i heart faces is hosting a photo challenge this week showing a picture using various textures. These two brothers were fun to capture. They live out on a ranch and while they were posing for the camera, their horse came up and joined our photo session. These two laid back country boys enjoy one another’s company and I think it shows…
Kelly is hosting a blog hop today about where you shop. Because my oldest three children are tall and skinny (although we love the “little fatty” just the way he is) I do a majority of their shopping at the GAP, especially for jeans. Kate and Ethan can still wear Gymboree. When I need a special outfit for Kate I normally hit one of the local boutiques, but they don’t have websites. Michael and I are addicted to the Buckle for jeans. It just doesn’t get any better than Ms. Me !!!!
However, I thought I would share with you one of my new finds! Here is Amanda (gotta love the name). Here stuff is TOO STINKIN’ CUTE!! She can make cute signs from invitations, bedspreads, decor, whatever. And she’s very reasonable. Will you stop by her blog to check her out? And go ahead and leave an encouraging comment too, please!!
Hope everyone is having a fantastic Friday. I’m preparing to shoot a wedding tomorrow so I probably won’t be back until some time next week….see ya. And happy shopping!
My husband’s father lives in California and we haven’t seen him since our wedding day, nearly 13 years ago.
Until last Friday….he came to visit. And it was the first time for him to meet all of our children. They were thrilled to meet him!
We enjoyed some bowling on Saturday. Connor is a little stinker and had more strikes and spares that Michael and I put together. I am not joking. He and Mason and had higher scores than both of us. A bit ridiculous!!
Do they look like father and son, or what?!?
This week at i heart faces we are looking at pictures of families.
Over the past few months I’ve taken quite a few family pictures, but this one really stands out to me. I love to see emotions and personalities captured in a photo….and this one shows the essence of family….
I don’t know why I’ve put this off for so long, but today I feel urged to share. So, here goes…
During my difficult pregnancy with Ethan, I developed MAJOR problems with my heart/blood pressure. It’s something they never got under control, hence the reason for his early arrival. The doctors were certain that after the pregnancy would body would return to “normal”. They were wrong.
For two years I’ve been battling with the same health issues. The doctors still couldn’t get it under control. I was tired of going to specialists. It seemed they just wanted to write another prescription. They take forever to get into. They’re expensive and they seem to want to run EVERY test ever invented, even if it doesn’t really pertain to your systems. The N.P. with my cardiologist (I was knock off his “need to see personally list) tried to suggest that I was depressed and/or having anxiety attacks. That’s a nice way to explain why I had episodes that seemed like heart attacks in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. I guess maybe I was depressed/anxious in my dreams. WHATEVER.
I started working out about 4-5 times a week over a year ago. I thought I would get healthier and loose weight. I dropped about 15 pounds, but knew I still had another 20 or so to go. The work outs helped with the blood pressure some, but not enough. I was still about 145/95. It’s been a constant battle.
Back in October after a conversation was a new friend, she suggested her doctor. He was a D.O. and helped a variety of health issues she was struggling with. He was local and covered by my insurance, and she INSISTED that he would find a way to help me. So, I figured I had nothing to loose.
After my first visit, he found a medicine that brought my blood pressure down within the normal range. I was SOOO excited! It hadn’t been that low in 2 1/2 years!!! He also helped me with a weight loss plan.
Between the month of Thanksgiving to Christmas, I lost about 25 pounds. For me, the HCG weight loss program was IT!! I dropped two sizes in my clothes, I have about triple the energy, and as of today I am no longer taking any prescriptions to regulate my blood pressure. To God be the Glory!!
And here’s what I’ve found most interesting: Yes, I was excited about loosing the weight and it’s definitely something I wanted. But what I didn’t expect were the life changes. If you’ve been a faithful reader you may need to sit down for this….I no longer drink CFA sweet tea. Nor Dr. Pepper. I like Diet Coke, and I’ve NEVER liked diet drinks in my life! A good snack to me is now apples with peanut butter! YUM! Peanut butter is actually one of my new BFF’s! Before the diet, our peanut butter would actually expire before we ate it. I’ve also found that I’m getting addicted to Sushi!!
And here’s my point in all of this…..with the new year there are many people trying to diet or loose weight. And I want to encourage you!!! KEEP GOING!! IT’S SOOO WORTH IT IN THE END!!!
I don’t know what the right diet or weight loss program is for every person. I just know what worked for me. But I do know that you have to get determined. If you don’t like what you see in the mirror (especially when your clothes are off) then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! NOW!!
I forgot what it felt like to be comfortable in your own skin, and that feeling is priceless.
I CANNOT believe I’m doing this, but they say that “the proof’s in the puddin”. Here’s a picture from this summer and one from this week….
Here are a few of the snap shots from Kate’s baptism on Sunday
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This week i heart faces is celebrating their birthday!! Congratulations Amy and Angie! We’re so glad the two of you have invested so much time and energy in this incredible site!! Wishing you another year of much success!! To celebrate, they are asking you to post your favorite face picture that you’ve taken in the past month or so.
This is Creighton. 11 year old boy who’s full of energy and a delight to photograph
Head over to i heart faces for more great photos!!
It’s been almost a month since I’ve posted. I guess I took a little blogging vacation (and Facebook, and Email…actually a COMPUTER vacation) and it was nice while it lasted. But with the start of the new year, it’s time to get back to reality. So, I’m back and it’s nice to chat with you all again.
First, we are so thrilled that our daughter, Kate, asked Jesus in her heart Wednesday night. She’ll be baptized on Sunday. And obviously, we’re thrilled!
I’m sure I’ll have more pictures to post after Sunday.
We’re slowly getting back to our daily routine. The children returned to school on Monday. We were all a little reluctant to have them return. I came down with a furious stran of strep throat over the weekend, so I wasn’t able to spend the time with them that I wanted. But, with the help of my new BFF’s (shots in the booty) I recovered quickly.
Some of you have asked to see my Christmas card, so I’ll leave with that…
Hope everyone has a Happy Friday!!
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