I met Ashley in 2014 when she did her residency rotation at the hospital on the unit where I work as a Nurse Practitioner. If you know Ashley, then you know that she is one of the most easygoing, calm and collected people you will ever meet...Lord...can I be a little more like that! Ashley found out that in addition to being a Nurse Practitioner that I was a Child and Family Photographer as well. She was newly engaged and planning her wedding and she didn’t have a photographer yet. With all the confidence in the world, she told me “You are going to be my wedding photographer!” I remember laughing at her and saying “Ha, you are funny.” She knew that at that time, I had never photographed a full wedding. Her confidence in me was the push that I needed to step outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes we just need a little nudge from someone that believes in us, and boy am I thankful for her. I got to meet her husband Kyle through the wedding process, and can I just say that her and Kyle were the dream couple to work with! On April 18, 2015 I photographed my very first wedding at the Donnelly House in Birmingham!
Ashley and Kyle were married for 2 years before deciding that it was time to start their family. They welcomed their first son, Hudson in September 2017. I was so honored to not only be able to photograph their love story, but also their first born! It was so fun to see him as a 2 year old with his sweet personality. Seriously a doll!
Pregnancy was definitely different for Ashley with sweet baby girl. I mean who has time to be stressed and worried about all the pregnancy related things when you are busy chasing around a toddler! Yall… trust me, my husband and I know all about toddler life! We are still sorting our way through the chaos of chasing around twin 4 year olds! I can’t even imagine that we actually used to think we were busy before having kids! Ha!
Ashley and Kyle couldn't wait for Abby to get here and they were able to spend a lot of time preparing Hudson for her arrival. Mom and Dad think little sister may be much more of a cuddler since big brother doesnt seem to ever sit still these days!!
Fast forward to December 10th, 2019 at 9:39 am, and along comes sweet Abigail Kate, more affectionately known as Abby by her big brother! She weighed 7 lbs and 15.9 oz and was 20.3 inches long. The best part of being a photographer is that I get to share in all of life's most important and precious moments. I am so honored that I got to photograph Miss Abby a few weeks ago.
Yall… these cheeks on these Smith babies, seriously I want to eat them up!! She was a sweet dream baby to photograph, she slept almost the entire time! Woohoo! Hudson loves being a big brother and helping to change and feed her. He also likes to give her the paci if she gets fussy!
Mom and Dad were busy with moving houses, starting new jobs and taking boards when baby Hudson was born, so they are happy to be able to slow things down as they welcomed baby Abby. It definitely takes some time adjusting to all the new routines of feeding, sleeping, diapers galore and chasing a toddler around. But I know these two are knocking it out of the park! They are soaking up all the beautiful moments through the chaos! Mom and Dad already can’t even imagine what they did before Abby came along.
For now, they are excited to navigate their way around being a family of 4! They are looking forward to spending time with grandparents in Georgia and visiting family in California. Ashley’s sister also just had a baby that was born 3 weeks before sweet Abby, I have no doubt there are gonna be some fun times to be had with growing up with a cousin so close in age.
I'm so honored to have come full circle with this sweet family, photographing their wedding, and now having photographed their two most prized possessions. I get to tell the Smith Family story through photographs. I get to be the keeper of memories for them long after some of the tiny details have faded. I hope you will always cherish these photos as much as I have enjoyed playing a part in your story. Wow, what a wonderfully important job I have and I am oh so thankful!
