Spring Weather, & A Blog

       I do believe, Spring has officially started. Nice sunny, 70* weather one day.... then Bam!... lots, and lots of rain, and around 50* the next day. Aside from the crazy weather, I always look forward to this time of year. I love when the flowers start to bloom, the sun starts shining more and more each day, the grass turns green again... and so on.  Although wet and cold about 50% of the time, Tennessee weather in the Spring can also be gorgeous! Last week, we decided to head to our local college, and try to get some pictures. We have a section of the school everyone calls "The Tech Quad", which is the oldest part of the college. A 1 way drive down one side, and 1 way drive down the other side, lots of grass and flowers in-between, and old college buildings on the outer edge of each driveway. Gorgeous!  And I lucked up! As we pulled in, I noticed that ALL of the tulips were in full bloom right in the middle of the Quad! It was so beautiful! Here is one of my favorite shots I got while we were there...

This is the center bed of tulips, with the Nursing school in the background. The tulips were so bright, and perfectly open.

After our trip to the college, a few days later I got the photo session I had been waiting for! I was so excited when one of our friends had a little boy, Jordan. He was born early, and had to spend some time in the hospital until he was strong enough to come home, but he is doing really good now! :) Jordan's parents had asked me a few weeks ago if I would do some photos of Jordan. Of course I said "YES!" immediately! We had been waiting, and waiting, and waiting on the weather to clear up. He is just so small, that we didn't want him to be outside for photos until the weather was nice enough for him. And finally, the weather cleared! Baby Jordan came over with Mommy and Daddy, and we had a super cute photo session. I had bought some props to use just for him, and he did so good. He layed there, peeping out of his eyelids at me every once in a while, and was content with me just moving all around him. He is such a good baby! We don't have any babies around anymore. Everyone we know, mainly family, has kids, but they are all out of the "infant" stage. So this was something I got extremely excited about! Here is a sneak peek from my session with Baby Jordan....

Isn't he just adorable!??! Thank you so much M & A for letting me photograph him! And I can't wait to do it again!!!

Then, we decided, since we were having such nice weather, we would take the kids, and head out of town and let them play. We ended up at Edgar Evins State Park. I, personally, had never been. It is beautiful down there!! We went down to the marina, where they have a small playground for kids to play. Then we headed out to a peninsula we discovered on our way. We let the kids walk along the edge of the water, gathered shells, and just enjoy the day. And many thanks go to B for taking this photo for me. :)

I love when we go on little adventures. The kids always have so much fun, and we all get to spend some "family-time" together. It doesn't matter who got mad at who, who didn't do something, which sibling started the fight.... everytime we go out as a family on our little adventures, everything is calm, and nothing else matters except that we are all together, happy, and healthy. My familymeans the world to me, and I love the looks on their faces when we say "Who wants to go somewhere?!" lol.

And last but not least..... I finally finished an idea that I have had in my head for months! I have been working on a collage of the 4 seasons. It all started back last year when I took a photo of some acorns we had layed out in the shape of a heart in front of an old water fountain. Once I got home, and uploaded the photos from that day, I thought "Wow! I love the way this picture turned out! Maybe I should do all 4 seasons in the same spot, using different objects from each season!??" And an idea was born. And then my thought was:

Spring~ flowers

Summer~ shells

Fall~ acorns and leaves

Winter~ snow!!!

So I had to wait and wait, for the perfect amount of snow to complete my "winter" photo. And yes, I froze my poor fingers off drawing a heart in the snow, and standing there, with camera in hand, taking multiple photos from different angles. By the time I got back to the car, I had a runny nose, bright red cheeks, and frozen fingers. lol. But I got the shot! So winter came and went, and Spring finally arrived! Of course, with Spring, was lots and lots of flowers! I chose Dogwood blooms for my Spring photo. I set up the blooms, and took my photos. But then, I realized... do I really want to wait 3-4 more months for scorching hot weather just to get my Summer shot??? NOPE! I decided to use some of the shells we had gotten from the park a few days earlier, to use in my Summer photo. Sweet! So, there I had it.... my completed "Seasons" collage. Yay!! So, I will leave you, for now, with the collage I worked so long for. :)

Spring is here!!!

After an extremely rough start to our weekend, somehow we managed to pick up the pieces and have fun Saturday and Sunday. Although, we may have picked the pieces up for now, the edges are in no way glued together, so I wouldn't be suprised if everything falls apart again. Just hopefully not for a while.

So Saturday, we got a chance to head to my Mom's house. She lives about an hour away from us, so it's hard to get everything set up to take a day and just head out of town. But we finally got the chance. We went, mainly to do some things around the house for her. She had been digging a pond in her back yard last year or so, and never got past the digging part. lol. No liner, no pump, and of course, no fish. So our plan was actually to go and help her finish it. But, of course, with lovely Tennessee Spring weather, the "pond" was full of rain water, and there was no way for us to finish the digging around the edges, and shaping of the pond. So that plan was quickly shut down. So, we all decided to go shopping for a little while, then grab a bite to eat. After we were done having fun, my Mom had a house to show (She's a Real Estate Agent) so Drew and I took it upon ourselves to suprise her, and do some yardwork, since we couldn't do the pond. We raked, shoveled, cut tree limbs, moved deck furniture around, everything. And I have to say, we did pretty good for an hours worth of work! We let the kids help us put limbs and leaves into barrels, and just spent some family time in the yard. :) Then, when my Mom got home, Drew decided to mow her front and side yard for her. And he did an awesome job! I was so proud of him for helping my Mom out like that. Thank you honey!!! And while we were working around the yard, the kids took play breaks, and here are a few photos I took of them. :)

Adorable! :)

So today, even though we were still tired from the trip yesterday, we went to my Mamma's. We hadn't been in about 5 weeks... not because we don't want to go, but the weather is something we have been battling since the beginning of winter! My Mamma (My Dad's Mom) only lives 1 town away, maybe a 15 minute drive, but it's on a mountain. So the weather there is always colder, has more rain, more snow, all that wonderful weather stuff. But the weather today was beautiful! Nice and sunny, about 75*, and just perfect! And, my Mamma always has gorgeous flowers all over her yard! All of the tulips, and buttercups were in full bloom and beautiful! Here is a couple of pictures I took of some of them today.....



Gorgeous!! I love Spring!!

So that was our weekend. :) Hopefully soon I can get a few photo sessions lined up. I have a few people that are wanting photos done, of course, right now everyone is trying to figure out work schedules, after school times schedules, and all that. And I have one newborn baby I am going to try to photograph soon too! :) Hopefully sometime this week. I got some of the cutest props to use in his photos!! But, you'll have to keep checking back to see the photos, and the props I use. And I plan on making a trip out shopping for some more props this week. A cousin of mine has 3 adorable children, and if I get to do their photos, I have lots of ideas!!! I can't wait!!