Me to You

A Little Advent Music Anyone?

December 4, 2008

When I was pulling out Christmas decorations from the storage closet I came across a box of pictures…perfect for my weekly blast from the past post. (I’ve got a few more set aside for the upcoming weeks).

If you notice, there is a Christmas tree in the background here. Every week my family did an advent devotional on Sunday evenings. We’d read a passage of Scripture, light the candle and sing some Christmas carols.

Once I started to play the flute in fourth grade, I wanted to accompany the family in our advent singing.

And my incredibly gracious and loving family obliged me.

Those of you who have had the pleasure of listening to beginners band can get a picture.

So they sang along slowly as I accompanied them. In high school I started playing the flugal horn and again asked my family if I could play along with them. And again they patiently put up with my pitiful accompaniment. Cute when I was 9, but in ninth grade….hmm…

I look back on the days with fond memories. My family wasn’t the Von Trapp Family by any stretch. But still we sang out praises to our Lord and made memories to cherish for years to come. I hope my kids can say the same of their growing up years.

Check out Kristen’s Fro’ Me to You post, for more tales of Christmases past.

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Hang on…

December 4, 2008

in Me to You

Today I spent my “down time” working on some Christmas projects which needed to be finished so I could get them ordered and shipped. Then, I went about figuring out our Christmas card and ordering them.

Because, No… I have not mailed my Christmas cards.

And until 5 minutes ago, I hadn’t even ordered them from Winkflash

Which means I have yet to address them or write our Christmas letter.

Yea….I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me!

I did, however, get our fall decorations put away today and cranked up the Christmas tunes while putting out my Christmas decorations.

All this to say, I don’t have my Fro’ Me to You post up yet…check back Thursday afternoon. I hope to work on it during nap time.

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If Only…

November 19, 2008

in Circus Shots,Me to You

The kids and I took a nature walk last week. As we walked along the path, I realized we had necessary elements for some great pictures.

1. Happy Kids

2. Setting sun

3. Fall leaves

However, we forgot the photographer.

After frolicking along the path gathering leaves and sticks, I noticed that the suns rays were really quite beautiful. I remembered Scott saying that one of the best times of days to get pictures is before sunset. “Perfect, I thought.”

I sat the kids down on a bench at one of the “exercise stops” on the walking path. You were supposed to do sit ups here. My son saw the curved bar and thought he knew what to do. Before I could even think about stopping him, he had flipped over the bar and landed hard on his poor little noggin. But, I had just set the girls down for the phot opp at the same instant and I knew time was of the essence.

Poor guy didn’t even have time to recover before Mom started snapping pictures. And the girls weren’t exactly ready either.

OK…I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I proceeded to snap 28 pictures of them sitting in this pose. They were pretty agreeable and not bouncing all over the place, which is rare for a photo opp, so I went a little over board. (check out the shell shocked look on my baby girl’s face)!

I then started second guessing myself…was this the right spot? Where do I want the sun? At my back? On my side? “Oh, how I wish Scott was here…”

I tried switching angles…

No, this is def not right… having the subjects face the sun is def a bad idea… poor kids!

Hmm, what about this way?

Might have worked, but Momma pushed her luck. They were done with the sitting patiently on the bench routine.

Guess I better get a few pointers before my next attempt at amateur photography. Check out THAT Family for more photographic laughs!

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The Sign Pics Just Keep Getting Better

November 13, 2008

in Me to You

After posting last week’s goofy national park pics, many of you commented that you looked forward to the day we included the kids in these shots.

Well, wait no longer…

It only took 18 mths for us to bring our son on his first national park trip.

Much like the beginning of our first trip, this pose was quite normal. Here we are in Acadia National Park.

The next summer we had a two and half year old and a 7 month old. Our son fell asleep in the car after a day of hiking in the park. Unfortunately, we were only in this park that one day. So, if we didn’t get the sign picture on our way out, we wouldn’t have it. We had no choice but to take our sleeping child out of the car to pose for our pic. (He stayed asleep the whole time until we put him back in the car seat).

And the next year, we went camping with our 3 and half year old, 1 and a half year old, and 2 and a half month old. No need for funny poses now. Getting all 5 of us in the shot creates enough fun poses in and of itself.

He’s fast, but not quite fast enough.

The older two had a blast playing while Mommy and Daddy figured out the best place to set up the camera.

This pose was destined for a Fro’ Me to You post… My husband is straining to hold our middle child while she fights him, I am blinking, and my son is pointing to the sign with such enthusiasm….making sure none of us miss it!

These next few pictures are from the same trip, but a different park.

My son is checking out the park sign. (Dear son, you will spend many, many moments over your lifetime waiting in front of these signs for us to take our family photo)!

And here another Fro’ Me to You moment…

I am sure as we grow, the pics will just get better…though none can come close to my prairie dog pose!

Check out We Are THAT Family for the Fro’ Me to You Carnival, and many more photos that don’t belong in a scrapbook!

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One Too Many Park Signs

November 5, 2008

in Me to You

When we’d been married a little over a year when we set out on a cross country vacation to take in National Parks, a few new cities, time with family, and a visit with friends. Because we are scrapbook geeks or maybe just geeks, we decided it would be fun to pose in front of each national park sign.

At first we posed like normal people, you know arm around each other all cute and coupley…

But 7 days and who knows how many miles later and we thought it would be fun to pose creatively… (get it we “are the arch” with the real arch inside)

Once this crazy theme started, it just got worse with each additional hour riding in the car…. (Here we are posing as a mountain at Rocky Mt National park, before digital cameras hence the only pic we took was a fuzzy one).

Yes, it really can get worse…. as we do our Mt Rushmore impersonation…

But the worse was by far Wind Cave National Park. As we drove through Wind Cave all we saw were buffalo and prairie dogs. (Turns out the real attraction at the park was the caves underneath, which we somehow missed). I am not sure which one of us came up with this great idea, but we thought to “keep it fun” we’d pose as a buffalo and prairie dog in front of the park sign.

Because we are THAT cool!

The worst part is we’ve kept up on our ambition to visit every National Park and we have a frame in our guest room which holds each National Park sign photo. So, yes when friends and family come to visit they get to see this shockingly scary photo of me posing as a prairie dog.

For more photos that shouldn’t be shared with the world, check out THAT family’s weekly carnival.

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Scary Costumes of Halloweens Past

October 29, 2008

in Me to You

This week the assignment for THAT Family’s carnival, was to post a scary pic from the past. So, I started looking through some old Halloween photos trying to find just the right one…

I was never much into scary, though I did sport a mask in this costume when I was 4 or 5.

My son however, seems to take the prize for his scary costumes…

Here he is at 6 mths sporting his ferocious dragon attire. (If you look closely, you can see that laundry has never been high on my to do list).

The next year the Ravens were playing the Steelers on Halloween Night for Monday Night Football. What would be more scary to wear in Maryland, then a Ben Roethlisberger jersey? He had those Ravens fans trembling!