update: kids

At the beginning of August we took a trip to PA. Xander fell in love with this little tractor toy at Grandma's house. Saturday morning, when we were leaving to have breakfast with my Dad, Xander insisted on bringing his little tractor. We got to Great Grandma's and he found this in the backyard...



Poor little tractor was abandoned in record time and we almost forgot it there...

yough

Jake grew up camping at the Yough in Confluence, PA. While we were dating I spent many weekends camping with his family and this campsite is a place we both love. With nothing pressing to do with ourselves on the Friday of our week in PA we decided to take the kids to the Yough.
We started with lunch at Sister's Cafe - hands down the best cafe.


Xander got to see a train while we were waiting for our meal and got to watch the bikers, two of his favorite things. Confluence is the only place I've been where the bike rack in front of Sister's Cafe is often as full as the parking lot.


Even Kinsley was having a good time.



After spending some time in the campground we went across the dam to swim in the lake. Xander loved it!



Jake took this image of a morning glory against the chain link fence - I love it.


I still have plenty of images I'm working through from my time on maternity leave and more posts are coming soon. I also have some sessions coming up in September and October so check back!

philadelphia weekend

This post is long and late - on August 27th Jake, me and the kids flew to Philadelphia for the weekend. Adrienne and Mike were getting married and since relatives and friends were coming from Pittsburgh, North Carolina, California and England they planned a weekend full of fun.
We counted down the days with Xander until we were going to fly on an airplane and he was so excited. I think he could have stood at this window and watched the planes all day.


After arriving on Thursday we went to a rehearsal-less rehearsal dinner. As the ceremony was going to be small there was no need for the technical rehearsal but it was fun to enjoy Hibachi with everyone!

Soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher...

Saturday the newlyweds took us on a tour of Philadelphia. Jake had to fly home Saturday morning to go to work and couldn't join us for the rest of the weekend fun. With Kinsley strapped in her front carrier for the day I only managed one photo of Philadelphia - this is City Hall with the William Penn statue on the top. Until 1987 no building in Philadelphia was taller than the top of William Penn's hat.



After an afternoon of exploring Philadelphia we stopped at Love Park and enjoyed the fountain.

Xander thoroughly enjoyed the fountain - he actually went swimming. This is him telling me it isn't time to get out. "It's almost time to get out Mommy...I'm almost cold." Note he says this between chattering teeth. It was a hot day but the fountain was chilly.

On Sunday we headed to the community pool to celebrate Nate's 9th birthday. This cookie cake was delicious.

Swimming, pizza, cookie cake and presents - what a day!



I love when kids are still so expressive with presents - I don't know what he was opening in either of these but it must have been awesome.


Grandpa got a card that was written in code and came with a cipher. Being an awesome Grandpa he used the cipher and drew the code on the envelope and his message in the card. Great job Grandpa!



Images of the week at Grandma's coming soon!

adrienne & mike: wedding

Adrienne (my sister) and Mike were married in an intimate ceremony on August 28th in Washington Crossing, PA. You might remember them from their engagement session last May. The ceremony was beautiful and everything about the wedding was great - the whole weekend was a blast and more posts will follow detailing the rest of it.

With the new baby, my sister wasn't sure if we would be able to make the trip so they decided to use Megan Zeller Photography. I didn't want to step on another photographers toes so I stuck mostly to the details and tried to control myself and stay out of the way.





I usually make it a point to take some shots of the bride's shoes; however, Adrienne decided to be barefoot. The groom's shoes though were awesome.



Okay so I said I tried to control myself and stay out of the way...but when you get married in a room as cool as a vineyard barrel room I couldn't help myself. I had to steal the newlyweds for a few moments to climb on the barrels.








The evening was fun and the kids behaved so well during the ceremony. Jake and I enjoyed a reason to get just a little dressed up and even managed a nice self-take.



More images to come of the whole fun weekend!

steph: wedding shower

Earlier this month I took a trip to PA for my soon-to-be sister-in-law's wedding shower. Her bridal party had planned a wine tasting shower and it was a blast. Rob and Steph will be married in October.


The food not only looked great but tasted fantastic!




The girls had put together cute favors and centerpieces.




Steph and her bridal party - great job girls on a fun shower!


Steph had a special bride glass for the day - very cute.


The happy bride...


And she has a lot to be happy about - I know he's my brother so I might be biased but any guy who shows up at a wedding shower with roses gets bonus points in my opinion.




My sister flew in for the shower and finally got to meet her new niece. We'll be heading to Philadelphia for Adrienne's wedding at the end of the month.

update: kids

For those that have not yet seen it in person, Kinsley is smiling. She actually started grinning at us almost 5 weeks ago but as I mentioned before I'm a little behind in posting. These images are from last week. Xander is still doing an great job as big brother. He is growing so fast - it's been awesome to spend the summer home with him and watch all the changes!

(Image by Jake)

Hoping to catch up on some editing while in PA next week so more images should be coming soon.

We're Alive!

4 weeks ago we pulled Xander from daycare to stay home with Kinsley and I until I return to work. As you can see from the blog (or lack thereof) I have not had a free moment since. I am loving everyday home with my kids and have hundreds of images to edit when life slows down again but for now I have not had the time to post anything. We are all doing well and I will be back to posting regularly again soon. In fact the family and I leave for my sister's wedding followed by a whole week in Pennsylvania next week so you can bet there will be plenty of images coming!

Since I can't post without a photo and don't have time to sort through all the raw files of the kids to pick one to post this was taken last weekend at my mother-in-laws house. It's going on Kinsley's wall.



I return to work on September 9th and will start scheduling sessions again at that time. Contact me if you are interested or have questions!