Pure Yumminess!

One bowl of chocolate, peanut butter Chex Mix.....deeeelicious!  And so easy to make.

Do your family a favor and make some of this right away!  The recipe is on the back of the Chex cereal box.

A Good Day for a Nap

In true Weimaraner style, Milo has taken this little tiny door mat for himself.  Weims have a knack for finding the softest spot closest to their human, and curling up or contorting their body in any way necessary to fit on that spot.  This little door mat is Milo's new favorite spot.  He's got the right idea though.  It's cold and gloomy outside which makes it a perfect day for a nap.

The Family Picture

I really love taking family pictures.  Why?  Every family is so different.  With different dynamics, different personalities, and different looks, I love the challenge of capturing everyone's personality and the way they interact with each other in one photo.  It's actually easier for me to capture that in families that I don't know already.  I think it's because I can take an objective look at them and see almost instantly how they all relate to each other.  My favorite kind of family picture is the silly picture.  You can tell how much fun a family has together by how quickly they all pile on when I suggest doing something crazy and a little out of the ordinary for a picture.

I know the family in the picture above because they're my family.  They're my husband's family, or half of it, to be more specific.  I'm always honored to be asked to take a family picture.  And sometimes I'm not asked, I just volunteer to do it because I know that 1, 10, or 50 years from now we're all going to look back and be so happy we took the time to take the picture.

With the holiday season in full swing, I encourage you all to take the time to take the picture.  It doesn't matter how polished your photography skills are or are not, just take the pictures.  Trust me, you'll be happy you did.  One of my favorite things to do as an adult, is to look at all the slide pictures my dad took when I was a child.  A stroll down memory lane always puts me in a good mood....even if there are significantly more pictures of my brother than of me.  You know how it is, the oldest child always has the most pictures and the youngest child only has a few, fuzzy snapshots of them wearing hand-me-down boys clothing with their hair wild and unkept and their faces dirty from playing in the mud.  Who am I kidding, my dad didn't take fuzzy snapshots.  He took good snapshots....of my brother.  Anyway, I leave you with these words.  Take the time to take the pictures.  And then share them.

My First Buck!

I had a great time this past weekend during the opening of rifle deer season here in Nebraska.  I went hunting bright and early Saturday morning with my hubby.  There's something so nice about sitting on a grassy hill with my husband, with no one around but us and the cows.  We had hoped there would be deer around too but there weren't.  Nevertheless, we sat there for 2 hours, whispering, watching, and finally shivering.  Once I started shivering enough we went back to my in-laws house for a nice breakfast followed by more hunting.

My father-in-law had originally said we weren't going to hunt all day, only in the morning and evening.  But of course, as soon as enough men got together in the house, suddenly everything changed and the plans were now to hunt all day.  This time I went out with my sister-in-law though.  We drove to a spot she thought would be good and as soon as we pulled up, there was a buck and a doe staring at us through the tall grass.  I kind of felt like we were interrupting something and maybe we should leave.  But I got over that feeling quickly and after much fumbling with the bullets and my gun, I finally got out of the truck and promptly scared the deer away.  They didn't go far though so we tracked them down.

In my haste to get a shot, I didn't get into a very good shooting position.  I just squatted down, lifted my gun up, looked through my scope and saw that I had a great opportunity.  I quickly cranked up the zoom on my scope, trained the gun on the deer's vitals and squeezed my trigger.  As soon as I pulled the trigger, I felt the gun throw my shoulder back in the most violent way I'd ever experienced.  Followed immediately by the scope hitting me in the face right above my eye!  I had scoped myself!  I couldn't believe it.  I looked at my sister-in-law and said, "Am I bleeding?"  "No," she said.  "Ok good.  Did I hit him?"  "Ya, I'm pretty sure you did," she said.  At which point we both squeaked and squealed with excitement like girls do when they're out hunting and one of them gets a buck.

Now let's skip to the good part and get to the pictures.  Here's my goofy picture taken immediately after finding the buck.

And here's my picture after going home and putting makeup on so I could look good in my picture with the deer.  I AM still a girl after all and looking good in pictures is always a priority!

A special thanks to my hubby for always making sure I have the best gun and ammunition available.  He hand loads all my bullets so they're exactly what I need for the situation.  And he taught me how to shoot, so without him, I wouldn't be enjoying this wonderful sport.  Nor would I be getting up at 5 a.m. in the freezing cold to go out and sit on a hill waiting for an animal to happen along!  But really, it's fun and I'm super excited to have taken my first buck!

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!

Here's the Deal

Ok, my life has been soooo busy for the last several months.  This project has been on my mind but I haven't been able to focus on photography at all.  We moved from our home in Texas to Nebraska.  We don't have a house here yet and are currently in the process of looking for one.  When I don't feel settled, I can't focus on my creative outlet of photography.  So after much thought, I've decided that this project isn't one I'm going to be able to complete.  I love this blog and I want to continue it.  I'm so grateful for all of my readers.  But I'm going to change it's purpose.  From now on, this blog will be to showcase my photography, talk about any projects that are going on in my life, rant and rave about whatever I choose, and pretty much will just be a place for me to free my thoughts.  It's basically the same as it has always been but I'll no longer be tied to posting a picture every day.

Thank you so much to everyone who followed me for the first 7 months of the year.  I hope you'll still continue to enjoy this blog as much as I do.

Happy Birthday Baby!

I've been promising a good friend of mine for quite a while now that I would take pictures of her son on his first birthday.  I'm so glad I did because I've been terrible lately about taking pictures because we've been so busy getting ready to move.  My girlfriend had the great idea of getting some pictures of her son eating his birthday cake.  So first we took the nice, cute, clean pictures.  Then we stripped him down and gave him a cake!

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Paw It Forward

Milo received some wonderful gifts in the mail today from his friends June & Haze and their weima-mama Kelly Ann.  June is world famous for her blog called Hot Dog Junie.  She asked for volunteers a while back for Paw It Forward.  So we raised our paw and signed up.  June & Haze sent us some wonderful gifts and now it's our turn to Paw It Forward.  More details on that at the end.  First, pictures!

(These are pictures 224-233 for anyone who's counting;)

"Allright mom, I'm outta here!  I'm tired of posing for silly pictures!"

"Oooo, what's all this?"

"This ball looks pretty cool!"

"Hmmm, it tastes pretty good but I can't seem to eat it."

"Let me try again."

"It's official, it's not edible.  Maybe I should check out some of the other treats."

"Fine, just one picture with my cool new collar.  But I'm NOT looking at the camera!"

"Now we're talking, something I can eat!  C'mon Mom, just give me the treat already."

"I really want this but mom hasn't told me ok yet!"

"Yes!  Finally!  The good stuff!"

Thank you June, Haze and Kelly Ann for all the delicious treats!  Milo loved them and is staring at me as I type demanding more of that duck & potato treat!  Now for us to Paw It Forward.  If you want to sign up, here's how it works:  

1.  Comment on this blog post saying that you want to play.  Then e-mail me with your name and address.

2.  Once you get your package, you MUST blog about your gifts!  If you don't have a blog already, you'll be required to enter the blogosphere and start blogging!

3.  In your own blog post, ask for 3 of your friends to play so we can keep pawing it forward.

Ok, first three to enter get to play!  Ready, GO!

Hodge Podge

We have been so busy lately because we are preparing to move.  This move came out of the blue for us and we have very little time to get ready.  So while I'm trying to keep up with my pictures, I'm not doing very well!  Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

This picture is a little snake we found on our hunting lease after the fire.  It was terrified here so it curled up into a little ball.  I'm not sure what kind of snake it was, but we found out that Milo's snake breaking definitely did NOT work!  He was in no way trying to avoid this snake.  Instead, he thought it would be a great idea to go pick it up :o  I was shocked and horrified and so thankful this wasn't a rattler.

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 My son is waiting to launch this rocket.  We've had them all summer but haven't been able to use them for fear of starting a fire.  Now that everything is already burnt, we figured it would be ok to launch the rockets.

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 And here's their uncle who is equally excited about launching these rockets!

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 And here's the hubby laughing because the rocket launch went awry and the rocket completely fell apart in the air!

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 My youngest son is all packed up and ready for the move!

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Goodbye!

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The Fire

Last week we had a fire at the land we lease for hunting.  Thankfully we weren't even in town much less at the lease at the time of the fire.  When we went to check out the land a few days later, this is what we found.

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And apparently either Milo got in a fight with a burnt tree, or he's become a firefighter and was in the thick of the battle when he got this soot all over his face.

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Sea World Fun!

As a special treat for our family after the deployment, we planned a little trip to Sea World.  Let me tell you, if you have the chance to go, you definitely need to go!  We had so much fun!  I need to thank Sea World because they give all military members and their families one free day pass per year to their parks.  That saved us a bunch of money and allowed us to enjoy a second day there.  I only took pictures with my phone while I was there because it's Sea World and that means you're bound to get splashed by a killer whale at least once.  Since my cell phone fit nicely into a little plastic baggy, that made it my camera of choice for the trip.

Here's a not so fantastic photo of some beautiful, amazing creatures:

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Here's what little boys are able to con their daddy into buying them when he's been gone half the year:

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And here is Daddy pretending to be angry about little boys conning him out of his money:)  

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Disclaimer:  Yes, he looks scary and mean but I promise he was just pretending for the picture.  He's really a teddy bear.  Or a grizzly bear, it really depends on the day;)

A Silhouette

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I know I'm dreadfully behind with my pictures.  But I'm enjoying my husband being home:)  And so are the boys.  Here's a picture from tonight of my oldest son doing some manly activities with his dad.  

Good to be Back

This little road trip to pick up my hubby took what seemed like forever.  I took some time to see family before I picked him up and then we made several stops on the way home.  So I feel like I've been on the road for weeks.  It's good to be home.  Now without further ado, pictures I took along the way.

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A trip to South Dakota wouldn't be complete without a visit to Mt. Rushmore.  My boys begged me to take them there and much to my surprise, they loved it and were so excited to see it.  Their squeals of excitement when they first spotted it were so fun.

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And any trip to Mt. Rushmore wouldn't be complete without a visit to the ice cream shop.  It was pretty funny to hear everyone laughing as we walked past them saying things like, "That ice cream cone is bigger than that kid!"

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One of my favorite bridges in the Black Hills.  This pictured doesn't do it justice.

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A little piece of land we own.  It's so nice to see the pond full and the grass green.  When we first bought the land it was in a drought and was covered in cactus and not much else.  We had a vision though and now I see it coming to fruition.  The next step is to plant a little orchard by the pond.

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A little dragonfly kept landing nearby and teasing me.  Finally he stood still long enough for me to get a picture.