The Dorminy Family

Shutterfly!

2012-01-25T18:33:00.004-05:00

If you can't tell, I absolutely LOVE Shutterfly!!! I had gotten several $20 coupons when we registered at various places and I also have gotten several coupons for free photo books!! I do not let good coupons go to waste!! I have tried to be a "scrapbooker" many times, but I get so behind that I get overwhelmed. It also is hard to do if you don't have hours at a time to sit down to work on a scrapbook because of all the mess that you have to drag out!!! So I am naming myself a "digital scrapper!" These shutterfly photo books are reasonably priced and they are so fun to get in the mail!!! I LOVE SHUTTEFLY!!! And no, I am not getting another free coupon for promoting for them!!! Below is my latest photobook creation!

Preparing for Raegan

2012-01-25T18:33:00.001-05:00

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Shutterfly offers exclusive layouts and designs so you can make your book just the way you want.

Hi, my name is Kim and I am an addict!

2012-01-19T13:39:00.013-05:00

Like many of you, I am ADDICTED to PINTEREST! I usually tend to scroll through the thousands of cool and unique ideas during those middle of the night feedings and "repin" away! There are so many amazing recipes, crafts, and ideas that I wish I could try!! Pinterest can bring out the creative and crafty side of anybody.

A couple of my favorite crafts that I made from there include the wreath the I made for our door when Raegan was born (which I have not transformed into a Valentine's wreath) and the canvas prints that I made for my mom for Christmas. I made an 8x10 canvas of each of the grandkids and am going to make her a 16x20 of all of them once we can find time to get everyone together. When I bought her canvas, I also bought a couple of extras to make for myself! I have also learned how to make a scarf out of an old t-shirt and got the idea for Raegan's weekly pictures from Pinterest! I would like to thank the mastermind behind that website!!! I LOVE IT!

Here is the process of making the canvas:

Materials:

Photograph same size as canvas

Canvas

Acrylic Paint

Mod Podge

Sponge Brushes

First paint all the sides of the canvas. I covered the edges of the canvases that I made for my mom with some cute scrapbook paper, but decided that since this one is so large (16x20) that I would just pain the sides.

Once the paint dries, cover the entire canvas with Mod Podge and then lay your photo on top and gently press it down to glue it in place.

Once the photo is glued to the canvas brush more Mod Podge over the entire surface of the photo. I just poured the Mod Podge onto the photo since it was such a large surface. For the 8X10's I poured the Mod Podge on a paper plate.

This is about the point where your heart starts beating fast and you ask yourself why you ruined a perfectly good 16X20 photo!

About 20 minutes later.... you can see the Mod Podge is drying!

Finished product!

I plan on making several more of these and covering a wall with all of them!!! So much cheaper than framing!!!

Probably my favorite Pinterest idea was to take a picture of Raegan every week for 1 year on a different piece of fabric. I am actually taking one of her in the weekly onesie and another picture of her with the wooden "R." I thought her laying next to the "R" would truly show just how much she has grown each week! At the end of the year, I am hoping to make (or have someone make) a quilt using all of the different fabric. I have also already started a shutterfly book of all of her "weekly" and "monthly" pictures. I am documenting all of her milestones and "stats" in that shutterfly book!! It's already super cute and we are only 6 weeks in!! Let's just hope that once I go back to work I can keep up with the weekly pictures! Here are just a few of those pics:

Is it bad that I absolutely love her face in this picture??

Can you tell how much she has already grown?? Her personality is really coming out in the past few days!!! Tomorrow will be our 7 week picture....the fabric is already laid out and ironed!!

Here are some of my other Pinterest creations!

T-shirt turned into a scarf! I made quite a few of these during my "nesting" phase before Rae was born!

Baby blanket made out of material that matches Rae's diaper bag that I bought of Etsy!

Wreath announcing Raegan's arrival.

Same wreath transformed into a Valentine's Day wreath!

Happy crafting!!!

When to find the time....

2012-01-18T18:23:00.003-05:00

Updating the blog has definitely not been of high priority on my list of things to do! Most of you have seen many of my pictures and read updates on our life with our sweet baby girl on facebook. However, I do realize that not everyone is on facebook (which I do not understand, hahaha!) For those of you "Anti-Facebookers" here is a little update on our new life!

I have taken the easy way out this past month and a half by posting the shutterfly books that I have created of Raegan on the blog instead of uploading pictures directly to it! We are finally sort of getting into a routine and I feel like I am able to start getting some things done now! Raegan has truly ROCKED our world (in a good way of course!). I never imagined how much our lives would change once she arrived! We have always been on time or early for things...now we have to start getting ready 2+ hours early instead of the 30 minutes that we used to take! There have been many times that I start to get her dressed and we change clothes 3 or 4 times because she spits up all over herself before I can even finish getting her dressed! Enough babbling....everyone knows that we all love blogs because of the pictures!! I have taken over 2000 pictures of her since she was born, so these are truly just a taste of some of my favorites from the past couple of weeks!

Raegan's First Month

2012-01-06T09:23:00.001-05:00

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Raegan's Arrival

2011-12-12T11:03:00.001-05:00

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Still nothing....

2011-11-25T20:50:00.001-05:00

In anticipation of Raegan's arrival, I've went ahead and prepped the blog for some baby updates!!! Nothing yet though! Hopefully she will grace us with her presence over the weekend! If not, guess I will be back at work on Monday!

Almost 40 weeks!

2011-11-23T19:38:00.004-05:00

I am beginning to think that our baby girl is not going to make an "on-time" arrival!!! I went to see Dianne (my cousin/mid-wife) today and there has been little to no progress in the past 3 weeks! She went ahead and scheduled me another appointment for next week in case she is just too comfy to come out!!! You can bet that I will be posting pictures as soon as I can once she arrives! I've got several cute ideas for newborn pictures for Raegan! I have a feeling that she is going to be photographed more than any baby!!!

3 month photo shoot!

2011-11-23T19:20:00.002-05:00

My good friend Beth emailed me last week begging me to take her little guy's 3 month pictures. She had paid a professional photographer to take them and was very unhappy with the quality of the pictures that the lady took, so she wanted me to take them! I took that as quite a compliment! She has asked me to take his 3, 6, 9, and 12 month pictures. Here are some of my favorites from the session!

Let the waiting begin....

2011-11-04T19:04:00.002-04:00

The nursery is finished and all that's left to do is wait (well, and unpack boxes in our new house)! My mom and sister came over one night this week to put the finishing touches on the nursery! It looks GREAT!!! The house that we moved into already had a bedroom painted light pink and it matches everything PERFECTLY! I'll post more pics of the house later, but here are some of the nursery!

What we've been up to.......

2011-11-01T11:58:00.002-04:00

Okay, so the reason that there have not been any updated pictures of the nursery is because........................WE MOVED over the weekend!!! CRAZY TIMING, HUH???? Yeah, being 36 weeks pregnant and moving can be pretty stressful, but I feel like I have handled it pretty well! We don't have internet at home yet, so I can't upload pics of our new place, but I will as soon as I can! Things are coming together, but we still have a TON of stuff to unpack! Pictures to come soon!!!!!!!!!

35 Weeks!!!

2011-10-22T14:51:00.003-04:00

I cannot believe that I am the 35 week point of my pregnancy!! This has absolutely flown by! I still feel great (other than the constant heartburn, no matter what I eat or how many TUMS to take). I'm just starting to get a little uncomfortable at night when trying to roll over in bed, but if those are my worst complaints....I am doing pretty good!!

We have had a couple of baby showers over the past few weeks. At the end of September, my sister threw us a shower with the "Turner family." It was great to have all my aunts, uncles, and cousins get together to celebrate Raegan's arrival. The following weekend my dear friend, Carrie from school gave us a couples shower at her house. Once again, we got tons of goodies! The last week, my special ed team at school gave me a shower where we racked up once again!

I know that you all are just dying to see the absolutely adorable nursery.....but we aren't ready to share pics of that yet! We have something up our sleeve that we will be sharing in the next week or so! I promise to update with pictures of the nursery shortly!

Recent Photo Sessions

2011-10-22T14:20:00.005-04:00

I have had a couple of photo sessions over the past 2 weekends and have 2 more next weekend! Everyone is taking advantage of this beautiful fall weather and getting some pics taken for Christmas cards and Christmas gifts!!! Here are a few of my favorites from the last 2 sessions.

My update.....

2011-08-27T21:26:00.002-04:00

I just finished 2 new posts about the going ons in other peoples lives, so now I figure I can give an update from the Dorminy house! Sadly, I have no new pictures to share of us! I've been using all of my time taking pictures of other people!

I have officially reached the 27 week mark and am starting to feel a little discomfort, but not much! I really started showing in the past week or so. I am pretty sure our baby girl has doubled in size in the past two weeks! I feel her moving ALL the time now. Some nights I have a hard time going to sleep because she is so active! I start my bi-weekly doctors appointments next week!! I truly cannot believe how fast this pregnancy has FLOWN by! Now that school is back in full swing, it is only going to go faster!

We've made absolutely no progress on the nursery! It's still the guest bedroom! That is our goal for September! Get the old furniture moved out and the new furniture moved in! Her closet has definitely made some progress though! Thanks to my sister, Matt's sister, and one of my sister's neighbors our baby girl now has quite a wardrobe to choose from! As soon as we make some progress on her room, you better believe that I will post some pictures!

And the biggest news that I have failed to share with my fellow bloggers.....our baby girl has a name!!!! Her name is Raegan Claire. I wanted to use some form of the name "Ray" because that was my dad's middle name and after he passed away, my Uncle Ray really made sure that we were well taken care of! Matt actually was the first one to suggest the name and I fell in love with it!

Check out the posts below about some of my latest photo sessions!!

Family Session

2011-08-27T21:19:00.004-04:00

You may recognize this family from a session that I did last fall. This is one of my good friends, Carrie and her family. Last fall I photographed all of her sisters and their families as well. This fall we included her husbands parents in the session. They are getting ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary later this fall and Carrie wanted to get some family pictures made to celebrate! These are just a few of the 450 pictures that I took this morning! I found another favorite location at this session!!

The whole Doker family

PRECIOUS KIDS!

50 years of marriage....WOW!

Newborn Session

2011-08-27T21:03:00.004-04:00

Okay, I don't have to tell you guys that I absolutely love photography! A friend that I used to work with just had a baby boy and she asked me to come do his newborn session last weekend! I LOVE photographing newborns! I took about 2 hours for our session and captured over 200 shots. I can only imagine how many pictures I am going to end up taking of our baby girl once she arrives!!!! Here are some of my favorites of those 200+ pictures! Isn't he just precious???

He honestly looks just like a doll in this picture!

Photo Session #1 of the week

2011-07-24T17:09:00.006-04:00

Earlier this summer, my cousin Katie had asked me if I would be able to do a Senior Photo session with her this summer. We finally got around to doing it this past week. I found a new favorite location with these pictures!!! I can't believe that Katie is starting her senior year of high school....makes me feel so old! It was so hot by the end of this session that we were both covered in sweat! Enjoy your senior year Katie!!!

Here are just a few of my favorites from the 150+ shots that I took!

There are a couple of other "NEW POSTS" below, so check them out!

Photo Session #2

2011-07-24T16:43:00.008-04:00

Saturday evening I got to do a "multi-purpose" session with one of my dear friends and co-workers that I have had the honor of co-teaching with for the past 7 years! Diane's daughter, Sarah recently got engaged so she had asked me if I would be interested in doing an engagement session for her and Tyler, her fiance. Then Diane started thinking that maybe they would go ahead and have some family pictures done was well since they had not had any taken since Rich was 2 years old.....as you can tell in the pictures Rich is a teenager now! Sarah and Tyler's love for each other was so evident in every picture that I took. While they were posing, he kept telling her that she was the most beautiful girl in the world and just how much he loved her! Then he kept asking me if I needed any more shots of them kissing. They were ADORABLE!

22 Week Update

2011-07-24T16:35:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that I am already over halfway though my pregnancy! I still have been incredibly blessed and have not been sick AT ALL and really have not had any "signs of pregnancy" other than my expanding midsection and feeling those little kicks every now and then! We went for our detailed ultrasound last week and everything is measuring just as it should and we got confirmation that it is definitely a GIRL!!!

We are currently in the process of cleaning out our guest bedroom to transform it into the nursery. We live in a 2 bedroom townhouse, so making the guest bedroom into the nursery = no guest bedroom! Oh well, I guess our guests will now have to sleep on an air mattress or on the couch! It's really not a big deal considering that our last overnight guest was last July when Chris, Haley and the boys came to stay with us! The nursery furniture has been picked out, but we do not go pick it up until September, so that gives us time to get the room cleaned out!

Our baby girl!

The infamous belly pictures!

My next appointment is later in August, so I will be sure to give another update after that one!

17 Week Update

2011-06-22T19:54:00.002-04:00

I went back to the doctor on Monday for my monthly visit. For those of you that don't know, my midwife is also my cousin!! How cool is that?? She's sort of giving me special treatment because she does an ultrasound at every visit so we are able to really see how much the baby grows each month! It's amazing!! She had told me that we should be able to see if we are having a Baby He Dorminy or a Baby She Dorminy at our latest visit. After about 30 minutes of trying to get the baby to cooperate, we finally got a couple of sneak peeks! It looks like we are having a girl! The baby had her legs tightly crossed at the ankles for almost the entire visit. Dianne said she was about 80% confident that it was a girl, but that she just didn't get a good enough to be 100% confident! I told her that we weren't going to be going out anytime soon to buy paint or anything! For now, we are planning on a baby girl!!! We also got a picture of her with her hand fully opened. Matt said she was already asking daddy for money!

I go back for my next appointment July 18, so we will get to take another look at her! We will also go to the specialist for our 20 week ultrasound on that same day. There they will look at the chambers of the heart and all the organs! It is absolutely amazing watching this baby grow!!!

I'm BACK!

2011-06-13T11:17:00.001-04:00

I have taken quite a break from our blog, but I AM BACK!!!!! I was so busy with graduate school and regular school since January that I had put the blog on the backburner! Now that we have a little on on the way though, I figured I better get the blog back up and running! That's right, I said a little one is on the way!!! Just in case you aren't on facebook or haven't heard the news elsewhere, Matt and I are having a baby! I am due November 27!! I go back to the doctor next Monday and we are hoping to find out if it is a boy or a girl at that appointment!!! I'll keep you updated!

I am not going to go back and update you on everything that has happened with us between January and June! You will just have to wonder what we did for those 6 months! I'm starting out with the post below about our vacation to Jekyll Island. I will try to keep the blog updated more often now that it is back up and running!!!

I know you have missed me!!!!

Jekyll Island

2011-06-13T10:47:00.007-04:00

Matt and I promised each other a while back that we would see the beach and the ocean this summer no matter what!! It had been too long since we had taken a real vacation to the beach! We went to Jekyll Island for 4 nights and had the most relaxing time! If you have never been to Jekyll, you should definitely give it a try! There is absolutely nothing to do on the island except play on the beach, fish, or ride bicycles!! It's a great place to go for a short vacation! Two of the main reasons that we always choose to go there is because it is such a short drive (only about 5 hours) and the beach is dog friendly! Tiger and Harley absolutely love the beach! Tiger loves to run in circles in the sand and Harley loves to ride the waves in the ocean! A fair warning to anyone who may try Jekyll for the first time, on the North end of the island (where the condo that we always stay in is), there is only about 4-5 hours of beach time! When the tide comes in, the beach disappears. It's perfect for us though, because Matt loves to fish at high tide, so he just stands on the stairs that lead down to the beach and fishes off of them! The middle and south end of the island have beach all the time, but not the north end.

We ate some yummy seafood while we were at the beach. There are only 12 restaurants on the island. We ate at the #1 rated restaurant two nights in a row....that's not really saying a whole lot though because the #6 rated restaurant on the island is Dairy Queen (which has a really good breakfast by the way!). The seafood was really good though!

We saw so many raccoons while we were down there. They were everywhere (including in the trashcans at our condo!)

This is Harley's "I love the beach" face!

The car ride down to the beach wore the dogs out.

I would like to know who rated this beach the "5th Most Romantic Beach in the World." It's definitely unique and beautiful, but romantic.....not so much!

Holding hands on the "5th most romantic beach."

All of the rocks were put on the north end of the island to protect the beach from eroding. It's actually really pretty when the tide is hitting the rocks.

Our "low country boil" dinner of Wednesday night.

Matt's sister, her husband and their 2 girls came down on Friday morning for the weekend. The girls enjoyed watching Uncle Matt fish for sharks from the stairs.

She's so stinkin cute!

Matt caught about 10 sharks in the 3 days that he fished from the stairs. These sharks were in about 2-3 feet of water and were about 2 - 3 1/2 feet long! He caught a really big one the first day. It was probably about 20 lbs!

The dogs enjoyed the air conditioning in the condo during the day. Tiger just stood at the window waiting on us to come in from the beach each day!

Fletcher was the only one that caught something other than a shark.

The north end of the island at high tide.

Beautiful!

Anna and Eric playing in the pool.

Cate loved hanging out under the little waterfall in the pool.

A little windy, but we actually remembered to get a picture of the 2 of us!

Fire Station Visit

2011-01-02T18:24:00.008-05:00

I finally got to go visit Matt at the Fire Station today. I felt like a kid memorized by all the fire trucks and equipment! He has to "fill in" at other stations near his assigned station a good bit. The past 2 shifts he has been filling in at Station 19 and has also filled in at Station 9. Matt really likes Station 19 because it is the Haz-Mat crew. They stay incredibly busy night and day. When I got there, they had just gotten in from a call. I was there about 20 minutes before the next call came in. DeKalb NEVER slows down! Here are some of the shots that I took during my short visit!

The Haz-Mat truck. This truck responds to any fires on the North side of the county and to any hazardous material spills/wrecks. The wrecks alone keep them busy since they are right off I-285 at spaghetti junction!

Quint 19: This is where Matt rides when he fills in at this station.

I took the guys at the station a turtle cake and some redneck caviar! Needless to say, it didn't take long for it to be gone!

Matt's gear in the engine....ready for the bell to ring!

I got a tour of all the Haz-Mat truck. Holy cow....you never realize how much equipment is on these trucks!

My man in his uniform!

A visit from Utah!

2010-12-30T10:52:00.003-05:00

Matt's sister, Haley and the boys were scheduled to fly in from Utah onChristmas night like they usually do, but the Georgia Snow didn't allow that to happen! They were able to make a flight a couple of days later though! I know I say this every time they come to visit, but I absolutely love seeing Owen and Cooper! They get so much bigger every time we see them! It is fun to see the cousins get together and play with each other! Hopefully, Matt and I will be able to go out to visit them in Utah sometime this spring!!!

Cooper trying on Uncle Matt's fire helmet!

Cate is such a little ham! She LOVES to pose for the camera!

Cousins: Cooper and Cate!

Another Christmas has come and gone!

2010-12-30T10:43:00.004-05:00

I cannot believe that another Christmas has come and gone! It is always makes our house seem so much bigger once all the Christmas decorations are gone though! I can't believe that I didn't take any pictures at my grandparents house this Christmas, so the only ones that I have to post are of me and Matt on Christmas morning! As I said in my last post, Matt had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. He ended up getting home around 7:30. We headed straight to the Waffle House for breakfast and then to Starbucks for a coffee. Afterwards, we came home to open gifts! Matt went overboard with his gift buying (like he typically does at Christmas!) This year, he bought me a new Apple Laptop. I LOVE MY MAC! He picked out a computer especially for my photo editing. It is awesome! I got him a PS3 for Christmas and he says that it is the best Christmas gift EVER! Men will never be too old to play video games!

Santa came to visit the doggies!

Merry Chrismtas Eve Eve

2010-12-24T12:20:00.008-05:00

Growing up, we always had our "Family Christmas" on Christmas Eve. We would go out to dinner then open up all of our wrapped gifts to each other. Then on Christmas morning, Santa would come (he never wrapped anything at our house). Well, this year Matt has to work on Christmas Eve (today). Mom said that she didn't feel right having Christmas without Matt, so she suggested that we move it to the 23rd this year. We had a delicious dinner and then opened our gifts. It was nice having it on Christmas Eve Eve, because I have been able to get the house straighted again and get things put away before we do it all again tomorrow. Please keep Matt and all the others that have to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in your thoughts! It's easy to forget that not everyone gets to be with their family over the holidays! As always, I took 200+ pictures, but here are some of my favorites from the night!

The photo resizing software that I use has put a watermark on all of my pictures for some reason today. Not sure where that came from!
Mom's beautiful Christmas tree

Graduation Day FINALLY Arrived!

2010-12-02T17:12:00.006-05:00

Well, the big day finally arrived!!! We have been looking forward to graduation day since January 25 when this DeKalb Fire adventure began. Matt has worked so hard these past 11 months and I am so proud of him! I never really understood just how hard it was to become a Firefighter until this year. They have studied and had more tests than I ever had in college. Today, all that hard work finally paid off! The guys (and 1 girl) received their badges, helmets, and diplomas today at the graduation ceremony. Tomorrow Matt will be working his first 24 hour shift. He is at station 9 off North Druid Hills Road in Decatur. Keep an eye out for Truck 9 on the news, because that is where he will be riding! Here are some of the pictures of our exciting day......oh yeah, today is our 5th wedding anniversary too! We truly had a lot to celebrate today! Thank you for all of your prayers and support through this training year! Please continue to pray that God will keep this crew safe as they go out into the "Real World" of fighting fires.

Just a quick funny story to tell: We took Matt's uniform pants to a little Asian lady in Suwanee to be altered. When I went to pick them up this week, she said with her little Asian accent "You husband a police man?" I said no, he is a fire figther. She chuckled and said "Oh, fire fighter.......hot job!" She repeated herself several times. "fire fighter.....hot job!" Then she said "When I think of firefighers, I think of calendars!" She really gave me a good laugh!

Matt receiving his helmet, badge, and diploma.

Here are some of our good friends that we have made during this journey. Crystal had just finished pinning Brian's badge.

Matt waiting patiently for the ceremony to end!

How cute is this........this little boy got to have the honor of "pinning" his dad! It was precious!

Matt and the rest of the guys taking the "Firefighters Oath"

Kendra and Danny, another couple that we have become very good friends with.

Matt with his 2 brothers, Brian and Fletcher (today was Fletch's birthday too!)

Me and Matt after the ceremony

Matt with his mom, Jonnee

Part of "The Gamg"

More of the gang.

His equipment and uniform are stacked and ready to leave out bright and early tomorrow morning!

Another Family Picture Session

2010-11-14T18:31:00.003-05:00

An old friend of mine that I used to work with contacted me a while back and asked if I could take some photo's of her family sometime this fall. We met today at Sims Lake Park in Suwanee and it was absolutely perfect! The leaves were AMAZINGLY beautiful! Matt and I got there about 30 minutes early because I always like to scope out some good spots for pictures. The park was COVERED with photographers! One family was having a picture taken of their 2 boys who were sitting on top of a fence that was about 4 feet tall. As soon as we walked up, one of the boys fell off the fence backwards onto his head. EMT Matt went straight to work (even with his torn rotator cuff!) He stayed on scene and kept the mom and boy calm until the ambulance arrived. The boy was fine, but had a huge knot on his head! Okay, but back to the picutres.....Here are some of my favorite shots of the Dollar Family!

Ellijay

2010-11-08T19:28:00.007-05:00

We had one last outing with some of the people from Matt's Fire Academy this past weekend. We booked a cabin in Ellijay and had an amazingly relaxing weekend! The most stressful thing we did on Saturday was took a trip to Wal-Mart! I could really get used to doing nothing! I told one of the girls Saturday afternoon that I would much rather have absolutely nothing to do than to have a million things to do!

My mom has made this "trail mix" many times before, but this was the first time that I actually perfected it! Mom doesn't usually put pecans in it, but I tried it and it was DELICIOUS!

Our view of the Cartecay River. We stayed in this same cabin last October and absolutely love it!

Matt brought his rubber boots so he could fish in the river and keep his feet wet. As you can tell from this picture, that plan didn't work out so well! He stood in the freezing river for hours on Saturday! The man loves to fish!

Crystal and Kendra

We woke up Saturday morning to SNOW!!!! Okay, so it was only a very slight dusting, but it is still snow nonetheless! Kendra and Danny are from Colorado and were not very impressed with what we call SNOW!

Hanging out by the river!

Making the 1,000 step climb back up to the cabin. It wasn't really 1,000 stairs, but it really felt like it! Harley was not a fan of all the stairs!

Nothing like a relaxing nap with my little T!!

Kendra and Danny (the Colorado Natives)

What a face!

Brian and Crystal (the newly engaged couple)

More quality time with Tiger (or "White Dog" as Danny named him this weekend)! Can you tell which dog is my favorite??

Matt's wonderful photography skills!

The Guys! Surprisingly they aren't doing anything stupid or immature in this picture!

Couple pictures in front of the fire!

Couldn't you get used to drinking a cup of coffee and listening to the river down below every morning? I LOVE IT!

Every time we come home from a weekend trip, Harley does not want to get out of the car. We will literally chase him from the front to the back of the car. This time, Matt grabbed him real quick so he didn't have time to run. However, he still wouldn't come in the house. He laid out by the car for a good 30 minutes before he came inside. I think he has such a good time on our weekend getaways and is afraid if he goes inside the house we may never take him with us again! Crazy dog!

Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year Banquet

2010-11-08T19:18:00.004-05:00

I got the honor of attending the Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year Banquet last Thursday evening. I was super excited about this event because some of the previous TOTY's at my school had told me how special they make you feel on this night. The dinner was held at the Gwinnett Center and it was SUPER nice! They served a delicious candle lit dinner and then honored all of the TOTY's from every Gwinnett County Public School. Here are some pictures from our evening out!

I am usually the one behind the camera! I kept telling Matt, that's enough picture taking! Now I know how everyone feels when I am around with my camera!

Have you ever seen a corsage so huge?? It kept pulling my cardigan down all night! It did have a great aroma though!

Me and my new principal, Mrs. Chris Godfrey

I am on the BIG screen receiving my plaque and check!

What a beautiful (and extremely heavy) corsage!

Showing off my plaque!

Family Photo Shoot

2010-10-24T18:00:00.009-04:00

My friend Carrie had asked me a while back if I could do a photo shoot with her whole family at a little farm near her parents house. So, yesterday Matt and I loaded up the camera and headed to Bowman, Georgia. Every time I go to small towns like Bowman, it makes me want to live out in the country! Then I come home and realize how much I LOVE being 10 minutes from Target and the mall. We would definitely save some money if we lived in a town like Bowman, because there is VERY little to spend money on! In the 2 hours that we spent on this little farm, I took nearly 1,000 pictures. Needless to say, I have been editing my little heart out all day. My fingers have actually cramped up from all of the editing! As you already know, I have a really hard time narrowing down my favorites. Here is just a glimpse at the many that I took! Aren't they all the cutest families you have ever seen??

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Mom an Dad wiall the girls

A grand finale of the photo shoot.......DOG PILE!

More Pictures of Kohen

2010-10-18T20:41:00.004-04:00

Here are some of the shots that I got at the hospital on Kohen's 2nd day!!

Welcome to the world Kohen Daniel!

2010-10-13T20:46:00.006-04:00

My sister had her 5th baby this afternoon. Kohen Daniel arrived around 4:00 this afternoon weighing in at 7lbs 4 oz. He is a cutie!!! I absolutely love black and white pictures, but black and white newborn pictures are my FAVORITE!!! Here are just a few of the 200 shots that I got of him through the window when he was brought into the nursery. I can't wait to go back and actually get to hold him tomorrow!

The whole gang! I love the look on Karson and Kamden's face in this picture!!!

They crack me up!

Family Camping Trip (just not with our family)

2010-10-10T17:56:00.007-04:00

Back in April, my good friend Carrie asked if we wanted to plan a camping trip with her family in October. Since Matt and I are all about camping, we quickly booked us a site. So, for 7 months now, this camping trip with "The Doker's" has been on our calendar. We had numerous conversations about the trip and how much fun we were going to have. But it wasn't until last week that I realized that her entire family, which consisted her mom, dad, 3 sisters, their husbands, and all of their kids, were coming! Carrie felt terrible that we didn't realize that this was their "Family Campout." Matt and I just laughed about it and joined right in with the "family" this weekend. We had an absolute BLAST! They were so much fun and by the end of the weekend, they said we felt like their "in-laws!" Here are some shots from our weekend! I am going to be taking family pictures of this crew in a couple of weeks, so you will be seeing many more shots of them!!

Playing a little badmitten!

I love this girl! Karis is such a doll!

What a cutie! You just want to pinch his little cheeks!

Cabe got his fishing line stuck in the tree.

So he called Matt to the rescue.

That didn't work so well!

Just a little while later, they dared Matt to try to walk across this log and of course.....he tried!

That didn't work so well either!

Carrie with Hudson

Karis and her cousin, Hudson

Harley just chilling in the shade.

Saturday night dinner...

LOW COUNTRY BOIL! YUM!

Tiger loves camping!

Happy 25th Anniversary!

2010-10-04T20:21:00.005-04:00

We got to celebrate 25 years of marriage with my cousin Daryl and his wife Vicky this weekend! This is the mother and father of the groom at the wedding reception that I photographed 2 weekends ago. They have just been party animals lately! Twenty-five years in something to celebrate! Congratulations you two!!

I have some weird obsession with photographing food! All of the colors just stand out and make i look so pretty in pictures!

Katie, Daryl and Vicky's daughter, and her Grandaddy Ray (my Uncle Ray)

This is their orignial Guest Book from their wedding in 1985. The guests at the 25th Anniversary Party signed in this book! How cool is that??

This is what the cake cutting picture looks like 25 years after the wedding! LOVE IT!

Me and my mom with Karter

Happy 1st Birthday Karter!

2010-09-25T21:34:00.004-04:00

One of my nephews, Karter, turned 1 this week! We got to celebrate with him at his "Dr. Seuss" themed party today. My sister really needs to go into the party planning business. She had everything coordniated incredbily well! All of the colors and treats, but especially the CAKE, fit the theme perfectly! Happy birthday little man!!!

Alex and Becca's Reception

2010-09-20T20:11:00.008-04:00

div>Alex and Becca had a small family wedding over the summer. Their parents threw them a wedding reception yesterday afternoon at the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse in Lawrenceville. It was absolutely beautiful!!!! I had the honor of photographing the event for them! I was very pleased with how well the pictures turned out! I took over 650 pictures, so narrowing them down to my favorite few is a very hard task!!! Here they are!!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-06T20:30:00.004-04:00

For the past few years we have always had our "Family Campout" over Labor Day weekend and have sweated to death!!! Everyone was so busy this year, that no one had the time to plan it this year. So of course the weather was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and FALL LIKE! Early in the week, Matt asked me what our plans were since we weren't camping. I told him that we were going to do absolutely nothing Saturday and Sunday, then enjoy a family cookout on Monday. He suggested that we take a drive to Helen since he had never been there before. Saturday morning we headed to Helen and had a great time! Then we headed home to watch the DAWGS play. Today, we had a cookout with my mom's side of the family at Henderson Falls Park in Toccoa. We had a great holiday weekend! I hope you and your family did as well!

Of course we had to check out the Christmas Cottage in Helen!

Lunch at Cafe International on the River....I experienced my first Ruben Sandwich EVER!

SOOO YUMMY!

Where's Kamden??

So much has been going on....

2010-09-06T19:00:00.004-04:00

The Dorminy house has been INCREDIBLY busy this past month! It always seems like fall is the busiest time of the year for us and this year has been no different. I started back to school 4 weeks ago! Hard to believe that this week is our "mid-term"!!!! It is crazy how fast time goes by! Matt is still enjoying his training down at the Fire Academy. He is counting down the days until graduation though (there is 40 something left right now)! He has sustained a few injuries these past few weeks from the intense training. I am mad at myself for not taking a picture on his first injury, but it is almost healed now. Their recruit class was "working" the training course for a new group of people that were trying to get hired. He was standing on the 4th floor at the station where the hopeful recruits had to pull a rope that had 70 pounds of fire hose tied to it. Matt's job was to slowly lower the rope and hose back down to the ground once they pulled it up. There was a guy from Matt's class standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting to catch the rope and set it back up. One of the people decided to just quit and let the rope and hose fall back to the ground. Matt knew that someone was standing below it and that he had to stop it before it hit them. He grabbed the rope, which wrapped around his wrist (just above his glove). He said that he knew it was a bad rope burn when he saw smoke coming off of his arm. The guy from his class that was standing with him said he could smell the flesh burning! NASTY!!! He will have a very nice scar from that injury! I have been incredibly busy at Sugar Hill as well as with my graduate class. As I said in my earlier post, I go to class in Tennessee 1 Saturday a month for the next year. This month, my homework was to read 3 1/2 books! I have been spending a lot of my evenings with my nose stuck inside a book!!! In other exciting news......I was voted Sugar Hill Elementary's Teacher of The Year!! The announced it last Friday morning at our staff breakfast. I was so excited and honored!! I could not do my job without all of the wonderful regular education teachers that I do inclusion with, so they are the ones that deserve the recognition!!!

A random picture of Harley's "Junk in the trunk"

My "Teacher of the Year" flowers!

I will try to do better and post more often! Things are just so busy that I don't have time to do anything!!!!

Don't worry!!

2010-08-30T20:19:00.002-04:00

Don't worry, we are still alive!!! Things have been insanely busy since school started back. Matt is still excelling in the fire academy and I am trying to keep my head above water at school. I will update with a better post soon!

I hate to be a "Debbie Downer"

2010-08-01T21:03:00.002-04:00

I really hate to be a "Debbie Downer" but ......summer officially ends this week!! I can't believe how fast it flew by once again. I am sad that we didn't get to see the ocean this summer, but once Matt gets out of the Fire Academy, we will be planning a vacation FOR SURE!!! The 2010-2011 school year going to be a super busy one for me!!

I have started back to school to work on my Educational Specialist (EdS) degree. This is the degree that will get me one step closer to earning my Doctorate Degree. I am really hoping that I can keep the motivation to get my Doctorate.....because I really like the sound of "Dr. Dorminy!" I am enrolled at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, where I will attend classes one Saturday a month until next August. It is about a 2 hour drive, so I am going to be getting up SUPER early on class days to make it to Ducktown, TN by 7:45, but I think it will be well worth it! My degree will be in Curriculum and Instruction and is not special ed specific. I think it is going to be kind of fun to study something other than "special ed" for once!!

In the world of teaching, I am going to have 12 4th and 5th grade students in my class this school year. I am really excited to have 3 girls!! I am typically over run with boys! This is the lowest number of students that I have had in my class in several years, so I am super pumped about this too! I had 15 kids last year and 18 the year before! I have also been named a "Mentor Teacher" for the Gwinnett County Special Ed Department, which ultimately means that I have a lot more meetings to attend. I will be mentoring new teachers and helping them get their classes up and running this school year!

Between my job, going back to school, and Matt finishing up his "school" at the Fire Academy, I think it is safe to say that this year is going to FLY by as fast as the summer did!!!

Weekend in Gatlinburg

2010-07-18T20:23:00.007-04:00

As an end of the school year gift, one of my student's gave me a weekend in a cabin in Gatlinburg. What an awesome gift!!! We took advantage of it this weekend and took some friends with us. Matt invited a group of people from the fire department, but only 3 of them ended up being able to come. We didn't make it in to Gatlinburg until around 9:30 Friday night, so we just hung out at the cabin and had some really good laughs! Saturday morning we got up and headed out to eat some breakfast. If you have ever been to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, you know that there is not a shortage of "Pancake Houses" up there. We decided on Log Cabin Pancake House for breakfast and were not disappointed! We had made plans to go to an indoor waterpark during the day Saturday. So after breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to get our bathing suits. When we pulled up to the indoor waterpark, we realized that it was geared towards the "under 10" age group and that Reese (the baby) was about the only one of us that would have enjoyed it. We called another park, but their waterpark was only for guests at their resort, so we asked around and ended up at the outdoor waterpark at Dollywood! It cost us an arm and a leg to get in, but we had a great time! After the waterpark, we showered and headed out to a Japanese Hibachi Steakhouse for dinner. Newton and Crystal had spotted a "Firefigther" putt-putt course in Pigeon Forge on their way to the cabin on Friday night, so we headed there to play after our Japanese dinner. The course was a little childish, so we changed our plans and went to WonderWorks. It reminded me a lot of Sci-Trek that used to be in Atlanta. There were a lot of science related exhibits and many other things that you may "wonder" about. It was very cool, but again, cost a pretty penny to get in! We had a great trip and I will DEFINITELY be going back to Gatlinburg again!

At the Waterpark!

The Boys....Brian, Matt, Scott, and Drew

They are NEVER serious!

The boys decided to change Scotts nickname to "Photogenic Scottie" Like I said, NEVER SERIOUS! (and yes, they really do match!)

Me and Matt

Part of the girls...me and Crystal. Stacey was busy with Reese.

Poor Reese, with all of those stinky boys! What a cutie she is though!

The Edwards Family

The "Backseat Boys".....okay, I know that was lame, but it made me laugh!

This was outside of the Firehouse Putt-Putt course. Of course, they wanted to get their picture made in the firetruck!

Outside of WONDERWORKS

No, I did not have my camera upside down. The building is upside down. I am still trying to figure out why it is upside down, but it was pretty cool!

Matt and Bates (Drew) racing to the top of the rock wall.

STRIKE!

On the MOON!

Matt's first flight into outer space!

In one section of WONDERWORKS, there were all of these screens that transfer your image into different things on the screen. Here are Crystal and Brian getting down!

The weekend fun wiped the youngster out!!

Summer Camping Trip

2010-07-11T18:30:00.007-04:00

We took our first (and only) camping trip of the summer this weekend! We tried out a campground on Lake Lanier that just reopened this summer, Van Pugh South. We have camped at just about every campground on Lake Lanier now. Old Federal is still our favorite, but Van Pugh was nice. We had an awesome campsite with a great view of the lake action and even had a nice breeze blowing the entire weekend! We cheated on this trip though and went to McDonald's for breakfast and even came home on Saturday afternoon to shower! That is the nice part about camping so close to home!

Matt's favorite part of camping....building the campfire!

We had a nice rubber mallet that we usually use, but the rubber head flew off of the handle into the lake. Maybe it wasn't so nice after all!! Matt resorted to caveman days and used this big rock to do the job!

Watching the storm blow in. It rained on us most of Friday evening and night. We didn't complain though, because the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees from earlier in the afternoon!

Harley doing what he does best.....eating!

We were on such a drop off down to the lake that we couldn't sit the camera low enough to get a good picture of us! Oh well, this is as good as it gets!

This picture makes me laugh. Look at Harley in the background....eating again!

No wonder the poor guy has so much trouble breathing! His face is so squished in!

Matt's big catch!

He was trying to hold it up for a picture, but it slipped out of his hands.

Watching the sunset.

I took my camera out to the point and sat in the grass photographing the sun setting. Over the course of about 10 minutes, I snapped about 30 pictures of the sun sinking behind the mountain. It was such a beautiful night out on the lake!

We packed up early this morning to head home. We were actually rolling out of the campground around 9:00. As much as we love camping, we also love getting home to get everything unpacked and washed before too late. Harley did not come upstairs until about 6:30 this evening! He was so worn out from the weekend that he collapsed in the basement and did slept all day long!

Celebrate!!!

2010-07-06T16:36:00.006-04:00

Okay, so I lied in my last post when I said that my next Blog Post would be about our weekend camping trip. We got some SUPER EXCITING news today that I just had to share though!! MATT PASSED HIS NATIONAL REGISTRY EMT WRITTEN EXAM TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

I never doubted his ability to pass, but this has been a long 6 months! Matt has been worrying about this test for several months now. He has spent numerous hours studying and hitting the books. Today was his day to SHINE and he did!!! Now that he passed, he is Nationally Certified as an EMT-Intermediate. I am so proud of all of his hard work and effort and the fact that he NEVER gave up!! Thanks for the continued prayers and support!

Starting tomorrow he will be heading to the Fire Academy. In the dead heat of summer, his physical abilities are going to be put to the test inside burning buildings! A while back we went to a "Community Fair" that DeKalb Fire and Police were holding. There was a firetruck there with a sticker on the truck that said "We are running in when even the roaches are running out!" I think that sums up the job pretty good!!! Please continue to pray for him and his class!!

July 4th (and 5th)

2010-07-06T14:03:00.003-04:00

With the 4th being on Sunday this year, we got to have an extended celebration of!!! As my last post said, we had people over to our house on Saturday night. Sunday we went to church then headed to the lake with a friend of Matt's and his wife. They guy's parents have a lake house on Lanier, so we hung out on the lake all afternoon, then waited on top of their dock for the fireworks. Once it finally got dark, we started to hear the fireworks, but never saw them! They were right on the other side of the trees, so we didn't get to see any of them. Oh well, we still had a great time hanging out!! Monday, we headed to the Dunwoody 4th of July parade with Cathy, Eric, Anna, and Cate. Fun times!!!

Me and Amy waiting on the fireworks

Me and Matt

Me and Anna at the parade

Anna waving at all the people in the parade

Cate is always so silly!

The whole gang!

Silly girl! Aren't her eyes beautiful in this one?

Sweet Sisters

Every year at the parade, Matt says "Maybe next year I will be able to ride in the parade." This year, he actually could have ridden in the parade, but he didn't. It was a good feeling to not have to hear him say "Maybe next year."

I hope that you and your family had an awesome 4th of July!! We are camping this weekend, so I am sure that my next post will be full of pictures of the lake, our dogs, and our camping adventures!!!!

4th of July Weekend (so far!!)

2010-07-04T15:56:00.006-04:00

We had people over again Saturday night. This time we decided to make it easy and relaxing and ordered pizza. We had a mix of people from my work, Matt's work, friends, and family. The weather was so nice all day Saturday, so we hung outside for most of the night. Of course, Matt was the hit of the party with the kids! He filled up 200 water balloons and bought "Pop-Its." The girls had a great time screaming and playing together, while the adults enjoyed each other's company!

The girls, getting ready to aim for Matt!

Zack and Julie. Zack was not a fan of everyone throwing balloons at each other!

Zack, Spencer, and Julie

The girls had so much fun together!

Run Alli!

What a cute face!

Avery, enjoying some cake!

What a smile!

Zack and Spencer

Cate wearing her "microphones" on her ears.

Anna was sad to see Avery and Alli leave!

Sweet Treats for the DeKalb Fire guys

Happy 4th of July cake

I am sure I will have another post with pictures from our festivities tonight and the Dunwoody 4th of July parade tomorrow!! I love the 4th of July!!

Consistency

2010-07-01T20:13:00.002-04:00

Warning: This is not a typical blog post for me. There are no pictures

associated with what is on my mind tonight!

I have been thinking this week how inconsistent I am in everything that I do. Honestly, the only thing that I am consistent with is being unconsistent! I get on these bandwagons doing things and stick with them for about a week or so, then I move on. Sure, there are some things that I continue to do on a regular basis, like take pictures, eat, play with the dogs, spend time with Matt, etc. My desire to do other things though just come and go.

I made tutu's for a while, and still do when I have an order come in. I scrapbook for a while, then put that stuff away when I get bored with it. I love to read, but there will be months when I don't pick up a book. Exercise is another thing that is so hard for me to do consistently! I had decided this summer I would get up early each morning and do my workout DVD before heading off to summer school. Yeah, that totally did not happen! I have the hardest time getting up in the mornings and would much rather get 45 more mintues of sleep than exercise! I have been going to the gym in the afternoons when Matt gets off work, but even that takes some serious motivation! Does anyone else have a problem keeping things consistent? or am I the only one out there who struggles with this???

I promise, my next blog post will have some pictures assosciated with it!!! Pictures are so much more fun than words!

Summer Cookouts!

2010-06-20T17:59:00.007-04:00

I absolutely love "entertaining" at our house! Having people over for food and fun times is one of my favorite parts of the summer! About a week ago, Matt asked me if we could have over a few of the guys that he works with at the fire deparment and their families. Well of course I said YES!! By the time Friday rolled around, a few had turned in to "a lot" of guys from the department. By Saturday morning, I was informed that we would have a blow up waterslide set up out back. One of the guys owns some inflatables and he had to go pick up the waterslide before he came over to our house. Why let a good inflatable waterslide just sit on the back of a trailer, when it could be put to good use, especially when you have a bunch of grown firefighters who act like kids around! If you have ever been to our house you know that we live in a townhome and have very little "yard" so it was quiet interesting seeing this HUGE waterslide out behind our house. The thing was taller than our deck!!

Before the cookout, Matt took a few of the guys to his fishing spot on the Hooch to do a little trout fishing. They only lasted about 2 hours in the FREEZING cold water, but we did see 4 IDIOTS jump into the river from the TOP rails of the bridge that goes over the river. At least there were 4 EMT's on site to help the morons! Luckily, they judged their jump accurately and did not get hurt! I was so nervous seeing them jump though! I do have to say though, I was a little disappointed that I didn't have my camera out to catch an "action" shot of their stupidity! It would have made a cool picture!

I was glad to finally be able to put a face with all of the names that Matt comes home talking about and is always on the phone with. This group of guys have done some serious bonding over the past 6 months. I am sure that their bond will only grow stronger as they head to into the fire academy next month. Everyone was so much fun to get to know and hang out with last night! I am sure that we will be hosting more "firefighter" parties in the future.

This is a picture that I took last week when we were there, but this is the bridge that the idiots were jumping off of. They climbed all the way up to the very top to jump!

Casey, one of the guys caught the only fish. He gave it to Jacob so he could take care of it. We ended up releasing it because Jacob said he really didn't want it to die.

Casey and Drew braving the freezing water!

Jacob was not about to get in that water, so his dad Charles came the rescue!

I love black and white pictures!

Matt, Drew, and Casey

This picture just cracks me up. Casey looks like a giant!

I absolutely love black and white landscape photo's. I want to get 8 X 10's of some of my black and white landscape pics to hang in our house. I just haven't taken the time to do it yet. Jacob still didn't want to get in the water!

What a doll!

Here is just a small portion of the group watching people come down the waterslide.

Jacob loved it! He was the only kid on it.

You can see the deck railing in this picture, so you can tell just how big this slide was!

Matt playing with Reese.

Scott and Reese

Harley and Tiger were exhausted this morning after all of the excitement from last night! As always, they were a huge hit!

More Wedding Photos

2010-06-17T18:22:00.002-04:00

I finally got the wedding pictures uploaded to my shutterfly website. I narrowed them down to my 250 favorites! You can check out the link below to see all of them!

http://www.familytraditionsphotography.shutterfly.com/

The wedding was a SUCCESS!!!

2010-06-15T22:51:00.006-04:00

I know all of you blog followers have been sitting on the edge of your seat wondering how my first wedding shoot went! Well, in my opinion, it was a HUGE success! I typically get pictures uploaded to the blog, facebook, and my website within 24 hours, but this was not my typical amount of pictures! In the 3 hours that I was there, I took over 800 pictures. I am just waiting for my computer to crash from the amount of pictures that I have uploaded!! I was asked to photograph the wedding in 2 formats, jpeg and RAW. RAW picture files are about 5 times larger than regular jpeg files, therefore they take about 5 times as long to upload and 5 times as much "space" on your computer! I am downloading all of the pictures from the wedding onto CD's so the bride and groom can take them to get prints made. Since the files are so stinking big, I can only fit about 30-40 pictures per CD. You do the math. 800 pictures and only 40 pictures fit onto a disc...that is about 20 CD's!!! There has got to be a better way of doing this, but I am just going to stick with what I know for now!

The biggest challange during the ceremony was that NONE of it was in English!! The entire ceremony was in Spanish. It was also a traditional Catholic Mass. I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, so I do not know the order of a traditional Catholic Mass Wedding. Since the entire ceremony was in Spanish, I had NO idea what was going on! I just kept snapping pictures, hoping that I did not miss a "key" part of the ceremony. Another challenge was that the ceremony was held in a small chapel, so there was not a place for me to stand where people were not looking right at me. I was not able to get at the "back" of the church to take pictures, because there was no back!

Here are some of my absolute favorites from the night.

Hanging out on/in the Hooch!

2010-06-13T19:31:00.005-04:00

Matt and I found an awesome new hang out spot last night. A friend of mine told me a while back that there is a neat park on the Chattahochee River in Suwanee, but we had never went to check it out. Today Matt and Kale decided to brave the FREEZING cold temperatures in the water and try to do a little trout fishing. They were numb and did not catch anything, but we all had a grea time! You all know me....of course I had my camera with me! Here are some of the shots that I snapped.

On a side note....I have been asked to photograph my first wedding tomorrow night. It is just a small family wedding in Marietta. I am SUPER nervous, but excited at the same time! Wish me luck! Hopefully you will see pictures posted later this week....pictures posted = successful shoot!

Family Pictures

2010-06-11T18:46:00.005-04:00

When Haley and the boys come to visit, they always get pictures of the 4 kids made, so we had a "photo" shoot in the Dorminy's front yard this morning. The kids were anxious to go swimming, but they were cooperative for the most part! Here are some of my favorite shots from this morning!

Anna, 6 Cate, 3 Cooper, 3 Owen, 6

Cooper and his beautiful eyes! LOVE THEM!

"Snaggle tooth" Owen

Sweet little Cate

I can't believe how old Anna is looking these days! She's really growing up!

Haley and Owen

Sweet brotherly love

Matt & Haley with their mom, Jonnee

Notice that Cate isn't around....she decided she would rather play with the bugs and was finished having her pictures taken.

The kids all ran over to Cate to try for 1 more group picture...not perfect, but it will have to do!

Haley and her boys

Summer Fun!

2010-06-11T18:34:00.003-04:00

Matt's sister Haley and her 2 boys, Owen and Copper came to visit from Park City, Utah this week. I love seeing how much the boys have grown each time they come to visit! There is never a dull moment when you get Owen, Cooper, Anna, and Cate together! There is actually never a quiet minute either, but I love seeing them have so much fun together! Those 4 kids could stay in the swimming pool ALL day long!

Wednesday was my 29th birthday too! We celebrated with dinner at Mellow Mushroom (my ABSOLUTE favorite place to eat!) Mom baked me my favorite cake...red velvet and Matt bought me a cookie cake from the Great America Cookie Co! Needless to say, we have been on a MAJOR sugar high around our house the past few days!

Update on Matt

2010-06-01T19:41:00.003-04:00

Matt is on the tail end of his EMT training. He started his clinical ride alongs today. He works 2 16 hour and 2 24 hour shifts over the next two weeks. Once he finishes his 2 weeks of ride alongs, he will go back into the classroom for a few weeks of review before he takes his final exam and the National Registry test. He will be entering the Fire Academy some time during July. The hottest time of year and Matt will be spending it inside burning buildings....Awesome!

This is the station that Matt is working at today. He will be a 3 different stations for his remaining shifts.

These are the Rescue Units (aka...ambulances) that Matt is doing his ride alongs in. Aren't they awesome looking? They are HUGE on the inside too!

Summer Time is Back in Gear!!!

2010-06-01T17:37:00.006-04:00

My summer has taken off in full swing! I finished up at school on Friday afternoon! It was a bittersweet ending to the school year because our prinicpal was retiring. She was the only principal that I have worked under, so I was sad to see her leave.

On Sunday, Matt planned an early "Surprise" birthday party for me! He arranged to have a group of our friends meet us at Cinco's for dinner on Sunday night. After dinner, we headed back to our house for more fun! Matt had filled up 100 water balloons, bought several boxes of "Snap-Its" and had stuffed a piniata with candy! Serisouly! I am not joking! My 30 year old husband is still truly a child at heart! The boys had the best time pelting each other with the water balloons! They actually did let the kids in on the fun. Our drive way was covered with wrappers from the snap-its, broken water balloons, and pieces of streamers from the piniata. I had a BLAST! My birthday is actualy June 9, so Matt just kicked off the celebration a week or so early! My friend Natasha is in the market for a camera like mine, so she played with my camera during our party. She taught me how to use the video component on the camera. I am very excited to know how to use that!! Here are some of the snaps that she shot during the party!
Handing out the "Snap-It's"

Natasha's husband, Frank and their youngest son, Harrison

Anna and Ava having a blast together!

Part of the crew watching all the action from the deck.

Harrison chowing down on a piece of cake

For Memorial Day, we headed to our annual spot to view the Dacula Memorial Day parade. Every year it seems to get longer and longer with more tractor and "big truck" entries! It was fun like always though!

I took this picture just for mom, she TOTALLY fits the description! Now she has the contact info for this hillbilly!

Kylie insisted that I take some pictures of the horses for her!

Kamden loved getting the candy to stick it in his "Pock." His "pocks" were overflowing after the parade! They were so full that his pants would not stay up!

After the parade, we headed over to Matt's parents house for a lunch and pool time! Anna and Cate are like little fish in the pool! They LOVE it!

Another year has come to an end!

2010-05-26T21:15:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that summer is here!! I had to say good-bye to 11 of my 5th grade students today and it was a lot harder than I had expected it to be! I have been with most of these kids for the past 3 years. They have really grown up since 3rd grade. Some of them have actually matured over the past 3 years too :>)! I teared up this afternoon when I said my good-byes to them. One of my boys has had a really rough time these past 2 weeks and when I asked him what whas going on, he replied by saying "I'm just so confused. How can I feel so happy about school ending, but so sad about it at the same time?" There will be no more World War II boy stories, no more Beatles stories, and no more "But Mrs. Dorminy, I have a plan for that" stories. I have truly loved each and everyone of these students and it is sad to see them move on to middle school. I know that I have a whole new group of kids to fall in love with this year, but this group has impacted my life forever! You really become attached to a group of kids when you work with them 30-40 hours a week for 3 entire years! Now don't get me wrong, there were days when I thought I would pull my hair out, but overall they made me smile and laugh each and every day!

One of my parents made me this quilt to remember my "Class of 2010" by. It made me cry when I opened it! I absolutely love it and will treasure it forever. The puzzle piece is the "symbol" for Autism. She backed the quilt with puzzle piece fabric and on the front, each puzzle piece has the name of my 5th graders on it. In the middle she wrote me the sweetest letter. I will treasure this forever!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T19:59:00.004-04:00

We spent Mother's Day with Matt's family this year. Wasn't the weather absolutely perfect today! I actually got pretty burnt from sitting outside so much today, but it felt so good outside I didn't even realize it. We missed Haley, Chris, and the boys today. I hope that they come for a visit soon! Anna and Cate kept us entertained while playing outside.

It's a 3-in-1 party!

2010-05-08T22:12:00.005-04:00

My cousins, Daryl and Vicky, threw their son and daughter a 3-in-1 party tonight at Duncan Creek Park. Alex is turing 21 and has just returned home from active duty in Afganistan. Alex's little sister, Katie, just turned 16. What a perfect way to celebrate all of these wonderful occasions! It was quite windy at the park tonight, but we all had a great time! My sister made the 2 cakes and did an amazing job as always. There were a few times that we thought the wind was going to blow them right off the table though! It was so good to see Alex back in the arms of his finace, Becca! I am excited to do an engagement shoot with these 2 love birds in a few weeks! Thank you for serving our country overseas Alex!

Senior Year!

2010-05-01T13:26:00.007-04:00

My cousin, Nicole will be graduating from Winder Barrow High School in a few weeks. I asked her if I could take some Senior Pictures for her and she willingly agreed. For those of you in the Turner Family, you already know how beautiful Nicole is! She doesn't need to layer on the make up or spend hours getting ready to look good!! Nicole is the kind of girl that can just throw on a t-shirt and some shorts and still look beautiful! I took over 200 pictures in the 2 hours that we were together, and if I may say so myself, I think they turned out pretty good for an amature! You all know from previous postings that I have trouble limiting the number of pictures that I upload, so I've tried my best to pick my favorites!

Sorry Peeps!

2010-04-24T20:02:00.002-04:00

No blogworthy events going on in the Dorminy household this week! Maybe we will do something fun and exciting next week :>)

Gone Fishin

2010-04-18T17:43:00.003-04:00

Matt has been wanting to go fishing for the past few weekends, but we have not been able to get away. So Saturday morning we decided to head to the land for some time in the sun! Matt invited a guy from his class and his family. They were able to go with us and we all had a great time! I was excited to meet someone that Matt is going through training with since I hear about them so much! What a great family! They were a lot of fun to be around! I love meeting new people that you just click with immediately! I hope we are able to do more with the Walker family!!

Photo Shoot with the Hildreth Kids

2010-04-07T12:06:00.005-04:00

I went to Sims Lake Park in Suwanee with my sister and her 4 kids yesterday to take some shots of them. They turned out really good. I LOVE black and white pictures! I think black and white photographs are so classic. I do have to say that it is virtually impossible to get 4 kids to look at the camera and smile all at the same time. I've think I've learned how to play a slideshow within a blog post, so I didn't have to upload all 100+ pictures that I took of them! Still looking for volunteers for more "practice" photo shoots!

Easter

2010-04-04T21:38:00.007-04:00

What a beautiful day Easter was. After church, we headed up to my grandparents house in Toccoa for an afternoon of family, food, and fun. I tried my best to only post the best ones, but I have such a hard time narrowing them down! I guess I should look into one of the slideshow programs to start posting my pictures with! That way I don't have to upload each individual one and I wouldn't have to pick which ones to put on the blog!

On a side note, I have decided that I could have a blog for nothing but picutures. I rarely have much to say, I just want to share my photos!

If you think it is hard to get kids to cooperate to take pictures, try taking pictures with Matt! We had over 20 picture taken, and only 2 of them turned out decent!

Photography

2010-04-03T14:49:00.005-04:00

As you all know from my blog, I LOVE taking pictures. Too bad the only thing that we have around our house to take pictures of is our dogs!! Since I got my new camera at Christmas, I have been working on my "photography" skills. I really want to start taking photos of kids and families, so I needed some people to practice on. I went to my friend (and co-worker) Carrie's house yesterday morning to play around with her kids. I had a great time and,in my opinion, ended up with some pretty good shots! I told Carrie that I wanted to practice on her kids because no matter how bad the photographer was, the photos would turn out great because her kids are so stinking cute! If you are looking for an amature to take some "non-professional" shots of your kids or family, let me know! I am looking for some more people to practice on!!!

Sweet Karis, almost 3 years old

Adorable Cabe, 5 years old

Handsome Camden, 7 years old

First Camping Trip of the Year

2010-03-28T15:34:00.002-04:00

We took our first camping trip of the season this weekend. All of our regular campgrounds had not opened up yet, so we tried out a new one. We went to Bald Ridge Campground on Lake Lanier. It was really nice! We had an awesome site right on the water. The wind was AWFUL and almost unbearable on Saturday, but we still managed to have a great time. Mom gave us the blue camping chairs for Christmas this year. It was out first chance to use them! They ROCK!!!! They are the most comfortable chairs ever! I curled up in my chair with my snuggie and a book on Saturday while Matt fished! That's what camping is all about!

FOXTROT Class 0110

2010-03-20T20:59:00.005-04:00

I wanted to update on how Matt's training with DeKalb County Fire Rescue is going. I know those of you on facebook have seen my many posts regarding what EMT topic we are studying each night, but not everyone is on facebook (shocker I know!). Matt began his career with DeKalb Fire Resuce the end of January. He will be in training for 10-11 months. Matt reports from 7:00-3:30 each day to the Fire Headquarters.He is going through the EMT training first. He will be finished with the EMT component in July, then will head to "the tower" for fire training.

Matt has had to hit the books really hard these past 2 months learning all kinds of medical things. A few weeks ago on our way to church we were studying the path your blood takes when traveling through your heart. This week we studied the different assessments that have to be done on scene. I actually enjoy helping him study because I am learning all the "medical lingo" that all of my TV shows use! When I am watching Trauma, Grey's Anatomy, Mercy, or House, I will pause it and yell the terms that they are using to Matt. We are learning together! If I ever get tired of being a teacher, I guess I could go ahead and get my EMT certification too since I am studying each night!

Once he finishes EMT training, he will be in fire training until November or December. He is really excited about going to the fire academy. We frequently listen to the "scanner" at night to hear the calls that each station is responding to. This is just one of the "tests" that he has to pass at the fire academy!!!

They have to climb a 130 foot ladder, then harness in once they get to the top. To pass the "test" they have to lean back and trust their harness!!!!! HOLY COW! I would FREAK out!

Here is just another look into what the Fire Rescue Department is all about. There are several more videos like this one on You Tube. I thought DeKalb really did a good job of giving insight to what goes on within the fire department.

I will try to do a better job of giving everyone updates on what is going on! Thanks for all of your prayers and support as Matt begins this new and dangerous career path. I am so proud of him for sticking with fighting for this job for 2 years! I am proud of him for all of his hard work that he has already put forth to ensure that he does his best with his training too!

There are several new posts below! I have been on a blogging roll today!

Never Ever

2010-03-20T20:34:00.002-04:00

Never ever get an English Bulldog! Don't get me wrong, we love Harley, but he is such a pain! When we talked about getting a dog about 5 years ago, I told Matt that the only way we could get a puppy was if it was an English Bulldog. WHAT WAS I THINKING?? Before we bought Harley, we read a lot about the breed. One of the first things I read was the English Bulldogs were special needs dogs. I thought that was perfect for me since I work with special needs kids, I could handle a special needs dog!

Just to name a few "special needs" that they experience include:
1. Breathing problems
2. Heart problems
3. Joint problems
4. Gas problems
5. Skin problems
and the list could go on and on!

We have been really lucky with Harley for the most part, and have really only had to deal with the GAS and the breathing. If you have ever been around Harley for very long, you know that his gas can clear a room! and his breathing/snoring can get so loud that you cannot hear yourself think!

You may be asking what has prompted this random e-mail about English Bulldogs? First of all, we took Harley to the vet last weekend for his annual check up and vaccinations. He had gained 14 pounds since last April!!! We decided that we better cut back on the food and get him to exercise a little more. So we took Harley and Tiger to the park late this afternoon. It was in the mid-sixties and felt great! We only planned to walk a very short distance since Harley tires out so fast. We were at the park for about 15 minutes and Harley started breathing so incredibly heavy. We got him in the car and seriously did not know if he was going to survive the 10 minute ride home. His throat was closing in and he just could not breath. His tongue was turning purple and he was drooling like crazy! When we finally got home, it took us over 30 minutes to cool him off. We had to put ice packs all over him and pour water on him before we calmed down. (Now you know why you see UGA laying on his bag of ice at all of the football games!) This was in SIXTY degree weather! I cannot imagine how the summer heat is going to effect him! I guess we are going to have to put him on a treadmill in the house to get some of that weight off!

Tiger is a different story, he is an OLDE English Bulldog and does not have ANY of the issues that English Bulldogs have.

If you are looking for a new dog to join your family, think long and hard about which breed you choose! Again, we LOVE Harley and think he is one of the cutest (in an ugly way) dogs ever! Just thought I would share!

Here are some of our pictures before the difficutly breathing really started!

Deals of the Century

2010-03-20T17:08:00.002-04:00

For those of you that know me well, you know that there is nothing that I love more than a good deal! I NEVER pay full price for anything! I got some AWESOME deals at a consignment sale in Suwanee this weekend! I went to the sale 3 different times since Wednesday and bought stuff each trip. Today was 1/2 price day on almost everything! I ended up getting 7 Ann Taylor Loft shirts, an Ann Taylor Loft skirt, an Ann Taylor Loft pair of jeans, 2 other skirts, 2 dresses, 3 more shirts, 3 necklaces, a brand new Vera Bradley purse (with the $71 price tag still on it), another purse, a belt, and 3 pairs of sandals for under $100!!!! I LOVE DEALS!! I bought the cutest dressy sleeveless blouse for $4...now I just need a wedding or a cocktail party to go to this summer so I can wear it! Here are just some of the clothes that I got!

Anna's Game

2010-03-20T16:46:00.004-04:00

We went to see Anna play ball this morning at Murphy Candler Park. They are so stinking cute at this age out on the ball field. After about 45 minutes on the field, several of the girls had had enough!

In honor of camping weather....

2010-03-18T19:13:00.004-04:00

It feels wonderful outside and I am really hoping that the cold is gone for good!!! In honor of this great camping weather, I am posting some of our favorite camping pictures from past trips! We are hoping to be able to take our first camping adventure of the year in a couple of weekends!