Hardest Day

So today I dropped Eli off for his first day of daycare...
and it has definately been one of the hardest things I have ever done... close behind giving birth to an over 9 lb baby:)

I have been in tears all morning but as lunch approaches, I am becoming calmer. I already called to check on him and of course he's fine:) It's always the Mamas that are worse off... My day was made a little easier when I got some flowers delivered from Josh.. As of now, I am trying not to talk about it...it only makes my eyes well up:(

In my hysteria I did manage to remember to document Eli's first day... here are some pics


Eli with teacher Denise and his new friends




The flowers Josh sent to work

North Carolina visit

We had a great weekend in North Carolina! We went to Asheville and visited family the entire day. Eli got to meet his Uncle Phil and Aunt Carol, who gave him his first haircut, and got to play with his cousins, along with his Uncle Joe and Aunt Tracy.
Eli especially loved playing with Gracie, Barron and Lola.

Here are some pics of the weekend.

Uncle Phil and Aunt Carol


Presley plays chess with Josh


All the kids


Eli with Presley and Abby


Connor and Gracie


Lauren and Gracie


Aunt Carol cuts my hair


After my haircut


Uncle Joe and Aunt Tracy

Congratulations Molly and Adrienne!

Two of my college friends recently got engaged and I may be their photographer so I wanted to leave them a note here to link to my new wedding blog. You can see the link on the right. I am so happy for them and excited if i do shoot their weddings because they will both be the most beautiful brides:)

Father's Day

For his first official Father's Day, Josh got to go to his two favorite places in the world...... His family's cabin in Elijay and Turner Field. On Saturday, our friend Corey generously invited us to watch the Red Sox game in a suite on the Lexus pavilion. It was really nice and perfect way to see a game with a 7-month-old (Eli even got an hour nap).... so thank you Corey. We enjoyed the day even if the Braves lost.

On Sunday, we went to Elijay for a relaxing lunch. I can't wait until Eli can really enjoy the river and open space.

New Links

I have added a few new links to this blog, including one for my friend Jason's wedding portfolio. Next year I hope to start shooting weddings with him, and eventually I plan to at least make a simple website for my own portfolio.... but for now I wanted to post his site (which is in its infancy) in case anyone who visits the site knows someone who needs a photographer.

Plus, he actually has resonable prices:)

Fun in the Sun

Last week we went to Destin with The Finleys for our first family vacation. Everything went really well. We had a great time. Eli absolutely loved the pool but wasn't too crazy about the ocean. It's so nice to have so many people there to help with the baby so you can relax too. Josh, Grammie, PawPaw, Uncle Burt and Aunt Christy all took turns staying with Eli so I could actually lay out at the pool. It was so much fun I hope we can do it every year.... and maybe with the Scoggins,too.






Hanging out with Uncle Burt and Aunt Christy

Eli rides his first carousel with Grammie

Eli and PawPaw playing putt-putt

Enjoying the pool

Eli @ 6 months

These are Eli's 6-month photos from Target..(for those who live here I highly recommend our photographer named Jodi. She was great.) I was really happy with how they came out. There are several more poses but I just posted these. The one of him and the bear was Jodi's idea which I thought was pretty cute. I told Josh these will be the last of the naked portraits though I think they are adorable.

Photo Contest

Can you do me a favor?

I entered one of Eli's 5-month photos in a photo contest on Shutterfly. If you get a chance, could you go on and vote my baby 5 stars:) To get to vote click here

Plus, if you have the time, looking at all the other baby pictures is really fun..... and I enjoy just finding out all the things people name their children:)

Eli @ 5 months

I had no original intention of taking this many photos of Eli but after about 4 months when I realized he had had his picture taken at least every week, I decided for the sake of his scrapbook to take portraits of him (studio or at home) every month for the first year. So these are ones I took at home for his five month portraits. We just took him to Target Saturday for his 6 month portraits and I'll be posting them later.

Baby models

I'm pretty sure Eli, Trip and Quinn could all be making money off their adorably cute faces but for now, their glamour shots will only hang on family members' walls. These are the pics we had taken at Target when the Scoggins' were in town. There are more of Quinn and Trip but I'll let Amy post those herself:)

Getting bigger

Nothing really new with us... I just loved this picture of Eli so I thought I would post it. I can't believe how big he is now. I love that he can sit up by himself but he is so active and independent that all he wants to do is sit, stand and walk around in his walker........... I miss the baby that would fall asleep in my arms.

Happy Half-Birthday to You!

On Monday Eli turned 6 months old. I can't believe how fast it goes. In honor of his birthday, I decided to chop off my hair (see pic above), and go the way of quick-and-easy. It was my Mom and my brother's birthday last week so we went to Chattanooga to see them. Eli loved spending time outside with his Uncle Burt and Aunt Christy and had his first ride in Daddy's Jeep.

Happy Mother's Day

We had a great Mother's Day weekend visiting with Chuck, Amy and the kids. Unfortunately, it has taken me quite a while to recover from my kidney stone surgery so sadly I couldn't play with my nephews as much as I would like. I didn't even feel like taking too many pictures but I did get a few. One morning I got Trip to participate in a quick picture with his brother and then got this one of Quinn and Eli together. Quinn, of course, is very photogenic as you can see in this other pic. Trip spent most of his time outside playing and mowing grass with his Grandpap. Luckily we got all three boys picture taken professionally while they were here so we do have the weekend documented properly:)

Warning: Naked Baby

Josh likes to joke that because of me, my mom and his mom Eli has probably had his picture made everyday of his life. It's hard to keep up the albums with all the pictures but then you catch moments like this which, to me, are priceless. Eli loves to be naked and because he laughs and smile so much when he is...it's hard not to take his picture. The other is juust a picture I really liked.

At the Playground

Eli visited his first playground this weekend. He seemed relatively unimpressed but he did like to swing with Josh. We visited friends Stephen and Tamara Wood in Greenville for their daughter, Ella Grace's 2nd birthday party. Unfortunately I forgot my camera (I won't win Mom-of-the-year I guess) so I only got this picture from a friend.