i heart faces: Pet Week

I'm sharing this picture of Lydia with Macy.

Their story is here.

i heart faces: Beautiful Eyes

There is just something about Lydia's dark, dark eyes!! So dark it's hard to distinguish her iris from her pupil.

But one thing is for sure... they demand attention... they are hard NOT to notice!!

And just as precious as the little grin that usually goes with it;)

The Finger Grip

Baby Wesley holding Grammie's finger....

Just love the generations AND how much a grandmother LOVES their grandbaby;)





plenty more baby Wesley pics to come:)

Just Two Racing Wheels

After months of watching his sisters ZOOM around on their bikes, Chris decided to try riding without training wheels a few weekends ago. Once he really tried it, he took off and LOVES riding his bike.

The obvious difference between girls and boys is even more obvious with Chris on two wheels now. He ZOOMS like he is in a race EVERYWHERE he goes:)


Love this pic. You can see Chris RACING ahead and Lydia behind him enjoying her ride;)

From a Distance

This week's theme is "From a Distance"...
I thought of this picture.

I've always thought tunnel pictures were interesting.

This picture of Chris' back reminds me of how he is still a little boy, but in the process of becoming a man. I need the "distance" to remember how quickly that process is happening and to ENJOY these little boy moments while they last...

antics and all:)

Between the innocence of babyhood
and the dignity of manhood,
we find a delightful creature of a boy.

-- Author Unknown

i heart faces: Soft and Sweet

Nothing is as Soft or Sweet...

as my little man covered in his 1st birthday cake;)

This was before it got really messy.
Those pics and possibly a video are coming soon:)

I heart faces : Sun Flare

I heart Faces this week was Sun Flare...

Being very new to photography I did a little "googling" to figure out what 'Sun Flare' in photography was

and "how to" do it.

I found some very willing models (Daddy and Nate) and tried...

this was my best shot.



I had to posted some bloopers because my husband was a "hoot" as usual:)

I Heart Faces : Hippo Love

While in Disney's Animal Kingdom, we found this pair!! I thought they were soo precious snuggled up under the water:) They were such a sweet couple:)

I love the teeth of the one on the left:)

Smirk Photo Challenge

The kids helped with our Church Clean-up Day on Saturday!! Oh, it was great to get pictures of the kids hauling mulch with the grown men... and the kids gladly worked.

At one point they all "rested" and got some cool drinks! Anna sat on the church stairs with one of our members...

who tries to be serious and grumpy!! But once you get past his tough, hardworking look you'll see he's quite the opposite.

We caught him (with the smirk to prove it) "teasing" the pastor's kid... and she obviously didn't think he was funny!! LOL!! Looks like she drank something gross...



My obvious regret is that Anna isn't totally in focus!! Welcome to "just learning"!

But I LOVE the different generations pictured! And getting that SMIRK was a "perfect" shot because it's not often displayed from this fellow:)

It's a fun challenge this week:) With all the smirks... we'll have plenty of smiles!

I Heart Faces : Sunglasses

Love this pics of Chris, his new sunglasses and a Momma with her camera;)


More sunglasses at i heart faces!

i Heart faces - Surprise!!

I met up with the leader of the VBS team that came to our church this summer!! They had just returned from another trip doing 2 Bible clubs a day, one in a corn field with no AC or restrooms....

such servants hearts! Willing to serve churches to help reach children and families with the Love and Knowledge of Christ!

Working with kids is hard.... you've got to be soo silly sometimes:)

When I saw the theme of SURPRISE! at I heart Faces this week, I immediately thought of the two ladies doing Rec and the fun they had "hamming it up" on Water Day:)



Surprise Nancy:) Aren't the ladies great... all dressed for the Ranch look and soaked to the bone, just like the kids;)

I heart faces: All about Baby...

Since Nate's arrival... my girls are all about babies:)

Daily I hear conversations involving nursing babies, dressing babies and babies napping!

But when Lydia got to work diapering her baby, it was just adorable!! And she did such a GREAT job:)

I heart Faces - Dramatic B&W

This week challenge at I heart Faces is Dramatic B&W! They have stressed that this is all about editting... something I am NOT good with:) But here is my favorite B&W editted photos:)

My little girls and a sweet kiss shared between them.... such a sweet time & ages:)

I Heart Faces - Angles

This week at I Heart Faces is Angles. The challenge was to share a picture taken at an unique angle....

So I'm totally stretched taking a pic in manual mode, then add I need a fun angle with my busy and moving kiddies....

So as Lydia played on the swings, I got on my preggo-bottom and tried to get some fun angles! Here is my favorite...


Fun to be challenged! And it was soo nice to be outside and enjoy the kids:)

I heart faces - Bundled Up

Here's my I heart faces entry this week. The theme is "Bundled Up"!



We loved the snow this winter! And I loved taking pictures and messing with them a bit in the warm house:)

This was my favorite pic of Lydia. She was trying to walk on the icy snow and slipped! She thought it was fun:) Oh, to be three again:)

I heart Faces : Jump for Joy

Chris is my adventurous little boy....


and I just adore this picture of him on a friend's trampoline. He was determined to jump as high as he could. And then on the next jump.... jump higher!! The joy of being a little "invincible" little boy!!!

i heart face - Hands

I love taking pictures of the kids' hands so I have plenty of my "ok" pics to submit this week at I heart Faces: Hands!!!

But instead of concentrating on all the sweet little baby pudgy hands and parenting hands loving on little Hannah Grace, I decided to share this special, generational picture:



I took this picture when we celebrated the January birthdays! Gran-Grandma was celebrating her 101st birthday and sitting at the table with her hand on her birthday cards. I didn't realize until I was looking through the pictures later in the evening that Gran-Grandma had her hand on the card that Anna had made for her!!!!

I am just sooo thankful that my kids have had the opportunity to get to know their GREAT grandma... not through pictures or visiting her at an old folks home. But they have been in Gran-Grandma's house and we've eaten meals together. And they have made her birthday cards!

I heart faces

The contest celebrating I heart Faces 1st Birthday is Best Face Photo.... and they've asked that we use a recent photo, ie Dec or Jan!!!

I've tried to take some... but with the cold weather and learning a new camera... ahh, I will give you one you've already seen:) But I just LOVE little Hannah's expression on New Year's Day as we tried to capture her newest trick... "sitting alone"!


***This is a picture I took.... but Andrea helped a lot and editted it for me!! She's got the eye, heart, talent and equipment:)

i heart faces - Hilarious Holiday Outtakes

The challenge this week is Hilarious Outtakes.... I wish I had some that were super funny but I did have some fun memories from the holiday this year:)

Brian and I decided LONG ago not to exchange presents with each other. Brian LOVES opening presents, so I wanted him to have something to open:) So I "sneaked" around that rule, and I let the kids pick out gifts for him at the Dollar Store:)

I love Brian's silly/confused expression!

Christopher picked out some CARS planes for his Daddy!! It was a toy that he would have also LOVED to receive... while we were shopping I asked him why we should get that gift. His response was, "so we can play it together!"

Sounds like a good plan to me:) And a funny and sweet Christmas memory:)



Another fun memory was the "boyz" going outside to play football on Christmas Day... yes, even when it started to rain a bit! They were determined to play football though!! And you can see the determination on my brother's face.... LOL.. love ya, BOYZ!

Here are two more from our family "shoot" in early Dec:)

Weird baby expression:)

Lydia lick.... but lollipop not in the right place:)

i heart faces - sweet dreams

I heart faces this week is Sweet Dreams:) I have my favorite sleeping pics of my kids... but they are stored away. So I hunted through some of the pictures that we've done with my youngest "model".... Miss Hannah Grace, the doll baby:)

I liked this picture because of the colors, her sweet little hand next to her face (done by her) and the bright flowery headband my sister put on her!! She was definitely in dreamly land (or about to go) in this pic:)



We actually visited with Hannah Grace and family (LOL) this weekend!! And we did some pictures of each other's families... but I was looking through old pictures and was sooo bummed that I didn't get any of just Hannah and Lydia (or even Chris and Anna)!!! I know they all took turned holding her!! Not sure how much longer she's going to let them do that:) I'll share when I can:)