Jed Gregory...Man's Best Friend

Pardon the delay but the holidays have slowed me down a bit. Just before Christmas, one of my dearest friends asked me if she could hire me to take pictures for her husband for a Christmas gift so I agreed...little did I know that photographing a black object is one of the most challenging subjects, but I was up for it!! We had a blast and thankfully Chris was very pleased with his little surprise! Here are the pictures of Claire and Chris' sweet boy Jed...

We're ba-aaaack!!!

Hello blog stalkers,
I apologize for deserting our loyal readers! I have fallen off the proverbial earth but have climbed back on again and will resume my posting! I have taken on some new hobbies and have had alot going on, but I am caught up now so stay tuned for the updates!! :)

Hollingsworth Kiddos Christmas Story

This past Sunday our wonderful neighbors allowed me to take pictures of their sweet kiddos, Megan and Jake. We had an absolute blast running around an old abandoned barn. I am not sure who had more fun, Megan and Jake investigating the place or me chasing after them! Megan is quite the little model...she had the poses down to a science and was full of great ideas!! I think I found my new assistant :)

Doodlebug and Baby Animals!! Ava turns 2!!

Little Miss Ava turned 2 on Nov 29th so in honor of her love of animals, we celebrated with a petting zoo and some face painting by Doodlebug the clown. I am typically a bit uneasy with clowns...ok, they scare me...but she is a happy clown and not at all scary. Everything turned out great and the kids had a blast with the face painting, balloon animals and laser guns!! The baby animals were so precious and sweet that we couldn't have asked for a better time :) Thank you to all of our friends and family that came from miles far and wide to celebrate Ava's big day!Please check out the slideshow!

I also can't say enough thank you's to my friends...Claire, who helped with all of the food preperations and general festivities, I couldn't have pulled it off without you...to Annemarie for taking pictures and puting together this amazing slideshow, and Cindy for taking pictures too! You guys are the best! Enjoy the show!

House Remodel Project #1

I will start by saying we LOVE our home! We moved in December of last year and there is very little that I would change, even though I am full of new projects...but, one of the things that we MUST change is the wallpaper. In fact, if it wasn't so hard to take down I would have done 3 bathrooms and a kitchen a long time ago. I mean seriously, who created the freaking glue(cement) that makes this awful stuff stick to the walls. I would like to meet him and ask why he never created the antidote to this glue (cement) and then I would have to slap some sense into him...he could have made a goldmine off of it because everyone knows this stuff goes out of style every 10-20 years and it is ridiculous to remove. And "scoring" it and spraying on DIF only makes an enormous mess of sticky miniature pieces of wallpaper that you have to peel off one.by.one...OMG!!! So here is the not quite before, but during and after. It was a purple and gold harlequin type pattern...PRETTY!

Now the newly textured walls are a lovely Swiss Chocolate with Porcelain Blue accents. Whew! Only 2 more large bathrooms and the kitchen...and they aren't small so I am really looking forward to it. I welcome your knowledge about removing wallpaper :) Volunteers are welcome for wallpaper removal project #2 if you have nothing better to do or if you just don't know what you are getting yourself into, feel free to come over!

Here's to hobbies and passions and making dreams come true!

Well, as far back as I can remember, I have been taking pictures...I was always interested in a new camera and dropping off my film at the local drugstore waiting in anticipation for my prints to come back as quickly as possible. As a kid, I used to go to car shows with my dad and I remember picking out all of my favorites and shooting just the right angles and then there were the multiple rolls spent on "It's a Small World" at Disneyworld alone! As an adult, I have been lucky enough to be able to travel and with this have reignited my passion for photography. Well, now I take that passion a little more seriously because I have a daughter and want to capture every moment, smile, laugh, giggle, expression, first steps and all of the memories to come so that I can tell the story of Ava's life. My friends and family have inspired me to take my hobby to the next level and capture other people's memories...so thank you for the confidence and please enjoy the stories!!

Elgin Pumpkin Patch

Fall is officially here and in full bloom, or should I say full harvest? Pumpkins by the truckload!!! We went and played at the Elgin Pumpkin Festival this weekend with our friends, Claire Gregory, the Speck's, the Morris', and the Keeling's. I would say that the kids slept pretty well that night after the hayride, pony rides, climbing on the tractor, and picking out the best pumpkins for painting! And the best part of all, the guys made it home in time for the game. What a great day with great friends!

Wanna ride?

Ava LOVES our next door neighbor, Megan...and now she loves Megan's jeep! Why wouldn't she? I wish we had cars like this when we were kids!! This jeep goes uphill without any hesitation as well as through the grass when the drivers (Ava) have trouble steering and staying on the concrete :) thank goodness we have a few years to perfect her skills!

Hang on Jake! It is going to be a rough ride!

Megan to the rescue!!!

"Cheeeeeeeeese!"

HELP! When is it going to be my turn? She drives like a girl :)

"See Ava, this is how you stay on the "road."

Happy Trails! Don't forget your pink poodle!

Do you know what time it is???

It's football time!!! OMG...a cold front blew in and it is officially football season! This is our favorite time of the year! What is better than cool autumn weather and football?

My dad called and said that my grandfater has 4 tickets to the Green Bay/Dallas game this Sunday and we could go IF we wanted to...well what would you do? That is a no brainer! We love the Packers and my husband loves the Cowboys and has followed them his whole life. He hasn't EVER been to an NFL game so what better place than Lambaeu Field for your first time??? Well as if it couldn't get any better, we are 40 rows up on the lower level and splitting the 50...can't wait to have a brat and a beer or 2 :) Weather report says 30% chance of rain so fingers crossed...
Ava is coming with us and we can't wait to see my Dad, Aunt Beth and Uncle Russell from NC. Going to be a great weekend!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words!

I LOVE PICTURES!! I have my camera with me at all times and never want to miss an oppotunity for a special memory. We take pictures of the little munchkin all of the time but it has been since Ava was 3 months old that we took family pictures...she is just short of 2 years now, so it is time to update! My great friend Annemarie (AP), who is a very talented photographer, spent a couple of hours with us and took our pics at the park where the actual Round Rock is located.

She did such an awesome job and we can't thank her enough! If you are in the market, I highly recommend her and her work!!

I couldn't sleep because I was so excited and nervous to see them that she caved and gave me a small sampling. Check back for more soon!

Thank you, AP!!

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

They say it's your birthday!! We're gonna have a good time!!
I'm glad it's your birthday!! Happy birthday to you!!

I just wanted to wish my very wonderful Dad a very happy birthday!!! I miss you and wish we could celebrate together! Hope you have a GREAT birthday!!!

We love you! May the next year bring you much happiness!

Love, Laura, Andrew, and Ava

Olympics 2024

I have never felt so old as I have the past 2 weeks...Staying up past midnight every night to watch the Olympics and then getting up for work each morning...but I will truly miss it when it is over and cannot wait until 2012! On that note, I think we might have a young swimmer or a gymnast for the 2024 Olympics!!

Here we are swimming at AP's pool :) Thank you for having us!

I guess we just get less flexible as we get older...interesting to think that I used to be able to do this and can't imagine being able to now!

Anyone need a good decorator?

Does this face look like someone is up to something??? We brought in an interior decorator at great expense to change things up a bit :) Little Miss Ava decided to get into all of the magazines, books and papers that were "hidden" next to the sofa. Apparently they weren't really hidden too well.

Worker bee in action!!!

All done! Mommy, do you like what I have done with the place?

"Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina..."

It's an old tune so you may not know it, but it's a good one...and so true! Ava and I just took a short work trip to Raleigh, NC and while we were there, Ava was able to spend a couple of days with Aunt Beth and Uncle Russ. WOW, did they ever have everything ready for us when we got there! They bought her toys, books, clothes, strawberries, popsicles, and Fruit Loops (new favorite from our Phoenix trip) and the 2 biggest favorites were Beth's mini trampoline and the POOL with the slide!

I think Uncle Russ got quite a workout while the amateur photographers kept trying to get the perfect pic!

What a little swimmer we have! She just loves the water!

While I was at dinner with the Lenovo team, Ava was swimming again and went to visit her puppy friends "Gray" and "Pepper" on the golf course. Payton and Callie would have been so jealous! NC is so beautiful and has so many trees! We can't wait to come back! Thank you so much for such a great time! Love you!

I scream...you scream...we all scream for...

ICE CREAM!!!

We are going to skip ahead to the desert, but just so you know, Ava really did have dinner so don't report me :) We went to dinner at Z Tejas to visit our friend Helena and Annika now that Helena has moved back to the US from Sweden. We had a great time catching up and we are so glad to have her back! It is a shame that we weren't able to get in a trip before her tour was over :(

What are you ladies talking about???

Don't even think about taking my ice cream!

It's a shame she didn't like it!