The Heeden Family!

I'm sure I've mentioned it several times in prior posts and you can be sure that I will repeat it often in the future, but Justin and I are deeply grateful for the truly exceptional group of people that we get to call our friends.

Among those amazing friends are Matt & Sarah Heeden and their two fabulous little boys, James & Andrew. Matt and Justin became fast friends in nursing school and James, who is a HUGE fan of all things UNC and/or sports related, just adores the ground that "Justin Gio" walks on. They are some of our very favorite people to have game night and take-out with and I always end up with sore abs from all of the laughing the day after one of our get togethers!

Being the amazing friends that they are, they've let me use their family as training subjects as I attempt to learn and practice photography. They've been patient as I bring my camera to every get together and chase their children around attempting to put into play some technique that I've read or recently heard about.

So here is a slice of what has been gleaned from a few of those occasions (beware- there are a LOT of photos here!)...

October 5, 2008 (the very first weekend I owned my camera!)...










November 22, 2008...the Saturday of the UNC/ NC State football game- Justin babysat Andrew and we all met up afterward for lunch!






No part of James is touching the ground!














December 14, 2008...James's 4th birthday party!

James's first bike!














Finley (the Golden) and Wrigley (the Lab) are the funniest dogs! Finley is extremely docile & sweet (which makes the following images hilarious!) and Wrigley is super playful- he can fit 3 tennis balls in his mouth at once!