Graham & Emily | Ashland Engagement Photographer

Internet, meet Graham & Emily. Emily has been a dear friend of mine for years. We met in college our freshman year at Longwood University (did you know I went to Longwood? Oh yes. And a very influential year of my life, it was!) and have been friends since. When she got engaged this year I was SO excited for her! And of course, extremely honored when she asked me to be her photographer. It was awesome to finally meet Graham when we met up for their engagement session. They were adorably sweet together and made my job a cinch! I love engagement sessions so much because it helps show my clients that having your picture taken "isn't so bad." In fact, it's kind of fun and relaxing. Plus, you get to spend the entire session cuddling and loving on each other! Score! :) Here are a few of my favorites from their session:

Isn't Emily as cute as a button?! And Graham, you're not so bad yourself! :) :)

I'm so excited about their wedding this fall!!

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Equipment used for these pictures:  canon 5d mark ii // canon 50mm f/1.2 lens // canon 70-200mm f/2.8l lens  // canon 16-35mm f/2.8 lens

Liz Cook is the owner and photographer behind sincerely, liz: photography. She is a virginia wedding photographer and virginia portrait photographer who loves virginia weddings and couple photography.

To see more of Liz’s work, check out her latest work as well as some of her favorite weddings. To hire Liz, simply fill out this form.

Life with Sunday | #gratituesday

Last weekend, something big happened. Sunday woke up only about an hour after I put her to bed. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does our routine usually looks like this:

If her cries are whimpery, pitiful “I’m really too tired to be awake” cries, we let her cry for a minute or so. But if she doesn’t fall back to sleep quickly, I will go into her room and pick her up. In the past, I have sat down in the glider and nursed her back to sleep. In recent weeks, I’ve picked her up and just held her for a little bit until she is barely asleep and then laid her back down.

But I always pick her up.

Until last Saturday night. She woke up and threw out a few whimpery cries, but I knew it would be easier if I just went in and coaxed her back to sleep. When I opened the door I found her sitting up in bed, usually a sign of a larger task ahead. I gently said “Sweet girl, what happened? Can you lay back down?” I patted her little pillow and repeated myself. “Sweetie, will you lay back down?”

And you guys, she did. She did!

She laid back down and I covered her with her blanket and rubbed her back for about 30 seconds. And that was that.

It’s small little moments like these that force me to recognize that she is growing up, and she’s never going to stop growing. No matter how much I LOVE this age and how badly I just want her to stay small forever, she is going to keep changing. It makes me sad, yet so excited. Oh, motherhood. Such a pickle you put my emotions in.

So, today, I am using this Gratituesday to express my gratefulness for life with our precious girl. It is good, so good. I know moments are fleeting and you never know how many days you have with each other. Let it be known that our days with Sunday have been the best days of our lives.

Here are a few snapshots of life with Sunday lately.

gratituesday is a weekly post I try to keep up with. Join us at Heavenly Homemakers by sharing your own Gratituesday post!

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Equipment used for these images: canon 5d mark ii // canon 50mm f/1.2 lens