Sweethearts on the Hill

There are a few things in life I know for sure: 1. Regardless of what happens today, the sun will set in the west tonight and will rise in the east tomorrow morning 2. Gravity is real and is a force to be reckoned with every single day 3. Miss Vickies and her irresistible Salt and Vinegar Kettle Cooked Chips are in cahoots with the hail-damaged-thighs-devil ~ gotta be ~ there's no other excuse for those chips' existence  But most of all, I know without a doubt that God speaks to me in multiple ways every single day. Full disclosure here - I fail at many things in my relationship with God. I'm not at church as often as I should be. I don't read the bible as often as I should. I have a genuine love for some rather colorful words (sometimes they are the only things that make me feel better!). I love to treat myself with completely unnecessary extravagances ~ a daily Starbucks, the occasional splurge on clothing, not-so-cheap vacations. And I'm probably not as mo...

Richie and I both celebrated our Thirty-Something Birthdays last week… (and just for the record, his "Something" happens to be much much larger than my "Something", but I guess that's not the point)… regardless, it was a full week of several mini-celebrations. I must say, this Thirty-Something happened to hit me a little harder than any other ever has. I've never once feared my birthday or growing older. I think I have a bit of an old soul, and I'm often surprised at my age. I don't feel physically old ~ my soul just happens to believe that I'm a bit older than my age reflects.  So I'm not sure what it was that smacked me in the face.  It could have been the taunting from my dear friends at work - insisting that my "Something" puts me in a whole new demographic (30"something" - 49! wtf?)  Could be the fact that "my dryer has recently shrunk all my jeans" (what's UP with that?)  Could be that I walked o...

I had a rather sad showing in week 4 of my Project 52. Such a shame too because this particular topic happens to be the whole reason I originally fell in love with photography.  Bokeh ~ The gorgeous blur that becomes of the non-focused part of your photograph, particular when you have a shallow depth of field.  I took a lot of pictures this week, but never really got that million dollar, bubbly shot that makes my heart skip a beat. So this is the picture I used for my project While also throwing these in there from months gone by… I guess that's probably called cheating... and defeats the whole purpose of participating in a project focused on improving my skills when I use old pictures ~ but whatever! I'm a busy girl. I've got kids to feed.  Next weeks topic is Best Friends… hmmm ~

Funny thing. After having several camera chats with my neighbor, Kristy, we decided to meet up and have a little Photography 101 session… with me as the teacher  (that's the funny part!) and her as the student. It's comical that it was really only last March that I began comprehending any of the basic settings used in photography and now I'm out playing teacher … as if I'm actually qualified for that. Oh the things I've yet to learn. Anyway.  We had a spectacular time. A really spectacular time. I'm convinced that I got even more out of it than she did. Our kids love playing with each other - we had them with us since they make such fabulous little subjects. We were also joined by Kristy's husband, Mark, who makes for a fabulous little entertainer!  Here are a few of my favorites from the day…  Kristy took these first four pictures - she rocked it out with the 50mm  f/1.4 lens! I think she was pretty excited about it.   (LoVe this picture she...

It seems that our bath tub days are dwindling down, as we now lean toward the ease of showering our little fellas.  Well, Sam and Charlie wanted to take a bath this past weekend, so I decided to get a few shots of their sweet smelling clean little faces while they were in the tub.    Since they can't run from me while they are in the bathtub, it made for a much easier capture! Here we are with our gum issues on display :-/` This thing below is complete silliness…  Charlie told Santa that he wanted a "squirting fish" for Christmas (?? what ??) So Santa brought a tube of 10 different squirting aquatic creatures… It's been a while since Santa shopped in the infant aisle for Charlie's Christmas presents. Low and behold, they've been a big hit! Go figure ~ Woe is me ~ My babies are growing up :(

Meet Charlie Charlie couldn't be more excited about his new best friend that moved in the house next door about 6 months ago (granted, this picture doesn't necessarily reflect Charlie's excitement… I just kinda loved the picture, so I thought I'd share). Meet Yuke  Most people know him as Luke… But this is Charlie's tale, so we will call him Yuke.   Yuke is the greatest kind of friend…  He loves to roll dump trucks down giant hills.  He loves to play cars.  He loves to go on adventures up in the woods. He loves to battle with me against our older brothers. Yuke is that special kind of friend who makes my day happier just by being around.    He even gets grumpy when he misses his nap… just yike me! Me and Yuke really see eye-to-eye. I hope we are friends for a yong yong time!

Last weekend we made some long overdue plans to meet up with our friends, The Avery's. Amy and Howie and their sweet girls, Emma Caroline and Sophie lived next door to us for a couple years. Sam and Charlie have always adored the girls and the four of them play exceptionally well together. This time, we decided to take our adventures to the bowling alley, which turned out to be a great afternoon of fun! Unfortunately, the bowling alley presents some tricky photography challenges ~ but we both did our best to capture a few moments.   Amy made this same comment on her blog… but I can't let it pass by, we swear Charlie and Sophie are long lost twins. Something about those little faces (and personalities too) that fit together so perfectly.   To add to the photo challenges, they turned the lights off and went to neon ~   Charlie had this awesome shot-put style bowling swing that we're considering trademarking. Rarely did he use the bumpers. I think he may have even ...