There is nothing more kissable than a newborn baby, don’t you think? This little 8-day-old fella is the latest addition to the Alvey family and one of our friend’s would say, he is so smootchie!

I love his contemplative stare.

I also love his crazy big sister.

And baby fingers.  Who doesn’t love baby fingers?

I think his parents are pretty taken with him too. ;0)

Welcome to the world Little Man! We’re so glad you came out to play (and at 10 lbs, 8 oz, I know your mamma is too!). :0)

And Happy Belated Halloween as well. :0) We hope you all are enjoying this fabulous weather and had a great time out with all the little ghouls and goblins last night!

If you haven’t heard yet, we will be moving at the first of the year–out to the country on some beautiful land for the kiddos to run around on. If I had to say the one thing I will miss the most when we move from our current neighborhood, it would definitely be Halloween. I love all the neighbors sitting on their front porches to hand out candy and the droves of kids in their costumes running from house to house. We had a wonderful time yesterday walking the streets with friends and family and then ending the evening together over warm gooey lasagna – yum! It was a great night.

As you might remember from last year, Sean and I like to make Halloween costumes a group effort. My being pregnant this year made our options for purchased costumes quite limited and let’s face it, this is not the time in our life for more homemade projects. We decided to go with a theme that would allow Baby Serai to dress up too…

Our skeleton family ended up providing quite a few new experiences as it turns out. Sean wore eyeliner/eyeshadow for the first time in his life (to which I said I thought his college experience must have been lacking if he made it until now for this). We found that for Seven to tolerate his costume required bribing him with Nerds, and that fighting with a 1.5 year old to get even the slightest bit of makeup on him is quite the undertaking and requires asking for much forgiveness with even more Nerds. In the end, I think if we had pinned ears on him, Seven would looked a lot more like a skeleton puppy with his black nose and no white face paint, but oh well. :0)

Seven’s best bud Violet came trick-or-treating with us. She made the cutest little bumble bee. I love how well these two get along. They always have the best time together.

And of course, nothing makes our little skeleton more happy than to get his hands on his grandfather’s ukelele.

Yes, it was a great last Halloween in here in Westhaven. I’m excited to start new traditions in our new home next year. :0)

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful rest of the week!

- Mel

We’re both completely surprised, yet totally excited, to tell you that we’re having a GIRL!

I can’t believe it. I guess we’ve just gotten into the mindset that we have boys. We’ve even been referring to this little lady as “he” when we weren’t paying attention. It’s surreal I tell you!

And yet, on or somewhat around February 23rd, we are now looking forward to welcoming our daughter into the world. Wow. We can’t wait to see Seven in the protective older brother role – you know, after he gets passed trying to club the new little creature that is taking too much of his mommy’s time at first. ;0) It’s going to be crazy, fun and completely wonderful around here!

I know several people will want to know her name. It is Serai Claire (pronounced Ser-ray). Sean and I have loved it forever and have been waiting for a sweet little girl to enter our lives to give it to.

Now I’m going to go back to wasting the afternoon away on Etsy. The ridiculously oversized flower headbands and crocheted hats are way too tantalizing…

Bye for now,

Mel (and Sean and Seven too)

I love Hindu ceremonies.  All of the thought that goes into each part – the deliberateness, the symbolism, and intent put toward conveying the gravity of the commitment and the meaning behind it is so beautiful.  When Josh and Rupa came to us, they asked that we take all of that beauty and create artful images that just happened to have them in them.  They wanted the whole picture represented in their wedding photographs and while we were sure to get the close-up emotions as well, it was a lot of fun shooting this wedding with the big picture in mind.  Here are a few of our favorites from the day.  Hope you enjoy them!

The couple was married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in downtown Knoxville.

I love this pano Sean got just outside of the Knoxville Museum of Art.  Panoramic images are some of our favorites and they always make such great wall art.

The rings…

And finally, the couple’s first dance to a great band on a beautiful evening…

Thanks for looking. =0) Have a great week everyone!

We had a wonderful weekend a few days back with Rupa and Josh, celebrating their wedding.  They are creatives, each in their own right, and they share our love for composition, light, and artistic imagery.  Add to that a beautiful Indian celebration full of tradition, color, and love everywhere — what more could we ask for?

Here are a few favorites from their engagement session the day before.  Can’t wait to share more with you from their wedding!