Wacky Tacky Tuesday!

As Zachary was brushing his teeth today he says, "Oh it's Wacky Tacky Tuesday!" So we had to quickly come up with something a little wacky to wear. Hopefully we accomplished that. Still such a handsome boy even if he's dressed a little tacky.

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

Thing 1 & Thing 3

Lately I had been feeling fairly good about my photography skills. Not that I thought I was so good I still didn't have a lot to learn but I was getting better. Those thoughts all came crashing down yesterday when I visited my good friend, Kelly Holder's, photography blog. She is absolutely an amazing photographer. I hope to be as good as her one day. Anyways, after looking at all of her latest pictures I decided I needed to get back into practicing in between client sessions. Today the kids had on their Thing 1 & Thing 3 shirts that they got in Florida this summer so I decided to take some pics in the backyard. Of course I am biased but I think they look so cute in the pictures I wanted to put together a storyboard. I am thinking I may order one of these to put in their bathroom. I just can't decide which one I like better. Thoughts??

#1 #2

Our Summer Vacation

This summer our family went on vacation to Florida. We toured NASA, went to Universal Studios, and stayed at the Nickelodeon hotel. I'm going to have to break up the posts so I can fit all of the pictures in. The first thing we did was go to NASA and take a tour. The very last shuttle launch was happening that week so we were hoping to get a closer glimpse of the shuttle before it was retired. There are quite a few pictures so I put them into a slide show because I couldn't decide which ones to take out. Unfortunately we didn't get as close to the shuttle as we would have liked. AND when we did take the tour to see it (and get as close as anyone can get who doesn't work there) they were servicing it so the "arm" of the launch pad (or whatever that is called) was open and covering most of it up. You will see from the picture we only really got to see the tip top of it (from far away - did I mention that we didn't get very close to it?). Anyways, it was really neat to see all of it. Jason especially enjoyed it. He is a very big space enthusiast. It was extremely hot the entire time we were in Florida and this was no exception. Here are the pictures I took that day....

Future Soccer Stars

Last night I celebrated my 39th birthday by watching Zachary and Addison play soccer. We have signed them up to do a training academy for like 10 weeks or something like that. This is Addie's first time to put on her soccer gear and do any kind of organized sport. She was very excited. I think it's going to be a great experience for both of them. Addie will be doing a mini season that starts in Sep. Zachary is doing the regular season which starts in November. I told them I wanted to take their picture and they positioned themselves. I think they are finally getting the hang of posing for me!!! Aren't they precious?!?!

I am hoping to blog about our fun trip we took to Florida this summer. I've been so busy with taking pictures for other people I've kind of slacked off on my own family. I promise to do better this fall. Stay tuned.....

2011 Kansas Trip

Once again the kids and I went to Kansas to visit my family and go to the River Festival. The kids did fanstatic on the plane. A big thanks to Jason for driving us to New Orleans so we could take a direct flight to Kansas City. We got to KC on a Saturday afternoon and stayed with Angie and her family until Monday. We had a great time visiting with them. That night Barry took Zach & Cooper to see the Royals play baseball. They didn't win but Zach had so much fun. Angie and I took Addison & Carson to Home Goods which is my favorite store of all time. I wish we had one in Gulfport. On Sunday we took the kids to a small water park/splash pad which was a lot of fun. That night we went to a place called Power Play. It's a lot like Dave & Busters but at little more kid friendly. They have a go kart track inside and Zachary absolutely loved it. They also have a buffet where you can eat. The food was really good and they even had Icee machines! All the Icees you can drink (but only while you are in the restaurant area). I would have stayed there a lot longer drinking away but the kids were dying to play.

On Monday the kids and I and Cooper drove to Salina. We stopped in Lawrence to see my friend Kim from high school. I am so happy I got to see her & her two adorable dogs! We got to my parents house Monday afternoon. Throughout the week we went to the pool, a fantastic park in Lindsborg and had my mom's family over for dinner on Wednesday night. It was really great seeing my grandma and my aunts, uncles and cousins. Here are a few pictures from that night....

The great-grandchildren....

Like I said, we went to Lindsborg one morning because they have a great park.
The Salina Country Club has such a great pool. They have a big slide that the kids love.

We went to the Festival on Friday morning. Believe it or not but I was actually cold that morning! It was hot the beginning of the week but it cooled off. It was absolutely wonderful to not have the humidity in the air!! Here are a few pictures from the festival that day....

Addie found this button at my parents house and insisted on wearing it.

The kids got in to the crafts this year. Here they are making a bag to put all of their goodies in.

This is called "scratch art."

Fruit Loop necklace

The kids got their "face painted." I say that lightly because it almost looks like a 4 year old did the painting. Cooper was a Ninja, I'm not even sure what Zach had on his face and Addie had some type of red bird. This picture makes me laugh because of the look on Addison's face.

Here the kids are having a sno cone. It's that invisible cherry. I called it Magic Cherry so they wouldn't fuss about it not being red. They thought it was pretty cool.
The day we headed back to KC so we could fly out the next day the kids were playing outside. I realized Zach and Addie had coordinating outfits.

We had a great time in Kansas!

Trolls vs. Vampires

You may or may not know this about me....I love reading Vampire series. It started with Twilight which is still one of my all time favorite series. I honestly have lost count of how many I have read but since Jason gave me a Kindle last year for my birthday I have been reading a lot of books I wouldn't normally have read. Amazon has a lot of books for $2.99 and 99 cents. They even have free books. I just happened to come across one that was 99 cents by an author I had never heard of before (Amanda Hocking). I figure it was only a dollar so I would give it a try. This particualr series wasn't about Vampires though it was about Trolls. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the Trolls ended up being a lot like humans only they only eat certain food and don't particularly like to wear shoes (among other things). Anyways, I read the first one which is called, Switched, and really enjoyed it. It is a triology and the second and third book were only $2.99. I ended up loving the series and decided to see if she had written anything else. Turns out she is has written 8 books in total. The Troll series and then a Vampire series that had four books. Again, the first one was only a dollar so I gave it a shot. I read all four books in less that a week it was so good. The last book she wrote was about Zombies. Now normally I would draw the line at Zombies but I accidentally clicked "Buy" (again it was only a dollar) so I went ahead a read it. It was really good too! She is an amazing young adult writer. There was a big story about her in the national paper a few months back. Saying how she self published her own stories on Amazon for e-readers. She has now signed a book deal for like 2 million dollars or something like that. My point in blogging about this is I saw on her blog that she was selling autographed books for $10 each. The Trylle Triology is now going to be made into a movie. I figured she could potentially be extremely famous after that so I bought the books. They just came in the mail today and I was so excited. She even sent a bag and a button! She seems like a very down to earth type of person who is crazy talented. She is only in her mid-twenties (I think) so she has many writing years ahead of her!!!

BVE 1st Grade Musical

So I'm not sure I can top the Rock Star pictures of Zach but on Tuesday all of the 5 first grade classes put on a music program. It was called "Getting Down with Mama Goose." Each class had a different costume. My friend, Traci, put together Z's class. They were spiders and the costumes turned out darling. Zach loves to perform and I had a number of my friends tell me to get him into acting classes. Here are a few pictures from that performance.

Our Rock Star

I finally did it.....Jason has been wanting this for a long time........I had Zach's hair cut short again. Zachary really does have pretty hair. As far as the color and the shine. But his hair is straight as a board (just like Jason & I) and so you just can't do a a whole lot with it. Jason said that Z was going to be so mad at me when he looks back at the pictures of him with a bowl cut. :) As pretty as his hair is it just doesn't work long. When we got home from getting it cut I told him I wanted to take some pictures in front of the azaleas that are in bloom in our backyard. He said he looked like a Rock Star with his new haircut. So he insisted on posing like one. This is ALL him. I gave NO prompting what so ever.

Sophie & Addie

Sarah asked me to take some pictures of Sophie so I tried out some of my new backdrops. Of course Addison wanted to have her picture taken as well. I posted the better ones on Facebook but I will put all of them on here. Like always, the colors just don't show up as good in the slide show as they do on my computer. Strangely they show up great on Facebook which is good since that is where a lot of potential clients see them.

Addison's 4th Birthday Party

Last Friday we celebrated Addie's birthday with her friends/classmates. Her birthday is actually tomorrow but the place we had it at wasn't open on Mondays. She had a GREAT time!! She got a little shy when we all sang Happy Birthday to her but other than that she ran around like crazy playing with all of her friends. Here are a few pictures from the party...

New Website!

I have officially launched a "temporary" Erin Rollins Photography website. I designed one from a site that offeres templates for free. Some time I need to figure out a permanent one but I really wanted to get my prices and information up so people could view it online. Anyways, if you haven't seen it already check it out!

www.erinrollinsphotography.com

The girls

Sarah came over today so I could take some pictures of little Will. When I got done with him I had the girls come over and sit down for a few. There are two of Sophie that I think are just gorgeous. I wish you could see them bigger because the colors are beautiful. I need to figure out how to make pictures bigger on blogger. Anyways, here are a couple of Sopes and one of her and Addie.

Destin, FL 2011

Wow, I am doing a horrible job of posting to the family blog!! Sorry about that. Now that I'm taking pictures of other people I haven't been taking as many of my own family. The kids and I went to Destin, FL a couple weekends ago with Jason (he had a business meeting there). Martin & Linda were also there. We stayed at a fantastic hotel, Sandestin Hilton. The kids and I got there on Friday after school (Jason went with his parents on Thursday). On Saturday the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was so warm that we were able to get in our swimming suits and go on the beach. I've been to Destin before for this meeting but it has always been too cold to go on the beach. The water & the sand were absolutely beautiful. The kids had so much fun playing. Martin & Jason braved it and got in the very cold water with them. I used my camera as an excuse to stay out of it. Yes I know, very smart. Anyways, I'm glad I did because I got some great shots. The colors were gorgeous (although I don't think they translate as well in these pictures because they are small). On Sunday we woke up to a ton of fog. We couldn't even see the water from our balcony. We had such a great time. If you haven't been to Destin, FL you really should go sometime! Here is a slide show of some of the pictures I took while on the beach...

Shelley's Kids

Normally I wouldn't share images from a session gone bad but the kids are so cute I wanted to. The reason the session went bad was my fault. I am trying to learn how to take pictures on manual and I some how got the Shutter Speed way off. Most of the pictures are dark and grainy. Anyways, I wanted to share a few since, like I said, the kids are so cute. The two below, Arley & Orrin, are my friend Shelley's kids. The little tot down below is her niece, Sonora. Hopefully we can do another session and I'll stick to what I know!

This one cracked me up because of the finger. :)

New colors!

Obviously I have changed a few things on the blog. I have been researching templates for my Erin Rollins Photography blog and decided to play around with this one. Anyways, I hope y'all like it!

Rounded Corners

Here is another trick I've learned just by surfing the web. I am obsessed with a website called ILP.com (I Love Photography.com). My friend, Kelly, who is a professional photographer told me about it. It is perfect for all photographers but especially green ones like myself. You can learn so much from other people. If you have a question you just ask it and people will give you all kinds of advice and information. You can even post pictures on there for constructive criticism. Anyways, I've been searching other photographers websites trying to get ideas, trying to figure out if I want a blog or a webite for my business, etc. I noticed that most of them have rounded corners on the pictures they post. A lot of people (me included) have no idea how much time it takes to actual edit pictures. Anyways, I wanted to share the two that I practiced on. I think it makes them look even better. Oh and I also learned out to smooth out skin. Not that precious baby Lexi needed much but still. :)

Sweet Rebecca and the dog that was walking around that day.