James - 2 months

Time for a new picture of James! This week Sweet Baby James turned 2 months old. At 2 months he:

• Smiles a lot


• Eats every 3 hours but usually skips 1 meal during the night


• Is awake a lot more


• Loves to hear us sing to him


• Plays with his baby einstein gym


• Still loves to snuggle

He weighed 10 pounds 13 ounces, and measured 23 inches this week which puts him at the 30th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for length. I may be able to stop obsessively weighing him every week now. Then again, maybe not. He's growing out of his newborn size clothes but a lot of the 3 month stuff is too big. I'm remembering that Jeffrey always seemed to be in between sizes.

I finally got some baby announcements this week and plan to get them mailed this weekend. Two months went by so fast!

~Sharon

Snow, snow, snow!

We have been buried in snow here this winter. We had near-record snowfall in January -- I think we missed the record from 1978 by an inch. We had two storms which dumped about 12 inches each plus lots of days of snow flurries. I have to confess, I've had trouble seeing the beauty in it this winter. But one morning I was looking out the window and saw the sun shining on the snow and creating these lovely shadows so I went outside to try and capture it.




This winter, I've also been especially thankful for this handsome young man who has been our primary shoveler.


Thanks Jeff!

Autumn walk

After at least a week of cold, cloudy days, we finally had a nice day, so Brenna and I went for a walk this afternoon. Since she's a little chicken, this means a lot of coaxing and encouragement.



This is the look she gives me when I'm trying to get her to go somewhere unfamiliar. Roughly translated, I think this means, "You want me to go that way?! No, no, no. We don't know what might be that direction!"

Just in case I might be confused by her coming to a dead stop and leaning back, she shows me where she would prefer to go. "Wouldn't you rather go this way? I think home is this way. Let's just go home."

Usually, with encouragement, I can get her to overcome her fears or at least resign herself to the fact that I'm leading the way but today I had to stop and pick her up twice and carry her for 10 feet so we could continue our walk. I try very hard not to look up at passing cars when she's doing this.

I was so glad I took my camera along. The leaves are almost past their peak here but there are still some lovely ones hanging on.

~Sharon

Purple autumn flowers

Enjoying the last of the color before it's all gone. It's considerably colder this week and it will be winter before we know it. The last picture is actually a coneflower that didn't grow quite right but I think it looks interesting anyway.

~Sharon

The Last Rose of Summer

My last rose for this year. To hear the song by this title go here:

~Sharon

Mums

Power!

This is a picture of the house across the street as a small sample of the destruction in our neighborhood from Hurricane Ike. Thanks to good old Ike, we've been without power since Sunday night but finally last night, the electricity was restored. Hallelujah. Notice the white danger tape in the picture. That was all the evidence we had that the electric company was even aware we existed for the first three days. That wind was amazing though. God's power is truly awesome.

Being without power has its blessings.

* On our walks with the dog, we saw a lot more of our neighbors.

* We got to bed earlier than normal.

* Reading by candlelight is sort of fun.

* No recorded political phone calls.

* My refrigerator is very clean.

The worst part was not being able to make my coffee in the morning. Having to go out for coffee is so backwards. In order to go get coffee, I have to get myself ready to go out and face the day and how in the world can I do that before I have my coffee?! And without electricity to plug in the hairdryer. This morning as I made my coffee I said to Jeff, "Look at this coffee! Isn't it a beautiful thing?" Of course, being 16, he rolled his eyes and sighed and said, "It's just coffee, mom."

Jeff trying to figure out why we still had no power on Thursday.

Four crews showed up yesterday around dinnertime to begin working. These guys were all from Connecticut.

Finally, they got it all fixed. I haven't figured out how to take decent pictures at night yet.

I'm so thankful for power today!
~ Sharon

First day of school - Grade 11

No new, cool backpack. No new box of crayons. But we still take time to take a picture for the first day of school.

Just for fun

Spring #2

I just love this time of year when things are blooming and everything is turning green. This is some brunnera that is spreading like crazy in our backyard. Love that blue!

I have to get a lilac bush for our yard. On our walks, I pass a bunch of them and they smell amazing. I don't want any of the fancy new ones, just an old-fashioned, sweet-smelling lilac bush.

Sharon

Finally

Spring is finally on it's way. It's still pretty chilly but these snowdrops are braving the cold. We have a fairly large patch of these in our backyard and they're always the first thing to bloom in the spring.

Sharon

21 Years!

As of today, Scott and I have been married for 21 years! Holy cow. It's been wonderful and I'm very blessed.

Sharon

Blizzard

As of 2:30 this afternoon we had 15 inches of snow! It's still coming down and is supposed to continue for the next several hours.

There's so much wind that the snow is not settling on anything except the ground, but I thought the drifting by the front door was pretty in it's own way.

Since Brenna is so small, Scott dug out a track in the backyard for her to run around. It's hysterical to watch her run around and around her little track.

She likes the snow in limited amounts. After a short time though, her little paws get cold and she wants to go back inside.

Sharon

Psalm 51:7

Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Ice

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Freezing rain last night and then several inches of snow this morning. The trees sure look pretty but it's nasty out there. It looks like I held the camera at an angle for the second picture but that's just the way the wind was blowing.

Sharon

Job 37:5-6

God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'

Sunset in the Caribbean

One of the main reasons I wanted to start this blog is to post my artistic endeavors. My goal for this year is to post at least something once a week. This is a photo I took of a sunset while we were on a cruise this summer.

Takes me back.

Sharon