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 43 in Pictures

It is Monday evening.  Hurricane Sandy is upon us now.  It has been raining almost non-stop since yesterday.  The strong winds are just arriving and we are bracing ourselves, praying we don't lose power (or if we do, we don't lose it for long).  Since we are in Western Pennsylvania, we don't expect to have too much damage - at least not nearly as much as our neighbors to the east. But the powers that be are predicting wide-spread power outages due to trees pulling down power lines.  The kids have a two-hour school delay tomorrow and are hoping school gets cancelled altogether.  We are keeping all those affected by this hurricane in our prayers!

On a lighter note, my new laptop is almost up to speed.  There are still some things I would like to transfer from my old laptop, if I could only get it to turn on.  I try it several times a day - no luck yet.  But I'm not giving up.  One of these times it will work.

Aside from having a cold this past week and really starting to feel human again on Thursday, not much happened around here.  The weather was gorgeous all week, which made it even harder to be sick.  Thankfully I was able to get out and enjoy the warmer temps and sunshine on Thursday and Friday.

Here's what last week looked like in pictures ...
{Sunday}

My new laptop was delivered on Saturday, but I was on my way out the door when it got here, so I didn't get a picture that day.

{Monday}

Even though I wasn't feeling great because of the cold I had, the kids and I went to a local park where I managed to get a picture of them together.  It's not the greatest, but at least it's something.

{Tuesday}

After we played in the leaves for a while, Alex posed for me with his pumpkin.

{Wednesday}

Picked up some Indian Corn and mini pumpkin candies today.

{Thursday}

Starting to feel human again so the kids and I went to a local farm.  We had fun playing in their corn maze.  Keira took this pic of me to prove I was there.  :)

{Friday}

I went to Living Treasures to get one last peek at the baby leopards before they get moved to another zoo.  I didn't get to see them since they were hiding, but I did get treated with some up-close views of the lions.

{Saturday}

The only photo I took this day - for yesterday's Scavenger Hunt.

I almost forgot to include my favorite photo for October.

I really had a hard time choosing a favorite for October because I took LOADS of pictures, but I kept coming back to this one.  This is totally not my normal style, but I love this hazy photo of Natasha.  Especially since I was able to achieve it IN CAMERA, not in post processing.

That's it for me.  I will really have to push myself this week to take pictures.  Cold, rainy weather zaps me of my photo mojo.  :)

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