Hello

Wow we are still here! I am posting to share a beautiful find. As we were taking our annual Bluebonnet pictures James found a rare white one and I wanted to share it!

Long time since the last post... Miah with her hair in a special up do!

Been a while

Wow I really am behind on this blog! Truth be told I got going on facebook and caught up in my scrapbooking. I know no excuse and to my two fans out there I am really sorry!!!! Ok Ok so your not my fans... yeah you only come here to see pictures of the kids. Well the kids are doing well, James is off to a rocky start in third grade, but has a great teacher and a new attitude so all is well on that front. Miah is in gymnastics and has her first meet next month. I think I am more excited about it than she is.They are both going all the time! Miah has learned her abc's and how to spell her name and now she spells everything...MIAH spells Mommy.... MIAH spells dog... MIAH spells.... Cookie, and so on and so on. She is singing ALL THE TIME too, and it is not a little quiet song that is pleasing to the ear. Nope not my Miah, in the middle of Wal mart she feels the need to belt it in super soprano for all the hear and cover their ears. Don't get me wrong she sings well and on key but Lord help me the child sings so high that it hurts! We are also at the age where I have got to tell her at least twenty times in a span of a few moments to PUT HER DRESS DOWN!!!! I so sound like my mom. James is really into transformers and calling his friends and not so much into girls or homework. He has really been trying me with this homework thing and in his defense the school has been sending him WAY TO MUCH homework to do. Yeah when you have a conference call with a teacher and they tell you that they are dropping a whole subject off the homework list do to parent complaint, you know you were not really going crazy. Ok now I know what you really want to see are the pictures so enjoy and I will try not to wait several months to post again!

Been a while

The first glimpse of summer. Love to see the kids in bright colors.

Here is my little man at his field day that miah and I attended. We all had a blast and James did great! I love watching with his class mates and seeing how far out of his shell he has finally come.

"Let me just pose for you a moment.

This is one of my current favorite of Miah. She was really putting on the faces for me... My Drama Princess is fit to act!

James is one of the most blessed little boys ever... A week before his birthday Randy and I decided to give him Randys Star Wars collection of figures and toys. The collection was two large tubs full that took Randy a few years to gather and they were all still in the package. James was overjoyed and it is several weeks gone by now and he is still opening the figures. We let him have five a day.

Miah is growig more and more every day. I love watching her bloom but the attitude she has as of late is one I can really do with out. She has figured out the word MINE and she usese at least twenty times a day. On the other had she can be very loving when she wants to.

These two are starting to learn how to play together but most of the time they spend their time picking on each other and driving me crazy. When they want to they can be very loving with one another!

These two pictures were taken on James 8th birthday(7-9) ...EIGHT!! Where did the time go??? One miniute I am holding him and changing dipers and the next thing I know He is headed into third grade and talking about girls calling him cute.... Yes I did write that.... girls calling him cute!!??!!

Happy Fathers day to the two best Dads I know

Today was a wonderful day. I set my mind on making memories today, I do not mean trying to force a special moment or steer the day in what I thought would be a perfect fathers day. No instead I watched, listened, engaged, relaxed and just took it all in. Seeing the little things and capturing the sound of my fathers voice, the look of his smile, the smell of a home cooked meal made with love for a dad who will hardly even touch food. My heart swelled when he ate not just once but twice today, a small victory for some but for me it was a huge success. My memories of today will be some of the most precious and treasured for the rest of my life. Daddy picked up his guitar today after almost a year of not playing, and he and my brother played together and I sang with them like so many countless times before, just grateful to have this one last chance. I never thought he would pick up the instrument again and really neither did he, but today it was like old times and I did not take it for granted. It will more than likely be the last time and I would not take all the money in the world for what we shared today. My dad got to show off his grandchildren to his family and I watched the pride in his eyes as they gave the kids great praise and fawned over them. I heard laughter as daddy took in Miah being a ham and leaned in close to hear a conversation between him and James. Dad talked of days gone by and he talked of things he needs to do and I listened hanging on his every word. We took family pictures and a few candid shots. Dad dozed on and off on the couch, never complaining from the obvious pain he was in. He rallied for us today and gave it all he had and with out having to say the words I knew how loved I was and am by my father today. He told me he was proud of me and of my family. He smiled at me, hugged me and said he loved me. Today was a wonderful day.

Altering a photo... We Picture This

I had such fun trying out this altering a photo. I have really only recently learned the very basics of PSE but with this challenge I really started to learn some new things and that the web has loads of info and tutorials. I really liked Miahs skin tone in this picture right out of the camera but the bricks were drowning out the tone I was looking for so I used texture for the first time and then I added more texture on top of that! I made a 2nd layer of my original photo first and added the textures next one on top of the other. Then I erased and blended the section of photo with Miah so that the texture was only in the background. That is it. Seems like so much technical stuff but really once I started it got easier and I am loving it! The picture was taken with a NikonD 40 in early evening light with cover on Portrait setting.
Thank you so much for looking and please be sure and check out the wonderful work and other entries you can get there by clicking the We Picture This link above. Oh and as always if you click on the pictures above the will enlarge for you.

This is Miah my DD.

Time

Time is a funny thing. Some days you just want it to hurry up and fly by so you can get to that next big thing. You know the one your whole life hinges on... waiting for your wedding day, waiting for your child to come home, or the next holiday , vacation or day off. It is normal and every one I know wishes time would speed up just a little once in a while. Now I would give almost anything for time to stop. Right here and now and never change. I wish with all my heart I could go back in time and warn my family that I could somehow change what we are facing now. I look at a carton of milk and the expiration date makes me sad. I think about James going into third grade and how quickly this summer will fly by. That alone sends me into a deep dispare. I hate seeing movie trailers that say come in blah blah blah. They all remind me of the one thing he does not have enough of TIME. We all face the truth that life is short and we all must take a final breath at some point in our lives, but for most of us we flash on the thought and then shake it off feeling that, that day is a long way off in our future or we say You never know when so why worry about it. What if you did know or you were given a time line... How would you view time then. That is where I am at, viewing time as the enemy who will very soon take my daddy away. He is only 56 and yet ...We are not promised tomorrow.
My dad is really sick and it is that ugly word so many of us have heard to many times, Cancer. Lung cancer to be specific and it is in stage four meaning it has spread through out his body. We are told that with out Chemo he has two to four months to live and with treatment we may have him for ten to twelve months if his body can handle it. Every breath he takes is a labor for him and I haft to tell you even though the signs were there early my dad just pressed on and continued to work hard not telling anyone the amount of pain he was in. Just a good ole boy doing what he needed to do for his family. In fact he had a heart attack and did not tell anyone and due to lack of insurance he never sought medical attention. DAD!! My dad had several sever attacks at night where he thought he was dying before he allowed my mom to finally take him to the doctor. He has lost his strength fast, in a matter of a few months his weight dropped over 50 pounds and still he was giving it all he had.
Now what, how do we get through this. I know we will and we will make the best of all the time we have. It hurts, it sucks and I hate it. I do not know how to tell my son or daughter, what is the right thing to say and when to say it. Time... I need more ... He needs more. I love you daddy and I am so very sorry that you are facing this horrible thing.