John Merritt and Samuel - Brothers

from our first email conversation, i knew i was going to love meredith.  for one, she's old friends with one of my sweetest friends and best clients EVER, and the way i see it, any friend of brook's is a friend of mine.  but secondly, she wanted to shoot out where she grew up (and where much of her family still lives) because she is a self-described "country girl" who grew up in a darling house on the cahaba river with (wait for it...) a tree swing, lots of flowers, a red barn, and the greatest wagon i've ever seen.

this old photographer's heart was immediately smitten.

and meredith certainly didn't disappoint.  she's such a sweet soul with two adorable boys to match, and they made my sunday evening utterly fantastic!  this is what i had to work with...



sweet, huh?

meredith and her family were in town from north carolina so i didn't have a chance to meet them prior to our session, but when i emailed to ask a little about her boys, she told me two very important things about john merritt:  that he loves all things truck and he can't go anywhere without his boots.



and come to find out, samuel was just beginning to take his first steps that very week.  just beginning...



i learned a few things on my own, though, while i was playing with them.  first of all, JM is crazy-ticklish...



and samuel might have the sweetest baby parts i've ever seen!



the house above where we started our session is actually the "new" house.  we loaded up into the golf cart to drive across the highway to the original house and to meredith's great-aunt and uncle's house next door to that (you know it's going to be a good day when you have to drive a golf cart to the old wagon and the ages-old tree swing)...




meredith, thank you for the wonderful afternoon and for inviting me to take part in such a fun day with your boys!!  (oh, and please tell your mom again how sorry i am about that little car-meets-flower-planter issue.)  ;-)