I really wish I had an amazing image for the last picture a day, but we're heading out of town and I just don't have time what with the packing, cleaning up after the kids, and getting dinner prepped (crock pot red beans and rice with sausage...oh yum!) So here's the last one. I think I'll attempt this again later in the spring/ early summer when the flowers are in bloom and do a picture a week. 
This is a preview of what is to come for Easter dinner at the farm. These are so YUMMY! This was my first batch, and as you can see, well, some just didn't quite turn out as well as the others. But they all tasted great. I have been seeking new recipes on-line and have found all kinds of things. I'm not much of a chocolate person, but I do love peanut butter and these are the perfect little bite-sized things. Get ready, the dessert lady is cooking up some fun for you!
This is the view from the bottom of the slide at the kid's preschool. They playground looked really lonely on this particular day because it had been raining all day. If you look close, you might be able to see the raindrops on the side of the slide.
For some reason we always have plastic bags stuck in our maple tree. The red buds are already popping up and there's the bag too! We suffer a lot of very windy days in the Valley and lots of trash ends up in our yard. Last week I found 2 paper plates, a beer can, and a small plastic trash can.
I got home tonight and helped get the kids to bed and realized I hadn't picked up my camera all day today. After church I went to a reception for a baby that had been dedicated, and then I packed up and came home to the 'burg. While my iPod was syncing (thanks Craig for the hand-me-down, I LOVE it), I grabbed the tripod and set up the camera in Peyton's room. I dimmed her lights and took this picture of her sleeping. That girl is a deep sleeper and didn't even flinch when the camera clicked. I love how peaceful she is when she's sleeping.
I went to Richmond on a solo trip this weekend. Mark stayed home with the kids and they had a great time going to the park and out to eat. I spent about 7 hours on Saturday scrapbooking and got so many pages done. It was nice to crop without any distractions! It was also really great to hang out with my mom for two days. I really like spending time with her. I was glad to see my little guy and gal tonight, but I think time away is also a refreshing and necessary thing from time to time!
Time out is much more fun with friends! Peyton was in time out and I had turned around to set the kitchen timer for 3 minutes; when I looked back at her, Liam and Randy had gone to commiserate. It was too cute so I grabbed the camera. Liam doesn't quite understand that Peyton is being punished!
Two furry friends enjoying a sunny winter's day. Mr. Peanuts and Mr. Bananas had a bath on Thursday (2.21) and they caught some rays on our deck while they were drying. They just looked so funny on the deck that I had to grab the camera. These stuffed animals are our kid's best friends. It's amazing how much comfort and love a little stuffed friend can give.
This was taken off my back deck last night just before we sat down to eat dinner. I had to sneak out really quick because it was about 30 degrees and the kids always want to go outside if one of us goes out. Mark was out throwing a stick for Randy, so I ran out quickly and when I came back in the house, Peyton was pulling her shoes on her feet and Liam was trying to un-velcro his tennis shoes. We like to call our kids polar bears because they will go out regardless of how cold it is and never want to come inside. This would be okay except we can't keep gloves on Liam so his hands always get red and cold. I'm sure they are looking forward to spring.
Maybe you can sense a theme here with my pictures....I love taking pictures of bare trees. I think they look awesome, especially against a really blue sky. I was pulling into the kid's preschool and saw how fluffy the clouds looked and how stark the tree was and so I pulled over and took this picture. It was really windy and the clouds were moving fast. I just think this looks cool.
These are paper beads that Peyton and I made yesterday. I loved making these when I was younger and I used to make all kinds of jewelry with my friends. Peyton helped choose the magazine pages and then she chose what order she wanted her beads to be on her necklace. I had to do the rolling and gluing because that part takes a little more coordination than she has right now. This was a great indoor activity as we were stuck inside again yesterday. Liam threw up twice so we decided to stay home until he felt better. I love all the colors and the fact that we were recycling old magazines!
Peyton loves to play hide and seek and would probably play all day if she had willing participants. I got this action shot as she came around the breakfast bar and found Mark. I wish I had snapped it just a second later, but this captures what they were doing at that moment.
We spent some time at the Children's Museum on Saturday. As usual, Peyton's favorite thing to do is paint her face. She almost always heads straight to the theatre section to play with the face paint. The Harrisonburg Children's Museum has an entire budget line for face paint because they go through it so quickly. I think Peyton is mostly responsible!
Peyton had her first official haircut on 2.15. I have trimmed it in the past, but I decided to take her out to my friend, Lisa, for a real haircut. She was such a good girl and I think she really enjoyed the experience, especially since she got a Valentine cupcake afterward! 
Wildwood Park again. Nonna (my mom) is in town and we took the kids to the park after Peyton's first official haircut. We fed pretzels to the ducks and played on the playground. I'm not sure who like the pretzels more, the kids or the ducks. It was such a nice day and this park is a great place to take pictures.
I made a beef and veggie pot pie for Valentine's Day and I thought it was delicious. The kids were so hopped up on sugar from parties at school that neither one of them ate dinner.
Stuck inside again due to the cold and Peyton was a willing subject. I love the light on her face.
When I was a senior in college I lived in a complex called Madison Square. I drove by today to see if my roommate's bike, lovingly called "The Booger," was still chained to the bike rack. My friends, it is the end of an era...the booger is gone. I think it stayed on that bike rack for about 9 years, but it's gone now. The booger was Jane's mom's bike and then hers. It was a bright green bike, very old school, but it served its purpose well, getting Jane back and forth to class. We used to wonder how long it would be chained there and now I know, not forever! So I took this picture of the bikes that are there now. Not one of them was electric green and not one of them was rusting and I have to say, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.
We were stuck inside yesterday because it was so cold, so I took pictures of my captives, I mean, children. Peyton is at the stage where she can't be bothered to pose and won't sit still very long. Liam sees the camera and yells, "Chee!" So I either get great pictures or really bad ones. I'm still not using my flash, so I'm having to open my aperture really wide and use a high "film" speed on my digital camera. If the kids are moving, I get blurry pictures, but if they sit still for even a moment, they turn out well. These are a bit grainy due to the high ISO, but I love them in black and white.
We took the kids to Wildwood Park yesterday to enjoy the beautiful 55 degree weather. We saw ducks, took a nature walk, and played on the playground. While on the walk we saw this aluminum canoe halfway in the water. It made me very excited to think about warmer weather. I can't wait to take the kids canoeing some day. I think we'll probably wait until they can swim fairly well before we attempt a lengthy trip. That way we preserve my sanity!
I just wanted to post this picture because I like it. One of our Bradford Pear trees has little buds on it already. It has been mild over the past few days and I think it's a little confused. I hope that it waits until spring to really blossom. Bradfords are really beautiful when they are in bloom. I also really like taking pictures of trees in the fall when the leaves have turned and in the winter when they are branches against a blue sky. So here you go, a tree from my yard. Have a great weekend. And grab your cameras and see what kinds of things you can capture!
This picture makes me feel like I'm ready for spring even though we've hardly had any winter weather. We went outside to play today, all bundled up, and the kids jumped into the sandbox and played in the damp and clumpy sand. They spent most of the time outside dumping bowls full of sand onto the plastic picnic table. They were having a birthday party. I love how kids can take any kind of toy and use it in any kind of weather or situation. They don't need warm weather and a swimming pool or ocean to have fun with sand. All they need are a few tools, some buckets that aren't broken (a hard thing to find in our house) and a great imagination (we have an overabundance of that!)
I spent a half hour or so in downtown Harrisonburg taking pictures on Thursday. I took a few pictures of downtown scenery, nothing riveting. It was a lot colder than I had expected, so I wasn't dressed very warmly. I decided to head for home and as I was driving down Mason Street, where a lot of JMU students live, I saw this van. I absolutely love how happy it looks. It reminds me of something Jane would drive! What a cool way to make a "mom car" look hip.
Tonight (2/6/08) we had ham and white bean stew for dinner with homemade bread from Shank's Bakery. It was a garlic and herb sourdough loaf and was delicious. I need to try to make bread that looks like this. I use the breadmaker all the time, but I haven't made dough and braided it or cooked it in any special sort of way. I should try, but for now, I'm content with this bread, made by loving local hands for me to eat!
This is one of my favorite pictures so far. I went to the JMU Arboretum on the 5th to hike and take some pictures. I love the starkness of all the trees and the blue of the sky.
I love this picture of Liam. He was playing so quietly so I snuck up on him to see what he was doing and to snap the picture. As soon as he heard the camera's click, he turned around and said, "CHEE." I am a huge fan of unposed, candid pictures.
