flowers, feilds and what nots.

Its finally summer around this place!

"halleluiah!"

The winter and spring weather lasted way longer then usual this year.

"booooo!"

and I finally turned on the AC for the first time this week! 

"hurrray!"

hmmmmm

I may need to rethink the AC thing. 

Not sure I'm happy about that.

So summertime equals lots of crops around here...

and driving by one of these fields reminds me of the summers past....
Something about the smell of mint wafting into the car takes me back to my days in Pampers..
Okay, maybe not that far....but elementary school for sure.
Did you know that your sense of smell is your strongest sense for recalling memories?
It's called Proustian Memory.
Pretty interesting stuff.
Its like catching a whiff of a strangers Chanel no. 5 while walking down the street, and all of a sudden your transported back to your grandma's. Or the how the smell of fair food takes you back to the time you sat in gum at the county fair.
(Yep, that would be me. I had to walk around all creative like the rest of the fair. Dang you bubblicious!)

Moving on.

and these....

Well I dunno what this is, but its perrrty.
And smell free I might add.

 but this....I know.

Wheat.
I'm a regular 'ol whiz on farming stuff.
(Not really.)

But, I do love living in such an agriculture rich community.
Say what?!
Its true.
Minus the spray planes that buzz our house at 6am.
I could most definitely live without those morning wake up calls.
*shakes fist at sky*

And these little buggers are transplants from my mother in law's house that I have growing in my front yard. 

No olfactory memories for me, or spray planes required... no bailing, irrigating, or yearly crop rotation necessary to cultivate these cute little things.
Yay.

Happy Summertime.

-------o-------

Only one more day until the voting ends at Circle of Moms!! 

Can you muster up one little click on the button below to help me? 

Thank you!!

whimsy take 2

Love That Shot is also doing a whimsy theme this week. 

And since you don't have to have a persons face showing in their photos, I chose this:

Taking photos of these penny sized flowers without a tripod (which is in our camp trailer) was a challenge. They aren't as in focus as I wanted but maybe a little out of focus-ness makes it more whimsical. 

At least that's what I tell myself. 

:)

 

 

whimsy

I Heart Faces theme this week is A Touch of Whimsy. 

When I think of something whimsical I imagine dreamlike, warm lighting and extraordinary places.

Now, the alfalfa field out back our house may not be rather dreamlike, but the golden lighting lent it to a somewhat whimsical vibe.

(I'm a vibe-y person. Vibe-ish person?)

So I felt this photo of my oldest fit this weeks theme of Whimsy.

If nothing else, because of her expression. 

She was watching an airplane fly overhead, and whats more dreamlike and extraordinary to a child then flying?

Check out all the other entries at I Heart Faces this week.

I can't wait to see the other entries and the different interpretations!

My best shot!

So I have been debating for the last week or so about what photo to enter into Paper Mama's,
Your Best Shot....of a child contest. 

This picture of my daughter running down an old dirt road has always been one of my favorites.
So with the deadline looming (less then 24hrs) I decided I better stop procrastinating (who me??) and enter the one I knew I wanted to enter from the beginning.
 And why out of the million (I may or may not be exaggerating on that number) of photos I have taken, did I  choose this particular one?

Because it wasn't
posed,
planned
or plotted out.

It just was.

And that makes it my best shot of a child, ever.

5th generation

I posted awhile back that my grandma was soon going to be.... 

not a great-grandma,

but a GREAT-great grandma.

Well the little lady finally made her debut earlier this month,

and man, is she a cutie:

 Congrats momma! 

She is gonna be one loved little girl.

 

P.S.

Notice the nail polish-chipping-little-girl-finger in the top middle photo?

That would be my baby girl. 

She was enthralled and couldn't get enough of this little one.

Summer time

Summertime and the livin's easy

Bradley's on the microphone with Ras-MG

All the people in the dance will agree that we're 

well qualified to represent the LBC

Me and Louie we're gunna run to the party and dance till the rhythm it gets harder 

Ba da ba bye bye Ba da ba bye bye

Name that band. :)

That song is on repeat in my mind during the summer. 

 I'm not too sure Sublime's songs (in case you haven't guess yet), are really appropriate summer ballads accompanying my kids photos, but it might be a step up from 'rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey...' (thank you Luke Bryan for that infectious little diddy) that they sang all last summer.

I do what I can.

-------o-------

This is my  entry for Love that Shots theme Splish Splash!

She isn't in focus, but it was still my favorite photo of my oldest cruising down the slide into the pool the other day. It's the water drop bokeh that got me.

Yay for summer!!

Lets hear it for the BOY

I Heart Faces theme this week is Lets Hear it for the Boys... 

I don't have any boys of my own (minus my husband and that drooling dog of ours), but I took this photo last fall of one very cute boy.

 

'free' to four

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday little sissy,

Happy Birthday to you!

Can't believe my BABY is four! 

She showed me today that she is 'way taller' now that she isn't 'free' anymore.

(I secretly hope she never says three right).

 

She also thought this milestone birthday meant she could ride in a booster seat now. 

(sorry kid, not this year.)

Hope your 4th birthday is a good one girlie!

(booster seat withholding)

We love you little sissy!

-mom, dad, & big sister

Daddy

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dad's, Daddy's, Fathers, Pop's, Gramp's, Grandpa's, Pa's and what have you's out there!

I've often referred to my husband as a mans man. He likes to hunt, fish, go fourwheeln', camp, watch football and do all those other  'guy' things. I don't think in a million years he ever saw himself as a father to a girl, let alone TWO girls. Two girls who take ballet and love pink at that!  So he may be a little taken aback when he buys them hot wheels and they play house with them, but I know he wouldn't trade it for the world.

He is an amazing father and husband, and in case you were wondering...our little one learned to ride with no training wheels that day. :)

Old Flickr Finds

Its been awhile since I have pa-roosed through my flickr account. 

Over the last year I have taken soooooo many photos I have forgotten about some of my older ones.

I don't think I have ever posted full versions of any of these on my blog before,
so without further ado:

This was taken last July on the way home from a camping trip. I thought this old farmhouse was pretty neat looking. It looks a little blown out now that I look at it again, darn. Its funny how sometimes you think something is great  then you come back with fresh eyes and well...think a little differently. This was also a time when I was obsessed with the new bird brushes I got.There were birds in almost all my photos during this time and now I cant even think of the last time I used em.

Oh, and I'm actually in this picture somewhere...

This one was taken last summer too, again while on a camping trip.

 

I don't know these people, and they may or may not of been weirded out by the crazy lady taking photos of them. Its possible they didn't see me crouching in the bushes clicking away, I was in stealth mode.

Thank you strangers!

My little one was super sick when I took this photo.

I KNEW she was sick because she crashed on the couch, and she never crashes on the couch. 

She rarely even crashes.

My grandma made her that blanket, she calls is her Special Blanket. 

Dang-nabit! that brings a tear to my eye!

From our vacation last year.

 

My daughers, my mom and grandma all went to the coast for a few days in both Washington and Oregon. 

It was a wonderful all girls trip.

And this would be the infamous Ace.

 

He drools like nobodies business. 

(Just thought you would like to know that little factoid about him.)

We also had a pig break into our yard once (random!) and he thought he had a new girlfriend. 

He has low standards, no doubt brought on by his drooling disability.

  Ah shucks, we love you just the way you are Ace!

I used to have a super small version of this on my sidebar, but I don't think I have ever shared the large version on my blog.

 

It's one of my favorite photos of my oldest daughter. 

She is just pleased as punch to ride on the carousel. 

Her mom isn't telling her 'look here! look here! smile!!"

Its a perfect in the moment photo, she is just....well,  happy.

This was taken of my little one on the same day as the photo above.

 

I love her little ponytail and the bowling bokeh.

I'm going to go for it and say it was a curve ball strike.

I'm pretty sure of it.

I used to have a small version of this on my blog too.

It's actually two photos that I merged into one.
Every take I had of them jumping one was up and the other was down.
So I took photos with both of them in the air and put em together. 

yay!

So that's it. 

A montage of some of my older pictures that I dusted off to share with you all.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

pink

My little one,

pretty in pink.

 

-------o-------

pssssssst....notice anything different by my nav bar up top on my blog???
I'm a official member of the BlogHer Network now!!
Woo Hoo!
 I submitted my application a few months ago and it was accepted recently so I did some paperwork this week to make it official.
Everything will remain the same here, my blog will just have a little more zip and zing and will be a member of  this amazing network of blogging women!



Thanks for reading!

The big bash

Having two kids with birthdays in the same month can be chaotic. 

The crucial decision of having their parties together or separate makes me loose sleep at night.

This particular debate wages on in my head through the entire month of May and sounds something like this:

Parties together??

Parties separate?? 

Oh dear.... I don't know what to do!!

separate?! 

ehhhhhh that doesn't feel right.

 Sooo...together?
yeah...

Separate would nice tho.. 
I'm hungry, do we have an Oreos in the pantry?
FOCUS Leesha!!

Together?

Separate?!
Together?!

AHHHHH!

If I could burn calories by over thinking things I would make Kate Moss look fat.
whew.

My husband really enjoys when I verbalize all this and ask his opinion, then I ignore it.

It's a team effort.

Okay, maybe not.

So after sleepless nights hemming and hawing over this whole debacle we (okay, I) decided to do their party together.

And it was a hit...

ehehehe hahaha. 

get it?

My little one had a smashing good time...

HAHA.

Alllllright.

No more puns.

Promise.

It was a great BASH.
heh. sorry.

Buuut this conversation has me concerned:

She holds a grudge, that one.

And when did her big sister  start talking  like a teen from the 90's?

That one has me stumped.

Well, the little one beat the poor thing into submission..

as you can tell.

And then:

Success!

So all the kids ran for the candy:

hmmmmm
and this cute little baby noggin toddled in out of no where.

"hello there little noggin."

the end.

PS: If you like, you can vote for me by clicking the button below. One vote per person every 24 hours. I'm trying like the dickens to stay in the top 25.

Where have I been?!

Im a little behind on this, but I found out today that someone nominated me on circle of moms for top photography blog!

WOWZA!

Thank you anonymous, you wonderful person you!

So I checked it out and uploaded some info on there and got this little doo-hickey:

So if you would like, vote for me.

No pressure.

Vote?

Please?

Pretty please??? 

Does that count as pressure?? ;)

Don't answer that.

okay bye.

and thank you!!

Bright and Vivid

Bright and Vivid is the theme this week at I Heart Faces.

Last year my daughters saw the ocean for the very first time.

It was an amazing experience.

:)

PS: I updated my Good Reads section the other day! Check it out!! And if you have any good summer read suggestions toss em my way...I love a good book. :)

B & W

I'm a huge fan of black and white photos.

Of all the editing I do it's probably the quickest, and can sometimes be the most dramatic change to the feel of a photo. 

This is an oldie, but (I consider) a goodie.

My oldest in her ballet tutu.

Six

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday my little big girrrrll.

 Happy Birthday to you.

 

 Six years ago today I became a mom. 

The most amazing, wonderful, challenging, rewarding, loving, dramatic change of my life.

I can hardly believe its been SIX years.

Crazy.

And because I sifted through more then a bazillion photos trying to pick just a few, and the birthday song is only so many lines....I have a few more to share:

I oh so clearly remember the sleep deprivation.

 And the day my grandma (who has since passed away) sent these to her for her 4th birthday.

And when she used to be this size.

And this size.

 

And when she turned five.

So I will keep myself together today and not bawl like a baby when I hear sappy county love songs about babies growing up, leaving, and all that nonsense. As far as I know they plan to stay with me forever, so those songs won't apply to me. 

So there.

Happy Birthday baby girl.

I don't care if your six or sixty, you'll always be my baby.

(is that a sappy country song?? oh well.)

Luv,

mom.

And this is her a few months shy of her 2nd birthday: