Happy Birthday Mamie!

Today was my mom's birthday and we celebrated by having dinner out and then back to our house for presents and cake. Here are a few pictures highlighting the evening (and the last two are pictures of Jack smelling some of her gifts). Jack always makes the funniest face when he smells things and although I wasn't able to capture the true hilarity in a photo....they still are pretty cute!

Jack & Tristan

This weekend we drove to Indiana to visit our Evansville family. Joe (Mike's son) and Kayla just welcomed their first child, Tristan, several weeks ago. So with Jack running around and little Tristan being so irresistible, we had to take a little time out for a photo shoot.

If you didn't know, Jack LOVES babies and Tristan was no different. Jack hugged, kissed and loved on baby Tristan and I'm so glad I was able to capture all the cuteness. Here are just a few of the great pictures we got....

Progress at the "Tarm"

The "tarm" deserves a little explanation...Jack can't pronounce "f"s very well so anything usually starting with an "f" sound, comes out with a "t" sound. Like "tarm", "tour....tive...six...", and so on. I think you get the idea.

So as I've stated in previous posts, Bronson has been consumed this summer with helping his dad build their new house. I've had several requests to post updated pictures, so here you go.....

Welcome to the World, Ian James!

Yesterday, our dear friends, Brittany and James Moseman welcomed their second son, Ian James. Ian was born at 3:42 pm weighing 9.5 lbs. Pictures will be forthcoming...but we are so excited to share this news and meet little Ian for ourselves!

America the Ignorant?

Every once in a while you all know I like to stray from my normal picture posting and family updates to bring you little juicy tidbits of information....and I must say, I've been itching to write a current events piece lately!


So I ran across this very interesting article on MSN that discussed dumb things Americans believe. Now I must say, this REALLY hits home for me because this happens to be a pet peeve of mine: that is people believing in things that are absolutely ridiculous...in other words, defy all reason, logic, and common sense. I hear it daily, whether it be watching the news, picking up the newspaper, or skimming the latest issue of Time Magazine.


So here it goes. Some fine reading for ALL Americans.....



1. An August 19th poll showed that 1 in 5 Americans believe that President Obama is Muslim! WOW...REALLY??!! Need I say more?


2. 4 in 10 Americans still believe that so called "Death Panels" will be making end-of-life decisions as part of the new health-care reform.


3. In a June 2007 poll, 41% of Americans still thought Saddam Hussein was responsible for the attacks on 9/11.


4. A 1999 Gallup Poll showed that 20% of Americans were still sure that the Sun revolved around the earth....I guess we haven't come that far from the 16th century!!


5. According to a 2007 Newsweek poll, just over half of Americans knew that Judaism was older than Christianity.


6. In a 2006 Newsweek poll, nearly 3/4 of Americans could name at least 2 of the 7 dwarfs while less than 1/4 of Americans could name 2 or more Supreme Court Justices.


7. 63% of young Americans can't find Iraq on a map and 90% can't find Afghanistan (even when given a map limited to Asia).


8. More than 1/3 of Americans can't identify the continent that's home to the Amazon River (the world's longest).

9. 3 in 4 Americans can correctly identify the Three Stooges while only 2 in 5 Americans can correctly list the 3 branches of government as legislative, executive and judicial.

10. According to a First Amendment Center Poll, 1 in 3 Americans believe the "freedom of religion" clause does not apply to groups that most people believe as extreme or fringe.


If this doesn't make you want to run out to the street corner and start educating any person that walks by, I don't know what does!!

Centralia Balloon Festival

Sunday morning my mom, Jack and myself got up at the crack of dawn to drive to the Centralia Balloon Festival. We had planned on going Saturday morning, but it was storming so we made the decision at 4am to skip it.

But, Jack had his heart set on seeing the "Nemo" balloon and asked me about 20 times on Saturday if we were going to see it. So, like the good mother I am, and like the good grandmother my mom is, we again got up at 4am on Sunday and took Jack to watch the balloons take off at sunrise. And even though I'm paying dearly for it today.....it was all worth seeing that big smile on his little face!!

Cade & Cash

Last night I went over to my friend, Beth's house to take some pictures of her little boys. She likes my pictures of Jack so much that she wanted me to do the same with Cade and Cash. But it worked out for both of us. Beth wanted some pictures of her boys and I wanted the experience of shooting pictures of other children than my own.

I will say that I didn't realize how much work it would be. It was like an oven yesterday, even at 6pm, so the kids were really feeling it. I also learned how difficult it is to manually shoot pictures with two moving targets (as opposed to one) all the while attempting to focus on the right spot at the right time....very tricky. Again I could have relied on my camera to do the work, but when you do it yourself, you can really get some "WOW" pictures.

But I was really pleased with the pictures we got from last night and Beth was so happy this morning she said she even teared up looking at them! That's the best compliment ever! But thank you to Beth, her parents, Cade, and Cash for letting me into your world for an evening! I hope these are pictures you can enjoy for many years to come....


(*Note: There were soooo many good pictures I would be here all day uploading, so I chose some of my personal favs and I think Beth agrees with me on most!)