My Sweet Grayson

Grayson loves to sit in the window beside my computer. I joke that he is my photo editing assistant. He is a good pet for our family and we love him very much. Brooke loves to call him by his full name "Grayson Judah." He answers to that pretty quickly but he moves the quickest when he hears the word "snack."

Merry Christmas Eve!

This is one of those years that the boys won't be home until Christmas day so Brooke called them to tell them that she was putting out cookies and writing a letter to Santa. We miss the boys so much and Brooke loves to hear their voices so she tries to call them often.

Brooke hung up her stocking.

My Mom sewed a new Peanuts stocking for Brooke.
She also helped Grayson hang his up.

There are gifts . . .

gifts . . .

and more gifts everywhere.

Cookies and milk for Santa.

"You know who" always has to be involved.

Brooke insisted on putting Santa's milk

in her Daddy's Bulldog cup.

We all know that Santa is a Florida Gator

so I hope he will drink it anyway. :)

I love this shirt.

Writing a letter to Santa.

Grayson is always interested in what she is doing.

She was so proud of the tree she drew.

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!

My Mom

My Mom is a talented painter and has been sharing her gifts from the Lord with others for as long as I can remember. I know that many of my artistic ambitions come from her genes and I am so happy that God passed some of those desires to me. She had been working on handpainted ornaments to give to her Sunday School class for a week or so and I happened to be over one day when she was half-way done. I have no pictures of the completed ornaments but I know they were beautiful and were topped off with sparkles and ribbons. I cannot show you these without telling you a story that goes hand in hand with them. She needed several more ornaments last week to have the total number she needed, so she and my Dad drove to the craft store to buy more. To make a very long, scary story short--they were as close to being in a fatal accident as they could be but missed being involved by about a foot or two. My Mom said that it is amazing that they are alive today and my Dad says that my Mom doesn't even know the half of it from the view he had. They pulled over shortly after to gather their thoughts and to thank the Lord and called me to talk about it. I sat there listening to her explain what happened and got lost in the thought that I could have been receiving the call that my parents were killed like so many other people receive daily. It was another reminder of several things for me: 1) life is a vapor 2) it was not the time that God has appointed for my parents to die 3) show them how much they mean to me everyday that we are here 4) if my parents would have died that day then they would have died going to get ornaments for my Mom to paint for her Sunday School class--and something about that was kind of precious to me.

He's Booked!

Brooke has been watching this DVD since her Birthday and this next scene really makes me laugh everytime I see it. I'm really just kidding (sorta) but don't you ever feel like this? You should pause my music before watching it.

I Recommend Reading This

My friend Karen posted a link on her blog to a Christmas letter that was written by MaryBeth Chapman. MaryBeth is the wife of Steven Curtis Chapman and the mother of several children, including a daughter, Maria, who was killed earlier this year when she was run over by accident by an older brother that simply did not see her in the driveway. MaryBeth has been generally silent to the public blogs and interviews but this letter cannot help but touch your heart as she opens up a bit about the family and the year they have had. If you are a Mom or Dad, you'll be especially touched by the questions that she asks herself regarding how she would have spent her time if she would have known that her time with her daughter would be so short here on Earth. It gave me a lot to think about and made me examine what I am spending my time doing and what I tend to view as "chores" and "things to check off my daily list."

You can link to the full letter here.

Rob And Dana

Rob and Dana are engaged and planning a February wedding. I am honored to have been asked to assist in shooting their wedding. Dana was up this weekend for the wedding of her sister, Heather. I called her Heather several times during our time together and I am beginning to think everything is just running together at this point. Speaking of running together, if you scroll down a bit, you'll see a picture of the man paying for the weddings of these beautiful girls. He is the one with the empty pockets. It has been a very busy several weeks balancing my love for photos with my family life. I am keeping up and very pleased with the moments of people's lives I have helped to document this year.

Mrs. Brent Richardson

A Beautiful Christmas Wedding

Brent and Heather's wedding was beautiful. Here are just a few to hold you until I have a bit more time to sort through the many photos I took. I am busy finishing up other families and weddings and will post more and more of these as time allows.

Brent And Heather Are Getting Married

Brent and Heather had their rehearsal tonight and I enjoyed myself so much. There were endless photo opportunities and I felt like a kid in a candy shop. You can take a look back at their engagement photos that we did earlier this year by clicking here. I am excited for them as they begin this next chapter of their lives. Congratulations Brent and Heather!

Self portrait in the bridal vanity mirror.

Sisters ~ Bride is on the right.

Another self portrait below along with Stephanie.

Are you getting the feel of this wedding?

It is unbelievably gorgeous in the church tonight.

I love Christmas weddings.