Life's a Beach

Hi from Hilton Head! Kore's wedding was today and it was beautiful! We were whipped though so we stayed in and ordered some yummy pizza from a local place called Giuseppi's and downloaded our cards. I thought I'd go ahead and do a quickie update since you all may not hear from me until the end of the week (we are on a mini-vacation after all).

Yesterday the weather was nice enough that we stopped by one of the beaches. We thought the water would be too cold so none of us brought our bathing suits. Mistake! It was a little chilly, but that didn't stop us from playing. Luckily Danielle did plan ahead and brought Maddie a change of clothes.

At first, she was a little timid.


And the next thing we knew she was sitting in water. Here she is squeezing the life out of a couple fistfuls of sand.


Sand castles are not her forte. Picking it up by the mini-shovel full and pouring it out over and over and over apparently is.


A little SPF 384 for protection.


This isn't as mean as it looks. Maddie and I had a game going where she got a bucketful of water and poured on me and then I did the same. Danielle just didn't get a shot of Maddie doing it to me. (And on a technical note: this is the last and only time this year that you'll see me in shorts).


I call this "Menu Hat". Creative, huh?



And here's a teaser from Kore and Todd's nuptials today. After the ceremony, we stopped by a beach on the way to the reception. Unfortunately, the weather turned into a real crapper on the drive. We're talking a nasty haze and 50mph winds. We still tried a couple of shots, but felt like were in a sandblaster. So after getting this fun shot of them being blown away, we got the heck out of dodge.


But not before doing the obligatory self-portrait hail mary. See how crazy windy it was? Danielle doesn't always wear her hair like Cousin It and I don't always spike mine like Iceman. Good times.


Check back soon. The bad weather is supposed to be with us for a couple of days so if we get holed up in our hotel room, I might get the rest of the edit done on today's wedding. And when we get back I have a fun shoot at UT and more Maryville College work. Busy times!

-Wes

Another Belly: Julie

We've got baby bumps all over the place. Must be something in the water around Tennessee. Meet Julie, one of our brides from 2006. It's awesome when we get to catch up with our couples and see how great they are doing.

Julie and hubby Tommy are expecting their first daughter together in May. We drove down to their home in Athens for a maternity session while Tommy was home on leave from the Army and were joined by Abby, Tommy's daughter.

Here are some faves:









Danielle wanted to steal this chair. Don't worry; we don't often walk away from sessions with stolen furniture.










While getting the above image, I saw Tommy playing with Julie's little "outie". Too cute.


Alright, expect it to be quiet for a few days around the ole Hope Photo blog. We're heading out of town Thursday for our Hilton Head Island, SC for our friends Kore and Todd's wedding on Saturday. Maddie and Danielle's grandma are tagging along to do a little vacationing since we're going down a day early and staying a couple of days over. We may not have time for another vacation until fall so might as well get a mini-vaca in while we can.

Catch you when we get back!

-Wes

Daffy About Daffodils

As promised, here are some favorites from our little family session Thursday afternoon. Danielle's aunt has a field in Walland and it's full of blooming daffodils right now. Spring is here for sure (I even mowed the yard yesterday! I can't believe it's already time to mow :( )







This is Maddie's little pose every time she does something special, like going down the slide by herself. She gets her modesty from her mother.




I thought this was kind of dreamy.


And a few of Danielle and her 4-month belly (Hi Junior!)






Maddie is the worst assistant ever! She couldn't hold the reflector, she stared blankly at me when I asked her to had me my 85, and she kept running through the frame. You just can't find good help these days.


And my favorite!


That's it for now. Sorry for the brief hiatus for a week. Hopefully up next will be another maternity session that we're heading down to Athens for today.

Catch you later!

-Wes

ps: We hope that you have a happy and blessed Easter!!!

Yes, we're still here.

Have you missed us? We've been around, just busy (with life stuff, not work or fun stuff).

We did take a break yesterday morning and took Maddie to join our buddy Jason Davis and his boys Ryan and Cooper at Jumpzone for a play date. We took a camera, but didn't shoot much... it was wicked dark (photo-wise) and there was too much bouncing going on. Danielle did get this shot of Maddie and I coming out of the carousel:


Needless to say I exceeded the weight limit on all the bouncy-thingies, but no one complained. And the kids loved it when I bounced because it sent them into orbit.

And in the "kids say the darnedest things" category, at lunch Maddie was staring off into space and when I asked her what she was doing.

Mad: "Thinking."

Dad: "About what?"

Mad: "Boys!"

Dad: "..."
(At this point, Jason, the father of two cute little boys eating lunch with us, slugs me in the arm).

Dad: "That's it! You're grounded until your 18!"

Later that afternoon we went to a field of daffodils for a little session with Maddie and to get a few belly photos of Danielle's 4-month belly (that update will come tomorrow... check back then). And tonight we dyed Easter eggs for our annual Hope Egg Hunt. This was Maddie's first time "helping" with the eggs.

First she thought it was fun:


And then I asked her to smell the lovely vinegar-water dye:


That'll make her think twice about saying something like "boys"!!

Again, check back Saturday for super-cute photos in a field of daffodils.

-Wes

Belly!! (Or a preview of Evan)

Saturday we had a foreshadow of Danielle in about 4 more months. We went to our friend Leann's house to do a maternity session. She's about 8.5 months right now and looking great! She and hubby Stevie are expecting a boy, Evan. And we photographed their wedding 6 years ago (time flies!). A side note, if you ever play Stevie in a game of Cranium, don't let him play with the clay, trust me.

Here are some of our favorites.





Evan started squirming and Stevie wanted to feel.






And even though Stevie's a Cowboys fan, and even though the Cowboys beat the crap out of the Bears last season, I still like them both.


The view from above. ;)


Thanks Leann, Stevie, and Evan! We'll see you soon.

And something's in the water. We've got two more maternity sessions coming up plus we're going to try and do a mini-sess with Danielle's little 3.5 month belly.

I'll leave you with this sad little image:


Maddie and I were playing on the bed Friday morning and she started rolling away from me. She got too close to the edge of the bed and went over head-first. :( I was able to dive and grab her foot, but not before she did a little face-plant. Here's the resulting shiner a couple days later. She'll survive. Her daddy was always a bit of a klutz too.

Talk to you soon!

-Wes

A-B-C-D-E-F-G...

Okay, here's one for the proud parent files. The other night, Danielle and I were recording Maddie sing her entire repertoire of songs (which as you can imagine isn't much). I asked her to sing the Alphabet song on a whim because she can usually sing most of it along with us. She took off and ran with it! So if cute kids singing their ABCs doesn't do it for you, do not watch the YouTube video below:



And in baby news, we had another doctor appointment Tuesday morning and got to see Junior again! He/she is growing just fine and is getting SO big! She/he woke up and started moving around and stretching. No gang signs this time, but Maddie was quick to point out that the new baby was sucking its thumb (no doubt an attempt to make us sympathetic to her cause...we're in the thumb-sucking war right now).

Here's a quick pic of Danielle holding a couple of the ultrasound images:


I know it may be a little hard to see in the lo-res web version, but in the bottom image you can see him/her head on the right (with hands in front of the face), the torso, and the legs sprouting from the body. She/he's just sitting back chillin' saying "Yo Moms, can I get some marshmallow cream and a salad up in here? Oh, and here's a nice wave of nausea to wash it down with. What up!?" Apparently I've given our unborn child some attitude. Nice.

Obviously if you haven't guess by the he/she pronoun dance, we don't know the sex yet. We will find out as soon as we can (another 7 weeks) because we have to know if this little critter is going to get all of Maddie's hand-me-downs or if we're going to have to go out and buy all new stuff. Of course, I don't see what's wrong with a boy getting her hand-me-downs for the first year... no one will ever guess right anyway. Like this conversation we had at the mall when Maddie was a newborn:

Crazy lady: "What a lovely little boy!"
Me: "Girl."
Crazy lady: "Are you sure? He's so cute!"
Me: "Pretty positive. We've checked."
Crazy lady: "He's so PRECIOUS!"
Me: "Look pal, he's a SHE! Get it? She doesn't have the goods, the twig and/or the berries, nada!"
Crazy lady: "..."
Danielle: "I'm sorry, we still aren't getting a lot of sleep. It's been really hard on both of us."
Me: "That's what she said."

Okay, so maybe my memory is mixing a little "Office" in there, but whatever. You get the point.

We've had a crazy week so far. One filled with lots of meetings, endless errands, doctor and dentist appointments, freelance shoots, and the circus (we went, not performed). Check back soon for some images from a maternity session we have this weekend. It should be fun!

-Wes

Snow Day!

Yesterday we took a snow day to head to the Smoky Mountains and play a little. The theory: if it won't snow here, we'll go find it. And we succeeded! We drove up to Newfound Gap and found about 8 inches of fluffy powder prime for playing.

I think this slope was a double-diamond.


That's one big snowball Maddie has.


And this was her throwing said snowball. Yes, I quickly moved camera, which cost more than the child, before taking on too much snow.




Poor Maddie had on so many layers (think Ralphie from "A Christmas Story") that she couldn't bend her legs. She didn't care though.


Do your remember the feeling of just rolling around in the snow?




It wasn't the biggest snowman in the world, but it was the cutest near the parking lot.




Alright, back to work now. We got to play in the snow at least once this winter. That will have to do.

-Wes