My Camera, My Love, I've Missed You!

It feels like an eternity since I've picked up my camera.  I've been unpacking boxes, getting my oldest son settled in a new school, unpacking more boxes, cleaning the new house, painting the new house, wondering why I have so many boxes left to unpack still....

Yesterday I found myself craving the opportunity to pick up my camera and be creative.  So I grabbed my camera and my youngest son and set out to find some beautiful fall foliage worthy of a picture.  But it's too late.  I missed the peak of the fall colors already.  I headed back home a little bit dejected and remembering all the work I had to do.  That work included making chicken noodle soup since the kids and I have been sick for a week now.

Resigning myself to my house work for the day, I suddenly realized I didn't have to give up on my photos for the day just because I was cooking.  One look at my beautifully roasted hens quickly inspired me to not only make the best chicken soup I could, but to also photograph the beautiful ingredients.  So here you have it, two wonderfully roasted hens courtesy of my new convection oven that makes me oh-so-happy!

Some beautiful veggies sauteing in a pan waiting to be tossed into the stock pot with the chicken bones:

And my 4 year old son keeping a careful watch on everything in the pot.  He anxiously stood there watching it cook for a while until I told him it had to cook for 4 hours.  Then he abandoned his post.

At the end of the day, I remembered that I can enjoy taking pictures anywhere.  And I also realized that I don't want it to be so long before I pick up my camera again.  I truly enjoy taking pictures and I need to make time for it in my life.

Fall & Milo

I absolutely love all the falling leaves and the gorgeous fall colors right now.  And what I love even more, is that I live in a place where we actually have the fall season! With all the leaves on the ground, in my undying effort to be a fun mom, I've been raking up big leaf piles for the boys to play in.  And today I let Milo get in on the fun too.

He's such a good, well behaved dog.  He jumped right into the pile and laid down when I asked him to.  He knew there wouldn't be any fun until Mom got her nice picture!

And then the fun began!

My youngest son screamed with glee when he threw the leaves in the air and Milo started trying to catch them.

I tried to get some pictures of my boys too, but our pile ended up being so tall that I could barely see them as they ran, jumped and then disappeared in it.  I almost, almost channeled my inner child and jumped into the pile myself.  But then my camera hanging around my neck quickly squashed that childish urge:)

Pumpkin Time!

I have never carved anything this ambitious before.  But when you have kids, you hate to let them down.  So when my 6 year old asked me to carve a B-1 Bomber for him into his pumpkin for him, I had to get the creative juices flowing!  This is my first attempt and it's not too bad if I do say so myself:)  I'm looking forward to carving another version tomorrow night for my 4 year old.

Take Me Hunting, Grandpa

I don't often take silhouettes but as we were out hunting tonight, I looked up and through the harsh sun I could barely make out my youngest son walking with his grandpa.  I knew instantly that I had to capture the moment.

Point!

I snapped this picture of Milo this evening while we were out in search of the grouse again.  The birds were about 50 yards away, hence the head high point.

A Great Hunt!

We took Milo out grouse hunting again this morning.  And boy did we find the grouse!  We found a covey of 50 or more grouse in an alfalfa field.  I have never in my life seen that many grouse together in one place.  It was so much fun and Milo had several beeeea-utiful points.  I handled Milo, my husband was the gunner, and my kids were the overly excited cheerleaders:)  What a great start to the day.

Grouse Hunting!

One of the best things about living in Nebraska now is the opportunity for upland bird hunting.  As much as we truly enjoyed Texas while we were there, we really missed upland hunting.  So today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went out for a quick grouse hunt.  We discovered the joy of hunting with dogs about 8 years ago and now we won't even consider hunting without them.  The joy of watching the dogs work is like nothing else.  Milo hasn't been able to stretch his legs and use his nose like this in a long time.  So he thoroughly enjoyed todays hunt and was a lot of fun to watch.  Here is a series of quick shots I took as he crossed in front of me.

Today was more of an exploration and less of a hunt.  We were checking out new ground and unfortunately didn't find any grouse.  But it wasn't for a lack of good working dogs.  Here's a picture of me with Milo, my father-in-law's German Short Haired Pointer named Jagger, and my sister-in-law's German Short Hair named Coda.  All great dogs!

I love this last picture because Jagger is distracted by a bird that flew overhead:)  I had a great time getting out there with my family and the dogs today.  I'm definitely going to enjoy the next few years and all the hunting opportunities!