Halloween treats

Here is Jackson's "Haunted House" we had to make for his Halloween party at school. He was quite proud.

Here are the cookies-on-a-stick I made. Thanks to my honey for the suggestion of making the "veins"!

A close up of those sugar crystals - yum!

On Saturday we ventured to the Family Museum in Bettendorf, IA. I really wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be, but the boys still had a good time. We had to practically pry Simon from the toy train set! Then we found the mini fire truck and they were in love with that too. They also had a nice outdoor play area - where most of my pics were taken, thanks to my distaste for flash. I just have to get used to it some! I love the one of Jackson tying his shoe - he had such concentration and even had the tongue out a bit!!!

Costume Contest!

We went to a costume contest on the square on Sat. morning and guess what? J won for most original! A big shout out to Crystal for the costume - you are the best!!! He won a $10 gift certificate to the toy store and of course spent it right then on a big floor puzzle. Poor Si - no credit for being the bee! The other photo is of J, the boy winner, and the girl winner.

Stick with me...

I am trying to get a new look to my blog so stick with me until I get the kinks worked out! I was on a fellow blogger's site and noticed how the pics popped so much better on a dark background but...this is too blah for me so I'm working on making it more *appealing* in the near future! I do like what it does for the pictures though!

Weekend stuff

Brothers trompin' through the woods
Aren't they spiffy?
Awwww...
Looks like he is concentrating
Him too, but these are probably just shots I actually got in focus!





Okay, I don't like that last pic but can't get it deleted.

Wow - is it really 9:56p, Sunday night, already? The weekends fly by so fast. It was enjoyable - you know, the exciting Friday night of eating frozen pizza and grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, the early Sat. trip BACK to Wal-Mart for the 2 items I forgot...and then the real fun of my parent's annual wiener roast and pumpkin carve. The kids had a great time, only Si was tired early and therefore cranky. It probably doesn't help that he has a cold still. This is just a yucky time of year for that stuff. Today, we went to my bro's house to take a pic of his kids hopefully for their xmas card. My favorite one is posted. :) Then we went to Green Oaks, Knox College's biological field station, to take some pics of the boys. Needless to say, the best pics were of my niece because of course my boys weren't very cooperative. What else should I have expected, right? Oh well. I find I always get the best pics of them when I wasn't even planning on taking any. Now I need to throw in some laundry, do dishes, and go to bed. I probably should look over some class stuff too since I am meeting with a collegue tmorrow to finish up some stuff! Hope your weekend was good, and here's to a good week ahead!

Check out this pic! I just created this using my new editing program...I love it!
This is all me, start to finish!

Sights around the house this week

Brotherly love :)
What a ham!
No, Simon, those are not baseballs!

This is my lone coreopsis, hanging on until the first freeze
Our first official Jack 'o Lantern of this Halloween.

J talked Gpa Gene into carving it last weekend.

I think he tried to add some character to the face with an ink pen. :)

Tomorrow is Friday - YEAH!

I have big plans for pics this weekend, so check back.

If you don't like looking at pics of my kids, well, that's just too bad

because to me they are too darn cute and I LOVE to snap them all the time.

J already gets tired of the camera, but yet likes to take pictures himself!

This is why I need my new lens so I can sit further back and still get my good shots

without having to be up in their face.

Sorry there have been like 5 posts in 2 days, but my pics have been

in RAW and taking up so much memory that it won't let me post too

many at once, and I needed to get caught up!

Just a proposition...

Okay, by now you probably know that I am really into my new camera and taking pictures. I'm not looking necessarily to make this into a business or anything crazy like that, but if you know me, like what you see, and want some pics of your kids or fam taken, I would be happy to do it for you! I can give you the pics in digital format so you can print what you want yourself. I can even do some small editing for you if you would like. Most of all, I just want to keep taking pictures so I get better at it! I will warn you - I don't like using flash and I prefer outdoors out of direct sunlight. If interested, let me know!

I'll be posting some pics I took of the boys this week soon...

More Galena Pics

Beautiful Galena

Whoa, call the fire department! She's too hot to touch!

Love these shades of orange. The early morning light was awesome! It's unfortunate I am not more of a morning person.

That is such a lovely face Sherri :)

Come on, ladies, make a decision...

I like how this one contrasted - it caught my eye.

So today I am enjoy a nice day off from school! I am trying to get some stuff done around the house, but I decided to update this blog and Facebook, and with those combined with a playdate not much has been accomplished yet.



This weekend I went to Galena for the Country Fair. What a great time! It's like the Spoon River Drive, only a bit better. I took care of a couple of xmas presents, and enjoyed some grown-up conversation! I even honed in on my beauty skills by waxing Trish's eyebrows and lip, not to mention cutting her bangs and putting makeup on her! Isn't she smokin'???



I didn't take as many pics as I wanted to for two reasons: 1) When we were in Galena on Sat. the crowds were HORRIBLE and the sun was very BRIGHT, which you will learn I HATE when it comes to taking pictures, and 2)the colors weren't at peak yet and weren't as brilliant as I thought. Next weekend I know it will be SPECTACULAR up there! I think I will do another post of just some more pics after this one. I need to look at my pics a little closer before I do.



The boys survived fine without me, but as much as I looked forward to getting away I thought about them the entire time! Adam is perfectly capable of handling them, but still, I missed them! And now as I sit here and Si is refusing to take a nap and trying to bite the computer, I'm thinking maybe I should start planning for the getaway next year already...



Okay, busy week ahead, must go accomplish something. Adam and I will only be home together 1 night this week! Yikes!

Famous in a Small Town

So, I lied in my last post...I did take some pics at the homecoming game Fri. night, so I'll pass on a couple of those so some of my fam can have their 5 seconds of fame via the internet...I can't believe the boys are this old to be in high school! And there's Coach Bobby...or is that Robert Daniel?? :)

Hello all...

Okay, these are the only pics I really took last week. This is my brother's son...I mean, dog, Fred. Understand, Fred sits in the recliner and doesn't EVER ride in the bed of the pickup. Ooohh, no...he rides IN THE BACK SEAT. Can we say spoiled???

Yes, I made it through my class on Sat., turned in my papers, AND I'm still alive to tell! How 'bout that? Just finished up dinner and am going to get the kids ready for bed a bit early so I can watch the Prez Debate. Remember, I am a political junkie, but I will stop there and not spew my views on anyone else. I will say, though, a good website for anyone to check out is factcheck.org.

Does anyone else have a hard time believing it is this far into October already? YIKES! This weekend I am headed to Galena to take in a craft fair and hopefully some fun times with a bunch of women. I am really looking forward to feeding my addiction - that is, taking some good pics. The colors should be further along there, so we'll see what I can do.

Other than that, things are pretty fast/normal around here. Adam visited J's classroom the other day to talk about fire safety, and even had J put on his gear - he was on cloud nine! You should have seen the cute "thank-you's" that they drew for Adam!

Si bit me last night, tapping him on the mouth wasn't working, and I was to my point - you know, the one where you've had enough? So what did I do? I bit him back. Now before you go calling DCFS on me, it was on the fat part of his hand and it wasn't hard. So, Si being who he is, he looked at me funny and then proceeded to smack ME on the mouth. Okay kiddo! Now I KNOW I'm getting through to you! Little smartie!

Well, tomorrow is half-way-day! See everyone a little later...