Wow.  Busy has a whole new meaning in our house as we prepare for Christmas and continue to work hard growing our photography business, all while chasing after our fantastic 1 YEAR OLD who is just loads of fun and learning new things every day!  All that to say… I’ve been meaning to post this for days but haven’t found the time to get to it!

I worked with several amazing women to design all of the little details that made Eli’s birthday party so special.  I whole heartedly recommend all of them.  Even if you aren’t planning a party, you should check out their work for future needs or pass their info along to someone who needs them now!

D’lish Discriminating Desserts (Eli’s smash cake)
dlishdessert.com
Molly is absolutely fabulous – - – young, fresh, and amazing at what she does!  I described a vision for her, passed along the cupcake topper designs, and told her to use her imagination.  I actually ordered two identical cakes–one was used for the party, and the other was used for a “Smash Cake Shoot” on E’s actual birthday.  (Stay tuned for pics from that.  We’ll be offering this type of shoot to clients in the very near future!)  I couldn’t have been happier with Molly’s design and the final product!

Seven Cupcakes (cupcake toppers, banner, and stickers)
seven-cupcakes.blogspot.com
Allie is super talented, and her products can really create a unique feel for an event.  One of her base designs was the original inspiration for Eli’s whole party.  Then we worked together to customize everything and perfect each design.  She does really great work!

queen b boutique (E’s bib)
queenbboutique.blogspot.com
Breen has been a friend of mine since high school!  When I found out about queen b, I knew I’d have to do some “business” with her!  For Eli’s bib, I just showed her a picture and described in detail what I wanted.  Breen found the perfect fabric and took it from there!  Since I tend to dream up unrealistic expectations, I honestly wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out.  It’s not that I didn’t have faith in Breen–it’s more about me designing something in my head that just isn’t realistic.  But I have to say that queen b completely exceeded my expectations!   I’ve also had some baby gifts made that turned out fantastic as well!

And last but definitely not least, my mom helped with pretty much everything!  She made many trips to Hobby Lobby (Charleston is clearly out of the loop and doesn’t know what they’re missing out on by not having one!), searched ideas on-line for hours, and helped me sift through my crazy ideas.  So thank you, Mom, for all you did to help make Eli’s party so memorable!  I love you!

And because a post without pictures just isn’t my style, here are some shots of our great friends and family that came to play and celebrate Eli!  Sidenote–I’m pretty sure several of our family members were hiding from the camera, so we’ll have to make up for it over Christmas!

Just a picture I love of Eli with his Daddy

Matt's brother Blake and his wife Erin, who was an enormous help the day of the party!

Eli and Pops (Matt's dad)

Me, Nana (my mom's mom), E, Angel (my mom's sister), my mom

My great friend Jen who took all of the pics during the smash cake, her husband David, and their little guy James

James

Eli and Mia (my mom)

My cousin Skyler. Cheeeeese.

My cousin, Landan. Does he have the greatest hair?

My cousin, Sierra, who loooooves Eli!

My friend Bonnie, her husband Joe, and their cutie Nicholas.

Nicholas. Check out those eyes!

William, who I nannied for when he was a new born.

My baby brother Zach and his girlfriend Jenna. Yes, we have the same name, but I'll tolerate it because she's so great!

Dugger--his parents taught our last parenting class and have become great friends!

Megan and Emily Reese. You may remember seeing pictures on our photog blog of a beautiful, tiny baby girl in a huge hand. That was Emmie Reese 3 months ago!

Matt's good buddy, Drew. I'm determined that he's going to marry one of my friends because he's such an awesome guy!

Showing Poppa (my dad) and Uncle Zach who's boss.

Opening some awesome presents!

Enjoying his new wagon from Mia and Poppa!

Get ready for an epic picture post!  Actually, there is so much info and so many pictures to share, there will probably be more than one party post over the next few days.

When we started thinking about Eli’s first birthday a couple of months ago, we pondered if we should even have a party.  I mean, he won’t remember it, right?  After several wishy washy discussions we decided to have a celebration with lots of family and friends who have provided so much love and support since our wonderful little bundle made his debut one year ago.  Rather than hesitantly worrying about spending energy and money on something that Eli may or may not remember, we decided to just go with it and make sure he has lots of great pictures by which to remember it!

Matt and I nailed down the date, place, guest list, and colors, and then my mom and I ran with coordinating the details.  We had an absolute blast!  The whole vision started with colors that remind us of Eli–blue, brown, and orange.  After receiving a quote for a cake I liked for $400 (What???), I fell in love with idea of making cupcakes and designing cupcake toppers.  We worked with several vendors through their Etsy shops to design every last detail.  We then scoured the internet and the entire state of South Carolina to find the perfect napkins, blue M&M’s with E’s on them, rock candy suckers, containers for the candy buffet, etc.  While we won’t be going all out like this for Eli’s subsequent birthdays, I loved every minute of making his first birthday perfectly special and perfectly “E!”

The pictures to follow are of the cake smash and all of the party details.  I’ll post pictures of all of our fabulous family and friends in a separate post, which will be coming soon!  Also, if anyone is interested in a vendor list, I’ll be happy to post that too!  All in all, Matt, Eli and I had an amazing day!  And as you’ll see in the pictures below, I think it’s safe to say that our boy isn’t afraid to try new things and doesn’t mind being the center of attention!

(Special thanks to my incredible friend Jen of Jen Snyder Design for taking the camera during the cake smash!)

Our baby boy is turning a year old on Monday!  No, wait…  I don’t know how I feel!!! Geez.  But I DO know that we have an incredible weekend filled with family, friends, and celebration ahead of us!

We’ll be back next week with a recap and some pictures, of course.

Happy Birthday Eli!

I’ve been reflecting on the past year a lot recently…and I wanted to post a little ‘thank you’ to everyone who has helped us in our pursuit of photography.  MDP has been a huge blessing to our family… in so many ways.  And so much of it is because of you all!  If it wasn’t for friends and family pushing us to pursue it, helping spread the word to get us work and help build our portfolio, we would never be where we are today.  And as I sit here and think about it, the sky’s the limit with how far this grows!!  I tell Jenna all that what we have as a photog couple is something unique.  We desire to not only take quality pictures for people, but encourage them, lift them up, and try to bless them in one way or another.  I love that.  Through MDP we have the opportunity to bless people. That, right there, is my key driving factor.  And I hope that MDP can grow so we can spread that blessing in many, many ways.  I have some cool ideas and I’m excited to see how God blesses them.

So..to all of you who are helping us along this amazing journey…THANK YOU!! You’re more than appreciated…you’re loved.  And we could not be doing this without you!

-MD
www.mdpblog.com

I think Eli took the name of this book a little too literally…

. . .

It’s hard to believe how fast time goes by sometimes.  In a couple days Eli will be 11 months old, and in a month he’ll be a year old.  That’s crazy.  We’ve been running around a lot recently and too often we forget to pause and take notice of how fast time is going by.  I’ve been thinking a lot about perspective recently – how important it is to view your days in the perspective of your story, His story.  After all, in the end, how do you want to your story to read?  It’s easy to get caught up in the moment, forgetting the big picture.  I know I do it.  But in reality, as time goes by, those moments, while still meaningful, become less and less dramatic.  Andy Stanley puts it this way: “Regardless of what you’re going through now, and no matter how big or small it is, it will eventually become just a part of your story.”  So how do you want your moments to add up?

Live the story you want to tell.

. . .

Thanks for humoring me with the depth.  Perspective…living in light of how I want my/our story to read…is something I’ve been thinking about recently.  For more thoughts, check out Your Move: The Story of Your Life.

This weekend Jenna and I are escaping to the mountains for some hangout time.  I’m excited to be able to spend time with Jenna, to sit back, think about all that’s gone on and is going on, and simply smile at how blessed we are.  Being blessed…I don’t mean that everything’s perfect, because we have and have had our share of difficult moments and hard choices, but in the scheme of it all, in light of our “story”, we are blessed.  So I’m excited to go reflect on us for a few days, sip coffee in the early morning mountain fog, and possibly venture down some trails.  It should be fun!

- MD

I’m aware that every parent thinks their kid is a child prodigy, model, and/or future sports superstar.  With that said, just humor me.  K?

Quite a few people (some that we know and some complete strangers) have suggested that we push Eli into modeling.  ha!  The thought of our child being a model just cracks me up!  First of all, I can just imagine Eli at a photo shoot wreaking havoc on everything in sight!  I’m pretty sure he would be fired on the spot!  It’s not that he’s out of control or misbehaved–he’s just ALL BOY!  So since “modeling” isn’t realistic, we decided to enter him in the Gap Casting Call, along with every other parent in America!  We’re not going to do the Fan Favorite part of the contest.  It’s one of those things where you get people to vote every day so you can win money and a vacation or something like that.  I’m openly acknowledging that I’m too competitive to stay focused on the actual point of the whole thing, so it would just stress me out to no end!  This little photo shoot also gave Eli a chance to show off his handsome outfit (Thank you Mulvaney’s!) and his sweet new kicks!

He’s pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself!

Four years ago today, I proposed to Jenna…and it’s been awesome ever since!  But…how things have changed…

October 1, 2005

4 years later…

October 1, 2009

I love you more than ever, JD, and the family that we’ve become!!

Well people, this changes everything.  Eli is WALKING!  He’s been “stepping” for several weeks, but he really took off a couple of days ago.  He’s 10 months old today, and he just seems like such a big boy all of a sudden.  Tear… Smile… Tear…

This video will give you a little insight into what a few minutes in our house looks like.  Keep in mind that Kelsey is also usually in the middle of the chaos!  We put her away because she always gets between the camera and Eli.  Just watching this almost makes my head spin!  And I wonder why I’m so tired!

**Disclaimer – Please don’t judge our parenting ability or methods by Eli’s outfit.  His shorts fit fine and actually stayed on a couple of weeks ago!  I put them on him quickly today as we were heading out the door and then realized that the poor baby’s shorts were sagging lower than the teenage boy’s pants walking in front of us in Target!  These shorts will look much cuter in a couple of months when they actually fit, paired with an oxford shirt, sweater, and Converse!  I just had to throw that out there, because I know what you were thinking!  :)