zip lines and sea turtles..

hello all!
whoa this little blog has been neglected for sometime...but, with good reason.

we moved back home to tn just a little over a week ago and things have been pretty crazy around here as we settle back into the house. mainly because of the mice invasion we had. we live in the country, so mice do come to visit once in a while (tis life, i suppose) but being that the surrounding areas to our home were devastated by a tornado and the little critter's homes were turned up...i suppose they figured the next best place to call home would be our home.. ICK! no thankyou! sorry, guys...you are not allowed. i can respect you in nature, your natural home, but you are not welcomed in our home. harsh, i know.

so, after much cleaning (thanks to my sister and bro-in-law for coming over and helping me a great deal) the place is clean, and now i am slowly unpacking the gulf shores things...i am also using this time to purge the house of unnecessary items. it is such a freeing feeling to brings lots of bags to the donation center. the bags keep going right out my door, into the 4runner, and to the donation center...i imagine that will be happening for awhile. i have a strong dislike for too much "stuff" right now. it must go for my sanity. clutter free is nice.

meanwhile...i am also working on lots of shoots which took place right before the move. just finished up a precious maternity shoot, and will post some from that shoot just as soon as i can. i have one more shoot to finish up (amy's) and then another to start and finish (lisa's). :-)

river will also be officially starting homeschooling this month.....so, things are quite busy around here to say the least.

let's see....so much has taken place since my last post that i am going to try to quickly get you up to date on the happenings....

firstly, one exciting event which took place is when we were invited after my friend amy's family shoot to go grab some ice cream with them (okay, though ice cream is pretty awesome it was what happened after ice cream that was super exciting...) we were invited to go to the beach and possibly see some baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. and guess what?? they actually hatched while we were there and we got to see them make the journey to the ocean. oh, what an amazing thing to witness! pretty much a chance of a lifetime, it was! unfortunately, we did not do flash photography, obviously,  as the lights could have disoriented the turtles as they went to the ocean. we did use the tripod and got some...you can't really see the turtles, but you can see some stars, light from the pier, sand, and the ditch that was dug for the turtle trek, and of course...our littles gazing upon the little turtles in transit. ;-)

river and lily are sitting in the right of the photo...they are watching the little turtle trek to the sea, and trying very hard not to touch the turtles. they did a great job just watching. 

some  interesting effects going on in these photos.

did you know sea turtles lay their eggs in the same location of where they were born? yes, really? and did you know that people go out here week's, months, years trying to see such an event, and some never see it? i consider us pretty blessed to have been able to be a part of this!

just so you know...baby sea turtles are out-of-this-world -adorable!!!

the whole experience spoke to me of God's plan and design.

thank you, clint and amy for the invite! that was completely amazing! i am thrilled that lily and river got to experience such an event and that rocky and i did, too. ;-)

in other family news:
no, i'm not pregnant...though, i wouldn't mind it really. bring on the baby, is how feel most of the time. ;-)
anywho...the kids went zip lining for the very first time.
my dear friend, amy invited us over to her mom's house for the adventure. both lily and river LOVED it.
someday we would love to put a zip line somewhere on our land, well...that and a pool...and we might as well throw in some hardwood flooring into the mix, as well, since i'm at it. ;-)

apparently, lily loves 4 wheelers

noah showing us how it is done!

the set-up...

lily and amy still working that 4wheeler.

river getting hooked in...

i saw a smidge of fear in his eyes right before going off the edge...that soon passed.

getting all harnessed up..

daddy squeezed in a little hug before she zipped away. ;-)

facing it, with no fear..

from the "launchpad" you can see me clapping...proud mama!

she loved it!

taylor

we are going to miss the gulf shores/orange beach area, but most importantly, the friends we made while there. there is no doubt that we will return for visits. truly, a great bunch of people there. we will miss you all! but, you can't get rid of us...we WILL be back to visit! hey, and will probably be looking for a pad to crash at. lol. (hint hint).

so...more photos to come from gulf shores.. i am way behind on my photos in general. don't even ask about how my project365 is doing. i assure you i have been snapping my photo a day, but they need edited and put up on flickr. i will get it done.
more gulf shores photos to come just as soon as i can get them up.

have a wonderful day!

and if you are awaiting photos from me...thank you so much for your patience. this move back has been crazy. normally i give a 1-2 week turn-a-round window for photo editing and such...this move threw things off schedule to say the least. but,  rest assured you will see them soon...i sleep very little. ;-) burning the midnight oil i guess you could say. 

8th Wedding Anniversary, Lily turns 4, & More

Wow! These past two weeks have been so busy!! That's pretty much all I can say write to describe them. I am trying to catch my breath really...

Speaking of having to catch my breath...have I told you how much I love this man??

I do...and deeply. He really does take my breath away.  8 years ago on the 6th we were married. Wow, time flies when you are having fun!! Seems like just yesterday we were saying "I do" and hopping into the getaway truck to set off on our 3 week road trip to Canada. Oh what a fun time!

And just look at this cutie! I love him! Well, not only because he is adorable but, because he really is an incredible person, father, husband, friend, nerve-calmer (more on that awesome trait in a bit), forgiver of my faults, and encourages me to no end. I am blessed by God to have him in my life.

Curious about when/how we started dating? See this post here.

Thank you, Rocky for your love. Happy Anniversary!

So...about him being an incredible nerve-calmer...well, like I said things have really been crazy but in a good way. He really does help me calm my nerves...

Lots going on, but more on that when I have time for another post and more explanation.

I wanted to share with you some photos from a recent shoot Rocky and I did of a mother and daughter duo we just met through my friend, Amy...

Meet Blakely and Brynley:

This was such a fun shoot! Just thought I would share some of the cute shots we got. ;-) If you are interested you can see more photos from the shoot HERE.


In other news...
Miss Lily just celebrated her 4th birthday on the 7th! Yes, she almost did not have her own special day...but, she does. Our wedding anniversary is on the 6th. So, just barely. ;-)

I still can't get over the fact that our baby is four. She is growing up so fast. She will always be our baby girl, though. Happy birthday, Lily! Your mommy, daddy, and brother love you beyond words...

Here is a shot of Lily helping make her birthday cupcakes for the pool party...she loves to bake!! I think she inherited that from me...i am much more of a baker than a cook. Hopefully (for her future husband's sake) she turns out to be both cook and baker. ;-)



And here is our newly 4 year old in action "picking & collecting" blueberries at grandma and grandpa's house...

Blueberries do not stand a chance with Lily and River around...

Here's proof.

Oh, and here is another shot from the grandparent's house (the massive veggie garden)...

collecting some garden goodies...

So...i skipped a portion of time when the family came to see us in Gulf Shores to celebrate Lily's birthday..that will come in a post soon. The blueberry and garden picking photos came from when we took a lightning fast trip back to TN 4th of July day... a business trip for Rocky. Everyone else went to work on the garden and sauerkraut making...we then headed back to Gulf Shores the following day.

More to come (especially from Lily's birthday get together at Fort Morgan)...but, for now I must go clean.

Have a blessed weekend, Lovelies!!

-kelly

recent happenings..

first off...wow! it's been a while since my last post..just so busy. i am going to do my best to get you all caught up on our happenings since my last post.

well...the weekend before last we headed back to tn for father's day weekend. it was mainly a work trip, but we squeezed in some fun while we were there.

saturday we headed to hiwassee river for canoeing and tubing. we encountered thunderstorms while on the river complete with hail...we were very blessed to be able to make it off the river quickly before being pelted. Praise GOD!

here are some glimpses from the trip to tn...(which, unfortunately...does not include photos from the river adventure as that was a very wet trip and well...water and my camera do not mix).

a snooze on the way to tn.

one of tina's new kittens getting his bath. ;-)

gary and debi's (my in-laws) first tomato of the season. isn't it a beauty?

first cucumber of the season...and it is so cute!

the above photo is of my sister-in-law tina working on one of her beautiful ceramic creations. you can check out more of her work on her etsy shop, Xarine Creations. she is super talented!!

time at the duck pond

making father's day cards..

then this past week included another VBS for river...he had lots of fun learning about ways we can take care of God's creation through recycling, preventing pollution, leaning more about the animals God created and how our actions can put them in danger, etc.

here is a snapshot from VBS...

'the little zoo that could' brought in animals to help the kids learn more about them. here is one of the monkeys.

while river was at VBS, lily and i got to enjoy some time together..here, she is clearly getting tired of all the picture taking..oh, but i can't help myself. i mean..look at those gorgeous eyes!

also this week we had friends come to visit us from tn....our buddies, kent and his son daniel.
here are some photos from the activities which took place while they were here...

meet daniel.  ('beast')...a new term i learned from him. i will forever remind him i know this word. haha! he thinks it sounds funny when i say it because i'm not a kid. oh, that makes it even more fun to say around him.

oh my! i love this man!!

making pancakes...river supervising. ;-)

i also finished my homeschooling list (which includes the subjects as well as a materials list). you can find the subjects/curriculum list under the 'homeschool' page. i will be frequently adjusting this list (especially once we actually get started...so, you might want to check back often.

and then saturday fires broke out in gulf shores...what a terrible mess. when we were at the beach we saw this....

afterwards we drove around and snapped a couple more photos of the fire...
here is a news bit on the fire in case you didn't hear about it. gulf shores fire news story.
my friend amy reminded me that the trees being burned are the ones that had just started to fill in from being hit from hurricane ivan. how sad!





well, how's that for a catch-up post? ooh...remind me to keep up with my at-least-twice-a-week-posts so, i can keep the posts a bit lighter. ;-)

i hope you all are doing great and have a fantastic week!

love,
kelly

matthew, mariah, and mama!

this weekend we had the privilege of getting out to the beach, enjoying God's creation, and photographing our friend, alissa and her two adorable kids...matthew and mariah

they live here in our apartment complex...right across the breezeway from us..such sweet neighbors to have!!

matthew and mariah love to play with lily and river (leafy's real name) and vice versa! this bunch together, makes an awesome lizard (and apparently tree frog) catching team.

anywho...here are some of my favorites from the shoot.

you can go to my flickr site to see the rest... (just click on a photo to go there)

the reality of portraits...sometimes one does something silly...but, it keeps it fun!

aren't they an adorable family? their blue eyes are stunning! yes...they really are that blue! gorgeous!

leafy and lily had tons of fun on this shoot...well, near the end lily got pretty hot (as it was a pretty hot day) so she eventually became pretty grumpy. but, other than that...it went beautifully!!

it was our first shoot using our new reflector, which is so exciting! i can really see how the reflector makes a difference in the photos and i am so thankful to have it!

have a great day!
love, kelly


linking up with life made lovely monday.