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Priceless Expressions! – Birmingham Alabama Portrait Photographer

Posted on January 4, 2011

We  knew this guy way back (how am I old enough to know someone WAY back??) when Cory and I were first married.

 

Life got busy and we lost touch with each other and in the meantime, he met his fantastic wife. Love her!! This sessions makes ME so happy because I see how happy my friend is now, years later… with lots of beautiful babies. God is good! They have moved away (sniff, sniff) but the family was back in town for Christmas! For Christmas this year, her family gave her mom a portrait session the day after Christmas while everyone is in town. We were hoping for warmer weather but you know, Alabama weather…. we still had snow on the ground! We met at the garden’s greenhouse. It is a great location when the weather isn’t being so nice. I love all the expressions from this session! I wish I could share ALL of them with you! My job is so awesome that I am given the opportunity to meet so many wonderful families. I. L.O.V.E. an extended family session! Makes my heart smile EXTRA big!

And the winner is….

Posted on August 7, 2010

Thank you for giving me some grace with this contest. I know it was supposed to be a lot shorter and I know I planned on announcing the winner a few days ago but life got in the way. We are currently at the beach and my sweet boy has been sick. You know my babies always come first and we have been on survival mode around here. I am hoping he is finally better and we can enjoy our last few hours at the beach. Praise God that my Sarah hasn’t been sick. But enough about me… what you really want to know is who wins!

So Cory has this super fancy database that he made for our contest. (I love my computer nerd!) We entered all of the comments into his “super fancy” database and now I share those results with YOU…

Grand prize winner…. she wins a session fee and a disk of all the pictures to print, print, print… Shauna Palmer!! CONGRATS!! She also happens to be one of the moms from our workshop so I was excited to she was one of our winners!!

Second Place winner… Phillip Woodard!! He wins a session fee with a $25 print credit. I bet he is going to use this session for the new baby girl that is due in a few months. His wife made him comment on every post so I am glad his efforts paid off!

Third Place winner… Melissa Hall!!! She wins a session fee with a $25 print credit. I have known her family for a few years and I look forward to photographing her sweet little princess, she is just a few weeks younger than my Sarah.

So, winners email me NOW to set something up. You must contact me within 30 days to claim your prize. After 30 days it expires! I make the rules!

Thank you for all the entries!! Look for another contest in the coming weeks! I love to give something away for free!

And if you didn’t win…. you might feel like this….

Or maybe like this….

But don’t lose heart… your chances are better next time because the three winners can’t win next time.

What I learned on our trip…

Posted on July 31, 2010

WARNING….. I am in a rambling mood. run on sentences and I am sure a ton of typos but I am in the mood to share with you my heart from our trip. Continue reading if you can handle my lack of good grammar!

I first want to thank everyone for putting up with my blog being ALL about us for over a month now. I have really enjoyed hearing every one’s comments. It really makes my day to have someone comment on our blog. I have also enjoyed sharing my trip with you. Strangely enough, this trip has changed who I am as a person. I am looking at everything differently. I didn’t expect our adventure to have such a profound effect on me. I knew that we would see amazing things but I didn’t know that the entire trip would change the way I see America.

What did I learn? That we have an incredible country. Every state had it’s own feel to it. Every state was so different from the next. I also have the travel bug and I want to see more. Cory and I started talking about where we wanted to go next before we arrived home.

I learned how much I love a road trip. I have flown to several places before but there is something so exciting about a road trip. I think I enjoy the journey just as much as the destination. I love planning to see corny things that are roadside and I love the unexpected part of driving. You never know what is around the corner. And this website was invaluable when planning free things to do while on a road trip: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/.

I learned that my children love to travel as much as we do. I didn’t really know what to expect with being on the road for so long. We planned lots of stops and tried to communicate every day what our plans were so they would know what to expect. They did much better than I ever thought they would. But I also learned that staying in a different place every night was confusing for Elijah (not sure about Sarah since she can’t really talk yet). About 5 nights into our trip, Elijah kept asking what state were we in and even though we stayed with family for several nights in a row and we told him we would be there…. he constantly asked… where are we staying tonight?? For the most part, they adapted just fine. And Elijah can tell you where every state is that we visited on a map. He is only 3, so I am impressed.

I learned that the free things are just as exciting as the expensive things. My kids enjoyed some of the silliest things. They loved the state rest stops, random parks, roadside fruit stands…. as much as the Grand Canyon. I guess they are easily impressed. Cory and I both tried to make this trip as much as a learning experience (we are starting to homeschool Elijah) as it was a vacation. I think we succeeded. We taught Elijah about everything we saw and he soaked it up. There is no better to way to learn geography, than to SEE our country.

Our country is full of people that are so different. By the third day of our trip, I started seeing things differently. I started paying attention to the houses I saw as much as the sights. We all live in very different types of houses. From solar powered shacks in Arizona to cliff side mansions in California…. normal for one person would be quite extraordinary to others. I remember seeing houses in the middle of no where with incredible vistas as a backyard. Cory and I said many many times… wow, what a backyard! What I see as normal with beautiful green trees, hills, streams, etc would also be amazing to someone who has never seen Alabama. I don’t think I will ever see Alabama the same after seeing how different the rest of the country is… But, I know that the landscapes are different but our heart is all the same. We want to be happy, to be surrounded with those who love us, and we want what is best for those that we love most. That is all that matters, right?

There is much more of this country that we want to see but I am amazed at God’s handy work. Just the in U.S. alone, God is so creative in His design. And just to think… heaven will be even more amazing than earth. I don’t know what you, but I can’t wait for that!

I learned how amazing a close knit family can be. Cory and I have a wonderful family here in Alabama but our family is spread out and we don’t have the opportunity to see each other often. I think what changed me the most from the trip is how much I loved my family in California. I didn’t expect to fall in love with a group of people as I did with the Ferguson’s. It took us all of one day to fit in perfectly. I was nervous meeting them, so was Cory (it had been 15 years since Cory has lived in California). I can imagine they were nervous to meet us, but it didn’t take long and it was like we were all meant to be together. One cousin told me we were missing pieces to a puzzle that they didn’t even know they were missing. The family loved my children and it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. The family came together and helped us with our babies and loved them like they were always there. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of people and to know they are family made it even sweeter. I am sad that they are 2200 miles away and even though we stared this trip thinking it would be a once in a lifetime trip… it won’t be. We are already thinking about when we can get back to see everyone. Our home is in Alabama, but I am homesick for a place I have never lived. I love, love, love, our California family. They are promising to come visit Alabama too! We thought our trip would be the best part of our vacation but the family was more amazing that anything we saw…

Now, enough sappy stuff… funny stuff that I learned…

People have no idea what Alabama is like. We were asked once if we had sidewalks. I remember people seeing our tag on the road and speeding up to see what we looked like… lol. I don’t know what they expected???

I learned I have a very strong southern accent and apparently Cory has one too. I wasn’t surprized about myself but I wouldn’t think Cory has an accent, but everyone said he does.

Stop at any redlight in Southern California, and you can find 3 Mexican restaurants.

I am in love with Del Taco. Seriously…. I ate there 4 times in 5 days. (hides my face in shame!)

California has never heard of a bishop dress. Seriously… I thought that was the strangest thing.

There is an Native American tribe in Oklahoma called the “Kickapoo”. Seriously… no offense to the tribe but where did they come up with that name??

In spite of how beautiful the Grand Canyon was, nothing beat the drive through the indian reservation to New Mexico. Hands down the most beautiful part of our trip!

I learned that my husband and I are the silliest people I know. We named our minivan (Silver Bullet) and our GPS (George) and we were constantly making up songs to entertain the children. We were seriously like the real life “National Lampoon”.

Whew… I could really go on and on… there is so much more I wish I could share with you about our trip but I eventually have to start sharing clients on here again. I mentioned before that we had our portraits made by the fabulous Sarah Chen while we were in California. I thought the best way to end our trip report is to share a few from our session. I think I love my job more now that I have had the experience of having another photographer capture my family in print. I love the portraits she created for us and I will never forget how incredible it feels to see someone else show me my family. It was great to have some pictures of us all together. Here are just a few of my favorites.

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