Kaia 2013

She was so exuberant this year that I deleted all but these three photos.  The smiles were sooooo fake and the poses were downright hilarious.  Are any of these wall worthy or shall I go back to the drawing board?

Ayla 2013

These are the best of my third attempt.  I can find stuff wrong with each photo.  Am I being too picky?  Which is your favorite?

Part Three

We went through our quirky teen years together and 20+ years later we are still friends.  Awesome.  Michelle and her 3 darlings came from Reno for several days this past September.

The fact that our kids like each other is icing on the cake.

Next up; 2013 photo shoot.  It didn't go so well this year.  Kaia is into fake smiles and posing. Ayla is into open hostility.  After three tries I think Ayla is starting to realize that doesn't work.  It doesn't make her Mom give up.  It makes her more determined and prolongs the agony! 

The Past Ten Months Part 2

We cheered Micah on at his last track and field day.  I still can't believe his elementary school days are a thing of the past :(

This part of our experience deserves and in-depth post, but I just can't do it right now.  I can't even look closely at all my photos.........Grandma Mary was diagnosed with cancer at the end of May and died seven short weeks later.  We had a lot of special family time and these are some of the photos I loved.  When I feel more ready to process the events of our summer I have lots more photos and some stories to share.

Things That Happened During The Past 10 Months

Ayla turned nine.

Our friend, Miss Sophia turned one.

Micah turned eleven.

We went to St. Louis over Spring Break.

We were accidentally matching one Sunday morning so we took time out for a nice family photo shoot.

Spring finally sprang.

Then we had another snow day.  On May second.  We lost power for several hours.  Thank goodness for the wood stove.  It's how I made my coffee that morning.  Oh yeah, it also heated the house!

To be continued.......

I Quit Blogging Because I Wanted To......Sort Of

Actually, I don't think I wanted to quit blogging.  I sort of had to for a while.  I got sick of trying document everything.  I stopped picking up my camera for, days, weeks, months.  I kept feeling like I should be blogging.  I should be taking photos.  I should be documenting the lives of my quickly growing children.  Anytime I feel like I should be doing something it doesn't take long until I stop doing it altogether.  Anyway, I think I'm done with my self-imposed break.  I don't know if I have any readers left.  I'm just going to do a bit of posting/catching up and then decide what I want to do with this space.  If you are still out there thanks for checking in.  If not, I understand.