My beautiful girl

It all started with a dress for my graduation.  Not for me to wear, mind you, but for Rebecca.  After all, even though I was graduating, I was going to be covered in black polyester.  The real star of the family needed a beautiful dress for the day.  Back in January, on a trip to The Little Cottage at The Factory in Franklin (Tennessee), we found THE DRESS.  Beautiful with a crocheted sleeveless bodice with ribbon embroidery and a gold silk dupioni skirt, with a matching crocheted sweater with ribbon embroidery.  Gold shoes completed the ensemble.  We loved the dress, so it went into the closet to wait for graduation, which finally came.  Rebecca ADORED her "puffy grad-a-way-shun" dress.  Unfortunately, the day just wasn't long enough for us to enjoy seeing her in it enough.  And really, how many places does a three year old go where dupioni is appropriate?  So, logically, my mom and I decided that we needed to get professional pictures made of Rebecca in the dress.

Next began the search for the photographer.  I googled.  I asked friends for names of photographers.  I solicited recommendations on Facebook.  I spent hours looking at the portfolios of amazing photographers in a three-state radius.  Somehow I clicked from one site to another to another and landed at Erin Cobb Photography.  I wasted at least a full afternoon just going through her blog and admiring her beautiful work.  She loves color and capturing the personalities of the children and families she photographs.  I knew she had to takes pictures of Rebecca.  Of course, like most things I do, I was at the last minute in coming to this epiphany.  As in, two weeks before I wanted the pics taken.  I had little hope that she would have an opening during the two weeks we were going to be visiting my mom, but I emailed her anyway.  My mom emailed her.  Erin must have sensed our adoration and desperation, because she called and worked us in!  A thunderstorm halted our original day and time, but Erin was great to come up with an alternate morning for a photoshoot.  I primed Rebecca for the shoot with promises of lollipops and a princess toy at Toys R Us if she cooperated with Ms. Erin.  I could have saved that bribe for something else, because Rebecca was enchanted with Erin.  I knew after Erin snapped two pics that the photos were going to be beautiful.  Rebecca had a great time at the park with Ms. Erin.

As we were driving to the airport on Tuesday, I was hitting refresh on Erin's blog, because I knew she was going to be posting the sneak peeks.  Of course, her blog post went up just before I got on I-65, so we had to pull over at the Sands Motel in Frankewing so that we could view them.  Gorgeous! 

Check out these previews:

I can hardly wait to be able to see the rest of the photographs in a week or so when she gets done with them.  Now...how will we ever decide what to order?