Steffek Family {Maternity}

We had the ultimate privilege of photographing the lovely 'S' family. What a precious family! They were a joy to photograph! And I must admit that being around such a gorgeous, glowing, pregnant mother makes me long to be pregnant again. Is there really anything more beautiful than the stunning glow of a pregnant woman? Nah, I didn't think so...

Oh, how I wish we were going to be back in their town to do the newborn photographs....

Here are some of my favorites from their maternity/family shoot. There is seriously so much love in that sweet family. 

catch and release...

while going through some photos for rocky, i came across this photo of river. this was taken back in august of 2010. this photo was taken by my mother-in-law i do believe. i also believe it was taken on a point and shoot camera. no fancy shmancy camera needed to catch this moment. ;-) though, i am curious how it would have turned out on, let's say, my dream camera, the canon eos 5d mark II, but that's just how my brain works. ;-)

taken at grandma and grandpa's pond.

anywho, i love this shot  for a couple reasons.  one reason is that it shows river's love for fishing. now, being we are veggies and do not eat meat (yes, not even fish)....he just catches and releases...
and reason #2, well...it's just a fun shot. perspective wise, it almost appears that the fish is the same size as river. river thinks that is pretty rad. ;-)

that's all i have time for today as far as a post goes. too much to do and not nearly enough time in the day.

happy day to you!!

-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

photos...but, of course.

pretty much just some photos..surprised? ;-)

most of these may have already been posted here, but they have been edited a bit different and well, they are worth of showing again, in my opinion (as the people in the photos are just so lovely).

day 8/365

niece in color ;-)

i pray you all have a very wonderful weekend!

love, kelly

beach play date..part two

hello!

just so you know... i do not usually post two times in one day, but if we are getting technical..i actually posted the battle at f-stop ridge video yesterday for today (actually thinking i wouldn't get these photos up today, but being today is my last day with my photoshop trial and i am uncertain if my dear, sweet hubby will give the go ahead for the official purchase of photoshop, i had to get some more editing done...call it priorities.)

the first part of this post was the one with photos of tiffany and her baby...these are some more pictures from the beach play date...

a moment of thought and observation

the kids at play

looks like a race to me...

little miss 'r' just being adorable..

lovely laura

lily being somewhat protective of her mama's camera bag? um, slightly. ;-)

it was a beautiful day at the beach with groovy company. ;-)

love,
kelly

oh..and be sure to enter the shabby apple dress giveaway over at a beautiful journey blog!! click here to enter...

linking up with life made lovely monday

little "o"

these were taken during a recent trip back to tn.

some friends {we happily claim them as family, too} were in town visiting from canada...so naturally i had to take pictures...

little "o" {one of their four kids) was just too adorable not to photograph. all dressed up in a pretty spring/summer dress...

she seemed to really enjoy being in front of the camera...clearly a natural.

precious little lady, indeed.

isn't she a doll??

more to come from that visit...i just wanted to share a few right now...
{you see, my photoshop trial run will be ending soon so i am trying to edit while i can) yes, slightly paranoid about not having good photo editing software? you could say that. ;-)
...i truly have grown to love photoshop and if all goes as planned i will be able to try out lightroom next (that is if our computer can handle it...it's kind of old).
either way...photoshop is a must for me. i will be a mess without it. ;-)

i hope you all have a wonderfully sunshiny day!
~kelly~