A Change

I will no longer be blogging here my new blogsite is www.wildflowerfm.com come on over and leave a comment so I know you are there :)

Artsy photos

I have this new obsession with Photoshop!! I love the artstyle scrapbook pages I can create!!!

After a long yet fruitful Monday the house is quiet.

Anna

She does not care to have her photo taken, and she is SO photogenic!! But on this afternoon at Grandma Judy's house she cooperated at bit, in that she was OK with me photographing her doing something, but no smiles. I love the last one. I wonder what she was dreaming about? She is such a sweet and very stubborn girl, I think the key with her will be to teach her to stubbornly pursue all that is good and sweet and holy. A tall order for sure. I love her so, I pray that I will be the mother to her that God expects me to be and when I am not that His grace will fill in the gaps.

A Scrapbook Page!!!

Starring Laura and Lily. I love these antique style photos, I will do my best to not apply this filter to every single photo I take for the next 6 months :)

A Senior Portrait

Of all the photos I took of Charlie for this momentous occasion....this is my fav by a mile! He looks so much like my grandfather!!!!! My baby boy is all gone.....

TEA?

Good Morning!

Laura and Lily wish you a happy monday morning!! Busy week around here.

What's been going on?????

THIS!!!!!! and a lot of this! Finally resorting to this!!! And we have a fox around the ranch...I mean other than me!!

Charlie worked the spot light at his school's production of Les Mis. An important job otherwise it would just people stand around in the dark singing..:) Alex and I attended last night and it was FABULOUS!!!! It was far beyond any high school performance I have ever seen. So if you live in my area go see it at Oak...7:30 Fri and Sat. and 2pm Sun!! You won't be disappointed!! And here is a totally unrelated photo....Alex isn't he handsome. He cut most of that hair off. But now it kinda' stands straight up!!!

{Sigh}

Green. Lush. Warm. Summer.

I read this over at the Quite Life blog and I just needed it this morning...Hopefully it will bless you too :)

Lord, You know better than I know myself that I am getting older and will someday be old. Keep me from... the fatal habit of thinking I must say something in every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but You know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind from the recital of endless details-give me wings to come to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me to endure the with patience. I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I will be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint-some of them are so hard to live with-but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And give me the grace to tell them so.

Found in Elisabeth Elliot's little book "Gateway to Joy".

It is attributed to a seventeenth-century nun.

Been Busy

My friend Amy was here from CO. This is a photo of her with another

friend ReNee. We had fun and did some girls stuff like shopping and pedicures.

Charlie turned 18...Wow I feel old! We are so proud of the young man he has grown into. Graduation is just around the corner. He has made his final desion to attend MS technical college, he will be going into construction management.

I had a photo shoot with this cute little guy from our church.

So far February doesn't look too crazy. But you never know what may develop.

A Weekend Photo Shoot

I am creating a story book for CM that needed to have a father theme. So instead of digging through years of photos for dad and child shots, I took these. They are a bit grainy as the light was low that day. You can create these photo too even if you have a point and shoot camera. All you need is a window, a black piece of fabric, and some willing, or semi-willing in Ray's case, subjects. Face the model to the window, hang or have someone hold the black fabric, set your camera to portrait and shoot away. I edited them: I lightened the midtones {that it the flesh tone} and added a lot of contrast and of course changed them to sepia. Happy Monday!!!!

Is that sweet or what???????????

Laugh and the world laughs with you!!!!!

A Good Day to Scrapbook June :)

This page is a little out of my comfort zone. I usally focus on the photos, this time it is the journaling which is a June alphabet. I know it is hard to read the journaling on screen but @ 100% in SBC+ it looks nice and then the words do not compete with the flowers.

A Budding Blogger!

Head on over to Laura's Life, a new blog authored by our own Laura Gail. She has been begging for days to have her own. So with some help from mom, she has begun her blogging journey. All the photos {unless they are of her} are taken by Laura. She dictates to me what to type, soon she will be able to do the typing herself but until then I will have to be her assistant. Enjoy and leave her lots of comments!!!! Lots and lots!

Let us think of July

I am moving along in my 2008 scrapbook....Oh this makes me long for the warm breezes of summer. All digital scrapping items available through Scrapgirls. The sunflower was created by me.

A Few Laughs this REALLY Cold Morning

Is this thing on?? What I am going through a growth spurt?!?!?! No comment

The Noisy Sisters..... debut concert!!!! on the Drive mom crazy tour!

Our Christmas Photos

All digital scrapping products available from scrapgirls.

The Christmas bow, birds, fur, and metal fastener were created by me.

Take a few moments to sit back and listen to the words of this song and enjoy the lovely kids. I pray it will help you to remember the real meaning of Christmas. I find myself living the weeks before the big holiday as if it were all about gift and entertaining. But the real meaning is this:

For the love that knows no ending,

in the wisdom of God's plan.

For the light that was descending,

to revive the heart of man.

Christ the lamb was made to suffer

and to die upon a tree.

So that we sisters and brothers

could know His fellowship so deep!

AMEN

Laura had a birthday!!

We had a lovely family from the church over for a dinner party, their daughter Sara and Laura are very good friends. It was a fun evening of food, cake, and visiting. I cannot believe Laura is seven. She is getting so tall!!

Her theme for the party was the north pole. She loves the elf from the Santa Clause movie, the one with Tim Allen. Santa's elf in that movie is Judy, so for weeks she has insisted that we call her Judy. I found this Santa dress at the second hand store which she would wear all the time if I would allow. The sweetest part of the elf play is that is turns her into such a servant. She is always asking, " Can I get you some hot chocolate? Do you need anything?" She even found a serving tray and will serve and clear anything that you ask for. It is so sweet. She is a sweet girl.

For you scrappers out there the digital scrapbook page

created with all CM products:

• Jewel Christmas
• Frost Overlay
• Office Silver
• Romance Sewing

I created party hats with the Traditional Jewel Christmas paper.

1. I simply cut a 12x12 paper in half. folded it over its self to create a cone.
2. I punched small holes on the points of the hat that go above the ears, and then ran curling ribbon through the holes, and placed another frosted split over top to hold in the ribbon in place.
3. Attached some feather ribbon around the outside with CM frosted split adhesives.
4. I added each child's name to the hat with the CM letter stickers, and some other decorations, and Laura we made a little fancier since she was the birthday girl.
5. I curled one end of the ribbon and left the other straight so that you could tie under the ribbons under their cute little chins.

Done.... Sorta'

My Christmas shopping is nearly done. Just a few gifts Ray has to get and then the kids will go and get presents for each other on Monday. I have 2/3 of them wrapped. Menu is planned for Christmas eve, just a bit of last minute shopping for that. So all I really have left is host Laura's Birthday party on Friday night, make homemade Cinnamon rolls to give as gifts, final practices for our home school Christmas program, and.....ahhh yukkk clean the house. Now I must go bandage my paper cuts and fall into bed so I have the strength to put on this Holly Jolly Christmas.

What is your favorite holiday task?

What is your least favorite?

My fav is making the list and shopping for the gifts.

My least.... wrapping. I used to like it but now there are so many to wrap, what a great thing to complain about, too many gifts, we are blessed!!!!!

Oh How the Wind Blew!!!

What does one do when the view from the dinning room looks like this?A lot of this!!!! We watched four movies this weekend. I knew the storm was coming and we were in town on Friday night soooo I stocked up a few 7 day rentals.We also did some sitting in front of the fire. By Sunday night it was so cold that the smoke could not rise out of the chimney. So Ray had to carry the burning logs out into the snow. Thankfully we have a furnace and several heaters but still it was very cold around the edges of the house. By Monday morning you kinda feel like this.... and then you look out the window and you know snow removal is inevitable. Well for the men at least. I keep myself nice and toasty on the other side of the window and take photos, make coffee and cinnamon rolls.This is the monster snow bank the man conquered this morning.It was cold....very cold somewhere below zero. Ray said it was not too bad, the wind was not blowing. What a tough North Dakota German he is!!!!

The view from my kitchen window this morning....Yesterday morning....Still moving snow. Tiny bird looking for a hand out.

An hour and a half later those rugged man are done.We are truly blessed that we do not have to brave these blizzards in a soddy around an open fire!!! I know the men were very thankful for the snow blower. Ray and Grandpa when off to work around noon, Charlie did not have school today, but had to work. He has a job working for a one of the big groceries in town. So anyway that is what happened in our big weekend. For those you who were also snowed in. What did you do? What are the largest snow drifts you remember?

"Texturizing"

That is what they are calling it these days. NOT perming...that is what old ladies do to their short hair. About a month ago I had a little texture added to my hair and it started a trend in our house. Oh yeah I am a trend setter if you did not know. So here is my first straight to curly hair convert. This is little L he was there with his mom who created the lovely texture. He was not there for curls but DORITOS!!! Wow what eyes!!!Yes that is a grocery bag on her head.... she had over 90 rollers in her hair.The final result. So girly and pretty :) In other Laura news.... she lost her other front tooth. Now she can really sing " All I want for Kithmas is my two front teef."

A Thanksgiving Review

Strangely enough I have no photos of the actual Thanksgiving dinner. We went to Ray's family back in our home town for the holiday and the big pig out was at Ray's grandmothers tiny apartment. As were were unloading the van to go into the tiny apartment Ray looked at me as I picked up my giant camera bag and said. "You are going to take that in?" "um no I guess not.." But I took many others of the weekend. There was plenty of card games. Laura loves to be the score keeper. Can I count that as math?This is Alex's poker face.....Charlie wishing Uncle Glen a Happy Thanksgiving!A bit of napping here and there.Lily, Kat and Chris put together this puzzle that the girls received as an early Christmas gift from Kat and Chris.This one of Kason and grandpa is my fav photo of the weekend. Loving and dramatic, I think.Of course it was great fun to see our nephew and cousin Kason. He is getting so big! He is a sweet boy who jabbers and says a lot of words already.Goofy Alex!We always go to this little pizza place whenever we are all back. The pizza is great and the conversation fun!! While we were there the girls got into this high chair with wheels and two of the grandpas would push them back and forth. They squealed with delight each time they zoomed back and forth. One time when Uncle Jeff was taking out of the highchair Laura let out a holler and Emma Grabbed Laura's pant leg. And with her eyebrows scrunched in disgust and a hand on her hip, She said, "NO she is ours!!!!!" and then her stare lingered at Jeff for a few seconds and she huffed off. Now I am sure there was some sort of disrespect in that. But I have to say she had the courage to stand up for and protect her sister. Now onto all that is Christmas!!!! Can't WAIT :)

Four Generations Later...

This is Laura with her great grandma Blanche. {my mother's mother} This is Blanche on the lap of her mother, Laura's Great Great Grandma. See any resemblance? I am working on a hertitage storybook right now and i am just having so much fun going through all those vintage photos. It is a journey to see where I came from.

Same~Different

Since I am a home school mom I have many workbooks filled with a lot of silly yet important activities. One of the girls' favorites is anything where they have to find things that are same or different. This kind of busy work will keep Lily busy for hours. Laura is more of a hands on kinda' girl so I thought I can put her same and different interest to WORK. She is the best sock sorter, folder, put awayer you will ever meet. Plus if you tell she can organize the sock drawer as well she is absolutely giddy!!!She likes to organize each persons socks into piles first. I guess she keeps daddy's on her head. We have A LOT of socks so sometimes she needs a nap in the midst of her ordering.

Once well rested she will sing an astoundingly loud version of "Glory be to God the Father"

We should be thankful for socks !!! Especially wool ones.

Glory BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A little drama mixed in there. Because nothing Laura does is void of drama!

Match!!!!

Hop Hop Hop to my work.

Now workbooks are great and I have come to realize that not every child loathes them as I did as a kid. But I think the same and different lesson was taught just as effectively here with the bonus that she learned to do her work cheerfully, helping her family is a blessing, perfecting the lyrics to Glory Be, she was able to work without her sisters bugging her {they know if the pester they can help, and let's just say most do not have Laura's enthusiasm for socks} So really it is serious multi tasking and with 6 kids I am all for Multi anything that helps us get the work done. Ok I am off to reorganize my sock drawer.....never mind already done :)

I love this image!

This is my mother's mother holding my aunt. I love how this is just a slice of life. Not posed. I love that you can see grandpa's shadow against her legs. I love that she is wearing trousers. I love that I can see my mother's and my face in hers. I love that I can see my babies in the one she carries. I love this image!

Check out!!!

Please go Here and read these great thoughts by Mrs. B. Leave your thoughts as well :)

Trick or Treat

This year we were able to go trick or treating. Charlie had a play off football game all the way over on the other side of the state. Grandma and grandpa S were the half way point so Friday we spent the night and begged for candy :) The girls had such fun. We had a lion, a bear, a ballerina, and Crulella DeVil. And wow they got a lot of candy, and little bags of pretzles. Who gives dry, sugarless, snack food for Halloween, dentists I suppose :) It was fun to participate in the silly American tradition. It was a beautiful evening, I remember one time as a child I had to wear my snow suit under my costume. There was some in out of the van, we went to see Grandpa at work. It was so sweet that he remembered to bring candy for the girls. Fun fun. {the candy is all gone, big brothers were happy to help with the consumption}

Young Love!!!

Some of you out there may know this lovely couple so leave some love and congrats in the comments!!! This was such a fun shot even though it was FREEZING cold out!!! Here a *few* of my faves. There are way more great shots. Have a blessed day!!!

The above photo is my ABOSOLUTE FAVORITE!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS PHOTO!!!! and this one on the couch....Less portrait more art like on this one. I love it... it reminds me of a Renoir painting, some young couple in a tea room in France. I dig the heavy shadow on the right side of there faces normally this would drive me crazy but here is totally works.

These inside shots were taken in the coffee shop that they were engaged in!!! Sweet Sweet Sweet!