grand pop nelson

daves grandfather passed away the end of march just a few days before his 87th birthday. He sat down in his chair to take a nap (like he did every afternoon) and woke up in the arms of the Lord. his passing was a big shock to all of us as he had just been to church with us on sunday morning and helped serve rolls to the group of students that were out at the camp on sunday evening. he had passed away monday afternoon. we were all sad we didnt get a chance to say an official "good bye" but were so thankful that he had passed peacefully in his own home, just they way he would have wanted. grand pop lived out at the camp right next door to daves parents. in the last year he had gotten very sick, became saved (which was such an answered prayer for all of us), got much better, got involved with the camp, took us for rides on his fancy cart and just really became a peaceful and loved child of god and loved family member. he will miss him. that is for sure! but find peace knowing he is in a much better place. here are some photos from the last or so.

stirring the apple butter. nothing kept him down that is for sure. he was still mowing the fields with this tractor last summer.
serving campers some yummy dessert .
holding brenna. i am so glad the my children have had the joys of growing up with a great grandpa on daves said and a great grandma on my side. we are praying they will remember and hold on to little memories of these special people in their lives.

brother-sister bond

man these two have it! they just have it! this special bond. ever since they were little they have been two peas in a pod. when garret is as school, rae misses him so much. of course they have their times where they are not the nicest to each other but most of the time they just are the best of buds. we took these pictures on the way home after we picked up garret from school. to be honest i just wanted him to stay in the car with brenna and wait for me while i snapped a few photos, well the both of them wanted garret to be in some pictures too. so there was no posing or special outfits for these pics but they have some of the strongest emotions for me. they are just pure bother-sister bond. just look at the way she looks up to him in the first photo. she is in love with her big brother and the smile on her face in the bottom picture just melts me. she is not even looking at him but you can just feel the love the two of them have for each other. i am blessed.

sisters

brenna got in on some of the photo action too. here are some pics of the girls together. i hope they grow up loving each other and that there is never competition between the two of them. i know they will have their moments, but i hope when they are adult women that their sister will be their best friend.

brennas face is just so content in the above picture i love it.
they look so tiny

my girl

it's been awhile since i have felt good enough to get the camera out and take some photos. i have really missed it. today the weather was amazing and i desperately needed to do something creative. i still had not taken any 4 year old portraits of my sweet rae so i asked her if she was up to going to some cool places and taking pictures. she said yes! i love this kid. she was totally into all of it, changing clothes and posing. i had a wonderful time spending time with her and doing something artsy. i had the hardest time narrowing down my favorites. so im sorry if this post gets picture heavy. gram should be happy though... sorry it has been awhile since you have seen pictures of your grandkids.

this is the little smile that she gives her daddy to get whatever she wants. but really who can resist.

then we picked up garret from school and headed to an open field. raelyn said this was her favorite spot.
above: this is my favorite picture of the entire day. i just love her expression, her ripped jeans, and her little converse.

love those little hands with pink nail polish chipping off.
dancing in the field

gorgeous eye lashes
another outfit and location change. :) when the kids saw the cardboard boxes they called them wall-e cubes. this makes me smile.
so thats all for now. i have a few more to share soon.

girls weekend 2010

this past weekend 5 of my best friends from HIGH SCHOOL, yep thats right, high school, got together to catch up and eat up. :) it is amazing how god has really keep us together and a part of each others lives for this many years. two of the girls live in nashville, two live in the atlanta area and two of us live out here in the tn/nc area. our first get together was in 2007 when three of us were all pregnant at the same time! then we have been lucky enough for this to be our 3rd time all being together. i invited everyone to come to our place which was about a 4 hour drive for the friends from nashville and atlanta. they were all so kind to spend their time and money to get here. i loved every minute!! and let me tell you, we used up just about every minute. we didnt go to bed until after 2 both nights. we were all pretty tired this morning but it was all well worth it.
from left to right: katie, leah and charlotte, lori, lauren, and heidi
on saturday afternoon we headed outside for a quick photo shoot. the weather was great, such a welcome change that is for sure! they were all troopers although no one wanted to do photos by themselves i think they turned out so pretty. the lighting was great and i have gorgeous friends! :) both inside and out!
this is lauren... she will be graduating from vanderbuilt this may with a midwifery degree. we al had fun sharing birth stories. i think it is so amazing that one of my friends is delivering babies. just wish she could deliver mine. i am trying to talk her into being around east tenn around my due date! so proud of you lauren!

this is leah... she is holding her yummy daughter charlotte. charlie will be turning one in about a week and then leah will be having her third baby in just a few more weeks. she is a great mom, so laid back. i guess you have to be when you are going to have three kids under the age of 2 1/2. she is an amazing wife and mom and always makes us laugh.

this is katie... she is a mom of 5! look at how beautiful this lady is! i could have taken pics of her and little gil all day long. gil is the most laid back little guy. we never even heard him once the entire weekend. i think he was enjoying some one on one time with momma and i know katie enjoyed it as well.

this is lori... she is the newlywed of the bunch. although a year and half sure has flown by. she has the most beautiful smile and her laugh is contagious. she is also GREAT with kids. she can make some serious sweets too! our tummys were very thankful for all loris goodies.

this is heidi... she is the mother of two of the best behaved children in the world. she is such a good mom. not only are they well behaved they are beautiful too. this momma can still pull off a toe touch too.
we all took turns cooking delicious meals, we talked and laughed for hours, we ate a nice lunch at a little sandwich shop, we prayed, we cried, we crammed a ton into a short amount of time and loved every second of it.

i also have to thank dave so much for staying out at his parents with the wid kids so that there were enough places for everyone to sleep while they were here. he was a trooper and he and the kids had a great time together too. he is an awesome husband and dad

i love you girls and miss you already!

if you are interested in seeing any more of the mommy and baby photos you can visit my other blog bwid photography.

i'm 30!

not exactly sure how i feel or if i even feel different. i want to write something beautifully perfect but dont have the words right now. so for now some 30 year old self portraits. this is me, plain and simple, no perfect words.

mommy blogs

although i havent been blogging as much as i would like to myself i do still enjoy reading other blogs. especially other moms blogs. i wanted to share a view that i just love to catch up with...

these moms that inspire me creatively, spiritually, they blow me away with the way they love their families, i am inspired by their creative writing, i love their photography, i could go on and on, but i wont, i will just give you links to their blogs so you can enjoy them as well.

my good friend brook has two awesome blogs -

http://brookscraps.blogspot.com/

and

http://snookumsandme.blogspot.com/

another good friend heather has a wonderfully creative blog as well

http://the.insanesburys.com/

this momma just delivered her SECOND set of TWINS! can you believe that? i cant.

http://2dewdrops.blogspot.com

this momma i dont know personally but came across her blog. i think she is an amazing writer, totally beautiful, awesome photographer and dealing with some pretty tough stuff but with so much grace and transparency.

http://www.kellehampton.com

this momma just had her first baby and is so madly in love with her little girl it makes my heart melt. she is also a good friend.

http://thebishopspulpit.blogspot.com/

so those are some of faves right now. there are lots more that i enjoy reading and i LOVE looking through photography blogs but these are my favorite mommy blogs. check them out and leave them some comments too.