During the week of April 15 – April 23, we’re entering into Mary Ford Elementary School during their spring break and giving it a face lift by putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls.  It’s going to be an unbelievable week!  I’m pumped to help the school, see how this rallies the community, and all the other opportunities that I cannot even begin to imagine.  Help us!  It’s going to be awesome!

Moving on to E’s nursery…

My mom and I had a blast spending hours and hours scouring the internet and stores searching for inspiration for this room.  Matt’s input was to do was made me happy while sticking to the budget.  He’s a simple and wonderful man!  Oh, except he didn’t go for the chandelier in his son’s room (He specifically requested a ceiling fan.).  I guess I can’t blame him!

Matt and I spent many evenings sitting in the floor of the nursery dreaming about what our baby would look like, talking about what we should name him, and trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we were about to embark on one of the most important journeys of our lives.  We spent the majority of our time during those first months of Eli’s life in that room, cuddling and soothing our sweet baby.  That was one special room.  When we sold 260 Kelsey Boulevard  this past August and left for the last time, that was the most difficult room to walk away from.  I knew that leaving that nursery represented the fact that our baby was growing up.  Although our sweet boy is two years old, is taller than any other two year old we ever come into contact with, and runs everywhere he goes, he still points to that cozy brown chair every night and says, “Mommy, rock pease.”  That, my friends, is why planning a nursery consumes and intrigues me.  It takes more heart and soul than the average room.  It’s where tears are shed, victories are celebrated, and a big boy can melt into his mommy’s arms.  What a blessing!

It’s 2011.  Wow.

We had an awesome Christmas – many amazing days with family!  However, we hit the holidays running, and haven’t stopped yet!  It was great, but busy!

I’ve been wanting to get some concrete goals and to-do’s jotted down for 2011, but haven’t had the chance yet.  But as I sit and think about 2011, I simply think … What’s important for 2011?  What’s important to do, or change, or improve this year? As a company, and as a family, we have some fun things coming … and I’m excited to share.  But there are several things that I really want to nail and hit home.  I’m pretty pumped about it.  I just have to do it.

So, it’s 2011.  What’s important to you?  Answer that, then become intentional in making it happen!  We’re capable of doing so much…

Have a great night!

MD

Maybe it’s the innocence of it.

Maybe it’s the lighting.

Maybe it’s the fact that one day I’ll look back on this shot and wonder where my little boy went.

Regardless, it makes me smile.

What do you think?

[ Thanksgiving 2010 | HHI Beach ]

This past weekend the folks at LoveGave [www.lovegave.com] put on a 58 hour event “to give bikes to 250 kids spread across 12 different Charleston area schools.”  And for 58 hours straight, folks camped out in the West Ashley Wal-Mart parking lot, raising money to give kids a bike for Christmas.  The whole event was incredible, but I think the most amazing thing was the community that surrounded and ran this event.  There were people involved from all walks of life, serving in the cold, some in the middle of the night, all for the chance to make someone smile and love on them a little.  It was an awesome thing to witness and be a part of.  And in the end, not just 250 bikes were raised, but more than 370 bikes!

We are all gifted.  We are all blessed, in one way or another.  I love when people come together, using their gifts and how they’ve been blessed, for the benefit of others.

[ More photos can be seen here. ]

It’s crazy how fast Eli is growing up and how quickly he’s changing.  I’ve had several conversations recently with friends about how, as a parent, you can literally see your kid learn…it’s crazy and so true.  Every day Eli learns a new word or a new trick.  It’s fun to watch and be a part of.  However, he’s growing up so fast and I have a feeling we’re going to miss these days…

Relationships.  The thing I love most about all of this, yet sometimes my biggest downfall.

I love meeting new people and hearing their stories about what’s going on in their lives as well as the adventures they’ve been on and the struggles they’ve overcome.  It’s always fascinating to me how small the world really is.  Holistically, all of our lives are the same…it’s just the little details that differ.  I love sharing in this with people.  However, we can’t always do it all…something I struggle with.

I once heard a guy say that by making yourself available to everyone, you make yourself available to no one.  I think there’s a lot of truth to that.

I hate having to tell a potential client we’re unavailable.  Not necessarily because of the ‘business’, but because I truly hate to pass on the opportunity to meet with a bride & groom, a family, new parents, etc.  We really do love this.  But sometimes, we have to.

We’ve put work first a lot this year and have had a blast with so many folks and have made so many new / good friends.  However, the rest of this year we’re scaling back a little bit to invest in us and focus on simply being a family, a husband and wife, a mom and dad.  I hope that makes sense…

This past weekend we were in Atlanta for a fun wedding and while there, we passed up several opportunities with some folks I would have loved to see and work with so we could spend some time with my grandparents, who we don’t see nearly often enough.  I wish we could have done it all, but the time we spent with them and the photos I was able to take are priceless.  Here’s E with his great grandfather…this makes me smile.

Thanks for reading…

MD

For the past few days we’ve been in Chicago shooting a couple weddings and have had a BLAST!  We’ve never been here before and have loved the city!  We’ve loved exploring the city and goofing off together.  More fun stuff to come!

There are several fun parks and hangout spots right around our house.  Eli loves it…

There are many things I love about working with my wife, but I love when we have moments like this… where we both are taking the same picture, just from a different perspective, and it’s not until after the wedding when we upload and review the images that we realize what we got.