My little sister, Lacey, is very pregnant with her second. I honestly believe that pregnant women are beautiful and my little sis is…well, she is amazingly beautiful. For all the hard times I have given her (she is only two years younger than I, and I was the consummate aggravating older brother!), she turned out all right. I am so proud of the woman she has become. Her husband, my brother-from-another-mother, Danny is a great guy and together they have an enviable relationship. They live out in the country and have a precious little daughter who is a few months older than my youngest, Jillian. She is two and her name is Lily Mae.

Sneaky, sneaky! Anyway, we only had a few minutes to do these photos on one day (the 4th of July) and about 10 minutes a couple days later…The reason for the sneakiness is we are surprising my brother-in-law with the photos. We had to be very quick, we literally just shot the pics and ran back inside in a span of about 10 minutes. They were shot at my folk’s 400 acre farm.

Oh! And my sister is due in just a week or two.

Celebrating our Independence is always a great thing. We spent the day with family. It was hot early in the day and I enjoyed riding the ATVs on my folk’s 400 acres, blasting through the creeks and mud! I had to change clothes three times and took 3 showers…I was a mess. The whole crew shot skeet a bit later. I didn’t do as hot as I usually do, but I was having an “off” day.

We have been trying to get a portrait in this chair of Lily Mae (my little 2-year-old niece) for a while. That day she actually cooperated! These were shot with aperture priority on my 50mm with window light only.

Ashlyn had to put in her two cents…

Hopefully, they will always be close cousins!

In the late afternoon the rain moved in and cooled things down. It stopped in plenty of time to light fireworks and create our own little display.

In my mind, there isn’t much better than family get-togethers, grilling, laughter, story-telling, food, dessert, beautiful weather and fireworks…A wonderful day. Here are a few more pics from the day…

I am not one to take photos of sunsets, but this day I did…this sky was amazing and the color is not adjusted on enhanced at all on this photo!

This poor teensy-weensy frog had the misfortune of getting caught by our gang of 2-5 years olds.They played with him for a long, long time…INSIDE the house!

Since this blog thing is new, I wanted to introduce two little huge parts of my life, as I am sure they will get a lot of attention later and often on here.

Ashlyn Grace, the eldest at 4 years old, is a perfectionist and is graceful. She likes to try on shoes and clothes and her long straight hair is always clean and shiny. She loves ballet and the stage. She love princesses and likes to be goofy like her daddy. Ashlyn talks with ceaseless abundance and is tender-hearted.

Jillian Joy is 2 and full of energy. Her smile is full of quirky little dimples and her laugh is hearty and full. Jillian clumsily walks into doors and walls, plays in the dirt and her curly hair is always squirrelly. She likes to build with her blocks, play with her Dora the Explorerâ„¢ toys, and watch Max & Ruby.

Here is a great photo of them from one of my favorite sets when we were apple pickin’ last September…