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From my previous post you may know that another blogger, Gitzen Girl, is having a You: Create project on Thursdays. Her father passed away suddenly right after my last post and it has been a very trying time for Sara - she could definitely use your prayers. Her link this week is some things her dad created shortly before his death.
I've been working the past week or so on a digital scrapbooking project as a surprise for some friends and intended to share a sneak peek on this week's You: Create. Instead I'm going to share a photo I took today. (Actually I took this Thursday but we have been on the road and have not had very good Internet connections.) I've been working on trying to be more creative with my photography and this picture is one of my better attempts at creativity (at least in my opinion.) It is straight out of the camera without any editing.
The picture was taken at a rest area on I-35 in Iowa (ironic since Gitz lives in Iowa) as we were traveling to International Falls, Minnesota. There was some beautiful scenery off to the north and east so I grabbed my camera to get some pics. There was also some beautiful flowers so I snapped quite a few pics. I tried to upload some more but Blogger isn't cooperating for me right now. Maybe I can later!
There is a very interesting story about our stop at this rest area in Iowa. As we got out of the pickup, I commented on a motor home that was parked next to us - saying it was about the size we would need. After we took care of our business, I walked back to the pickup to get the camera and noticed that this motor home was from Jack Sisemore Travelland in Amarillo. About that time a gentleman stepped out of it and I asked him if he was from Amarillo. We started to visit and found out we had quite a few things in common including that our daughters graduated from the same high school in the same year. Turns out the girls know each other because they both ran track in high school. Such a small world!
One of my very favorite blogs to read is Gitzen Girl - she is so very inspiring! If you have never read her blog, hop over there and spend some time reading her story. Anyways, she decided to have a weekly creativity challenge on Thursdays called You: Create. I have really been wanting to do some digital scrapbooking but never seem to get around to it. So I thought this might be my chance to do a page or two a week. Well, it didn't happen this first week and not exactly this week either! But I did use my digital scrapbooking skills to create a birthday party invitation for my little buddy, Kage! He is the grandson of my very good friend, Ramona, who suddenly passed away last February due to a brain hemorrhage. Her two children and my girls grew up together almost like brother and sisters. So Kage is like a grandson to us! Here's the 8.5 X 11 invitation I made!
We were able to spend a few days in Houston last week. It was great to spend time with our kids but especially fun to spend time with Mr. K. He is changing so quickly. His little personality is absolutely precious. He is talking more but "ball" is still is favorite word. He now calls Ashley "tante" (Dutch for aunt) and she LOVES it. He said "gigi" and "pop-pop" lots over the weekend too! He also says several things in Dutch but I can't spell them correctly so I won't even attempt to list what he can say. It's great that he will be bilingual! He runs all over the house pushing his grocery cart or "walker" but will not walk by himself. He'll pick up whatever he's pushing and turn it to go the way he wants - not even realizing that he's standing on his own. He definitely has a mind of his own. If he doesn't want something, he'll shake his head "no" at you. Lys bought him a new pair of shoes and he kept shaking his head no every time she tried to put them on him. Gigi and Poppy did get him to wear them the day we left! He couldn't tell us "no"!
Saturday was a rainy day in Houston while Amarillo was getting slow. I found a recipe for Tiramsu pancakes and fixed them for brunch. (They were delicious but very filling. You can find the recipe here.) K was entertaining us as usual and Tante picked up the camera to capture his expressions. I have to share many of them here with you!
Most of us would agree that Kaiden really looks like his daddy . . . until I pull out Alyssa's baby pictures. What do you think?
Last week I had the pleasure of keeping Miss Madi for the day. Madi's mother, Lori, is a teacher at the elementary school where I was principal. I've watched Madi's older sisters, Meaghan and Jaelynn, grow from babies into beautiful young ladies and hope to do the same with Madi. I've been using Madi to practice learning how to take better photographs so Lori brought Madi some "dress up" clothes for us to take some pictures. Here are some pictures from our day together.
Madi has taken an early interest in reading - She would not look up from the book to have her picture taken. We also had a great time talking and laughing.
Okay, fellow bloggers, you may wonder how I got these pictures posted like this. Check out MckMama's blog (my charming kids) which is linked at the right. After you get to her blog, click on the photography button, then photography lessons, then side by side photo layout. Obviously I still need to practice a little more but it is nice to have a little more control over pictures posted in a blog. Warning - you need Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to do this.
