We’ve moved! We are officially in our new home in Clarksville, Tennessee and loving it. There’s so much to do and if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know how time consuming that has been! We left our rental home in Alabama and and are now homeowners! For some reason when you buy a house there so much more to do than when you’re renting. I love being able to change things if I’m not happy with the way they are….like paint the walls. My office is now purple! Purple is my absolute favorite color and I just feel happy walking in here now. :)

Over the month of December we also celebrated my 26th birthday, my brother’s college graduation, my brother and Dad’s birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s, and on January 1st we celebrated our 5 year anniversary! Tim’s birthday is a little over a week away now. We picked a crazy time to get married huh? ;) We traveled home to Virginia to spend time with our families over the holidays. While in Blacksburg for my brother’s graduation from Virginia Tech we got snowed in an extra day. The weather turned awful in a matter our a few hours! Once we made it back to our hometown we found some of our family members and friends without power. We were lucky enough that my dad’s house only lost power for one day, but Tim’s mom went without it for five days. Needless to say the gas stations and places that sold propane were packed. The power was fixed by Christmas for our area, but many others went without through the holidays.

Once we returned home to Clarksville I had a million boxes to unpack and so much to put away. But hey, that’s the life of a military family! We’ve had fun exploring our new town and especially love being so close to Nashville. I’ve already booked tickets to see Carrie Underwood! I’ll be posting regularly now that my internet is working. I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May your lives be blessed in 2010.

Photo taken by John Pyle.

Moving day is here! The packers are here today and the movers are coming tomorrow to send our belongings off to good ‘ol Tennessee. We’re both excited but moving is a daunting process even if the military is doing most everything for you! When you add Christmas into the mix it gets even more hectic. Confession: We have not even started Christmas shopping yet….eeek! I will respond to emails as quickly as possible and I appreciate your patience in advance! We will have a few days without internet during the transition. Please pray for a safe move! :)

{I had my long hair chopped off}
Yes. I did it. And you know what? I honestly regret it. I had been growing tired of my long hair and felt like it was getting “stringy” as I like to say…so I made an appointment to have it cut. I printed off a picture of a style I liked, went in…almost backed out then just went ahead with it. Sigh…I didn’t cry at the salon so thats a plus! It honestly looks good and Tim loves it, but it’s just not me. I had about 5 inches cut off and I’m planning to grow it back out. I’m getting used to it and the more I look in the mirror the more I like it. This is a huge change coming from a girl who has always had long hair and always had the same hairstyle. Maybe that’s why I was itching to chop it off? Either way, I miss my long hair! Here’s a picture from my point & shoot the day it was cut. I’ll post up a better one soon!

{New Moon}
I went with my photographer friend Kate Whitmore to see New Moon. It was much better than Twilight. By the way I’m on Team Jacob! Oddly enough Kate is from close to the Nashville area (a town a little South of it) and I’m moving to Clarksville (a little North of it). She moved to Columbus a few months ago and now I’m moving up there. It’s almost like we’re switching places!

{Tim ran the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day}
And I am so proud of him! We stayed in Atlanta the night before and I dropped him off at the starting line at 6:30am. Yes, I really must love him. ;) I waited at the finish line for him with my camera ready to capture him completing the 13.1 mile run. I stood there freezing for over an hour and I missed him! There were 10,000+ runners and a group of people finished around the same time as Tim so I did catch him running by. I was so bummed that I missed his finish but incredibly proud of him either way! Watch out because I hope to run the next one with him in April! :) We returned home and celebrated Thanksgiving together. I made a small turkey and we had Thanksgiving dinner for two! Yes, I missed my family back home in Virginia but I am excited to visit them over Christmas! We have so much to be thankful for and I was blessed to have my soldier home this year. :)

{Under the Weather}
The past three days were rough! Tim and I both woke up Monday morning sick as could be. We had awful headaches, chills, fevers, cough, you name it! I luckily stayed home the first day and kept up with my medicine and I’m feeling better today. Tim has had to work so it’s taking him longer to get well. Thank the good Lord for Alka Seltzer! I swear by it.

{AFTB Training}
I’ve been attending the Army Family Team Building training this week and will finish the course next week. It’s basically a class to teach me how to be an effective FRG (Family Readiness Group) leader if I am needed once we arrive at Ft. Campbell. There’s a lot to it, so I’m hoping to absorb all of the information I possibly can!

{Lifestyle Portrait Sessions}
I’ve got two sessions left before we move! They were scheduled to be shot in November but with this unpredictable weather I’ve had to move them into December. I plan to take the entire month off from work so that we can move and hopefully enjoy the holidays with family! I will be scheduling lifestyle portrait sessions for January on and of course weddings!

{Moving to Tennessee!}
We scheduled our transportation dates and the packers and movers will be here at the end of next week. We will be moving in less than two weeks! I can hardly believe it’s almost time to leave. We’ve got a lot, and I mean a lot to do before they arrive. I’m not a pack-rat so I’ll be going through our belongings to get rid of whatever we do not need. Luckily the Army movers do everything for you when it comes to packing and moving. I won’t have to lift a finger for that part! :)

{My Birthday}
Oh and it’s my birthday this Sunday (December 6th)! I will be turning 26. Yikes….late 20’s….at least Tim is closer to 30 than me! ;)

Here’s a little preview of Blair’s bridal session that I cannot share with you until after her wedding in June! She was a pitcher in college for the The University of Alabama softball team, so we shot most of her session at the softball field. I love, love, love when brides get creative and request sessions that are truly them!

xoxo

We have moved quite a few times since we’ve been married. When we got married on January 1, 2005 Tim was stationed here at Ft. Benning and we spent the first 6 months of our marriage living separately. I was still a student at Virginia Tech and had to finish up my last semester there before joining Tim. After I finished college and Tim finished OBC we moved to Ft. Lewis, WA (near Seattle). A year later Tim deployed for 15 long months to Iraq. Being so far away from home I decided to move home to Virginia with my family. When Tim returned safely (thanks to God answering many more prayers!) we PCS’ed back to Ft. Benning and have been here for about 2 years. If you were able to keep count I’ve driven across the United States four times and Tim has twice! We have been itching to move for quite a while and in December the Army will be packing us up and sending us to Tennessee!

To my current Georgia and Alabama clients: I will of course still be available for all of your print and product orders. I also love to travel and welcome visiting Columbus for shoots and I do have weddings on the books for here next year! Thank you all for being so amazing!

I also have to give a shout-out to all of my photography friends here. I started the Columbus Georgia Photographer’s lunch group here a year ago this past September. Who would have thought it would have grown like it has? I’m so blessed to know each of you and am happy that a few of you have become very dear friends to me. I am really going to miss you guys so much and will definitely be back to visit and have group shoots again! You are all so incredibly talented!

If you’re wondering about the photo at the top, that’s me and Tim! :) Our friend John Pyle took some photos of us last month and you can view the rest on his blog by clicking here!

We’ll see you in Tennessee y’all!