Perfect New Year's Eve!

What better way to spend New Year's Eve than with your husband. Quiet dinner.... lobster, salad, fresh bread and a bottle of wine..... perfect! Happy New Year to all of my friends and family. May 2010 be the best year yet. See you on my blog.

As many of you know, I have had a revived obsession in my life - photography. My blog this year has been an accumulation of "events" - big and small - in our life. I have had the great pleasure of spending much time taking photos of family, friends and all of God's great gifts. I have had people asking me to see more of what I have been doing, so.... in the next couple of days, I will be putting the finishing touches on another blog that will feature many of the photos I have taken and will be taking over the next year. Connie has inspired me to do a POTD..... well, maybe more like a POTW. But, I will do my best to post at least once each week with one, two or many photos. As with all bloggers, we love comments so, if you are so inclined, please leave me some of your thoughts.

Thanks be to God for all he has blessed me and my family with and I wish all of you the same for the new year.

Tubing!!!!

Today we went tubing out at Perkinstown. We haven't been there in years and boy was it fun. Lorin is off this week so it was a Nana, Papa and Aubree day. The first picture is of Lorin coming down the hill with Aubree....

Then the landing....

About half way through the day, the rope broke. Do you see how many stairs there are to the top of the hill. Of course Aubree was not ready to leave so..... time to climb the stairs - 108 stairs to be exact. Do you know how many times we climbed those stairs - Too many!!

Here is Nana and Aubree way on top of the hill.....On the way down......At the bottom.....


Another graceful landing.... Not sure what was more fun - coming down the hill or landing in the straw. Aubree was a little scared on the first run. However, we no more than landed in the straw and she was saying "Again, again, again, can we go again?" What a memorable day. We ended with hot cocoa in the club house to warm up. Here she is on the way home.... Cheeks red and nose running. What a fun day - can't wait to go again. BTW - when we left they got the rope back up and running.

What a Christmas Gift

We had a wonderful Christmas! Lots of fun with family and friends - we are blessed in so many ways. Check out many of my photos on facebook.

Anyway, a cute story from our Christmas.....

Saturday evening, after much of the commotion was over, our immediate family had our get-together. We had a very casual dinner and then opened gifts. Aubree, who will be 6 in about a month, has really wanted a bra. She is such a girl and growing up way too fast. Heather has been telling her she doesn't need one yet but, as I have told you in the past, Nana is a pushover. And, since Heather didn't mind if I bought her one, that was one of her gifts. She was so blessed with so many wonderful gifts from family and friends. Many items that you would think she would have been so excited to receive. Well, her favorite gift from this year is....... Her new bra! When she opened it she was so excited, we all laughed. Someone (I think Chad - Jenn's boyfriend) made a comment about her getting a bra and her reply was "Well, I am a WOMAN you know!" (She is almost 6.) Gotta love it.

One other story from the weekend.... We asked her on Christmas Eve how her day was with her daddy and Grandma Sue, etc. She was telling us how she had fun and about the gifts she had gotten. She got art supplies, toys, etc. and some money from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Randy. We asked her what her favorite gift was. She said, "Everything! Well, I really didn't like the envelope they put the money in, but I did like the money." (I guess she saw no reason to waste an envelope.)

Such crazy memories from a wonderful weekend. I will post some more pics this week from the open house. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the day.

Bokeh

Since Connie posted her bokeh, I thought I would show you some of mine too! I love bokeh. It gives a different look to a photo that is kind of fun. Last week I took a couple of shots of my tree and used it for a card/label I put on my thank you gifts to my clients. The first photo is SOOC (straight out of the camera) and the second is with a little photoshop work. I lightened it so it would be a background, added a white border that faded in/out of the photo and added words. So easy, and it turned out pretty cool.

Maybe tomorrow I will post my "stars". Thanks Connie for your constant inspiration! Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Lights!!!

Tonight we took a drive to Marshfield to walk through the park and see all the lights. We have done this every year with Aubree, Heather and Morgan and it has become a "tradition".....and, every year it gets better than the last. If you have never gone.....you are missing something quite wonderful. There are hundreds of thousands of lights throughout the park. You can either walk through or drive through..... we do both. Here are a couple of photos to entice you to make the trip. The park is decorated entirely with donations and there is no admission. They have volunteers that work in the park throughout the season and collect donations of money and/or food items. The money raised goes to the needy families in the Marshfield area.

Of course there are a few of these fun photo "boards". Here is Heather and Aubree.....

Papa, Aubree and Morgan.......

Me and Aubree...... We had to do the penguins because I love penguins.

As I said... I love penguins.

One of the new additions this year. It is santa's village and it was awesome. How cute and so much detail.

A closer look at one of the houses in the village.


On the way home we had to stop at Starbucks. Aubree loves coffee (decaf of course). She had to try Heather's Peppermint white mocha...mmmmmm yummy. A perfect way to end a perfect evening. I Love Christmas.

I hope I have convinced you it is worth the short drive to see what a wonderful display is there. BTW - Santa is there, some evenings his reindeer are there and they even have sleigh rides through the park on some of the nights.

Merry Christmas and God Bless you all!

Bed Head

I have to post twice tonite..... this first post is Pickles head this morning. A couple months ago Julie posted the back of her head one morning and it looked a little like this. Pickles had a sleepover at Nana and Papa's house last night and when she woke up her hair looked like this and I immediately thought of Julie's post. When she fell asleep she still had her pigtails in and when she woke up this morning, this is what she looked like. I'm glad I was able to send her home and let Heather deal with this "bedhead". I wonder what she found in there? What did she do when she was sleeping last night?

Kids and Boxes

What is it about kids and boxes. I remember when the girls were little and would get a new toy. They played with the toy for a bit but then always seemed to play with the boxes. Today, Pickles was here. She was so excited. As you know, if you have been reading my blog... we have Nana - Aubree days. Well, today was an unplanned Nana - Aubree day. All she kept saying was, "It's a Nana - Aubree day and it wasn't even planned!" Well, we had a busy day with baking cookies, decorating, doing art projects, drinking coffee?!?, etc., etc. This morning I told her I had to get some work done on my computer, so she colored a couple of pictures and then decided to watch the rest of Sesame Street..... and here is where she decided to do it - IN A BOX. She took my fur blanket off the sofa, the feather pillow from the closet, wrapped herself up and crawled in the box. I think she almost fell asleep in there. She looked so darn cute, I had to take a picture.

Isn't he a good Papa??

Last weekend when Jenn and Chad were home, she needed to get her hair done. So, Sunday while I was making brunch, Heather colored Jenn's hair. Of course Pickles wanted to get in on that. Usually she does Heather's or my hair, but Heather was busy with Jenn and I was making food. So Papa was the target. Isn't he a good sport? I love his face in this first picture. Doesn't he look kind of like he is in pain???

Did you notice the bracelet??? It's a full service salon.

BTW - His hair is still gray. Maybe he will have to make a trip to see Heather.

Thanksgiving Feast

Last week before Thanksgiving Pickles class and some of the other kindergarten classes celebrated Thanksgiving with a "feast". They talked about the first Thanksgiving and how they had their meal with the Pilgrims and the "Indians". Everyone in Pickles class was a Pilgrim. Here is a picture of her class. Heather and I got to go and "help".

Here is a picture of Pickles in her outfit. When we got to school, Heather asked her where her clothes were. When she left for school in the morning she had on a pink sweatshirt and brown boots on with her denim skirt. Well, she still had the skirt on, but no sweatshirt and no boots. She told Heather, she "needed" to bring her apron because they were having a feast. Heather asked her where her boots were and she said they didn't match her apron so she had to bring her black shoes. She is only 5!!! Her apron says "Diva in Training" - appropriate???

Before they began their meal they all were told about how the Pilgrims and Indians gave thanks. Doesn't this look like they were praying? They were all told to fold their hands together and give thanks. The did not say pray or did not mention God, but it sure looked like praying to us. Heather and I were so surprised - very, very glad, but wow. I was shocked they did this. Wouldn't it be nice if that wasn't such a shock?

God Bless you all. Maybe someday this will no longer be a surprise or a shock, but something that children and all people will be able to do again.