My Favorite

This is my favorite photo from our shoot yesterday. (sorry Lillie) I went out to take some of "B" but I had to take some of my girls as well.
It was just a little breezy, and I thought that gave the photo a nice touch.

Just us girls

I wanted to get the girls to blog some more. So we took photos today that they could use as for an update. I wanted to take a quick shot of the three of us. This is what I came up with.

My babies are growing up. *sniff * sniff *

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Here is on of "E". I just thought it was a great shot of her.

Camping in Vernon

For Labor Day weekend we went on a camping trip in Vernon.
This is a photo of our camp.

We had a great time with our neighbors who invited us. It has been years since Josh and I have been camping. Minus the sap that continually dripped from these trees and the wind that howled for most of the weekend we really enjoyed our time.

All of the girls were excited to go camping with their friends. The trees allowed for some great imagining. They build a fort in some of the trees that had fallen over. They even tied up some long pieces of grass for a curtain on the fort. It was too bad that the deer loved the grass and ate their curtain at night.

One of the nights the adults were all sitting around the camp fire and the girls were over in their fort. When all of a sudden the girls came running and screaming toward us. They were yelling, "There are glowing eyes out there!" One of the girls dropped a lantern and Aftie yelled, "Just leave it and RUN!" Well the girls all thought that there were bears out there ready to eat them. When it was actually just about half a dozen deer wanting to eat their fort. Oh, I forgot to mention that in all the chaos our Little E and her friend from down the street had been left up in the tree. Stranded without even a flashlight in the darkness with the glowing eyes. Poor little girls were not very happy.

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They did have some very good times as well though. We did plenty of hiking. Hiking through these hills brought back some fond memories of hiking through some of these same hills with my grandfather when we had family reunions out there. Searching for arrow heads and dead cow bones. Fun times.



Our neighbors also had their four wheelers that they brought up and were kind enough to share. Even though we kept breaking them. :)
The kids, and adults had so much fun with these. And yes, Granny, we did have helmets that were worn. These photos were just for posing purposes.

One of the days we even went crawdadding in the reservoir. The kids had a fun time with that as well. Using the nasty chicken liver on a string to lure the crawdads out of the water.

Another one of our hiking trips was to a little mine that they had on the hills right by our camp. The girls were all a little bummed out when they saw that the mine was barred off. I, myself was a little relieved.

So, for the first camping trip as a family, I would say it was a success. We hope to do more.

Only after getting a new tent pole and spraying all the sap off of the tent.


I will leave you all with on more photo from our trip of the monkeys that we encountered in the woods.

Fun at the Weber

So my most wonderful hubby gave me an awesome gift for my birthday.

A new flash for my camera.
I have been wanting to try it out but have not had the time. So we just went up to the cabin
(sorry, started this post a while ago :) )
and I thought to myself, "What better place to try it out than up here."
Some of the photos that I took were with the flash, some without. I just thought that I would
share some of the pics that I took from our time up there. Amazingly enough though none of them will be of the construction that went on up there.
I love, love, love the new porch. But I love, love, love the kiddies more. Sorry. :)
I am also enjoying playing with textures. It may be too much for some of you purists out there. But I am exploring and having fun, oh well.
So don't mind the textured look in most of the photos.




Yup, this one is of my oh so cute NEPHEW. One of HIS brothers put a flower in HIS hair.
I just couldn't resist taking this photo and sharing it.




This sweet thing is mine. We did braids to have wavy hair. I like that you can see her freckles in this photo.



Another nephew. He is such a sweet little guy. He is always good for a great pose.
I caught him smelling a flower and asked him to do it again. He was so patient for me
while I fixed my camera settings. Love you "S"!



Here is another of my sweet babies. She will not take photos anymore without pulling faces.
Oh well, what can you do?

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One of the reasons we went up to the cabin was to celebrate the June and July birthdays.
Here is "O" with his GINORMOUS piece of cake.
How can such a small guy eat so much.



Speaking of eating things. Tom, we eat cake not kids. Okay?




This is Tom & Liane's nephew the brought up. He was a ton of fun to have around.
I especially enjoyed watching his interaction with my "E"
Funny stuff. :)




This photo is just lifted my camera off to the side and without looking took a shot.
Sorry Arturo, had to post this one just for fun.



And last for now, but not least, is one of my favorite photos I took at the cabin.

This little guy can be so shy, but he takes a good photo. Thanks for putting up with me and my camera "B". Love you buddy.



We had a great time up there. Can't wait for next year.

"The eyes are the windows to the soul"

This little sweetie has some of the most piercingly beautiful
eyes I have ever seen.

What a cutie!

Grandpa

So this week my cute grandpa passed away. I just wanted to blog a little about what I loved about him. And the things that I remember about him through my life.



I am putting together a video of Grandpa's life. And going through these photos I have enjoyed seeing him before I even knew him. He had such personality. One of the things I love the most is his love for his mom (Susannah). You can just see it in the photos with the two of them. I would have loved to see them interact with each other.

Now for my memories. I don't have any specific stories just some general memories. You know my memory.

The first memory I have of Grandpa is his great love of fishing. I don't know of a time visiting them that he didn't go fishing. Or speak of fishing. He loved to share that passion with those around him as well.


I remember going to Grandpas work a few times as a young child. I have grown to love the smell of motor oil and garages because of him. Grandpa was always such a hard worker. Not only on the job but at home as well.

He was an excellent farmer. I remember him going out to work in his field. Even when he was older and couldn't work the big field we would go to a smaller garden that he was growing crops in.

Then there was the tractor. I have very vague memories of riding on it with Grandpa.


He would also get up early every time we would come up to visit and make a wonderful breakfast. Eggs, bacon, and pancakes. We never went hungry.


I don't remember Grandpa ever being all that talkative. But the one thing I do remember and will miss the most is his smile. He always had a warm greeting for you when you saw him.

Grandpa was very dear to us all and will be missed.

Is anyone else sick of this?

I am so very tired of the rain. We cannot mow the lawn. We cannot go out and play.
I want Summer!!!
These storms are wreaking complete havoc on my yard. Between the torrential rainfall
and the winds. Soon I will have no foliage left.


This is a purple flowered bush I have out front. (sorry, can't remember what it is called)
The center of it has completely spread open. The stems used to stand up. Now it
is just squished flat.

Then there are my beautiful Peonies. I was so proud of them.
Guess they were right when they said "Pride comes before the fall".
Proverbs 16:18

Last but oh so not the least is these little beauties. I picked up at least a hundred of these from my front lawn. That was just the big pickable ones. And not even the back yard yet.



Sorry if I complained a little too much here. I am thankful for the rain. I think. :)
I just really want my summer.

I am having too much fun.

So I am really getting into this photography and photo editing thing. This is a photo of my nephew. I loved the lighting in it. Perfect window lighting. Needless to say I am spending too much time in front of the computer.

Happy National Doughnut Day

Today is National Doughnut Day. Josh had told me that yesterday, but since we are on the South Beach Diet doughnuts are kind of a no-no. So since doughnuts are Josh's weakness I just had to do a search. I Googled "phase 1 doughnut recipe" and I actually came up with one. So I made these little guys.



Made with whey protien, no flour. And sugar substitute with cinnamon. Not bad for diet.

Peony

My peonies are blooming right now. I love them so much. The bush out front was just drooping from the weight however. So I decided to go out and cut some to bring into the house for us to enjoy inside as well.



I Love Spring.

So she is trying to kill her!

I have proof. She is actually trying to kill her little sister. I was going through old photos and just found this one.

Party the 1st

Thanks all of you for coming. We wish Lillie, Sarah and families could have come. Here are some photos from our "egg"citing Easter Birthday Party.


The kids all seemed to have a lot of fun on the Easter egg hunt.


From the really big ones.


Down to the little ones.


We had some great "eggs"plorers on the journey.


Then the counting began to see if they had all their eggs.


There were the two littlest ones that couldn't search for eggs. They found other things to occupy their time.

Like eating chicken.


And staring "Angelicly" at their mommy.


We had a great time and hope that you all did as well.