Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your turkey day is FANTASTIC, bloggy friends! My seester and her fiance will arrive in the morning, and I am SERIOUSLY excited about hanging out with them over this Thanksgiving weekend. My intent was to post an intricate list of things that I am thankful for, but I am already burning the midnight oil and I'm not done cleaning yet. I shake my fist at procrastination, a deceivingly attractive friend that is always, without fail, revealed to be a sneaky little wolf in sheep's clothing. But I digress. 


I will just say that I am very blessed to live the life I live, and I am thankful for where I live, with whom I live, and that I exist for the greater purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ. My Savior died for me and made it possible for me to have eternal life in heaven with Him, something I will always be more thankful for than anything else. There is a lot more to say about that but I will keep going for now. My husband and my daughter are gifts that I don't deserve, and despite life tending to get messy, I will always treasure them. I can't help but think of all the people in the world who are in need, so much more than I am. I'm thankful for those who inspire me, encourage me, believe in me, and pray for me, for those who are dear to me and bless me every day just by being who they are. I'm thankful for those who have blazed the trails and done the hard work to make this country and our lives the way they are now. I could go on forever. Really. So I will end this in a grateful, humble, reflective mood. 


If only I didn't have to go and reflect on scrubbing the toilets. -.- Happy Thanksgiving everyone - be thankful!

PS ~ Does anyone else think that turkey looks a little worried? Or even.. sad? Gah. 

Thursday's Thrill

Oooooh do I have something to post about! This is probably not going to be as exciting for you as it is for me, but hey. This is my blog, so you get to read all about it. :p 

My love of photography goes hand in hand with my love for photo editing. If I could, I would spend endless hours sitting here, testing out different colors, brightness and contrast, blur and bloom (adding a glow effect). The fact that I currently take pictures with a point-and-shoot (one with the ability to tweak manual settings, however limited) has created the possibly bad habit of thinking ahead, processing how I might be able to edit the photo to make it look different, what sort of filters I can use with it to give it a high contrast or wistful look, etc. Similarly, I find myself lazily thinking, "I can just edit this photo later instead of trying to find the perfect camera settings at this very second." While this kind of thinking is sometimes okay, it doesn't help in furthering my skills in learning the art of fine tuning my settings or discovering what settings bring out my "signature look", so to speak. In my mind I have a "signature look", a color scheme and way I want my pictures to look. As time goes on, I really hope to be able to capture that look more from the raw picture itself than from editing. But I know that editing will always be part of the process. 

Less talking, more pic posting, right?! So, a friend from church recently told me about a photo editing program called PhotoScape. It's completely free, so I definitely recommend checking it out. I am IN LOVE with it. Like a kid at Christmas. Like a fat kid loves cake. A gigantic, delectable, melt-in-your-mouth piece of chocolate cake smothered in the best free filters and color settings I have seen yet. Last week, my wonderful photographer friend Katie did a shoot for us at Inniswoods and got some AWESOME photos. Because she knows me so well and knew what joy I would find in editing them, she gave me the raw jpgs straight out of the camera! THANK YOU KATIE! I don't want to share all of the photos quite yet because they are mostly for Christmas stuff (you will see them all eventually!), but I do want to share one of my faves of Audrey. A before and after editing. I LOVE this stuff! HEART FLUTTERS! Click for big versions! 

The original

My favorite edited version so far - I've done a few. My beautiful girl!

That's all for now. Peace! 

The Wondrously Whacky Way of Wednesdays

Eric and I have started a new tradition. Now that Audrey has begun AWANA (many posts to come about our awesome little Cubby, I'm sure! She just earned her vest and a few patches... I'm thrilled!) our wondrously new and whacky weekly Wednesday night habit is to drop her off at church and head out for date night to a nearby coffee shop, the fun and artsy Crazy Goat. A few people from church work there and a bunch hang out there, so I'd like to think we're assisting in the further development of the newest, most popular New Life Church hangout spot! Or something like that. Anyway, pics. 

This week happened to be an event called Creepside, a family halloween gathering held on the main street of Gahanna where Crazy Goat is located, a spot otherwise known as Creekside. There were some interesting costumes, including a fully costumed Scooby Doo band and a rabbit that looked normal when I first saw it from behind, only to make me shudder a bit when I saw the view from the front. 

 

Even plastic mice make friends at Creepside.

We officially decided that our next dog will be a great dane. Her name shall be Bessy. Not to be mistaken for a cow or small horse.

Fun times. Yay for new traditions!

Indian Summer

 Our yard is in desperate need of some attention. I spent most of the afternoon trimming the bushes and tearing down climbing rose vines out front, while Audrey decorated the driveway with chalk, baby in tow. The weather was absolutely perfect today, high 70's with a balmy breeze - impossible not to want to be out in the sunshine. It's the summer we didn't get to have this year, but in October! I wish these indian summer days would last forever. (Click for big versions of photos!)

I love this little girl so much. I don't often stop and just sit and listen to her (she talks a lot, but often has lovely, funny, and surprisingly insightful things to say), simply spending time without always having to be DOING something. Either way, mental note: must spend more time with her. Sometimes I need to just forget my long list of to-do's! Time is flying by much too quickly, and before I know it Audrey will be in high school. Going to prom. Or college. OMG. Stopping that train of thought right now.

Such a beauty.

During my outdoor excursion, I found the most adorable little birds nest in a tree near the house. It was empty, but still cute.

I love this purple ground cover. It kinda takes over the grass, so I imagine a lot of people don't like it, but it's cool on your feet on a hot summer day and the color is beautiful.

I take a ton of pictures, as often as I can. I won't ever post them all, otherwise my blogs would be pages long and Blogger's image storage wouldn't hold them all. Speaking of which, I REALLY need to get an external hard drive for my computer... My poor little 160 gig hard drive is almost full, and a lot of that is taken up by pictures. Be happy I didn't take pictures of my poor shredded hands after tearing down climbing rose vines all afternoon! Geesh - ouchies.

I finally blogged a bit, and that is more than I can say for the past few months. My work here is done. Good night bloggy bloggers!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

We've been having fun and enjoying the fall! Here are some peeks!

Dressing up in costumes for halloween play date! What fun. We love our friends!

Audrey was very upset about putting the kitty costume on that we borrowed from Emma. She was SO ADORABLE in it, however, that I could not resist.

She eventually got over it and was even rewarded for not whining anymore. She enjoyed being a kitty for the rest of the morning!

Abby and Nolan, who didn't mind being in his costume, but didn't want to have his picture taken with the rest of the kids! Proof below!

Angie and her beautiful kiddies, Mallory and Joey!

Zoo time with our friends Abby and Nolan! We so enjoy hanging out with them!

Audrey and Daddy snuggles!

Sasha and Daddy snuggles!

Audrey and Mommy snuggles! Snuggles all around!

One more random photo, this time of Audrey unpacking the diaper bag as she does so often, and Gabby investigating the contents. :)

That's all for now from this crazy household!

Oot and Aboot

Audrey and I enjoyed the cool fall weather today. She loves the playground and I love the walks, so it works out. :)

Audrey recently got a package from her Great Grams Thiessen! She LOVES the Tinkerbell jammies! (and the Dora doll not pictured. She will love the pretty pink photo book as well when I can find some pics to put in it!) We love you Grams!!!

Snippets From Recently

Just a few random pics from around here lately!

It's getting chilly and FALL IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention Fall is here? OH because Fall is here! Did I mention I love it?? I am ecstatic and loving the cooler weather. Yep, in case you didn't catch that, Fall is here and I love it. Hopefully I'll have some fall pics to post soon! I still need to get my fall decorations out... yeesh... what a slacker.

This is what happens when the closet door in Audrey's room is left open (It took me at least twenty minutes of being stubborn and insisting that she pick it all up before she actually did):

Sasha has been extra snuggly lately:

Feeling the rain:

After the rain:

Being silly:

and snuggly:

and fun:

and stylish:

Just a few fun shots. Have a great weekend everyone! We'll be in Williamsburg with my brother in law and his wife, so looking forward to it!