Little Snowmen, all in a row....

Glamour at 16....

Pretty sure I'd like to slow the clock down a little bit.  This is my baby.  The youngest of four.  She's turning 16 on Tuesday.  SIXTEEN.  Really?  When did that happen?  I remember the day Mike and I decided we wanted to try to have one more baby.... and the journey to make it happen was not easy.  Pregnancy never came easy for me... but one day God (literally) whispered in my ear that I would hold another one of my own newborns.  I was shocked into silence ....and faith.  And THEN... when I was about 7 months pregnant, I prayed a silly little prayer one day.  Well... not so silly.  It seemed silly at the time and I giggled at myself and kind of apologized to God as I prayed... "if it's at all possible could I have a blonde haired, blue eyed baby?".... God not only answered that silly little prayer, but also one-upped me by starting her eyes blue and changing them to a beautiful green by the time she was two.... oh my goodness.  I know this may all sound quite trivial.  But not to a new baby Christian.  God spoke into my heart that he hears my EVERY prayer.  If he can hear me pray for such a small thing...how much more does he hear my hearts cry for my dearly beloved unsaved family members?  For children being hurt?  For friends I know who are suffering?  Dear God...you are AMAZING...

Enjoy these captures of my beautiful child....and think on how much God loves YOU.....

HO HO HO!

I know you all would enjoy these!

Oh Baby!

What a blessing it is that though I'm far past the age of bearing and raising babies, I still have many opportunities to cuddle, snuggle, and oh, yes, photograph beautiful babies!  Three days old or 14 months old... I love them all!  Here's a peek at my recent endeavors....

I love Bellies!

Some of my favorite sessions are maternity sessions.  Not only do I think pregnant mommies are beautiful, but the idea of the little person inside growing steadily with God's grace and knowing the joy that he/she will bring....ooooh!  Warm fuzzies all over the place!  Here are a few from my last maternity session with Deana and her sweet hubby AJ and their kids.

What I shot this week:

Baby Stella....

Is it Fall already? Oh my!

Oh my goodness, I have been a terrible blogger this fall!  I've been shooting like crazy, as well as taking care of my home and family.  But that's no excuse for abandoning the blog.  My goal is to post weekly photos, even if I don't have much to say verbally.  There's ALWAYS something to say in pictures, right?

And now I'm announcing my 2012 Holiday Mini Shoots! 

Just Joy...

I decided to read back over my blogs from these past few months, and it was really a fun read.  Embarrassing, too... as I realize I've shared alot about my clumsiness, my weaknesses, and struggles.  But I know the best way to be yourself is to be transparent.  That way no one is surprised when they REALLY get to know you, right?  LOL.  

As I was reading my heart swelled up a little with emotion... thinking about the fears and trials I've faced with my family these past few years.  The one unwaivering thing has been my faith that my God would get me through somehow and that He was still present and working on the "problems " in my life.  There were so many times that I didn't just mentally stomp my feet with impatience, but even physically did so (albeit in my bathroom all alone with the vent on so no one could hear me sobbing outloud and crying out! )... Inevitably, the peace of God would overcome me and settle my heart once again and I would KNOW that He heard me and would give me JUST ENOUGH patience to get through.  

This past March, my son finally called us... our family was reunited via the telephone and so much hurt has been healed.  What joy!  Unbeknownst to any of us, there were more trials to come... really big ones.  But now looking back, I can see that my faith has grown, my love for my family is stronger, and the joy in my heart is complete.  

In July, Nicholas came home for the first time in almost 5 years.  Wow.  I made an utter fool of myself at the airport.  I couldn't even photograph... My dear hubby shot video of the reunion, which I will NOT publicly post.  I don't even want to watch it again because it makes me cry all over again.  Actually I'm fighting tears right now just thinking about it!~  Yikes.  For two weeks we had quality family time, and we laughed, and talked and just hung out.  It was so nice just to have Nick's presence in our home again.  Was it all perfect?  No, of course not.... but it was imperfectly perfect.  Our family is made up of imperfect people, but God's love in us is perfect and we all love eachother with God's love.  

I know that none of us knows what the future holds, but we do know for sure that our God will not forsake or leave us.  He's proven himself over and over.  We know that He will give us just enough faith, patience and grace to get through any trials that we face.  Gads, I am so so thankful!!!  

As we face the next few months, with my two girls' boyfriends in Afghanistan, a wedding to plan, and other trials, any who are so inclined, we would welcome your prayers.  Please pray our guys come home safely (in December and January), and for the wedding to come together without a hitch, and for Nicholas to settle and enjoy his new home in Colorado Springs at Fort Carson.  

I'm attaching a few fun photos I was able to get while Nick was home... That was the fastest photo shoot I've ever done, but I'm thankful for what I got! 

Bless all of you, my friends... 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Sunshine in the form of flowers...

I don't really have anything interesting to blog about.... but my amazingly sweet daughter brought home a bouquet of flowers and put them on my windowsill for me to wake up to on Wednesday morning.  She knows I find flower photography captivating and love practicing with my new 105mm Nikkor macro.  So I thought I would share my sunshine with you all... Enjoy....

Once in a blue moon....

Every so often in life, you meet someone who stirs your heart and makes an impact how you see the world.  I would say this has happened to me maybe three times in my life.  Once when I was a young girl, around junior high age.  There was a girl in my class, whom I really didn't know, but who struck me as such a kind hearted, soft-spoken, gentle person.  I never really got to know her... but I remember her first name was Mary.  In later years, after I came to know the Lord, I have often wondered if she was a Christ-follower.  Her heart attitude certainly portrayed Him.  

The second time that I can recall was more of a slow-awakening realization of the beauty of a person's heart.  Any of my current friends who read this will know I'm talking about Missy.  I've never seen anyone embrace life with such joy and hope as she did. She loved EVERYONE.  And as time went on, and she grew closer to the Lord, I was amazed at her transformation and how peaceful and joy-filled she was.  Heaven forbid one should say anything negative in front of Missy... she would always find the bright side of things.  I was one of the worst pessimists when I first got to know her.  She would giggle at me all the time...even wanted to get a shirt for me that said, "I can't"... LOL  Sadly, we all lost her suddenly several years ago, at the age of 42.  But the impact she made on me, and on everyone who's lives she touched, I know lives on today.  

Now, I don't know this third person that well.  Not yet anyway.  But I'm so excited and wait in anticipation to see what the Lord is going to do in her life.  She's only 18.  But she reminds me of Missy... the joy that she spreads around, the way she embraces life, her enthusiasm and love for all, and yet the strength that she exudes.... Wow!  I can only imagine where God will take her.  She gives me hope for the future of our country... if there are even a few like her out there, the world is a much better place.  Cassidy is the senior girl that I had the blessing of photographing this past week.  I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know her this year, and I know God has great plans for her life... 

In saying all that.. I guess I just wanted to give Kudos for all the positive people out there and to share these lovely images of the beautiful Cassidy, in hopes that maybe, just maybe, we would all try to be a little more like these three ladies.  

Blessings! 

Wowsa!  I can't  believe it's been so long since I posted about my horse adventure... For those few who actually follow this blog and want to read it...my apologies.  Life certainly has gotten in the way of my journaling.

Since March, my last blog date, so many things have occurred within my family... quite a few traumatic things, actually, but we have all come through okay, though maybe not unscathed.  Some of us are still licking our wounds, and some of us are still just plugging away trying to get through our trials.  But the most awesome thing is that my family is intact and we are all unified.  Thank you, Lord, for that blessing.

The one constant that I can say I have in my life, besides the love of my husband, children, extended family and friends (lol... that's quite a few more than ONE)... is the joy I feel each time I venture outside to muck, visit, brush or just sit and stare at Solomon, my dream horse.  You have to understand, I did not know I had a dream horse up until I owned him.  I never aspired to be a horsewoman... I was perfectly happy to sit on the sidelines, cheering my husband and daughters on in their escapades.  Apparently, God had/has a different plan for my life than what I have in mind.  THANK GOODNESS!  I think, wait, I know, my plan is much smaller and less adventuresome than His.  God brought Solomon into my life at just the right time.  Even now, after 5 months or so, I still feel utter peace every time I am with him... It has to be from God.

So...on to my latest "adventure"... Last weekend, for the first time, my friend, Sylvia, and I trailered out to my property in McKenna to "play" with our mutual dear friend, Jeanie, and her horses.  Sylvia showed up with her mammoth trailer, and the first thing we noticed was that...ummm... Mike parked my little trailer right by the gate that we usually use to circle around with the trailers.  Being the brave soul that she is, Sylvia managed to pull the trailer onto our lot, circle around, back through two posts with only a few inches on each side to spare, and turn the trailer around so we could go on our adventure.  We were all pretty tickled that we accomplished this with not a man in sight~!  LOL.

So we loaded up Solomon and Double, Sylvia's horse,  and off we went.  Once we were at Jeanie's, we unloaded without incident, and Jeanie went to get her hubby's horse, Indy, to walk... Indy is  a  little more high strung than Solomon... well.... maybe a lot.  As she was walking Indy over, I was just playing a little with Solomon on the line, and I noticed the closer Indy got, the taller Solomon got.  Now Solomon is no small horse.  At 5'3, a 15.2 hand horse is big for me... but when they get "tall"... whew!  His head was WAAAAAY over mine.. I admit I felt a bit intimidated, and stopped all my activity.  I don't think that was the RIGHT thing to do, but I didn't know what else to do. (I talked to Mike later and he counseled me... so next time.... )  Anyhoo.... Eventually we went on a little walk and that was fun, so we decided to play in the round pen.... THIS is where the adventure happened... and the lesson was learned.

I was feeling pretty brave I think... Maybe stupidly brave.  We didn't have a bareback pad, as Annalise forgot to load it for me.  My fault, really, as I should have checked.  Did that stop me from getting on my horse?  Noooooo...... (what?!)  So I cleverly got him to the rail quietly (I was feeling pretty clever), and climbed up and got on...




Well.... the first thing that I realized, was that I forgot to tie the lead rope to the halter, so I had the rope only on one side.  Mistake Number One.

Then I accidentally bumped him with my legs so he started walking before I was ready.  Mistake Number Two.

Then I got nervous and squeezed even tighter, so Solomon thought I wanted a trot, which he did nicely and quietly.  Problem is... I don't know how to trot.  Mistake Number Three.

Then I freaked out inside my head and said out loud, "I don't know how to trot!"... and my inside voice said... GET OFF!  So I put my legs over the side and slid off.  Did I stop my horse first?  Oh no.... Remember I said I was feeling clever?  Well, this wasn't cleverness... this was pure "out of body experience, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just going to get off, I think I'm athletic enough-ness".... So yeah.  I got off my horse, WHILE he was trotting..  Remember how I said he is my dream horse though?  Even though he's a baby, at 3, has barely been ridden, never been trotted with a rider, and had someone get off while in motion... he stopped and stepped away from me immediately, protecting me from being stepped on.... Oh    my    gosh..... I love him so much!  Still, I fell on my bum and got a pretty good bruise.... Was sore for three days.  Mistake Number Four.

But he is so amazing.  I still feel lucky every single day.

Have a great weekend everyone... I'm attaching a new photo of him , after a great  bath (He rolled in the mud immediately after the photos)

My Glass Half Full....

I've learned through the years that there are two ways to look at my life... My glass is either half full, or half empty.   When I look at it as half empty, I find that I'm focusing on the negatives, the have-nots, the what-ifs, the shoulda-woulda-coulda's. Those are the times my heart is heavy, filled with sadness, and/or regret.

But!  When my glass is half full, I'm focusing on all the blessings in my life, the good things I'm seeing, the positive outcomes, hope for the future, and my eyes are on the horizon of what is to come. My heart is full of joy, peace, patience, kindness... oh wait... All the fruits of the Spirit!  (Galatians 5:22-23)

This weekend, we had a grand adventure with our horses... First, early in the morning, I gave my first bath to Solomon. Oh my... I was nervous, but excited to take on this new venture.  Solomon was rock steady as usual, and Mike and Christina did a great job teaching me... My horse had so much mud caked on, it took a full 15 minutes just to wet and rinse him, before we even attempted to use soap.  I feel like next time I will be able to do it by myself... Pretty huge for me.

Onward... Mike let me load Solomon into the horse trailer once... Another new thing for me.  I've never loaded anything but groceries into my truck!  hehe.  It was fun, a little scary, but I think with practice, I could get better.  Solomon had no issues... he's my rock.

Next we trailered all three of the babies (Solomon, 3; Hercules, 4; and Dreamer, 4) out to the property to "walk"... My friends, Sylvia and Paul, came along with their horses, Double and Max.  We met Jeanie and Bob at their house and they let our babies play in the paddock to "get their giggles out", as Jeanie calls it, before attempting a 3 mile walk.  Soon we were all off and running (well, walking) throughout the Highland Meadows neighborhood.  I won't tell you everything we did, but suffice it to say, I learned a lot and faced some challenges, but Solomon and I taught each other a few things and I felt great at the end of the day...

After arriving home, Mike and I discussed the days events, and Mike right away started analyzing himself and the ways he might have failed throughout the day.  It was an eye-opener for me.  I never really realized  how critical of himself he is, and how high his expectations of himself.   God gave me good words of encouragement to say to him... I feel like I saw my husband through different eyes that day.  He has always been my tower of strength, my rock and someone I see as so amazing.  He's smart, strong, capable, kind...etc. etc.  But he does not see himself that way.  I hope that my words helped him to look at himself and his accomplishments in a new way... We talked about stopping and looking at all the good things that happen in an even instead of nitpicking and trying to figure out what we could do better.  Not that there isn't a time or place for that... of course there is.  But if we always focus on what we didn't do, or failed at... where is the joy?

So I feel like God showed me two things today:

1. Am I remembering to look at my glass half full?  Counting my blessings?  Being thankful? Sure there are things in my life that sadden me, that are not reconciled, that I can't fix.  But is that where my focus is?

2. How can I help someone else to change their perspective?  Each day, am I an encouragement to someone who needs it?  Who can I bless today?

Thank you, Lord, for teaching me something new every day!

Mwah!  Have a great week everyone... and enjoy my before and after bath photos, as well as the photos of our babies romping in the paddock...