Stone Mountain

We had a really fun day at Stone Mountain! Fran brought along Ella (her best friend Heidi's daughter) and Reese had so much fun having a friend to play with! It was also Ella's 4th b-day. They had a BLAST together!!

Ella and Reese looking through the fence waiting for the train to come

Reese actually went over to this rock and told me to take her picture. She didn't even give me a chance to compose it! She then refused to take another, LOL!

David on top of the mountain. That is the top of Reese's head that you see.

So sweet of them!

It was extremely windy on the mountain and Reese pretended to be a bird

She was running all over the place

We finally met up with Fran and Ella on the lawn to watch the Laser Show. The girls had the best time dancing together. However Reese concerned me! She pranced all over the place looking over her shoulder, rolling her hips, and she even tried to do a jump into a split. I assume she learned this dancing from the jazz and hiphop classes at her dance studio.

This picture looks like a karate chop

Aren't they cute!!

The train came by and was really loud!
I'll have some more when I post the pictures for my final photo assignment.

Assignment #3

I only have one more week of class! The 6 weeks have gone by so fast and I've learned so many interesting things!

This technique is called "ghosting". This is a long exposure and all done in one shot. David was such a trooper! He got bit by a bunch of ants.

These were done with sparklers and are another example of a long exposure. These ranged from 25-30 seconds.

This one is my absolute favorite!! Maybe from the entire class session. This is what I submitted for my silhouette. The flags were put by our mailbox for Memorial Day and it was David's idea to have Reese hold it. So he put her on his shoulders and I told her to hold it high and to look at the flag. She followed directions! My instructor really liked it as well. She looked at it for a really long time. I really am in love with it!

And some more hats...

I've been working on hats day and night. I just came up with this boy hat design. I liked the way they turned out.

I have been working with Reese on doing a softer smile instead of her big "cheese" smile. It back fired on me when I asked her to smile bigger. She told me it was her "soft" smile.

And here she had enough. This is totally a Reese face! :)

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent the Memorial Day weekend in Winston-Salem visiting David's family. It had been a year and a half since we had been there!

We had a picnic at Tanglewood. It was such a yucky, overcast day.

David doing bubbles for Reese. Why does every kid love bubbles? David had a swarm around him when he was doing it.

David and his Granny

Ballet Recital

This year has been a struggle getting Reese to do her ballet/tap. The first day of class I actually had to go back with her because she was so upset, the second time they took her back there crying. It did get a little better through the year but she always clung to our legs and didn't want to let us go. She would do some of the things that she learned in class for us, but that wasn't often.

David took her Saturday morning to her ballet rehearsal. What was neat was that it was the same place I had my recital when I was a little girl. Heck, the dance studio where Reese goes is the same place that I went (different building)! My poor baby girl stood on stage totally scared. Her hand in her mouth and just looking around. So, I figured that was what would happen Sunday for her recital.

I took her backstage and was to hand her off to a stage mom. She didn't want to let me go. I told her that if she did her routine she could have a special treat (when in doubt bribe). The stage mom let me take Reese backstage to her chair. Reese didn't like that I was leaving her but she let me leave. I anxiously waited for Reese to come on stage. The lights went up and there was my baby girl! She shocked us all when she actually did her routine! Fran turned to me and said "she's doing it Erin, she's doing it!" I have to tell you that I bawled like a little baby! It was my proudest mommy moment!!

I am very thankful that Ryan was around to french braid the front.

I'm not sure why we have the sad face here. Maybe she was looking for us.

When we picked up Reese back stage she immediately said "Where's my special treat?" Man I love my girl!

She wanted to go eat at Bugaboo for dinner
My little diva!

In case you are wondering my little girl was the cutest one there!!! :) Like you thought otherwise...

Mary Mac's

Fran was sweet and invited my mom, Reese, and I to a lunch at Mary Mac's. We were a large party with Fran, her future MIL, Heidi, Heidi's mom, Heidi's daughter, and my crew. Fran wanted to take her future MIL to a good southern cooking restaurant. If you live in Atlanta or if you're in town you should definitely check it out. It is down the road from The Fox. We had pot likker, fried green tomatoes, strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler, you name it!

Reese "tickling" her Aunt Fran

Reesie loves her Aunt Fran. See how red Fran's neck is from Reese "tickling" her?

And just because it's now in my head...

Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother
For 50 cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.

They jumped so high, high, high
They reached the sky, sky, sky
And they didn't come back, back, back
'Til the 4th of July, ly, ly!

Assignment #2

This week's assignment was zoom bursts and panning. I didn't get a chance to actually try the panning technique. My instructor of course wants me to turn it in next week. These were my attempts of zoom bursts. I thought they were a lot of fun!!

This is a painting in my foyer. I actually took the picture of the painting just to practice and I thought it turned out really neat.

I searched through my pantry for something colorful and found Jelly Belly jellybeans. I really liked the way it turned out!

What I really wanted to do was one of those really big suckers but couldn't find one anymore! Between David and myself we probably went to like 7 stores. On my lunch break the day of my class I had to run into Michael's for yarn and found it there!! I didn't get a chance to play around with it much and went ahead and submitted it. She wants to see it when I am able to get the picture that I want. So, stay tuned!

Holy Hail!

I wanted to share some pictures from the hail storm we had a few weeks back. Reese wanted to get a bucket and shovel to play in it!

Reese's first hair cut!!!!!

Today was the day. I decided that it was time for Reese to have her hair cut. Her hair has grown in so uneven it really just looked shaggy. I started talking to her about it last night and she was just devastated by it. She kept saying that she wanted her hair and that she didn't want it cut. My friend, Vicki, said it best..."She was having flashbacks of being bald!" We did wait a long dang time for her to grow that hair. I had a hair appointment today and my stylist, Andrea, was sweet enough to trim Reese's hair. When we got to Level Spa Salon Reese really dug her heels in and wouldn't even go through the door! I finally got her in and she insisted that I get my hair cut first. So, I did. It was funny because when I was getting my hair shampooed I would take my hands and run it through her hair. She would put my hands back on the armrests and say "Mommy, keep your hands here. You need to be still, OK?" She did this a good 5-6 times. I just loved her doing it. When it was her turn she got scared again and I could feel her trembling in my arms. I just felt so bad for her! But, she was OK once I got her in the chair. Andrea got to work cutting her hair. It was just a minor trim and she really evened everything up and it just looks so fresh. Her hair actually curls more now! By the end of the visit Reese was giving everyone a hug bye!

I, of course, had my camera to capture the moment.

Watching her TV before Andrea was ready for us. I let her bring Elephant. I basically let her do whatever she wanted to this morning :)

Very unsure and Andrea was just combing it.

Getting ready for the first cut!

There it is!

Look how long!!!

All done!

Reese insisted that I take a picture of Andrea

All done!

If you need to find a great salon Level is the place to go!!

The Knitted Noggin

Well I decided to start small and started a blog/website for my hats. I was getting a lot of requests for a website to show the hats so here it is. It is called The Knitted Noggin. Go check it out :)

My second photography class!!

I am so excited to say that I have started my second photography class. Fran wasn’t able to join me this time so I put my big girl panties on and decided to take the class on my own. David, Reese, and I all went down to Atlantic station so I could try and do my assignment. This week we were given a list of words and I we had to take a picture of something that represented the word. I had a VERY hard time with this. I take things very literally and black and white….I’m sure you guys are all nodding your head right now. I cheated and submitted 2 photos that I had taken previously, but I can’t do that again. There were other folks that did it too. So here is what I came up with.

I cheated on this one. It was from my last photography class. This was taken at Oakland Cemetery, I've shared this one before. This was for the word "alone".

This was another one that I cheated on. I took this one in Louisiana at my uncle's house. This one was for "old".

I took this one in Atlantic Station. This is another "old". That is really stretching it though...the metal is kind of rusty :)

This was taken in Ansley Park. I said this was "fear".

This picture is for the word "together". I just love how the bubbles turned out in this picture.

This is another one that I took at Atlantic Station. I said this was "wild" because Reese is our "wild child".

I didn't turn this one in for class, but I just LOVE it!!

So, can you totally tell how I have a hard time being creative???