My new Husband

Some of you may have noticed that I changed my name..........well I am very excited to announce that I got married!  He is the strongest, sweetest man that I know.  He is a from Alabama and is a BIG football "roll tide" and racing fan.  Cannot wait to introduce him to all of you! 

Professional Photographers of South Carolina "Super Sunday Educational Series"

Here are a few images from PPofSC's "Super Sunday Educational Series" that I have been busy with this year.

Michael Lamb's class in Spartanburg, SC

Adrian Henson's class in Columbia, SC

Tom Bagby's class in Columbia, SC

Photograph of Emily from Randy McNeilly's class in Spartanburg, SC

Photograph of Catherine from Randy McNeilly's class in Spartanburg, SC

Homemade Pizza

Oh my goodness.........I will never buy a frozen pizza again.  A few weeks ago James Clark asked if we could make homemade pizzas, dough and all.

So when I went to the grocery store I picked up all of the items we would need to make a homemade pizza.

Today was the day to make homemade PIZZA!  It was so quick and easy and very delicious.  We mixed the Jiffy brand dough with water and let it sit for 5 minutes, while our sausage was cooking for 12 minutes.  I opened a can of black olives (one of James Clark's favorites), pepperoni and some Mama Mary's pizza sauce that I found.  The pizza sauce was a package with 3 five ounce packages inside so there would not be left over pizza sauce to put in the fridge to get yucky.

James Clark had a ball with the dough......sticky fingers and flour flying.  He wanted to twirl it like a real pizza maker, but we opted out of that since I did not buy a back up box of dough (in case it hit the floor).

All and all it only took about 20 minutes to prep everything and 18 minutes to cook the pizza and when you figure that one of those frozen pizzas take 25 minutes to cook I would much rather have fun making this homemade pizza with my son and spend the extra 13 minutes and have a much taster pizza.    I did I mention it was so much FUN to make with my 3 year old.

Scuffed up Face and Paint!

James Clark and I paint all of the time. I have stacks and stacks of his painted masterpieces.  I sign his name and date each one, because I do not want to forget how much fun we are having and how beautiful each and every painting he makes is.......and now he has his first real scar and of course it is on him nose.  A photographers child and it had to be his face......crazy!  It was one of those days that it was just to pretty outside to not paint on the patio and we went to move some artwork inside and down he went on a Friday afternoon.  This is what it looked like by Monday and now it is just a little pink spot.  You can tell when we started that he was so tired, but he perked right up as you can see with his little peeking grin.......he is such a mess!

New Years Yumminess.......

My sister Missy brought me this delicious cheese bread that just melted in my mouth.  

I added a little turkey, fresh spinach and tomato and it was so good....... 

These are my prepped collard greens..... I cooked them with some onion, garlic, bacon and brown sugar and they were delicious!  I could eat these everyday.

SANTA'S been HERE!!!!!

My little ROCK STAR!!!

James Clark and Granny (93)!  I am so glad that he is having the chance to know my sweet Granny. 

With Grandmama and Granddaddy, being silly!

Being extra silly with Aunt Mimi and Uncle Brett!

Now on to GINGERBREAD TRAINS and TREATS for SANTA!!!

We had so much fun with the Gingerbread Train.  Last year he has a house, so this year we tried out the train.

James Clark picked out all of the things he wanted on Santa's cookie plate which included our favorite Trash, the iced sugar cookies that James Clark cut and decorated and our Rice Krispie Treats with sprinkles.  Oh and Santa got some milk too!!!!

It's CHRISTmas COOKIE time!!!

James Clark and I had so much fun making cookies this year for all of our Christmas packages.  We made packages for our neighbors and packages for Mama's neighbors and we even got them delivered before Christmas Eve, AMAZING!  We baked for days, Sugar Cookies with Icing, Ginger Cookies, Rice Krispie Treats with Sprinkles, Marshmallow Fudge and of course our personal favorite Trash.  

Then we had to take a little break to paint some more Christmas trees and play in the hammock.

More goodies, slowly it is getting there.  One piece at a time.  Trash, check, Sugar Cookies, check, Ginger Cookies, check, Rice Krispie Treats first batch, check.

Here are all of the treats lined up and ready to package.  Time for a break with trains!!!  

Then we got to package them all up.  James Clark was so funny handing me each individual thing to add to the bags.   Then all of our yummy treats all packaged.  All that is left are the labels.

How cute are these labels.  I used the same template that I made for James Clark's painted trees and then wrote notes to our neighbors and taped them to all of the bags.  

We enjoyed making them probably as much as everybody enjoyed eating them.  It was so nice to catch of with everybody!!  

While we were delivering packages James Clark got to play soccer, baseball, soccer basketball with the bushes and he got to jump on a trampoline.  Here is the great shot that our neighbor took of James Clark on the trampoline.  Just look at that great hair full of electricity.  It matches his perfectly!!!

Making more Trees/ Holiday Crafts Columbia, SC

James Clark has been making more trees.  We found more things around the house to decorate with.  My boy is so smart and he is learning to reuse and recycle which makes my heart happy.  We have reused the sausage tray (washed of course) for our paint tray, old paper for our trees and Granddaddy's blue tops from his insulin for the dots.

Taking a short break on the hammock!

Homemade Christmas Ornaments with my Sweet Boy!

James Clark and I have had so much fun making homemade christmas ornaments this year.  We started with a paper tree that I drew a templet of, then I made a bigger template for glueing the paper tree to.  We used left over red and green paper that someone was throwing away and then we used our cereal boxes for the larger tree.  We painted all of the paper trees and then spray painted the cereal box trees, glued them together and stuck them through out our tree.  They look sooooo good!!!  I love how James Clark painted these trees.  I will cherish these for all of my life........

For this one we recycled our old toothbrushes (of course I washed them) into paintbrushes.  They made a really neat design and James Clark had a ball.  

We used mixed mediums, finger paints, glitter glue, watercolor paint and now we are using the plaster and sun-catcher paint.  

Then I found these plaster ornaments that you paint and we spent days painting 24 new ornament for our tree.  James Clark would sit down at him little tykes art studio and paint.  It was so cute to see what color he decided to paint each figure.

Next we have been collecting Chick fil a kids meal bags.  So we took all of the bags that we have been saving and cut out all of the cows from the bags.  You can see one of the cow faces with Santa in the photograph on the top middle, then again below on the left.

Mama found some sun catcher ornaments and this cute little plaster train, so we have been painting them for the last couple of days.

When we were decorating our tree I forgot that last year James Clark made these clusters made from several ornaments.  He was so cute picking just the right place to hang them.

So James Clark and I  have a homemade ornament and cow tree.  How fitting for our last name Cowherd.  Thank you Mama for letting us borrow one of your trees and lights for our Christmas tree this year!!!!

HALO Christmas Program

This was our church HALO Christmas production.   He was so funny, when they were trying on costumes for the program they wanted James Clark to be the donkey, but he told them that he was going to be a cow.  He came home that night and said he was going to be a cow and he sure was the cutest cow ever!!!!  Our Choir Director Judy made James Clark the cow costume.  She did an amazing job with it.

Then my sweet boy got to be an angel.  He did so good.  Of course I was right there with him, but he still did great!!!  I love my sweet boy!

Thanks to all of my church family that made this production possible.  Thank you so much for all of your hard work.

Bryson / Newborn Photography Columbia, SC

Look at this sweet newborn baby boy Bryson.  Is he not the cutest thing.  He was such a great baby to photograph.

Jordan / Columbia, SC / Chapin, SC Lifestyle Portrait Photographer

I have been photographing this boy since he was 3 years old!  He is now 13, I cannot believe it.  I can still see him in my mind as that sweet faced 3 year old in a blue and white sear sucker suit with his sweet cheeks and great little grin!!!  You sure have grown. 

Sick Baby Boy

My sweet boy, he has been feeling under the weather, but he is still my beautiful baby boy!!!

Farm Session / Columbia SC Lifestyle Photographer

So who has always wanted to be photographed on a farm!  There are so many great places to photograph there.  I can even take the tractor out in the field and use it in the background to make some great images and the children love to get on and pretend to drive.  It is a great experience for everyone.

We (James Clark and I) were there the other day out driving the tractor and looking for the cows and when we turned around at the creek they appeared over the top of the hill peering down the hill at us.  It was such an amazing site.  I wish I could have photographed it, but I didn't take my camera down because there were to many rain clouds in the sky and I didn't want to take the chance for it to get soaked if we got caught in a down pour.

It was great to see all of the new babies (calfs) and to see the babies (calfs) that we watched being born all grown up into adult cows.  James Clark was not even a year old when we use to go to the farm three times a week and take care of the cows.

The farm is where my Granny(who just turned 93) and my Daddy (who would have been 68 had he lived) grew up.  Daddy lived there with his Grandmother from the time he was about 7 until he came back to Columbia for his Senior year of high school at Dreher High School.

Fall Sessions / Chapin SC Lifestyle Photographer

Fall is here and there are so many great places to photograph with the leaves changing and the weather being cooler.

James Clark hamming it up!!!

You are never to young to learn!!! / South Carolina Lifestyle Photographer

You are never to young to learn.  Lately James Clark has been wanting to take photographs with my camera when I bring it out to photograph him.  So I have been letting him take some photographs.  I was really surprised when he was able to hold it on his own because it is pretty heavy with the lens on it.

The other day we were out in the yard photographing and I took his portrait and then he took mine.  He played with all of my reflectors and just had an absolute ball.  I was really surprised when I downloaded the images of me.  It was pretty good even though I had just pulled my hair back into a braid and had absolutely no make up on.

Anyway here are some of the images from the day!!  I hope you enjoy them!!

Shannan / Chapin, SC Lifestyle Photographer

Meet Shannan, she is the new member of the Board of Directors for the Professional Photographers of SC.  We had a meeting this past Monday and I photographed this just outside of the restaurant.  I just love the photograph of her!!!