Happy New Year

Have I Mentioned That I Love My New Camera?

I do! I really love my new camera! It is awesome! I don't even know how to use it yet. It will probably take me years to learn everything about it and HOW to really use all those settings.

I am just posting my test pictures because I have to share them somewhere.

My 1 1/2 year old grand son was checking out our ginger bread house that Joey and I had made and it must have smelled good because he ate the tops off some of the trees.

As you can see my glasses are really dirty but I couldn't see that without them...

Aunt She-she did Abby's hair while her daddy fixed my car and her mommy cut down my weed trees.

Joseph has lost his first tooth! Yea! and we have no idea what Tate was getting into behind him.

Jocelyn is serious about getting her picture taken. She has been a very cooperative model while I practice.

Chase has been sick since Christmas and just wanted Mamaw to hold him... does she, yep, but not until after she takes his picture.

Tate didn't want his picture taken but did want to show me Bryce's new toy.

A Very Merry Christmas

I love Christmas!
I love the anticipation, the fun secrets, the shopping (some of it anyway), the joy, the good will toward others, the story's of hope and love and service, the tree and decorations, the presents, the excitement, the stories of Jesus' birth, the love.
We had a wonderful Christmas.


Santa brought Joseph a new bike. He was super excited!

He took off riding right away! Ummm, Joe, no riding in the living room. You will just have to wait until it stops raining to ride.

Well around 5pm it finally stopped raining and off he went. He didn't even seem to notice he had his helmet on backwards.

Only in Arizona in the dead of winter on a rainy day does one venture out to ride a bike with flip flops on.
It was a beautiful early evening.

Christmas is wonderful! And children make it the best ever!

The Getting Ready for Christmas

So in the blog world I am behind. So sorry, but that fits well with my life at the moment. I am not happy about it but am working to improve.
I loved Christmas Eve and other things pre-Christmas and wanted them to be here.

Bryan (my dd, Lindsay's dh) likes to take cinnamon rolls into his guys Christmas Eve morning and since Lindsay wasn't up to making them I went over to their house and got them started for her.

Chase was in his high chair eating donuts and staying out of my way.

Tate was just milling around watching.

Christmas Eve night we traditionally have a dinner and program at my house. This year with Lindsay down and out I felt overwhelmed and canceled, but only until my nieces got word of me not being up to it. Cheryl and the girls made dinner for us all (very sweet of them) it was a wonderfully delicious meal!

Abby came over a little early and mamaw got to enjoy her before the party got started.

Bryce wasn't sure why I was taking pictures, but stopped what he was doing long enough for me to snap a picture of him.

Abby was ready to go home and go to bed even before the program started.

Uncle Randy entertained the little ones.

Chase decided to hide under my rug.

We have a lot of diversity in our family... we all like different kinds of shoes.

Tate and Jocey posed while Erin played her song.

Kristen sitting back and enjoying everyone's songs.

Jocelyn is all about the cousins.

Courtney was teaching Joseph the fine art of technology.

the girls kept Jocey silent

Chase didn't want his picture taken... didn't let that stop me.

Aunt Cheryl read a really nice story and helped Chase follow along.

We all love Cheryl's story.

And the evening was full of beautiful music!!

I am so grateful for my family and loved spending the evening with each one of them!

My New Camera Is Here!

I got my new camera around 9:30 yesterday morning. I was and am soooooo excited! I LOVE this new camera! The first thing I had to do was of course charge the battery but that was OK I had to leave to go visiting teaching soon anyway. Then when I got home the battery wasn't done charging and Lindsay and I had a ton of errands to run so we left. The entire day I was wanting to be home to play with my new baby but the urgency of being ready for Christmas took precedence. We didn't get back home until after 5pm and by then it was raining and dark. Oh well it only gave me a reason to really put all the good things I heard about my camera to the test.

My new camera doesn't come with a built in flash and I didn't grab mine I just kept lowering or raising the ISO. So ALL these pictures were taken in natural light with no flash.

My very first picture... hmm... not so good. the lights from the tree fooled the in camera exposure to think it was bright enough... thank goodness I can still take a thousand more pictures : )

I am selling my old camera to my sweet daughter Lindsay. She was playing with it for the first time while I played with mine... see what I started!

Chase is such a doll. I will have to blog about his saying no when ever Mamaw says please.

The best way to capture Joseph is when he is doing something else.

And he is always happy to let me take pictures of his work... he thinks his candy cane is the best drawing on the page.

I love my new camera!

Just playing around!

Jocelyn BEGGED to get her picture taken... I messed one up and said, look we can try 342 more times to be able to get it right... she said that was a lot of times... LOL

Joseph suddenly became interested in having his picture taken after seeing Jocey having so much fun. KIDS!?!!

This was my very favorite picture from this first photo session... or play time. This is straight out of the camera.

and here it is after I played with it in photoshop.

I LOVE my camera. It is so awesome. I don't even know how to use it yet and am in awe of how fantastic it is. I know I won't even be able to scratch the surface of what it can do for months... it is really smart too. It knows what lens I have on it even... how cool is that!

I'll Be Home For Christmas

We are all so happy that Josh came home for Christmas!

As a mother I am thrilled to be able to see one of my children again after him being gone for 5 months. I think that the excitement I felt for myself, as huge as it was, paled greatly compared to the excitement that I felt for his sweet wife and darling children to be able to hold their husband and daddy again after so long.

I love Josh! He is an awesome person. As an adult he is one of my favorite people in the whole world. He is fun to be around, he is a kind loving person that just brings a smile to my face to even think about him! He is a fantastic son and is one of the most grateful people I have ever met. He never forgets to thank others for even the smallest tokens of kindness towards himself or his family. I am so happy to have him home for the Christmas Season.

Josh surprised his wife by coming home earlier than he told her he was going to. She was quite upset when he said he couldn't come home until Dec. 23. She had hoped to have him here to do all the preparation for Christmas for their kids. With him coming home so close to Christmas she had all but given up hope for much help from him. I think she had every moment of his stay here planned out to the last second.

He didn't have much money and wanted to do something wonderful for her so he came home the very earliest he possibly could. He even spent the night at an airport in Mobile Alabama to be able to get the first flight out the morning he came home. We were all "in on it" and avoided her like the plague trying to keep his secret. I went and picked Bryce up telling his mommy that we were doing like Josh asked and taking him shopping to get something for her from him for Christmas. After picking Josh up from the airport I called Ashly and told her we were done shopping and could she come get Bryce. She was like, "yes but that didn't take very long"... nope!
Josh was hiding under my Christmas tree!

The rest of the kids were hiding around the room.

Ashly came in talking to Josh's step mom (who Knew what was going on and even that he was already at my house) and she was completely oblivious that anything was going on.

Bryce said, look mommy daddy has your flowers but I don't think she heard him. She said she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye (Josh was moving her flowers) so she looked to see what it was... She sounded like she was instantly at a loss for words and crying and said I have to go, hung up the phone... threw the phone at Josh and walked out of the room trying to regain her composure. About 5 minutes later she came back in, still crying and in Josh's arms. I think as happy as she was it was a bit much to take in all at once. She has been beaming ever since!

The kids took to their normal routine as if he had never been gone and stayed by his side wanting daddy and uncle Josh's attention

Bryce was trying to be like his dad and tried on his hat!

Abby wasn't sure about all of this at first, She probably thought she was dreaming.

she kept looking at her dad it was really cute.

We are all soooooo happy to have Joshie home and love him with all our hearts with love!