They're here...

http://www.meghaysphotography.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday to me!!

Happy Birthday to me....happy birthday to me.....happy birthday to me....happy birthday to me!! (Cha-cha-cha!) 27 years! How did they manage to go so fast?? I should just be 17, not 27!

(Pretty sad there aren't many pictures of me! Guess that's what happens when you are always behind the camera!)

Gotta love playin' in the mud

This weekend was spent OUTSIDE!! How could we not stay out?? The weather was gorgeous and it was just calling our names! It was a little hot, but that's okay cause we played in the creek and the mud. I love that my girls love to be outside and they don't mind (AT ALL) getting dirty! Here are a couple of pics from the weekend.

P.S. these were taken with my new lens that finally arrived on Friday!! YEA!

After playing in the creek and mud, the girls taken Daddy into pulling out the sprinkler. They had to get all cleaned up!

NEW PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

Alright, so I am really trying to get serious about the photographer thing. I don't really know where to go with it, but I figured starting a blog and building a portfolio couldn't hurt. There's only one post so far, however, I hope to be adding more soon. If anyone out there would like to do some free photo shoots just to let me get some practice in, I'm all up for it! Just give me a call or shoot me an e-mail to set something up! Here's the link to the new blog. Feel free to join in and follow...


http://meghaysphotography.blogspot.com/

Happy Retirement!

This past Saturday we celebrated 38 years of service. After all those years, Papaw Ben is finally ready to retire! To help celebrate, P, his brother Brian and sister Laura decided to throw a big surprise party (and all in only 1 week's notice!)

We knew we wanted to have a party so we started looking at the calendar. Turns out, this was the only weekend all 3 kids would be able to be in the same place at the same time. Crunch time...calls were made, food was prepared, supplies were purchased and everything came together beautifully!

I know Ben doesn't usually like to be the center of attention, but I hope he enjoyed it. 38 years of service with one company just doesn't happen any more and it needed to be recognized! Thanks to everyone that made it all go smoothly!

I really think we surprised him!! This was about the time

he figured it out!! Check out the look on D's face - pure enjoyment!

From left to right:

Wayne, Mike, Danny, Jeff, Ben, Alvin, Kim, Jimmy, John and Jim

Everyone greeting Ben as he arrived.

Everyone visiting and waiting to eat.

The boston butt...

YUMMY!! P did a WONDERFUL job with the meat.

It was "melt-in-your-mouth" good!

Mark proudly displaying the brisket.

Of course Little Bit had to steal Pop's attention!

The cake and gift table.

Ben opening his gifts.

Displaying his new Windchester rifle from the 3 kids.

(Brian, Laura and P)

All the guys checking out the new gun.

The cake (that the lady at Wal-Mart did in less than

10 hours notice!!)

Miss Priss, Papaw and the guys enjoying the yummy cake.

Little Bit trying to decide whether or not she wants to share

with Shelby. Shelby is putting on her best "poor-pitiful me"

routine!

Finally it worked!! The bone from the Boston Butt.

Somebody made her the happiest dog ever!

Everyone sitting around enjoying the Beautiful weather we

had Saturday.

PapaPerry and Mimi sitting back relaxing and enjoying

the afternoon.

Miss Priss posing with her freshly picked flowers.

I think everything turned out pretty darn good for such a short amount of planning time. We couldn't have done better if we had planned it for weeks. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. Thanks to everyone for coming out to help us celebrate!!

Mark and Rose

Saturday we had family and friends over to celebrate Papaw Ben's retirement. Mark and Rose came over early (thankfully) to help set up, cook and get ready for everyone. So while we were waiting for people to start arriving I talked them into letting me play around with my camera!! We have a big field next to the house with some really pretty tall grass that I have been just itching to take some pictures in before P bushhogs.

The pictures turned out great. Thanks you guys!

Little Bit had to make sure Ms. Rose had a pretty flower for her picture!

Decoration 2010 - Hays Cemetery

Every year on the 1st Sunday in May we make the drive to Hayden, AL to the Hays Cemetery to visit all the gravesites of Clan Hay members come and gone. It's a great tradition that I wish more families would take time to do. Of course I don't know very many families that have SO many generations buried in one place.

The first generation of the Hay Clan to come to America was Stanwick Hays. He was born in Scotland in 1786, but I am not sure about the year he landed in South Carolina. I think it was the early 1800s. Anywho...he ended up in Hayden, AL with about 1800 arces. Slowly it was sold off or given to family members. He died in 1878 and was buried (with the traditional rock burial like in Braveheart) in Hayden.

My husband is the 7th generation from Stanwick and all previous generations are buried right there in one cemetery. You can start from the top of the hill were my in-laws have plots and trace the line back down the hill to Stanwick.

Papa Perry and Mimi standing by their headstone. They wanted to

make sure everything was taken care of so the kids wouldn't have to 

worry with it! Look closely, PapaPerry is actually pointing to

were he's gonna go!

Here's our whole crew for the day. From L to R.

Drew, Laura, Mimi, Miss Priss, PapaPerry, Papaw, Aunt Eloise,

David, D, Little Bit, Me and Cindy.

The gentleman that took our picture wasn't worried

about getting it centered!!

That's okay, at least he got all of us in the picture right!?!

PapaPerry and his little sister Eloise. Her son David drove

her down for the weekend from Saluda, North Carolina.

And we are all so glad they were able to make it.

PapaPerry looking around the old gravesites.

Little Bit actually posing for the camera.

Can you believe she got out of the car and said

"Okay Mommy, I'm ready for pictures!"

(Did you see the easter pics??)

Miss Priss and Little Bit in their new dresses Mommy made!

Aren't they so cute!

Had to get a picture of the back of the dresses too.

More posing. You can get a pretty good idea of their little

personalities from this picture.

Little Bit, Drew and Miss Priss posing so they could

get down and RUN!!!

Time to leave. Laura taking all th kids back to the car.

Thankfully the rain held off and we were able to walk around the cemetery for a while. Unfortunately P was not able to come with us this year because of Guard. I hate when that happens.

After looking around we always go to Top Hat BBQ to eat. As usual the food was great and everyone enjoyed sitting around just talking. We'll be back again next year!