Bethany and Matt, as always, thank you for giving me the pleasure of photographing your gorgeous family.

Thanks to the Miley Family for chancing the rain with me and giving me the opportunity to photograph such an expressive family.  Check out the sneak peeks while I work on the rest of the images.

Now, Elijah is 3 years old and has a little sister named Zoey who recently turned one. Check out her smile.  I don’t know what Brian and Misty feed their children but I’m pretty sure that they should quit their jobs and start selling their secret recipe.  Those are two of the happiest children I’ve ever photographed.

Despite the rain soaked grass and threat of sprinkles, we got so many incredible images.  For Misty and Brian Higgins, the Higgins Corner Fire truck was the perfect accessory to an already fabulous session.  Check out these cute sneak peeks while I work on the rest of the images.

It rained earlier than the weather forecasted so we improvised and photographed inside their beautiful home for a while.  The nursery was filled with cozy blankets, snuggly animals, generational keepsakes, and baby gadgets.  So we talked about the ducky slippers that Bethany gave them and read the “What to expect when expecting” book.  We randomly landed on the sex chapter so it was quite amusing.  Thankfully, the rain let up just before sunset so we headed out for some heartwarming sunlight photos.  Amanda is 7 months pregnant and gets kudos for climbing a mountain just so I could get a sunset belly shot.

Thanks Kevin and Amanda for spending your Friday evening with me and climbing a slippery wet mountain for me.  Check out the sneak peeks while I work on the rest of the images.

Like every seasoned husband and wife knows, there are times in marriage where it’s a struggle to get along with your best friend. Communication seems futile and the demands of life get in the way of just ‘being’ together and playing for the same team. If you’re being honest with yourself, you know what I’m talking about because every marriage goes through it. My husband and I have been together for 12 years and I still wonder how it can be so hard for two people who love each other to connect. The answer is simply that we’re human. Marriage takes hard work and a lot of paying attention.

With the stress of our most recent move and the struggle to rebuild my life in Jacksonville, my husband knew that our marriage needed some attention. I…needed some attention. So, he secretly planned a date night in Raleigh for last Saturday. He’s not a planner, at all. Nor does he care for traveling, but, he researched the city to find cool restaurants and a nice place to stay. He put it all together and managed to keep it all a secret.

I’ll make this short and, for his sake, keep the details private. We didn’t make it to Raleigh. He ended up in the ER on Saturday afternoon, was transported to another hospital Saturday night, and had surgery Monday afternoon. It’s not a major surgery and he’s recovering well. But, our romantic night in Raleigh turned into a spontaneous long weekend at the Hospital in Wilmington instead. We’ve got a top floor room with a view, remarkably accommodating staff, and best of all, the opportunity for my husband and I to be confined to a simple space for several days with a lot of empty time. We had a picnic and played scrabble on the hospital lawn, shared a tiny hospital bed to watch netflix on the ipad, enjoyed ‘delicious liquids’ like caramel ice cream and even downloaded the app “Fingle” which is a surprisingly intimate and entertaining game of partnered finger dexterity.

We definitely weren’t on vacation but for a few days life has been simple. I put work on hold. The Marine Corps was forced to wait. We didn’t deal with the house. There’s been no PT and neither of us had to cook or clean. So, I’m sitting here on my laptop watching my husband sleep, and I’m reminded of 3 very important things…

1. Simple is almost always better.

2. My husband is still my best friend.

3. In a world full of technology that allows us to be more connected to everyone, sometimes we need a little bit of time to focus our attention on that someone, and give our attention to the present.

I’m very thankful for a healthy husband and a little ‘unique’ quality time!