Family First

Tonight we had three things on our calendar, and we were trying to figure out how we were going to do them all. But when we heard that Adam and Rachel were coming into town, and Amy and her crew too, it made our decision easy. We ditched all of our plans and went over to Kent and Johnice's for some family time. We had a great time, and here are the highlights.

*Hanging out with these two cuties, who will be leaving way too soon to head back to Hawaii.



*Enjoying the beautiful weather.





*Watching John David "ohhh" and "ahhh" over the dump truck and tractor next door.



*Helping Paw Paw fix Midnight.



*Watching Jessica try on her wedding dress. No, she's not getting married. At least not anytime soon. She just inherited this dress, and tried it on.



*Watching Aunt Amy love on her nieces and nephew.



She's the funnest and sweetest aunt on the planet!



And prettiest too!



*Getting to see how much little Maggie has grown. Don't you just want to smooch those cheeks?! I can hardly stand it! So adorable! Katie and Sarah thought so too!







*Watching Aaron reminisce over the glory days when he found his lettermans jacket from high school. It was quite entertaining, to say the least.





*Watching John David play with Paw Paw's toy truck.



He's had this thing for years, and all of the kids love it. John David is no exception.



He also likes to sing and dance along with it. Pretty cute to watch.

Super fun people, and super fun way to spend an overbooked evening!

It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes!

Grandma's here! We are so excited to have her here with us for a few weeks, especially these girls! They're already trying to convince me that there is a "Grandma's in town so it's okay to skip school" holiday in our near future!

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head

This morning John David went outside when Sarah opened the door for Bailey to go out. So I went out to get him, and came back inside to get my camera when I saw how much fun he was having playing in the rain.



Splish! Splash!



Love those cute little toes!

He's just learned what rain is, and how to say it. It's so fun to see how excited he gets when he sees it......and plays in it!



And what's even better than playing in the rain? Why riding your tractor in the rain, of course!

Ahhhh..................LOVE!

More Practice in Manual Mode

I like to get my kids' pictures taken every year around their birthdays. And since I'm finally trying to figure out how to work my camera, I thought get some practice in and take some birthday pictures of my sweet little Sarah myself. Multi-tasking. We went to the park right down the road from our house around 5:30, and they turned out pretty good. A couple of them were so good (wish I knew exactly what I did on those) that I didn't even edit them at all. Speaking of editing, I used Picasa to edit my pictures, which is very simple, and works well for my simple mind. However, my dear husband got me photoshop elements for my birthday, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. Guess that will be my next class.

















I love this pose! My sassy little seven year old.



This is one of my favs, and one that needed no editing. Love it!















I love how the sun is shining through the crack in these shots, but they aren't as sharp as I would have liked for them to be. She is hamming it up though, isn't she?!









Love this sweet little face! Especially those freckles!





More ham!





Sassafras!











This is another one of my favs for the day! I love it! This one also needed no editing.

Love this sweet little seven year old! And learning how to work my camera!

Practice, practice, practice

Tonight our photography class met downtown and practiced shooting in manual mode. I know......whoever thought I could figure this out?! Of course our instructor was right there helping us, but I think it is starting to click, and it is soooooo much fun learning how to work my camera. On our first night of class, our instructor asked who had ever shot in any mode besides auto. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one that hadn't. In fact, no one had. Stephanie and I even laughed about how the only time we had shot in anything other than auto was when the dial had been accidentally turned, and as soon as we realized it, we immediately turned it back. He told us that our cameras are too nice to just use as a point and shoot. So true! So we met on the corner of Broad and Ryan and took these pictures.









So much fun!