Dance Recital and Housekeeping..

We went to Hannah Jane's first dance recital last night! She was so excited to get to be on stage, and on TV (we got a camcorder!). She was in two numbers...one ballet & one tap.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the night...

In the dressing room before we started getting ready...look how excited she is!!

This was her costume for the first dance...Breakfast at Tiffany's to the Cupid Shuffle.

Oh...then she decided that the gloves itched her arms and the tap shoes hurt her feet. This lasted for about 15 minutes :) I know I'm a mean mom by getting this shot, but isn't it too cute!

On stage at last... This is Mr. Rene (our dance teacher's husband) standing in for Daddy while he was away on a trip.

Here's the "Girls Just Want to have fun" costume... She sure was having lots of fun in the dressing room!

I've also been doing a little housekeeping with my computer. It's been running a little slow lately being bogged down with all my photos. It was time to archieve some of the older images. It's hard putting these on a CD and not having them right there at my fingertip anymore. Here's a few images that really stuck out today.

This is my cousin's little boy, Mark. I don't even think I showed this to her, but I love it now!

I can remember trying to get these two to take a "nice" photo together. I tried for about 3 days straight until I finally gave up. At the time, I didn't like this one because Andrew is being goofy and Hannah's not looking at me, but now I just love it! What was I thinking?!

Just a cool shot of a door...

And a gate...

This was actually captured by my friend Keri Hensley when she came to see me up in Quantico. I don't know why I didn't see this one before, but it really stood out to me today! Thanks Keri!

Another June Balloon Session...

I had a fun time tonight photographing a cool little 4 year old boy. I think he enjoyed playing with the balloons, too!

I love this location! This shot is similar to the one that I just ordered huge for my house :)

Here's the little guy showing me how fast he could run!

A sweet portrait...I love these big eyes!

Little sister was such a cutie that I had to squeeze her into the session, too!

I hope you guys enjoy your preview! I'll have your gallery up in about a week.

Visiting Family in Crystal Beach, Texas

We just got in a few hours ago from our little trip to Crystal Beach to see Simon's extended family. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins Halle, Jackson, and Camden!

Here are a few of my favorite images from the weekend...

Simon with Hannah and Halle...they are the same age...just days apart!

Checking out each other...They liked calling each other "cousin" :)

A fun chocolate conversion of an image of Jackson, the great pillow balancer :)

One of Andrew's favorite poses, now ...lol!
Almost all the grand kids on this side of the family... Halle, Camden, Hannah, Jackson & Andrew

My favorite shot of little Camden...Look at those eyes!

Having fun racing cars on the hard floor....see the curls, too!

Andrew did good sharing his toys...

Uncle Simon tickling the kids...

Hannah Jane chilling in the hammock...

The girls trying to escape to the beach...

Jackson and Halle splashing in the waves...

Fun shot of all the action...

Jackson showing me his seashell that he found...

Uppercase Living...

Okay...I'm totally in love with this product! It's the coolest thing ever, and I've got a million ideas of what I want to use them for! Michelle Christian is the demonstrator who did my party. These things are kind of like fancy stickers except they don't look like a sticker. They look like a hand painted expression or design! You should check out the catalog online. Just go here...

https://customercorner.uppercaseliving.com/Login.m
You'll need this to register...
Demonstrator ID: 995642
Registration Token: Christian

My party is still open until Tuesday so if you see something you love, it'll help me out, too :). I want to get one more for the living room, and one for the laundry room, kitchen, our bedroom, the kids bathroom and bedrooms :) Can you tell I'm addicted...LOL!

Father's Day

Okay...I know it's already the next day, but I'm still up and wanted to wish my Dad and Simon a Happy Father's Day!

I got some great shots of Simon with the kids just before his last trip.

And here's a couple of shots of my dad.

This one is just an old snapshot...
Dad - I need to get some more up-to-date shots of you with the kids :) !

Thanks so much for being great Dads! I love you both!

Family fun...

Just a little preview from this evening's session with two year old, twin boys! Wow...did they have some energy! It started out as a June balloon session, but those quickly flew away :). Everyone made the best of things, and I've got some many adorable shots of the two!

Mom had put together a beautiful portrait wall in their home. It was full of black and white images so that's why I choose to present these in black and white...and I just love b&w, too!

This was the game that the two came up with...they'd run all the way to the garage, and then hide a second before running back to jump on Mom and Dad's back :)

I love this shot of Mom catching the little guy!

I hope you guys enjoy the seeing your portraits! Y'all are an awesome family, and I had so much fun playing with you! Thanks for being so relaxed and open to anything :).

Lower 9th Ward

I wanted to share these images from today's assignment. I photographed an check exchange ceremony in the lower 9th ward.

Here's a little of the scenery there now... Most everything is just empty, but this is a house that the city will not tear down and remove because it's on private property. I was talking to some of the volunteers down there today, and they said that after the storm residents would move their house into the street just so that the city would pick it up.

All that's left of most houses are just the front steps. This is somebody's porch...

Here's the check exchange...The Samsung corporation gave the Make It Right Foundation $75,000 to help with the rebuilding process!

Here's the group of about 100 people that were present today...

Since I got there a little early, I was able to talk to the people at Common Ground Relief, a non-profit organization dedicated to rebuilding the area. This is a group of college students from Berkley that is helping to rebuild the Goodwin house.

Lots of hard work, but still all smiles!

It was almost beyond comprehension how there is literally nothing there!

This is my favorite shot of the day! A little glimmer of hope...