Foto Friday and Birthday Bliss

This weeks picture is in honor of our beautiful birthday girl... Nicole Taylor Sullivan.. Happy 1st Birthday!!! One year ago we got the call.. Amber was in Labor. Being the most impatient person EVER... I sped over to the hospital only to sleep on in the lobby for hours waiting to hear more news, but I wouldn't change that for anything :) After many hours and family arriving, later that day we welcomed baby Nicole Taylor Sullivan into the world!! The picture above is the first time I held the precious one.. I was such a proud auntie!! Honestly.. Love at first sight!

Its unbelievable that a year has already gone by, the first crawl has already happened, the first words have been spoke (Hi, Mom, Dad... etc)and the first steps have begun.. I cant wait to experience your next first Nicole.. know your auntie will always here for you.. usually with a camera in hand. lol. Here are a few favorite pictures I was able to capture for Nicole's 1st!!

Adventures to Neverland...

Mariposa is not only legendary to our family but a very special bond started there with some of the most important boys in my life.. "The Lost Boys". Yes taken from the very memorable movie Hook, these boys have nick names as each of the lost boys do on the movie. Its like their own little family, a fraternity you might say. It all started back in the early years of High School.. on a church "End of Summer Bash" trip.. and its only grew since that trip. They take it very seriously on who takes part in their group... even special initiations happen!! They recently designed a crest and now each of us have sweatshirts and shirts to represent the crew... Proverbs 17:17 (A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity) reads across the back under the crest. Back to Mariposa.. we have had many camping trips there over the years with family, friends and just the Lost Boys.. but this trip was memorable for many reasons. We were playing around with camera exposures by the fire pit and lighting pieces of wood on fire then taking a long exposure while moving the stick around...it all started out with one letter.. then we thought.. hey if we get 8 people we can spell Lost Boys.. so attached is below is a video and under that is the final photo product of the video...

Were pretty excited of our long exposure.. it pretty much in a nut shell describes these boys to a "T"

...until next time boys...
::BANGERANG::

Spontaneity

..."Carpe Diem"..."Seize the Day"..."You Only Live Once"...

Ive been trying this act.. and Ill say, I'm pretty impressed with myself! lol

-------Foto Friday

"TAKE 2"

So its that time again... Foto Friday

This week's feature is from back in College. Being in a photography school with a ton a friends in the business, we would always ask friends to model for us in return we would model for them. This particular photo shoot was for a Stock Photography Class and the subject that the photographer needed to portray was "Fun" so what better fun than a water balloon fight!!! We literally went to an open field filled up water balloons and had a good ol' fashion water balloon fight!! The picture shown was the last shot of the day.. they popped a HUGE water balloon over our heads and its probably one of my favorite pictures ive ever modeled for!!

::Friends Day::

Through it all she has been there, she has seen every tear, heard every cry and laughed beside me countless times.. shes what I call my "Frrriend" There is no other like her and her name is Amber "Stefani" Sullivan. We don't get to see eachother as often as we'd like.. due to crazy schedules and baby colies naps..lol.. so as often as we can, we declare any normal day a "Friends Day!!" This day might include nothing at all or a million and one things thrown into a 24 hr period... this particular one was one of my favorites... a "nothing" day!! Veg out on the couch, do a little goggling, snack on Nicole's snacks and catch a few terrible reality TV shows.

So in a few weeks their precious daughter is turning "1".. its unbelievable!!! So as a request from Nicole's grandpa.. we took a few snapshots of this adorable one.. here are a few that make me smile :)

::FOTO FRIDAY::

I follow a good handful of my friends blogs and my best friend Amber posted something about a month ago that struck my interest... and yes Im going to steal her idea..its okay I talked it over with her.. ;)

Foto Friday
- noun
1. Gives one a chance to look back on past and present photos.
2. Memories.
3. Lets you finally explain yourself for that 'one time'

So here's my 1st entry for Foto Friday......

3 words... "Spice Girls Concert"

One man's junk is another man's treasure...

Garage Sales......Antiquing...Estate Sales.. these are a few of my favorite thing ;) I LOVE when I driving by on a lazy Saturday afternoon to find there is a stocked full garage sale down the street from me.. or even miles away!! First of all I love being nosy.. seeing what other people have interests in...and second of all i LOVE finding one of a kind things, and what better place to do that at Garage Sales. But in all honesty most of the 'treasures' we find soon end up in your ::SALE:: piles... but for that moment in time.. its worth that $0.25-$5.00

It looks like its become a tradition in the Smith home to have a Garage Sale at least once a year.. and that time has rolled around again.. I just dont understand how much CRAP one can accumulate in just one year. When I moved home from school last year we packed up everything labeling "Room" "Attic" and "Sell" so it was a little easier to get through and decide what was going and staying. This time around we started from scratch, went from the back of the house forward. Starting in the garage.. moving to the back bedrooms and bathrooms (You'd never believe how many old floral arrangements and baskets I found in the bathroom cabinet.. 6??) to the Middle Bedroom!!! Ohhh the sight of opening that door to the "Storage Closet". If you cant find a place for something "Throw it in the middle bedroom" mom yells... or if you cant find something, have fun searching.. its like the needle in a haystack. So Mom and I tackled that last night. Clearing the boxes of miscellaneous junk out of the way was the first task then hitting the closet of moms "layaway" outfits while shes on her diet... lets just say I did her a favor by tossing 90% of it!! lol.. Oh the treasures we found. Pictures upon pictures.. man did I look tore up growing up!! hahaa.. to the Mickey Mouse hand gloves to Moon shoes... I had a tough time giving them up. lol. Then we hit the other side of the closet.. High School Formal and Bridesmaid dresses.. ohh man.. Time to sell!! How many times do you hear the famous quote "Its such a nice dress... ill shorten it and wear it again!!" lets be honest.. its time to let go! ;)

Let the selling begin.....