164/365

Granddaughter and Great-granddaughter

We went to the lake today.  It was overcast and just the right temperature for a ride on the boat.

The little one was getting tired so she was snuggling with her mom.

She just turned one last week. She's adorable but I haven't seen her enough for her to be used to me yet.

156/365

Happy Birthday

From left to right:  mama, one-year-old, grandpa and grandpa's mom.

It didn't rain until after the party was over.

155/365

Great-Grand Baby

This is my first great-grand baby.  She's just turned one.  

She's adorable and she's very expressive. She's not used to me yet, and I probably won't see her again for another year, but that's what happens when you live across the country.

131/365

Baby Quilt

When I only had 3 grand babies and a lot of time on my hands, I decided I'd make each of them a single-bed-sized quilt when they turned 2.  Well, I have 7 little ones right now, but there are only 3 under 2 years.  One of them has a birthday at the end of May, so I got busy and made this quilt for him.  

(There are 2 more who will turn 2 and a great grand baby who will be 2 a year from July.)

I mailed it to him (he's in Alaska) the other day so it should arrive on time.

279/365

New Baby, New Portrait

Things were going along pretty well with this family portrait session until the little guy decided to have a melt-down. The big guy was doing a great job holding him in spite

of the wee one losing his patience.

For some reason, I really like this particular image.  

There were other images that might be more appealing, but I like the reality of this one.

I don't know which images the mom will choose, but this is still high on my list of favorites. 

096/365

Baby Girl Quilt

My granddaughter is having her first baby in June.  The parents are both super-excited. 

It's my first great grandchild.

I've been making quilts for all the new babies in the family.

I hope she likes this one.  

51/365

Headstone

On the way home from our photo journey today we stopped at a cemetery and spent some time there looking for military headstones.

It was quite a large cemetery. We only searched one corner of it for stones that were of military members.  Sadly we also saw some headstones of babies, some who died at birth, some who were months old, some who were around two.   The heartbreak that the parents endured must have been awful.

When I saw this stone I cried...and I honestly couldn't speak for a few minutes when I saw the others.

205/366

Baby Portrait

Today's half of the Maternity/Baby Portrait workshop we had a 10-day-old newborn and the family.

The students had the chance to photograph the infant.

What a precious baby and what a great keepsake this will be for the family.

174/366

Hanging Baby Clothes

I was at my daughter's the other day and was changing her 1-year old.  It's been a while since I've been in that room, so this was the first time I saw this sweet site.  

My daughter is a little more creative than I am, so I was really impressed with this decor.

I only had my cell phone with me so the quality isn't great. 

I just love this.

My heart is grateful that:

my kids are more creative than I am

213/365

Hope for the Future

This is a small section of a beautiful sculpture seen on the campus of the Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX.  The entire sculpture is of a mom and dad kneeling on each side of the baby, holding her skyward.  The inscription plate reads:

Hope for the Future

Gift to ACU from

Mr & Mrs Gayole Potter & others

1989

I'm grateful for:

The hope we have in God's providence for our future

119/365

Newborn Session

I'm trying to play catch-up by posting more than one pic a day since I didn't post for about 5 days due to my role as au pair this past weekend.  I felt like I had no life while I was chasing after 3 littles from dawn to dusk, and then had to attend to one, two or three of them throughout the night.

So this is a throwback image of one of them from a few years ago.  Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be a newborn photographer, then I came to my senses and decided I preferred architecture.  I still like capturing images of children, but I'm older, get more tired, and I don't really have the patience needed to deal with ill-behaved children.

This morning my heart is grateful for:

being able to sit on the patio, working, in the cool of the morning before starting my day

Hello  2023

1/365

Hand Made Baby Blocks

There might be a new grandbaby in the relatively 

near future (not yet though).  

My last unmarried child married in 2022.   

These blocks are the entire alphabet with a pic for each letter. They take a long time to make so as soon as they announced the wedding date I decided to get a head start on them and have them ready.

There's also a grandson who's getting married later this year, so I guess I should get started on another set. Even though they're time-consuming, I'm happy to make them because it helps me stay busy in the evening when there aren't any meetings to attend.  

Almost Year's End

5/365

"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written".  Jn 21:25

I was just looking back on the posts from this year, a paltry 4 before this one.  I can hardly believe that's all I posted.  Where has the year gone?  And how bad of me that I didn't post more!  And just 4 posts in spite of my determination to post at least once a week.  Ooops.

So much has happened this year both good and sad.  I stayed in NY last winter for the first time in 10 years.  It was nasty cold with a lot of snow, but my hiking buddies and I managed to get out to snowshoe or use spikes almost once a week, which made the winter a little more tolerable. 

This Fall we continued finding trails and the one below is one of the last hikes we did before the weather turned snowy.

Last April my youngest daughter and her husband were blessed with their firstborn child.  James made his arrival three weeks early but completely healthy and happy.  The parents are over the moon.

8 months in this picture

In May my oldest grandson graduated from college.

         This past summer one of our hiking buddies passed away after a 2-year long struggle with bone cancer.  I was out of state at the time.  We think about her every time we hike.  She is missed.

In early October I attended my 50th College Reunion in Jamestown, ND.  I hadn't been back or seen anyone from my class in all those years.    Everyone reconnected so easily and we had such a great time.  It was a bittersweet weekend.

           In late November my second oldest grandson began his BB season so I spend a lot of time attending his games.  After this year's season there are only two more seasons to go.  That is, until the little guy starts sports.

 

 That's a quick review of the past year.  In between the big events were all the mundane activities that make up a life.  Sometimes those mundane things seem bothersome or annoying or pointless.  When I feel that way I try to remember how much I'm blessed 

*with good health

*with family

*with adequate finances

*with friends

*with a nice home

*and on it goes

Basically I try to keep things in perspective.  

Hanging at the Beach

I spent the afternoon at the beach. I wasn't on Honu duty, but that's the beach I went to. It's a great opportunity to meet the other volunteers that I haven't met yet. It was a beautiful day, there were two turtles basking and there were plenty of tourists to "watch".

This little girl is just adorable. Another "I just couldn't resist" image.

I brought my blocks to play with. One of the volunteers brought her teenage daughter, also a volunteer, and she crafted this sand turtle. Why waste a good turtle?

Another idea for the blocks.

This guy is mimicking the turtle and his girlfriend decided to pose with him.

This baby was soooo cute. He slept through everything, even his dad switching him from shoulder to shoulder. He was totally out of it.

Posted at 9:30 pm on Wed, Feb 5, 2009

Baby Blocks

As I mentioned before Christmas, I love wooden alphabet blocks. This was another day that almost got away from me, photographically speaking. When I took the baby for a walk, I took my camera too, but this is a really boring neighborhood. After putting the baby to bed, it occurred to me that I still didn't have a post. Sigh.

Then I remembered that I had these borrowed blocks in my car. So out to the car I went, and this is the result. I hated using the flash, but it's dark already, so flash it is. I wanted to make some creative adjustments to the image, but since I'm using a new version of Elements and I don't yet have the instruction manual, and I didn't want to spend all night trying to find the right buttons to push, those adjustments will have to wait.

Posted at 7 pm on Monday, January 27, 2009