A Little Sunshine for Today | Greenville SC Children’s Photographer
I love my girl. I love the warmth of the sun. I love trying new settings on my camera. =) She loves to dance, twirl, and laugh! And she loves her new hat.
She obviously had fun at this for last minute photo session this past weekend. =)
Ignorance is Definitely Not Bliss!
Prior to each session I ask my clients to tell me a bit about themselves. This helps me learn their tastes and preferences and it’s a fun way of getting to know them. Recently as I was reading Leslie’s response to my request, I stood in awe of the Gospel once again! I am so thankful for my Savior’s death on the cross for me. Leslie now works full time at a local church in Clemson SC and just recently got engaged to David. I will be sharing their engagement pictures soon. =) Thanks Leslie for being so real and willing to share this with others.
Ignorance is definitely not bliss!
I had a blessed life. Loving, supportive parents who pushed me, encouraged me, and cherished me.
I couldn’t see.
I was told how lucky I was with athletic talent, , high achievements academically, and a life of privileges.
I couldn’t hear.
I filled my life with empty vessels: drugs, boyfriends, indulgences.
I couldn’t love.
Until God took hold of my heart, gave me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart drenched with His undying love.
I was living a life in the dark. With no direction or purpose I was crying out to any thing that could temporarily stop the hurt inside. I was struggling with an eating disorder, experimenting with drugs, and in ungodly relations. The whole time, I had managed to paint a picture of perfection, an exterior shell of confidence, composure, and happiness. I knew the hurt I was feeling, but others around me had no idea. I didn’t allow anyone to be truly close to me. There was always an impenetrable wall.
I was raised in a Catholic family. We went to church every Sunday; we went to class every Wednesday. Yet, I was never taught that anyone could have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and that God’s ultimate sacrifice, His only Son, was payment in full for my sins. That He would serve as the bridge to God for me. Not because I deserved it, but because He loved me. He knew me; my cold, dark heart and He loved me. But I was lost.
God’s perfect timing placed several pivotal women of strength in my life when my fragile shell was about to shatter. The summer before my junior year of college, I was coaching a volleyball camp through Clemson University. I was assigned a small town team from the Spartanburg area. The coach spent the weekend asking me questions not only about volleyball but me. She was dropping hints about her religious view, and my ultra sensitive ears were intent on ignoring. She gave me her information, and suggested I hang out with her.
My first instinct was no. I couldn’t bear the thought that if I went to church God would see my heart. My warped view thought I could access God in a church. But as Thursday turned to Friday, Friday to Saturday, and Saturday to Sunday, God had stirred some serious curiosity in my heart. I couldn’t tell you what Pastor Ken preached on that Sunday morning, but God grabbed hold of my heart and will never let it go. Through a discipleship relationship, Amy, the coach’s sister (now my sister in Christ and dear friend) led me closer to the Lord.
My life has made a complete transformation. My friends at the time were confused. My parents astonished. My God was celebrating!
I live now to bring glory to the Creator of the Universe, my ultimate joy, my ultimate strength, and my everlasting King.
Esther’s Big Day | Greenville SC Children’s Photographer
Lately there has been A LOT of posts about our children! We have had 4 birthdays to celebrate in the past 4 weeks! We decided to do birthday posts for each of them this year! Taking pictures of our kids is the very reason why we started doing photography!!!! It is neat that now 3 of my kids are a part of this business! =)Abbi comes to most family photo sessions to help me with props and the children. She is currently learning how to manually shoot with the new camera she received for her birthday, so she helped with this photo session.
Now back to this post! This post is about our Esther girl! This past week she turned the big 5!!! Esther wanted to bring her baby box to her session! It is a box with just a few memories in it of when she was a newborn! Below we took a picture of her holding her baby foot prints! =) Esther is a fun loving little girl that loves all things girly, but can also get dirty and play with the boys!!! She loves to twirl!!! She officially started K-5 today!!! She was very excited about it! Hopefully this will continue!!!
We love you Esther!!! 
***headband was made by Marseille Et Moi!!! Check them out!
Boys in July
Boaz and Adoniram both have July birthdays! I never get any pictures of Boaz so we decided to take him and Adoniram out for a little photo session! Boaz turned 14 and Adoniram turned 2. Boaz actually works for Naisang Photgraphy!!! He is our editor! I am very blessed to have him edit…..It would be very difficult to do this without him. We have a lot of fun together too!!!
Caps For Sale is by no surprise our little boys favorite book!!! He LOVES to wear hats. We frequently see him with about 8 hats piled up on top of his head! So we grabbed this little book for the photo session! =) I love these boys!!!!!!!!!! The first picture cracks us all up! =)
Our Time Away!!!
Every year we look forward to our family beach trip!!! We always tell our kids that this is a gift from God and not guaranteed to happen next year! =) Our time away was perfect! This year we spent 5 days with just our family and then my parents, sister and her husband and 6 kids came for the remaining 6 days. The beach house we stayed in has a sign with the following quote by T.S. Elliot,
“Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time.”
I kept reading this over and over thinking is that true??? I have read John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life and we frequently listen to Lecrae’s song, Don’t Waste Your Life . I was reminded that enjoying time together talking, swinging, riding bikes, or just hanging out on the beach is not necessarily wasting your life(or your time). =) Now if this is all we ever did, then we would need to evaluate this a little more. =) John Piper’s quote reminds me what a truly wasted life looks like!
“Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.”
We had so much fun together as a family! Our typical day looked like this…reading in the morning, the beach, the pool, bike rides,sitting on the porches, fishing, naps, appetizers, dinner made by my amazing Mom, Bible time, homemade ice cream, and some tv. This year the adults actually went out to eat and then walked around the dock-sides. Throughout the day my Dad comes up with games for all of the kids to play. Our kids age ranges from 1 to 16 and they are quite fun to watch! As they get older you see a lot of changes going on. The teens definitely add laughter to our time together!!!! =) Here are just a few of the memories from our trip! God’s creativity in the way he created beaches, sunsets, shells (some with cool living things inside), and thousands of different sea creatures continues to amaze me.
*more family pictures to come! =)
Sunset, Wind, Shells, and Sand!
For the past 9 beach trips we have had family picture night! This year the goal was to get one good picture of Nana and Papa with all 12 grandkids so they could have a canvas made to put about their mantle! It was a beautiful evening and the lighting was amazing, BUT the wind was wild!!! We captured some quick pictures and then one evening Abbi, Sydney, Adoniram and I went out and played around in the sand. We had so much fun! Looking through these pictures makes me want to be back at the beach!!! =)
Enjoy the little things in life for someday you will recognize they are big things!
Handmade Crochet Dresses and headbands made by Magpie Boutique. =)
Mother’s Day and Wall Art!!!! Yay!
Pretty amazing mother’s day for me. I did get a canvas! =) Which I love, but most important I had a wonderful weekend with my family! On Friday Abbi asked if I would do a photo shoot of her doing her favorite things. The older 3 boys were playing their nightly game of basketball with their dad so me and the younger 3 went out for a quick, unprepared photo session (hope to share some of these at a later time). It was a blast! On Saturday we had a big breakfast, the girls and I picked strawberries and we then went to Starbucks for 50% off fraps. We ended the day watching a movie together with the fam. On Sunday we went to church, James picked up fried chicken so I would not have to cook, we took a nap, and then the whole family went to Starbucks for 50% off fraps of which we used gift cards that our church gave our mom’s on Sunday. =)
Here are a few gallery wraps we have made this past week!!! Canvases make beautiful artwork for your walls…NO frame needed! Love it!!
Slice of Life
Here is just a peak into my life as a mom! I love capturing some of the day to day happenings in our home.=)
Love is….
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
So happy to see some warm sunny days!:) Abbi had made her baby brother this cute bow tie and I had been wanting to take pictures of my new LenSee bag(see post below) so when we had a nice warm afternoon we decided to run out for a quick photo session. In addition to it being “LOVE” month my older kids were so patient with their baby brother so I thought I would include this great scripture above about what love is from I Corinthians 13:4-7. This very same day I learned some things about my parenting. I hope to write a post about it this on our family blog for tomorrow.
My Assistant
Yep! I have a photography assistant! Her name is Abbi, she is 8 years old, and she is my daughter. Last year Abbi came to most of my kid photo sessions to entertain the little ones. She loves kids and kids love her! She also let’s me take pictures of her in different areas to insure proper lighting. Below is a picture I took of her last year right before clients arrived for their photo session. I love this girl and am so thankful for her.
We just posted SOME of our favorite pictures from 2010 on our facebook page here. I made a folder back in December and I was blown away by how many photo sessions we had last year. We plan to take fewer photo sessions and weddings for 2011. This will allow us to spend quality time on the ones we do take on and more quality time in other areas of our life as well. =)
*Our first session of 2011 is coming soon!
A White Christmas!
We had a white Christmas at Nana and Papa’s house! It was pretty magical. More pictures are on our family blog.
First taste of snow! =)
Sweet niece!
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalms 19:1
On the Go! | Christmas Countdown
You can check out our Picture Christmas Countdown here on our family blog. We HOPE to post a picture each day! =) Here is our little man running at high speeds!
Happy 1st Birthday!
Our little man is 1 today! Oh how we have enjoyed him this past year. More pictures are on our family blog. There is a picture of him as a newborn. =)
8th Birthday!
Our sweet Abbi girl! More pictures on our family blog! =)
Our baby is also having a birthday this month so Abbi wanted me take some pictures of them together. We will have more to share of his one year old “photo shoot” at the end of this month.
STOP and Take a Break! =)
We are taking a break from photo shoots for the next few weeks! Lots of birthdays around here to celebrate and wanting to enjoy the rest of summer as a family! We will try to post some pictures of the birthday girl or boy! =) We are booking family photo shoots and Seniors for the fall. If you are interested in hearing about our Senior packages and family photo shoots for the holidays you can contact us via our website. If you have several senior friends keep in mind that we are booking groups(better deal) now and we only have a few slots left open. 
Family Beach Pictures
This year we once again were blessed to take our annual beach photos with my parents and sister’s family. As we look back at past beach pictures it is pretty neat to see how much each child has changed over the years.
It was actually drizzling off and on and the clouds were moving super fast with these really cool skies behind them. As you can see the girls actually had a lot of fun this year during this photo shoot! =)
The boys!
My sister’s beautiful kids!
Papa, Nana, and all the grandkids. Our newest addition is Adoniram.
