Snapshot Sunday

Thought I'd try something new, so I'm debuting Snapshot Sunday. I'm not really creative with names. What I'll do is walk through my life at the moment - wherever I am, whatever I'm doing and take five snapshots. No people, no arranging, no cleaning up. Sometimes captions, sometimes not. "This is my life. Right now."

Let me know if you like it, dislike it, or if it's 'meh'. Good time to de-lurk. *wink*

Let's begin, shall we?

The hitching post/parking lot/doorway.






Pizza dough rising by the fire.




I love the idea of seeing snapshots of other's lives. Not enough to feel intrusive, just enough to feel a mom-to-mom connection. "I have hangers hanging in strange places too" type connections. If you start this, let me know and I'll link to you next Sunday.

Summer - a retrospective.

I'm away right now. I'm travelling to a surprise party for my mother-in-law, so I scheduled this retrospective post. Pictures from the summer that I never got a chance to post.

Hannah with a caterpillar she found. Look how short her hair is.


It's not as bad as it looks.


Playing in the laundry.


Did I post this one? I love this one.


My forlorn horse girl. She was waiting for me to have a second to help her get the pony out.


I got the pony, and after riding it for awhile, her sister talked her into walking the pony while *she* rode.


Oh, relax. I was there the whole time. Pictures add ten feet.


Ains practicing her "scared" look. She was being scared of a soda can when I took this picture, I believe.


Ains with the horses she carried around for a week. They're her sister's horses. You can tell by the haircuts.


She tried to get them to pull the cart.


She brought the rocking horse out to the barn so she could ride while I milked the goats.


Hannah decided to grow a beard.


Grayson and Ains in chairs. Not sure why Grayson is looking Hobbit-y. Ains is nursing the pink poodle.


Just had to throw this one in there. Hannah's cousin Bella. Look at those lips!


Gray got patriotic over Independence Day.


Cute cousins.


Cute sisters.


Ains on her grandma's trampoline.




Hannah writing letters while swinging.


Girls picking cherries.


Hannah, the little lady (just look at those crossed legs), helping pick cattails. More on that later...


Gray sleeping in a hammock while I garden. It was much warmer then. *sigh*


Hannah climbing into the orchard to pick cherries. OLM, I want you to bring your kids to visit next summer - we'd have so much fun! We're only three hours north...

Leaves

We've finally been getting some beautiful fall days here. When there's no chilling 45 mph wind blowing, the weather's actually quite nice.

Nice enough to play in piles of leaves.


I raked the leaves up, and tossed the girls for awhile. They played on their own for awhile, asking me to rake the leaves back into a pile when needed. Then Daddy came home. He fluffed the leaves into a tall pile with the pitchfork.


Then he started throwing the kids around.

You have to spin them to get a good throw.


He got a good throw.


A really good throw.


I was kind of worried about the little one.


She did fine - he didn't give her as much air.


Though she still had a hard time letting go.


Hannah wanted to go again.


On the third time she didn't let go - she'd tried that trick with me earlier and learned that if you didn't let go of a spinning large human who was trying to throw you that they would fall into the pile. I didn't warn him.


Then she wouldn't let him up.


You'd think a four year old couldn't hold a grown man down, wouldn't you?


When you've got your sister's help, anything's possible. "Dream big" is what I teach my kids.


Though if you leave your little sister there and run, she might need to be saved. Look at her, reaching out, asking for somebody, anybody to come save her.


Oh, good. I teach them that too.


Something I learned - little kids jumping into a pile of leaves for hours at a time will not only strengthen a mother's muscles (from raking the leaves back into a pile for the hundred-and-eleventieth time), but it will shred those leaves pretty dang good. That pile is now about one-third the size it was when we started.

Sometimes still photos need a soundtrack.

For example, these cute snapshots.



Cute, right?



Darling even.



They'd be even cuter with the maniacal toddler giggling playing as you looked at them that I was hearing as I was taking them.

These pockets,

on these aprons have been used for seeds, kittens, and eggs since my mother sent them to the girls.

Today they became doll carriers for tiny dolls.


Tiny dolls that had to be introduced to curious goats.


Tiny dolls that had to be rescued from curious goats. They're like babies. Everything goes in their mouths.