The 3rd Wheel

I'm sitting here this morning, reading the newspaper and drinking my coffee -

okay just kidding I'm catching up on American Idol from last night and drinking a glass of milk :P

[by the way, who do ya'll think should win tonight? I'm totally impartial since the world voted off my faves Skyler & Colton, I guess I did vote for Jessica last night |even though I hadn't watched the show yet| because I think it's time for a homeschooled female to win :D]

But anyways :)

You know that creepy-awkward feeling when you become a 3rd wheel? Where there are 2 people who really want some time alone but you are still just awkwardly there? Suddenly I got that feeling. Which is weird because I am sitting in my dining room completely alone - besides my dog [D is already gone to work for the day].

That's when I looked up.

And saw the neighbor dog peeking thru their window, looking for Abby.

Abby ran over and they just looked at each other. 

Wait a minute. What is going on? Excuse me - this kind of behavior will not be tolerated, I'm sorry Abby-girl, but you aren't old enough to be peeking at the boys next door!!

D & I are going to have to have a talk with her tonight - AFTER the windows and blinds are firmly shut :D

Baby Sidney [newborn portraits, Towanda, PA]

If I learned anything from my friend Larissa's pregnancy it was this:

don't tell my father-in-law you are prego and expect him to keep it a secret.

I remember getting a phone call from D's wonderful father, who was overly excited and who couldn't wait to tell me that our good friends Mitchell & Larissa were going to have a baby.

After my heart jumped with equal excitement, I think I said something like: "Uhh, but, maybe they wanted to tell me themselves?"

To which he responded: "OOPS! Well, pretend like you don't know! Forget that I told you! I just couldn't help myself!" :D

What can I say, babies are exciting!

And Mr. Sidney is definitely an exciting one - when I went to meet him at 8 days old, he was content to simply sleep, be woken up to eat, and go back to sleep! Ahhh the life :)

And Mitch & Larissa are such FANTASTIC parents - they are totally infatuated with their new little guy, geez they barely let me hold him! haha I had to literally pry him out of their hands to spend a little snuggle time with him :)

But see for yourself - he's so cute, if he was mine I wouldn't want to give up any moments with him either :)

Some Daddy & Sidney time - he definitely has Mitch's knack for making silly faces - how can a baby who is only 8 days old know how to make faces just like his Daddy already? He's talented, that's all I can say :)

 I told ya he was good at making faces:

While I was over visiting the brand new family of 3 - I had the incredible pleasure of photographing baby Sidney's great-Grandma meeting him for the first time! Larissa's Grandma lives right next door, but she hadn't been over yet to meet her new great-grandson. And it "just so happened" that she decided to come over while I was there - it was so amazing to sit back and observe such a fantastic meeting - it was precious!

a NEW baby

Derrick has this way..

This way of talking me into buying things.

Things that I really want.

Things that I really need.

Things that I think I can "get by" without.

Every time I book a wedding and begin preparing for it, he asks me a question that cuts me to the heart: "What are you going to do for a back-up camera?"

I have borrowed cameras and more often than not I have simply gambled and gone without a back-up.

It makes me nervous - like chewing my nails until they bleed nervous - and it makes me anxious the whole day that something might happen to my camera. Nothing ever has, thank you God! But I still have that fear.

So, I have a wedding or two quickly approaching and he asked me: What did I want to do to invest in my business this year? And is there anything I wanted to do before my first wedding of the year rolls around?

And of course, he brought up the question of back-up gear.

Okay, I know I know, shooting without a back-up is extremely dangerous - like climbing a rock-wall without ropes & gear. But I haven't had the money or resources to buy a "back-up". And besides, if I was going to buy another camera, it wasn't going to be a lesser quality one, I wanted to upgrade and let my current camera become my back-up.

Well, we took the leap.

We made the investment.

And I am soo proud to be the new owner of a Canon 5D MarkII.

This camera is heaven in a little black box :) I'm totally in love.

And I cannot wait to test it and stretch it and play with it this weekend as we go away on our anniversary adventure :D

Yes, our anniversary is right around the corner!! More on that to come :D

adventure is out there!

We were driving down Route 6.

We were on our way to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a little weekend get-away.

We were going to eat Amish food, see Jonah at Sight & Sound Theater, do some shopping, oh and eat more Amish food :)

We left early in the morning and had already stopped to get breakfast- so D & I were settled into the backseat of his parent's car, content to watch the scenery go by and so grateful that we didn't have to drive, when we felt the car slowing down, pulling over to the side of the road, and heard D's Mom say some scary words: "Are you getting pulled over?"

To which we all immediately turned around and looked behind us.

No police car.

And suddenly we were pulling a gigantic U-turn in the middle of the road.

We weren't getting pulled over, but if an officer had seen that move we probably would have been.

We turned off the main road and started down a dirt road that felt more like a well-worn path than a road. There were houses here and there, and then we turned down another "road" - and this one was even worse that the first one!

It was loud in the car, we were all asking questions and trying not to have our fillings rattled out of our heads. Finally, we realized that we were riding along the edge of a river, and when we found a place to "pull off" the one-lane "road" we all got out to explore.

And this is what we found:

[I Heart Faces] Happy!

totally in love with this picture i took of my nephew a few weeks ago when we had a burst of springtime weather :D he was rolling on the blanket with his Easter bunny just giggling up a storm :D

can't you hear it? :D
the birds singing, the sun landing warmly on your back, and a little boy giggling because he just ran all thru the yard feeling the fresh grass on his bare feet :D
ahh summertime- i love you :)

be sure to head over to i[heart]faces to see more happy photos!
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