Take that, Economy

As we all know, the economy has been pretty awful. However, sometimes it's okay to use it to your advantage and get great deals like this dining room table! (Thanks to my mother-in-law, up to this point, we have been borrowing her wonderful table that was her parent's.) We got this table for next to NOTHING and it is brand new! We are so excited! It extends out to fit as many as 16 people. Now, I don't know when we will have 16 people over for a sit-down dinner (any time soon), but if we do, some people will literally be sitting in the living room... our poor little dining room isn't quite big enough to accommodate such a dining room table- part of it extends into the living room. It's actually pretty funny.

When we went to Savannah to proudly pick up our table, we scored this great bonus piece! My parents were going to sell it in a garage sale until they mentioned it to us. We quickly took it off their hands. :) Thanks Parents!
My dream of having a photography business has come true and I am so excited about it! 

My husband's dream is to flip houses...

And his dream has come true as well! This house was a foreclosure. Wes has kind of been looking at houses like this over the past several months, so we decided to go to the home auction JUST TO SEE HOW IT WORKS. Wes and I decided we would just throw in a bid on this house for the heck of it because, at that point, bids were super low and surely it wouldn't sell for that amount. Well..... we won the bid! We walked away with the house. Just like that. After hours of, "oh my gosh, we just bought a house...did we do the right thing?"... we felt pretty excited about it. 

Now, there is a little change in plans...we will be fixing the house up because, as you can see, it does need A LOT of work, BUT we will not be selling it. We are going to keep it all to ourselves!! I know, selfish, right? The great thing is that it has a dining room big enough to accommodate our fully expanded dining room table AND it's big enough to have a photography studio!!! The Lord has blessed us not only by providing us an affordable, roomy home, but by giving us the courage to actually go through with it. ;) Our issue now is when we will find the TIME to fix this baby up? 

I know there has been a lot of personal posts here, but lots of personal stuff going on! :) But, have no fear, I am finishing up some wedding pictures and I have several shoots coming up next week!

17

Well, I have been blessed with MANY family and friends who's birthdays are in January (as you can see from the last couple of posts). My sister-in-law, Kait, had her birthday on Friday. Happy Birthday, Kait! This is going to be a big year for her as she is getting married on May 30 (and I am a proud bridesmaid!). Love you Kait!

This weekend we are in Savannah and today, it is my baby sister's 17th birthday (see, I told you...lots of bdays. I will have to make a separate savings account for all of these presents!). She wanted to have a party with her friends at my parent's beach house. Here are some fun Pictures from the night:

(click to enlarge)

Mom made a good move by getting relighting candles. Katie quickly realized and started putting them out with her fingers.

A bow from one of Katie's gifts... mom thought it was the best thing since sliced bread...

Mom's birthday (yep, another one!) is monday, so it was kind of a celebration for her as well.
Katie and her friends:
We played Apples to Apples after dinner...
Happy Birthday Katie & Mom! Love you!

Doped Up

It's official. My dog is the coolest, funniest dog EVER! He creates hours of entertainment for us! I have to share this with you. I couldn't resist:


Oliver went to the vet on monday to get his leg checked out (he has been limping on it for a while). The doctor sent him home with doggie pain killers twice a day. He has been a little out of it lately. So...we give him his medicine by giving him a spoonful of peanut butter (not the recalled PB, in case you were concerned) with the pill surprise hidden in the middle. He LOVES peanut butter. He licks and licks and licks until it is all gone and after it's gone he licks and licks and licks, tilting his head up, down, side-to-side, etc...anything to help him get it off his tongue and roof of his mouth. It is truly the funniest sight ever! There is one requirement to reading this blog. There is a collage below of his peanut-butter-eating-behavior...you must CLICK TO ENLARGE!


Have you ever seen a cross-eyed-dog? You're in for a treat. This picture makes me cry from laughter ever time I look at it.
"thith ith the betht peanut budddder I ever had...tho nithe and thticky..."
"mmmmmmm...that wath delithiouth..."
We took Oliver for a walk the other day. In efforts to see if he would start going potty like a man dog is supposed to, we showed him the fire hydrant. He promptly sat down and cocked his head at us. Oh well, we tried. I am perfectly okay with him continuing his neat potty habits.
On the other hand, he doesn't seem to have much respect for the signs in the neighborhood... Wes was walking him the other day and he walked right up next to the sign and did his business as to say, "There, take that." You can't blame him...I mean when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Baby Feet...

RIGHT NOW, one of my best friends, Courtney, is giving birth to precious baby girl Cayden. I am so excited that I had to post a shout-out. AND because I am her "Aunt Sara," I had to give her some baby ballerina socks and I have to say that they are the cutest things I have EVER seen. I am considering asking her to give them back to me if and when I have a baby girl...ha. I am also hoping it isn't too forward to just assume her baby will be a ballerina like I was. I just realized I am a creepy 'aunt'. oh well. Babies are so much fun! Hopefully in a few months you will see some actual pictures of the beautiful baby! Congratulations Kirk & Courtney!!

Twins, but not really

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two of my best friends, Karin & Ryan!! They share the same birthday, January 18th, but Ryan is a year younger than Karin. I must say, however; that Karin looks GREAT for 25! ;)

We celebrated by going out to dinner and then hanging out at Dylan and Karin's house. Here are some favorites from the night:

We were fully loaded with lots of yummy sweets! We know how to do birthdays. Be very jealous.
Now, I am not a wine drinker, but I do try... really hard. I guess for now I can just stick to wine photography.
This is my wine... it is also my water... therefore, it deserves a charm. I was worried that I would drink someone else's "wine." The charm was very effective. Also, I deserve a lot of money for this advertisement of Coke Zero.
All of us at dinner (minus me):
Candle-blow-out #2 (after dinner):
Candle-blow-out #1 (at the restaurant):

Dylan, it doesn't work without the camo...
We love Dylan!
The Couples + birthday kiss for Ryan!
Ok, so Ryan went bird hunting for his birthday. He sported the hat afterwards. While we were hanging out, I noticed that every time I looked at him, he was wearing it a different way. I think he was trying to keep us on our toes, if you will. That's what bird hunters do.
Alison: this picture is so perfect for her because she has the best laugh in the world!

Mary O, you are precious.
Hope you guys had an awesome birthday! Love you!

Mr. & Mrs. Nirewicz: Sneak Peek!

Remember Sarah? I took her bridal portraits back in November. Norbert and Sarah Nirewicz were married on January 10 at Pine Island Clubhouse. Let me say that I NEVER do sneak peeks. I usually just post a MASSIVE amount of pictures in one post, so be very impressed..it's a big step for me;).


So here you have it: a sneak peek/ part I of the wedding photos... a few that caught my eye while browsing through all 1500 pictures today ;). I absolutely love these shots!!! What a BEAUTIFUL couple!! Stay tuned for more from the big day!!


I danced with Norbert and Sarah in college (ballet)...so of course, on their wedding day, they had to throw in a few moves...LOVE it. I present to you the wedding day performance:


BOTH of them have the most gorgeous eyes!
As you can see, it was a PERFECT day. Up until friday night, the weather said 60% chance rain!! Thank you, Lord!
Showing off the BLING!
Kiss-under-the-veil...always a must!
AND the sunset was amazing!
I can't wait to post the rest!

BIG Family

The Ebo family was one of my first clients. They have 7 kids. This year, they had Melanie's mother and sister's family for the holidays. This makes for a LARGE family photo shoot. In order to prevent them from having to load 14 people in a small bus, I went to their home out in Lugoff after work. I have been around the Ebo kids several times and they are so much fun! Here are some of my favorites:

Melanie's sister and family:

Melanie with her mother and sister:


The kids:


So beautiful!
The baby:
LOVE her blue eyes...

Cousins
Melanie and Tim:
Melanie's sister and her husband:

LOVE this one:
This kind of just happened out of nowhere...
and then came daddy to the rescue.
All the grandkids with grandma:
Cole and Daddy:
Gabe and Melanie:
Gabe & Grandma:
Can you tell they are sisters?
I love these tree shots. Tim lifted Cole into the tree and the girls HAD to get their picture as well ;) (click to enlarge)
WOW...that is a whole lot of kids! Whew! ;)