orange in every picture

Clothed in orange and black in honor of Daddy Buck’s late grandmother whose birthday was on Halloween, Daddy Buck’s sister’s family, the boys and I participated in the Capital Area Alzheimer’s Walk on Saturday morning.

Following a scare in which Buck-a-roo was separated from us in the crowd of 5000+ for a few brief, yet horribly terrifying 3 minutes or so, Buck-a-roo completed the walk hand-in-hand with me while Frank-o rode almostentirelypeacefully strolled by his grandmother.

Soon thereafter, our sister-in-law, nieces, and nephew crossed the finish line to join their dad as he finished the 5K run.

We were full of smiles (and sweat) and proud of our taking the time out of our Saturday morning to raise awareness and money for a debilitating disease, full-knowing that Grandmother was with us in spirit.

Halloween is becoming a highly anticipated holiday around our house. Typically it is not in my nature to promote the gruesome ghouls, goblins, and Grim Reapers that can be associated with Halloween-time; instead I lean toward the grinning ghosts and jovial Jack-o-lanterns. But, when my boys saw, grabbed, whined and wailed in the aisles of Walmart, and fell in love with these…..

…..devil and skeleton masks from the dollar area of the Halloween aisle last week, I caved and purchased them. They find it incredibly funny to wear them and “scare” Daddy Buck and I.

And, in keeping with the Halloween spirit, Frank-o doesn’t even need to don a mask to produce a scary face…..

And, he doesn’t even need to swallow one of those fake blood-producing capsules to achieve the “vampire-mouth” look…..

An Oreo (or two) does the trick!

And, in honor of the opening of deer season this week; here’s his “deer in the head lights” pose…..

Have a great week!!!

Wordless Wednesday

“Somebody Call 9-1-1????”

 

Police Officer Buck-a-roo and Firefighter Frank-o are on the scene……..

Actually, a week or so ago, upon arriving home from school…..the boys discovered a large box at the front door containing their Halloween costumes. 

{aren’t the  UPS/FedEx delivery guys instructed to hide these packages from suspecting 3&4 year olds that could arrive home from school and pounce the packages placed at the front door in an effort to allow their mothers’ adequate time to lay hands on them and aggressively hide them until much, much, much closer to Halloween.}

I. Guess. Not.

Needlesstosay, they have begged, pleaded, and successfully persuaded me, their mother, to allow them to play with the accessories, i.e. the respective hats, whistle, walkie-talkie, fire extinguisher, and ax, that were included with the costumes. 

DOGgone {spotted Dalmation}!!!!!!…..if they aren’t the cutest rescue heroes that I’ve ever seen!!

these boys {and their dad}

…..are away for the night at their grandfather’s fishing camp, 2 1/2 hours away

…..have been counting down the days for the past three weeks anticipating their boys’ trip to the fishing camp

…..are being spoiled by their Papa C for dinner (grilled steak, homemade potato chips, cheesy garlic bread, and blender chocolate malts)

…..just phoned me to say “GoodNight”

…..had better be missing their Momma as much as their Momma is missing them

{four} friends

{four} friends

and {one} little brother

singing playing in the rain

and saying screamingatthetopoftheirlungs,

"Have a great weekend!”

Wordless Wednesday

 

great times in LSU Tiger Stadium

suspense no longer…….

Here are several of my favorite shots (taken with my new lens) from my special Saturday afternoon in LSU Tiger Stadium that included a sweet surprise!!

 

rainy days

Our boys and their well chosen attire pretty much sums up the past four consecutive days here in southern Louisiana, and all of LA for that matter. It has been four overcast, humid, constant drizzle with numerous downpours, soggy kindof days.

We have colored pictures, cut construction papers, played Playdoh, baked cupcakes, taken naps, watched football, played Memory, made cereal necklaces, taken baths for fun, eaten everything in sight, ventured out to WalMart and McDonalds, grilled on the back covered patio and wished, whined, whimpered, and wailed about wanting to play outside!!

As I mentioned in this post, I did have Saturday night plans that began with a rather suh-weet surprise!!

Here’s a teaser photo….please do notice ME (black capris, purple/gold tiger stripe tie dye shirt) in the blurry reflection of the mirror, crouching stance frantically snapping pictures as fast as my little fingers would snap.

I will post many more pictures as soon as I finish editing the 80+ pics that I took.

For now, it’s goodnight as I drift off to sleep to the sound of {what’s that I hear}…..RAIN!!!

9.11

As a tribute to the signifigance of this day, September 11, eight years ago; I thought I would share something with you all. Because even in remembering a time of great destruction and sorrow for our country, Frank-o can share a good laugh amongst us all.

Now I give you, Frank-o's nightly prayers:

"For the name of the Father, the Son, the Tolee Spirit (Holy Spirit), AMEN!"

....Sign of the Cross

"Say Amen, Mommy!!!"

{amen}

"Dear God, thank you for my Mommy, and my Daddy, and my Bruffer (Brother), and my Ssssister....wait, wait, I don't have Ssssister, oh yea.

{no, dear...you don't have a sister}

And for No More's Ark (Noah's Ark), and my teachers, and my friends, and for the shoulders (soldiers). Ummmmmmmmmm, AMEN!"

"Say Amen, Mommy!!!"

{amen}

"For the name of the Father, the Son, the Tolee Spirit (Holy Spirit), AMEN!"

....Sign of the Cross

"Say Amen, Mommy!!!"

{right, amen}

Flashback Friday……laughing boys

It’s been a while since we took a glimpse back to look at some old pictures of the boys.  In this Flashback Friday, I’ve gone back to this, the second week of September, three years ago. 

 

Though it appears that Buck-a-roo might be in a state of acute pain or torture here, I remember the moment very well and that is definitely not the case.  He was completely cracking up at himself at the fact that he had wandered into my bathroom and discovered the hairdryer all on his own. 

Let’s not discuss the poor quality and overuse of flash in the picture….let’s just focus on how far I’ve progressed in my picture-taking abilities over the past year or so. 

I do not recollect this situation with Frank-o is as much detail.  It is from the same week and at this stage, it was easy to make him grin/giggle for the camera (as it is with most 3-6 month old babies). 

Once again….poor quality photography (dark, over-filled with light and pixelated), but nonetheless photographic memories of my laughing boys!!

in the mail and around the house

Guess what came in the mail today…..

 

….my new Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens!!

  

Just in time for my fabulous photo op this weekend that my neighbor and I will be attending.  I was given two pregame sideline passes to the LSU Tigers home opener against Vanderbilt.  To enjoy the band parading to the stadium and  then enter the stadium through the North endzone and be on the field inside this stadium that holds 90,000+……oh the picture opportunites!!

I gave the lens several test shots this afternoon shooting the Halloween decorations that the boys and I have enjoying placing throughout our home this week..

The boys were so thrilled to decorate for Halloween this year that, though we know it’s a wee-bit early, we did indeed decorate regardless!!  It was fun!! 

I have lots of practice ahead of me, nonetheless, I do believe this lens will eventually produce the oh-so coveted blurry backgrounds, or Bokeh, that I’m looking for. 

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back following the LSU Tigers and New Orleans Saints home openers!! 

6 years and counting

Please do excuse the Duggar pun as we are a good 13 years shy of even breaking their total number of offspring!

We did, however, kick off the weekend with our anniversary dinner on Friday night as our actual anniversary was, and always seems to be, smack in the middle of opening weekend of dove season.

And just because Daddy Buck so enjoys posing for pictures, here you have the……

”I can’t believe she’s making me pose for these silly pictures to document our 6th anniversary as all the neighbors are outside hooting and hollering at us….so I’m gonna make her feel incredibly uncomfortable while our neighbor photographs us by acting all seductive, eyes closed, breathing down her neck”!!

Thanks Kimber for taking our pictures.....check out her blog here!

While Daddy Buck was hunting for the holiday weekend, the boys and I headed to Alexandria for an extended stay with my parents. It was three days of enjoying grandparents and greatgrandparents, playing Dominoes and Spades, watching football, hitting golf balls, homemade milkshakes,

playing at the park, lots of wrestling, tee-teeing in pants, quarreling brothers, hours of bickering in the car…..(oh wait seems that I’ve gotten off track here)!!

and a stop at the local Dairy Queen that went a bit like this….

Welcome to Dairy Queen, may I take your order please:

“I’ll have a kiddie size chocolate dipped ice cream cone; hold the chocolate, can the cone, with a spoon on the side please”

“And, I’ll have a kiddie size red slush, cuz I don’t like ice cream puhlease”

{oh, really!}

Finally….to answer the question, Are we excited about LSU Football?

INDEED

WE

ARE!!