It's Christmas Eve ~

It is Christmas Eve and we are all ready for Grammy!

I think Michael is more excited about Grammy's arrival than Santa's...

Soon we'll be on our way to Austin to meet Grammy's plane and Michael has a Huge Hug waiting for her....

We had to check out the world map...first we had to see where Grammy was flying...will she meet Santa on her flight...hmmm...Maybe she'll see him out her window....he is excited for Katie in Australia as he knows Santa has already arrived at her house...We have to hurry and bring Grammy home from the airport so we can put the cookies out for Santa...Oh and he's promised Grammy one of the cookies...We are looking forward to having Grammy here for Christmas and it looks like it is going to be a bright beautiful day too!!

I was able to get a few photos of the tree tonight and I hope in the next few days to be able to play a little bit...everything is done and it's time to relax and enjoy the Holiday!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Christmas with Fred's Family ~ 2008

We celebrated Christmas with Fred's family this past Saturday!

It was not well planned as the Dallas Cowboys were playing at the same time and if you know anything about this family...Every thing STOPS for a Cowboy game...that is including opening Christmas presents...the children were none to pleased by the circumstances!! Nope not happy at all....

Of course this young man wasn't upset about not opening presents he was giving me and my camera the evil eye...but as you all know that doesn't stop me from taking photos, lol!!

Here they are...well the ones I could fit in the photo watching the game!! See how serious they are...very dedicated Cowboys fans here...Not even the flash from the camera disturbs them!!

Here is the tree with all the gifts piled under it....

During a commercial I was summoned to take a photo of 4 generations...

Grandpa, Andy, Cheyanne, and Frankie.

And here's that little Angel with such a sweet smile!! Yes they even had her decked out in a Dallas Cowboy outfit...She just has no idea what she has to look forward too!! Nope not a clue!

Finally we interrupted the game...The kids were able to open presents and they had a GREAT time ripping into them....it was that or have a full scale riot on our hands...

Frankie received the gag gift of the night...A pocket size can of WD-40 so he would stop squeaking...(he complains all the time that his body hurts!), LOL...So maybe he'll stop squeaking now.......Maybe!

There are a few more photos on my flickr site if you'd like to see more...I actually didn't take too many photos, everyone was hiding from the camera and I decided not to chase them down!!

Misc. Photos from December 20th ~

When I'm feeling a bit blue I grab the camera for some photo therapy...Saturday I wasn't feeling very blue but just a bit overwhelmed...So I decided to grab the camera and wander the house on a photo safari....This is what I found!

I cheated this year...yep sure did...found these gorgeous cookies in town and bought a whole bunch....aren't they fabulous!!

My Christmas Cactus decided to bless me this year, at Christmas time too!! This is one bloom of many...Stay tuned as I hope to dissect it with my Macro lens soon!!

Our beautiful Sweetheart, Jake! He's never far away and always watching me with whatever I am doing....

Okay these were taken in the truck! We were on our way over to the Naranjo Christmas Celebration and I had put a Ray Charles Christmas CD in the player and Michael was playing the air guitar, lol...He was jamming away!!

LOL....little IMP!!

Hopefully in the next day or two I will find the time to edit the Naranjo Christmas photos!! We had a great time with plenty of laughter and love!

Thanks for stopping by and we hope y'all are having a great Holiday Season!!

3 days to Grammy's arrival, Yea!!

Last night before we left for the Christmas program I asked Michael if he would pose for me in front of the Christmas tree and he agreed, Yippee!

Just one thing he had to start off acting silly...after Momma whined and whined (In a mans eye that would have been nagging!) he finally stopped being so silly...sigh! BOYS!!

You have to admit he does make you laugh and he is kind of cute :o)

Then yesterday I downloaded a bunch of Quick Digi Layouts from Scrapstreet and I thought oh cool I can put some of these photos in the layouts....

I think this one is my favorite!!

I'm telling y'all that Quick Pages are the way to go if you are not the greatest scrap artist in the world...I certainly could use all the help I could get...and for those of you that want to scrap layouts but are clueless here you go...(hint hint Kelly and Erin, lol). You just pop your photo on the page and TaaDaa you have a Layout!!

My Dear Friend Helen (Aussie Helen) did the word art for these terrific layouts...If you would like the Quick Pages you can go to Scrapstreet.com and check them out!! There is a link over there to your left you can click on to get to the online magazine...

Thank you Scrapstreet ladies for your wonderful work!

Michael had his first Christmas Program at School Tonight!

He was so cute and not to happy! He didn't want to be on stage with all those people staring at him, lol...poor thing! When he first got up there he was scowling and you could see he was looking all over for me...He finally spotted me. I blew him a kiss and he smiled and got on with the show! I was one very PROUD Mamma!

I also want everyone's opinion for a video program. I use to use Windows Movie Maker and really liked it...it was very easy to use. But when I loaded PSE7 on my computer I was unable to use the slideshow feature. I found out that in PSE7 the slideshow program has a conflict with Windows Movie Maker...grrr! So I had to uninstall Windows Movie Maker. Tonight I used Adobe Premiere Elements 4 to make the video but I don't like it...I would like to know what programs y'all use to render your videos for the internet...Please let me know I need a different program and something easy!

Here we go again.....

I sat in the truck this morning after dropping Michael off at school and watched the temperature drop from 65 degrees F. to 45 degrees F. in 20 minutes, Brrrrrrrrrr!

It's funny as one minute you have the air conditioning running and the next the heater is kicking on...sounds like a good day to go back to bed if you ask me!!

I spent a few minutes down at the property this morning checking on the Jersey cow (yes she is still there) and the calf. It seems the calf was not the tiger stripped cow's (she is not there) but the Jersey's...but then I haven't seen him nurse so I don't have a clue! Oh and Shhh, don't tell Fred but I've been feeding her alfalfa cubes and making sure she has water, lol. I'm praying no one comes to claim her as I think my heart has been lost...I've even, kind of, named her, lol...Belle fits her...and the calf well I named him too...ekk...Ferdinand! I am such a sucker and probably fix'in to get my heart broken too! Ahh well live for the moment!

Yesterday while I was outside watering the plants I saw this little skink (below). He was beautiful and I loved his glimmering gold color. They're pretty quick and don't normally stay out in the open for long...I watched him for awhile and then decided to run for the camera! When I came back out with the camera I managed to find him and coerce him (filling the area up with water works well) back out into the open. I was snapping away and took a quick glance at the photos, ugh!! My camera settings were all wrong, Grrr...I hate when I do that!! I got two more photos and then he was gone...I was so disgusted as I wanted to get him in clear focus and also capture his beautiful colors...Below is the only photo I managed where you could at least see him, lol...Lesson learned, ALWAYS check your camera settings when you start taking photos!!

Skinks kind of look like itty bitty snakes with legs but I think they are related to the Salamanders...They're quick and move with a slithering motion...and I've never met an ugly one either, lol...Their colors are beautiful! They will startle you at first and yes I've jumped a few times upon spotting them as I thought they were a snake at first glance! From what my amphibian books says this is a "Ground Skink"...Thanks again to my sister Karen for the Amphibian book as now I can try to identify the creepy crawling critters I find! And give you all a boring lesson on them too, (grin)!

Have a bright beautiful (warm) day!

Hibiscus ~ Macro

Earlier today I had plucked a Hibiscus bloom off of one of my plants and stuck it in a vase. I was staring at it tonight and thought why not!! I decided to dissect it with my Macro lens! Fred was watching the Cowboys game and Michael was in the land of nod...so 50 photos later this is what I came up with...Kind of interesting! Now lets see if I can name the different parts correctly...My Mother will correct me if I am wrong (grin)!

Petal


Pistil

Stamen with Pollen grains.

Bottom of the Pistil with pieces of pollen grains.

If you really want to get up close click on the photo!

So Mom did I name everything correctly? I had fun and was really awed by the pollen grains. I didn't realize that they looked like itty bitty globes...cool! Of course it's not like I can see them with the naked eye either...