A few days ago I shared a few photos of Lorelai, who just turned one. I thought I would share a little bit more of her session…. and her 1st Birthday Party!  Lorelai is a super cutie, and if you hadn’t seen the previous post, she came 2 months early…. and so it is such a blessing that she is healthy and doing so well. Her parents Meg and Steve are great friends of ours, and it has been fun to watch them on their new journey of parenthood…. Soon we won’t just be watching though… as we will be joining them! Crazy how time flies and how life seems to move at such a fast pace. I know we are old enough to start our family… but sometimes I think, “are we really that old already???”

Anyways, back to Lorelai. I met Meg when I was teaching in the Baltimore City Public School System. I taught Kindergarten, and she was the speech pathologist. We figured we were destined to be friends for a number of reasons…

1. We were both named Meaghan, and both spelled Meaghan. She was the first person that I met who spelled her name the same way as me.

2. I cried at one (really many) of our staff meetings because I was so frustrated about the school and the school system, and how there were a lot of people at our school who really didn’t have the best interest of the kids in mind. So, Meg decided that I must be nice since I was so stinkin’ sensitive. We both loved the kids and wanted the best for them… so we had that in common too…We came from suburbia hoping to make a difference and felt completely powerless to do so

3. We both went to Penn State (major points for anybody)

Those were the 3 main things… but it turns out that there are so many more things that we have in common…. and we have grown to be great friends. Meg stood beside me as a bridesmaid when I married Josh, and I am sure that we will have so many fun memories ahead of us…

So, on with the post! I headed to Leesburg, VA (Meg and Steve moved away…) for Lorelai’s 1st Birthday Party…. Below is the cookie cake that Meg made. Her chocolate chip cookies are AMAZING! So, so good, and it had been way too long since I had had one!

And Lorelai’s piece of cake to get messy in!

There were a lot of people… not sure if Lorelai knew what to make of all of the people watching her.

Especially when I was there with a camera in her face…. Lorelai liked her cake….but this was the messiest she got. If I were her… I would have been all over that! Just sayin’

Opening presents…

Not sure what to say about this one….  She looks pretty happy with that bottle of wine. Where are her parents for goodness sake?!?  ;)  Just teasing Meg.

The Happy Family.

The following weekend Meg and Steve came up to visit and I had a little photoshoot with Meg and Lorelai…

It was her first time on the swings and she loved it!

Lorelai was almost walking without any help…. and it turns out that I saw them again about a week and half ago, and she has mastered it! She can walk without any help now. It is so crazy how fast kids grow and change.

Thought this was so cute! Go Lorelai Go! Watch out Meg and Steve….

Thanks for being such great friends!! I love you guys so much!!!

m.e.

So…….. I actually have an announcement to make…. We are preggo!

This post has been a long time coming, and quite honestly, I meant to post it quite awhile ago, but I didn’t (Obviously). At first I was on a quest for the perfect pair of little pink shoes (yes, it is a girl) and I just couldn’t find them…. and then once I found them, I was caught up in other things and didn’t take the time to blog them!!!

Since I am doing a personal post… just thought I would share some of the latest happenings here, since I haven’t been blogging very much even though there is a ton that I can post!!! And still plan to…

So, yup, Number 1. We are with child…..  And she is due to come on September 5th. We found out we were pregnant the week before Christmas…. and it has been an interesting journey. Just going to be honest. I was completely petrified at first…. cried for a couple of days because I was scared out of my mind….  The first trimester, I felt like I was a waste of life because I didn’t feel well… and I was super tired…. but the 2nd trimester was great!! I felt amazing…. and I still do! I feel really blessed to have had such a great pregnancy thus far… and will be shooting until the end of July. I have a few engagement sessions the first week of August, and  then will resume shooting again in October.  Right now, I am growing quickly…. and getting pretty nervous about the delivery end. But, am trusting that I will survive!!!

So, with that said there are a lot of other things going on here that have taken me from the blogging world….

We have been in the process of redoing our branding…. and we are finally in the ending stages. It has been quite a process and started last December, but we are almost there… and I can’t wait for the big launch… This will include website, blog, all materials, logo, etc. I am excited to see it all come to fruition…. and expect it to happen before Baby’s arrival!

With that said…. we have also been redoing a lot of our house…. lots of painting… moving rooms…. My old office is now the nursery… and my office is now downstairs…. And our living area will match our new branding! So we have been doing a lot of painting, organizing, furniture shopping, throwing things out….

Katy has been editing since the beginning of the year…. and she is amazing. And she is also doing all of the albums… and she does an amazing job! Can’t wait to share more about her…. and you will surely see more of her in the future. She is available to make customized baby announcements, save the dates, etc. so if you are interested in information on that, please let me know!

On a different note…. we had to make a hard decision and put our oldest dog down. He wasn’t doing well at all…. and it was a very hard, sad decision to make….. so we were sad to lose a family member…. but are excited to gain our newest member this fall.  Here is one of my favorite photos of Chester from Christmas a couple years ago…

So….. that is just a small update on some of the happenings in our lives….  Because of our new baby, I will be taking a VERY LIMITED number of sessions this fall for the holiday…. So, if you would like to schedule a session, please contact me asap. I will not have many openings to offer.

I have another great wedding to post  tomorrow! So check back!!!

Blessings.

m.e.

Happy Friday! So, last night I went to Josh’s (my hubby) hockey game. It was his first of the season… He has been subbing for a team that our neighbor plays on, and decided to join the team for the summer. He played in High School… and LOVES it!

Thought I would share a few pics… nothing amazing… just a little life snippet… His game didn’t start until 9:45…. so needless to say we got home pretty late! I have to be honest and say that it took me the entire first period to figure out which guy was Josh!!! He didn’t know what color jersey he would be wearing….and he told me he had black shorts and black socks. Well, the entire team had black shorts and black socks… So, I used my telephoto lens as binoculars and starting eliminating players that weren’t my husband. Seriously… with all of their bulky equipment and face masks, it is really hard to tell!!!

But I figured it out because this guy was a good player…. and he had yellow laces in his skates (Go Steelers!). I know you think I am biased…. but he really was the best player on his team. It appears that he is playing alone, but there were not actually bleachers so there were not a lot of options of places to watch the game… so I wasn’t in a very good spot… Didn’t get very much action in front of me…

Needless to say… it was fun and even though is team lost he had a blast!

Not sure what he is doing…. looks like he is licking his stick…. I zoomed in in photoshop… and can confirm that he is not.

Annoyed to be in the penalty box…. 

And I was reading the ice rink rules…. most of them made sense… but rule #3 totally threw me off. What on earth does that mean???

Have an amazing weekend… lots of fun sessions to come on the blog!

Blessings

m.e.

I hope you are having this kind of Friday:

These girls I just love, and I just spent 3 days with them in Florida. They are my photog besties…. minus a few gals who were not able to make it this year  :(    We met at a workshop a few years ago and have been getting together ever since! Last year we went to Texas…. and this year we went to Florida…. a retirement village in Florida to be exact…  :)  I went to visit my parents in Florida (they migrate in winter and head to Florida for 3 months)…I hadn’t seen my parents in 5 1/2 months! Way too long!!!! So, it was wonderful to spend some time with them… and then my photog friends came down and we had a blast. Love these girls with all of my heart. They keep me sane… help me do business better, encourage me, challenge me, make me laugh HYSTERICALLY, and they are amazing women of God. The beach photos are taken at Daytona Beach…   And I can’t believe that I left Florida and am still pasty white….

Casey: http://www.aricalanphotography.com/

Yours Truly

Janet: http://www.janetwisnerphotography.com/

Jan: http://www.janschillphotoblog.com/

Holli: http://hollib.com/

Tisha: http://www.tishaandjim.com/

I have a wedding today and also on Sunday, so if I don’t get to your email this afternoon don’t panic… it is just a busy weekend! And, I have been shooting like crazy so I have more fun sessions to share with you next week!

Happy Friday!

m.e.

So in 2007 I met a group of amazing ladies at a workshop that I attended… and we decided that we wanted to get together again, so we created our own little group and planned a trip. Last year we went to Dallas…. and this year we are going to Florida! We call our little group Focus… We are a group of ladies who are photographers, wives, and most of the women are mothers. We all love Jesus and love our businesses, and love sharing our ideas and strategies that work in our own businesses to help eachother grow.

So, last July, we all headed to Dallas, Texas to share, learn, and grow with eachother…. and we had an AMAZING time! We came from all over the place… and I feel like I have known these ladies for years even if it hasn’t been that long, and I am excited to say that we are getting together again this coming April!

I will share a little more about this trip this week, and show you some of the sessions that we set up… but I wanted to share the women with you that I love dearly, and that I can’t wait to see!

This is Kristin…. She is a proud wife and mother of 2… who lives in Nebraska! She has to be one of the sweetest people that I have ever met. She is a sweet, gentle spirit… You can check her out here: http://www.kparrphotography.com/

Hopefully she won’t hate me for this shot… I am posting photos of us hanging out during shoots that we scheduled… and this was after her flight to Texas and in the REALLY HOT Texas heat! We did headshots of eachother… so I shall share some of those as well!

This is Janet… Janet was my roommate at the workshop that we went to… and I love this chic to pieces! She CRACKS me up! Feel like I have known her all of my life. Janet is in Texas and is a proud mom to 2 children with a bun in the oven! So she will be cute and preggo when we see her in April! You can check here out here: http://www.janetwisnerphotography.com/

This is Holli B. She is located in Oklahoma…. and I love her dearly as well…. I would say that about each of these women so instead of repeating myself 10 times… You can just read on and insert, that I love them dearly…

Holli is a wife and mom of 2 kiddos… Holli and I went to another conference together last November in New Orleans. NOLA PartnerCon… and had a blast. We learned a lot… chatted a lot about life…. sang karaoke, ate alligator and other yummy NOLA dishes.

You can check out Holli here: http://hollib.com/ She isn’t going to like the photo I posted of her… but she wouldn’t have liked any of them…. so…..  ;)

This is Heather. Heather is another Texas gal… and is a wife and mom to 2 of the cutest dogs that you have ever seen! Heather is a really amazing woman and sadly she won’t be able to make it this year, but for good reason. She is opening up a new studio! So excited for her! She decided last year that she was done shooting weddings and was going to devote her time and talent to shooting children (that always sounds so bad!), families, and fashion…. It is so exciting to watch her be so successful in her endeavor. We will miss her a ton, but are so excited for her right now!  You can check out Heather here: http://www.heatherthorne.com/

This is Tisha…. Tisha is a Texas gal too… Do you see the trend? This is why we went to Texas last year! But Tisha is in No Man’s Land…. Brady, Texas… She and her husband just opened up a studio in their town, and they are the go to photographers in their area. They have 2 kiddos…. and are a really amazing couple! I was super excited to meet Tisha’s husband Jim this year at WPPI!  You can check them out here: http://www.tishaandjim.com/

Meet Casey. Casey and her now husband live in Lubbock, Texas…. Last year Casey was getting ready to marry her now husband Aric… who is also a photographer. They had a destination wedding in Mexico (the photos are AMAZING!!) and are now a husband and wife team! I was excited that we got to spend some time together in Vegas at WPPI. You can check them out here: http://www.aricalanphotography.com/

Meet Jan (left) and Angela (right). Jan is located in Colorado… and is a wife and mom of 2 kiddos. I got to spend a lot of time with her in Vegas… and she cracks me up! Seriously, some of the things she says… you think… did she just say that!?  She is actually the only one that we didn’t meet at the workshop but she knew Holli and came, and she fit in perfectly! You can check her out here: http://www.janschillphotography.com/

Angela is another Texan, but she lives in McAllen… so she is very close to Mexico! She and her husband are a team and they have a LOT of kiddos… 4 gorgeous girls to be exact! Her hubby always wants to come to our get togethers… but sorry, no boys allowed!  We love our husbands dearly, but there is nothing like a girl get together!  You can check out her and her husbands work here: http://www.gerardogarmendia.com/

This is Maureen…. Maureen, for starters, I didn’t take this photo! It was Casey! She was letting me play around with her Canon so she had my camera for a little bit….  ;)  You always look good anyways….Even when you are making a face that reads “Don’t you dare take my photo right now….”

Maureen is a wife and mother of 2 little boys and is based out of Louisiana… She is a fun loving, easy going girl… who is ADDICTED to her iphone  ;)  You can check her out here: http://www.wilkinsonphotography.net/

And this is Meaghan… ha ha just kidding…

It’s me… and yes, I have a box of Sprinkles Cupcakes in hand… We all went to Sprinkles in Dallas on the day that we left to take some cupcakes home to our husbands, kids, and for me…my 2 dogs. They really do have dog cupcakes and our dogs loved them! As for the one for my husband… I don’t know if he even got any… I have to say cupcakes are a weakness of mine…  I love Cupcakeries… and yes I may have just made that word up.

So….  a photo of yours truly…. notice the sheer joy on my face because of the box in hand.

Enjoy this amazing weather!!!!

m.e.