My twin cousins, Emily and Erin. have grown up. In fact, they will be graduating next weekend (Mother’s Day) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in Education.

Over the Christmas holiday, I offered to take their graduation portraits. And can you believe it…they took me up on my offer! So, I met up with this past Sunday for a complete tour of campus.

Interestingly enough, earlier in the day, my husband asked if I wanted to hit the gym with him before I met up with my cousins. Although tempting (ha ha, who am I kidding), I decided that I would probably get a good cardio workout in later in the day. I’m pretty sure walking around a college campus for two hours counts as a workout, right?

Actually, I was quite tired…but there was no way that I was going to admit defeat – pregnant or not! Emily and Erin had a full list of places they wanted to capture, and I…I was bound and determined we were going to capture them at every single one of them.

Luckily, we had an incredibly beautiful day to work with…as evidence by all of the other graduates having their graduation portraits made at exactly the same time.

In addition to the weather, I also had the benefit of working with two beautiful models. I mean seriously…I have an entire set of images that I could have shared in my preview. I’m a bit jealous that they snagged those gorgeous blue eyes…and eyelashes.

Either way, it’s really hard to believe that my youngest cousins (they’re about 8 or 9 years younger than me) have become such smart, classy and beautiful young women. I am so proud of them and know that if anyone is capable of teaching our next generation of leaders…it’s them.

With that said, congratulations Emily and Erin. You have made the entire family proud. I know that Grandma will be smiling down on you next Sunday.