Thanksgiving Football

Rumor has it that Thanksgiving and football go hand in hand.
Whether that's true or not, it was a great way to get all the children out of the house while dinner was cooking.
After a tour of West Point, they got the opportunity to play at Army's Michie Stadium.
Pretty cool, huh?

The march on....

I'm pretty sure Avery kicked this one into the stands.
(I wasn't there, but I can imagine.)

Look at that ... can't you just see the mischief in her eyes?

"Go over there. I'll hold the ball while you kick it."

Poor guy...

We don't have a picture, but I hear the end result looked something like this!

**Special thanks to my guest photographers, Dan and Julia.**

Thanksgiving: A retrospective :)

This past week was so busy and so full of picture taking opportunities that I hardly know where to begin. BUT... since Thanksgiving was the reason we were all together, I thought that I'd start there.

Thanksgiving is a time for baking yummy goodies!
Making mini chocolate pies was great fun for the kids.
I love the look of sheer joy on her face as she licks the bowl.
I must admit... those pies are pretty delicious!

Thanksgiving is a time for family and for the grandchildren to learn cooking skills from Grammy.
J came up with the idea of making cream puffs which are not usually on our menu, but we ran with it and are sooo glad that we did. I imagine that we'll be making these again soon!

Thanksgiving is turkey time!!
Chris was the turkey frier extraordinaire!
Despite a little oil spill, that fire extinguisher was not needed.
The turkey came out moist and delicious.
Thanks, Chris!

The kids sure did like their dinner!

“We ♥ Tooshies”

Over at I ♥ Faces they are focusing on tooshies this week.
I guess they needed a little change of scenery. :)


This is one of my favorite pictures of the cousins walking together at the zoo.
I thought is was so sweet.

I played around with it a bit to get the focus on the boys. I know that it's not a professional shot and it was taken with a little point and shoot, but I love it anyway.

For more tooshie shots check out I ♥ Faces.
They promise that all photos will be G-rated.

Thankful for November

The month is only half over, but it has been so full.
Next week promises to be even more full of fun, family and obviously food.
The colorful leaves that were on the trees just last week have all fallen to the ground.
Even though the weather hasn't been too cold, I'm beginning to feel winter creeping in.

So.... I am thankful for November, that wonderful time between too hot and too cold!

You Capture: Sunrise/ Sunset

This weeks theme at "I should be folding laundry's" you capture was sunrise/ sunset.
For a while I didn't think I'd be able get a decent picture of either due to some really rainy weather, but the rain eventually lifted and left us with some foggy mornings.
This picture is the sunrise through the fog as seen from my backyard.

Later in the day, I was able to catch this sunset from the balcony off of my bedroom.
Well.... it sort of looked like that... I did a bit of photo editing.
Not too much, just tweaked the colors a bit, but somehow that felt like cheating.
I know that everyone does it and some really cool pictures are created when you use photo editing, but I always want to take the perfect picture just with natural light and my camera.
(If you could see my camera, you'd laugh and maybe be shocked that I get any pics at all.)

Sooo... I thought I'd throw in the original, just to keep me honest. :)
I have to admit, a little tweaking works wonders!

Find more and probably infinitely cooler sunrise/sunset photos here.

Too cool not to share

This guy was sitting outside my kitchen window on a late blooming rose.
I just thought he was too cool and wanted to get a picture.
I guess he'd fit into my November "Thankful" theme because...
I am thankful that he didn't jump on me!
Ugh... I shudder to think of it.

Anyhow... click on the picture to make it larger so you can see all of the details on him.
Very cool.

Thankful for Family Game Night!

Dutch Blitz!

They don't always let me play.
( I tend to win and they're a bunch of sore losers! :)
I offered to play trivial pursuit.... I never win that!
So, tonight we played Dutch Blitz. It's a fairly regular occurrence around here.

This is Julia getting her Blitz face on.

Grant guessing how many cards he played.

Julia is our official "Dididuh." That's the technical term!

Everyone has their game faces on.

I heart faces: Autumn Beauty

I've been wanting to join in one of I heart Faces photo challenges.
This week I finally got around to it!
This picture is one of my favorite pics of this guy!
Isn't he handsome?

I particularly love how rosy his cheeks are.

Thankful for Football Fun

Thankful for activities

Sometimes the kids' activities can make you crazy, trying to schedule everything and make sure everyone gets where they need to be when they need to be there, BUT...
Sometimes it's nice to know that they have these opportunities.
I am grateful to all the teachers/instructors who help them accomplish their goals and desires.

Today, Grant went to a piano festival where he went into a room and played a couple of songs in front of two judges. It's not a competition, more of an assessment of your playing skills. He thinks that he did well, but we won't really know until he gets the judge's forms back next week.

While Julia and I took Grant to his piano thing, Dan and Natalie went to watch Kevin in a drill competition with his JROTC class.
They won 1st place in inspection, 3rd in ummmm.... whatever you call this that they are doing in the video, and 5th in armed drill.
Did I mention that Kevin was awarded cadet of the month recently?
We are very proud of him.

Thankful for my "real life"

My real life often starts with a cup of my favorite tea in my favorite mug.

Then I'm off and running, taking the teens to high school, Grant to piano practice, Julia to the library.

I spend a lot of time sitting in the car.... waiting.
So I entertained myself by taking a few silly pictures.

While we waited for the library to open, Julia sat beside me and made faces in the mirror.
Most of them looked like this...

But some turned out like this...

We spent the rest of the day doing school work, laundry, dishes, etc...
I even got a facial, but that is NOT my "REAL life", just a nice little birthday present to me.

Now I'm home, blogging, waiting for dinner to be done and listening to Grant practice piano, which looks a little like this...

Click on this link for more "real life" photos.

Veterans Day Thankfulness

Just a quick note of thankfulness to my favorite military man!

Thank you!

Thanksgiving day 9

I am thankful for digital cameras.

Without them we wouldn't have blogs.
And I wouldn't have these two shots of the kids in action.
Most of the pictures that I took were of their feet, or backside, or only half of them, or no kid whatsoever, just background.
I like being able to shoot and re-shoot as often as I like without having to worry about wasting film.
So I am thankful for my digital camera... even if it isn't exactly the one I really want!

I'm thankful for...

The perfect fall weather!!

We took a trip out to Great Falls again.
This time we took a little time to check out the trails.

I took this opportunity to take some close ups and to play with the light from the setting sun.

This guy was not what I would call a willing participant in this photo shoot, but I kept trying to get just the right shot. When he was done, he let me know by jumping onto my arm. That pretty much ended it for me!

I put a few more pictures up on facebook. (It's easier to upload the pics there.)

Countdown to Thanksgiving Day 6

I am thankful for this pretty little girl and for all of my wonderful family.
I'm also thankful for the ability to enjoy such a wonderful day today.

You capture.... whatever?

I came across a link to this photography challenge twice this past week.
Once on Mary's blog. (She takes amazing pictures on a normal day, no one needs to challenge her!)
And once on a new friends blog, The Happy Housewife.
After spending FAR too much time browsing through the many entries, I decided to try my hand at it. However.... the category for this week was photographer's choice. For some that may seem wonderful, but I wanted some direction. I finally found a few pics that I could share, unfortunately, I'm a day late. I don't suppose they'll mind, will they?
Like the rose above, I seem to be a late bloomer.
(Ha ha... funny... get it.... awww, never mind.)

I see a face in this leaf.

I also see a face behind this leaf! Silly boy.

Countdown to Thanksgiving Day 5

This is what I am thankful for today.
Chocolate.
I needed it.

I am also thankful to the Mayans who knew a good thing when they saw it.
Chocolate, yum.

Countdown to Thanksgiving Day 4

I am thankful for perfect, crisp, fall weather that inspires me to make yummy, warm, homemade bread.
There were four loaves, but the first one disappeared fairly quickly.

I am also thankful for all of Julia's enthusiastic help in the kitchen.