait lends (which I took these last two pictures with).  I love it so far and I’ll hopefully do a photography post on it soon!

i heart faces | A Touch of Sun

This week the theme at i heart faces is 'a touch of sun'.  When I heard the theme I immediately thought of a photo session I did for a sweet family in April.  Oh a whim we decided to try and get a few shots in the trees before sunset and this shot ended up being my one of my favorites.  To check out more great touch of sun photos go to http://www.iheartfaces.com/.

Happy 4th Birthday Ana Kate!!

First thing this morning Ana Kate ran and got in bed with me and said, 'Mommy is it my birthday?'  When I told her yes she kept saying, 'I can't believe I'm 4!'  So cute!

We had a great day today.  We made a quick trip to the store to pick up Ana Kate's cake and she was super excited.  I let her open up a few presents this morning, but made her save a couple for when Daddy got home from work.  We had a small family party and will have another one this weekend when Doug's parents get here. 

I can't believe my baby girl is already 4.  Time goes by so fast.  She has grown so much and I love her more and more each and every day! 

Here is a collage I put together of her 1st four birthdays.

More pictures to follow (as soon as I get them all edited...).  : )

i heart faces | Pet Week

This week at i heart faces the theme is pet week.  I haven't entered the weekly photo contests for quite a while, but when I saw the theme a recent photo came to mind.  In July I did a mini photo session for my daughter and her boyfriend along with their new puppy Meeko.  Meeko is precious and I'm in love with his beautiful blue eyes.  I had several to choose from, but this one is my favorite.

To see more pet photo entries head on over to http://www.iheartfaces.com/ and join the fun!

Busy Summer

Wow...I said I wouldn't wait another two months to post, but it's been nearly that long.  We've been busy this summer and I just haven't been into blogging or taking very many pictures.  It's been SO hot here this summer that it's put a damper on a lot of Ana Kate's outdoor fun, so we've made the most of playing inside the past few weeks.

I've been doing a lot more sewing lately.  I made several pillows for Whitney's new house.  I also purchased a dress pattern from to make a knot apron dress for Ana Kate.  I was a bit scared to attempt it, but the pattern was SO easy to follow.  Check out the Little Lizard King shop on Etsy...she has lots of great patterns available for purchase.  Here are the two dresses I made for Ana Kate.

I made another tiny one for baby Amelia and I'm working on another one for my cousin's daughter Piper.  I didn't take a picture of the pillows I made for Whitney, I'll have to post them next time.

I also mentioned in one of my last posts that I had ordered a new camera bag/purse.  I have been using it for over a month now and I love it!  I can totally carry my camera AND my extra lenses along with my wallet, keys, lotion, lip balm, etc.  I even carry it when I don't want to take my camera with me because I love it so much!  If you are in the market for a camera bag that doesn't look like a camera bag, check out Kelly Moore bags...they are amazing! *

I haven't done many photo sessions lately, but a couple of weeks ago Whitney asked if I would take some photos of her and Josh and their new puppy Meeko.  I got several great shots, but here are just a few of my favorites.

My beautiful girl.

 Isn't Meeko adorable!

I just celebrated my birthday and couldn't decide what I wanted for a gift.  Doug got me 18 red roses and they were beautiful!  He said he never knows what to get me, so he went with flowers.  I don't really ever tell him what I want and I definitely don't really need anything.  But I recently have been looking at electronic cutting machines and decided I had to have one.  : )  So as of today I'm the proud new owner of a silhouette!  I just took it out of the box and got the software running, so I haven't played with it much.  I'll do an update with some completed projects sometime soon.  I'm excited to see what all it can do!

I took a few pictures of Ana Kate yesterday afternoon.  She was being silly posing (as usual), but I managed to get a few good ones.  She is such cutie!

 Can you see the mischief in her eyes....

 Giving me the pose I asked for, but somehow you can see she's not into it....

I'm thinking of starting up a new blog that focuses on sewing, knitting, photography, crafts, home decor, etc.  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do, but I don't want to clutter up this blog with all of that stuff.  I prefer to keep this as a journal primarily for Ana Kate (and our family)....so I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do.  We'll see.  : )

*Just a little disclaimer....I am in no way affiliated with Kelly Moore Bags and they have no idea who I am.  I just happen to love their bags!