Under Construction

Our house has been under construction for about a week now. We had to have a roof fixed from the hurrican that happened two years ago...yes, two years ago. We finally got the insurance company to agree after a long mediation period to pay. Of course we also had the patio recovered (we really would not want that to still leak when the rest of the house was finally fixed)

Those of you that know anything about us, know that this back patio area is my husbands sanctuary.  Or you can simply call it his "Man Cave".  He is very excited because they expanded it out just enough and well they -raised the roof line of it giving it more of a vaulted look.  When finished it will have two ceiling fans and all the men on our street are trying to convince him that he now needs two or maybe three flat screens...sorry guys it ain't happening!!  Not right now anyway ::: wink-wink :::

Here are some before and after pictures.... Thanks Uncle B.

Another Birthday & Thanksgiving

First things First...because today is November 30th and because I love him.  I would like to wish my favorite brother in the whole wide world a very Happy Birthday!!!  I love you so much and I am so lucky that you are my brother!  Thank you for all you have done for me and for always taking such good care of me.  I Love you Big Brother!!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays!  It is always within days of my birthday {which often got me out of doing dishes growing up} and I am so very thankful to be celebrating another year of life.  Not to mention all the wonderful people that I have in my life that I am so very thankful for.  Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving...gobble...gobble!

I really do love this time of year. I love everything it has to offer. I love the colors, the smells (yes, the smells), the holidays, the birthdays, the lights, the hussel and bussel and stress of the season, and I love that families gather just to eat all the yummy goodness be with each other on a holiday. I really do just love everything about it {other then UPS- but we make the most of that}. There is just something about this time of year that is magical!

My birthday has come and gone this year and it really happened in the blink of an eye.  I can admit that I am really okay with that. The older I get the harder it becomes to accept how old I am really getting. Ahliana helps to keep me young but lets face it... I am no longer a spring chicken and sometimes it is just hard to keep up. For example: Keith and I went out and enjoyed a fabulous dinner and a few drinks the night of my birthday and it took me the entire next day {Thanksgiving} just to recover...again this is all age.

Thanksgiving was wonderful! I enjoy gathering with family and missed the ones that I was unable to be with but still so very thankful for them all.  I ate way to much and enjoyed every minute of it.  The food was in abundance and so delicious I just could not stop shoveling it in.  Papa always brings a Honey Baked Ham on Thanksgiving and man is it....yummy!!  Bruce cooked the turkey again this year and carves it up perfectly every year.  It too was so very yummy!!  I love the feast but so glad it only happens once a year.

There are so many things I am thankful for:

I am thankful for My wonderful husband, who has once again surprised me with his thoughtfulness.  He got me a  laptop for my birthday...yip.baby.a lap top computer...Three cheers for my honey...hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!!  Not only did I get a wonderful birthday gift but he gives me the gift of his love daily. 

I am also thankful for the little person that calls me mom.  I am thankful for everything she does...even the crying and the whining because some how in the sceam of it all that is just a little part of it.  She is such a wonderful and loving little girl and I could not ask for more.  I would not trade being Ahliana's mom for not one thing in this world!!  I am so very lucky, and thankful, for her!!  God could not have gotten it any more perfect!

This year Aunt Esther, Kaylee Ann, and Jasmine visited from California.  Although we did not spend Thanksgiving day with them we did enjoy some quality time with them on Friday.  It was great to see them all and they got to meet our beautiful baby girl for the first time.  Ahliana is the same age that Kalee Ann was the first time we met her...and now she is 9.  I understand that our children need to grow and become independent but I wish it did not all happen so fast.  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was meeting Kaylee Ann for the first time.. and just yesterday that I was bringing my beautiful baby girl home from the hospital...do they have to grow so fast?? 

Okay now move over Thanksgiving and let the Christmas begin....

Ahliana is really excited about Christmas this year.  In the next couple of weeks we will pull Derby out of the attic so he can report to Santa if Ahli has been naughty/nice daily, we will take her to see Santa, we will take her to ride the Polar Express, we will hang Christmas lights and line the fireplace with stockings, we will sing lots and lots of Christmas carols, and we will just laugh and be merry!!  Ahliana has already told me that she is going to ask Santa for 2 lollipops for Christmas...

We have had some very serious discussions about Santa Clause already this year with Papa and Daddy.  Hopefully she understands that only nice little children get visits from Santa.

Sassy

This is my sweet baby girl the morning of her school pictures.  She has started this whole hand on the hip thing... Nobody told me that sassy came in a size 2.  She is so freaking adorable!  She will put her hand on her hip and just tell you all about it and the facial expressions that go along with the sas are just hilarious!

This is her actual School picture... Cute!  I think she is telling the photographer all about it... at least her hands are placed gently in her lap and not on her hip...



Leading Lines

Photography has always been an interest of mine.  I carry a camera with me everywhere I go and I can take a million pics at one event...even if it is something as simple as feeding ducks or going to the neighborhood park for the millionth time.  Of course I'm not that great, but I do try...and every once in awhile I get lucky.  

I just really don't quite know what I am doing.  By this I mean I just point the camera at the object I want a picture of, push the button and hope for the best.  I don't look for leading lines, I don't measure my light, I don't change my shutter speed, aperture settings, or ISO and I have never accomplished a good post processed photo.  I don't even own post processing software.  However, I would like to lean how to post process and I would also like to learn how to control all of the above listed features... I am working on it!  I bought a cool new camera and I have taken a photo class ( which was fabulous and I did learn a lot... now I just really need to practice.) {Now don't start judging my pictures..I know I am not that good... I said I am working on it (lol)}

I just recently started entering photo contests on another blog.  Unfortunately for me a lot of professionals enter her contests as well so I really don't stand a chance...but I try and hope that one day I will get lucky and she will pick me.  Please pick me....I don't need a prize I just want to win...hahaha

My friend Kristy convinced me to enter a photo in a photo contest on facebook with an amateur photography group.  She remembered a picture that I sent in previously on the blog that we follow.  The theme for the contest was leading lines.  So I sent it in and after looking at all the cool pictures that were sent in along with mine... I now know what a leading line is... by golly I think I get it...

The picture was taken in 2007.  Keith and I used to go camping every year at Buescher Park (just outside of Bastrop, TX).  This was taken with a point and shoot camera and no editing was done (because I don't know how).  We actually have this picture blown up and framed in our house... I mean I really do like it.

Anyway I got a lot of high scores and good complements from other members of the group.  I don't think that I will win...there were a lot of REALLY good pictures.  It was just nice to think that other's thought it was a good photo too.  I am so excited and it has fueled my fire to learn more about photography.  Although, I think that I am unable to submit photo's taken with my new camera on this site... I do tend to still use my point and shoot often (it is small and easy to carry in my pocket)

  



Please tell me what you all think of my "Leading Lines" photo

Halloween 2010

Halloween is a fun time at our house.  Not because we deck it out with spookiness or anything like that ... but because it has become a special time for our friends and family to gather around our baby girl and experience her excitement of all the spooktacular {yea, I went there} sights and fun that are all around.  From the fall festivals to the pumpkin patches. 

We do not "carve" pumpkins yet.  But we do decorate them and we decorate LOTS of them.  We get pipe cleaners, paint, glue, stickers, pom poms, big pumpkins and small, Towne Center Pumpkins, Chick fil-a pumpkins, and school pumpkins.  It is kind of anything goes.  Let your imagination roll baby.... 

Ahliana's school is kind enough to host a carnival every year for Halloween.  The teachers volunteer their time and the kids love seeing them and playing their games.  We really appreciate all that they do to keep our kiddos happy.  We have enjoyed going for 3 years now but this year was special.  Ahli was actually able to play the games and when she would see her little friends she would get super excited.  They would hug and hold hands... life is so good at this age ... really, really, really good!!

This year Ahliana was a "social" butterfly.  Or if you asked her she would tell you that she was a butterfly...If you asked what kind of butterfly she would say a beautiful butterfly.  Smart kid!!  I had to convince her to wear her tutu with her wings because she kept telling me that she was a butterfly not a ballerina.  If I tried to convince her that she was a ballerina butterfly she would just say NO!  Lucky for me Aunt Lynn was there when I was getting her ready and was able to help persuade her to wear her tutu.  Thank you Aunt Lynn! 

Ahliana is right ... she is a Beautiful Butterfly!!!

 

This was the first year that she would walk up to the door.  Last year we had to carry her and she did not really get it.  This year she wanted to walk up there all on her own.  She would get to the door and then she would say "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something to eat" {yes, she would leave out the good}.  It was really okay that she left out good because she always got "extra" candy just because she was so darn cute when she said it without!!  Then as we would start to walk away she would say "but I want to go in mommy".  She thought she was going to our neighbors home to get candy and play?? 

Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays.  Not for the spook and the gore... but because it is another day of the year that our family and friends gather around to love my baby girl and the magic that the night brings to her.... and that is some special stuff!  It amazes me how much this little bug is loved!

Every night on our way home for the evening she would ask if the pumpkins were awake.  We had a few houses on our street that had those blow up pumpkins.  So we would drive by really slow.  Sometimes we would even stop in front of those houses just so she could laugh and say hello.  She was sad to see that they were all taken down the day after Halloween ... they don't play in our neighborhood ....

 

One of our neighbors really goes all out.  This is just a glimpse into his yard.  He also has a big blow up pumpkin carriage that is driven by a skeleton man (which is pictured up above).  Alot of the characters in this yard are animated he even has a grave yard on the side of his house.  Of course Ahliana is not scared she will just tell you that it is the spooky yard.  She really is a character...

All the children taking pictures in the spooky yard with my spooky husband and beautiful daughter!

Goodnight ..