Morris Family | Social Circle, Ga.

My sweet friend, Carmen, and her family, Rick and Noah, came over for a mini session. It was their FIRST session since their wedding photographs!!! This is their very, very first family photography session y’all!! What an honor to get to take these for them!

I’ve known Carmen for about three years now. We go to church together, do women’s ministry together, Bible study together and we do LIFE together! She is an incredible momma! She loves BIG and is so faithful to the Lord. I love her and I’m so very thankful for all that I learn from her!

Spears Family | Mansfield, Ga.

Happy birthday Mrs. Marcia! Although, her birthday was last month, for her birthday, her daughter Lacey contacted me and asked me if I would be available to do a session for her mom and their family. What a fabulous request!

My family and I were out of town for the month of June and had to do some planning to get everyone together during the time we were back in town. The timing was perfect and so was the weather! Although, you can’t change a hot summer July day, it’s just hot no matter what - it was still super gorgeous! We met at their family home and drove through their beautiful pastures to make our way to the lake. I love that their home is in the background of this first family photo!

Lacey and Spears family, thank y’all so much for working with my fun summer schedule and allowing me to photograph your absolutely BEAUTIFUL family!!! I really enjoyed my time with you guys and hope that you love your session!

Rocco's Third Birthday Party | Construction Theme

Oh, my sweet boy, Rocco Koi. How is time going by so fast? It seems as though we just celebrated your first birthday and here we are, you’re THREE!

Three is my fave age!! Nothing like a squishy baby that is somewhat independent, but able to communicate their wants and needs and still wants their mommy and daddy! Rocco is such a sweet heart! Every night when I put him to bed he asks me to sing him the sunshine song. You Are My Sunshine has been our song since he was born but, I recently started singing him the song The Blessing (link here, you have to listen to it!!). My friend Katelyn shared this song with me and I’ve been singing it every since! At first he wasn’t for it at all, as we had established our nightly routine and adding a new song was a big no for him. After a few weeks of signing it (plus the “Sunshine Song”), he is coming around to it.

I want my babies to be prayed over every single night! I want them to know just how much Jesus loves them. I want them to experience His peace! I want their family’s to be prayed over before they even exist. The song, “The Blessing” is all of that! ** insert super, ugly cry ** Getting to sing that to Rocco, Olivia and RyAnne every night, brings me to tears because I’m just so grateful to be able to do that for them!

Celebrating this sweet guy’s third year of life was so easy - we love you to the moon and back baby boy! Happy third birthday!!

To all of our friends and family that joined us - thank you for being a light in his life. We love you guys so much and we’re thankful to raise him with you in his life!

P.S. Shout out to my sister-in-law, Chastin Padgett for the perfect cookies and cake! Rocco’s only request for his party were cookies and gonuts (doughnuts)! Check out her page Sweet Treats Cupcakery.

The Wiley Family | Social Circle, Ga.

Shew! We were able to get Teresa’s family session in just before they moved back to Alabama AND capture the gorgeous fall leaves before the rain took them off the trees!

I had so much fun hanging out with you, Terry and Brennan! Thank you for coming over to our little farm!

Rocco's First Easter + PPD Update!

I hope everyone is had a wonderful Easter with their friends and family! This year is Rocco's very first Easter celebration! Look at how adorable he looks in his little bow tie!!!! Trey didn't want him to wear that cute little bow tie. . .Deanna and I snuck it on him for photos though!!! Oh my goodness!! I'm so in love!

This year we went super non-traditional with our menu and served Tacos! My mother-in-law picked up some of El Charro's famous cheese dip and it was OH-so-good!!! And of course my sister-in-law, who is also an amazing baker, made some yummy desserts! We ate so good and then I had everyone go outside for photos! haha, Maybe that was bad timing! Eating MEXICAN and then photographs! Suck it in folks!

I know this is on the more serious side. . .but now that I’m getting back out there, lots of you have been asking me how I’ve been and I really appreciate you guys thinking of me! When Rocco was four months old, in (October 2017) I was hit really hard with postpartum depression. We were actually on vacation with our brand new family of five when it all started. I cried the entire trip - all SIX days! I felt SO guilty for crying every day and that guilt made it all feel so much worse!!! I felt like such a burden to my family, steeling their joy at one of our FAVE places - the beach! I was a mess and I pretty much stayed that way until the end of February 2018. 

That’s when I started focusing more on work and that really helped me! I also stopped nursing as much (we are down to only once a day now). This made me sad and happy all at the same time. Rocco never nursed very well. Heck, he hardly drinks a bottle well! He just seems so unhappy and frustrated with drinking anything. It’s taken a lot of pressure off of me but put pressure on me as well! I nursed both my girls until they were over a year old. I wanted to nurse Rocco that long and I've felt guilty for not nursing him as much. I just wanted to experience the same closeness I did when I nursed my girls but with Rocco too. I started feeling like a failure AND a burden. . .I wanted to end my life. I thought about it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! I just felt like if I wasn’t around then my family would be happier.

During that time a lot of changes were happening. My gym of over four years stopped offering childcare. That meant I couldn’t workout because I didn't have anyone there to watch Olivia and Rocco. I lost my “gym family” and my routine! Although, I hadn’t been going super regular due to Rocco waking about three times in the middle of the night ( I was too exhausted) in my mind it was the routine I would return to when he did start sleeping! The thought of losing ALL the things that seemed normal totally rocked my world!

I started praying that God would bless me with a NEW normal AND QUICKLY!!! Shortly after praying for this, I decided to do The Juice in the Raw Cleanse. I wanted to do something totally for myself! I felt amazing after the cleanse! The very next week my sweet neighbor Brittany invited me to workout with her in a new group that had just formed! And then two weekends after that my girlfriends and I went on a girls trip to Helen, Ga.! God was so good to me!! I needed ALL of those events to happen! I seriously feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted off of me!!! I feel like me again!

This has been one of the hardest PPD journey's for me! I have been so incredibly frustrated with myself! Although I've experienced PPD before and I knew this wouldn't last forever, I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel! I doubted everything about myself and my confidence dropped off the face of the Earth! It wasn't until I started praying for healing AND was open to it, that my life started to have light again!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their continued prayers, support and love they have shown me over these really difficult months! You guys are SO incredible and I love every single one of you!