White Christmas

On December 25th we woke up to this....

little did we know that within 2 hours we would have over 4 inches in Hartselle. It was fantastic!

Before I could make it in the house and grab my coat Brent and Emily broke out in a snowball fight. Thank goodness they focused more on each other rather than me...

My parents live on my Grandpa's farm. We all decided it'd be fun to ride over to the barn and take pictures of everything covered in snow.

of course we built a snowman... (and found a bit of yellow snow- gross!)

My parents got a lot more snow than the actual city did. We did pause out in my Memaw's front yard to take a few pictures of Charlie and my sister. Here are some of those:

I hope everyone had a very merry WHITE Christmas. I will update more with all our individual Christmas gatherings when I have time. I apologize for my lack of blogging in the past few weeks. It's been super busy around the Thomas house. 

Christmas Anticipation

I am sitting here dreading the four working days before Christmas. I want to sit on the couch, eat goodies and watch Christmas movies right up until go time. However, duty calls and some of us must report to work right up until Friday. I tried to finish my "elfing" this weekend but had no luck. I lack one gift card and a few items for Brent. He's been really hard to buy for this year. He keeps saying "you should have listened all year long to things I like". Really? Because he never wants anything!

We went to PetSmart today to purchase goodies for Charlie's stocking. He keeps sniffing it. I guess he want the rawhide bone. I must say he keeps me warm while I blog... always sitting right behind my head.

Now I'm off to work on Brent's stocking and catch up on a disc full of Dallas. If I haven't mentioned this before I am highly interested in the old TV show "Dallas". Not sure why. I think it's because it's freezing outside and I'm not really busy doing anything else. I love the 1970's attire and characters. The series ran for like 13 years so I'll get to see how things changed dramatically through the 1980's right up until the end in '91. Brent thinks I'm crazy. I probably am.. but I'll be the first to admit I'm hooked! Only 300+ episodes to go.

3 years ago...

We bought Charlie. I can't believe it's been 3 years. Brent knew I wanted a Lhasa Apso so he started searching all over the internet to find one. He found on near Montgomery and we drove (puppy unseen) a few hours after to work and met a lady named Jane who just happened to have the cutest puppy ever in her van. It was love at first lick. Even Brent was smitten. Take a look at our little puppy three years ago...

Only 10 shopping days left.. I better get to "elfing".

Camera Flash Weekend

This weekend literally flew by. I didn't get very much "elfing" as Brent and I call it completed. I did however spend a great deal of time shooting and editing photos. I can honestly say the time just flies by when I'm doing that. If you haven't had a chance yet, go check out http://ashleythomasphotos.blogspot.com/. I enjoy taking pictures in my spare time. I've had a nice camera for a few years but never really had any subjects to shoot. Lately I've found plenty of people willing to let me practice on them. I truly enjoy it. I run around taking pictures and don't even realize I'm doing something that some people are lucky enough to consider "work". I'm always here willing and ready to shoot any child or family that is interested. My cost is free.. I'm a beginner with a passion for something I hope helps brighten other peoples days.

My grandmother snapped a few photos of me taking photos...

It's funny to see how lost in the moment I get. 

Belk Obsession

You know the game you play at your lingerie shower where your best friends ask your fiance questions about the bride... well one of mine was "What's Ashley's favorite store?" and guess what- the BR got it right. BELK! I'm slightly obsessed. It's so wonderful to have one within 5 minutes of my office. It's like my own personal bit of sunshine at the end of a long work day. Well today I went in to kill time before church and look what I found:

I guess I was in a "stripe" kind of mood. Needless to say I am going to swing by there tomorrow to see what else they have because I was in a big hurry today. I recently had a birthday so I deserve a few new tops (at least that's what I keep telling myself when BR asks). Both these were only $21 a piece with my coupon! I'm pretty sure the coupon is open and available to everyone throughout the rest of the week. The sales lady told me it's an additional 15% off sale with or without your Belk card. I know that's not that much but both these started off at $40 +. Anyways I'll be sporting my new "Hamburgular" sweater tomorrow hoping not to freeze to death. Where are your favorite shopping sites this season? I'm hoping to cross a few names off my list tomorrow after work. Happy Shopping to you all!

Anna Claire

I've got several things left to do before the big day. I'm off to internet shop until bed. I wanted to leave you all with a few pictures of the cutest little girl around. Click here to see the sweet Anna Claire :)

Sunday Rewind

Today was fabulous! Besides the freezing temperatures outside all went as planned. I was able to spend time with two precious families practicing taking pictures of little people. The comment I made a while back about Charlie not being able to keep still is an understatement compared to children between 15 months to 3 years! It was fun though! Made me want one of my own (Brent...are you reading?) in a few years. I've only had time to edit one session so far. check it out here. I promise to edit the other as soon as my fingers thaw out. Brent ran off to the grocery store without me. I think he realized I was in zombie photo editing mode and decided he'd best go ahead instead of waiting on me. Hopefully he will be back with ingredients for a yummy soup. Sounds like a Soup & Dallas (yes the series from the 80's) kind of night.

Christmas Card Fiasco

So each year there is a debate over "which" photo to use for our little family of 3's Christmas card. I can always get a good picture of Charlie but doing the same of Brent is tough. He refuses to take photos. I mean he makes this weird face and gets grumpy and doesn't want to go with the flow. Blame me because I always have a camera in hand asking him to let me practice this or that on him. Flashback to Thanksgiving.... My sister Emily took 3 pictures of us in my Memaw's front yard. I insisted we just use one of those and Brent was not a fan. On Thursday I declared that when he came home I would have the tripod set up in front of the tree and we would be taking a new family photo if he wouldn't allow me to use the Thanksgiving candid. I got home around 5:30 and worked with the light settings and eventually gave up because the camera would not focus on me while I was practicing our set up. If I held the camera it focused perfectly on Charlie but as soon as I put it on the tripod it focused on the tree rather than the human. Frustrated, I gave up and put my pajamas on and removed the small amount of makeup left from the day. Sure enough Brent came in around 7 and wanted to know why the camera studio wasn't up and running. I explained the predicament and he declared "You either do this now or never" so I ran up, changed again and put on new makeup. We wasted 45 minutes with the self timer! Seriously.. our tree looked fabulous (each ornament in focus) but our faces were a big blur :(  Needless to say we will have the Thanksgiving photo along with a super cute low light shot of Charlie gracing the cover of our Christmas card this year. I hope to have them mailed by the end of next week (Shutterfly should have them to me by Thursday *fingers crossed*). Here are a few out takes from the session:

our pretty tree

Brent giving Charlie a pep talk to look at the camera

Here's how much better things go when the camera is in my hand rather than on the tripod:

Tomorrow is a Big day. I am fortunate enough to take pictures of two precious families. I just pray the pictures turn out okay :) Brent and I will do church together then split up. I hate spending the day apart but he didn't feel like tagging along on my adventures. Instead he will be heading to the nursing home to visit his grandmother. He has prepared a tin of candy and a stuffed Christmas decoration animal to take to her. He really is the sweetest thing. 

We received our first Christmas card in the mail today and it was from the first family I took photos of earlier this year. I have to share it here because it made my day.