SNOW

We moved to North Carolina almost 5 years ago and I am still surprised by the amount of snow it takes to close every school in the county.

We were excited to see the snow start falling last night - but I have to admit disappointed with the dusting that greeted us this morning!

Now that we are settled back into routine after the fun and travel of the holidays I've had some time to start in on the incredible number of photos I took during Christmas. I've also had some time to move to storage some older files and came across some from last Christmas.

Oh the difference a year can make...

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!

Cadon & Teagan

Saturday I got to spend some time with the Sparks family photographing their sons Cadon and Teagan.

Cadon wasn't sure about me at first - and he tried to fight it - but it didn't take long to make friends.




Such a sweet big brother!




Check out the baby blues...




and those big handsome browns!




This little man did not want to wear the Santa hat!




One of my favorites from the day...




Look at this little man - only 2 months old and holding his head up so big!



Precious details...







While not one of my favorite images from the day this was my favorite moment. Sporting his Appalachian helmet Cadon stuck his head through the railing to ask "Daddy - can we go to Appalachian so I can play on the football team....not today Daddy but tomorrow when I'm all grown up."

Thanks to Jodi and Tim for letting me spend a great afternoon with their family!

Thanksgiving

Plenty to be thankful for!

The obvious...



A wonderful meal with family...





Helping hands...

Fun (and the great NC weather to have it in!)...

The joy of the holidays!



We have more thanks to offer this year than can ever be expressed!

Baby Shinsky

In addition to engagement photos I spent Saturday celebrating the upcoming birth of my nephew (due in March!). The shower was wonderful and Sarah and Jordan the ideal picture of excited soon-to-be parents!

The soon-to-be Grandma's put together a great shower game - each guest had to figure out if the baby would be like mom or like dad if they did the following. We got to learn a bunch of fun, embarrassing, unique facts about Sarah and Jordan as children. The Grandma's had Sarah and Jordan sit up front and admit to their childhood antics! I'll never tell who used to do wind sprints in their underwear!

Then came the best part of a baby shower - PRESENTS!

This is a rolling giggle pal. It is a fun and annoying toy that squealed 'ha ha he he ha ha he he' for every bump in the road all 400 miles of the trip to PA. I hope the baby loves it and wants to take it in the car EVERYWHERE!

We got to meet Evie and Derek's new baby Josie. She is precious - so very small!

Sarah and Jordan had these great excited awed smiles the whole day - you can tell they are enjoying this time in their life but anxious to meet their new baby boy!

Congratulations guys! Can't wait to kiss that baby!

Rob and Stephanie

Last weekend we traveled to PA for my sister-in-law's baby shower. Sunday afternoon I got to meet up with my brother and his fiance to shoot an engagement session.

The beautiful ring...




the beautiful couple...






We started out in the South Side to take advantage of an awesome graffiti wall they had scouted for me.









Then we headed to Station Square - the official first date location! Rob and Steph were such good sports - it was 30 degrees with the occasional snow flurry when we started and not a complaint was heard about taking off jackets!

After a time in Station Square we walked across the bridge to spend some time in downtown Pittsburgh. These two were willing to do anything!

Good thing we got some fun bridge shots because as soon as we got into downtown Pittsburgh the flurries turned to serious snow and we had to call it quits. Thankfully they'll be down to visit for Thanksgiving so we'll finish up in the North Carolina weather!

Halloween Costume

Sunday afternoon we took Xander to Tanglewood Park to get some photos in his Halloween costume. He was not in the mood to put on his froggy or take photos!

I think he was refusing to make eye contact until I took him out of the costume.



He loosened up some when we found this fun wagon to play on but was still refusing to smile.








Even if Xander wasn't cooperating the sun was!

Only a few days until his first Trick-Or-Treat!