Heather's First Prom

I just sent my baby girl off to her first prom. She looked so beautiful and her boyfriend so handsome! Gosh it really hit home how much she has grown up! What a bittersweet time!





Helping her get ready for her big night:




I have always loved taking photos such as these. And of course this process is a big part of prom night!

Yes, I am biased, but what a beautiful young lady!

Heather in the prom dress her Granny made for her. What a blessing to have such a talented Granny! Thank you Billie!

Heather and her daddy:

It seems she has grown up overnight...and she's finally taller than me...even without the 3 inch heels! I'm standing on a block of wood!!!

Our family:

Heather with Granny and Pappy Freddie. What a bunch of cut-ups!






Aw, Daddy's girl. One of those moments that just makes you cry:

Hunter gets his boutonniere:

Heather's corsage:

The cute couple! Heather and Hunter.

Preparations for a Spectacular Prom

Heather asked her Granny (my mother in law) to make her prom dress and of course Granny has agreed. I took Heather to look at patterns and she selected one she liked and then took Granny back to show it to her and find out if she'd make it. Granny took her shopping for the fabric, the notions, the pattern, etc. In the mean time Heather and I went another day in search of shoes. She never did find the shoes she wanted in the color she wanted but found some she liked that would do. There have been evenings of fittings and measurements off and on for a few weeks back and forth between both households.




Prom is this Saturday and the final adjustments are being made. The dress looks almost finished and no longer like a heap of fabric.




I wanted photos of the process but did not want to give away the look of the dress before the night of the actual prom and portraits. So, I carefully shot a few photos...then changed them all to black and white photos so the color of the dress isn't even obvious.

Tools of the trade:

Kudos to Carmen!

My beautiful cousin Carmen, whose birthday I share, helped me start my blog by patiently answering lots of questions and pointing me in the right directions. If you haven't checked out her blogs yet, by all means do so! Carmen was interviewed on tv this morning about her blogs. I am so proud of you, Carmen!

Carmen is the mother of 6 children and her blog, Mom to the Screaming Masses, relates her experiences as such. Saying she is the mother of 6 is saying a lot about her....but there is so much more to Carmen than just being "the mom of 6 children."

She has another blog, The ELFF Diet, which gives nutrition, diet and exercise advice. Carmen lost 80 pounds in 2 years following this diet and has managed to keep it off. Go see what she's been up to. You'll be glad you stopped by!

Not Me Monday

It is once again time for a "Not Me Monday" post in which I admit to all the craziness that is my life while at the same time denying it all. "Not Me Monday" is where I inform you of all the insanity of the previous week! Normally I would send you over to MckMamma's blog to get started and to see what everyone has NOT been up to...but she's unable to play along with us for now. In the mean time check out her blog and pray for her son Stellan with her.

On to the craziness....tonight after a meeting in our community I was not approached by a reader here who said "you're Tammy... I read your blog. I'm a friend of Thien's and my name is Jessica." So, I am not going to give a shout out to Jessica (Hi Jessica!) and would not even tell her to say hello the next time she drops by here and leave a comment (leave a comment to say hello next time, Jessica).

I did not plan for months and months to go to the beach this weekend with my family and friends to attend Sandfest and see the sand sculptures. We did not decide Friday not to go after all on Saturday due to weather forecasts of rain and thunderstorms. We did not learn today that it didn't rain a drop at the beach on Saturday. But, we did not have an absolutely marvelous time chatting the day away with my friend Kendra and her kids. Heather did not LOVE having teenagers in the house to hang with either! The teenagers did not start a game of Monopoloy as soon as Kendra and her kids Erica and Ashton arrived and surely did not spend much of the afternoon playing!

Heather's friend Hunter, Heather, and Kendra's kids: Erica and Ashton

When it was time to eat dinner Saturday, Marty did not dig out Heather's old portable picnic table we used when she was little. All the teenagers did not sit at it to prove they'd still fit either!

Erica, Hunter, Heather and Ashton

Time for dinner! Kendra, Erica, Heather, Marty, Hunter, Ashton and in the corner my mother in law Billie.

Heather is not attending her first prom this weekend and of course I'm not planning to take tons of photos of she and her date. Her date also has not been warned of the hundreds of photos he's likely to endure before I let my daughter out the door. Said date did not spend all of Saturday hanging out at our house. During that time, he and Heather certainly were not found chasing my husband Marty round and round the house as they attempted to steal his giant tub of cheese balls from him! Nope, that kind of craziness just doesn't happen here...must have been someone else's house, someone else's husband, someone else's kid!

I did not spend Sunday afternoon taking marvelous portraits of my friend Shannon. And I of course did not make her climb up a set of steps on the OUTSIDE of the rail to get a shot I wanted! Nope, just ask anyone whose portraits I've taken..I'd NEVER do something like that!

Shannon

My friend Shannon recently asked me to take portraits for her business cards. I was happy to do so. We had to reschedule our original shoot date due to rain so we got together this afternoon. Shannon is a beautiful woman so capturing great shots was a BREEZE!

Here are a few of my favorites. To view all of her portraits, just click on any of them and you will be linked to my smugmug site where you'll find many of my photo galleries.

Easter Eggs and Horseshoes

After a great Easter Musical presented by our church choir, the children all gathered for the big Easter egg hunt...which had to be moved indoors due to the much needed rain. Even though I don't have little ones that hunt eggs anymore I wondered down the hall to watch anyway and to snap a few photos.

Hollly

Randalyn

Chandler

Katie

Heather's friend Hunter joined us to attend church and then for dinner at my mother-in-law's. The rain stopped and it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon! Before we could eat we were informed we had eggs to find in the yard. I haven't hunted eggs in years, but what fun! Marty, Heather, Hunter and I raced about the yard trying to find more eggs than the rest.

Hunter & Heather hunting eggs

I had to stop and count all my eggs to make sure I had more than Marty. Yep...I did!

When we'd found all we could, I had 12 eggs and Marty had 10...and Heather and Hunter each had close to that. Each egg contained coins, but one special egg contained something special which entitled the winner to a special prize. I tried to convince them all that I had the egg with the special prize because one of my eggs did not contain a coin, but a spider! But, no, Marty got an egg with a Susan B. Anthony dollar so he won an adorable basket! I tried to remind him that what's mine is mine and what's his is mine...but he wouldnt' hear of it this time.

You'd think with 2 adults and 2 almost-adults we'd have none of the "no fair, he's giving you clues" stuff, but not so! We all acted just like kids and loved every minute of it!
When all the eggs were counted it was determined that 2 were still missing...so Marty went in search of them until he found them so he'd have more eggs than me. Quite the competitive lot we all are!!!

After the egg hunt and delicious grub the adults pitched horseshoes while the teenagers played pool in Granny's game room.

Marty pitchin' horseshoes

I pitched a few good ones....and a few that Freddie had to dodge!

My wonderful in-laws, Billie and Freddie

It was a blessed day first in worship, then with family. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Spring Showcase...part 1

Last week the high school dance team, drill team, cheerleaders, and winterguard put on a show for the community. It's an annual event where the teams can show everyone what they've been working hard on all winter and in most cases what they performed at their various competitions.


Heather was able to perform her solo again.

Those who know Heather but have never seen her dance probably don't know she's capabale of poise and grace at all!

Spring has Sprung

I know, I know, I've neglected my blogs lately. To my faithful few followers I am sorry. I have been otherwise occupied with a website of a different sort...for my high school graduating class. Dare I admit this summer will be our 20th reunion??? Yikes!


Anyway, I digress...on to the blog! Today when I came home for lunch a hummingbird buzzed me. So, before I headed back to work I grabbed the camera and waited on the back deck to see if I could capture any.


They kept flying way up in a nearby tree so they were hard to capture!

Oh Baby!

In honor of so many gals tricking everyone into thinking they're pregnant today for April Fools, I am posting some unique baby portraits I took this weekend. When my friend Nancy and I finished wondering around Trade Days downtown Saturday, we walked around downtown among the historical buildings, etc., to take pictures. As we walked down Court St. our eyes were drawn to these babies we saw through the window. They are the most precious dolls I've ever seen! We didn't go into the store, but took a few photos of the dolls through the window. I don't think I've ever seen such realistic dolls before!

Wordless Wednesday