Oh Those Faces That I Love!

It's been kind of a crazy last two weeks. Besides working a good 40 hours a week I also traveled through most of Wyoming and half way through Nebraska (twice). I spent several days making Valentine's with the grannies, then drove to Sheridan to see my kiddos in Wyoming. When I got home I was lucky enough to host a birthday party for the youngest of my YaYa sisters Diane. (She turned the BIG 50). I also was invited to the 1st. birthday of our adorable little Addy, who spent many months in the hospital at birth but is now just a ball of fire. I then traveled half way across NE to pickup my youngest grannie and two days later took her back. But look at these wonderful faces I saw during my journey.

Diane celebrated her birthday for the 3rd or 4th time at my house. Look at this delicious but HEALTHY cake! YUM!

As with all of our get together's with my YaYa's the time is spent laughing, laughing, laughing - along with a tear or two. We were missing one sister, who left this world less than six months ago. We miss you so much BECKY!!

Twila is our hugger so if you sit next to her.....consider yourself hugged. Renee is our entertainer, she has some of the funniest stories to tell, and being a natural story teller - she always has us in stitches.

One of the things we do best is talk about our grandchildren. Amazingly Twila and Connie could both do imitations to the T of their grannies. Grandma Titty - yes, that is what her grannies call her - shows us the face young miss Avery makes when things don't go her way.

YaYa Jacque - a five time cancer survivor, is just an inspiration to us all. Her words of wisdom are always comforting, she has this innocence about her that is just refreshing.

OOPS here is Diane again - well when it's your birthday you should get a couple photos in.

Then there is Connie! She is a heart attack survivor. Always a health nut, it was a BIG shock to us when not only did she have a heart attack but had to be zapped back to life. Because of this scare we all did a pinky swear to get healthy. And no, she really isn't holding her heart - she is imitating her precious little grandson Parker who stopped to sing one of our nation's proudest songs when visiting the 'Faces' in South Dakota.

Which led Connie to imitate her other little grandson Carson, whose casual attitude may find himself looking under the pew at church instead of sitting in the pew!

But this face is a replica of the granddaughters - you know chit chatting like only little girls can do.

Speaking of chatty little girls - my youngest grannie Emma Jean can talk your leg off. I'm not sure she always knows what she is talking about but talk is what she does best. We made some Valentine's on one of her visits.

My trip to Sheridan gave me the chance to play with and photograph my youngest grannie Lucas. This little guy has to be the happiest little thing ever. Taking pictures of him is a little bit of a challenge as he doesn't sit still very long. We had to get very inventive to find something to stop him long enough for a couple of shots.

Then there was the First Birthday party of Addison. She is just a little minute of a thing. Having weighed just mere ounces when born you would never know that she was a little premie from the way she gets around and how smart the little monkey is. We had a lot of fun watching her dig into her cake and open presents.

My little Cash always has a 'cheese' for me when I have the camera. He had just polished off some yummy 'pink' birthday cake and was playing with one of his favorite things in this world - balloons.



So that has been my last two weeks. There were many, many more faces that I was fortunate enough to have spent time with over the last two weeks, just didn't get any photos of them. These people are all so much a part of my life. I am so fortunate to have them.

Getting busy at the Fort

Spring is in the air, or close to it. When we move cattle to the protection of the Ranch I know that calving season and spring is just around the corner. Can't wait to see those little baby longhorns.

Photo shootin' - raw or not to raw???

Had a great weekend with Damion and his little family. Did a small photo shoot. I am still confused about shooting in RAW and editing it? Can you tell which is which? What should I be doing that I am not?????? I think I am confused

Looking out my backporch!

I don't really care for those freezin' mornings that old man winter brings but God sure knows how to paint a sunrise and sunset during our season of cold, short days.

This is my little Cash. He is one of those 'all boy' boys! He is just a happy little go lucky kind of guy and his little mind is whirling all the time. Cash and big brother Jaxon spent the weekend with me. Well Cash did, Jaxon spent most of his time with his good buddy Preston.

One of the things Cash likes to do, that is besides writing on my furniture, walls and cupboards with a pen or pencil is to wear my glasses and talk on the phone. The glasses are just light readers and we only let him put them on for a second or too but he just thinks he is terribly clever.

Cash also loves, loves, loves his papa, most of the time. He wasn't to thrilled with gramps when, after throwing a whole dish full of cat food at his brother, had to pick it all up. But generally gramps is the one who gets to snuggle with him when he is tired and rock him to sleep. Papa was whistling and Cash worked really hard trying to copy him. I think he thought he was making the noise once he figure out how to pucker and blow. Gramps never told him different.

Come Back Soon Cash!!1

Making cards!

Oh sweet Valentine..........I think Valentine's Day must be one of my most favored days. Maybe it's because I Love Red, or I love, LOVE. I don't know but I never grow tired of celebrating February and the month of Love. One of my gal friends and I started playing with Valentine cards and it just has been so much fun.

We both made the same card with the same demensions and both came out looking so different.

Then we decided to make some just for the grannies. With the majority of them being boys we tried to get away from all the fluff. Can't wait to make some for the girls though. I saw someone use tulle on a card and I think that would be fun to try.

We are both just novice at this so maybe they aren't the greatest, and by far not as wonderful as I see on some of the blogs I stalk...I mean follow but they sure were fun to make.

Ramblings

   With a high of 0 degrees today and a low expected to be -30 it is just to cold to go outside. To cold to do anything so my thoughts start rambling. I have been looking for two posts of someone who made a small conservatory/terrarium/greenhouse out of windows - I think. However it may have been picture frames, just don't remember. Doesn't matter, some day I will run into again but until then I have been searching on the Internet looking for something similar to what I saw earlier. And I was really surprised - I found one made from picture frames on Southern Living and then to my dismay I found the same identical (I'll call it a terrarium) on about 20 more posts.  Same photo, same flowers in it same everything - not surprising, it was way cute. What surprised me is that the some 20 other posts the people took the credit for making it, several of those being fellow bloggers. That disappointed me, I know that copying something is the greatest form of flattery and I do it myself - aka I am looking for that post, however, I would never, ever, ever take credit for it being my work.
  So end of that thought. My other thought is how when I first started blogging I did it because some of the local gals did and I found it a great way to share my photos. I fell in love with so many blogs that I just couldn't keep up with them. I could spend hours reading and looking at other blogs. Many times I comment, most times I don't. I only post what I want when I want so I'm a boring blogger. But alas so many of the blogs have become, ads and I have lost a lot of pleasure looking at them. I under stand they have anywhere from 100 to thousands of followers and I imagine it brings it a nice tidy income. Just not as much fun I guess to surf through all the wonderful posts anymore.
   Facebook and Twitter seems to have taken over the blogging world also. I do think Facebook is a good way to keep up on current events - and hope to have my business up and going on it in the near future. At a recent meeting I went to they gave the same advice you see on many blogs. If you aren't going to keep it current - no one wants to read it. Guess I will need to get better at it, much better.
    So here comes the sun, can't wait for the cold snap to pass by, Februrary has always been one of my favorite months. It is short, had that beautiful Valentine's Day attached to it and for me one extra paid day off. Stay warm friends.