I never, ever....

want to move!! You don't really realize how much stuff you have until you try to box it up. We are spending the weekend re-doing Abigail's room (carpet, paint, and bedding) and I never realized how much stuff she has! It is all stacked up in the family room right now and will be for the rest of the weekend. I really need to go through all her stuff and get rid of a few things.

We are going to paint this afternoon and get the carpet in on Monday. I took a "before" picture and will add an "after" picture once we are done.

Have a good weekend!

Last night

I don't consider myself a very good landscape photographer but I like to play around with it. Last night we had a gorgeous sunset and I took a few shots to try to capture it. I don't think I can ever make it look as good on "film" as in person.... Here's my best one:

It's fun to keep trying...

First day of school

The day has arrived.... the first day of school! Abigail is a 3rd grader and J.T. is in pre-K. We quickly took some snapshots before we headed out the door. We couldn't do them in our normal spot, in front of the door, because it was raining!



Here is one of Abigail sitting at her new desk.....

And J.T. in front of his new cubby...

School clothes

I usually try to take some photos of the kids in some of their school clothes a few days before school starts. Well that's TOMORROW!! Can you tell that I am excited! Anyway, it's usually pretty rushed in the morning and we are lucky to get a couple snapshots as we're walking out the door. Here's some that I took of the kids today. They weren't all that cooperative....

I will NOT look at you...

Even though I really struggle with J.T. during photo shoots, I usually end up getting better ones of him.

He can be so darn cute when he wants to...


I always try to get ones of them together but they usually don't want to be that close...

I really didn't like the ones I got of Abigail the first time so we went back outside to try again. And these are much better! You know what makes her laugh and have a natural smile is blowing raspberries! Funny huh?

And she got a haircut on Thursday too. She is very proud of it. We had about 3-4 inches cut off and it looks so cute!




Now we can just try to get a couple family snapshots before school and be on our way....

A day in the life...

Yesterday we all went to work with Andy. We decided it might be kind-of fun to spend the day at the ranches since Monday is the first day of school. Of course I took my camera along.... Here's some of what I captured...

The old lambing shed...

This may look like a pretty plant, but Andy is repulsed by the sight of it. It's called Tansy Ragwort and it is very toxic for cattle and people. Andy has spent many, many hours spraying to get rid of it... and he's still working on it.

The kids and I sat up on the top of the mountain while Andy went looking for a missing cow and calf.

J.T. and I rode on the yellow 4-wheeler....

Abigail hopped on for a quick picture....

After we were done in the hills, we headed to the ranch closer to town. We needed to feed the newly weaned calves...

J.T. was having a good time helping Andy feed....

...while Abigail drove the tractor!

All done!

On display

Last night we tried out a new BBQ restaurant in our area, Seamus T-Bones. We wanted to check out the food, but the main reason we went there was to see some of my photos that are on display. Here are the three that they picked of mine to put up on the wall...

Today's funny...

I borrowed this funny from my friend Shelley's blog....

This is funny to me today... probably not such a good thing!

On the way home

The past couple of weeks have been very busy on the ranch... probably our busiest time of the year. It's when we wean the calves from the cows, ship the calves to one of the ranches closer to town, and pregnancy-check the cows. I made four trips out to the hill ranches over the past two weeks. Some days I just had to deliver lunch to the crew, but a couple of days I had to help. My big job is recording which cows are pregnant and how far along they are (according to the vet).

I took a couple pictures on my way home on Wednesday so I thought I would share...

And Molly got to ride home with me....

It is such a relief to have that done! And things went really well too! Thanks to our parents for helping out with the kids while we did this. We couldn't have done it without you!

Visiting baby

On Tuesday, we went to visit a long-time family friend, Donna and her family, that were in town visiting. Donna and Tim just had a little baby girl, Morgan, and also have 2 year old Carter. Abigail was pretty excited to hold baby Morgan. She said she wants a baby sister. I guess she'll have to settle for a baby cousin next month!

Awesome photo!

Don't you think this photo is awesome? My friend Shelley from Arkansas took it and is a finalist in an online contest.

Can you do me a favor and go to this site to vote for her photo? Hers is #10. Just scroll down till you see the place to vote. Thanks so much!!

Snail Rock

When I was growing up, I would sometimes spend the day with my Dad out at Bear River (this is where the ranches are that he ran, and we now run, our cattle). There is this object that you can see from the road out there that we call "Snail Rock." We aren't sure if it's a rock, a bush, or a combination of the two. We talked about it almost everytime we drove by it.

We would talk about taking a walk out from the road to see what it really was... but we never did. I think part of it was that we didn't want to ruin the mystery of what it really was made of.

Many times driving by, I wanted to stop and take a picture. Yesterday I was out there, and I asked Andy to stop and I finally took a picture of it!

I know it's hard to see much from this picture. This was as far as my big zoom lens would reach. I actually like the fact that I STILL can't really tell what it is from the picture. The mystery continues...

Baby shower

I haven't posted lately but it's been a crazy couple of weeks. This past weekend my mom and I went down to Walnut Creek and San Francisco to see my very pregnant sister and attend a baby shower. It was a wonderful event and Mary got more than she will ever need for the baby! Here's a few pictures....

One of my mom's gifts to Mary was her own baby blanket...

These little cookies were at our places on the table. Aren't they adorable?


It was a fun weekend. We ate way too much, shopped a little, and had a little girl time!

Do you think...

that Andy has been working some long days????

This is, by far, the busiest time of the year for him on the ranch. Can you tell? PS. he will not be happy about this picture being on here... :)

Today

Today I went over to the ranch in Ferndale to help Andy feed the newly weaned calves. He didn't really *need* my help, but he thought we could hang out.... Here's a few pictures that I took.



The calves were pretty interested....

Hilarious

Okay this may be one of the the most hilarious blogs that I have ever read. BUT it's only funny if you have given birth! Well it might be funny if you haven't given birth but are a labor & delivery nurse. Anyway, check it out. Just don't tell my sister, Mary, about it because she's due in about 6 weeks. We don't want to freak her out completely...

Updated

I spent some time this afternoon updating my photography website. It's been awhile since I added photos and moved things around. Check it out if you have a chance. Thanks!

Ahhhh.... so cute!

I went into to tuck J.T. in tonight and this is what I found.... isn't he cute?

By the way, this was taken with my trusty point and shoot...

A first!

A few minutes ago, J.T. and Abigail were fighting over something. He had it in his hands and she was trying to take it from him. I got after her a little and tried to tell her that you can't just take things from people. You need to ask first... and ask nicely! And if they won't give it to you, then you have to accept that.

In true Abigail-fashion, she started with the "yeah-buts" and I just put my hand up and said, I won't argue with you. And she said,"Yeah, but..." My hand went up again. She ran into her room crying... (she's been really emotional lately, for some reason.)

As soon as this happened J.T. said, "Why are you being mean to my sister?" He has never once defended her....

Adorable

On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of taking some photographs for this family. The main purpose was to get some of this adorable 2 year old, Miss Layla... I love that she has curly blonde hair and blue eyes. It is so much different than doing photos with my two brown-eyed, brunettes. Isn't she gorgeous???

Her mom got a little frustrated because she didn't want to cooperate too much. It didn't bother me though... I am much more patient with other people's kids...

Here's a little storyboard I put together of my three favorites of her... (I think you can click on it to make it bigger... if not, the three photos I used are below).




Here's another one of my favorites...

We took a few of Layla and her brother Asa...

And we did manage to sneak in one family one...

I really enjoyed doing this. It doesn't hurt when you such an adorable family to shoot either....