Memories, Dreams, and Reflections 2012

Happy New Year!  I hope 2013 brings you an abundance of God's blessings!  That you don't keep all to yourself but pass along to others as well!

Before moving forward, it is often good to look back.  Ashley gives us that opportunity with her Memories, Dreams, and Reflections photo challenge.  It is always hard to narrow down just one photo to go with each category, but I finally managed it.

So without further ado, here's my look back at 2012 ... 

{me}

Yep, that's me getting crispy on a beach watching my babies play in the water.  :)

{i love you}

I had Keira take a photo of Doug and me on our 16th wedding anniversary in November.

{still laughing}

Our sweet Honey was entranced by an abandoned worm nest in the neighbor's tree.  She stared at it, growled at it, and jumped up at it for quite some time.  It still makes me chuckle to look at these pictures.

{winter wonderland}

This was actually just taken on Saturday.  Yep, we're in the middle of a winter wonderland right now.

{birthday}

We took pictures for Keira's 14th birthday a few weeks late.  But we had a lot of fun when we finally did.

{friends}

Parades are always more fun when shared with friends.

{i was inspired}

I can't name exactly who inspired this hazy photo, but I was excited to capture it (in camera, not in processing).

{spring fever}

The trees were absolutely gorgeous in the spring.

{travel or vacation}

We took a day - before school started back up - to have some fun at the beach.

{summer days}

Our summers are pretty laid back - swimming, playing at the park, or looking for crayfish in a local creek.

{a day in my life}

I actually did a blog post back in January on a typical day in my life.  Back when Alex was still in afternoon Kindergarten and was my buddy each morning.  This is one of the collages I made.

{all smiles}

Alex wanted a picture with his new Polar Express cargo car.  He was all smiles after getting it.

{autumn harvest}

We know it is fall when we get to attend our county's annual farm tour.

{family or home}

Taken on New Year's Eve ... me and the kiddos celebrating at home.  We couldn't talk Daddy into getting in the picture with us.

{celebrate!}

Alex and I celebrated Independence Day in Children's Hospital this year.  However, we had a really good view of the city's fireworks display.

{let's do it again}

This was a hard prompt because many of the things we did, photography wasn't allowed.  But we did squeeze in a show (How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular) this summer - between the hospital stay and school starting - and we look forward to going to another one.

{i miss you}

My nephew, Kyle, is a marine and is currently stationed in California.  We did get to see him for Christmas this year though.

{beautiful}

One of the senior photo shoots I did this fall was of Anna.  She is a beautiful girl, inside and out.

{dress up}

My friend, Laura, took this picture.  She had Keira and Nick over for a few hours during the time Alex and I were in Children's Hospital.  For some reason when our kids get together, they end up playing dress up.  :)

{macro}

For some reason this was the first time I took a macro shot of one of the Monarch butterflies we raise each summer.

{holidays}

We host the holidays at our house now.  Which means I do most of the work, although I don't mind.  My mom usually helps out a lot and this year at Thanksgiving I wanted to be sure to document that.  Thanks, Mom!

{my favorite}

Another tough one.  How do you pick ONE favorite photo from among thousands?!?!

I picked this one because it is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity - to see the Penguins on Parade at the zoo.

{don't ever change}

My baby girl is growing into a beautiful, smart young lady.

{just because ... so there!}

We had the privilege of seeing the sweet baby gorilla that was born at the zoo this past February.  Unfortunately he only lived about 3 months, which makes this photo even more precious to me.

{hopes and dreams}

I have so many hopes and dreams for my babies.  Too many to list here.  But one for certain ... that they continue to grow strong in the Lord.

Happy New Year!

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Week 37 in Photos

Another week done!  Another week full of painting my friend's house.  A week of vacation for my husband.  Another week filled with critters, busyness, and even some fun!

{Sunday}

Keira and I attended a butterfly release at a local conservancy that was pretty cool.  When we left, this adult swallowtail caterpillar came home with us.  A little girl had found him and gave him to us to raise.  Yay!  I'm so excited!

{Monday}

Monday evening rolled around (after a day full of painting) and I realized I hadn't photographed anything yet.  So I walked around outside and noticed the sunlight on our hibiscus bush.

{Tuesday}

Doug and I spent the day together.  We visited Living Treasures so I could finally see the baby leopards.  Then we went for a bike ride and out to lunch.  It was such a nice day.

{Wednesday}

Late Tuesday night I noticed our caterpillar making this harness.  His head was moving back and forth like he was sewing.  It was pretty cool.  I read up on it and this is his way of getting ready to pupate.  I was hoping to see him form his chrysalis but he was sneaky and did it while I was out of the house Thursday morning - after hanging like this for about 36 hours.

{Thursday}

My friend, Laura, who I've been helping paint, has two adorable kids, Jason and Liza.  I took them for a couple hours Thursday afternoon so the carpet cleaners could come to their new home.  Turns out they arrived early and were already done by the time I got there.  But I took the kids anyway.  We went to a park that was new to them and had a blast.  In these photos Jason is being a pirate and Liza is taking a break from playing.  When I dropped them off, both kids hugged me and Jason said, "Bye, Kim!  See you the next time you come get us to take us to the park!"  Oh boy, I think I'm in trouble.  :)

{Friday}

My husband knows how much I love critters, so when he saw this stick bug, he knew I'd want to take a picture or two (hundred) of it.  :)

{Saturday}

Nick and I went to a Monarch butterfly tagging program this afternoon and can you believe I didn't even take one picture?!  Instead I took this of one of our last sunflowers.

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 09.09.12

First of all, happy birthday to my father-in-law!  We love you, Pap!  Hope you had a wonderful day!

I almost didn't make this week's hunt.  Things have been incredibly busy around here!  I've been helping Laura paint her walls in her new house, I had to take my car to the garage for inspection and a minor repair (which we thought was going to be a bigger repair - praise God it wasn't!), I had several meetings, and our church had their Fall Kickoff this weekend.  And looking ahead to this week, it will be just as busy.  There's some fun stuff thrown in this week too, but still busy.

Anyway, the Scavenger Hunt items this week are: Monochromatic, Starts with the letter ..., Upside down, Hair, and Soft.  And here are my interpretations ...

{monochromatic}

While my car was in the garage, I took advantage of the park that is right along the river.  First I did some interval running, then walked back to the garage to get my camera to see what I could capture.  These hibiscus were HUGE!  And I love the mostly reddish-pink color!

{starts with the letter ...}

We had a busy butterfly week!  We had four emerge from their chrysalis (two females and two males) and we found a recently-emerged male while out gathering milkweed leaves for our hungry caterpillars.  Alex was hanging with the found butterfly while Liza and Jason, Laura's kids, got to enjoy two of the newly emerged ones.  I took the containers to their house since I knew the butterflies would emerge while I was there for the day and I don't like leaving them that long.  (Collage courtesy of Rebecca from Simple as That - I think.)  :)

{upside down}

Monarch caterpillars hang upside down in a J form before shedding their skin for the final time and forming their chrysalis.

{hair}

This photo is from last week.  An outtake from our little back-to-school photo shoot.  Keira's hair kept blowing in her face while attempting this shot.

{soft}

Doug and I went for a ride on the bike trail on Labor Day.  While he was putting the bikes back on the bike rack, I was exploring.  I came across this cat who was feeding her baby kittens.  I assume she was soft.  She wouldn't let me get close enough to find out - she was growling and hissing at me.  So I just snapped a couple pictures and left her be.

So that's it for me.  Next week's items are sponsored by ... ME!  WOOT!  I forgot all about sending this list to Ashley.  Thankfully she keeps pretty good track of this stuff.  :)  Here's what to hunt down this week ...

1) Kiss

2) Askew

3) Fragrant

4) Simple

5) Plant  

I hope you'll play along!  Have a wonderful week!

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Week 7 in pictures

I have been a bit lax in my blogging lately.  Just not feeling all that inspired to do it.  I've managed to get a few posts done, but haven't really been around to visit anyone.  Sorry!  Must be because I'm so looking forward to winter ending, even though we haven't had much of a winter, and I just don't feel like doing much.  Ugh.  Hoping I feel more up to it this week.

Last week after the Valentine's Day party for my son's classroom, I allowed myself some down time.  I read a really good book in two days (review and giveaway coming in the next few days) and I watched a couple movies with the kids (another review and giveaway coming :)).  We had a play date at a friend's house and I enjoyed an evening out with some girl friends.  They are all considerably younger than me, which at first made me feel old, but then made me shift my thinking and I actually felt younger.  Sort of.  I tried not to dwell on the fact that one of the girls there graduated high school in the year that I would have had my 20th high school reunion.  The one I never got an invitation to.  :)

Anyway, the Great Kitchen Remodel is moving along.  Doug made great progress and we bumped up the delivery date of the cabinets.  Yay!  We now have the ceiling, walls, and floor all completed.  Doug moved the range back to the kitchen so I can cook again.  (I was unable to cook for a few days last week).  And he also set the sink back up so I no longer have to wash dishes in the bath tub.  So now we wait.  Although I'd rather be waiting for cabinets than having them made already and not be ready for them.

I did manage to take a photo every day last week, so let's take a look, shall we?


{Sunday}

This sweet little bird was happy to eat from my feeder and I was happy to photograph him from inside my warm house.  :)


{Monday}

Spent some time this afternoon separating M&M's for a game we will play at tomorrow's Valentine's Day party.


{Tuesday}

The lilies in my flower bouquet are starting to open.  This is my submission for Be Inspired and Project 52 - Valentine's Day flowers from my True Love.

     


{Wednesday}

Nick sometimes gets to make up his own spelling practice activity.  He came up with hip-hop spelling where he rapped his words.  I recorded it because he just cracks me up sometimes.  


{Thursday}

Drove past a local reservoir on the way home today to see how frozen it was and got to see all this fog.


{Friday}

I've been told that my eyes are someone's favorite feature.  What do you think?  :)

{Saturday}

My friend, Laura, invited us over for a play date to celebrate her son, Jason's birthday.  The kids had a good time playing together.  Keira got to play dress up with Liza.  It was like she had her very own human doll.  :)


So that was our week.  The kids had Friday and today off of school, so we spent lots of time playing (and they spent lots of time fighting).  And we went to the zoo today since the sun was shining and it was a little warmer.  Hoping to post some photos soon.


Hope you all have a wonderful week!

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