Talah's Sleeve | Raleigh Baby Photographer

Talah and I went to Florida to visit family and I have tons of pictures to post once I'm done going through them. For now, here's a shot of Talah (red from the Florida heat, but not sunburned) doing what she does best: sucking on her sleeve.

Months ago, she had started to suck on her bare wrist. It then transitioned to a small part of her sleeve. Now she insists on bringing her arm inside her clothing and shoving the entire sleeve into her mouth. It's going to be tough to break her of this as the months get hotter and we need to put her in short sleeves!

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! : )

Meet Jack | Raleigh Baby Photographer

Jack is my friend Andrea's son. Talk about an expressive baby! He never had the same expression on his face twice. Even his smiles (and he smiled a lot) were different each time. He also does this little growling thing when he gets annoyed, which is pretty funny. Here are a few pictures of this (very) blue-eyed baby boy.

Meet Tavener | Raleigh Newborn Photographer

I photographed Tavener Roberts over the weekend and thought I'd share a few. Isn't Tavener a cool name? Little Tav's parents (Taylor and Claire) named him after a friend of theirs, whose last name is Tavener. He's a beautiful baby with such nice features and skin. And he has pretty great parents, too : )

Early April with Talah | Raleigh Family Photographer

Here are a few more pictures of Talah from a couple of weeks ago. She's very good at ignoring me when I have my camera out : )

Family Visit | Raleigh Family Photographer

I decided to start this blog mostly to share photographs, but also to keep in better touch with family and friends. I suppose it's appropriate then that my first post comes after a visit from my parents (better knows as Mimi and Gramps to Talah).

Orange you glad you came to visit?

Mimi read Talah her new book. Finding a shot that wasn't completely blurry was darn near impossible. Talah's little hands move so fast!

We had fun eating (Maximillian's came highly recommended and didn't disappoint), talking, and playing with Talah. We also cracked open this Peppermint Pig my parents brought. It's supposed to bring happiness and prosperity to all who partake in its breaking. We all joined in and even little Talah took a whack at it, with my help.

I'm really enjoying my new camera. I'll post more pictures later, but here's a recent one of Talah for now.

Forgive me if the layout of this blog looks a bit amateur for now. I'll learn more soon!