Until next time!

I guess maybe because of where I grew up, ( Biloxi, MS) the beach will always be my favorite place, the greatest getaway, my place of relaxaition, and a place of fun for the family. No matter what beach I am on, it always feels like home. Luckily my family seems to enjoy it as much as I do, so it makes for a great family vacation!

For Adam and Cole, the beach is a place of great adventure and fun. It is where Adam can go fishing, and Cole can run for miles and throw things in there air with the only consequence being that he is eventually covered in sand and results in a shower, that he drags out to last a good 30 minutes while he splashes and plays even more. It is where Adam and Cole together, can wonder out and find all kinds of new thing to learn and talk about.

Such as starfish:

 Cole had a great time collecting starfish. He liked the way they wiggled in his hands, and loved lining them up for a group picture. At one point in time we had collected 11starfish!

They also had fun collecting crabs that they found. Adam found a huge area, when the tide was down, where there was literally hundreds of crabs crawling everywhere! Cole kept wanting to poke them despite our warnings that they would pinch him! Logan went with Adam to collect them, while Cole was down for a nap, and when he woke up they all went out on the back deck to show Cole what they had found.

We managed to find all kinds of new things to show the boys. There was even a piece of coral that washed up on shore while we were there.

We even, spent one day out sight seeing and visited the light house.

So as you can probably tell the boys had a great time! Cole loved the time he spent with Daddy!

And as for me, well I enjoyed all the adventures, but taking off my shoes and relaxing was what it was all about.

And since Brody wasn't old enough to take part in the adventures he enjoyed relaxing with me when he wasn't trying to learn to crawl (I'll blog about that soon).

and occassionally even Cole would enjoy in a little relaxation as well...

Although I would have ordinarily been annoyed with Brody waking my up at 5 in the morning, the view from the balcony made it all worth it.



My favorite part of each day was the beautiful sunrises that Brody made sure that I was up in time to enjoy!

So until next time....I will be dreaming of you beach and your beautiful sunrises!

A day at the beach for the Hall Family

Just recently, Adam and I, along with the boys, took a trip to Hilton Head, SC with the Hall Family. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend part of a day photographing this wonderful family!

Julie and Dan (two of Adam's best friends from WKU) are two wonderful parents of two truly adorable little boys, Logan and Landon.They are for the most part your typical family, but they always seem so happy and say some of the funniest things! There is never a dull moment with any of them around. 

 We were able to hold the boys interest just long enough to get a few family shots before Landon decided to stray off and find his own things to get into.

Landon is just under a year and half, and is one of the sweetest little boys ever. He is so kind natured and always seems so happy. He, like most boys his age, is so curious and always finding something new to run off to and explore!

Logan is the oldest son. I think he is one of the funniest and yet more mature 4 year olds I have ever met.

His favorite words/phrases seemed to be "actually" and "I was suprised really well to find..."

Logan is capable of finding something fun to do or something silly to say no matter how serious everyone else is trying to be. My favorite thing that Logan said came after his mom told him that if he could not stop maybe time out would do him good, his response was "actually mom, I can't handle a time out right now"

He enjoyed finding all kinds of different things on the beach such as hermit crabs and starfish, but he is favorite part was by far "riding the waves!"



Dan and Julie, thank you so much for letting us be part of you family vacation!! You two are so great to be around and your boys are so wonderful. I can't wait until our next get together!

Molten Mocha!

Anyone, who knows anything about me, knows that I love to bake!! I often look for reasons to bake something, but with Allison being around as much as she is, I don't have to come up with a reason on my own anymore. She is more than willing to come up with something that she has been "dying" to have or simply "has to try."

One of Allison's favorite desserts is the Lava Cake that Olive Garden use to have on the menu. A couple of months ago she ordered one to go, so that she could eat it later. Only to find that when she returned home, it had already been eaten. Her Papaw, thought it was for him, and enjoyed every last bite of it. And although he enjoyed it tremendously at the time, he felt equally as bad later when he found out that it was Allison's dessert, that she had been looking forward to eating all day!!! So, a few days later, Allison returned to Olive Garden to finally get her dessert she had been longing for, only to find that it is no longer on the menu!!!!!

After all of this, you can only imagine her excitement, when she found out that I had a recipe for a similiar cake. So after several days of being too busy to bake these Molten Mocha Chocolate Cakes aka Lava Cakes, we finally set aside time to bake them after school today.  They turned out wonderful and had a little more coffee flavor than the ones at Olive Garden, which is more than okay with me. However, even though I may be known to have a sweet tooth, these cakes were a little rich even for me. I was only able to eat about half.....with Cole's help!



As delicious as it may have been, I too feel the remorse that my father in-law felt for having ate it. Now I have to go work off all those unwanted, yet delicious calories that I simply could not resist!

Sunday Morning Traditions!!

I moved to Kentucky almost two years ago, and although I am becoming quite fond of it here, I will always be a Mississippi girl! There are so many things I miss from Biloxi, my family and friends being at the top of that list, but Beignets are deffinately a close second. I remember when I was younger, my mom would often take us to Mary Mahoney's, a local cafe,  for breakfast on the weekends. I would always order the same thing, an order of beignets and a side of ham....YUM! My favorite!  In July of this year, I made a trip down to the coast to visit with my family, and my father in-law had one request upon my return to KY.....bring him home some beignets! It had been years since I had last had these delicious french doughnuts, sprinkled with confectioner's sugar! I knew I couldn't bring him home any, there is no way they would be any good after a 10 hour drive. The only way to eat them is warm, and fresh.  However, there was no reason why I couldn't make them. So the Sunday after I returned from Mississippi, we had everyone over to the house and my mom made beignets for everyone! They were just as I remembered..... delicious!!! Needless to say my niece, Allison, instantly became a huge fan, along with my 2 year old son. So it was agreed every other Sunday, is Beignet Sunday. 

So that is what I did today. I woke up early this morning and made scrammbled eggs for Adam (the only one here, who is not a fan of sweets) and beignets for everyone else.

And of course, I had to have my new favorite coffee.

Cinnamon Pecan!! Soooo Good!

And as for Cole........

Well, let's just say he is in favor of our new Sunday Morning Tradititon!

From the first bite, to the very last, the beignet never leaves his mouth!

I am so glad that I was able to take one of my favorite childhood memories and turn it into a tradition for my own family. Hopefully my boys will appreciate it as much as I did growing up.

Allison the Fashionista

Over the holiday weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time with  my niece, Allison, a truly beautiful 11 year old girl, both inside and out! In so many ways she is like every other 11 year old girl, but her heart of gold, her positive attitude and her total sense of fashion are what really set her apart.

She, like most girls her age loves anything cute and cuddly. Out of a litter of kittens though, Allison will pick out the one, that most people consider to be the least cute. However, Allison doesn't see things the way other people do though, nor does she care what other people think of her opinions.

The kitten in the pink box is Allison's kitten, Patches.

She is growing up to be a strong, and independent young lady, and she always gives her best effort, weather it be in school, cheerleading, or just looking her best for a photo shoot.

 Allison always makes sure to look her best from picking out the perfect outfit, and making sure that everything matches, including the nail polish.

To picking out the perfect shoes!

Allison, you are absolutely beautiful just the way you are!! Always stay true to who you are, I Love you.

Capturing the Moment

After much thought and consideration, I have decided to start a blog. I have been torn for quite a while as to wether or not blogging is something I would enjoy. Putting my thoughts out there for anyone to read, didn't seem like something I would enjoy, and quite honestly I can't imagine that too many people would really be interested in reading it. However, today, I was taking a picture "Capturing the moment" and I decided that photography is a great way to capture the moment, but for people who weren't there to experience that moment, some of the moment has been lost. Although we can all see a smile on a persons face, we aren't quite sure what or who put that smile there. Therefore, I am starting my blog with the intentions of sharing with people the full experience of "Capturing the moment" through photography and the stories and emotions that were shared at that moment in time.