Angie Davis Photography

New Year's Day Stroll

2012-01-01T16:15:00.000-06:00

So Brian and I have just recently purchased our second home. Merry Christmas to us!

This New Year's Day was such an amazingly beautiful day, so we decided to make a stroll around the little over 10 acres that we have purchased. Of course I could not leave the camera in the house, so here's a few photos of our little stroll.

Photo of our new home from the backside of our pond.

My husband, Brian, and his dog, Daisy.

I have always wanted a photo like this! This one will be hanging in my office!

I absolutely love all the evergreens in our yard.

Daisy leading the way down the trail.

Deer stands & feeders. We also found tons of deer tracks & trails.

Old 4-wheeler trail.

Poor little turtle. :(

Storm damage.

My dog, Crash.

Crash & Daisy getting a drink after our long hike.

I don't know who loves our new home more....us or the dogs. :)

My Busy Weekend...Part 3....Or Was It 4???

2011-12-09T21:25:00.001-06:00

So this next part of my busy weekend, which was actually last weekend now, has taken me a while to get too. This week has been so busy! Either way I could not not blog about this part of last weekend. After we left the Christmas light lighting at the State Capitol everyone liked my idea of frozen yogurt. I know...who wants to eat cold yogurt or ice cream after standing and sitting in the cold all day...obviously we are weird. Ha!

So we decided to go to Orange Leaf. I brought my camera in with me just for giggles, and boy was I glad I did! My boys were cracking me up, and I was able to capture it. I love nothing more than taking photos of my kids especially when it's just them being them. Laid back, candid photos of them...yeah....those are my most favorites.

Can't get both of them looking at the camera and smiling. Someone always has to be a goofball! Too cute!

My handsome Dallas.

My handsome hubby enjoying some family time & yogurt.

Can you say close-up????

Why do boys always want to gross you out?

This kid is giving me "The Eye"!

It was obviously funny when Kolton grossed me out!

Love seeing that smile!

Don't ask me what he was doing! Whatever it was it was funny though!

My poor, tired hubby. It was time to go home....and he was glad! :)

My Busy Weekend.....Part 2!

2011-12-04T20:30:00.001-06:00

The second funnest thing about my weekend was the 2011 Little Rock's Annual Big Jingle Jubilee Holiday Parade in downtown Little Rock Saturday afternoon that I covered for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. I took hundreds of photos of hundreds of really cute kids! I absolutely love taking photos of kids! Below are some highlights. If you would like to see all of the photos I took click here.

The always entertaining, Craig O'Neil, from KTHV Channel 11, was our emcee for the event.

Secretary of State, Mark Martin, and his family.

Santa Claus!!

The beautiful Arkansas State Capitol before the lights were turned on.

Our beautiful capitol building after the lights were turned on.

My sweet son, Dallas.

And.....me! :)

My Busy Weekend......Part 1

2011-12-04T08:53:00.001-06:00

This weekend was insanely busy! Well, all my days are usually super busy, but this weekend topped the list. Friday night Sync Weekly and The Arkansas Democrat Gazette asked me to cover the Carti Festival After Dark at the Statehouse Convention Center which was a blast! If you missed this event this year you have to make plans to attend it next year! I do not like missing any of Carti's fundraisers. They are always so much fun! Plus, they are all for a really great cause. Below are some photos that I took of the beautiful Christmas trees they had available for auction. To see all of the photos I took click here.

My husband, Brian, and me.

All photos on my blog and website are copyrighted. You do not have permission to use them for any purpose. Contact Angie here for permission.

My Supportive Husband

2011-11-27T08:19:00.001-06:00

My husband, Brian, is the most supportive and loving man I have ever met. He always does everything he possibly can to help me do whatever it is that I come up with, or am assigned to do by the several publications that I freelance for.

Yesterday the Arkansas Democrat Gazette sent me to Stuttgart to cover the Wings Over the Prairie World Championship Duck Calling Contest. All I had to do was get a photo of each contestant. No biggy, right? Well, it was pouring down rain, cold, and each contestant was to perform a 90 second routine. We quickly realized we would be there for a while, and we were, and we were cold, and we were soaked...to the bone, and those duck calls are pretty loud so we had a headache by the time we left.

Of course we get in the car to leave, and my wonderful, supportive husband is really excited about going home, and I had to break the news that we had another event to cover for Sync Weekly. Lucky for us it was an indoor event though.

My poor honey! I don't think these photos could express the word "miserable" any more.

My pants were soaked all the way to my knees!!

The dedicated duck calling fans!

To see all the photos from this event click here!

Mrs. B

2011-11-09T20:18:00.003-06:00

All photos are copyrighted and property of Angie Davis Photography.
You do not have permission to use them without written consent from Angie Davis.

Occupy Little Rock

2011-10-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 15, 2011, Occupy Little Rock took over downtown Little Rock. About 500 people showed up to protest, and I was sent to cover the protest by Sync Weekly, a magazine published by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that I freelance for regularly. Below are some of the images I captured of the event.

A photographer friend of mine, Bob Lincoln, happened to capture of few photos of me working that day. Thank you so much Bob!

All photos are copyrighted and property of Angie Davis Photography.
You do not have permission to use them without written consent from Angie Davis.

SNAKE!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

Saturday I was able to spend the whole day out with my boys. We had a wonderful time! When we got home we decided to go take some photos of them since it was such a beautiful afternoon. Everything was going great & I was getting amazing photos of them until I happened to notice something move in the grass! I was laying down trying to get an artsy photo of Kolton, and I saw & heard the grass move right beside my arm! At first I thought a toad hopped (we have LOTS of toads where I live), but all of the sudden this big, black snake tail whipped out of the grass! Right in my FACE!!!! You can only imagine the high pitched scream I belted out!!!! Needless to say, I was ready to go home at that point! I am just so thankful he was obviously slithering away from me instead of towards me! Ugh!! I shutter every time I think about it!!!

I call this one "Flower For My Mommy"

Oh how I love their handsome smiles!!

Love my boys! :)

Susan G. Komen Fireman Calendar

2011-09-16T07:32:00.000-05:00

Last night I was sent to Dugan's Pub on the corner of 3rd and Rock street to cover the Susan G. Komen's Fireman Calendar autographing for Sync Weekly.

I had an amazing time, and met some awesome people including the firemen!!!

Pat Shea (May)

Brad Sanders (June)

Phillip Prater (November)

Brandon Harper (December)

Jean Bisbee (July)

Michael Doan (August)

Pat Shea (May)

Jean Bisbee (July)

Justin Clift (September)

Brandon Harper (December)

Phillip Prater (November)

Mathew Bradford (April)

Roy Wert (February)

Justin Clift (September)

Charles Austin (October)

GOOD TIMES!!!!

Brittany & Oscar

2011-09-07T21:18:00.002-05:00

I had the funnest (I don't care what the hubby says...funnest is too a word!! Ha! Ha!) engagement session with this couple! They are absolutely adorable!

Their session started off with really cloudy skies, and according to the radar we only had a few minutes before we were going to get hammered with rain!

We were pretty bummed that the rain started right when we really got into the session, but I did risk equipment & hair to get this sweet shot of them!

I love for my clients to bring something meaningful with them on their sessions like photos, etc., so that I can incorporate them into some of my portraits. I especially loved the things Brittany brought. She was so creative & put a lot of thought into their session.

The photo below is my favorite from their session.

They are such a precious couple. I loved editing their photos & especially designing their custom album. Below are a few pages from it.

Above is a slideshow of their entire session.

Congratulations Brittany & Oscar on your upcoming marriage! I wish you guys all the love and luck in the world! See you again in January!

Angie

My Favorite Photographer

2011-09-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

Today I had the best time with my favorite photographer, Tonee Lawrence. Tonee is not only an amazing photographer, but also one of my best friends!

Our fun day started with a text from her saying lets go take pictures, and scout for some new locations, and of course I said, "Oh yeah!"

Our journey started with a trip to Sonic since I was craving a corn dog and a cherry vanilla root beer. Then we were off!

We live in a really small town with a population of plus or minus 3000 people, and we decided to try to find an old cemetery to take photos in. Using our phones we GPS'd cemeteries close by, and found about 7 of them.

We ended up stumbling across the first one on accident, but there was too many people there. The second we never could find. We finally gave up trying to find it when dogs started chasing us.

The third one took us about 2 hours to find since her phone kept having us drive in circles until we finally found it. If you know us, and know where we live then you will probably find it hard to believe that there is that much road to even drive on in this one street light town. Plus, the squirrel that wouldn't get out of the middle of the road and let us pass took a little bit of our time, and there was also an issue with a goat. Once we found the cemetery we decided there was too many people there too though.

So we were off again. This time we found the fourth cemetery just fine, and we had it all to ourselves!

For some reason we thought changing shoes was extremely funny!

Tonee heard a car coming, and dropped to the ground yelling, "Here comes a car! I don't want them to see us!" Funny girl!

Argh! Pirate faces in cemeteries are cool!!!! HA!

So that was my awesome afternoon with my awesome friend! Can't wait to do it again!

Beautiful Family

2011-07-27T06:46:00.004-05:00

I had such a wonderful time capturing this family! They are all so sweet!

Their slideshow
(forgive the yucky quality since it gets compressed smaller when I put it on here)

A few of of my favorites

I Love Red Heads!!!

2011-06-30T07:10:00.000-05:00

I have always loved red hair. My precious little sister, Jessica, has the most beautiful red hair. I even colored my hair red for several years. So when this red headed beauty asked me to take her senior portraits I was super excited!

All photos on this blog are copyrighted, and protected by federal copyright laws. You do not have permission to use, copy, or print them.

Little Miss Independent

2011-06-05T20:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since my last blog. Ever since the tornado life has been pretty busy. I have had several sessions since my last blog, and below are a few peeks from one of my many favorites.

I met Kyleigh and her mom, Kelly, at one of my favorite locations, the pecan orchard. Before they got there I took some time to walk around, and try to plan some of my shots. I soon realized that the orchard had sustained pretty bad damage from the recent storms. Several of the trees had been broken at or near the base; it was so sad to see so many of those beautiful trees torn down. To be honest, it was not only sad, but I kind of panicked a bit since now I had no place to shoot, and my client was on their way. So I started walking. I ended up finding a beautiful field with yellow wildflowers and a gorgeous little pond. I was elated!

When Kelly arrived Kyleigh was asleep in the car. Since she is only 2 I was a bit nervous about this especially since I know how grumpy I am when my nap is disturbed. I asked Kelly if she had a good nap earlier in the day, and she said Kyleigh didn't take a nap because she sleeps late on Saturday. I thought to myself, "Oh no! This may not go well." I guess Kelly was reading my mind because she told me she would perk right up.

Kelly opened the door to the car, woke her up, and this beautiful, blonde haired, blue eyed 2 year old hugs her mommy's leg, and says, "My mommy!" And then promptly gave me a beautiful smile. For 2 years old I was amazed at how quick she did perk up, and how independent she was. The only time she fussed at all during the session was when Kelly wanted to carry her over some mud. She wanted to do everything all by herself.

Here are few pictures of Little Miss Independent.

Vilonia - Devastation In Our Precious Little Town

2011-04-28T11:12:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 25th, our precious little town of Vilonia was struck by an EF-2 tornado. Almost all of the one street light town was damaged except for the small part where our schools are located (I'm sure there are a ton of disappointed kids LOL!), which is also the same side that our neighborhood is on.

Below is the damage to my best friend's home. Her and her family made it out just fine with no injuries.

These photos are her front yard.

The side and back of her home.

The second level on one side is completely gone.

Her bedroom and closet.

Her dining room.

Her living room.

Below is her little boy's room.

Below is the ceiling in her living room.

Her upstairs bathroom. The shower and the scrubby made it though!

Upstairs closet.

Below are photos from around town which are just a small bit of the damage.

More storms came through the next night and did even more damage to my best friend's home.

Below are photos of thunderstorms that kept popping up when we were trying to clean up. They made more rain so every so often more of the ceiling in her house would fall on us while we were trying to pack up what was salvageable.

More of the damage around town.

I feel so sorry for all my neighbors who lost their homes, and especially those who lost their lives in this terrible storm. My heart also goes out to the rest of the southern states who were effected by even larger tornadoes this week; it all just breaks my heart.

All About Dallas

2011-04-10T10:09:00.000-05:00

My 15 year old son, Dallas, loves to take photos, and he loves to go out and take photos with mom. Yesterday I was assigned by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette to cover the Kidsfest Superhero Race in Conway. I was so excited about this event, and knew these kids were going to be Super cute, and a lot of fun. I was so right too! Most of the events I cover I can't take Dallas with me, but this one I was able to, and we were both super stoked about it. We got up super early, and headed to Conway, anxious for what the day had in store for our cameras.

This is my sweet Dallas all ready to take pictures of Superheroes.

He has been going through a MAJOR growth spurt lately, and is hungry all the time. I told him to eat before we left, but he said he did. Of course, after being at the event for about an hour he says to me, "Mom, I'm hungry." The sweet ladies at the registration desk were sweet enough to offer him some donuts.

Dallas taking a photo of me while I take a photo of him while we are taking photos! Ha!

We had so much fun at this event. I love watching him take photos because I love how he gets so wrapped up in it....he loves it! I love it how he runs up to me constantly and says, "Mom! What do you think about this photo?" Plus, he is really, really good at it. He has amazing composition, and five minutes after showing him how to work the F-Stop, Shutter, and ISO he was taking amazing photos on full Manual. This is amazing to me since it takes many photographers years to learn this, especially at the level he has mastered.

With that being said, please enjoy HIS photos...this time. :)

Working For The Arkansas Democrat Gazette

2011-04-03T10:41:00.000-05:00

Not too long ago I started working for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette as one of their event photographers, and I have been having an absolute blast! They send me out on event assignments all over central Arkansas. I have been meeting the most amazing people, and taking some fantastic photos of them. What could be a better job? Absolutely nothing!

My very first assignment was Mardi Gras at the Governor's Mansion. I had never been to the Governor's Mansion before so I was super stoked! I had a wonderful time, and the 2 young musicians who provided the entertainment were so talented! The Mardi Gras decorations were amazing!

One of my other assignments was the 2011 Chef's Ball at Pulaski Technical College. The food, of course, was amazing! Combine wonderful food and photos of Governor Beebe equals Good Times!

This past Friday night I was assigned to cover the Eggshibition XX at the Jack Stephen's Center at UALR. I had been there for about 40 minutes when I heard someone yelling my name. I turned to look, and it just happened to be an old friend of mine from junior high, Brian Russell! It is such an awesome feeling to run into people from so long ago!

Below are some photos I took just last night in Conway at the 1st Annual Jazz and Cuisine Classic. The band, food, people, decorations, everything...perfect!

At the Stem Soiree, which was held at the Clear Channel Metroplex, these little cupcakes were so calling my name! I love anything peanut butter!

This particular event is so far the largest I have been assigned to yet. I don't know how many people were there, but there was a ton, and it too was perfect!

So far I have had a ton of fun working for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. They have been keeping me super busy with fun places to go, see, and capture! They have already assigned me to the CARTI Ragin' Cajun Bash and the Arkansas Derby which are coming soon. I hope to see you there, and so does my camera!

My Other Fun Job!

2011-03-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

My life is very crazy and a lot of fun! I am always running from one place to another with and without my camera. At times I get to hop on a plane for KARN 102.9 to cover political events with my camera. Other times I'm running around Little Rock for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette covering events for them. Of course my clients keep me super busy with Angie Davis Photography as well. But when I'm not doing all that I'm sitting at my desk at Jenkins Enterprises. I know what you're thinking already, "What is Jenkins Enterprises?"

Well, Jenkins Enterprises is one of the best kept secrets in Arkansas. I'm sure you have bought our merchandise, and didn't even realize it. You see, Jenkins Enterprises is also known as GameDay Outfitters. We wholesale collegiate merchandise to retail stores for well over 60 colleges. Our line consists of over 10,000 items, and our warehouse is over 140,000 sq. ft. These retail stores include Wal-Mart, Walgreen's, Dollar General, Hastings, and thousands of more stores across the nation!

Now your question is, "So what do you do there, Angie?" Well, I am a sales representative for them. Most of my day is spent on the phone helping retail store owners and managers decide the best products for their locations. Some of my customers do come into the office, but most of my customers are outside of the state of Arkansas. I have worked for Jenkins for 5 years now. I have spent 3 of those years as their #2 sales rep, until this last year when I became their #1 sales rep.

So on to the real reason for this blog. February 28th I hopped on a plane with 6 of my colleagues at Jenkins, and we headed off to Las Vegas for the ASD Gift Show. This show is one of the largest gift shows in North America with vendors and buyers who travel there from all over the world.

Now I know what you're thinking...again. "Lucky Angie! Fun in Vegas!" Wrong! Twice a year we attend this same show in Vegas, and it is a ton of work, work, work! It takes 4 men and 1 woman (me) two days just to set up our booth. Below are photos of what our booth looks like when we arrive...empty.

Being such a huge show, it's very humbling to know that our booth is the 3rd largest booth there. When we finish it is the BEST looking booth there too! Well...that's what I think anyway!

Above you can see we have to put all the racks together before we can put all the merchandise out. I can't remember how many of the 4-ways we have, but I think it's somewhere around 30 or more.

The man in the brown jacket is our President, Steve Jenkins, talking with Mike who is also a sales rep at Jenkins.

Above is Frank writing up an order in the booth. He is our Import Specialist, and spends tons and tons of late nights and early mornings at Jenkins so he can talk to our factories in China. Frank is such a hard worker, and an absolute pleasure to have as a friend and colleague. He always takes such good care of me and my customers by making sure we have our merchandise for football season.

Above you can see more of the booth once we get finished with it.

Along with our collegiate merchandise we also sell state souvenirs for all 50 states. You have probably bought some of those too.

This is Bill. He is our Art Director. He is a very talented artist, and has designed the majority of our logos and merchandise that we sell.

Above is one of the many 4-ways that we set up in our booth. I know...Longhorns...keep scrolling for the Razorbacks!

Above is Gary Grant. Gary is also a sales rep for Jenkins, and also Steve's son-in-law.

Woooooooooooooooo Pig Soooooiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

These photos are only parts of the booth; it is so big that it's hard to capture the whole booth even with a wide angle lens.

So this is what I do with my spare time. Working at Jenkins is a lot of fun, and I work with some amazing people!!

Beauty Queen Macie

2011-03-20T12:57:00.000-05:00

I first met Macie a little over 2 years ago when her mom, Lachelle, and I started working together. Lachelle owns Sincerely Yours Salon and Lachelle's Permanent Cosmetics on JFK in North Little Rock. I send all of my Boudoir clients to her since she does amazing work getting my ladies camera ready. If you want to look like a Supermodel then she is the lady to visit!

Lachelle called me one day to let me know she was needing more photos of Macie for a beauty pageant she had entered and won; it was certainly no surprise to me that she won since Macie is so amazingly beautiful!

Macie and Lachelle had been looking through scholarships and just happened to see that this beauty pageant offered a huge amount of scholarship money to the winners, so of course they signed Macie up.

Macie is not only a beautiful young lady on the outside, but she is an all around beautiful person. She is so sweet, makes good grades, and is very close to her mom.

Yesterday I took more photos of Macie with her crown, but those will be saved for another blog.

Senior Session - Travis

2011-03-13T12:48:00.001-05:00

I didn't get to meet Travis until our actual photo session. I was very impressed with him though. I believe he is one of the happiest people I have ever met.

I always try to snap a few serious photos of my clients, but there was no way to with Travis. He could not stop smiling and laughing through the whole session.

His graduation is coming up in May, and his parents are so proud of him, and with good reason!

He is one of those all around great kids!

I have a feeling that whatever he decides to do after high school, he will for sure go far!

It also helps that he is a great looking kid with an amazing smile!

Congrats Travis!!

You rock!!

PhotographyByAngieDavis.com

Washington DC - CPAC 2011 - Part 3

2011-03-06T07:49:00.000-06:00

Our last day at CPAC was a very fun day, and a busy one as well.

I met Dale Peterson at the Scotch & Cigar event the night before. Dale was certainly my most favorite politician to spend time with during the entire conference. I spent about an hour talking with him and his wife, and he agreed to let us interview him the next morning. Dale ran for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner this past November, and became the world's most famous candidate for state agriculture commissioner in a matter of hours due to a commercial of the Alabama Republican riding a horse, wearing a white hat, carrying a gun - and shooting from the lip by accusing the people in charge of his state's Agriculture Commission of being "thugs and criminals". My conversations with Dale left me with the feeling that he is a very sincere man that cares a lot about his state and his country. Make sure to check out his video; it's very impressive.

Not long after our interview with Dale there was quite a buzz around Radio Row. The buzz was Sarah Palin. Sarah had backed out of CPAC due to a scheduling conference, so the media was quite excited to see her. The AP immediately put out a press release that she was there, BUT unfortunately for them they couldn't tell the difference between the real Sarah Palin and an uncanny look alike!

After the Palin fiasco died down; it was time to head out for our tour of the White House. We were supposed to tour it the previous day with Senator Boozman, but due to our schedule we had to postpone the tour to the following day, and he had to fly home to Arkansas that morning, so his assistant Marilyn gave us the grand tour which was very grand indeed!

My most favorite part of the tour was when we met up with Senator Mitch McConnell's assistant, and she gave us a tour of his office.

Senator McConnell's office.

Brian and me posing for pictures while sitting at Mitch McConnell's desk.

Senator Boozman's assistant, Marilyn. Sweet girl and awesome tour guide!

This is the view from Senator McConnell's copy machine. I think I could handle being the copy girl in that office!

This is the view from one of the patios in the White House; it was absolutely breath taking in real life.

Needless to say, we had an amazing time at CPAC this year, and cannot wait until next year.

My next political convention will be in June for the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. Cannot wait!

Washington DC - CPAC 2011 - Part 2

2011-02-22T08:20:00.000-06:00

Our first day of CPAC was filled with lots of interviews, speakers, and photos of everyone from Richard Dreyfuss to Newt Gingrich. You never know who is going to surprise you with a photo opportunity or an interview on Radio Row.

Scott Nauman, KARN 102.9 FM, The Dave Elswick Show Producer, and I ready for work!

Richard Dreyfuss totally surprised us around 9AM, well, him and his mai tai, I'm still trying to figure out what he was talking about, but he did say he liked my "made in America camera"...???

Book signing area.

Kristi Noem, US House Representative from South Dakota speaking at CPAC

Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky. We were also given a tour of his office, but more on that in Part 3!

Newt & Callista Gingrich signing books.

When Newt and Callista were done signing books they posed together for a photo for me.

Donald Trump speaking at CPAC. I missed meeting him by about 2 seconds right before he spoke.

Infamous blogger Andrew Breitbart being interviewed. He is my most favorite to photograph at these conferences. He always gives me a great look!

My husband, Brian, talking with former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, while Mr. Rumsfeld autographs a book for him.

Newt Gingrich being interviewed.

Me on Radio Row.

What an exciting day!

Stay tuned for Part 3!

Washington DC - CPAC 2011 - Part I

2011-02-13T12:46:00.001-06:00

We are finally home from Washington DC!! It was so wonderful sleeping in my own bed! We had a wonderful time, and met lots of great people.

Our first day started at 4AM with last minute packing, and hope that we would beat the Snow-Palooza of 2011. I was so afraid it would hit before we got the plane off the ground, and our flight would be canceled; it didn't help that our plane was scheduled to take off 30 minutes earlier than the time that I thought it did. We were the very last people to board, but we came very close to missing it. Once we boarded the pilot shut the engines down, and made an announcement that we were having to de-ice the wings before we could take off; it had already started snowing so I was still praying that we would be able to take off. Before we knew it though we were landing at Midway airport in 3 degree Chicago. After leaving Chicago, we finally landed at Dulles airport in Virginia. Once we landed we took a 45 minute cab ride to our hotel, threw our luggage in the room, and we were off to tour our nation's capitol!

Photo of me that my hubby, Brian, took while we were walking around taking photos of all the sites.

There were a ton of overly fed squirrels in the park. This one was hoping I would feed him. He came up to me, sniffed my fingers, and then posed for this photo. Unfortunately, I didn't have a treat for him even though he certainly deserved it since he gave me such a great pose. I call it "Please, Ma'am. Can You Spare Just One Small Acorn"

Being that it was 20 degrees with a 10-15 mile an hour wind, we got super cold super fast! I'm the girl in the group so I was the first to say, "I want to be warm, and I want hot coffee, STAT!" So we made our way into one of the Smithsonian Institutions to do just that.

Once we had a cup of coffee, and warmed up, we decided to look around a bit. We were all so excited to see the original Star Spangled Banner. Unfortunately, you couldn't take photos inside the exhibit, but it was an amazing experience. The outside of the exhibit was pretty awesome as well though.

After leaving the Smithsonian, and taking more photos, the girl got cold again. When I made this very clear to Brian and Scott we just happened to be standing in front of the Russell Senate Building. So we decided that was a great place to go in and warm up!

Name placard on the outside of Senator Boozman's office.

Some of Senotor Boozman's office decor.

Wicker basket in the shape of the state of Arkansas with bags of Riceland rice in it.

We finally found Senator Boozman's office after walking almost the entire building. Finding his office was great, but the real treat was he was there, and we were able to sit down in his conference room, and chat with him for a few moments.

Jar of candy that Senator Boozman shared with us.

After leaving the Senate building, we decided to make our way back to the hotel since it was getting late. As soon as we entered the lobby I thought I heard a familiar voice. I looked over in the direction of where the voice was coming from, and there stood Herman Cain.

When we attended the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference this past April, Herman Cain, made the announcement there may be a "dark horse candidate" in the 2012 Presidential Elections.

Day 1 was a blast from beginning to end!

Stay Tuned For Washington DC CPAC 2011 Part II Coming Soon!

Paint The Town Red: Jeans Boots and BBQ

2011-01-30T20:53:00.000-06:00

Thursday night I was able to attend Paint The Town Red at Robinson Center with my good friend, Dave Elswick, who was also the Master of Ceremonies for the night. Dave is also the Program Director and afternoon talk show host from 2:00-6:00 on KARN 102.9FM. We all had a wonderful time, and I was able to capture some really great photos.

Paint The Town Red was held by The Republican Party of Arkansas to honor our newly elected Republican legislators and constitutional officers including, Lt. Governor Mark Darr, Secretary of Sate Mark Martin, and Land Commissioner John Thurston.

Click on the photo above to purchase photos from Paint The Town Red.

Land Commissioner John Thurston

Fire Pelosi hat autographed by Congressman Tim Griffin

Dave Elswick

Master of Ceremonies

Lt Governor Mark Darr

Secretary of State Mark Martin

Land Commissioner John Thurston

Dave Elswick

Lt Governor Mark Darr

Kim Darr

beautiful wife of

Lt Governor Mark Darr

Jim Keet

Kids Say The Darndest Things!!

2011-01-15T20:38:00.000-06:00

My kids crack me up all the time, but today was quite priceless! I carry a huge purse. I have a lot going on all the time, and everything ends up being thrown in this colossal size bag. Once or twice a year I finally break down, clean it out, and switch to a new purse that is also huge, but oh what a dreaded chore! I can always figure out something better to do than this! Ugh! At this time, my current purse is wayyyyyy over due for a cleaning and replacing; it is an absolute mess! So not only is this purse huge, but it's also heavy! Very heavy! So heavy that it's hard to even pick up, much less carry. So every time I say something about my purse being heavy, some smarty in my house decides to say something along the lines of, "Why don't you clean it out then!" I usually just ignore them, or tell them to be nice and clean it out for me. Well, today we were in Wal-Mart with my husband, Brian, and my two sons, Dallas and Kolton. I made the mistake of complaining how heavy my purse was, and my youngest, Kolton, piped up and said, "Then why don't you clean it out?" I replied back, "Okay! I will take all 7 of my guns out of my purse, and all 7 of my wallets out, leave all the trash and other crap, and maybe it won't be so heavy anymore!" He looks at me, and says, "You have 7 wallets?" I died laughing! He was amazed by the wallets, but guns didn't surprise him in the least! I love that kid!

Kolton

Kolton Dallas & Katy