fPhoto Friday

"Buddies"


location: our front yard.....just before dark
camera: Canon XSi
setting:ISO 800, Shutter 1/16, f5.6, no flash

For more fPhoto friday, visit Natalie!

Where O Where??

....in the world have I been? Well, I have been hanging out with Uncle Sam for about the last week. (at least during nap time, which is usually my computer time) Yeah. Tax Time. UGH! Not to mention an unfortunate incident involving a ped-Egg, and many many incidents with the now chainedinthebackyardandbarkingtheirfoolheadsoff Merle III & Maxie/Bear (note the name changes/addition...yeah, another story ALLTOGETHER!)....and a bit of a heated "discussion" with lunatic neighbor on the way home from church last night regarding said dogs. Whew! Anyway, that's all finished....I hope!

I have actually been a little obsessed with photography lately. This is proving to be a pretty addictive little hobby! My poor children no longer respond to the camera with anything other than a glare. This is really unfortunate timing for this to occur since I really want to get some 1 year pics printed of Lilah. Can you believe she will be 1 on April 2?? We'll have to get more into that one another day!

Anyway, all that said, we were thrilled to have my niece and nephew hang out with us when school was out this past Monday! We had such a fun day in spite of the rain and being stuck inside most of the time. I did take advantage of Matthew & Rachel's presence to snap a few pictures and give Carter & Lilah a bit of a rest. Plus, I really needed new pics of them to display anyway! These two are quite the little models!....and I don't even have to tell you how beautiful they are! (...and Matthew, there is such a thing as a "beautiful" boy....and you are most certainly one of them! Inside and out! I am so proud of both you and Rachel!)

Here are a few of my favorites....(I obviously love close-ups!)

Valentine's, Church, & The NRA

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We did!

You'll all be shocked to know that I'm not really the lovey dovey PDA kind of girl.

(I'm waiting, you know, for the shock to wear off.)

Anyway, so when Kyle asked me what I wanted for Valentine's Day, I barely let him finish before I said, "Breakfast at Cracker Barrel".

I love to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It's like a vacation thing. We never have time to eat breakfast out unless we are on vacation or it's a holiday. Since I am also doing the "diet thing" the last month or so (with the exception of our Siesta trip to Atlanta) a big honkin' breakfast was about the best thing he could have bought me!

Don't worry Thea & Brooke, I sooooo worked it off later!

I worked on decorating the fellowship hall for the Valentines festivities tomorrow and I climbed a ladder at least 740 times, held a screaming Lilah for an hour, dumped a screaming Lilah off on Papa & Gran so I could get some work done, loaded my car, and just as I was about to go back in to take some pics of my work, I almost had to shoot a strange man in the church parking lot.

It's been a full day.

Now I'm off to bake some brownies for my little (and very demanding when it comes to their snacks) 4 & 5 year old SS class cuties!

Have a great Sunday!





Disclaimer: I did NOT shoot anyone in the church parking lot, but as I was coming out of the fellowship hall with my arms loaded I glanced back toward the sanctuary entrance and saw a man go around the corner of the building. I didn't know him. As he disappeared into the darkness, I shoved my stuff in the car, grabbed my gun, and took off in hot pursuit.

lol.

not really.

I did get my gun(because I DO live in the boonies with hillbilly, redneck, freaky Jason types....God love 'em), then hurried back to the door to switch off the lights and lock the door. Just as I turned and started down the steps the man was coming back toward me. I jumped in and locked my doors and headed out of the parking lot.

Then I saw a truck I didn't recognize parked close to the office door. Being as I had my gun and I was safely locked inside my vehicle, I suddenly became brave enough to go see what was up.

I blew my horn and rolled my window down a bit and asked him (because I'd never seen him before) if I could help him find someone. He then told me his wife was inside painting and he was just taking the garbage out.

"Ohhhh, okay. Well then, I'll just put my gun up and be on my merry way! Have a great night, so nice to meet you! I hope to see you at church in the morning!"

I hope never to miss an opportunity to invite someone to church. (Even if there ARE firearms involved.....hopefully always MY firearms)

Favorite Photography Site Links

(This is a "List-In-Progress"....what are your favorite sites/photographers? Leave me a comment so we can all check them out!)


Here are the links to some of my Favorite Photography sites! Some are full of tutorials, some just for fun. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! My favs are constantly changing, so check back for new and updated sites!

ClickinMoms

Life Is Sweet

Pioneer Woman Photography

I Heart Faces

Digital Photography School

Short On Words

MCP


Photographers and their sites:

Beth Armsheimer

Mandy Owens
The Image Is Found
Kelly Vasami

Anna Kuperburg

Tara Whitney

Patti Scmidt

Audrey Woulard

Jasmine Star

Digital Scrapbooking Sites:
Oscraps

Paislee Press

The Shabby Shoppe

Scrap Girls

fPhoto Friday

Canon Rebel XSI
Iso 800
Aperture f/4.6
SS 1/16

For more fPhoto Friday visit Married To The Preacher...

Lilah takes a bite out of Christmas....

Look at the pretty Christmas tree...

Taste of the pretty bubble light....

Ah man!...Busted by Big Brother....

Just wait...He has to sleep sometime! I'll be back bubble light!

p.s....the light didn't make it to her mouth, I had my hand on the walker as I snapped the pic!

fPhoto Friday

Due to my lack of time spent visiting blogs lately, I just stumbled across fPhoto Friday on Natalie's blog this week, and knew this was most certainly a meme' for me! My family & friends will attest to the fact that I am never ever ever caught without a camera close at hand! (especially my husbands family who aren't quite as camera crazy as my family happens to be.) Any time my family gets together there are flashes galore and we are always trying to decide who's Canon is who's. We blame this in part on the baby explosion we have had going on for the past couple of years. There is just too much cuteness for one person to capture! (I hope this isn't a wordless meme...I don't do wordless so well!)

Okay, so back to the pics for today. This is Carter and my sweet niece, Maggie last night. It looks like they are plotting something....(note Carters gun on his side, and Maggie's purse)

He is shhh'ing her! I'm not sure how long Miss Maggie will tolerate this from him!


A super sweet sing a long! Camera: Canon XSi
Setting: I have no idea I changed them about a million times yesterday :)

For more fPhoto Friday, visit Natalie at Married to The Preacher! What a fun idea Natalie, thanks for hosting!

Thankful....

though we prayed for so many years...

though we agonized through devastating losses...

though we wondered, "will it ever happen for us?"....

Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine how God would show out when blessing us and answering our prayers....





Thankful doesn't begin to express our gratitude to Him....

I am also thankful for the opportunity to participate in Cardboard Testimonies this past week at our church. Though my baby was sick, God wouldn't let me stay home (Dad stayed home with the babies). I couldn't decide exactly what to write on my card, but God showed me many times that I had been blessed with these two babies for a reason.....and I had better share my testimony. If you ever have an opportunity to participate or to witness a program such as Cardboard testimonies do it. Thank you Cheryl for bringing this to our church family.

I was blessed beyond measure on Sunday.

I am blessed beyond measure every day.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Fallin' For Fall!

Fall is my Favorite time of year! There is no better time to live in out in the country than now. God is really showing off his beauty around here lately! I took every one of these pictures, and about a million more from my driveway. Which happens to be about 1/4 mile long.

I am so blessed to live in an incredibly beautiful place.

p.s....some of these look blurry. I meant for it to be that way, I like the way it looks kind of like a painting. Click the pic if you want to see it bigger.

This is the house across the road....
Tree at the end of my driveway. One day I thought "Man, the sky is gorgeous through those leaves..."

Same tree only a few days later.....



Doesn't this look like a painting?

You're Welcome.:)

p.s....Grandpa is holding his own! Thanks for all the prayers! I'm taking my tweezers with me today to tackle the unibrow. He would kill every one of us if he knew we'd let anyone see him ungroomed. If he is alert and give me any lip, I'm gonna remind him of all the homeade apple butter I've been smuggling to him!

New Pictures

Livin'on the edge.....

....yeah, that's how we roll!

(livin' on the edge, that is!)

Just Hangin' Out....

No need for explanations here.... (do check out what the shirt says....yeah, right!)

The Week In Pictures...

No Wonder I never see the number I want to!!!

How to weigh yourself

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.

We must get the word out.

Toby's Back!

......Hey now! (if you are not a TobyMac fan, (GASP) that's the beginning line to one of his songs.)

As promised here are a few of the pics I took at the Toby Mac concert Friday night. I have no idea how many Christian concerts I have been to in my adult life, but it's a lot. I've seen Third Day (more times than I can count), Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, The Crabb Family, Gold City, and many more. But I can honestly say Toby Mac puts on the best concert of any of these....by far!!! He gets better and better every single time I see him! You stand up the entire time, and unless you are pregnant, you pretty much jump up and down and dance the whole time. (yes, this includes my tractor driving, farm boy husband! Imagine those moves!) You literally don't know what to expect next!

We sat in the 5th row on the right side of the stage. Well, we didn't sit, but that's where we stood. There were probably (literally) 200 people standing in the space between row 1 and the stage! It was great!! We were so close that in one of the pics I took, you'll notice Toby has "red eyes"! That is pretty stinkin' close! I could feel my guts jarring with the beat! It was SOOO loud, but once you got used to it (or, I should say, lost a bit of your hearing..) it was great!

Barlow Girl and Thousand Foot Crutch were also there. TFC was pretty good. Barlow Girl was also great! There are 3 of them, all pretty young ( I have no idea how old, I'm guessing late teens/early 20's) anyway, they played their own instruments and sang at the same time. The drummer was awesome. She was all "Slash like" with the head banging and hair flying and singing the whole time! Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance! The whole concert in general was fantastic! My hormones actually got the best of me at one point. I saw all of these young people, who could have been anywhere, here at a CHRISTIAN concert. Dancing, singing, worshiping.....it was awesome! Very moving!

Sadly, I did not run into Toby in the lobby during this concert. Don't think I didn't take a "bathroom break" to scan the place during Barlow Girl either, but no luck!....Sorry you missed me Toby. I'll meet you in the hallway during your next concert in this area......my husband promises to let me finish our conversation next time!!

p.s....I tried to upload a video (or 20) but the file was too big for blogger :(. Lisa, I'll bring my camera to church tomorrow for your viewing pleasure.