West + Business :)

i am going to start this blog with a little business :) i know that people visit the blog. i have a stat counter that tells me so... but no one leaves comments! so to help out in this area, i am adding an incentive. once your pictures are up on the blog, if you get 10 comments on your post you will get a free 5x7 print of the picture of your choice. (even if you ordered the cd with all of the pictures, i will still print one for you!) it is also retroactive... so if an old post gets 10 comments, you will get a 5x7! so get to commenting!!!

ok on to the west family. angie wanted some pictures of 6 month old laney and few with 5 year old garrett. so i went to her in-laws house for the shoot. angie told me she was a nurse at the hospital and what do you know... she was a nurse when our (then) 6 day old madeline was in the hospital with viral meningitis. that was not a fun time. but i remembered angie, she was pregnant and super nice :)
the shoot went well! the grandparents were even around to help out! they held a huge blanket so we were able to get some good shaded shots :) thanks!! laney was adorable and has the most beautiful eyes!!

those eyes!

the bucket was so cute! laney did not love it, so i had to grab some shots really quickly.

but this one turned out pretty cute :)

cooper

i got to take some pictures of cooper for his 2nd birthday. his mom and i went to college together :) and i took pictures of the whole family in november. this time we met at hugh mcrae to do the pictures. cooper was great :) the only problem was that it was quite a bit hot! so by the end of the session cooper was sweating just a little. his is still adorable and we were able to get some cute pictures!

he has beautiful eyes!

cutie pie :)

how old is cooper...

Speaks

a little over a week ago i meet the speaks family for a session at the beach. toni and warren were in town visiting friends who live next door to some other people i had taken pictures for. i love how that works!!
it had been raining hard all day. we were not sure we were going to be able to get the session in. but as wilmington weather is famous for... it cleared up quickly! the sky was beautiful!
toni likes black and white pictures on the beach, so i did a few more in black in white than what i would normally do. but they came out beautiful!!
thanks for meeting with me you have a beautiful family!! :)

paypal

despite the fact that this may be a bit embarrassing, i am sharing it anyway so you know the reason behind some of my practices. this is why i require a paid paypal invoice before a session.
against my better judgment i planned a session on saturday without following through with the paid paypal invoice (i always send a paypal invoice to someone prior to a session). on this occasion, i did send it, i just didn't make sure it got paid prior to the session. i kind of had a "feeling", but made the drive to the arboretum anyway. the session was supposed to be at 6:00... at 6:15 no one was there. i called the client and left a message. she called back to say that something had come up and she was not going to be able to make it.
i am a mom of three young children and in order to make it to an early evening session i have to rearrange quite a lot of things. i am not sharing this to complain, i love love taking pictures and i am more than happy to rearrange my schedule to make a session happen! but i share this to say that it does require some work on my part to make it to each and every session.
so in the future i will no longer meet someone (that i don't know or i haven't worked with in the past) without a paid invoice. i am not being rude or insensitive, i will just politely suggest that we reschedule the session until a time after the invoice is paid.

i was able, however, to take the opportunity to take some pictures of the beautiful flowers in bloom at the arboretum :)

jenkins

i met the jenkins family at the arboretum to do some pictures a little over a week ago. sarah and i taught together before i had hana and became a stay at home mom :) they are a great family! austin claire is so cute and a very good listener and she also has a natural smile. so, the pictures came out great! thanks for finding me again sarah :) see you in the gz line!

laura beth was only 5 weeks old. she did great!!

austin claire will be a great big sister :)

so cute!

love the bloomers :)

Upton & Womack

last fall i took pictures of the upton family. so about a week ago when the upton family plus grandparents and uncle were on vaction at figure 8 island, i went to take pictures of the whole family. figure 8 island is a beautiful place!! it feels like you are on vaction and it is just a few minutes down the road... beautiful!! they rented a house on the beach and needless to say, it is a gorgeous place to take pictures!

we started with ones of danner and tellie at the house :)you may recognize tellie... she is on the front page of my website :) so beautiful!

then one of the 4 uptons :)one of the kids walking on the beach :)and a few of the whole family!mom and daughter love... priceless!