"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosum of my family." --Thomas Jefferson--

Well Evelyn and I have been home from our Missouri trip for two weeks now so I guess it's about time that I do some blogs! Although it just might end up being one looooooong one so there's your warning. :) Anyway, we got to MO without any troubles, Evelyn was a good little traveler and was very excited to see her Grandpa at the airport. For those of you who don't know, my dad has called Evelyn "Dora" since last year when we lived there cuz she watched Dora so much....so anyway, when I told her Grandpa was picking us up at the airport she looked at me and said, "I'm not Dora, I'm Evelyn." She has been particular about being called Evelyn for awhile and I guess wanted to make sure that Grandpa didn't call her Dora anymore. :) anyway...I thought that was funny and so did he. :) She pretty much talked the whoooole way home from the airport, which my dad had a laugh over...she just kept going til she nodded off! Silly girl.....

The first day there we actually had a baby shower for me. I wanted to have it with my family this time so we had it right away because Sierra was visiting from Alaska and was gonna leave in a couple days. So part of my going for so long was to see her! I missed my Cici! :) Anyway...the shower was pretty low-key...Grammy put up some cute decorations and made some good food....and the fam came and then three of my very best high school friends, Rori, Jeanie, and Cheryl, and on of my very good church friends, Shauna, with her fiance (the other reason for my visit, I went to her wedding...more on that later though!). So it wasn't a huge turn out but the people I really wanted to see were there and the others I knew I'd see later so it all worked out. We pretty much just sat around talking and eating and such, which was fine with me! I'm not such a fan of the baby shower games/awkwardness. So yeah! I got quite a few clothing items for baby boy and then a few other things....like an Alabama hat from Auntie Monie and a cute Navy baby blanket from Grammy! So that was a fun evening!

My Momma's cute decor for the shower...she hung up a "laundry line" of old baby clothes...so cute!

and then added little things around like this old baby doll and carriage and booties...

And this is the super cute accordion album Auntie Annie made for me! I wanted it for the shower to have people write down advice/etc on but it never happened and all my friends that came anyway didn't have kids...sooo I'm just gonna use it for a mini-album of the baby after he's born. I love it though Annie! Thanks again!

After that things were fairly chill....we didn't really do a whole lot while we were there! Just hung out with the fam, ran errands for Grammy, played a lot with the cousins...Evelyn LOVED having a playmate pretty much all the time. She loved seeing Kady, Jeremiah, and Tani especially, and everyday had a different "best friend" depending on who was there to play :) Some fun things we did with them were playing at the park quite a few times (she got to sit in a real firetruck at one of the parks one day), playing at Auntie Emily's, and going to the pool a couple times! Evelyn really enjoyed that, although I got burnt pretty nice the first time....luckily she didn't! The fam also did a bonfire one night with hot dogs and s'mores...yum! So pretty much just some nice family time all around :)

Evelyn got to spend a lot of quality time with Grammy during the trip though because I was able to take some pictures while I was there! It had been a loooong while since I'd taken any than ones for me so I was actually kinda nervous but all around I was pretty happy with how they all turned out! The first ones I did were engagements for my friend Jeanie. She was a good person to start back with because she just has a natural/good smile and was relaxed and just kinda went with whatever so I was able to focus on getting back in the groove of things again. Her fiance wasn't too excited about taking pics but that tends to be the case a lot I think :) I still need to blog all the sessions I did on my other blog but I'll put one or two on here of what I did as well....so here's the happy couple!

a little haze action....

they brought their dogs for the end shots :)

The next session I did was for my sister Emily's good friend Hillary and her family. Emily met her through foster care (they both have foster babies right now and things are looking good for Hillary to adopt her little chubby boy...he's pretty darn cute! I can't post any of him online yet though so the ones I've posted are just Hillary, her husband, and their little boy...who is ADORABLE!). They live out in the country so they had some nice areas to take some pics in. I looved the wheat field, such a pretty golden color! My favorite though was the ones I took of their little boy...toooo cute!

I think this is my favorite shot...of the session and one of my favs ever! adore it! :)

The other family session I did was for Asa and Aubree McMains...my first repeat customer! That was also a little nerve-wracking to do but luckily they chose a very different location this time and were a little more "relaxed" (clothes-wise and with the kiddos) so it was a different shoot/feeling to it. We went to Powell Gardens (a place in MO) and pretty much just followed the kids around the trails until we saw a spot they liked or the kids liked :) It definitely was a challenging session though, besides it being a repeat customer, it was just difficult getting good group shots! With four young kids who just wanna play and two adults trying to keep everyone together...it can get kinda hectic! :) Luckily last time she was really happy with the individuals and wanted good ones of each of the kids, which I got definitely (her one little boy was such a cutie all by himself but almost refused to smile/look when it was a group shot), and I did get some good group ones so I was happy with how that all turned out too :) I'm glad it worked out to do some pics while I was home though! I've wanted to do more but with moving twice since November and to a brand new area where I know like one person....well that tends to slow things down :) I am gonna do another engagement session for a couple we met here....the guy works with Mark and I've become friends with the gal (Evelyn adoooores her!) so I'm excited for that soon.

Other than those three all's I did was pics for the family. Emily. of course, had me take some but mainly of just Jeremiah and her little foster girl, who's SO cute! But can't post any of her yet either :( Then I tried to take some of Monie's kiddos...I got some of Kellen (he was following me around like a puppy trying to get my camera), but Kady wasn't being too cooperative and then we didn't get around to trying again. Then I did do some of Mellisa's kids for her the last night I was there, which turned out pretty cute! We tried some pics inside, which didn't go so well, then we went outside and I went out with the kiddos by myself and then it went better. I've read a lot to get good pics of the kids you gotta just tell the parents to go away for a bit and it's totally true! :) It also helps that there's only one person telling them what to do rather than multiple. But anywho...here's some of those pics!

Other than all those I really didn't take many pictures while I was home! I did get some pics of Evelyn with her cousins, which I printed yesterday and hung in her room, she was excited about that!

Love this one of Kady and Evelyn! 

Miah calls Evelyn Dora too :)

So on with the trip! The last weekend I was there was my friends wedding. On Friday I went up to KC with my dad to the temple, he did a session and I went to the sealing ceremony for Shauna and her fiance/now hubby Jeremy! I was excited to go to her wedding cuz, well she's my friend and it's always exciting to see a friend get married, and another cuz I got to see/go inside the KC Temple! It's so pretty and I wish I could have done a session to see more of it since I didn't get to go to the Open House but another time I guess! I'm so glad it's done though, and I know my parents are too! They used to have to drive to St. Louis to the temple there, which is a good 3 1/2 hours one way and now they can get to one in almost 2! Much better drive :) Anyway, I'm excited it's there and am so excited to have been able to go to Shauna/Jeremy's sealing! I've been to quite a few of my friend's sealings and probably won't have anymore to go to for a long while! But they are always amazing and wonderful and I'm always so happy to witness it :)

The Kansas City Temple!

And the new couple!

I'll include a pic of myself with the couple just as proof that I do show up in pics once and awhile... :)

The next day I went back to KC (I took the McMains pics that morning and then spent the day by myself in the city shopping, had lunch with Emily, enjoyed some time off....so nice!). Then that night I went to Shauna's reception, which was very nice, got to talk to Shauna a bit more, visit with another friend, ate some good wedding cake...and then went home! It was a long day, enjoyable but long.

They really went for it...and then went back and smooshed some more! they're such a fun couple. 

So yeah! That's pretty much the sum up of my trip! Not extremely, horribly exciting, but I'm glad I got to go home and see everyone and I know Evelyn loved it. She sure does miss everybody and so do I! I got my family fix in, plus a Chipotle/Hobby Lobby/Panera/Good BBQ fix (totally not a fan of Carolina BBQ...so disappointing!)...so overall great trip home! :)

My little farm girl! :)