Thursday, December 06, 2012

playing photographer

about a week and a half before shasta gave birth
she asked me to take family pics for her.
im never too sure about these things. 
i make grand plans in my head.
but then i start freaking out. 
im most certain im going to do a horrible job
and everyone involved will be disappointed. 
so anyway...on a perfectly perfect autumn afternoon
we set out to snap some pics. 
technically shasta was off bedrest (since she was so close to her due date)
but still experiencing lots of painful contrax and pressure. 
and so we'd take a few pictures, then she'd sit down and rest for a few minutes,
and then we'd take a few more,
and on it went for the hour that we did the shoot.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*** *** ***
a week after i took the above pictures,
 Ana & brandon and the boys
came up for the weekend.
it was a 'working weekend' for ana ---
she had a wedding to photograph as well as a senior
portrait session - so while she worked the rest of us played! 
at the end of the weekend, right before they left to go home,
she asked me to take some pictures of her little family.
it was spur of the moment and we didnt have a lot of time
but we made it work and i think we got some cute shots.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, December 03, 2012

hallo-weeen

halloween -
 it definitely rates right up there as one of the favorite holidays for the kids.
they plan for weeks what they wanna be and still change their minds a half dozen times.
my girls are getting almost too big to go trick or treating,
but since they have small nieces and nephews to go with, we allowed it for another year.
 
this year the girls dressed up as a ladybug and a princess.
wayne and i, along with ceara, brought our girls as well as james and elsie door to door.
shasta and angelina went with too, but they stayed in the car,
where the baby stayed nice and cozy warm.
it was a pretty warm night and so the kids didnt have to bundle up quite as much
as in past years. 
and of course the kids had a great time!
 
my little princess and ladybug -
having fun posing for me and looking so cute!
 
 
elsie was a princess and james a dirt biker dude ---
they looked so cute!
and even little angelina was dressed up..
just a week old and dressed as the cutest little ladybug ever!
it looks like we're walking down deserted streets, but trust me,
there were lots of dressed up kids and families walking up and down the street
the same time we were!
we also stopped off at jessica and nicks.
luke and levi had been dressed up earlier and had gone trick or treating
and by the time we got to their house they were
already done and sitting out on the step
and helping their mama hand out candy...
and what did the big kids of the family do, you ask?
colter has the opinion that halloween is stupid
and so he chose to go to ceara and teds house that night and hang out with ted.
they watched a movie and layed around.
which was probably a good thing for colter anyway, since he was nursing a very sore tailbone from a wicked fall he had taken earlier that afternoon. 
he brought the ice pack with him and he had strict orders of no horsing around! 
and laura & ryan and lisa & jordaan, as well as some other friends, got all
dressed up and went out for the evening. 
later they came back to our house and hung out and watched a movie.
they had a good and fun time too!
...and just like that halloween 2012 was over.
and good memories were made!

bay-bee

i'm so behind on all my blog posts - so much
to say and so much happening within our family.
theres no way i can catch up on things - nor keep up
with all the documenting either.
so i'm just gonna try to highlight
a few of the things that i can actually remember! 
*** *** ***
 
in late october, we celebrated
the safe birth of our eighth grandkiddo -
shasta & jon's third child,
our third grand-daughter! 
she is a beautiful little baby and so precious!
 
a  middle of the night text from shasta sent me and
a few of the girls scurrying around to get ready
to make our trek into the hospital to be
with shasta & jon.
luckily the hospital is just a mere six miles down
the road for us.
the labor and birth was a very {very} fast one
and so we just made it with not much time to spare.
while her each of her pregnancies have been labeled high-risk
and she has to endure months of bedrest
as well as months of medicine to prevent premature labor,
she has been blessed with practically
perfect labors and deliveries.
***
 
announcing the arrival of
angelina viviana...
(about a minute old in this pic)
about 30 minutes old here....
the 'birthing team'
laura, lisa, jon and me
{even though shasta did all the work!}
but we were there for it all
and it was an honor to be present.
Grammie & papa wayne
{aka me and my man!}
with the new bebe...
Lots of visitors that afternoon...
lots of family
{and more than visited, but not in the picture}
we all love babies around here!
shasta & her newest bambino....
 
welcome to the world, angelina!
you're loved more than you know!!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

more summer randomness...


now that thanksgiving is almost here, i figure i
better get my butt in gear and catch up
on some blogging. 
or at least attempt to. 
*** *** ***
I love these pics of laura in her waitress uniform.
once again, she held down two jobs...keeping
her very busy all summer.
her waitressing job was in a very fancy and popular resort just
a few miles down the road. 
she enjoyed it and made great in tips -
but was glad when october came and that job came to an end
 and she was able to slow down a bit. 
papa wayne reading to james one evening...
having a toddler in the house for most of the summer
made for some very interesting moments!
since shasta was on bedrest and jon works out of town all week,
it was most logical for shasta and the two kids to stay with us during the week.
for the most part it went quite well - but we all had our moments!
but we all did what had to be done and everyone helped out the best we could
and we made it work.
i love these next pictures too...
 emma & elsie & james with a few of their little friends...
running around and dancing and being goofy in the setting sun
{followed by a family bonfire for the rest of the evening}
i'm rather missin all those carefree summer evenings right about now.
 
 
 
and i found this next pic on the computer -
must have been uploaded from lisa's camera or phone...
she and jordaan, coming back from one of his summer basketball tournaments
which had been held out-of-town...
its so cute of the two of them.
and laura cracks me up with her {almost} daily chalkboard messages...
sometimes it's just a random note to all of us, sometimes an inspirational or funny quote,
and sometimes a drawing...
on this day she apparently decided to play weatherman! 
too funny! 
and here are a few phone pictures that lisa took of me -
she & i were just foolin around and being goofy.
i forbid her to put them on FB or instagram.
{instead, a few months later i put them on my blog myself! ha!}
and i rather like the filter she used since it makes
me look practically wrinkle-less!  ;)
a family snapshot of my honey and his two brothers and one sister 
along with their parents...
it was the first family picture thats been taken in several years.
my honey is the bearded man, of course.
and i love this next picture too.
our fourteen year old taking the time (and patience)
to swing for a bit with his one year old nephew, levi!
levi adores colter.
all the little boys in the family
adore their uncle colter.
and colter is so good and patient with all the little ones.
now if only we could get him to be that good and patient with
his younger sisters...
{sigh}
somewhat of a family pic taken with the phone -
{with just the kids that live at home now}
it was one of those impromptu moments where a decision is made in two seconds
and no-one really had a choice.
and it turned out really cute, if i do say so myself.
and lastly i'm adding a picture of my two babies -
just because they're so darn cute...
and yes, i believe this was a self-portrait
taken with an older sisters phone.
these girls adore their sisters iphones and they 'steal' them whenever
the opportunity arises so that they can play games and check instagram and so forth.
and of course, take pictures of themselves and other randoms objects.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

august randomness - part 1

i chuckle at these two - lisa & jordaan.
they are inseperable.
they spent as much time together as possible. 
mosy often at our place.
my kids claim i'm dreamy and that i'm in love with love -
and its true, i am. especially young love.
there's something just so sweet about it.
and these two are pretty sweet -
as are all the 'couples' within my little family. 
i know they get tired of my need to take pictures of everything
and to document everything.
but i keep telling them that someday they're going to be soo glad that
they have all these pictures to add to their memories of their dating years.
sadly, wayne and i have probably only about a dozen pictures of us
during our dating years - and i find that sad.
so im on a mission to make that very different for each of my kids.
so far, so good! 
***
we were all sitting at the table together one afternoon
and the two of them picked up their phones and started reading and texting -
i grabbed my camera and snapped a pic of them.
no reason, i just thought it was cute that they were both smiling and sharing
with each other what was on their screens...
on another day jordaan stopped over for a quick visit with lisa
before she headed off to work.
she was already dressed in her work outfit - and he put her work visor on his head.
when they saw me aiming the camera their way they both started making faces at me!
but thats okay - i like silly faces, too!
and i was there, stalking them through the kitchen window like the paparazzi, as they walked out to his pick-up a few minutes later
(he was bringing her to work that day - anything to spend more time together, ya know!)
they started out holding hands, then he grabbed her to tickle her, then she spun around to grab him back and all the while i could hear their laughter through the open window
as i snapped pics of them.
i pray they always have that playfulness about them. 
on another day marissa, emma and i found ourselves home alone, just the three of us, which is rare.
they are always asking to dig out my wedding dress so they can look at it.
and on that day i told them they could.
they were sooo happy and couldnt wait to try it on and play around a bit.
i was kinda sad at how yellowed it had gotten.
and, dare i say, just how ugly it was.
ha, what was i thinking thirty three years ago when i chose it?!!
i know it was the style - but it just ain't cool.
on another day, toward the end of august,  the three youngest kids
came down with sore throats and headaches.
not really the flu, but just feeling icky and wore out.
we declared a few of those days as PJ days and movie days.
they layed on the couches with blankets and did nothing but rest and watch TV.
a few days later they bounced back - and summer, as the knew it, continued.
chickens!  and pigs!
thats what we raised this summer.
but our chickens are stupid and have done nothing but eat and still have not laid any eggs.
our pigs have been butchered and are in the freezer.
they were big and fat and ugly.
the kids sometimes went into the chicken coop and tried catching them -
james enjoyed going out with the big kids to feed them and give them scraps
- and of course chasing them around a little bit was always exciting. 
first day of school.
ugh!
where did summer go? as usual it didnt seem long enough.
laura started her second year at the local community college
and lisa started her junior year as a part-time student at the local high school.
and laura is our 'chalkboard artist' and almost every morning we find a new message or fancy drawing on the chalkboard from her. 
i started taking pictures of most of the messages
or drawings she leaves for us. 
she's such a hoot!

august revisited: the county fair!

i found this post, partially finished, sitting in my drafts -
not sure why i didnt post it much earlier.
i often do that - have a plan, get most of it done,
but then don't completely finish the task
because of an interruption or something. 
sheeesh.  someday i might get it right. 
anyway, laura & ryan took the three youngest kids to the county fair
one hot summer night in august. 
it seems like forever ago.     
*** *** ***
 
first, a stop was made for pizza!
everyone loves pizza and since becoming dairy free & gluten free our pizza days have been very limited, sadly. 
but a place in town now offers gluten free crust - and so they ordered that and also had their pizza with no cheese. 
sounds rather gross, but, honestly, its better than not being able to have any at all!
and a walk-thru of the animal barns is always required...
Games...and prizes!!
they're not real big into riding rides - but they do like to try their hand at games.
both girls won a little stuffed animal.
probably a twenty five dollar stuffed animal by the time they got done playing.
but, hey, they won, right?!
and they probably have no clue as to where the stuffed animal is anymore.
i'm sure it was long forgotten within a day of winning it. 
touring the little buildings full of old stuff
and the one-room schoolhouse...
and sitting on the tractors and all that fun stuff...
the ferris wheel!
a double one.
laura & colter went on it.
marissa took pictures. 
i was looking through the camera after they got home and noticed that she took like about fifty pictures of just the ferris wheel.
i laughed.  i guess she gets a little snap happy.
(just like me)
and thus ends the night of attending the county fair.
they had fun.
thats all i have to say.