You Capture- Favorites

This week for You Capture we are to post our favorite pics of the week.  I think I already posted many of them on my Halloween posts here and here, but I did find a few more favorites I had left out.

A shot of Joey's favorite bird, the Cedar Waxwing.  Love the little red dot on his wing and the yellow tips of his tale. I had to add this pic to my For The Birds post since it is such a nice close up. 

 Another shot of a wild Lake Michigan.

 Grace all snuggled up in daddy's sweatshirt early one morning.

 Our front yard all prepped for trick or treaters.

Holding On

The snow flurries of the last couple of days have melted and this weekend the temperatures are going to be warmer again.  I can promise you that I will be soaking up as much fall weather as I can.  I'm holding on to fall for dear life.

Todd is going up north again for the weekend.  He was up last weekend to check on the progress of the garage being built and he will be up all week next week for deer hunting.  This weekend trip is for his deer hunting prep.  Our whole family was supposed to go up with him (since the boys would probably have massive fits if he was gone for three weekends in a row) but when I found out that there is a foot of snow up north my plans changed.

Instead, Todd will be taking the boys up with him and Grace and I are hanging at home.  I just can't be around that much snow yet.  Honestly, I don't know when I'll be ready for snow but certainly not right now. And not when I can be here enjoying fall.   The boys, on the other hand, are thrilled to go up north and frolic in the snow. 

I'll miss all my men (part of me thinks I should just bite the bullet and go anyway) but it will be nice spending some time with my girl. 

And hopefully this will not be the last weekend of lovely fall weather.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you to all of our veterans.  We can never repay you.

If you have a moment please read this firsthand account of a day in the life of a soldier.  Thank you!

And on a side note, Happy 11-11-11!!!!!!!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli



There He Goes

Yesterday it was Ben's turn to start his school year.  We took the obligatory picture by the front door and then we were off. 

I constantly forget that Ben is only 4 years old.  He does such a good job keeping up with his older brothers that I think I often expect too much from him.  Watching him walk into his brand new school for the first time reminded me how little he still is. 

It was a short day.  The first two school days are only an hour long so that the kids can get used to their teachers and new friends without a three hour day keeping them from their parents.  I think Ben would have preferred the three hour day.  He had a blast.

Today went just as smoothly.  He waved me out of the room and went about his way.  I am happy to report that even though he adores his new class he was still ecstatic to see me and ran up and gave me a big hug.  Can't ask for more than that.

Back to School

You Capture: White

I love white. Pure, clean, soft white.  In trying to capture white this week I realized I don't have a whole lot of white around my house.  With four kids a whole lot of white just isn't smart.  Still, I love white.

To me, white is:

Poofy clouds

One of my favorite childhood stuffed animals that is now one of my kids' favorites

For some reason white makes me think of Grace

Beautiful flowers

 I find white flowers to be especially gorgeous this time of year

 But my favorite white around the house these days is my Molly.  Good dog.

So, tell me.  What does white mean to you?

You Capture- "Trees, Beautiful Flowers, and Little Cute Babies

This week's theme was chosen by Beth's little cutie, Noah.  He thought we should all capture "trees, beautiful flowers, and little, cute babies."  Sounds perfect to me! 

Let's start out with the little, cute babies. 

This is my baby holding her baby.  She just loves to play mama.  One of my many nicknames for her is "Lil mama".  She walks around the house cradling her baby in her arms.  You should see her proud little face when I declare, "What a good mumma you are!"

Next, we are on to trees.  I've posted pics of this tree before. It is one of my favorite trees.  I love how it looks a bit tropical.  It provides enough shade to keep us cool,

and still filters enough sunlight onto my flowers beneath it.  Love this tree. 

Now we move on to flowers.  And boy, do I have flowers.  I thought my garden was in full bloom last month, but it just keeps gettin' bloomier.  Now that my hydrangeas are bloomin' my front porch never looked so good.

I have blue hydrangeas.

Bright pink hydrangeas.

And light purple hydrangeas.  Ooooo.

I've got all different colored flowers in my front garden too.  Bright red flowers that we like to call "fireworks".

Cheery yellow day lilies.

Hot pink and white impatients.

Tiny, delicate, white flowers.

Pink petunias.

Red velvet petunias.

More yellow day lilies.

And one of my favorite fuzzy reds. 

It has been a lot of work keeping my flowers well hydrated in this heat, but it is well worth it.  I loves me some flowers. 



You Capture- Summertime

Last night was one of the worst nights in recent memory.  As I mentioned in my previous post Grace has been dealing with a fever and upset tummy.  We thought she was on the mend when she was eating well and being silly.  Then it all took a turn for the worse last night at about 11:30 when she threw up in her bed.  After that she couldn't keep any medicine down and her temperature climbed from 103.2 to 105.8.  She was up all night moaning and crying.  I felt so helpless and so scared.  The only reason I didn't immediately rush her to the ER (though I did get dressed twice thinking I would take her in) was because I have a history of extremely high temperatures, and she was pretty with it and talking.  Finally at 3:30 I forced some more medicine down her and she kept it in.  She fell asleep at 4:30 and first thing in the morning we took her to the doctor.  Seems to be nothing but a nasty little virus, which is good.  After I got her back home this morning her temperature didn't go over 100.3 and she was interested in food and play again. Hopefully, this time she really is turning the corner on this nasty virus.

All night long I thought about the parents who have a child with cancer or some other serious illness and I can't imagine how gut wrenching that is to watch your child go through.  One night of agony and worry was enough to knock me off my feet.  As I prayed for Grace all night long I included all suffering kids and their parents in my prayers too.

Anyway, I had planned to participate in You Capture this week as the theme is Summertime.  We have definitely been soaking up as much summer as we can and enjoying every minute (minus the virus of course).  As soon as all the kids are healthy again (I'm hoping this virus does not spread like wildfire through our house) we will resume our normal summer activities of sprinkler parks, long walks, swimming, fishing, playing, riding bikes, visits to the lake, diggin in the sand, and whatever else we can think of.  This summer has been full of fun.

Full of:

Bare feet and popsicles with great friends.

Fishing all day with daddy.

 Campfires and making smores.

 Professional  smore eating.

 First time smore eating.

 And second time smore eating.

 Intermediate smore eating.

 Smore eating for beginners.

 There has been lots of swimming.

 And floating.

 And evenings full of exhausted children (and adults).

Yep.  It's been a good summer so far.  I hope it continues.