Arboretum | Raleigh Family Photographer

I can't believe how long we had lived in North Carolina before finally making it to the NC State arboretum. We had always intended to go, but just never made it...until last weekend. Now I regret all of the times we could have visited it during the last few years! It's a beautiful place with different types of gardens (below you can see agave from the more southwest/desert garden area and something similar to a hydrangea from the Japanese gardens).

I'm planning on doing a session there in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!

Julie's Visit | Raleigh Family Photographer

My sister Julie came to visit last weekend. It was a weekend of eating, walking, playing, and watching VH1's "100 Hottest Teen Stars." Molly Ringwald was #1, by the way.

The lighting isn't the best in the photos below, but the red doors were too cool to pass up!

Family Pictures on the Deck | Raleigh Family Photographer

I made Jacob and Phillip sit for a few photos recently. I don't think they were very interested, but they were good sports.

Okay, so Jacob was goofing off in this one, pretending to be posing for a magazine. That's okay--I think he looks good : )

Early Christmas Gift | Raleigh Children's Photographer

About a week ago, Talah happened to look up with her mouth open and I noticed something white. After a bit of wrestling, I was able to look more closely and saw that one of her top front teeth had just broken though the gum! From what I've heard, the bottom front teeth are usually the first to come in, so it's sort of unusual that her first tooth was one of her top front teeth. I shed a few tears (why? I don't know. I guess it's the end of an era, in a way), but it's exciting for her. She ended up getting two more (the other top front tooth and a bottom tooth) just in the past few days. So, she ended up sprouting three teeth in one week!

I Do Believe in Fairies! | Raleigh Children's Photographer

Sydney, I told you there were fairies in your backyard! : )