Welcome to my Blog!

I'm so glad that you stopped by to check out my blog. Here you will find updates about my life as a wife, mama, worship leader, and photographer. I specialize in children and family photography as well as weddings, but I love to capture all special moments and the beauty of all creation! I am so blessed and it is my prayer to honor our Creator through all that I do!

Contact me by email: laurenvia@gmail.com!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

I need your help!

Ok... so, I'm here at my parents house, using their computer and Jimmy is still in Radford with our computer. I'm having a hard time working on the blog layout. On my parents monitor, the page looks really good and everything is centered, with an even amount of background pattern on both sides of the main blog body. Jimmy says that when he views the blog from our huge mac monitor, there is a MUCH larger amound of background margin to the right of the main body. So, I need your help. Please let me know what this page looks like on your computer... just click on the "comment" link at the bottom of this post and leave a comment to let me know what the page looks like to you!


Thanks soooo much!

Under Construction

Working a bit on the layout and look of the blog... so please be patient with the looks of things until I can figure out how to get things looking the way I want. I feel like my brain is giving out from trying to write html code ALL day!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dinner with old friends...

Friday night we had dinner with some great friends that we had lost touch with for a while. It was great to spend time with them. Their daughter Maya is only a few days older than Declan, so they had tons of fun playing together. Thanks Lousi, Steve, and Maya for a wonderful night! I hate that we will be moving away, but I'm sure we can stay in touch!


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Sunday, July 20, 2008

52 weeks-week 24

Family Beach Portrait... taken on our last day at the beach!
Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law, Emily, for taking this for us!
This is my 52 weeks submission for this past week... I will try to get one in for this week as well, but we have to finish packing and moving this week, so I may not have much time for photos!
Also, I can't wait to start looking at all the rest of the MANY photos from the beach... I'll post them as soon as I get a chance!


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... and just for fun, here are a few photos of the "faux-hawk" we gave Declan one day after coming back from the beach.

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Summer Fun (part 3)- "Dinner with friends, Godzilla, and Man"

Friday night, after a packed day, we headed over to Blacksburg to hang out with some more great friends. Chuck, Dana and Logan Garner are also moving away this summer, so we wanted to have some fun quality time with them before they left. Dana cooked a delicious Asian meal and Chuck and Logan kept Declan VERY entertained with all their toys. The best entertainment was to watch Logan play with his dad's old Godzilla from his childhood... he would make one of us in "trouble" with Godzilla then surge in with "Man" (superman) to save the day! Tons of FUN!

Thanks guys for a great night!



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Godzilla and "Man" (Superman)

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Declan got very cuddly with Dana!

Summer Fun (part 2)- "Mommy Lunch"


Last Friday Declan and I made a trip out to Floyd for a "mommy lunch" with some friends from our small group. We had such a great time. Crystal graciously hosted our lunch and there was plenty of things to do. Declan had fun swimming, eating, running around with friends and picking blackberries! Thanks to all the ladies and kids who made our Friday so fun!


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Declan eating lunch like a big boy with his friends Aiden, Halle, and Chloe.

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Halle and Chloe sharing...

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He LOVED the water!

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... going berry pickin'...

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our silly little land-locked sailor...


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Luke and his Mom, Jessica.

Erin serving up her yummy dessert.


James and his mama eating dessert!

Summer Fun (part 1)... "Kiddie Pool"


This post is the first of three "summer fun" posts. This one is from a fun morning in our front yard. Declan had a great time splashing in his little kiddie pool. We don't have a spigot or hose at our house so I had to make a million trips from the house to the front yard to fill the pool with water... but seeing Declan have so much fun made it all worth while!


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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Slow Going- 52 weeks 23

I know this is late... but life is crazy busy. Jimmy took this photo on Friday night after we returned home from dinner with friends. We left the next morning for the beach. We will be here at the beach until the end of the week. I will try to work on some editing while I'm here... but am not sure how much I'll get done. I have like five hundred million photos to edit!!! I may not get much done for a while... with moving and all that.


sorry the photo is so grainy... but i didn't really have time to fix the settings on the camera before i handed it off to jimmy.... thanks jimmy for trying to get a photo of me with our squirmy little guy!

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Better Late than Never- July 4th Photos

Sorry this post is so belated... but we've still been VERY busy! We've started packing... and trying to get together with friends every chance we get... it won't be too long before we have to move! We're heading to the BEACH tomorrow... and when we get back, the heavy-duty packing and moving will begin!
Anyway, we wanted to spend some good quality time with friends on the 4th... before we both move to different places. Here are some photos from our fun time together with Amy and Dave VanCovern and Mark, Leah and baby Abigail Appleton!
Hope you enjoy!







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I was so frustrated that this photo turned out a little blurry because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Declan's face in this one... he's like "yeah, I've got milk on my chin... so what?" haha!


sweet baby Abigail



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Declan was obsessed with taking his shoes on and off... and putting them on the table... we're still working on his manners!

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Blacksburg has some of the best fireworks! We had a great time and Declan kept say "WOW" over and over again!

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