Happy Birthday, dear Emily!

15 years old! Where did the time go? I remember her as a little girl: having to wear a dress every day. Her cute hats that she had to wear. And an umbrella. She had to have the umbrella!

My cute little girl is a beautiful young lady. In just a few tomorrows she will be grown and out of the house with her own cute little girl. {sigh} I need to learn to savor every moment because they go by too quickly.

Here is wishing you a wonderfully slow day to savor a while,

Feeding the Ducks and Geese at the Pond

On Friday, Michael and I decided to take the long way home. I was trying to find good places to take portraits nearby, so we drove slowly by the park, by some downtown locations where people take pics sometimes, and finally, we ended up at the pond.



Ducks and geese swam as fast as they could toward our car and flocked around us, waiting expectantly. The sad thing was, we didn't have anything to feed them, so I promised Michael we'd come back with some food soon.

On Sunday, Steve, Emily, Michael, Aiden, and I piled into the car and set off for the pond with one bread sack full of the stale ends of lots of loaves of bread and some popcorn in another.

When we arrived, here came the ducks and geese waddling up in hopes of a treat. This time they were in luck!

I had Steve help Aiden so that I could take a pic (I love this one and think it is so sweet :):



We fed and fed and fed and then we had to go. It didn't take long for them to leave us, either.



Fickle little creatures! They seem so happy to see us when we arrive, but when we run out of things to give them, they are done with us! There must be a parable in there somewhere! ;)

Finally Friday! Favorite fotos of the week: flower / bee macro

This hasn't been such a great week for posting. Busy, Busy, Busy!

I have taken some cool pics though!

Take a look at these:


That first pic is straight out of the camera with just a boost of saturation; I was super surprised that the bee didn't startle away!

The other pics are for non-bee-lovers. Don't worry, I've got your back! ;)

The super-duper close up macros are just plain cool, don't you think? I love macros because they take you to a whole other way of viewing things! It makes things look very other-worldly.

I hope that you have a super weekend! Do you have anything fun planned? We will be helping out a fund raising yard sale on Saturday and making some baked goods for it too.

See you Monday!

SUNFLOWERS!! for September's Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest

During this time of the year, the end of summer and beginning of fall, sunflowers can be found everywhere! Along back country roads, in flower gardens, and even along the interstate. It makes my heart happy to see them in such abundance. Sunflowers are the epitome of happiness: their golden, sunshiny petals contrasting the dark, chocolate brown center, and then when the blue, blue sky is their backdrop, the scene is simply AMAZING!

Sunflowers are dominating my photo shoots right now (by choice :) and this one is my favorite so far:



So, it just goes without saying that it is the one I am going to submit to the Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This Photo Contest. The theme for September is "Late Summer Garden"... what could be better than beautifully happy Sunflowers?? :)

The Monkey at My House

Aiden is quite a little climber! Yesterday, he decided to climb over the arm of the couch, then back up and over the arm, and then back down. The faces he was making were so cute that I couldn't resist taking pics. Too bad the lighting was so poor :(

My Cutie Pie

This pic was originally taken in May and revisited and revised today. What a cute kid!!

End of Summer's Perfect Flower - The Sunflower

Thankful Thursday:Sept. 15:My Favorite View

Wordless Wednesday::Harvest Season - Sept. 14th, 2011

Jared's Senior Pics::Sept. 13, 2011

I don't think I remembered to show these to you after I took them, so here are a few of Jared's senior portraits. We are going for "the perfect pic" and location, so there should be a few more here and there before we're done. :)

The first one was taken at the same place that Amber got married. It is a favorite location for photo shoots among many photographers, and when we were spending so much time there, we noticed several photographers on shoots. The lighting is super and the beauty there is amazing. I'd like to take more pics there.

The next few were taken in the foothills. They are some of our favorite places to visit. :)

This week is going to be tricky for blogging; Michael has a dentist appt. tomorrow at the children's hospital and then has physical therapy on Thursday.

Today will be a nice, quiet day I hope! I am feeling a bit under the weather, so I have no plans other than to vote in the Primary Elections.

I hope that you have a great day!

Grandparents Day

Yesterday was Grandparents Day, and I got to celebrate it with my grandbaby :)

On Saturday afternoon, as he was sitting in his highchair eating, I noticed this wonderful lighting that was coming in through the windows, so I snagged my camera and took some pictures that I later turned into a collage :)



I had Steve ask him questions, like, "Where is your nose?" followed by ears, eyes.... and I just kept snapping away.

I love natural lighting; it gives the pic such a natural feel. :)

Anyway, I hope that all of you that are Grandparents had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating with your littles :)

Have a great day!

The Rest of the Story - Sept. 9, 2011

We have a tradition to gather up all of our kids on Labor Day Weekend and go camping. This year, since Tino and Amber had just gotten married, they didn't show up, but everyone else did.

Why Labor Day, you ask? Because it is close to the anniversary of when Steve's & I first met. I figure that a family reunion is a pretty good way to celebrate that event. :)

As just a little history, Steve & I met on September 9, 1995 (16 years ago today :). Our first date was a week later on the 16th. We got engaged on October 20th, and the wedding was November 22. Talk about a whirlwind! :)

Anyway, so about 4 years ago, I decided that we needed to start having an annual tradition so that everyone was already in the habit of a get together. That way, when everyone got married off and busy with families of their own, they would still remember to come camping with us on Labor Day. I think that it was a great choice, and the kids like it too. :)

Here are the remainder of pics from our family reunion/labor camping trip:

Home Sweet away-from-home Home


The "facilities" - a port-a-potty in a shower tent makes camping life just a little more luxurious ;)


Karen and Aiden


Matt with a bb gun, just resting in the hammock


The bb guns lined up along the fence - what is it with boys and bb guns? Mine - even the oldest one - still loves 'em


Jared and his schbapoop. This is his favorite activity to do while camping. He gets a dead-fall wood, about 6" in diameter & cuts off about an 18" piece, puts a hot coal on it, blows the coal - "cooking" the center of the log, getting a fresh coal every time the other one cools. He makes it into a wooden cup type thing. The trickiest part is directing the air at the coal - this year he took a piece of a broken fishing pole since it is hollow and will direct the air *exactly* where he wants it. Pretty ingenious! :)


Meg under the hammock


Josh and Matt coming back from playing in the meadow


Smores!


And to update my grandson's pic (found at the top of my blog) is this pic:


This is his "I don't know" shrug. Very cute! :)

Have a great day!