A Few Ramblings

I am simply terrible at getting a decent post out these days. I seem to wait and wait and finally just spit it all out and most likely forget important updates.

Anyways, February has been an incredibly quick month and March is upon us. I just cannot believe it. We celebrated my sweet husbands birthday this month. Let me just take a minute to talk about how thankful I am for him. I feel incredibly privileged to do life with him and be his wife. He is a true blessing in my life.

We had a week off and that we celebrated Brett's birthday, Valentine's day, and also welcomed a new member to the Kittrell family. World, meet Marcie.....

She's a sweet little girl and we are happy she is ours! :)

Oh, and just because I happen to think she is precious, we also took this sweet girls 6 month pictures. 

I know, I can hardly handle the cuteness. I am a proud aunt.

This month I also began a new Bible study at my church. We are going through Ephesians and it has been wonderful. There is just so much goodness in that book. I am loving being reminded of the gospel and thankful that I have been adopted and chosen as a daughter of the one true God. I have been learning a lot about my purpose. Currently, I am striving to be thankful for my daily routines that seem so insignificant. I am striving to be thankful for a job that I enjoy and that while it is not the only thing I want to do, it is what the Lord has for me to be doing. I am thankful for a wonderful home and my responsibilities here. I am thankful I have a husband who takes care of me and that I have the privilege to cook for and take care of him.

I have been reminded recently of Micah 6:8 that says, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." --I pray that I can simply do that. I long to abide in Christ and have His love and His attributes to be evident in my life.

As for March, there are lots of exciting things happening... starting with welcoming another new Kittrell into the family! Ash and Drew are getting married this weekend and I am thrilled to be able to be the photographer of this wedding!

So it should be another busy month and I am excited and ready to embrace it!

Life Lately...

January was the month of no blogging. Obviously. :) I hope this isn't a sign of the next year. Life has been busy so I'll give a few updates.

On the photography front I have to say, I thought things would slow down in January. After the hustle and bustle of fall and getting people's Christmas pictures done and edited quickly before the deadline of Christmas cards went out, I thought January would be slow. While, it hasn't been as busy, the Lord has been gracious to still allow me to do what I love on the side. Here are just a few updates......

First up, this lovely couple who will be getting married in June! :) They were SO FUN!

Secondly, this sweet couple who are waiting for their lives to change forever with welcoming the birth of their first son, Aiden.

I surely cannot wait for him to get here! :)

Lastly, just this weekend I had the privilege of taking my brother-in-law and ALMOST sister-in-laws engagement pictures! They have LESS THAN A MONTH! I am so excited for them and cannot wait for March 2nd to photograph my first official wedding on my own but also to welcome Ashley to the family!

So sweet....

January was an incredibly long month. We also had a visit from my aunt and cousins which was such a fun weekend!

Other than that, we have just been watching this little girl grow and praying the other cousins would move home! :)

It's been a long month and I am thankful that we are now in February! God has been so gracious to Brett and I. He has been teaching us a lot about dying to ourselves. He has also taught me a lot about trusting Him. Nothing is too hard for Him and I am grateful for the grace He continues to pour over my life. I am thankful that He satisfies and that He is enough! What a blessing to serve Him and have a relationship with my Lord

Oh yeah, I am also thankful for this guy who will be celebrating his birthday on Monday! I think he is definitely worth celebrating. Brett is such an answer to prayer and I am thankful for his sweet heart.

Well, that was a short and sweet update but hey, at least there were pictures! :) Hopefully I can blog more soon!

The Best of 2012

Happy New Year friends! I cannot believe 2012 is over! Time really does fly. In keeping with the typical blog trend I thought I'd share some of the best and big moments of 2012.

January: One of the hardest months, lots of changes and lots of tears. Happier news was sharing my wedding photos!

In February we got to announce some of the best news of 2012! Mangs and Pudge were going to have a baby!

We also celebrated a dear friends engagement, Brett's birthday, and Valentine's Day.We also took a trip to Lagrange to visit Eric, Linds, and V.

This was also the month I got my new camera which was actually a pretty important part of 2012 :)

March brought some warmer weather.

Which brought about a new hobby of gardening.                                                                       I was a second shooter at my first wedding.

We also found out that this baby we were so excited about would in fact be a girl!!

April outdid itself! The BEST of April was the arrival of this angel,                                  Charlotte Elizabeth Blackman.

We also spent a weekend in Atlanta, and I second shot another wedding.

May brought the last month of school for Brett and I! Yes! It was busy and full! We made lots of gardening progress and celebrated 6 months of marriage!

In June we were out of school and hit the ground running with the craziness and fun of summer! We gave Mangs a shower honoring she and sweet Lucy Myer!

We also traveled to the beach for a week of fun with my family and took some maternity pictures of Mangs.

We also had the privilege to witness two friends tie the knot!

 We ended the month with a week long trip to Puerto Rico with Brett's family!! It was a busy month of fun!!

July was a little more restful! I learned a lot in our summer Bible study. We continued to anticipate the arrival of sweet Lucy!

We also celebrated Mangs birthday as well as sweet Virginia's 3rd birthday! It's time to meet the Muppets! :)

August was a long awaited month! We kicked it off with my birthday but I was quickly upstaged by the arrival of Lucy Myer Jacobs!

We also began school and tried to get back into a routine with me starting a new job teaching 5th grade! At the end of August I also started my new part time business, A Little From Laura Photography! :)

In September I took lots of pictures and did not blog too much :)

October was even busier with multiple photography shoots. That pretty much consumed my free time and it was incredibly busy! Oh, and we bought a house! :)

In November Brett and I celebrated a year of marriage! We also moved into our new home and celebrated thanksgiving!

Finally in December we decorated and did lots of Christmas activities (P.S. I'll blog about Christmas soon! haha) We visited family and I had the privilege to stand by my other college roommate as she got married this past weekend!

It has been a year full of many many blessings! I am amazed by the Lord's goodness and His grace in the life of my family! He is so good to us! I pray that in 2013 I will glorify Him more and seek Him in all that I do.

Happy 2013!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a Happy Christmas!

The Lord has been so good to us this year and we are thankful for a time to celebrate the birth of the One who gives us life!

"And when they saw the star, they were overjoyed!"                                                                  -Matthew 2:10

Oh Happy Day

It has been a busy few weeks! I am just too thrilled that today was my last day of school for a couple of weeks! I was showered with tons of gifts and my students were too sweet today. Brett and I have been trying to get settled, finish up work, and I have done tons of shoots lately! I am thankful to be done with those for a couple of weeks too but also extremely thankful to have booked 3 weddings for 2013! I am excited to continue this photography business and hopefully see it continue to succeed! :)

We have also been hanging out with this peanut as much as we can! She is changing so much and we pretty much are obsessed with her!

I am most looking forward to getting to be with my entire family on SATURDAY!! These three girls in the same house! :) AHH! This aunt is ecstatic! 

Other plans over the break include lots of resting, Christmas in Phenix City, and a trip to Birmingham for sweet Sarah's wedding! I have to say, I am looking forward to taking pictures over the next couple of weeks of everyday life and not just for a client. I LOVE doing that but I am excited about taking more of our life. I feel like since I have started this business I haven't done as great of a job documenting us and my family!

I hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying time with family during this Christmas season!

he & she (november 2012)

:.. he and she ..:

He was super busy with basketball games

She stayed busy trying to balance photography and teaching...

They celebrated a year of being husband and wife!!!

They celebrated their second thanksgiving

They closed on their new home

And are doing their best to settle in

They are looking forward to the Christmas season in their new home!

Our First House

So since we have moved into our new home I realized I never shared pictures of our first house. It was the house I cooked my first meals in as a wife and did loads and loads of laundry. Here is our cozy little house.....

When you walk in you see the den straight ahead....

To the right is the kitchen. I have to say, I am thankful that in this house the kitchen is a little bit larger! :) I spent a lot of time here and really enjoy cooking so this is a bonus!

Through that door is the laundry room. One downer of this new house is the laundry room is a bit smaller. The place I spend a good bit of time as well. haha. I LOVED this laundry room!

Another view of the den and then we go down the hall way...

To the left is our guest room.....

This house had 1 and a half baths. Thankful for the extra half we have in this new house! :)

 Then we have the master! Loved our room! :) Love our headboard!

I will say for the most part our house was actually this clean. MOST of the time. However, just to keep it real.....this was our office which went through stages of being organized and then stages such as this.....Hoping for a more organized office in this new house!

I really loved our first house but the BEST part about it was what we got to see when we walked out the front door. It was the best living across the street from my sister and brother-in-law and sweet Lucy for a few months! :) We miss them so much even though we are only about 10 minutes apart. It's just not quite the same! :)

Anyways, when this new house doesn't look like a bomb went off in it I will share pictures. Maybe it won't be a year :)

One Year

One year. I cannot believe how quickly it has passed. It has been the greatest year of my life. During our ceremony last year Chris said "Marriage will literally kill you. It will kill the parts of you that need to die." I certainly hope that some parts of me have died this year. I will say that the first year has been almost bliss. Not that there haven't been some tough times because there certainly have been. However, I am sure that there are many more struggles to come.I am so thankful for what I have learned! I am thankful that I get to fall asleep and wake up next to my best friend! We have been through many changes from getting used to new jobs, learning to take care of a house, cook meals, traveling, and now buying our first home!

I am so incredibly blessed to be married to Brett. I don't deserve his kindness. I mean.....he has played with my hair literally almost every night as I have fallen asleep for the last year. Seriously. Love language. :)

Brett, thank you for being so wonderful and for taking care of me for better and worse this year. I pray that we will strive to look more like Him and glorify Him through our marriage in our second year together.

Here is a video to commemorate our first year as husband and wife!

One Year as Mr. and Mrs. from Laura Kittrell on Vimeo.

Love you forever! :)

Photography Updates

Alright October, you have been a crazy busy month! This would explain the lack of posting around this blog. I have so much to update however I am going to stick with the photography related updates! I really had the best intentions of doing a separate post for each session that I did! Ha! Have I mentioned that the whole photography business thing is part time (ish) and I still teach everyday? Yes, that makes updating this blog a bit challenging! I will share a couple of favorites from each session that I have had in October and hopefully from here on out I can do a post for each session. :)

We will kick it off with Miss Audrey who made her debut earlier this month! What an angel she was! Her parents are dear friends of ours and I was so happy I got to document her on her fourth day of life! :)

Next up, I got to meet up with two sweet friends from high school! Their precious little boy, Bryson, is turning 1! We even got to do a smash cake and that angel LOVED it!! It was so GREAT to see you two!

I then met up with the Hamilton Family! Little Miss Kate was so sweet even in the midst of having a cold!! :)

The next day I met up with a second Hamilton family! :) We wanted a major fall theme and Ashley even cut out a pumpkin for little Liam to sit in! So fun!

Next, I met up at the park with the Lee brothers! They were so cute and full of so much personality!!

This beautiful girl was supposed to be the flower girl in a wedding but there was a change of plans and the trip could not be made! However, we did not want to miss the chance to document this sweet girl in her "princess dress" as she called it! I felt like I was photographing a fairytale!

My last update for this post is little Olivia who turned 1 last weekend! First of all, look at those eyes! Oh my goodness!! It was such a privilege to photograph her first birthday party!

If you stuck with me, thank you! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU to all of you sweet clients who allowed me to take photos of your kiddos and families this month! It has been a joy and although it was incredibly busy, I am thankful for the opportunity! :)

Although the month of October was crazy busy (and is still not over :) ), it was such a blessing! I am grateful to be busy and to be able to do something I love both in the classroom and doing the photography thing! I would so appreciate your prayers as October comes to a close and November begins! I will be back soon with another update on life in general!

P.S. Brett and I have almost been married a year! What? When did this happen?

he and she (september 2012)

:.. he & she ..:

They were so busy this month

October is going to be even busier

She had a few photo shoots....which were so fun

He was busy with football

They did a little house hunting

And didn't feel like they were old enough to be doing that :)

They felt quite grown up..haha

She made a trip to Lagrange to see family

They are both enjoying their study of the book of Genesis

And are excited about all that God is teaching them.