2011 was a great year! It was a year full of fun experiences, friends, family and memories. It was also a year of heartache as I sadly attended nine funerals over the course of 2011. More than I've ever attended in my life. Through the sadness, God continued to show his love through many blessings in my life. Here is a quick overview of 2011.
I got to start off the year by celebrating New Year's Eve in Charlotte with three of my dear friends from childhood (Leigh, Alana and Margaret). We all grew up dancing and teaching dance together.
In April I got to fly over my family's pecan orchard in south Georgia in a private airplane. What an amazing experience to see the farm from this view!
(Whoever planted the pecan trees sure did a good job planting them in a straight line!)
The week after Easter, Susan (my clinical teacher from when I did my student teaching in college) and her husband Tom came to visit my family at the farm. We made a day trip to Savannah and got to see the sights of the historic town.
This spring I made my first, "big girl" purchase. I bought a new car. After eight years of driving jeeps I sold my silver 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and purchased a white 2011 Toyota Highlander. It was a sad day to see my Jeep go away, but I love my Highlander! (I've already put 17,000 miles on it!)
This April, my former teacher, role model, mentor and friend passed away. Coach D was the Athletic Director of Salem Middle School and was the Women's Soccer Coach at Apex High School. There was a candlelight vigil at the high school after his death and the stadium was full. ESPN did an article on his life and published my picture with the article.
In May, my grandmother, Elva Alice Anderson Belcher passed away. She was almost 103 years old. She lived a long, healthy life. Full of love, blessings and joy. This picture was taken at Christmas when she was 99 years old.
This summer I traveled to Kenya for a 10 day mission trip with my church, First Baptist Cary. We built two houses, attended schools and orphanges. We got to share God's love as well as experience the true wildlife of Kenya.
While in Kenya, I got to stand on the Equator!! Sadly there was not a line drawn on the ground like there are on maps. Here I am standing with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere.
In October I went with my childhood friend to the NC Hot Air Balloon Festival in Statesville, NC. We enjoyed the full day of seeing hot air balloon contests, mass ascenions and a twilight glow.
Throughout the year I performed with my tap company, Footnotes Tap Ensemble, at nine different performances throughout the Triangle area. We performed at places like UNC Children's Hospital, Sparkcon, the SECU House at UNC Hospital, the Burning Coal Theatre and the Carolina Inn.
I ended 2011 with New Year's Eve 2012 in Charlotte, NC with my friends Leigh and Alana. Sadly, Margaret did not join us this year,but we continued to carry on the tradition of dancing the night away!
Here's to 2012. May it be full of love, happiness, blessings and memories to cherish.
It is January 29th and it is 58 degrees outside. Lately it has been in the lower to mid 60's. We have had an extremely mild winter. The meteorologists are calling it the "year without a winter." I believe it. I have not worn half of my winter wardrobe. Here's to hoping that it snows this winter! I absolutely love to play with my camera in the snow! (I know.. I sound like a complete camera nerd!) 
15 Pirates loose in Atlanta! 
Passion students flooding the streets of Atlanta! 
This was a sweet moment I captured on Christmas Eve of my mom with her grandson. I love how it captures some of his first excitements of Christmas. 
For the most part, people know (or assume) what it's like to be a farmer's daughter. However, when I tell people that my father is a pecan farmer. I get a lot of interesting looks. Questions like, "How do pecans grow?", "How do you harvest pecans?" and "What time of year do pecans grow?" I decided a good do a quick "farmer's daughter" version of how the whole process works. Of course, if you ask my dad the process... his version would be a lot longer and more detailed :)
Sometimes the pecans aren't ready to fall off the trees at the timing my dad wants them to fall. So he will use a piece of machinery called a Shaker, which will shake the tree so the pecans will fall off to the ground so they can be picked up. 
There are a lot of trees to shake!
Then he drives the tractor and pushes all the pecans that are on the ground into wind rows.
Blowing the leaves and pecans into wind rows. 
As you can imagine, dirt and leaves fly everywhere! 
Now the pecans get picked up.
And the machinery differentiates the weight between leaves and pecans. The pecans are kept. (You can see them shooting through the machine).
Then you load all the pecans into a big red wagon.
The red wagon full of pecans gets dumped into a big bin in the cleaning plant. The pecans are then picked up by the conveyor belt and processed through the cleaning plant.
After a series of steps in the cleaning plant, he has employees pick out the bad ones. Then the process is repeated.
But really .. the reason my dad is a pecan farmer .... is so we can all have really fun photo shoots ;) 
In April I got to fly over my family's pecan orchard in south Georgia in a private airplane. What an amazing experience to see the farm from this view! 
The week after Easter, Susan (my clinical teacher from when I did my student teaching in college) and her husband Tom came to visit my family at the farm. We made a day trip to Savannah and got to see the sights of the historic town.
This spring I made my first, "big girl" purchase. I bought a new car. After eight years of driving jeeps I sold my silver 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and purchased a white 2011 Toyota Highlander. It was a sad day to see my Jeep go away, but I love my Highlander! (I've already put 17,000 miles on it!)
This April, my former teacher, role model, mentor and friend passed away. Coach D was the Athletic Director of Salem Middle School and was the Women's Soccer Coach at Apex High School. There was a candlelight vigil at the high school after his death and the stadium was full. ESPN did an article on his life and published my picture with the article.
In May, my grandmother, Elva Alice Anderson Belcher passed away. She was almost 103 years old. She lived a long, healthy life. Full of love, blessings and joy. This picture was taken at Christmas when she was 99 years old.
This summer I traveled to Kenya for a 10 day mission trip with my church, First Baptist Cary. We built two houses, attended schools and orphanges. We got to share God's love as well as experience the true wildlife of Kenya.
While in Kenya, I got to stand on the Equator!! Sadly there was not a line drawn on the ground like there are on maps. Here I am standing with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere. 
In October I went with my childhood friend to the NC Hot Air Balloon Festival in Statesville, NC. We enjoyed the full day of seeing hot air balloon contests, mass ascenions and a twilight glow.
Throughout the year I performed with my tap company, Footnotes Tap Ensemble, at nine different performances throughout the Triangle area. We performed at places like UNC Children's Hospital, Sparkcon, the SECU House at UNC Hospital, the Burning Coal Theatre and the Carolina Inn. 
I ended 2011 with New Year's Eve 2012 in Charlotte, NC with my friends Leigh and Alana. Sadly, Margaret did not join us this year,but we continued to carry on the tradition of dancing the night away!
Here's to 2012. May it be full of love, happiness, blessings and memories to cherish. 
This Christmas, Rundle (my nephew) is 15 months old. He loved getting to play with all of his cousins. One of his cousins, Connor, taught him a trick that turned into his new favorite toy! His new favorite toy was playing with a red Solo cup. He has become very good at balancing the cup on his head and loves handing the cup to others to put on their heads. 
The day after Christmas we gathered for our traditional family Christmas with the Lanier family in Metter, Georgia. My grandparents’ house is nestled in the middle of two hundred acres of pecan trees. We are very blessed to gather with 36 family members. Seventeen of these are the third generation. Even though I am a part of the second generation, I'm still allowed to be in all of the "kid" pictures. Below is a picture of all the "children" in the Lanier family.
Of course, Rundle really enjoyed this trip to the farm. He loves doing "boy" things. He enjoyed getting dirty in the middle of the dirt road.
He especially loved getting to ride the tractor with his dad and his Daddy Ray!
This Christmas was full of wonderful memories and I can't wait to be back together again at the two farms that have instilled the importance of love and family tradition in each of our lives. 