The big outdoors, and cows

As I mentioned previously, I have yet to take a picture of myself outside. I do have many reasons for this. It has been raining or snowing a lot. It is dark when I get around to taking pictures. I just am not that great of a planner. So this weekend I ended up doing something about that trend. I stepped out my back door and snapped a picture. At least this way you can see that I am not lieing about the snow :) My grandmother said something nice this weekend. She said that my face is getting thinner. And looking at this picture, I think I agree!

Eli hasn't been feeling well for the past couple of days, so this picture is daddy and Eli playing with cows. You would not believe how many stuffed cows we have in our house. My children are big fans. Actually, Noah loves cows, and he drug out all the cows to play with.
See, more cows! This is Noah getting ready to body slam this poor beast.

Floor pictures and hair

Well, I am not keeping up with my photos! These were from the weekend. I like this picture of my boys on the floor. They were very good sports and agreed to pile up on the floor for a picture.

This is a picture of my hair. It was actually not in a ponytail for a day, so I thought a picture would be nice to commemorate the event. Speaking of hair, I have decided to let it grow out. Again. We will see how long it lasts, because I do get bored with it and want to chop it off. Frequently. I have also switched from using shampoo from the store to using all natural stuff found in my home. I think it is looking much healthier!

2 more days of photos

Here is yet another picture of Josh cooking dinner. I had another picture that I wanted to use instead, but it came out blurry. He was smiling like Eli does with his eyes closed. Super cute.
This is a picture of the boys wrestling around together. It is so neat to see them playing with each other more. Eli is very protective of his little brother. They are the best kiddos ever.
This is my artistic picture of how I feel when I get done doing the 30 day shred video. That woman kicks my butt. So I usually just want to take a nap. That doesn't happen though, and eventually I am sure it will all pay off.
Yet another picture of Josh cooking dinner. I promise you, he does other things as well. But he is the designated fish cooker, and that is a bag of frozen fish, therefore he is the dinner cooker of the day.
Here is a picture of Eli sitting at daddy's desk. I might add that he is not supposed to sitting at daddy's desk, but he does anyway. He looks so grown up here.
This is an action shot of Noah. He and his brother love to race through the house at night, from the living room to the kitchen and back again. I love this picture, so cute.

And lastly, here is a picture of me and my calander. It was a free calander that I got in the mail, but it is an Oregon farm calander so it will work. I thought it would look cool to have the cows looking over my shoulder. In looking back at my photos, I realized that I need more outdoor pictures, so here is my first almost attempt. Or not...

So I am going to write below my photos for this post because they won't move down. And they are kinda out of order. This was the Sunday picture of Josh. It looks cool, like he has a halo above him. He was helping make dinner, making potato wedges to go with my salmon patties. Everything was really good, but Josh's potatos usually are delicious anyway.
This is Noah's effort to help with dinner. He likes to play in the fridge whenever it is open. Even though it looks like he is trying to close it, really he is just planning how to climb the glass shelves.
This is me checking eli. Actually, I had already checked him, found him to be in a postion to take a super cute picture, went to get the camera, found he wasn't in the same postition, and then staged this picture. But I like it. Little dude took a nap on his own on the top bunk.
Here is the way I found him.
Here is Saturday's pictures. I just got my old desk out of my spot, and a new to me desk put in. This is an awesome roll top desk that belongs to my grandma. She wanted to change her desk area, so I benefited by getting this neato desk. Now everything is organized and put away, and it only took getting a new desk to do it!
This is a picture of Josh eating dinner. I love capturing Josh and the boys at the table because they are always doing something really cute.
Like simply drinking milk and laughing.
Or telling me how much they dislike the orange chicken we tried this weekend. Which was actually very good, but Eli's tastes differ from the rest of the family. As in he will only eat bread and cereal willingly.
This is Eli being a zombie playing a game. And this is the reason his game time is limited now.
Here is Noah, being a cutie pants. He is a riot. My little stand up comedian.
These are pictures from Friday. Like I said, I love to take a picture of the boys when they are at the table. They are just adorable to watch. Josh is so good with his boys, and they totally love him back.
This is my picture. Different....
And the last one is Eli being silly. I cannot even explain how silly this boy can be at times. He is such a young adult sometimes, that when he starts acting like a clown it seems twice as funny.

See, I was good and did my photos all weekend, but was just lazy when it came to posting them. These are numbers 22, 23, and 24 of the project. I am pretty impressed that I have come this far. It is getting to be a way of thinking, even for Josh. "Oh look, Eli/Noah is doing something cute, get the camera." We have captured many cute moments as a result of this project, and for that I am grateful.

Darn it

I failed to take any pictures yesterday. I know, not even a month into the gig and I am already failing. But the good news is that I shall not fail today. I must remember to take our pictures today. It is friday, and should be a reason to celebrate! So I will celebrate, and photograph that celebration. Hopefully.......

Mommy love

Noah is one funny little dude. He is absolutely in love with cows. And horses, and dogs and so on. Recently he became a junior member of the American Shorthorn Assn. and so he gets a years subscription to their magazine. We brought it home from grandma's house the other day and this child cannot get enough of this magazine. He is stinkin adorable!
This was a cute picture of Eli giving me a big smooch. I love this picture.
Here is daddy cooking a delicious dinner for us. Garlic toast, yum;)
Noah again, showing me the moooos.
And this is little dude not wanting to take off his new hat. They are a big hit around here.

Dentist and hats

Even though today was a workday, I didn't work because Eli and I had a dentist appointment today. It extended a super awesome long weekend by another day and was really nice. Eli had his very first dentist appointment ever, and the doc said he had perfect teeth. Mommy also had nice teeth, considering I haven't been to see a dentist in more than a year.

Today we got a package in the mail containing some completely handmade hats from my sis for the boys. They are so precious. And my children look stunning in them. They actually haven't really wanted to take them off yet. This is a super cute picture of all my boys together. I find that I am not very creative when it comes to staging my pictures. This is a photo of me in my kitchen, where I love to be. I do think that I am beginning to actually look like I am losing weight now. That is promising!

Toilet hero

MLK day rocked the Ward house. I have a toilet that runs water nearly constantly. It has bugged me for some time, but I haven't done anything about it until yesterday when we were randomly in Big R for another toilet part. The kit to fix it cost a mere 13 dollars. So, after 2 trips to the store and some fairly easy work, my toilet no longer runs water. And it is very sparkly as well. Sis, you may now come and visit because my toilet is clean.

On to the photos. Here is the world famous Noah face. He is so funny when he does this. He usually does the face on cue from his bro bro. Also, all photos were taken in the bathroom with the fixed toilet.This is the Eli impression of the Noah face.
This is the toilet fix it team.
And sadly, this is the only picture that got taken the day before. So I am one down on the project. I am going to chose not to beat myself up about the mistake, and instead continue on with the project. This picture captured the boys eating breakfast. They now eat together on the bench.

Saturday

Today has been a wonderful day. I do love my weekends, as I am sure everyone does. Right now I smell dinner cooking, and can't think of anywhere else I would rather be.

Yesterday Josh and I went to a friends house to hang out and play board games. We had the most wonderful time. It is so nice to just enjoy the company of friends. His mom was kind enough to babysit for us as we were very late getting back. Sharon ended up going out to visit grandma with us this morning. It was really nice.

Here is two days worth of pictures. This first one shows Noah mesmerized by the tv while daddy is reaching to pinch his cheeks. Adorable.
This is a picture of me knitting and Eli in the background asking to play his game. I messed around with it and like the feel of it. It seems dreamlike to me.
This is yesterday's photo. Eli is wrestling with his dad. I love his new stripped pjs, so cute.
This is Noah eating the cookie dough spoon. It is so funny when he gets to lick the spoon.
Here is my photo from yesterday. I almost think that I am getting thinner, even if it is just a little bit.

Catch up post

This is going to be a catch-up post for photos. These first pictures are from last night. Josh was busy doing homework on his nifty little netbook, santa gave that to him for Christmas.
This is a cheating photo. I failed to get photos of the boys before bedtime, so this is a funky edited picture of my finger pointing to my children who are upstairs in bed. My ghost finger. When they start giving photoshop away, i will be the first in line. Otherwise it is cheap photo editing software for me!
This was an over-exposed picture of me and Josh the night before last. Same thing goes about the cheap software. I look funny here, but Josh sure looks slim!
This is my darling son. He was pissed for some unknown reason. But it is a cute photo anyways. Look at all these teeth!
These two photos are super cute. Eli is trying to copy me with his self portraits. I am impressed with my little photographer. He might have to be my sister's apprentice if he keeps this up!

Feels like spring

We are nearing the middle of January here in the high desert. That typically means that there is a lot of snow and ice, or at least frigid temperatures to remind us that winter still has a firm hold on us. That is just not the case the past couple of days. We have had rain, yes I did say rain, for two days in a row here, and two nights as well. It feels like the valley over here. I am a huge fan of snow personally, so this almost feels like he who controls the weather is out to get me!

The spring weather has also got me wondering, should I be planting seeds inside yet? Last year was the first big garden for me, as we got a fence built to keep out the pesky town deer. And my garden did pretty good for my first ever. But I have grand plans this year. I want it to be even better. I know part of that would be to weed the thing some more. But I do want to have several more raised beds and grow different things. And my big goal this year is to do it all from seed. Seeds that I planted. So I am getting anxious to start some seeds, even though I know that it is way too early.

I guess it is never too early to start planning though, right?

I did get my photos taken yesterday, just not posted. Because I refuse to pay to do the 365 on the actual 365 site, I am going to allow myself some leeway to post pictures every couple of days if I need to. I will still take them every day, but for quality of posting, I will do it at a time that I am not feeling rushed. Stay tuned!

Back to work

Today was a typical monday for me. I had a long morning followed by an encounter with someone at the post office. Someone had to make a comment on my coat, stating that he had paid for it as a taxpayer. Nothing annoys me more.

This picture is so cute. This is Eli taking a picture of us. I am in love with this one, for sure a new favorite.

A nice day with my family

Today just happened to be my grandma's birthday. We have a very full birthday month in January, as Eli shares his birthday with his Aunt Roquie, and then Grandma has a birthday the next day. So we went out and wished Grandma a happy birthday, then we came home and had a rest before Eli went to the movies with Aunty Mo and Grandma. I got a couple of hours to chat with my friends over coffee and Josh the wonderful shampooed our carpet. All in all a wonderful day.

Believe it or not, this is the Daddy before the carpet cleaning. He got a much needed but much too short nap this afternoon.

Here are the boys this morning eating their breakfast. Noah is too big to sit in his high chair and so he now joins Eli at the bench.
Here is me, feeling a lot better, before we went to visit grandma. I almost think this is a decent picture of myself!