Look who found his hands

"OK, enough, Mom."

 We can't leave out those toesies...

Limited Blogging Skills!

I cannot figure out how to post to a specific page!  I want my photography stuff to be under the adventures in photography tab and I don't know how to do it :-(

Window Light Fan

I'm becoming a fan of window light.  I still haven't learned how to take decent pictures with indoor light while using the manual mode, so this is how I can take pictures inside.  I have one good window on the north side of the house that works out okay. 

I wanted to share with you the first thing I learned about shooting in manual mode:  it doesn't mean that I have to use manual focus!  Shooting manually just means that YOU control the exposure, not the camera.  The camera can still focus for you...that was good for me to know.  If you want to focus manually, go ahead, but it's not required.  And, before I got this book, I didn't even know what exposure was, let alone how to control it.  It turns out that it's fairly simple.  I recommend checking it out.  

If you're wondering why I always take pictures of Bo, it's because he's the only one that will hold still for me!

I wish I had a little bit better angle on this one because his cheeks are a little distorted.

I like the dramatic look of this one.

Baby Sneeze!

This one has the same black and white settings as the ones above, but the lighter background makes all the difference.

Tornado Scare

Tornados really scare me! They used to really, really scare me. Last night, we prepared for the worst, as a tornado that was on the ground was heading straight for us! Because of the day-in-advance warning, I prepared by clearing out the closet in the basement under the stairs for our little shelter (the closet was completely packed full, so it took a little work!). We watched the news of the tornado as it hit McConnell Air Force Base late last night, and at that point the TV froze and then the power went out. We live right by the base and I was starting to freak out, which made Jordan freak out--you know she gets scared easily, especially when her mommy is also scared!

We hunkered down, and by this time, Bo was sleeping in his car seat in the closet, too. Justin made his mom come over because she doesn't have a basement, but she refused to cram into the closet with us! We heard some loud wind, but that was about it. A little bit later we learned that the tornado was on a path just north of us. We used the opportunity to teach Jordan to pray when she's scared. She prayed for Jesus to protect us and to help us not be scared. God answered her prayer:)

The power stayed off until 5:30 this morning. During those 6 or 7 hours of no power, our back-up sump pump went off every 4-5 minutes. I'm SO GLAD that I invested in one last summer. Our house has lasted 20 years with just the power operated sump pump, but I always got worried when the storms came and water poured in. What if the power went out? Our house would be flooded in minutes. But not last night! Our back-up pump did it's job!

The girls in their shelter, using the flash on the camera...

This is really what it looked like...

Visiting my friend

My friend Marie was visiting Wichita while I was in Iowa and I missed it:( But fortunately she was staying with her mom in KC the day we came back home, so I got to stop and see her! Her son Caedman and Bo are three weeks apart. She's the one I told you to pray for when she reached 24 weeks, because her water broke at that week during her first pregnancy. This is her blog. This time, she made it to 35 weeks!

Marie holding Bo.

Oh, my, were these two cute together! When Caedman woke up, they starting smiling and "talking" to each other. It was an instant connection!

Farm pics, day 2 and day 3

Roasting marshmallows. Jordan's fear of animals made for good entertainment. Whenever the cat came around, she'd take off running across the yard screaming.

Yet another example of kids not cooperating! Hunter and Jordan (left) were born on the same day. Rylie and Ava (right) were also born on the same day. Can you believe how much bigger Ava is?! Ava is one of my childhood friend's little girl.
Sweet sibling moment.
Baby Bo.
Jordan spent an afternoon helping grandpa pick up rocks and sticks from a field that recently was cleared. Grandpa said she was the best worker of any kid he's had helping him, including his own kids. She must have gotten that quality from Justin!
Bedtime stories.

Farm pics, day 2 Park

The girls got to play on the playground equipment that I played on as a kid. That slide is very tall!

Farm pics, day 2 Century Farm

It's kind of cool to have a farm that's been in our family for at least 150 years.

The old barn.
They sure don't look like farm girls!


Going to check cows...

Here's one of my former show calves. She's pretty old now.

Farm pics, Day 1 Mushroom Hunting

My Aunt Linda (my dad's sister) and Roseanne got these "cute as cute can be" boots for the girls to wear on the farm. Love them!

Kick'n up dust (which is really dried manure and ground up hay) in their new boots...

Grandpa with the kiddos...
These are the mushrooms Roseanne and Craig took us to go hunt. I used to love going mushroom hunting as a kid!

Iowa pics, day 1

My dad is kind of like the cat lady, only he's a man. He has a ton of farm cats, and one of them is pregnant. So he lets her inside to eat so she doesn't have to compete with the others. Rylie kept trying to feed her and would say, "Here kitty, eat. Good boy."

Bo is meeting my cousin Roseanne for the first time. Roseanne is a big baby lover--she took good care of Bo for me:)
Playing with Roseanne's son, Hunter.
Riding on the saddle at the convenience store together.
My mom and Bo at lunch.