When I type the word “date” I have to clarify – it wasn’t a date with my dear husband….he had to work today.  This long luxurious lunch that I had was with Meaghan Elliott – my Facebook friend!  How weird is that?  I “met” Meaghan through Facebook because, as some of you know, I’ve really been trying to network with other photographers in my immediate area.  So I found Meaghan on Facebook, looked at her work, friended her & the rest just fell in to place.  It’s so cool to find someone in your area who shares your beliefs, who has some of the same passions about photography, & is super easy to talk with!  We had a great lunch talking about photography, my kiddos, the fact that both our husbands are named Josh, & life in general.  What a blessing for some girl time.  And many thanks to my mother-in-law (Gigi) for watching the girls while I had a 2-hour lunch!!!!  And I think my friend (and trainer) Lauren would be pleased at my menu.

*Bonus points if you can guess where I was dining????  (although I don’t know what the bonus points will accumulate towards, but you just get them, okay!)

This next mommy you’ll see is my friend Lauren…and my slave-driving personal trainer!  I mean she was almost 9 months pregnant while pushing me around in the gym the last time I saw her.  And now she’s given birth to this beautiful baby boy!

Lauren is such a blessing & an encourager to me while trying to help me reach my health goals that I felt honored to return the favor in taking photos of her dear, growing family.  Her new son was born just a few days after Thanksgiving and just a few days after she & her family moved to a bigger house.  Talk about great timing!  Her dad was telling me the family had Thanksgiving, moved Lauren’s family to the new house, & then she had her son a few days later!

Thank you, Lauren, for all your encouragement.  You are making a lovely momma of two!  You & James will be great with them both!

If you don’t get the title, don’t worry about it.  It’s because my neighbors have the longest freakin’ name ever, & I was just trying to be witty.  These two lovelies, Anna & Kate, are two of our neighbors that make me never want to leave my little place in our townhouse community.  Each year I anticipate what outfit their mom (and my friend), Laura, will buy them for Christmas.  She has done it again.  And we have not one, but TWO outfits this year!  We decided to try the Annapolis Mall again this year simply because the day we scheduled to shoot it was pouring rain outside…again!  I know God needs to water the earth & all, but it’s getting a little soggy over here!  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed playing around the mall with Anna & Kate.  My girls absolutely love them & wanted to go copy them & have their own photo shoot just like Anna & Kate!  Needless to say, our Sroka Girls photo shoot didn’t turn out quite as well – what can I say!

Here’s Anna & Kate…

Little Paul is the adorable son of my long-time friend Gina and her wonderful husband “Big” Paul.  I have to admit I was sad when Paul married Gina and took her away from us all the way up to New Jersey.  But, he has made her happy, and she him, so what more can I ask for my dear friend?  Well, they have been blessed this year with a wonderful little baby boy.  I first met him when he was about 2 weeks old and now he’s magically 8 months!  It seems like it happened over night!  So when Gina told me she’d be down this month, I had to snap some more recent photos of this little guy!

There were so many great photos to choose from, it was hard to narrow it down to just these 15.  Paul started out the afternoon almost trying NOT to smile at me.  It was really weird, almost like he knew I was there to get him smiling, so he wasn’t going to do it.  Ha!  What a little stinker!  But as soon as his daddy came out, he was all smiles!  He was so wonderful!

Here’s Paul…

I thought this was going to be the only expression he would give me all afternoon!

Okay, let me first preface this blog post by saying these are not Bethany’s online dating profile pictures…puh-leez!  She doesn’t need any of that.  However, if she meets her dream man due in some part to my post, she’ll be obligated to hire me as her photographer for every future life event.

I forced Bethany to let me take her out (after we got killa haircuts!) and get some photos for her upcoming missions trip to China.  I don’t know much about what her trip is about, except is about spreading Jesus and teaching English…what more is there?  She’ll be starting a blog soon and I’ll be sure to update you on that.

What I DO know is that Bethany is probably one of my most difficult photography subject.  Just kidding!  It was a little challenging though because Bethany has this weird trait:  She can’t NOT smile!  She just can’t do it.  If you try to get anything but a smile, she doesn’t look like Bethany.  So, in order to get a “natural” smile, I had to just be super funny and make her laugh a lot.  And to punish me, Bethany made me get my picture taken at the end…but we’ll save those photos for later.

So Bethany, my dear, I had a blast with you yesterday.  I enjoyed every minute of every little silly story I shared to make you giggle.  Our entire family will really miss you and everything we share…Settlers, Rock Band, LOST, Heavy Weights, WH?AT, and so much more!

Enough already before I cry….here’s Bethany!