Baby Ellie

There is nothing as sweet as a brand new baby.  I love talking to new moms and hearing the awe in their voice.  I love seeing the siblings interact with "their" new baby, how they love on them, kiss their cheek or pat them on the head as mom or dad are at a cautious distance ready to say, "be careful" or "not so rough"!

Ellie was born on Mother's Day this year and I don't think her mom could have asked for a better gift.  While she had been sleeping most of the week and Katie had warned me that she probably wouldn't be awake for most of the pictures, the first picture is actually the only one where she was sleeping!  She let us see and photograph her beautiful eyes, although at only five days old, I don't know that she saw much more than a blur of a lady with a camera in front of her :)

Enjoy the sweetness of the pictures and the slideshow!

See more in her slideshow here...

How Old Am I?

This afternoon when I realized I'd been sitting at my desk most of the day, I decided to get up. And walk outside. It was a gorgeous day with big white puffy clouds in the sky and aside from getting fresh air and getting my eyes off the computer screen, I wanted some good ole Vitamin D!

And then I saw it... the playground. I've seen it dozens of times over the past 5+ years and have played out there with kids and pushed them on the swings and everything. But being the middle of the week, the playground was empty and I just smiled because I decided to get on the swing.

As I pumped my legs, just like my mamma taught me, and got higher and higher, I honestly felt like I was about 5 years old again! It was THE perfect break in the day.  So, if you drive by and see this so-not-five-year-old on the swings, there are three others out there so feel free to come join me :)

Project: (finally) Paint Living Room

In just over a month, I will have been a homeowner for a year.  Yowzers!  And if you've been over at all during the past year, you've seen the two blue spots on the walls of my living room.  Well, they are there no longer.  A beautiful "Interesting Aqua" now covers those spots along with the rest of the walls.  And if it hadn't been for the help of a few dear (gracious, wonderful, patient, loving...) friends this past weekend and tonight, the walls would still be white with two blue spots!

Next project... hang pictures on the walls :-)

The chair was the inspiration for the room color:

I Don't Want To Forget

So, this post is completely for me.  Because I don't want to forget where I am, at this moment, in this place, with where God has me. 

I'm not going to lie, the past 7 months have been hectic.  Like, "I wish it was a year from now" kind of hectic.  It's not that I want to wish my life away, it's just that things had been going so smoothly for most of 2009 that something was bound to come up... and when it did, it came like a storm.  And I want the rain to stop.  End of story.

The good news is that in the midst of everything, in the midst of craziness, in the midst of tears, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of trying to make sense of... well, anything at all... God has still shown His faithfulness.  I know He's here, I know He has plans to prosper me and not to harm me, I know that He loves me and that He wants the best for me.

So, how do I know this?  It's simple: He's shown His faithfulness, love, and provisions in the past and He's never broken a promise.  Ever.  With anyone.

And right now, at this moment, in this place, God has me in a place of waiting.  And I'm ok with that.  Because I'm waiting on Him.  Each time He's closed one door to something I've thought I wanted, He's opened another to something even greater (I wanted to go to the Naval Academy, for real.  But God wanted me at Clemson (my absolute last choice) and now, I can't imagine my life without Clemson in it).  And in this time of waiting, He's showing me so much of Himself it's CA-RAZY.  I have people around me that love me, who take the time to listen and tell me not necessarily what I want to hear, but what I need to hear.  I'm also getting more and more chances to take pictures and am learning SO much in the process.

So, to my future self: thanks for waiting.  Wasn't it worth it to hang in there and wait for all of the pieces to come together?  Aren't you glad that you didn't jump the gun and try to control and manipulate situations in order to force things to happen?  I know it's been hard and the road has been long but the lessons learned along the way have undoubtedly made all the difference.

And to help remember this place, here are a couple pictures from the weekend...

My friends Buck and Katie just had their third little one a week ago, on Mother's Day no less!  And this one just makes me smile.  Love it.

I had the privilege to second shoot a wedding with the fabulous Jana Candler yesterday and here's one of the 800 pictures I took.  More will come soon!

Mom's Day

I've been lucky to have many moms over the years... all of whom have helped shape me in some form or fashion.  But, I wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for my own mum!  Mom, thanks for raising me, for sharing your faith with me so that it could become my own, thanks for putting up with my craziness, my teen years, for introducing me to other cultures, teaching me French and for supporting my cherry chapstick addiction.  Most of all, thank you for loving me through all of it :-)  Je t'aime!

Fabulous Friday: Trips and Card Games

Last summer I was able to go to Peru with a group of high school students from church... and we had a blast.  Between serving at the orphanage, helping out at the church and playing countless games of Emperor's Chair, I don't know who had more fun, the leaders or the students!

In honor of leaving today for our Mission Trip Planning Retreat for 2010, I wanted to share a picture from our Peru Reunion that we had last weekend.  The funniest thing about this get-together was that it took us almost 9 months to get it organized.  Really??  Yes, really.  But it was worth it!

The cards on the table?  Do I really have to tell you what game we were playing? :-)

Have a FABULOUS Friday!

Blessing After Blessing After Blessing

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've been waiting.  And it hasn't been easy.  I don't know how long I'll be waiting either, especially considering we're all always waiting on something.  So, while I'm waiting, I'm going to keep living... instead of curling up in a ball under the covers in my oh-so-comfy bed.  And since I've decided to keep living, the blessings I've seen have been coming, one after another.  I don't say this to brag, I say it only point out how faithful God is.  He wants to love us, He wants to bless us, He wants to give us the desires of our hearts!

So while I'm waiting on some things, He's giving me so much of Himself through His Word, through friends, and through community.  Just this morning a close friend who lives out of town gave me a gift that will help with some home improvements.  Just, out of no where!  And that's after receiving an unexpected gift card yesterday that will go towards the same thing!

The not-so tangible gifts came in the form of friends last weekend.  One of the girls in my Clemsongang is expecting her first baby at the beginning of June so all of us (husbands too!) got together for a cookout and a baby shower.  I was a little late because I was attending the Extraordinary Women's Conference at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville.  Lucky for me though, I got to the shower just in time for cake (Score!) and presents.  And as we were sitting there after all of that, just talking, watching the NFL draft, and hanging out, it hit me... I love these girls.  No, it's not a new revelation because I've loved them since our freshman Bible study in the basement of Lever at Clemson.  But the past 12 years have deepened that love because of the life we've lived together.  There's just no way to describe it.  And now that husbands have joined the mix and kids are coming, it just makes me smile and realize how BLESSED I am to have each of them (kids and husbands too!) in my life.  It genuinely does my soul good to be with them.

One of the added blessings was that Allison had asked me the week before her shower if I would mind doing some maternity pictures for her and Wes.  Um... I would love to!  It was raining by the time we could steal away for pictures so we made do with the screened in porch and fun play room at the Patterson's.  None of us can wait to meet Baby Hoft come June... until then, enjoy the pictures from their (and my!) first maternity session.

SO beautiful.

I wasn't kidding when I said y'all could be models.

Congrats (for the millionth time!) you guys.  Love you tons and can't wait to meet the little one soon!

At Long Last

So, do you remember how I had the first ever Photographs by Sabrina contest last summer?  And after 104 votes, The Parks family won with this picture of Kade?  Well, they won a free photo session and we FINALLY just had it last weekend!  It was a little crazy because the summer was packed, Derek (and I) were traveling a good bit for Upward, then it was winter and when I mentioned having a bundled up photo shoot, Ginger reminded me that she married a Miami boy and that it would be in the best interest of everyone to wait until it got warmer.  After laughing out loud, I told her I completely understood!  So.  We waited.  And I'm really glad we did.

We ventured out to Milliken in Spartanburg and played in the green grass and under the huge trees that provided lots of shade.  I worked with Derek at Upward for five and a half years and when we did the shoot I'd only been gone for a couple of weeks.  He gave me a hug when they got there, said they missed me at the office and I immediately burst into tears.  Oh good grief.  But, when you don't get to see part of your family every day like you're used to, it's a little hard!  But, I sucked it up and we had fun... and got some pretty good shots in the process.

Derek & Ginger, I'm so thankful for that morning!  You guys are wonderful as are your kids.  Still blows my mind to think of the journey you guys went on before and after the boys were born, but to see them run and jump and play and laugh just reminds me how great our God is.

Much love,
sabrina

I love this one where Kendall turned. So you may be seeing it a lot...

Were you guys models in a previous life?  Because this is fierce.

Future football stars...

We were trying to get them to laugh real laughs so Derek told them to imagine a bird flying over that was about to poop on my head.  Thanks, D.  Hey, at least they laughed!

You'll have to click here to see the slideshow and how we ended the morning of shooting...!