August blog circle- Determination

I thought for a long time about this topic.  I'm not great at seeing creatively. I do think in pictures, as many photographers do.  My mind just automatically seems to think, ooh, take a picture of that!  Or, oh, frame it this way and it'll be a great shot!  But when it comes to photographing something that doesn't really have a specific form.. I'm usually at a loss.  But for this month, determination has taken on a slightly different meaning.

My older two children recently started school, and have left my youngest, the newly turned 3 year old, at home alone with me.

The first two days of school went easily, since we had a friend we knew from Korea and her two kids staying with us.  The weekend flew by, and it was Monday again... So what exactly were we going to do?  We went to my Stroller Strides class, which is a daily thing throughout the week.  But after that, there were no siblings to chase at the park or ride bikes with.  There were only two or three kids that were old enough to play with, but not old enough for school.

This is one benefit- one on one Daddy time!  (Thanks to L and J for his new Lincoln log set)!

Anyhow, he is determined that he is going to 'grow up big and be 5 and ride the bus' (even though we only live one street over from the school, and they walk there and back.. hehehehe).  So almost everything he does, he has to do it like Sissy and Bubba.  Daddy even took the training wheels off his bike!  (And my oldest didn't learn until THIS summer how to ride without those)!

He is DETERMINED to do it!  And I think he will succeed in just about anything he wants to do, unless Mama or Daddy naysay it.. lol.. He is very stubborn and headstrong, this one.  And we cherish him for it, whilst simultaneously banging our heads against the wall and trying to figure out how to discipline without breaking his spirit.  Strong-willed child, yes.  Softy at night or when he gets hurt?  Yes.  Determined?  Definitely.
Just a few more on the topic- we went to the park recently, and Jacob, my oldest, was, yes, you guessed it- determined he would get that basketball into the hoop.  :)

He never quite made it, but he showed how much he's grown up recently by not throwing a fit or crying over not being able to do it.  He was quite happy to be distracted by his friends and siblings.

 Determination on Mom's part will get you silly faces!  :)

 And sometimes, brotherly love.  (You should see the outtakes of these, they are hilarious)! :)

This was him saying "Ta da!" when he made it up the huge rock face to get back to the car. 

Finally, determination will always get you somewhere.  Its up to you to decide which direction you're going. Choose wisely.  :)

Next up in the blog circle, is the lovely Katie Smith!

July blog circle- TEXTURE

Hello all!  This is my second time participating in the blog circle.  This month, we were supposed to capture texture. I used things around my house, since I am not so creative as to go out and about yet. :)

My daughter's quilt- I was using it as a guide for a new quilt I'm making. 

Fur baby #1- Tiger.  She loves her bed, although she used to hate it. 

Fur baby # 2- Smoke.  More the kids' than mine, even though we got her on my birthday. 

Row of stuffed animals in C's room.  She loves her animals.  

Dresses, robes and dress-up stuff.  

Bright green grass out front.

Please continue on to the next wonderful photographer- Katie Smith!

Colors of summer

Recently, I joined a blog circle, my first one.  The idea is that we all break out of any rut we might be in and shoot in a creative way for each month's theme.  This month is Colors of Summer.  Unfortunately, we never made it to the splash park that I had planned to use for the theme, and the last two days it was only in the mid-70's here, so I'm using an image that I captured of my son on his bicycle.  Since we left Korea this past March, my children have had the opportunity to actually be outside and running, jumping, climbing and riding as much as they want.  It has been fabulous!! :)  The first week school was out, I didn't see the kids until it was dark.  Sometimes dinner wasn't even until 830-9 pm, closely followed by bedtime!

Anyhow, here is what the colors of summer are to us.

This is my actual submission- summer represents a new feeling of freedom. 

This obviously isn't in color, but its our neighbor's daughter and her reaction to her father rolling her into the sprinkler's path. :)

Showing off his italian-iced tongue

The first fishing trip of the summer- my 7 yr old caught this one. 

More Italian ices from the Renaissance Faire. 

Next up in the blog circle is Katie McDuffie Smith, a Killeen photographer.  Click on the link to view her post on the colors of summer.  http://katiesmithphotography.com/killeen-photographer-colors-of-summer/

I hope you enjoy our Military spouse photographer blog circle! :)  Stay tuned for next month's theme!

Making a house a home

We're still here!  So far, we are absolutely loving the house.  There are a couple of areas that I wish I could change a bit, like any house, but we are slowly doing what we can to make it our home.  I've put up a few family pictures, and two of our canvases in the dining room, and our Korean painting and name scroll are in the living room.  We mounted the TV tonight, and added a shelf underneath it to hold the cable box and PS3.  That will be temporary, since Jon and I will be deciding on either a media center or an entertainment center to build soon. 

The kids have made friends, especially this last week, since the public schools finished on Friday.  Friday night I had several children in the house that I had never met!  It was a fun time.  Tonight there were two more that we hadn't met yet, and praise God, none of them are children that I felt uneasy having around.  The playground being 200 yards from our house is really nice, too, we can sit in the driveway while Jamie rides his bike and the older two can go run and play at the park. 

As for homeschooling, we have about another month left until they are finished.  I've been doing my yearly pros and cons list, because Caitlynn is begging hard to be allowed to go to school.  With almost everything someone says about public school, though, I am reminded of why we prefer to keep them at home.  I guess I will have to find a few ways to keep Cait from being mad that she isn't going to school.  Things are too uncertain with Jon's job and where we will end up for us to have them in school, on top of all the other reasons we prefer it. 

We spent yesterday morning at Garden of the Gods, which was amazing!  The kids really got into the climbing and bird watching.  Here are a few pictures that I will leave you with. :)

Cait took this of us at America the Beautiful park on Friday.

He had to have his turn carrying the Camelbak. :D

They actually said, Mom come take a picture of us!  hehehe

Jamie didn't want ANY help climbing this part, he made it about 25 feet up, all the way to where Jon is in the next picture.  I was too busy sweating it to take any pictures of how big it was.  Jamie did a great job, though. 

Poor Jon ended up with Jamie towards the end, since I was carrying Cait.  This was about 3.5 hours after we started (and still 30 minutes before we found the right trail to lead us to the car)!

Greetings from Colorado!

We finally got internet here at our new house just today.  Our trip home was highly eventful (more to come later), we got to spend some much needed time with family and friends, and were blessed to be able to stay with friends once we got here. Anyhow, I just wanted to post something so that you wouldn't think I'd fallen off the grid somewhere between Korea and the States. :)

Here are a couple of pictures from the last two months.

C with T

At the Traveling Sea exhibit

She was so proud of her creation!

His first ever baseball game!

ice cream in the park with friends

Cool Leo! :D

I feel kinda bad.. there aren't any pictures of Jacob that I've edited.  He doesn't really like to be in the way of the camera unless its HIS idea first.  I'll work on that. :D
Night!

Last post from Korea

Our last week in Korea has been busy, wonderful, sad, crazy, silly and FULL!!  We have been staying with some wonderful friends since we cleared out of our apartment.  They also have three boys and 2 dogs, so its definitely full over here.  :)  Some different friends are pet-sitting for us, so we didn't have to add that particular crazy to this house.  Tiger is getting along well with their hedgehog.  Wish I had a pic of that!  :D

Anyhow, we were blessed to receive a little over half of our deposit back- they only took out the last month's bills from our original deposit.  Wooohooooo!  We paid for the wallpaper to be fixed three days before they came to inspect, so technically that would have come out of our deposit as well, but hey, it looks great in there!

We've gotten several mementos and some gifts for a few family members and friends that we will be seeing in the coming weeks- I just recently have found the lovely jewelry boxes in the ville and am kicking myself for not getting one earlier.. lol

We sold our van three days ago, and have been walking/cabbing/bussing it- wow, was it really this hard when we first got here??  Whew!  Its definitely an adventure having to carry a car seat all over again.  luckily, Jamie walks now. 

I was able to squeeze in one last newborn session for a friend that delivered 2 days after all our furniture was picked up.  My camera travels with me, and Jon kept the external hard drive.. plus my friend that second shot with me agreed to edit the photos and dumped all of mine onto my drive for me. :D  Good stuff all around. 

I finished my second class for this semester (smack me if I decide to take another class then ends 11 days before an international move, will ya?), and just reminded myself to go check for grades. :P  If my head wasn't attached, I think it would be rolling around somewhere.. probably very dusty by now. 

Anyhow.. I think that's about it.. Need to go to bed, because we are taking our very last trip to Yongsan tomorrow morning.  Going to browse Itaewon (awesome souvenir district) and mail off a couple of last minute packages of souvenirs.. Maybe take the kids to a movie and then head home to double check that everything is packed. Then we head out Sunday morning to catch the bus to the airport.  (Pray for us.. travelling with three kids, a dog and a cat that hates her crate).. Jon has never flown with any of the kids yet.. lol.. should prove to be an interesting ride.. 10 hour flight to CA, an hour layover (woohoo, stretch the legs time!), and another few hours to land in NY around 930pm.  Whew.  Luckily, my dad and uncle are driving 6 hours to bring us our car so we don't have to rent one. 

Last post for about a month!  Going to enjoy having family time with my family then Jon's, then visiting several friends.. and finally on to CO to another wonderful friend whom we haven't seen since Fort Sill!  Jacob and their daughter Tiffany had just turned 1!!

Anyong!!  (Goodbye)

I Heart Faces BW Challenge

Here is my entry for the monthly challenge- Black and White.  This was at a newborn session, by special request of the family.  :)