Auntie Em Comes to Visit!

 YAY!!! My BFF from college (10 years ago! We can't believe it's been that long!) came to visit and meet Luke right before his 1st birthday! I was super excited that I got to see her and she got to meet Luke! It was a super quick trip, but I'll take what I can get! I picked her up early Sat. morning and took her back to the airport Sun. afternoon. So we spent Sat. playing with Luke and catching up. And, of course, a mini photo shoot! Then Sat. night we had an 'old school' girl's night out and left the boys at home. Then Sun., well, let's just say reminiscing about college days does not mean my body recovers like in my college days! It was such an  awesome weekend! Thanks for coming to visit Auntie Emme! We heart you!!!!

p.s. Luke loves his new clothes too, Auntie Em!

it's my Auntie Em mommy!

she's my new best friend...because she holds me upside down!

Where Has It Gone?

...Time that is! I can't believe Thanksgiving just passed! It has been absolutely NUTS here! I finished up with my photography class and feel like I haven't stopped since! Once that class finished it was time to clean, clean, clean because my BFF, Emily (Auntie Em), was coming to visit, then Carolyn (Brian's mom), then my parents, then Thanksgiving, then...well, I think that's it. Oh right...and about 60 people came over for LUKE'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!!! It was a hectic couple of weeks, but they were all AMAZING!!!

So here are the pictures from my class (the best ones that I turned in for my assignments. I have about 2,136 more on our external drive...just a guesstimate! haha!) Enjoy! Hopefully you can see the difference from all my pictures and the growth...I think the class was well worth the money and I plan to take more to get better!!!


Week 2: this week was brutal! We had 2 'mini assignments' and then our weekly big assignment. I don't think I EVER put the camera down! We worked on white balance, finding good light, capturing and stopping motion and focus.

I didn't turn this one in, but I really liked the light (sun flare) on him!

'capturing motion'...the sand falling.

working on lighting

this one's a little out of focus, but I just LOVE it! My little smiley guy!

'stopping motion'...one of my absolute favs!

working on focus...notice the 'roughage' around his mouth...the boy eats EVERYTHING!

Week 3: Finding the light. We really focused on finding good lighting inside and out this week. We also worked on 'catch lights', which are the reflections in the eyes. Luke's are super easy to catch because they're so blue! That helped a ton!

he LOVES being upside down!

inside light

Brian being silly with flowers...hippie boy!

The following picture was taken one night that I was on the computer and Brian was watching TV. I asked Brian where Luke was and we both weren't entirely sure! ha! So we went looking and found Luke had discovered a super fun toy!!!

Week 4: composition. This was our final week. We only got 1 submission! EEK! I was so nervous. She challenged us to post something that we would hang in our house. I thought and thought and decided to take some pictures that would be Luke's '1 year' pictures that I could put out at his party. So, of course, it had to involve his boots from Aunt Linsey, Uncle Shannon, Katy Beth and Andrew! Then I found Brian's old college (nasty) hat and the 'denim' diapers were an added bonus!!! So I was pretty proud of this...even though Luke wasn't totally cooperative!

These last ones were some others that I took that I thought were super cute too! And they all were displayed at Luke's birthday party (and some still are around the house!). I actually had one of the wives ask me if I would take her family's Christmas card picture! How cool and exciting!

So those are the pictures that were produced from the photography 101 class that consumed my life for 4 weeks! Stay tuned over the next few weeksI'll get to posting pics from everyone's visits... (hopefully I'll get everything posted before we head for Texas on Dec. 10th!). Thanks for being patient and checking back! We hope all y'all had a yummy and blessed Thanksgiving!