Owen's 2nd Birthday Party

We simply can't believe this little boy is two. He has brought so much joy to our lives and it is hard to remember life without him. My sister, if you did not know, is a master party thrower. She can barely try and it will turn out phenomenal. She knows how to cook and she knows how to decorate. This year's theme was an "Up, Up, & Away" airplane party. You can see some of the fun details below. 

We started the day off with a happy boy ready to party! 

He spent the morning playing and hanging out with Gran and Annie. 

Here are a few of Julie's special creations. 

Yes. She made the cake herself. 

These photos of Owen with his cupcake crack me up. He is a boy of many faces.

We had an interesting game of "pin the propeller on the air plane"

I love these people. 

We ended the day with a little tractor riding and playtime with our new toys. 

Jared Family

I lied. I am not done posting my fall sessions. I forgot about my own family!!

Every year I look forward to and also dread taking my family's Christmas card photo. This year I knew it would be extra challenging since Owen would be difficult to get to look at the camera. It was also very cold outside and had been raining all week. We also had trouble coordinating all of our outfits. BUT! This ended up being the easiest photo we have done! We asked my grandparents to come along to get Owen to look at the camera. We also wanted to snag some pictures of them as well.  I hope you enjoy these! I love them almost as much as I love the people in them! 

Christmas 2013

Yes. It is January 29th. And I am just now posting our Christmas. We had a film shoot this past Saturday and beforehand we were formatting our memory cards when I realized our Christmas photos had never been copied onto the computer! So, the reason for the late post, I had forgotten I even had pictures! 

We celebrated Christmas with my family a few days after Christmas. This did not keep us from celebrating our tradition of waiting to come downstairs until our parents gave us the Okay. We would then walk down the stairs without looking at our "Santa" gifts. After gifts, which is typically a three hour process, my grandparents stopped by and we had a huge breakfast. We ate biscuits, gravy, eggs, fried potatoes, fried chicken, and I am sure some other important side dish.

We continued the day playing with Owen, prepping food for dinner, playing Canasta, and simply enjoying staying in our pajamas all day long. 

It was a good day. 

I love this shot of my parent's home. This was actually just a test shot to make sure the lighting was right so my mom could take pictures. But I love all the details: our full stockings on the couch, Owen's stocking in the little rocking chair, the beautiful tree, the beautifully set table, my mom's new red couch, and the quilts hanging around the rails. It is our home and it makes me happy.

I think this picture is hilarious. Matt thinks Julie and myself are silly for keeping our eyes closed until we get downstairs. Yet, in this photo, you can clearly see he is trying to keep up the tradition with Owen :)

Owen got an old toy clock just like Pops had as a kid!

Owen showing Pops some of his new clothes.

Owen liked his noise maker that sounds like a cow mooing.

Socks.

Nothing better than an Amazon gift card.

Sweet baby Owen celebrating his 2nd Christmas! Eek!

Dad always examines each gift with such care, even if it is just some almonds. :)

Oh my. Look out!

Owen opening his gift from Justin and me. It is seen below in the next photo.

He loves watching his daddy mow and he loves pushing things. So we got him his own lawn mower! He pushed that thing around forever.

I love this. Julie has been wanting Hunter boots forever now and had come to the conclusion that she probably wasn't getting any. But to her surprise! She was! I just love her reaction here.

Of course they had to be tried on.

This is Owen first seeing his new tractor from Pops and Gran. I think he was a little overwhelmed by it.

It even has a real working radio on it. This is perfect for the child that loves music.

He was not able to push the pedal (though he quickly mastered it), so we would push it for him!

As you can see, he wanted his lawn mower in the back.. 

Our Christmas was absolutely wonderful. Is it December yet?

PS: If you didn't notice through the series of photos, my mom, sister, and myself all wear matching pajamas. And we forgot to get a picture together...

PINK Bridal Show

Our bridal show has now come and gone! These past few months have been somewhat stressful preparing for it! The show turned out better than we could have ever hoped! Everyone loved our booth! 

I scratched out the design of the booth numerous times. I knew I wanted lights strung across the top since the beginning. Before Christmas we bought these awesome lights at Target. I also did research on other booths, because honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I bought rolls of burlap from Hobby Lobby to hang down the walls and for table runners. I bought the large chalkboard from World Market (ignore the off center "productions" but the chalk board would not erase! Ha!). I bought the smaller chalk board from Wal-Mart. The awesome tassels hanging around the table were made by my sister and she graciously let me borrow them! The white table cloth is from the head table at my wedding! :) All of my prints I ordered from WHCC on matte board. My 4x6 prints around the walls are on 5x7 white card stock. The beautiful yellow poppies are from Hobby Lobby. The yellow chair is from my Granny's house, which she has now given to me!!!!! The drop leaf table is from our home and was our dinning room table at our old (small) apartment. And lastly, the tv is ours. We had two of our wedding recap videos on a loop for the entire show. 

As I think back on yesterday, my mind is still running. It was hours of non stop talking and standing.  We met so many awesome people and it was just a great day. I cannot wait to shoot the weddings of some of our new brides! 

A Labradoodle Saturday: Week 1

Annie does not like having her photo taken. But I like having photos of her. I follow so many blogs and photographers that do their yearly 365 days or 52 week projects. I have always wanted to participate but found my life lacked the proper subjects (kids). This year is going to be different. I have decided to post every weekend with an "Annie" post. I am going to base the photos I take off of a photographer I follow (My Four Hens) and her weekly themes. 

Friends, I give you: Reflection. 

I cannot wait until December where I can look back over a year of this sweet pup. This series already feels special to me after I lost my childhood dog yesterday. After my mom called and informed me that they had to put Molly down, I searched through all of my photos for pictures of her. Sadly, I could not find that many. I am also going to try and put myself in some of these images with Annie. It is so important to be in the pictures yourself. I hope doing this will better prepare me to photograph my own children and to also be in the photos with them. 

Enjoy! 

Sliger Family

I love these images I got of my sister and her family. It is not always easy taking pictures of your family or of a 1.5 year old crazy little boy! But these three braved a chilly fall day to explore a few of their favorite Memphis locations. We ended there session in a beautiful cotton field during magic hour! I hope you enjoy these of my sweet family!