Happy Half-Century Mom!!

Happy Happy Birthday Mom! Let's hear it for this 50 year old foxy lady!! We Love You! Here's to another 50 great years!!

My Truck Photo

I've been playing around with HDR photography. Basically you take 3 pictures of the same thing at different exposures...then merge them together with software and tweak the contrast etc... I'm pretty much horrible at it right now....you can goolge HDR photography to see cool ones. After I did all the HDR work to the photo I then found a freebie action that divided the photo into little pieces of paper! Pretty cool looking.....hope you all like it =) - Chad

Yellowjackets!

So as you can tell I'm really diggin photography after 2 whole days of owning a nice camera. I have even decided to take back all the average lenses they sold me and get more serious about this hobby!!.....I chatted it up with Kam, who's a pro at this, and she gave some good tips about lenses,etc... So this is the last pic you will see with these average lenses....IMA go get a nice one =)

-Chad

New Camera and Emme =)

Hey this is Chad blogg'in it up here.....we got a new camera and I have been obsessed with learning photography recently....No more auto-shooting for me, there is too much cool stuff you can do with the camera, prime lenses, and a little photoshop love. Here's a pic of my beautiful girl and her bunny, and the other pic....well let's just say Emme was begging me to take a picture of her on the pottie!

All the Pictures You Could Want

Here's Levi sitting like a big boy

We caught a mouse in the house! ( I shouldn't say "we" really it was Chad and Rick, Deb and I were on the counter)


Golden Girl


Debbie and I


Shaking all the rocks out of Levi! He loves picking up rocks and putting them in his chubby hand and shoving them in his mouth. We were constantly fishing things out of his mouth on this trip!

More Pictures

A date night on the islands (with Chad looking heavenward thinking "This is the Life!")

Jay and Heather at Tiki's

Tyson sitting at his perch in the pool!


The Phillips Men


"Welcome to the Gun Show" Jaxon, 8 yrs.

home again, home again, jiggity jig

Here are the kiddies listening to Papa read them a story during our Sunday "church time." Emme and Hudson didn't sit still for long.


"Mom, have you ever tried this stuff? It's delicious!!!" Levi, 10 mos.




Rick and Debbie with the grandkids!




Just another sunset in Paradise



We went on a horse and buggy tour of a former sugar plantation! It was really cool!


Chad, the kids and I just got back from an awesome Hawaiian vacation with Chad's parents Rick and Debbie and his sister Heather and her family. We were there for 11 days total on the islands of Kauai and Oahu, and and the weather was beautiful!! It was a little tough staying on Oahu since we were in a dinky hotel room with 2 double beds, but hey, I'm not complaining! Thanks for letting us stay with you in your "house" Mamo and Papa! We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yipes! I've been Tagged!

Holy Cow! I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I've posted! Shame, shame. Anyway, Nat tagged me to do a little meme of 8 random things about myself. So here goes:


1. I once drove our little red truck all the way to Nat's piano lesson with the emergency brake on with Gretchen. The weird thing was, Gretch and I could not figure out where the burning smell was coming from, nor could I tell why the truck was driving so slow.......seriously burned the brakes up, that's for sure.

2. I am a spelling freak!! I can't help it; it's almost a disease. I can spot a spelling error a mile away. Of course, now that I've typed this, I'm sure you will find one in this post!!

3. I LOVE guessing games a.k.a. (detective work). I would almost name my next girl Nancy Drew if Chad didn't have something to say about it. I can remember random phone numbers, license plate numbers, other such trivial info that no one really cares about. I used to have a notebook in elementary school where I would write down suspicious peoples license plate numbers, what they were wearing, what was happening in the car, etc. Now that I'm typing this, I sound like a stalker....or at best, a weirdo!

4. My favorite soda is Dr. Pepper, not out of a can, but only out of a fountain.

5.When I was little, I wanted to be a judge or police officer when I grew up. Refer to #3. Gretchen always wanted to be a mom and I thought that was a lame occupation choice. Anybody could be a mom! But as I am finding out....it's a LOT harder than I originally gave credit for! Having little people watching your every move, and shaping and helping mold them to who God intended them to be requires a lot of self discipline for me.

6. My floor is generally always dirty! I can't seem to keep it clean, so I just gave up. :) Please don't eat off my floors.

7. I love reading blogs! That is definitely my favorite thing to do in the mornings! I sit down with my toast and read all about your lives.

8. I am a grandmother at heart. I can't help it! I love floral stuff, house decorating stuff, tourist attractions, museums, being busy...it's just my nature! I think I was born 50 years too late! No wonder I worked in a nursing home...it's where I belong!:)


Now I tag Jessica Custer and Heather Phillips. Let's hear it girls!