I got a new camera..... I got a new camera!!!!

So my splurge on Black Friday was a new camera.....a Nikon D 3000 to be exact!


And I absolutely LOVE it (not sure of all the settings exactly tho!)

Here's a couple of my first pics......


Here's the original:















And my edits:

















Really it's nothing special just using the b&w and sepia effects, but so far that's about all that I've figure out on it. I am hoping my sister (who has the same camera) will give me some lessons!!!

Happy Belated B-day, Kaycee!

So Kaycee's birthday is Sept 12, but we were so busy we had to put off a celebration until Nov 7th! I should get the "Mother of the Year" award, huh?

It was the best birthday party so far, though!

We had a dress up party at my hair salon. Kaycee invited a few of her friends and we car pooled it to Smithburg, MD to H&M Designs with my mom and sister. The girls got to pick from a beautiful array of prom dresses and then proceeded to the salon for hair, makeup and nail polish. Then they enjoyed some cake and punch. We finished the party off with a karoke/dance party. The girls had so much fun and they all were complete angels. Kaycee has a wonderful group of close friends. I am so happy she has connected with these girls! Kaycee declared it "the best birthday EVER" (So I win some Mom of the Year points with that!!!)


Baylee even got in on the action~ She sat so still while getting her hair curled!





This child is full of contradictions. She loves being a girly girl and getting all dolled up, but in the next moment the fancy clothes are left behind and she is off riding four-wheelers with her brother and getting mud stuck in her hair. She is a roller coaster of emotion. I never know what will set her into a downward spiral or giggly outburst. She loves with all her heart and sometimes gets her heart broken when that love doesn't come back to her in the same way. I have a feeling we are going to experience tears and heartbreak in the future, but I so admire the way she loves without abandon and wears her heart on her sleeve. I hope for her a life lived with no regrets!!!
Love Ya, Girl!

Halloween 2009

So it's been a while since I've posted anything, huh?

Gonna start with Halloween:

We had a huge Halloween bash at church. Operation Safe Kids was a huge success! We had so many kids come through our line. Baylee had so much fun handing out candy to all the children. She dressed up as a cowgirl this year. She kept saying "I'm a cowgirl....Yee Haw!!!"
She now insists on wearing the cowgirl boots EVERYWHERE!!!



Kaycee was going to be a cowgirl, too. But after a trip to Walmart she decided to be a good witch. I think the hat swayed her!

Conner was NOT going to dress up this year, until his Aunt Dayna informed him that kids without costumes would not be getting candy! He changed his tune pretty quick and borrowed a cowboy hat from his Uncle Trampus and we threw together a pretty good cowboy costume, if I say so myself!!!

First Day of School

Summer is coming to an end...first day of school- time to get back on schedule and wake up early. I am totally not looking forward to getting the kids up and ready every morning, but it will be nice to be able to work all day long without one of them calling me to whine about having nothing to do or that one has severely injured by the other!

They are growing up though. Makes me sad. I don't have any children in elementary school now. They are both officially intermediate students. Conner will be going to middle school next year, is that even possible?





Conner has a male teacher this year. He has always had female teachers so this will be an adjustment I'm sure, but his teacher seems really organized, laid back and very interested in science. So I am sure Conner will have a great year.











Kaycee loves her teacher already! Her teacher is my mom's cousin and my mom has her daughter in kindergarten this year. (Gotta love small town living, huh?) Kaycee was worried she wouldn't know anyone in her class, but to her surprise one of her best friends is in her class and her best "bus" friend is in there too.










Baylee is well... just Baylee. She insisted on wearing those shoes that morning and right putting her in the car with them on she proclaims "these are the hurtiest shoes ever" lol She will be going to Aunt Dayna's this year. I am so happy that she will be with someone who I completely trust and who loves her so much! She is planning lots of fun stuff for them!







Another milestone passing by....they seem to be passing by faster and faster every year :(

Food, Friends and Family

What would I do with out those three things?
Today I realized how interdependent I am on each~



Last week dad brought over a ton of fresh ground beef. I've used it for tacos and tonight we had delish hamburgers!

On Thursday Dayna sent me home with 2 cantaloupe fresh picked from her garden. Well they were in the house less than 24 hours and now they are gone. (fine by me, though...I hate cantaloupe!) I repaid her today with a totally cute pocketbook!

Yesterday my neighbor gave me about 12 jars of canned green beans. Yum, yum! I can wait to crack into a can of garden grown green beans in the middle of winter. Almost makes me wish for snow (well, not yet really!)

All those things came together today in my head and I was realized how truly blessed by God I am! A loving family, great friends and awesome food~ Life is SWEET!

Unsung Hero-My daughter???

There's really nothing "unsung" about her. She is pretty much all attitude and irrationally emotional lately. But somehow she received the unsung hero award for her softball team. Seriously though, she really blossomed this season. She has become more confident and even a little too sure of her self sometimes. Her attitude on the ball field was radically different from her usual "it's all about me" attitude. She cheered mightily for her team mates and shed a few tears when they lost a game. She hustled after the ball and was determined to get a hit when she stepped up to bat. I love seeing that in her!

You have no events scheduled today.

Got this in my inbox today from my Google calendar! How awesome is that???

No baseball practice, no cheerleading practice, no games, no nothing today!

So with all this free time you'd think I'd do some thing productive (especially knowing how nasty this house has gotten) but instead I packed the kids up and we headed to Target. I did need some grocery type stuff to make dinner, but we also picked up a new scooter for Baylee. As Baylee was riding Kaycee's old, beat up scooter around the office today, Jason mentioned that it's kinda sad that she never really gets anything new. Of course she was happy as can be with Kaycee's old scooter, but when I saw one on sale at Target I had to pick it up. Got it home and tried to put it together...not very easy, by the way! She took a few turns around the house with it and said "I like the other one better" URGH!!

Oh well her big brother seems to really be loving the new Dora scooter. (but shhhhh! don't tell any of his friends he is riding a pink Dora scooter!)

Tomorrow is another busy day...filled with lots of time in the car, things to do and places to go, but for tonight I will be relishing my "no events scheduled" day!