Today was a fun day! It began with some catching up with family. My brother Todd and his crew are in town visiting from Ohio! This means that we get to spend the weekend with them down in Bradenton. Piper is already psyched out of her mind about this. All morning, here in Ocala, they played and played together…his kiddo’s and Piper get along so well. After Todd and the gang left to head south to my parents house, Piper decided it would be fun to have a little “girl” time These make me smile! This is a true testament to the fact that my little girl is growing up. For as long as I can remember, the last thing she ever wanted to do was be “girly”. She was in love with Thomas (and still is, don’t get me wrong) but now she is reaching a stage where makeup and hair and getting dressed up all play an important role in her day-to-day activities. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t totally excited about this new turn of events. It rained all day, so this seemed like the perfect solution to today’s need of an indoor activity! She kept saying “I look great, mommy. Don’t I?” hahaha She loves this vintage hat…it’s her favorite accesory I must confess that I love it too! I thought this called for some vintage processing Happy Thursday all

Tonight I had the amazing opportunity to capture the wedding of Jackie and Sean These are two of the sweetest, funniest people that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. When I shot their engagement shoot earlier in the year, I just knew that they were special. I absolutely adore how Sean looks at her…it’s truly something to watch and learn from. They are just precious to one another. In addition to having an awesome time attending their totally hip and happenin’ wedding…I also had the super awesome Gina Leigh second shoot with me tonight. We had such a great time together…we immediately clicked and had the best time hanging out  and  after month’s of emailing one another could finally meet face to face. Gina, I love you sister! I can’t wait to do it again You are just too fun! Here are just a few of the images I captured tonight…I have so many favorites and I promise to post more, but here are just a few to get ya started!

Tonight, as Piper and I sat in the darkness of her bedroom all you could hear were giggles through the door. Jonny had to come in to inspect what we were up to. For quite some time, Piper and I pulled out her Thomas flashlight and were making shadow puppets on the wall. She would get laughing so hard I couldn’t contain my own laughter. This is one of my top 5 favorite Piper moments. As if things couldn’t get any more funny…Piper pulled out her platoon of Rhino’s that Jonny brought home from a Pharmaceutical Expo. They are spongy and soft, but just heavy enough to fly like a patriot missle across the house. So, as Jonny sat checking email, Piper and I concocted a plan! (enter evil laugh here) haha. She and I gathered up all of the Rhino’s and tucked them in our shirts and tip-toed down the hallway, quiet as mouses. I quietly counted…1…2…3…and the war games began! Jonny took about 15 Rhino’s to the head, neck, back and belly. A burst of laughter came barreling out of all three of us and the look on Jonny’s face was priceless. He got up and immediately began retaliating. The three of us went chucking Rhino’s at each other…rolling on the ground, diving behind couches and then all of a sudden Piper and Jonny teamed up on me and I was the person voted “most favorite target”. We died laughing, it was so much fun. Family moments such as these are the best *sigh* I love my family! Here are a few of those Rhino’s…a couple of them didn’t make it out alive, as our dog got involved and started shredding them Don’t you think this would make a great addition to the summer olympics? Maybe I’ll send them the idea haha

I’m off to Tampa tomorrow to shoot a wedding, so stay tuned for Pictures later this weekend! Happy Friday!

September is quickly approaching and our household is brimming with excitement! I can HARDLY STAND the wait until College football begins. Every weekend you’ll know where to find us…sewn to the couch, glued to the TV, planted at the end of a sports bar…wherever the action is happening. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a die-hard, bury me with a tomahawk, kinda girl. I went to Florida State…lived in Tallahassee for 4 years, sat avidly and devotedly in the stands of Doak Campbell Stadium doing the Warchant along with a bazillion other FSU students and fans…every game…I was there, face painted with war paint, screaming my head off. The pinacle of my FSU football days was when I traveled to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl with my dear friend Maureen and the son of Astronaut Norm Thagard. (yeah, you know…the guy the health center at FSU is named after). hahaha we had a blast…my mom and dad even saw me on Bourbon Street on TV :) That was the most awesome experience…to be there when we won the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP against Vriginia Tech. We were die hard then and we still are…right, Maureen? hahaha

So, in honor of FSU football coming (TODD, get ready brother)…

Bobby Bowden…you are the man! Probably the most revered coach of our time! Oh and his wife rocks…she’s a Phi Mu like me! GO NOLES!!!

*note: Jonny is a Notre Dame fan. If you are a FSU fan, you generally hate Notre Dame. See how that works out for you. hahahahaha

In addition to Piper taking Gymnastics lessons (by the way, she is rockin’ it. Totally holds up her legs up on the bar all by herself while hanging–woo hoo!), she also takes cheerleading lessons…it’s actually competitive cheerleading. I’m so excited for her to get her uniform and travel to competitions. That will be a blast! I will be sure to post pictures once we get her decked out in her uniform. After coming home from cheerleading tonight, Piper was walking across the yard and the light hit her hair and I couldn’t resist running inside and taking a few shots. She’s getting so big on me. She’s been coughing an awful lot the last 2 days, so I’m hoping and praying that it’s nothing to worry myself over (yeah right, like I’m not going to listen to every breath and noise that squeaks out of those lungs of hers). She’s got an appointment for another throat culture and to check out the cough, so here’s to hoping for good results!

Just a few of the little one

haha…it’s Friday! Yay :) Ever since we began dating, Jonny and I would call each other on Friday’s and before we even said hello, one of us would start singing Eddie Money’s “workin’ for the weekend” song. haha…

He came home today with a beautiful bouquet of flowers…including wildflowers and gerber daisies! My favorites! That was such a sweet surprise…that’s an awesome way to be greeted at the end of a long week My hero!

A few pics of the flowers and one of a little garden ballerina Enjoy your weekend!!!!

Just wanted to post 1 more image…

This is one of those pictures that happens serendipidously. I was merely looking for a focal point on the wall to check my settings and the first thing I locked onto was the crucifix we have hanging in our entry way. As I was opening my images, I saw this…the compositon, lighting, and moodiness just fell into place. Even the vignette happened on it’s own…there was no burning done at all on my end. It came out so perfectly, I felt the need to post it. The only thing I did to it was soften and bump the curve a hair. Something like this makes me feel God’s presence in my own life. So cool!

Just thought I’d share an image of the little one! She has been sweet as pie today, I just want to squeeze her little cheeks! I can’t believe the conversations we have these days…sometimes it feels like I’m talking to a colleague. I love her to pieces!

Sorry for the delay in posts…after recovering from my trip to Alaska, I have had some allergy issues where my eye was swollen shut and I looked like I went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. My allergies appear to get worse every year…I think I freaked Jonny out a bit last night when he looked at me and could only see one eye. haha…don’t ask me why or how it happened. All I can say is “God bless Benedryl”. Jonny thought I should blog a picture of my eye, but I told him I’d rather spare you all…haha. You can thank me later

I have some fun shoots coming up, so come on back for pictures!

Here she is

Hi guys! I am sitting in the Anchorage airport awaiting my 6 am flight. I’ve been here since 3 am, which means I’ve been awake since 5 am yesterday. lol…my brain hurts, my neck has a GIANT knot in it from sleeping all funky and to top it all off, when I hit Starbucks this morning in the airport and ordered a VENTI carmel macchiato, I set it down and it exploded all over the floor of the airport. I am so tired I started laughing hysterically outloud. It was just the funniest thing to me…and I’m quite certain that everyone thought I had lost my mind. Too funny!! So, sitting here I’ve had some time to edit some of the OneLight photo’s and thought I’d post! OneLight is A-MAZING…Zack is so incredible to watch in action! He just oozes genius. I can’t get over how naturally off-camera lighting comes to him…it is such an honor to learn from him.  Get yourself to one asap…it will answer those lurking questions you’ve had in your head that you’ve pondered for so long…the one’s that keep you awake at night saying “how’d he do that”? Zack and Meghan are seriously the coolest people on the planet…and Melissa Laggis was super hilarious and a magnificent host. I can’t thank them enough for hoisting my butt around, because I was the out-of-towner (Jaime too)! You guys are the best I will drive you anywhere, anytime you are in Florida…you just let me know!! My eyes are starting to cross, so I had better shut’er down, but here are some images from the workshop. Alaska is incredible. Wow…what a different world it is up here. I will DEFINITELY be back! (Longer next time…not this 3 day thing-a-mahoo I pulled this time haha).

~Courtney