Photography Throwback! *** Day 2 ***

Day 2 ~ Choo Choo! Yes, I'm a certified dork! Anyway, once we left the Page Walker Hotel, we headed over to the railroad station where people were waiting to be picked up...


We figured we had enough time...and when else would we have the opportunity to play around on the tracks in downtown Cary?? So we did! Dad was a kid again:) Every once-in-a-while our "tour guide" would mosey over to us to let us know that the train would be here soon. He was soooo worried that we'd get mashed like a bug if we didn't clear ourselves 100 yards from the tracks. Where's the fun in that????

But it did finally come!

Love this photo of the girl waiting anxiously for the train...

...and a reunion:)

He was also worried that we weren't far enough away, but that didn't stop us!

Photography Throwback! *** Day 1 ***

Ok, I was just trying to be clever with the title - give me a break! Yes, the past two weeks were a complete wash, and yesterday was too, so I'm going to try to make it up today! Last night, I was trying to clear some much needed space on my Mac, and decided to finally go through the 2010 Photowalk photos that I took this Summer. Luckily, I've been so busy since then, I haven't had a chance to put my special touches on them. So I did them last night! Each day this week, I'll show you some photos of each part of the photowalk!


We started the tour at the Page Walker Hotel in downtown Cary. I plan to take a lot of wonderful photos here in December when Audrey and Anson say "I do"!

The following photos are the garden/landscape area around the PWH.

Busy at work!

The Zinnias were so beautiful! They inspired me to plant my own - unfortunately, that didn't work out too well:(

Want to say a little shout out to my best friend Barb, and her family. The Lord blessed them with their little boy, early. He is beautiful and the Lord is already answering the many prayers coming His way for Cameron. I got the pleasure of meeting him the day after he was born and he is perfect! I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to hold him and I know his parents are wishing for that even more than I am! Please keep them all in your prayers:)

~The Avery Girls~

New, fun location! There's an old "farm" called Malcolm Blue Farm that Billy and I went to a Bluegrass festival at, a while back. Since then, I've wanted to do photos there, and the Avery girls were the perfect "victims". We all had a lot of fun!

The architectural scenery as background, was perfect!

I've already posted a couple of these on Facebook. One of them got a comment that Christina looked as young as her daughters - sooo true! Chris and I worked together for a couple years, and I knew she had two daughters, but didn't realize that her oldest was in 8th grade!

Her youngest, Anna:)

Her oldest, Charlotte:)

Love this photo! They're were great and followed my horrible directions so well! Thanks girls!!!

Barbara, Branden & Baby G :)

Its my birthday! AND...since I can do anything I want on my birthday, of course its going to have to do with photography! I've been waiting to post these, so THIS is what I get to do - my best friend's maternity photos!


I lived in the Raleigh area, for 20+ years and had never heard of Haywood Hall, but it turned out to be a beautiful place for their maternity shoot.


This must be what it means to be "glowing"! Barbara is absolutely gorgeous - in general and pregnant! She knew she wanted to be a mommy since as long as I can remember. She's always talked about it, and now her dream is coming true....


Barbara and Branden are the best couple I know! They bring out the absolute best in each other, so I know they are going to be the best team of parents for their little boy:)

Just a little note: The intention of the ice cream was for Branden to feed it to his pregnant wife - which would make sense, right?? He sat down with the ice cream before she did, while we got ready and had our backs turned, and when we turned around he was digging in!! So funny! So we just went with it;)

Perfect, little round belly! If all women could be sooo lucky to be this adorable!

Are there words? They are just such a cute couple!

So Blessed:)

So much for an entry a day! Actually, what had happen was....I chose probably the busiest week I've had since I left my full time job, to start this new "adventure". Its called my birthday week! I'm in high demand this week and I'm so happy to have a lot of things to take my mind off of the inevitable!



Today for my photo, I'm posting something that is in my house. I happened to glance at it last night before I went to bed and having already had a wonderful meeting with some of my church family that night, I felt compelled to post this photo.

I bought this rod iron cross at TJ Maxx (woot!) a few years ago. I believe I was in college or I was living by myself in Asheboro for my first job as a teacher. Either way, I remember when I bought it I was just beginning this very spiritual part of my journey. More importantly for me at the time, it was a fashionable way for me to decorate my home and say "I go to church!".

When I glanced at it last night though, I was so grateful to see it at that moment - in our bathroom of all places! I have been taught recently from many resources to look for God. Nope, not a ghost hunt! Per His suggestion I look for Jesus in the beauty of the world around me. No, I'm not talking about how beautiful this particular cross is or how wonderful my editing turned out, I'm talking about the beauty of the changing leaves, the sun shining, and in the particular moment last night, the reflection of the night's meeting with the girls. Last night, I was very honest with them. Ya'll know I'm very blunt anyway, but in certain cases I reserve that for a certain level of comfort. The beauty was, their absolute acceptance of what I had to say including my testimony about why our church is home to me NOW. GOD has most certainly put these people in my life for a more than evident purpose and I am so grateful and humbled.


...and I promise not to walk around taking photos in my house anymore;)

Up to My Ears in Pumpkin!

Last year, I started making my Mom's wonderful "Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie". I'm telling you, it's better than any store bought pumpkin pie you'll ever get! Anyway, the process starts after Halloween's Jack - O - Lantern has had its day to shine -- haha, I'm hilarious! I cut him up, steam him, and then comes the mashing! You wouldn't think one pumpkin can make a whole lot, but our medium sized pumpkin turn out about 10 - 15 cups of mashed pumpkin, so now my tiny freezer is busting at the seams!

The pumpkin in the mashing process, then to the blender to make it extra smoooooth!

For about half of the pumpkin, I go ahead and mix up the ingredients for a pumpkin pie. That way, the day or two before Thanksgiving, I get out the frozen mixture, let it thaw, and then bake a masterpiece in about an hour:)

I decided to do this as my first "daily" post because (try to stay with me on the stretch of sentimental moments) this time when I started to make the mixture, it reminded me of what I saw when I looked in the bowl with the beautiful mix of brown spices, last year. I remember thinking of my Mom making this pie when I was a kid. I was and am always so amazed at her brilliance in baking. Her famous sourdough "Granny's bread" is coveted in the neighborhood, church, and of course, her children's homes. I can remember being so proud of her when a photo of her surrounded by, I believe it was her snicker-doodles and stone-jar cookies, was in the newspaper! We've also started a new tradition on a Saturday close to Christmas where we all come together and make dozens and dozens of a variety of cookies for Daddy's clients. Sooooo much fun!

Ok, enough of my sentimental stretch;)

This is as close as you're going to get to the finished product for now. The mixture foams a bit after all the ingredients are blended together. And now, like I said, my freezer is about to bust and I'm afraid to open it!

I can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving with my huge and complete family:)

In Honor of Stella's First Birthday!

Today, Nov. 5th, is Stella's first birthday!!

She is so silly! She's not a huge fan of flowers, leaves, or really the outdoors, so for a lot of these photos, her Mommy was entertaining us both with songs:)

One minute giggling, the next stone-faced! But isn't her face angelic??

For the past two times I've done her photos, I've literally laughed out loud as I previewed them. Her expressions are priceless!

This is our (Billy and my) gift to Stella for her first bday! She seemed to like it;)

Stella was a skeleton for Halloween...I just had to add this one in, because she's so a model - look at those puckered lips;)

This was during a wardrobe change, but I love the vibrant colors of the ball pit. She's definitely in the "everything I touch goes in my mouth" phase;)

I honestly thought that she would dig right in, but Stella wasn't too sure about this yummy looking cupcake.

Just when I thought she was going in for a big ol' bite, she wasn't having it! Her Mommy picked apart the cake of the cupcake and fed it to her, but she DID NOT like the icing!

This is just about as close as she'd get! Until, in an attempt to get away from it, she accidentally stuck her foot in it :p