Sunrise Photo Shoot

We had a gorgeous morning the other day and Nora was feeling chipper, so I took advantage and got some cute pictures of our little girlie. (Little did we know, back in the barn her daddy is getting attacked by a couple nasty bumblebees!)

Also, Lucas and I went to see the new batman movie last night and it was sooo good. I am usually not much of an action movie gal, but this one was good. A bit disturbing at times, but quite the show.

Sunset

We had a big beautiful rainbow right over our house yesterday evening. Unfortunately, it was too dark to get a picture. But we did end up getting a neat picture of Nora's outline in the sunset.

Here she is playing. She can roll over both ways now. She just has to get good and mad to roll from her belly to her back.

I just think she looks like a little cherub here. My beautiful chubby baby.

Apples and Blackberries

The lord has provided us with such bounty this summer. Over 250 pounds of apples from a man papa was helping out. We went out to pick and had a good time. Lucas got to use the ladder and Papa was up in the tree picking. It wasn't the most efficient way, but for a while papa would pick the apples and toss them down to me to put in the bucket like a game of apple catch. I forgot how fun it is to catch things. When we were ready to be finished with the job, he started shaking the branches and it just RAINED apples. What a sight. ( and sound!)

Now Nana and Becky are busy appling. Apple butter, apple sauce, apple pie filling... Nora and I went over the other day to help. It sure smells good in that house.

As if that wasn't enough, we've picked over 17 gallons of wild blackberries and there are still more to come. They taste soooooo good and are huge! Half of them are as big as the top part of my thumb! They just explode with juice when you pop them in your mouth. We have made 26 pints of jam, and frozen enough for 7 pies this winter. This blog doesn't even touch all the wonderful foods coming from papa's garden either. There is something so amazing about seeing things in nature come directly from god. We are truly blessed.

Strawberry Potholders

I made some strawberry applique potholders for some friends of ours that are getting married soon. I just love summertime when there is time for some fun projects.

Rainstorm Under The Porch

I had to blog about the coolest unplanned evening we had about a week ago. It started when Papa came over to get some water. Nora and I went out to chat with him and we noticed a storm was blowing in. Lucas soon came out to join us and we sat around watching the humming birds and the clouds roll in and enjoying a fresh cool breeze. Well then Nana, Jacie and Little Eddie came walking over too. Soon after, the rain started and boy did it come down hard on that tin roofed porch! Jacie and Eddie had fun running in and out of the pooring rain and even Nora was loving the cool mist that was blowing on us under the porch. When the kids started getting cold, we went inside, wrapped the kids in some towels, popped popcorn, and watched some John Wayne. I had such a good time. It was a great surprise party.

Bath Day For Dexter

Yesterday, Nana came over to give Dexter a bath on the porch. He was covered in ticks and you could smell him a mile away. We thought he might do some major protesting but once he figured out what was going on, he was in heaven! He stood right there the whole time. After she was done, he looked like a brand new dog all clean and shiny. You could tell he felt like a new dog too. He definately had an extra spring in his step. Afterward, Jacie and Eddie had to take a dip too. Here's a picture of a couple "puppies" howling at me from their bathtub.

Rollin' On A Blanket!

Well she's finally rolled! At 4 months and 5 days. She can only roll from back to belly and she doesn't really like being on her belly. So she'll roll to her belly, fuss about being on her belly, you roll her back, and not five seconds later she is back on her belly fussing. A neverending "game".

We just went to her 4 month appointment and she is 28 inches long and 17 lbs. that puts her in the 95% in head and weight and above the 95 % in length.

She gets to eat cereal now and seems to know just what to do. She'll grab my pinkie and shove that spoon right in her mouth!

We had cousins Kale and Brianna spend the night last weekend and had a good time. They liked Nora coming in to wake them up.

4th Of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. Friday we went and hung out at Daniel and Anita's. Daniel grilled burgers, we played Yahtzee, and the girls went swimming in Willow's pool. The Fire works show was awesome too. It was right over the ball field we were sitting in! Nora was asleep for the first half and we had expected her to wake up in a frenzy. But when she woke up in the middle, she was cool as a cucumber and seemed to enjoy the rest of the show. Her first 4th of July.
Saturday we went over to the annual Jackson 4th of July fish fry. More good friends and food. They are getting ready for a wedding this month so thier house is freshly painted and all these beautiful flowers, plants, benches, and swings are everywhere. It gave me alot of good ideas for landscaping our house.

More Natural Light!














Our Mulberry Pie

Natural Light

A couple weeks ago I took a photography class put on by our local library. The presentor was my super talented friend Reggi. One of the biggest things that I took away from the class was to try experimenting with natural light and WOW! What a difference! Here is an example...

No Flash

With Flash


These are mulberries we picked a couple weeks ago. We woke up to a beautiful, cool, morning so Lucas, Jacie and I donned our muck boots and set out to get some berries. Our goal was to get enough for a big pie. We went down to the creek and found several trees there. We had to cross the creek at one point. I went first carrying the berries, slipped on some moss and fell right into the drink. Lucas yells "don't lose our bounty!" So I am trying to swim against the current while holding the berries up above the water. Lucas comes after me, takes the berries to safety and then takes my hand. Not 3 seconds later, Jacie comes toddling along and slips into the water too! I grab her hand and we have a nice chain of "safety". It was pretty funny and we all had to empty the water out of our boots afterward. We ended up with 3 1/2 lbs of berries and plenty for a 9x13 mulberry pie. We took it to Sunday Supper at Nanas where it was polished off by eveningtime.