Woo hoo!  Look at her workin’ it!

She even got into a fountain

Libby is also a cheerleader and we did some fun pictures of her in her uniform on the beach!  Because of her Cystic Fibrosis she wasn’t able to go to one of her school dances and so the football team signed this football for her.   Isn’t that so sweet???  And Libby you look beautiful here!

So much more from this shoot!  We still have a rusty ole bike, prom dresses with cowgirl boots, and much more   If you would like to learn more about Cystic Fibrosis or to donate please check out www.cff.org.

And because no post is a post without some pictures, here are some pictures of my kids at the beach a couple weeks back   Obviously pre haircup!

This was one of my favorite pictures from the day.  The way Jake is looking at his mama is priceless!

And this sweet family shot <3

Gosh look at those EYES!

Love this of Tommy and Crystal!

Crystal looking fierce!  LOVE IT!

Crystal, you are so beautiful!

Look at those lashes!

I showed one similar in their sneak peek, but had to share this one too

Crystal adored this silhouette and I am so happy!  I love it too

And then there is this picture. 

When Crystal and I started talking about this session, I immediately had this picture pop into my head.  It’s weird how I see life in pictures now a days!  I even told my husband I was going to be so bummed and disappointed in myself if I wasn’t going to achieve what I had in my head.  The sun finally got to where I needed it to be so we started to set up for this picture.  Crystal, being a trooper, changed on the beach with her sister Tamara and I holding blankets up for her right there on the beach!  We got Crystal into place and the wind just was not co-operating.  It was blowing in a 90 degree angle against where I needed it to be.  Ugh!  So I had Tamara go over and hold up the fabric just where I needed it to be.  This picture took me an hour in photoshop to get done (including taking Tamara completely out of the picture), but to pull out my vision was so well worth it!  Crystal printed this one big and when/if I ever get a studio this puppy is becoming a ginormous canvas!  It’s definitely one of my very favorites I have ever taken <3

It was very difficult to pick which ones to share and here is her slideshow so ya’ll can see all of them from the session!

This dog was very special. Her name is May and she was taken to Lucky Puppy after being shot in one of her legs. She also has a lot of BB gun pellet scars. And you would think an animal that has seen so much cruelty would be mean or at the very least very skittish. But not May. Teri told me that when she picked up her young grandson at the airport May was with her and they cuddled in the backseat like they had been best friends their whole lives. I really hope May finds a fantastic home. She more than deserves it!

I can’t for the life of me remember this little guy’s name but he was so sweet!  This one is a lap dog and made the sweetest little grunting noises when you held him

And here are the other dogs there with Lucky Puppy.  I wish I remembered their stories better and hopefully Teri can fill me in so I can share with you.  They are all so sweet!

Another local issue we have been faced with is the current oil spill that is going on in the gulf.   I am so angered by the situation but I will spare ya’ll from my rant about it all.  I do want to say loud and proud that WE HAVE NO OIL ON OUR BEACHES   Or anywhere in our water right now!  So if you have been thinking about coming to our world famous beaches please do!  Here’s another picture from Crystal’s session we had recently.

More pictures from that session coming soon! 

I wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!  And if you are going to the Zumbathon, please bid well- it is a great cause!

The build up to the party was so much for him! For the past couple weeks he had been asking when his party was several times a day. Nana (my mother) had sent 2 big boxes for him and he found where I had hidden them. He came up to me holding a police officer costume telling me, “I sang happy birthday to myself Mommy!”. And with that sweet smile on his face and the pride he had in singing to himself I just couldn’t break his heart and tell him he couldn’t have that yet. He was so excited he wore the jacket to school the next day

The day of his party was just great! He was so excited and I swear he wore a smile on his face all day long. The morning was filled with pancake making, cake frosting, and lots of versions of happy bithday sung to him. And he ate it all up! As soon as we got to Pump it Up, he ran around non stop. He loved the big slide and the bouncy house with the basketball hoops in there.  Look at the smile on that face!

He even played a game of air hockey, but he really didn’t understand the object of the game.  He thought the goal was to get the puck in his side and would cheer each time he got it in!  Oh well, at least he had a great time playing

Do you see how SWEATY that boy is???

After they played and played in the bouncy room, they moved into the party room.  Now I am not a cake making super star, but I do enjoy making their birthday cakes.  And David really liked his cake.  Hey, it has Lighting KaQueen on it!

He got so exicted to blow his candles out that he had them blown out before the song was over   I just love his sweet face here!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and made his day so special!

My Mother’s Day was actually spread over the weekend   We headed over to St. Joseph Peninsula in Cape San Blas to camp and it is so pretty there!  I had never been to Cape San Blas and love that it is still a sleepy beach community.  We don’t have too many of those left in Florida.  It was a bit windy, but the weather was so nice!  Really, a perfect temperature out there!  We can’t wait to go back there and spend more time.  On Saturday we spent the entire day at the beach.  Peyton played almost all day on her boogie board, David ran along the shore with his, and Katie collected seashells.  For me, it was so nice to sit back and just soak in some family time.  I feel like I work almost all the time so it was nice to relax

I wish I could have bottled up David’s laughter here.  He has the most infectious laugh when he gets excited!  Pure joy was just all over him!  He was having so much fun chasing the shore line when the waves would come in

We loved the campsite we reserved and really lucked out since we had never been there!  We were right by the beach and we had a road right in front of our RV so the kids could ride their scooters (scrooters in David talk). 

This picture is so Katie!  Walking around with her Princess cookies so she won’t have to share.  She still has part of her dinner on her dress LOL

David is quite the eccentric child.  He loves his accessories and almost always has at least one on him somewhere.  Sometimes, it’s one of Daddy’s pens attached paperclip style to some store receipts (he calls those lists).  Other times, he’ll be sporting camo pants with a camo jacket, his lion shirt (his favorite and when it’s in the washer there are usually some tears involved), and a pair of robot rubber boots with the camo pants tucked in.  Those days he’s really decked out!  Well, when we were at the local store camping he spotted a pair of sunglasses that he just had to have.  Who cares that they are WOMEN’s glasses.  They were certainly cool in his book   He got lots of compliments on his glasses! 

These pictures make my soul very happy <3

And there is Frannie, putting a brave face on.   Very much Francis!

They traveled to the Mayo clinic and scheduled her surgery date.  Francis talks about all of this, her feelings, everything on her wonderful blog.  I am so proud of her for sharing her story!  Her surgery date was scheduled for the end of November.  Francis told me they put a crazy number of IV’s all over her body- like 8+- in case she had a stroke.  Since her tumor was wrapped in so many blood vessels, the likely hood of one happening was incredibly high.  But they never needed to use them!  Not one of them got loose and amazingly they got every bit of her tumor!  Her surgery went as well as it could have   And one of the biggest bonuses of all was that she didn’t have to shave her head!  Francis has always been known for her gorgeous, blonde hair and if her sugery had been just a couple months earlier she would have.  But there was an advancement in medical technology right before her surgery that allowed them to only shave a strip of hair

Francis is now doing incredibly well.  She goes to physical therapy several times a week to work on the muscle that was cut on her face to get to her skull.  That muscle has scar tissue so they are working to soften it up and that muscle also affects her arm and arm strength on that side of her body.  But she is doing great with it!  At the begining, the PT really wiped her out and now she is able to go about her days pretty well.  About a month ago we did a photo shoot at my house.  I wanted to capture her tumor free and full of life! 

A friend of ours from high school, Sylvia Fox, has become an in demand makeup artist in Nashville and just happened to be in town the week of the shoot.  The name of her business is Seriously Foxy.  Isn’t that cute??  I didn’t tell Francis I had booked her and let me tell you, it was so great to see how happy it made Francis to see Sylvia!  Here she is putting on Francis’s makeup

And so the shoot began

I wanted the shoot to show sides of the story.  The first had a theme of “OMG, I am alive and doing fabulous!”

Take that Egore!

And then we switched to a more dramatic feel.  Sylvia did a makeup change and I love what she did!

Isn’t Francis absolutely stunning??

I know this sort of image isn’t eveyone’s cup of tea, but I love the serenity on her face with her hair blowing slightly.  It’s very much a “calm in the middle of the storm” feel to me

And here is her slideshow of the fun we had that day!

Francis’s sisters are hosting a fundraiser to help with the medical expenses of her brain surgery.  You can only imagine the expenses involved with the surgery, her husband’s time off work, everything!  She also has to go over to the Mayo clinic every 3 months to get follow up MRI’s to see if there is any tumor regrowth.  The fundraiser is being held at this etsy store with 70 items still up for sale.  I had a $200 photo package up there that was purchased by a family that lives in Texas who will be down here this summer that I am super excited about!  If you don’t see anything you would like to buy but still want to help, you can go to Francis’ blog and if you scroll down a little you will see a donate box that will direct you to paypal.  Every bit of the proceeds goes to Francis’ family and will help out tremendously!

Here’s the outside- look at how teeny Katie looks underneath there!  The RV definitely needs a good bath after that long ride.

Here is the master bedroom and the bathroom/shower/bathroom sink is also up there.  I want to know how RV companies pick their fabrics.  Really, who looked at that bedspread fabric and thought “Wow!  Now that’s going to be a GREAT seller!” LOL   And believe it or not but this is actually one of the more decent fabric interiors I have seen in an RV.  Another one we were debating about looked like it came straight out of a jungle!  I only wish I was kidding.

In the back is the kids bedroom.  My lens can’t really get in there and get a picture, but there are 4 beds back there and an amoire for clothes and a television.  David and Katie made themselves home back there.  Did you spot David’s unmatching shoes?

This is the entertainment center and the TV is on a lever type thing and pulls out so you can swivel it in whatever direction you want it to be which is pretty neat!

Part of the kitchen- there is also a fridge there too

The dining room table, which also makes into another bed

And the couch, which also makes into another bed

Here’s to happy camping and great memories to be made!