Christmas .... & a possible move?

My Christmas was amazing this year. We had such a fun time with our families and enjoyed the time off of both jobs. I am so incredibly blessed to have the jobs that I have, but I can get pretty exhausting working such long hours. Christmas gave me such amazing rest & quiet time to spend doing the things that matter most. My Mr, however, was a bit M.I.A for things once we got closer to the 25th.....

Here he is setting up our tree. He always does such an amazing job and spends so much time doing my silly traditions with me. I'm so blessed to have him as my friend.

Shortly after we set up the house, his brother called to tell us he was engaged! Not only engaged, but getting hitched on the 16th. Needless to say we took a very LONG trip to Austin, Tx in the car with Joey's family & wouldn't have traded it for the world! I took their photos (you can see there here) and we had an absolute blast. I only wish we could have stayed longer.

We squeezed in all 100 of our "traditional" Christmas movies & even managed to pull a Turkey out of the oven for our family Christmas dinner. It was tough squeezing it all in this year for some reason, but we survived. I definitely know to plan better next year.

After the holidays, we headed to Seaside to celebrate New Year's Eve. We were so excited to finally head back to the beach. We truly love every minute of being there and while we thought it would be chilly, the 77 degree weather didnt hurt our love for the place at all! Just gorgeous!

I have been so hard at work on the new website, I haven't had much time for anything else. I am SO happy to say that it is FINALLY live. There are a few kinks to work out, but for the most part I'm pretty happy with it. Here is a screen shot from my work computer.

Oh, one little tiny thing I left out. MY HUSBAND BOUGHT ME A CAR FOR CHRISTMAS. I've had a hard past 8 months, so you dont mind if I brag a little do you? He really blesses me beyond belief and I can't imagine what I did to deserve his selflesness. HE neede a new car, not me. He sold his to get something a little larger for the family days we hope to have in the future, & bought me something instead. I dont deserve him. Not one ounce. This is why he was so scatterbrained and late to everything when Christmas got close. He was hiding a car! haha. Love that guy.

I keep a blog for my business here & have been struggling to keep that one AND this one active. I used to keep the two seperate, but now I am sharing a little of my life to my clients on the blog. I share much much more with you all, and I love doing it, but I am thinking of keeping it all over there to allow myself more time living and less time blogging. Thoughts? I hate to move it, but then again maybe I could be a bit more transparent for clients & keep my relationship with you all also. Something to think about I suppose.

I hope your Christmas and New Years were wonderful. We are so thankful for a Savior who was born to die a death we deserve. We serve a mighty God Xx

Thank You

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!His faithful love endures forever." -Ps 118:1

This verse has been running through my mind all day. I have so much to worry about. So much to think really hard over. Even more to fear, but for each of those thoughts, worries, & fears are blessings that outnumber them all. I am so thankful for so much! For starters, I have a God who sent His ONE AND ONLY son to die a horrible death just to allow me to spend eternity with Him. WOW. He takes on every one of those nasty things so that I can go through my days without them. Jesus is truly my best friend and I am so incredibly thankful for Him each and every day. Other things I'm thankful for? Well, I have a job that I absolutely adore. I experience new brides, families, firstborns, all of it! AND I get paid to do it. I'm sorry, but that makes my job something to be thankful for I'd say. I only have it b/c the Lord allows it. And I hope to glorify Him every step of the way. We are commanded to use whatever gifts He's given us to better His Kingdom and I should remember - that means picture too

Over the last year, I've also been blessed to be a part of these girls' lives. Pursuit 31 is a group by Karen Stott (amazing photog btw) who felt that the Lord wanted her to bless other photographers starting out as well. She is more than a mentor, business owner, or entrenpreneur.....she is a wife, mother, follower of Christ, & friend.

Ah, the most unexpected of all .... my neighbors! We moved in to our first home last year this time and now I can't remember not knowing the three of them. God really went the extra mile there. I mean, who vacations with their neighbors? WE DO

Another thing I'm thankful for today? My sister. How does someone love me so much? How did I end up with someone like her when I know I could never have been that for a younger sister myself. She may not ever have kids (darn NYker) but she has me and she's been a pretty incredibly mother figure if you ask me - the kind that lets you have wine when you're 19 and takes you to rated R movies at 15.

Amanda comes with 2 parents. Oh my mom and dad. Could I ever find anything to be more thankful about? So many people have so many struggles within their immediate families, and Joey and I were both blessed enough to not only grow up in un-broken homes, but to see our parents just as in love today as they were when they were our age. Just bliss!

MY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SO thankful for my people. My Mr (you've seen him a lot) & Aspyn (i KNOW you recognize her). They both are responsible for a bit of the stress mentioned in the beginning, but they are also responsible for a HUGE part of the blessings in my life too. They will both quickly point out that that makes the bad totally excuseable. And well, I agree.

BLAKE!!!!!!! My neighbors' son Blake is my little nephew in love. We moved in when he was almost one month old and he has our entire hearts. It's fun loving on a baby like he's your own, then handing him back to his parents when he gets fussy. Just splendid

something new for everyone

Oh the excitement!! Mom and Dad are about to break ground on their new home (only 5 minutes away btw....WOOP). We are SO incredibly excited about having them closer to us & even more thrilled for them as this has been a LONG time waiting. The home was already a stunning plan done by Signature Homes, but with a daddy that's an architect, they took something good and made it breath-taking! Mr Jones & I headed out to the neighborhood today to see the "sold" sign and share in my parents' excitement. Think about it, in 3 months we'll have the opportunity to steal from their fridge again......AND to lose all of our furniture (she'll want most of it back I'm sure).....DRATS

SO, since she will be taking her coffee table first, I've decided to re-vamp the entire living room to make it a bit more cozy. Joey and I found this little gem @ At Home this weekend and stuck it in the trunk to take home. Finally! A spot to hold my pretty books and magazines - & Mr. Jones'  condensation - drenched glasses he leaves around the house. Bring on the windex! 

HAPPY SUNDAY! We are so thankful for the many blessings we have and can't wait to see what the next few months hold. 

Ps 37:4 // Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart

Our 4th

Our 4th was spent on another annual family vaca to Seaside in Rosemary Beach, Fl. We had a BLAST and had the opportunity to spend the quality time we aren't often able to get. My sister lives in NYC, mom works weekends, and I usually have weddings or shoots scheduled weekends myself. It was so amazing to finally spend time with every one, and what better place to do it?

Joey and I got to take Aspyn to the beach to pass time waiting on the fireworks show. She was SO excited (her first time) to finally hit her paws to the sand. It was a big deal....trust her

Amanda & Renaud would go out to the beach first, and leave last every day. They were still lounging around when we got outside to take Aspyn on her adventure.

Of course we witnessed a few amazing sunsets. My family vacations always consisted of Seaside, but if there's one place on earth I would have to be "stuck to" I'm glad it's there ....

We ate at some pretty amazing places (New Yorkers tend to find these fabulous places no matter where they travel )

After dinner photo shoots were definitely in order for the ladies.

Aspyn enjoying her first beach trip. We had such a great time and enjoyed every single second of it.

We hope you had a fantastic holiday as well!

update: THANK YOU for the prayers. Things are definitely getting better and I know I have my sweet friends and family to thank for that. God is good....ALL THE TIME

Xx

Talent

First of all, it must be said that I have a pretty cool dad.

but the cool guy just picked up a super cool hobby.....Restoring vintage airstreams, THEN making them look a little something like this....

I had a blast taking a few pics for his listing to sell it now that he's finished. If only he'd let Joey & I use it for a small vacay this summer & a little football next fall we would surely appreciate it. Something tells me that having a fireplace, espresso machine, shower, & stove we might not ever give it back. WouLD someone lend us 50 grand? please?

Happy Monday! After a rough Saturday and Sunday I've vowed to make this a positive week...bad stuff stay away!!!
Xx

Our 25th

Our Christmas started exciting, and still has not quite ended after Amanda and Renaud missed their flight home. We are technically still in Holiday living until Friday morning when they fly back home to NYC.

We started off the Holidays with one of my usual "whoopsy" moments...I overestimated the stockings for being strudier than they were. And broke a lovely paint your own piggy bank Joey had stuffed into mine :( oh bother.
As tradition states, we began our celebrations @ Mamaw Jones' house to have Breakfast with the Jones side of the family. This was Mamaw's first year without Papaw around, and while we all missed him greatly, I think she did quite well and had a good Christmas Eve with everyone around.
Christmas Eve night followed quickly after the Ferguson celebration @ my Aunt Donna's house.
And we had a fabulous dinner and time playing Christmas Trivial Pursuit by the tree

And a late night game of adult pictionary followed. Iron Man? Really hunny?

Santa was pretty silly. After opening gifts and grabbing a coffe....Joey pointed out that santa knocked a few candles over and I should straighten them back up. There dangling was a jewelry box containing my new favorite diamond necklace. I never take the one off my father gave me, and this one rests perfectly below it. I love my boys :)

We had our alone time, then woke Amanda and Renaud and waited on mom and dad to do our annual family gifts. Leave it to Renaud to get only toys
And my father to get some Ray Bans so he can look just like Renaud.....

That night we had both sets of parents over for our Tradtional Christmas Dinner....featuring my Truffle Butter Turkey :) YUM

We had an amazing night with amazing people

And before heading back to the work week, Amanda and I took Renaud to the fabulous Birmingham Museum of Art.....it left MUCH to the imagination, but we were fond of the Native American exhibit...mostly for it's furs

& as soon as Josh and his lady friend made it to town, we headed to the Jones house to swap gifts and have some yummy taco soup.

I hope you all had as great a Christmas as my family did. It was definitely one for the books. Happy birthday to our Savior and Happy New Year to you as well!

Xx

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

From our home to yours