brooke robinson | photo blog » happies

Family Friday :: Shrimp Boil

brooke — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:41:58 +0000

On Friday night, my o-so-special brother in law requested a shrimp boil for his family birthday meal. Apparently he grew up with this sort of thing often, but it was definitely my first time. Think 1yr old eating habits meets a pack of lions.

We all gathered around a table (which we first lined with trash bags and butcher paper.) We dumped the contents of two huge pots where we had boiled all kinds of tasty treasures. Shrimp, crab legs, potatoes, corn and sausage. Each person had a dipping cup with melted butter and we had ourselves a feast. What a way to celebrate a birthday.

A Baby Boy joins our Community

brooke — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:21:36 +0000

Last weekend I received a long awaited phone call. My great friend Jayme was headed to the hospital to have her third child and the anticipation was more than I could stand. You see, she has an older daughter Molly who is just a few months younger than Elle. She also has a younger daughter Morgan who is a few months older than Maye. The entire Walker family has had quite the run of girls being born lately, so when Jayme and Brett gave birth to a son, Ty, the entire family rejoiced (especially the oldest cousin, Ben, who was the only boy up to this point).

Anyway, I l-o-v-e getting to run to the hospital to photograph my sweet girlfriends as they are painstakingly bringing a new child into their family. Its the only way that they will ever remember what actually went on.

Our community group of nine families has really grown over the years. According to our calculations, after the addition of Ty and a couple others on the way, we will have 43 men, women, and children all in our group as of 2011. That’s practically a small church. We are so very blessed. Congrats Walker family!

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Meet Baby Titan

brooke — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 21:24:52 +0000

about six months ago Erika called me and asked if i would consider coming into the delivery room on the day of her son’s birth. Erika is also a local photographer and so she knew how special some pictures of a birth can be. i have been around a few times during the birth of a new child and Kori Hudson also took some pictures for me when my youngest daughter, Maye was born.

anyway, the emotions on a birth-day range from the tops of the mountain to the bottom of the sea. husband and wife, toiling together to bring into the world a new life. the pain is indescribable but the joy at the end eclipses it completely. Erika, i’m so proud of you and i know you and TW will be so blessed as parents!

quote of the night…as Erika was entering the final stages of her labor, her husband TW (a football coach at hunstville) looked at the nurses and said, “oh, can we call a timeout?” ha!

Kelsey & Zack Rehearsal Dinner

brooke — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:33 +0000

we received a last minute call to photograph the rehearsal dinner of kelsey and zack. after rearranging our schedule a bit we showed up at central united methodist church and then followed them over to the garden room on dickson street. these two incredible families share so much emotion that night! congratulations you guys. enjoy the slideshow.kelsey+zack_001 kelsey+zack_002 kelsey+zack_003 kelsey+zack_004 kelsey+zack_005 kelsey+zack_006 kelsey+zack_007 kelsey+zack_008 kelsey+zack_009 kelsey+zack_010 kelsey+zack_011 kelsey+zack_012 kelsey+zack_013 kelsey+zack_014 kelsey+zack_015 kelsey+zack_016 kelsey+zack_017 kelsey+zack_018 kelsey+zack_019 kelsey+zack_020 kelsey+zack_021 kelsey+zack_022 kelsey+zack_023 kelsey+zack_024 kelsey+zack_025 kelsey+zack_026 kelsey+zack_027 kelsey+zack_028 kelsey+zack_029 kelsey+zack_030 kelsey+zack_031 kelsey+zack_032 kelsey+zack_033 kelsey+zack_034 kelsey+zack_035 kelsey+zack_036 kelsey+zack_037 kelsey+zack_038 kelsey+zack_039 kelsey+zack_040 kelsey+zack_041 kelsey+zack_042 kelsey+zack_043 kelsey+zack_044 kelsey+zack_045 kelsey+zack_046 kelsey+zack_047 kelsey+zack_048 kelsey+zack_049

1 year with Twins

brooke — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:00:36 +0000

my dear friend Reagan has the sweetest most beautiful twin little girls, Mira and Jett. i think that we’ve grown accustomed to the idea of twins in our culture, but the more that i spend time with her, the more i realize that ‘twins’ doesn’t really speak the full gravity of what all goes on around their house.

double diaper changing. double car seats. double clothes. double the smiles. double(x2) ear infections! so double the craziness but also double the joy. reagan needed a picture for their party invitation, and it was a great excuse to get the girls all dolled up for the camera. what a delicious delightful shot we grabbed!

Two :: Four :: Six

brooke — Sun, 02 May 2010 00:01:44 +0000

ok, let me explain. we have some great friends of ours the mclellands who live in fayetteville. as often as we can, but not often enough we get our girls together to play. our poor son is constantly outnumbered around our house. when the mclellands come over to play that immediately takes our girls count to four. the best part is though, that both sets of girls are practically the same age. the oldest two are both 6 and our youngest two are days away from turning 2. they have such a sweet time together and get along incredibly well. we love these girls like crazy and i foresee some serious sleepovers in our future!

Before Us & Behind Us

brooke — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:00:07 +0000

January through March is always the “off-season” here in nw arkansas. the weather is too cold, all the fun landscaping is gone, tans have faded, and people seem stuck in the ‘where did Christmas go’ lull that always lasts too long. thank goodness for spring! as the new portrait season is quickly approaching (and weddings soon to follow) i decided that a quick look back was in order.

it is always such a fulfilling experience to sift back through the years worth of pictures that i had the pleasure of taking. moms & dads, brothers & sisters, those in love, and the one week olds have a way of reminding us of the better moments in life. it was such joy to be a part of so many different families and share in their season of memory. i love what i do! it is such a blessing, and here’s why…

Valentines

brooke — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:18:10 +0000

by now many of our friends and family have received our family’s annual valentines card. it seemed like the weather this year was the biggest stinker of them all. so instead of fighting it, we just embraced it! the ice did cause our cards to arrive at home a day late, but they were totally worth it!

one of the two labs that we use (whcc) was running a special the week before v-day, so we took full advantage and ordered an amazing two-sided 5×7 card with a pearl finish. holy moly it was gorgeous! we’ve really enjoyed hearing from our friends and family as the card has slowly trickled out across the country.

why a valentines card you ask? i think the main reason is that during our crazy christmas season it is the one thing that we can make room for in another place during the year. between two family birthdays, picture orders and christmas shopping our december is just packed! also, it is so fun to get a little something that may be unexpected, so a family valentines card it is! this is the fourth installment for our card and i’m sure many more to come.

former bride and future bride

brooke — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:56:01 +0000

i received a couple of emails in the past few days, one from a former bride who currently lives in Chicago and one who is getting married on June 5th this summer. what a treat to see that they had framed many of their pictures and had hung them in their house. it is so rare that i actually get to see the final stage of the whole picture process. it is easy to get caught up in the booking, shooting, editing, and ordering that i can easily forget that the whole purpose of photography is to bless someone’s home or office. what a wonderful bonus today to get to see some art proudly displayed! thanks Mikki and Natalie, you made my day.

Year in Review: My Family

brooke — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:43:10 +0000

in case you weren’t aware or haven’t ever seen, i have a pretty incredible family. my husband finley and i have three young kids, who are obviously not shy from the camera. we pack a lot into our days. from kindergarten & dress up to playing soccer & star wars to eating fruit snacks & napping, our life is full and blessed. these are a few of my favorite images and memories from this past year. they all make me smile

i was able to pull of an 80′s party for my birthday back in february. all of our friends dressed up and we had some dancing, picture taking, and 80′s trivia. my two sisters (kym & martha [in-law]) really rocked it out here. my facebook album 88mph (from back to the future of course) has all the rest.

here’s my husband finley and our kids getting their snow trampoline on. i love it that elle is getting thrown around. funny that we are about to get blasted again with the snow again on Christmas Eve!

our little maye turned one this summer. she is an absolute doll. she has the most amazing “cheese” whenever we say smile for the camera.

a group of our friends all got together for a lake day this summer. finley and elle are both crusing along on the wakeboard. thanks Paul for teaching us that trick. maybe this summer they’ll be doing it on their own!

ahh, the cousins. we love our cousins. poor silas is always outnumbered whenever the Roddas come to town. the two big girls are 2 days apart. it is so fun to have all these girls gathered around for a tea party and some sprinkler fun!

we got all dressed up for “cow appreciation day” at chick-fil-a. my husband’s goal was to get as much free food as possible, so we went all out. the ladies who rang up our order said that we were some of the most committed customers of the whole day. my kids = total cuteness!

this is probably the picture of the year for our family. we are going to order a bunch of new pictures for the house soon, and this one will be huge. elle and maye went to the other room and when i inquired as to how they were doing, elle responded that she was “working on an art project.” obviously! they came back around the corner, both so proud of their accomplishments. elle for her fantastic artwork, and maye for being such a great subject. it generated 36 comments on facebook back in august! this is an all time family classic.

our kids got to go on “fall retreat” with the student ministry over labor day weekend. they loved the slip-n-slide and the blob the most.

finley and i got to take a trip to chicago in october so that he could run in the chicago marathon. it was incredible to see over 33,000 people run in that race. it was brutally cold that weekend, but we pulled off a little self-timer fun as we were walking along the banks of lake michigan. this one is going in our bedroom for sure.

what a fun treat to watch kids grow up and pray that they love each other and turn out to be loving adults. halloween was such a blast and the kids turned it on once again on our way to the school carnival. i can’t wait to look back in 10 years and remember all these fun memories.