Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

June 12, 2010

Look out, Kindergarten! Here he comes!

Will graduated from preschool last night. I have mixed feelings. I’ve been counting down the years for all of my kids to finally be in school. It’s kind of a right of passage for a mom. I’m looking forward to having a little more time to pursue the things that I love. But on the other hand, I’m a little sad because the thing I most love, as a mother, is my kids. And I’ll have less time to pursue them than I once did. It’s bittersweet. But I won’t be sad until school starts again in August. For now, I’ll enjoy our summer together.

I put together a slideshow for my fellow preschool parents. I attempted to get at least one picture of each child, but I apologize for anyone I missed. Enjoy!

COUNTRY COTTAGE GRADUATION 2010

Tags: middleton idaho lifestyle photographer, Middleton Idaho portrait photographer
Posted in Families, Fun, lifestyle | No Comments »

June 10, 2010

We’re only into day 7 of summer vacation and the dreaded “B” word has already made it’s appearance. You know which word I’m talking about.

“Mom, I’m so…

BORED!”

And since it’s only day 7 of summer vacation, my arsenal of boredom busters is still well stocked. So I pulled out the “let’s bake something, kids!” suggestion.

Will looked through my cookbooks and after I nixed the jack-o-lantern cookies, Santa Claus cut-outs, and candy cane twists, we all agreed on good old-fashioned brownies from scratch.

That was yesterday. And by this morning they were gone. Not a crumb in sight.

I guess we can check that off our summer to-do list.

How’s your summer going?

Tags: Boise, Boise idaho lifestyle photographer, Idaho portrait photographer
Posted in Fun, family, lifestyle | 4 Comments »

Halloween catch-up

November 3, 2009

In between editing shoots, my Photoshop class assignments, and the crazy week of Halloween, I have not updated this blog with anything other than Photography stuff.

I’m actually in the process of developing a separate blog specifically for photography which I hope to be up and running by Thanksgiving. I miss posting about my regular life and all the blase things that are going on.

Halloween was a success. We have a ton of candy hanging around, and even more wrappers. The candy fairy may have to pay us a visit soon.

Here are some pics of a dead ventriloquist, Charles Bronson, a true Jedi, and Ron Weasley…

collage

Hope you had a fantastic Halloween!

Posted in Fun, Idaho, family, kids | 1 Comment »

i heart faces challenge: Dress-up week

October 26, 2009

Just in time for Halloween!

This was last year’s costume but it makes it’s appearance every so often throughout the year.

You can never get enough Darth, right?

darth

Check out all the other festive photos over at iheartfaces.

Happy Monday!

Tags: Boise, boise idaho portrait photographer
Posted in Fun, kids, photography | 14 Comments »

M plus M equals mmmmmmm….good!

October 22, 2009

When I saw these on Amy Locurto’s blog Living Locurto, I knew I needed to make them for the women I visit each month.

I even had enough left for my kids to munch on after school.

Go check out Amy’s awesome blog for the instructions. She is co-founder of my favorite photography blog iheartfaces. She’s a graphic designer as well as a fabulous photographer and has lots and lots of free downloads on her blog.

I’ve got two shoots this weekend including my very first urban family shoot. I’m super excited and hope to have a sneak peek up in a couple of days.

Happy Weekending!

Tags: idaho photographer, Middleton
Posted in Fun, family | 2 Comments »

The Big Question…

October 21, 2009

What are you going to be for Halloween???

In an attempt to decide, the boys talked me in to going costume shopping yesterday.

So we hit the warehouse and found all kinds of silly and gruesome and frightfully fun things to explore.

collage 1

collage 3

collage 2

I think we’ve got it nailed down now.

We’ll have a ‘true jedi’, one Mr. Ron Weasley, and a toy slayer (whatever that is).

What are you going to be for Halloween???

Posted in Fun, family | 2 Comments »

it’s the great pumpkin(s)!

October 4, 2009

pumpkin

Apparently we have a little green in our thumbs after all.

Our garden yielded 24 pumpkins this year!!!

We harvested yesterday. It was downright cold. I had to put a coat on for the first time this year!

ralf pumpkin

And this is the first time I did not have to BUY cornstalks to decorate the front porch.

house front doorway porch

I made homemade breadsticks and corn chowder and we watched General Conference all day. The only time I set foot outside was to take these pictures.

I LOVE fall!

Tags: boise idaho portrait photographer, meridian idaho portrait photographer, Middleton Idaho portrait photographer, Nampa Idaho portrait photographer
Posted in Fun, family | 9 Comments »

California Trip Day 1 and 1/2

June 25, 2009

Although it was close…I didn’t actually die from 7 days of no carbs.

But I hope to never do that again.

My blog has been neglected, this time, because we were out of town

We just got in last night.

I’m afraid this is going to turn into Travel-Log-Blog this summer with all the trips we have planned. That’s just as well since I’m a little burned out of coming up with intriguing, thought-provoking, clever topics.

What’s that?

You’re right. This blog has never been about intriguing, thought-provoking, clever topics. So why start now?

After deciding spur-of-the-moment to leave a day early, we rushed around like mad washing, packing, and cleaning and we headed off to California last Wednesday. Armed with a gazillion and one DVDs, some junk food, some books, and pillows, we were ready for the 11-hour drive.

After trekking through the sparcity (a made-up word. I think.) of south central Idaho and south east Oregon, we hit Nevada and made a B-line to Reno and all its kitchy glory. My husband had found us “a deal!” online so we could rest from our travel labors and continue on our journey in the morning.

Well, we got what we paid for. Two rooms at the Sands for $35 a night. We only had to shield the kids’ eyes as we waded through the smoky casino to the registration desk and up the elevator to our floor.

As hard as it was to pry ourselves away from the ancient chain-smoking regulars at the slot machines, we set off on the road early the next morning and headed to Tahoe.

Although we lived in the Bay Area for almost 10 years, we had never taken the kids to Lake Tahoe. So we got off on a tangent and spent some time at the lake. It was the perfect day for it.

Just to prove I did actually go on this family trip, here’s a shot of myself I took in the rest room mirror.

One of the things I miss most about living in California is the fresh local produce. We lucked out because there was a farmer’s market down by the lake that day.

We wandered around sampling the delicious California fruit and bought a basket of plump raspberries and a bag of juicy nectarines and plums to fuel the rest of the drive ahead of us. Yum!

Tags: reno, sands, tahoe
Posted in Fun, family, trips | No Comments »

10 Reasons you will never mistake me for Martha, Meg, or Ree…

June 9, 2009

I don’t love cake.

I’d rather have pie or cookies or ice cream but ever since I saw this on Meg’s Whatever blog, I’ve been wanting to make it. I really wanted to whip it out for the last day of school but it was not to be. So I decided to make it for our Family Summer Chore Kick-Off Evening last night. Hey, there had to be SOMETHING sweet to off-set the chore doldrums.

Of course Meg made it look so simple and gorgeous with her photos. So I thought mine would be simple and turn out gorgeous as well. I pulled my camera out to document this simple and gorgeous cake. Bumping around in my mind were visions of Martha Stewart magazine covers and The Pioneer Woman’s gourmet cowboy cuisine posts. I should’ve known better. My camera has no place in my kitchen.

Ten Reason why you will never mistake me for Martha, or Meg, or Ree:

Note to Self for next time I make Happy Cake:

Use room temperature butter
Invest in 4 more cake pans so you don’t find yourself baking all night
Don’t begin baking at 5pm right before dinner
Invest in fresh new Wilton food colors. The gelatinous globs are a bear to mix.
Cut the cake tops off so they will lie flat and your cake will not resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa and you won’t have to resort to using barbeque tools to hold your cake in place.
Keep your my camera far, far away from the kitchen

If you’ve got a hankering for a little sunshine in your day, or for something to make with your kids, give it a try. You can get all instructions on Meg’s blog. She is a daily must read for me. She has some serious photo skillz and has a house I could easily covet (if I were the coveting type).

Happy Tuesday!

Posted in Fun, Me, family | No Comments »

Night Games

June 7, 2009

Despite the rain and the brewing storms (my favorite kind of weather!), the dance went on as scheduled Friday night. Our die-hard neighbors put on a fun family street dance complete with sound equipment, strobe lights, and food. The kids had a great time! A certain someone (who shall remain nameless) rustled up the courage to ask a certain other someone to dance. Twice. All was good in the world that night.

We love going out with friends. It’s so nice to have people you can call up and go out with spur-of-the-moment, which is what we did Saturday night. It was Cosmic Bowling at a local alley so we grabbed a pair of clean socks and headed out for a night of bowling. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been. It showed. But we had a great time! The girls won the first round and the boys won the second.

How was your weekend?

Tags: bowling, street dance
Posted in Fun, country life, family, marriage | No Comments »

Time Flies!…

May 30, 2009

I’m feeling old.

I can’t believe I have a daughter starting high school in the fall. Where does all the time go? I distinctly remember the day, fourteen years ago, when we brought her home from the hospital in all her pink entirety. I was thinking:

“Is she really ours?”

“Now what?”

“What do we do with her?”

“How can we take of her? She’s so helpless.”

Though far from helpless now, we still ask each other:

“What do we do now?”

“What do we say to that?”

“Where do we draw the line?”

A lot has changed since that day many years ago:

She’s taller than me now (yikes!)

She’s acquired three little brothers

Her interests are vast including dance, piano, choir, softball, lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, track, horseback riding, art, cooking, swimming, and tennis

She likes boys (double yikes!)

But some things have remained the same:

She’s wholly independent

She loves to entertain and be the center of attention

She loves kids

She’s fearless

She is persuasive

She is beautiful

She is good…

It’s heartening to watch her grow through the years and see her making more and more of the right choices as she gets older and a bit more experienced and wiser. I think that’s the most rewarding thing for a parent. To see your kids choosing good all on their own.

So, because she has been good , we agreed to a birthday party…

With an outdoor theater

At night

With 30 of her closest friends

BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS!

(triple yikes!)

That was last night and it went off with just one hitch. The wind started to blow halfway through the movie. REALLY hard. We had to batten down the hatches (temporarily nail the movie screen to the siding on the house). Luckily the movie included enough action (for the boys) and young hot actors (for the girls) that the wind did not deter. They watched Forever Strong, ate candy, popcorn, cupcakes, and S’mores, played basketball and did a lot of texting. I think it was a success!

Happy Birthday Maddy! We love you.

Tags: birthday, forever strong, outdoor movie party
Posted in Fun, family | No Comments »

Another Onslaught and a question

May 26, 2009

It was full. There was a birthday. A funeral (poor Peter Rabbit). A lake swim. Potato guns. A rain Storm. Movies. Burgers. Bike riding.

Our Memorial Day weekend in pictures:

Now the question:

What are you doing for end of the year teachers gifts this year???

I need some ideas. Thanks!

Tags: memorial day weekend, potato guns
Posted in Fun, Uncategorized, country life, family | 13 Comments »

Weekend Summary

May 17, 2009

The boys took off on their annual Father-Son Camp-out on Friday afternoon. Porta-potty and all.

Maddy and I enjoyed our “girls only” time and went with some friends to the “big city” to do a little shopping and have a little dinner.

We did too much shopping, ate too much food, stayed up too late, and slept in too long on Saturday morning.

It was fabulous!

We had beautiful weather the entire weekend and spent hours outside.

How was your weekend?

Tags: father son camp out
Posted in Fun, family | No Comments »

May Article

May 14, 2009

A Great Big Thanks to everyone who visited me yesterday for my big SITS Day in the sun!

I am overwhelmed that my little blog received over 1,600 hits yesterday and hundred of comments. I’m working on sending everyone a proper thank you for your visit. I so appreciate it!

The May edition of our small town newspaper came out today. And nope, it’s still not online. And because I want a copy of my monthly articles, I am sticking them on this here blog.

This month’s article is custom written for the good folks who live in our little town. But if you happen to be from a small farming community, you’re sure to appreciate the humor. For security purposes, I’ve changed the name of our town and some of the points of interest. But if you’re from here, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Enjoy!

*************************************************************************************

I must apologize. I missed the deadline to submit my April article. I don’t usually miss that type of thing. All right, I do sometimes. But I had a really good excuse. I upgraded my cell phone and signed up for unlimited texting!

As usual, I’m a little behind on this cell phone stuff. My old phone was consistently on the verge of battery death, stuffed somewhere in the bowels of my purse. On the rare occasion that it did get charged, I had a chorus line of messages from telemarketers waiting to be “deleted“, “saved in the archives” or “replayed“. My friends knew better than to leave a message on my cell phone and definitely knew there was no chance that I was familiar with texting. I was a virtual cellular technology dinosaur.

But as my circle of friends has grown here in Cowpoke, I’m finding that more and more of them are “Texters”. So when my husband suggested that maybe I’d like to get a phone I could text with, I caved.

I spent the last couple of weeks engaged in Texting Proficiency 101. I figured out how to space between words, capitalize letters, and backspace. But I found that it takes up so much time writing out all my sentences with correct spelling, proper grammar and punctuation. My daughter would watch me fumbling around on my miniature keyboard with distain in her eyes.

“Geez, Mom. Why don’t you use abbreviations? It’s so much faster!”

My knowledge of abbreviations was limited to the universal LOL (Laughing Out Loud) and ROFL(Rolling On Floor Laughing). So, as I do with all things unfamiliar, I Googled “texting abbreviations”. A whole new world opened up to me! I made myself a little cheat sheet on a sticky note and stuck it on the back of my phone. I can’t say that it’s any faster for me to un-stick the paper, look up the abbreviation and type it out than it is for me to write out the entire word, but it’s pretty fun.

Included in my list are these fine and useful abbreviations:

G2G         Got to Go
JK         Just Kidding
MTFBWY     May the Force Be With You (trust me, in a house full of Star Wars            fans, it comes in handy)
PLZ         Please
L8R        Later
SRY        Sorry
THNX     Thanks
PUKS        Pick Up Kids
KROS     Kid Reading over Shoulder
IBL         I’ll Be Late
ADL         Article Deadline Looming (Just a little reminder to myself)

As I was thinking about the efficiency of texting abbreviations, I had a thought. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a universal list of abbreviations specifically for our community here in Cowpoke? I present you with my list of Cowpoke Texting Abbreviations:

GV!             Go Vikes!
CTSBST         Can’t Text Stuck Behind Slow Tractor (Please never text while driving. Have your teenage passenger do it for you)
CLSAR        Case Lot Sale at Ridley’s
ABBDTFFBS     At Burger Boy Drive Thru For Fresh Banana Shake
LLIBY         Livestock Loose in Back Yard
CUAHSC         See You at Hunter Safety Class
MBBDCSPFD     Must Be Burn Day Can’t See Past Front Door
4HMAS         4-H Meeting After School
WBHISSB         Wind Blowing Hard I Smell Sugar Beets
JBHCFN         Just Bought Half a Cow From Neighbor

Feel free to write them down on your own sticky note and share them with your “Texting” friends here in town. And if you come up with some of your own, email them to me and I’ll share them in next month’s article. And PLZ keep them clean, because I may have KROS. L8R!

**************************************************************************

Happy Thursday!

Tags: cowpoke, Idaho, texting abbreviations
Posted in Fun, country life, family | No Comments »

Welcome SITStas!

May 12, 2009

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

***********************

White Sand Beaches

***********************

Brad Pitt

***********************

Sleeping In

**************************

Babies

*********************

The Secret is in the Sauce

**********************

are some of my favorite things. So imagine my giddy delight when I:

bumped into Brad in the airport

ate a whole bag of Reese’s

took a surprise trip to Hawaii

slept in until noon

found out I’m pregnant

became today’s featured SITS blogger!!!

***************************

A ginormous WELCOME to my fellow SITstas!!! So glad you stopped by!!! I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing today than bumping into Brad Pitt at the airport meeting new blogging friends!!!

An even more ginormous THANK YOU to Tiffany and Heather for featuring me on their insanely popular site where blogging geeks like me go to meet and greet. Kind of like a support group for blogging addicts where we can get our daily fix of comments. Share and share alike.

So come on in, pull up a hay bale chair and enjoy a glimpse of life here in rural Idaho. And don’t be a stranger. Introduce yourself and I promise, as soon as things settle down here, I’ll come by and share the comment love…

Happy Wednesday!

Tags: SITs
Posted in Fun, Me | No Comments »

May 11, 2009

Holy Cow , did I have fun this weekend!

Baby Hudson is adorable!

I loved getting a taste of living in the Big City.

Visiting old friends was fantastic!

Venturing off the tourist path and into the heart of inner China Town was eye opening! Who knew you could buy live frogs at the meat market?

Mother’s Day brunch at Ashley’s in-laws was relaxing and wonderful.

The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful.

Despite all that, I was happy to come home to my family.

They were equally excited for me to come home so they could show me their surprise(s):

I seem to recall something about being on the fence? I guess we toppled off it finally. Surprise. Surprise.

Happy Belated Monday!

Tags: babies, bunnies, friends, San Francisco
Posted in Fun, Me, country life, family, kids | No Comments »

photoSHOPPING SPREE!

May 6, 2009

Thanks for the kudos on my pictures in the last post!

Remember back when I made New Year’s Resolutions? Yeah, I didn’t think so. It was awhile ago. On my list was improving my photo skills. Well, I’ve been doing a little research, a little mooching tips off others (thanks Sherine and Becky), and watching “expert photographers” on Youtube. All in preparation for my solo trip to see meet my newest nephew this weekend.

While I’m nowhere near proficient in manual mode, I am working hard to improve. My goal is to avoid shooting in Auto mode and to rarely use a flash.

In the meantime, I LOVE Photoshop Elements! It’s a ton of fun to use and makes my mediocre pictures look fabulous.

See for yourself. The first picture is straight out of the camera. The second is made to look like pictures from the 70s. The third picture is an action called Orton.

I’m excited to take lots of pictures of little Hudson and use a little Photoshop Magic on them.

Still loving the rain. It’s wet and green and warm and smells wonderful. So happy to leave these days behind… for awhile anyway.

Happy Wednesday!

Tags: photography, photoshop Elements
Posted in Fun, Me, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Rainy Weekend

May 3, 2009

I LOVE the rain!

Tags: rain, weekend
Posted in Fun, family | No Comments »

Oh NUTS!

April 27, 2009

Not bad on the guessing:

jenjen said:

Hmmmm, I don’t know if I want to guess… Does it involve livestock???

Yes, in fact it does. How did you know.

H.K. said:

It looks like they’re at a construction site….so, they found abandoned little kittens or weird looking bugs? Or maybe a buried treasure- if there is, can you share the loot? :0)

No kittens or I’d have a new addition to the family. I don’t think you could get grown men up that early on a Saturday to look at bugs no matter how weird they were. Buried treasure? Yes, come to think of it, they did find some buried “nuggets” that day. I don’t think you’d be interested in this particular bounty.

Bruce said:

Hmm, four tough guys and a kid to help… I’m just happy that Rolf had sore muscles today too!

He did but also said, and I quote: “That was one of the funnest thing I have ever done!” Not sure that’s proper grammar but hey, English IS his third language after all.

Mel said:

I’m guessing they’re starting on your chicken coop?!

Oh Mel! Don’t I wish. Apparently the garden takes precedence to the coop right now. I know, Lame.

Jeff said:

That had better not be the septic tank.

No worries. We have become intimately familiar with the “ins and outs” of our fine septic tank capabilities. It’s all good.

Shally said:

Sheep Shaving.

While that would definitely warrant its own barrage of photos, you are close but not close enough. But triple points for using /sh/ so many times!

honeysuckle said:

Does it have anything to do with a fence? Second guess, septic tank. Are you going to tell us?

Gosh, what is it with the septic tank? One catastrophic explosion with guests in town and now my reputation is “in the tank”! Yes, I will tell all, keep scrolling, Mom but you may want to shield your eyes.

Lorena said:

I think I know what it was, and I’m not quite sure how you’re going to get this across to your audience!

I think you DO know what it is. And I’m not afraid to let it “all hang out” on the blog.

Amanda Jones said:

I have no idea… but that is a funny picture! I can’t wait to hear what it was!

You shall wait no longer…