~The possum and her babies on our back fence~
~Luke and his faux hawk~
~Farm dog~
~OKC Memorial~
~Rope swing in Kerrville, Texas~
~Sunset on the farm~
~Falling in love with Football~
~Our Angel Ida~
~We Love Wilson~
I really do heart this face, as ornery as it is.
Notice kool-aid mustache, sweaty hairline, and squinting left eye... focusing on intended target for his green water balloon.
What could be more boyish?
Check I Heart Faces website for more faces of ornery boys.
i HEART faces has got to be one of the most awesome, most creative and totally inspiring websites I've seen in a long time. I love it from top of my head to the tips of my toes. Click on their button to check out this week's photography contest. 
Here are my entries of two of my favorite people (one for the kid contest one for the adult contest) .... I so wish I were a phantastic photographer, but don't have the time or talent right now to sink into it. I do dream that one day I will be a self-made success like Kelly Stocksen!!! But let's get serious. That's not happening. She's a genius. Check out the site at www.iheartfaces.com and enjoy all the amazing images.
Does anyone remember Taylor Hicks? No, not Taylor Swift, the cute blonde who the girls listen to constantly, but Taylor Hicks, the guy with the gray hair and funny dance moves who won American Idol a few seasons ago? Well, I happen to love one song he sings.... actually I think he sang it the night he won the competition. It is called "Do I Make You Proud?" and as I sing it in my head you should be thanking your lucky stars I haven't figured out how to post voice recordings on this blog o' mine. But it's very catchy and powerful and, well, it is kind of the theme of this July 4th blog posting. Ready? Sing along now...
Proud, proud, proud and thankful to live here in America.
Who could not be proud of a granny like this? It cracks me up when my kids tell others about her. It's like they're bragging.... I've got a grandma I... she's 97 years old!!!! (emphasis on 97). And Blake sure is proud to be sleeping under that quilt tonight.
We were all very proud of Lauren as she jumped off the diving board tonight!!!
We are proud to have a new coach on staff and Luke is way proud of Coach K's daughter, Khloe. (if you know what I mean).
We are proud to have such an awesome family. 
The whole family is proud of our newest member, Jace. And look at Grandpa Rex's face. Ain't he proud. 
Luke is a lego king right now. He is very proud of building a lego helicopter "all by myself" at Granny's house today. Lauren was his personal assistant.
Or maybe it just takes them a really, really long time. Since I've had my new camera (don't think it's considered new anymore), I've been trying to channel Kelly Stocksen. I actually thought that if I got her same camera that I could take pictures like her. Ha! Silly me. As hard as I tried, I couldn't even come close to her shots. Never can, never will be able to do what she does. But what I (and probably trained monkeys) can do is check out tutorials and follow the step by step instructions to improving my pictures. Here is one of my favorite websites for getting tips about Adobe Photoshop (which I can usually apply to Adobe Elements - Photoshop's Stepsister.) I would like to eventually get Photoshop, but I think it costs a gazillion dollars. So, with my humble little pictures and my scrawny little program, you can see some befores and afters. Remember, I am just a beginner!!! I have probably sharpened too much and washed out skin tones. I've got a long way to go, but don't be hard on me! It just takes awhile for this old dog.
No, this is not my son...
Lucky girl, Ellie, got to go on a trip to Chandler, Arizona with Gran Carolyn to visit Uncle Jon, Uncle Matt, Aunt Gretchen, and cousins Sam and Kelly. She left last Friday and returned home early, early Monday morning. Before she left, I gave her a small camera and told her to make sure to snap a few pics. I had a feeling she'd take good care of the camera and would come back with a few shots. Sure enough, first thing this morning, she asked me to download her pictures. And I cracked up when I saw that in just over 48 hours, she took about 200 pictures. That's pretty attentive for a 7 year old girl! The first step is remembering to actually take the camera out of it's case and with you wherever you go, and then you have to take the pictures! There are some pictures of people , some pictures of the scenery (down to the minute details) and LOTS of pictures of dogs. She really likes dogs. I didn't post one quarter of the dog pics that she took. You will also see that she likes nature, specifically rocks. She took a lot of pictures of rocks and trees and plants. I couldn't resist sharing a few them with you, along with some of her comments. After all my talk about picture taking and how critical I was of my own pics, I have to say that these pictures are pretty close to perfect to me.
Uncle Matt and Kelly - thanks for having Ellie for the weekend!
Kelly's dolls
Watch out for the really big cactus growing on the side of the house. 
The aloe vera plant growing out front. 
A nice, red rock.
Sam holding a really cool looking rock. Possibly from the moon.
Sam.
This is the first picture in a sequence of pictures taken at the Renaissance Faire. Ellie was meant to live during the Renaissance period. She loved the fun to be had there and especially the bird shows.
Oh, and the danes. She loved the danes. The danes were everywhere. 
More danes.
A ride. Ellie and Kelly are riding it.
Another dane.
Ellie and Uncle Jon.
Kelly in her Robin Hood hat. Ellie got one too because she was sweating in that Arizona sun!
Another great dane.
And yes, another.
Some details in Matt's house. The chess game. Matt and Gretchen love games. 
Ellie feeling the water in Matt and Gretchen's pool. Glad she didn't drop the camera on this shot.
She likes rocks. 
She spied a star fish. 
Pictures of pictures. She took about 10 of these. 
The grapfruit, she said.
The grapefruit tree. A lovely trip.
