the redhead in my life.

everyone in our family knows that may is a special month. uh huh, you better believe it.

not only does it host a particular day when we show our moms some extra lovin’, but it also contains the date, may 22, i.e. my momma’s birthday!

growing up, sometimes birthdays would get extended over the course of the entire month in our family.

probably because a day seems to fly by so quickly, you could hardly catch your breath to blow out your birthday candles.

so, with that being said, happy birthday mom! here’s to another year!

helen byrd photography

hey there, cupcake!

whew! what a whirlwind of a weekend it has been!

we made a quick trip to austin friday, came back early sunday to photograph precious emmy‘s 1st birthday party and then celebrate our graduating seniors with a cookout at small group!

we even managed to watch the annular eclipse, too!

and yes, you better believe that as soon as our evening was over, we crashed hard last night.

here’s a summation of our weekend in pictures.

momma jeannie (aka zach’s girlfriend), the lovely bride rachel, her friend ashley and sister molly

emmy’s 1st birthday

so many cute kids were at this party!

homemade german chocolate cupcakes! YUM.

some of our awesome seniors with jay.

eclipse in texas. pumpjack and all.

now i’m just hoping i didn’t kill my eyeballs while taking this photo.

5 friday favorites.

totally random at its best, but here are your 5 friday favorites.

1. law & order svu — zach and i are OBSESSED with this tv show. and i feel kind of awful since the stories are about extremely terrible things, but we have determined it’s the characters and actors that draw us in. zach has admitted to me several times that mariska hargitay is his all time favorite celeb crush. haha. let’s just say she’s a bamf. anyway, you can watch all of the seasons on netflix, but they are always having marathons on USA. and no matter how many times i may have seen an episode, i will always watch it all the way through. good grief.

2. mexican food — i could literally eat mexican food everyday if it didn’t affect my waistline. enchiladas? fajitas? chips and salsa? oh yeah, all are the bane of my existence. and it doesn’t help when you live in a town that has about 90 different mexican restaurants to choose from. but i have learned you can make healthier mexican dishes without loading up on the excessive amounts of cheese. and all that spicy goodness is supposed to be good for your immune system don’t ya know. my dad is a walking testament to this. he is hardly ever sick because he makes things so spicy he sweats. i’d like to think i’ve taken after him in that regard. thanks, pops! did i mention we had mexican food at our wedding reception? yup. thank you gerardo’s!

3. epiphanie bags –  these camera bags are the bomb.com. they amazingly fit a TON of your gear plus your everyday goodies. and some even have space for a laptop or iPad. for all you mommies out there who want to get pics of your kids when you are out & about and they do something super cute in the moment, this is definitely for you. it’s a great way to always have your camera on you without carrying around a bulky, boring, black backpack that makes you look like a turtle or the hunchback of notredame. i unfortunately know this from personal experience. i want one. really bad. hint hint, zach, hint hint. and they come in all different styles and colors. since i’m a cross-body-purse-wearing kind of gal, the one below is my favorite.

4. that thing you do — this movie will probably forever remain one of my all time favorites. i just love everything about it. if you watch this, i guarantee you will be singing the song in your head all day.

5. tuesdays with morrie — as a part of our university, each freshman is required to take a specific entry-level course. there were multiple topics to choose from, but for some reason i think i chose one entitled the american dream. i think it was partly because the only other person i knew at the school had chosen it first. :-) in this class, we read and discussed several books. and in that, i encountered what is now one of my most favorite books: tuesdays with morrie. based on a true story, the book is an account of the interaction between a wise old professor and his former student. when mitch albom found out that his beloved professor was slowly dying, he decided he would visit him each tuesday. unbeknownst to mitch, some extraordinary stories and valuable life lessons would come out of his weekly meetings as he weathered the storm alongside his dear professor. it is definitely a very moving story. i think i need to re-read it soon.

happy friday everyone!

————

we are off to austin this morning to celebrate my bff’s sister’s wedding this weekend!

what are your weekend plans?

meet ali.

yup! you guessed it!

my family surprise is that my sweet sister-in-law had precious ali this week! we weren’t expecting her for a couple more weeks, but according to my mother-in-law, “she wanted to pick her birthday!”

here’s how it went down.

around midnight on sunday, aka mother’s day–very fitting don’t you think?–zach and i awoke to the faint sound of his phone buzzing under his pillow. whitney’s name was on the call list. he thought he must have accidentally called her by mistake, but just as he turned his head to the other side of his pillow, my phone went off. as i sleepily answered, whitney’s voice was on the other end telling me ali decided to come early.

apparently, this is all that zach heard when i was talking to his sister:

“what?”

“your water?”

“okay, you want us to come right now?”

“we will be there soon.”

 

his response was something to the effect of:

“i don’t care if their hot water heater broke. they need to call a plumber, not me!”

 

bahahaha.

i don’t think we’ll ever let him live that down.

 

we rushed over to their house to stay with sleeping logan as they went up to the hospital to anticipate ali’s arrival.

let’s just say auntie madison & uncle zach–you may also refer to him as uncle turkey or captain jack–saved the day!

there were SO many sweet family moments that day.

here are a few of my favorites.

ali’s gift to big sister logan.

“how did she know?”

;-)

logan got to pick out ali’s little bow!

what a proud–and did i mention already protective?–sister.

welcome to the family sweet ali! we are beyond excited you are finally here! :-)

excuse my haggard appearance. please & thank you.

monday me.

today is an exciting day in our family! but you’ll have to wait a little while to hear why. so stay tuned, because i’ll be revealing the exciting deets sometime this week!

anyway, now for my monday me.

i definitely prefer one-on-one conversations over large group speeches.

and i think it’s due to the fact that i have a mild case of stage fright.

i REALLY don’t like to get up and talk in front of large crowds of people.

it NEVER fails no matter how many times i’ve done it before, i always get extremely nervous, my heart races and sometimes i even feel like i might pass out.

although, a lot of people who know me might think differently.

 mainly because i spent my high school years singing in the youth praise band, but also because i’ve been told i’m a “ham” a time or two. that’s a good thing, right?

i like to think i act like that because i’m more nervous than anything, so i just make a fool of myself on purpose. and i probably over do it sometimes.

but until you really get to know me, i’m honestly a fairly shy & reserved person. or at least i think i am. zach probably thinks otherwise.

hope you have a great start to your week!