Meet Claire and Aaron.  They wanted a quick session to get pictures they could use for a save the date.  We were supposed to shoot yesterday but as you know the weather was horrible, so glad we waited until today!  What a gorgeous day!  I met them at The Bank of Fayetteville off the square where I parked my car on a slight decline.  We went and shot around the square and had a blast.  Then I was supposed to get into my car to follow them to their home to see where their wedding was going to be.  I got in my car and it wouldn’t start!!!!  Right then I remembered how many times I put off getting gas today!!!  So embarrassing!  I walked over to their car and told them what was up and they made no big deal about it and said get in!  We went and saw the location where I saw my first in person bloodhound!  :)  They are adorable!  Then Aaron got a gas tank and they took me back up there, he even put the gas in my car for me!  They were even nice enough to offer a ride if I didn’t make it to the gas station!  What a sweet adorable couple!

So thank you Claire and Aaron you were my lifesavers today!

Enjoy!

-erika

So I’ve decided that since I’m a photographer I should probably document this time of my life with accuracy.  With that said I am starting Belly Thursday.  I wasn’t too big on the whole belly picture idea but I felt it a necessary passing of life.  At least for our first kid right?  Anyways if you don’t like it don’t read it.  Here’s my first Belly Thursday shot at what we think is 8.5 weeks.  Not really anything going on yet.  We have an appointment on Monday for an internal ultrasound to find out more surely what the due date is.  I’ll let you know, I’m sure.

Enjoy

-erika

My husband is obviously a coach.  So tonight we had a date night watching the junior high boys play against Siloam Springs.  Unfortunately they lost, but they played really hard.  It was a really close game so that made it fun to watch!  :)  I had planned on taking my camera into the gym to show you we actually did go to the game but I forgot it in the front seat of the car.  After the game I realized it when I went to get into the car so I told TW that I had to take a picture somewhere where people would know we were there.  So there’s a Huntsville Eagles sign on the back of the gym that we snapped some pictures below.  It’s dark, I’m using a point and shoot (I thought I may embarrass him if I showed up with my camera and set it up during the game on a tripod!) so my picture isn’t the best.  But it is ME and my husband which still counts as a self portrait for today!  :)  Oh and I want to thank everyone who has sent warm wishes our way!  We are pretty excited and I’m sure I’ll keep everyone posted on what’s going on.

Enjoy

-erika

TW and I obviously had big news to share with our parents and instead of a silly phone call we decided to try to go incognito and write on their vehicles while they couldn’t see us.  The above picture is from TW’s mom’s school.   She’s a school teacher at Huntsville so we decided to go “tag” her car then call the office and have them page her saying she should go check her car after 6th hour.  We sat hiding in our car waiting for her to come out and waited some more.  She never came so we were like oh well the surprise is ruined.  We walked into the office at the school and of course everyone in the office had known by then, and then we walked down the hall to her classroom where she was trying to call us.  Apparently she did see it but she didn’t go outside.  She said she thought TW called to tell the office she had a flat and as she was walking to go outside another teacher caught her and asked if she’d seen her car and to come look out her classroom window!  She jumped with excitement.  :)

We actually told my parents first as they live in Fayetteville.  We parked our car beside their house, behind a building, and secretly snuck in their driveway and wrote on my mom’s car.  Well then we decided that wasn’t enough we wanted to write on their front house window.  So we snuck up to it only to be disappointed that it had a huge screen over it.  So then TW stretched out and wrote on the back of Papa’s (my stepdad) Expedition.  Well apparently my mom was supposed to be napping but she was standing in the living room watching him try to be sneaky and write it on his car!!!!  Funny story!

So of course there’s more.  We actually found out on January 1st while we were on a ski trip (actually in the hotel room) with TW’s family.  We found out before anyone got there and we had to hide any trace that we knew the whole trip!  That was so hard!  Then hide it for about 18 more days!  We wanted to make sure and have a doctors appointment as we did today before we told anyone and obviously wanted to tell our parents first!  And to top it all off we just had dinner last night for my birthday with our closest friends and my parents and didn’t tell anyone!  :)

Enjoy

-erika

My day was pretty normal as far as days go.  I did vow not to do any photography work, although that didn’t happen as I ended up making DVD’s for clients.  Also I met with the famous Andrew Baker to deliver his DVD to him.  Funny side story, the first day we had a “get to know you” meeting the day before our shoot and it was his birthday so we met today so I could deliver his product and it was my birthday.  Pretty sure it was even same time same place!!!!  ha ha.  If you don’t know the famous Andrew Baker, he’s the cool guy that works/performs on cruise ships and has a girlfriend named Molly.  I took some much needed headshots for him and we had a blast.  During the shoot he asked me about my 365 self portrait project and why it had gone to the way side, I mentioned that I guess I just got lazy, so he challenged me to start it back up that day.  I’ve been going strong ever since.  Maybe now I feel like I am responsible to someone, not only someone, but someone who will glady call me out on it!  :)  This is why I think Andrew Baker is famous!

Anyways back to my birthday……….. I spent some time hanging out with Ellie (something I wanted to do on my birthday) while I was waiting for TW to get home.  Once he got home he greeted me with flowers and a red envelope.  The image below is pretty much true to the word of how it happened as he got out of his truck and walked across the front yard over to me as I had a huge grin on my face.  We then continued to play with the doggies until dark, which at that point we went inside and cleaned up to go out to eat at Noodles.  I had spaghetti with marinara sauce, I know how original, but it’s my fav!!!  My parents and a few friends came.  Ooh my parents are sneaky.  They stopped by Noodles ahead of time to ask if they served Key Lime Pie and if it was ok (bc they don’t) if they could bring one by to store until we got there.  I LOVE key lime pie (thanks to an old high school friend Cole Barton!)  - we used to trade a homemade key lime pie for a chicken alfredo pizza when my parents owned the pizza store.  Anyways that was a nice surprise!!!  Thank you to everyone who sent me all the wonderful birthday wishes via texts, phone calls, emails, and facebook messages!  I really do appreciate all your responses.  It’s funny how a simple “Happy Birthday” phrase can brighten your day!  :)

Ps.  Ellie is behind me (our chocolate lab) probably trying to hide from our new dog “Midnight” who was one of Roxy’s (Roxy was my first yellow lab as seen in several of my facebook pictures) only batches of puppies before she passed away.  I am pretty excited to be able to have one of her pups!!!

Enjoy

-erika

Traditionally in the Dotson’s household (in laws) they celebrate everyone’s birthday on a Sunday close to your birthday.  Well today was my party and I missed it!  I was told a few weeks ago it would be in a couple weeks.  I went into work and noticed that we had a mandatory meeting scheduled at 6:30pm today which obviously caught my attention since I try to avoid working on Sundays.  I was more worried about being at a mandatory work meeting on a Sunday than about making it to my own birthday party.  How pathetic!  Had I remembered I totally would have called in and said “Hey sorry but I am having a birthday party today, I won’t be able to make it in.”  Instead I was greeted by my husband when he arrived home with two gifts and a birthday cake with “24″ on it, oh and some candles as well.  I thought this would be a perfect self portrait!

Enjoy

-erika

This is my favorite outfit to sport at home.  It’s the outfit you slip on right after you crawl out of bed on a Saturday morning, the outfit that you can’t wait to wiggle into after wiggling out of those tight jeans you wore all day, and finally the perfect outfit for a movie night with the hubby.  So here I am in my kitchen, with my favorite outfit, cooking a meal that if it ceased to exist so would I.  Does anyone have any guesses what it would be?

Grey hoodie provided by my husband, red flannel pj bottoms provided by my grandma Rosie as a Christmas present years ago.

Enjoy

-erika