My neighbor George!

I have to tell you that I have never met a sweeter man than my neighbor. My kids adore him and I think that he adores them. I was so touched when each and everytime my Carson goes to the bust stop for school he is waiting with him. The other day we received a phone call from George asking the boys to come over. He had for each of them a baseball glove and a ball. He taught them how to take care of them rubberband and all. I am very grateful for him and could not wish for anyone better in my kids lives. We absolutely love him!!

Well school has started and almost every day of the week I am swapping babysitting with friends and so I have even more opportunities to practice taking pictures. This is my favorite one. Gracie was telling me that if I took her picture she got a treat. Oh she has been with me before. She was not so happy that it was a cheese stick. I think she was looking for something much more exciting.

I am blogging maniac!!

First week of school was stressful but a welcome change. Been thinking a lot about what makes great people great. Take Michael Phelps for instance. My goodness. They say he burns 4,000 calories a workout. Sometimes the thought goes through my head why can he push himself and I do not seem to have the inner ability to get up 30 minutes before my kids to work out. Or to eat right. Or to do something for myself spiritually everyday. I have decided it has to start with desire. I don't know if I always have the desire to do those things. So what I am going to start working on is creating a desire to better myself.

I know I can do it. Since I have become interested in photography and feel like I have become better at it in the past months, I feel like lately I can accomplish a lot more. The time and energy it has taken me to learn how to shoot manually and learn all those stupid hard things in photoshop has taught me that if you want to get good at something or have a desire you have to push yourself to be better. So that is my word for the school year is desire!!

I want to create it in myself and my family.

And just to throw in there because no blog entries would be complete without some shots. I got spend an evening with mosquitoes and four fabulous people. Here are some of my favorites.

Loved every minute of it. I appreciate them letting me use them to practice.

I also decided that it is time to start working on Halloween. I will making some fun things soon and I will try to remember to post them.

Need an opinion!!

So anyone that might have stopped by my blog knows I really dig taking pictures. The only problem is sometimes I think they look fabulous when I take the shot and later I hate them. Well I am trying to learn settings on my camera so I have been taking pictures of things that are still and I can get my exposure right. So if anyone would like to share their opinions good or bad of my recent flower shots I would really appreciate it.

I have so much more to learn and I don't want to get stuck taking the same old pictures. This is also not a solicitation for praise. I just want to know what people think.

What I am craving!

I have to say I am just a little bit dizzy with excitement that school is starting. I am not that excited that my kids will be leaving but just all the things that begin with school starts like routines. I am craving them. Cannot get enough. I want to get up in the morning and have something structured to do. Maybe then I can get back into excercising. I am craving that also. Done with camp, done with vacations, done with ignoring diner.

This morning I got up at 5:30 to make sure that I was ready on time for church. Can you believe that I was still really late. I really do not want my kids to think that we just do not go to that part of church. I want to get my spirituality where it needs to be. I am craving it. So I thought as long as I am late I can stop and take some back to school pictures of some of the kids that were willing to participate. I have to say that Soren looks particularly dashing.

I have to say that I am so into the olympics. Michael Phelps is so amazing. Not ashamed to say that I have a little crush. Not enough to stalk him which I have been known to do, but enough to say that the races do not last long enough. I hope to be an olympic swimmer. That one lady was 41--it is never to late to begin a dream. Daniel had to laugh at that one. I told him I had swimming lessons when I was young it should not take me that long to get back into the groove.

I am craving hanging and talking with friends and having quiet moments. I should be getting plenty of those. Until next time...

What a wild summer!!

The summer has gone by so fast, it seems like I have not even stopped to take a breath. We just got back from the beach with our friends Joe and Joella. Had the most fun ever, spending the days at the beach and evenings in the pool. We even got to spend Carly's eleventh birthday there. Just thought I would share some shots of her to remember how big my little girl is getting.

I worry about her all the time. Especially at night when my thoughts are running through my head. Have I done enough. I think she is amazing but will she? She is looking forward to her birthday party this year at the water park. Not my favorite place to hang out in my bating suit, but I guess anything for your kids.

This week will not get any easier. I leave for girl camp, it is my birthday, Carson's birthday and we are going to my moms. I try to throw work in there somewhere also. There is also school registration. I cannot believe it is time for all that again.

So if I have neglected any friendships, I am sorry(especially Kim who has been sick) but things will slow down and I hope I can get back to my normal life.

I also wanted to share this picture of Soren. I thought it was so beautiful and just reminded me of pure innocence. I absolutely love it!!