Arizona Marshland

“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feelthe breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of year, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.”  Rachel Carson

Gnomio and Juliet

"Juliet: He is a blue.
Gnomeo: She is a red.
flamingo: And I am pink." - -- Gnomeo And Juliet

Tall and Proud

Don't try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough. ~Arthur Freed

Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb

Dancing With Daddy

Any man can be a Father

but it takes someone special to be a dad.Anne Geddes

More For Fun

The Bride loved the examples of these pictures that she found on the internet.... I loved her shoes, so we both had fun with setting these up.

"To laugh often and love much...

to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,

to give one's self... this is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

"Follow your bliss." - Joseph Campbell

More Pictures of the Bride and Groom

"Love doesn't make the world go round. 

Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

Franklin P. Jones

"To the world, you may be just one person.

But to one person, you just might be the world."

Brandi Snyder

"True love stories never have endings."  Richard Bach

The Wedding

"The best and most beautiful things in the world

cannot be seen or even touched.

They must be felt with the heart."  Helen Keller

"Many people will walk in and out of your life,

But only true friends will leave footprints

on your heart."  Eleanor Roosevelt

Looking at Weddings

I have had the privilege of taking pictures at a friend's wedding.  I actually had a wonderful time, and am pretty happy with the way the pictures turned out.  I have to admit, the best part was that the bride knew what she wanted, and although I did not always agree, we all had fun during the day.   I still have a few things to learn though.

" Some people come into our lives,
Leave footprints in our hearts,
And we are never ever the same."
Unknown

" Do you love me because I am beautiful,
or am I beautiful because you love me?"
Cinderella

" Once in a while, in the middle of an ordinary life,
love gives us a fairy tale "
Unknown

Learning to Cook with Dad

These are not the best pictures as far as color and lighting, but they mean a great deal to me.  In our family, my husband loves to cook.  He is never quite as happy as when he is cooking up something enjoyable in the kitchen.  Each of the little girls have learned to cook at his side.  Anya is now old enough to start to help in the kitchen.  She was especially interested in learning to make cinnamon rolls.  A wonderful morning of learning and fun between the two of them was ample reward for me to watch and love, (of course, cinnamon rolls for breakfast might have had something to do with it too!).

No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, what the world means, what anything means, until he has a child and loves it. - Lafcadio Hearn

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. - Clarence Kelland

To show a child what once delighted you, to find the child's delight added to your own so that there is now a double delight seen in the glow of trust and affection, this is happiness. - J.B. Priestley

A girl's father is the first man in her life, and probably the most influential. - David Jeremiah

What to do with green tomatoes???

At least we managed to salvage something!

We must accept finite disappointment, 

but never lose infinite hope.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ruined Garden

There is nothing quite like having your gardened ruined because a tree blew loos and fell on the greenhouse.  Now we have to wait until next year to try and enjoy the bounty

Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.

Evan Esar

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Henry David Thoreau

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

Laurence Olivier

Winter has come

Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.

Where there is smoke

"You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others, what is burning inside of you.  And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke".  Arthur Polotnik

Miracle and Emma -

A baby is born with the need to be love and never outgrows it.

Happy Day!

The foolish man 

seeks happiness in the distance; 

the wise grows it under his feet. 

~James Openheim~

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. ~Frederick Keonig

Even the dogs participated

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. ~Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

Hi Grammy!

"Children

Are the hands by which

We take hold of heaven."

Henry Ward Beecher

Snuggled tight

"A baby girl... one of the most beautiful miracles in life, one of the greatest joys we can ever know, and one of the reasons why there is a little extra sunshine, laughter and happiness in your world today."

All Together for Time Out For Women

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. you must do the thing which you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Mummy Dogs

These little treats were so fun for Halloween!  Kayla had her big 13th birthday party, and we all made goodies and snacks for the girls that came over to visit our house for the evening.  John made homemade bread that we rolled into strips and covered most of the hot dog.  We let the bread rise and added mustard eyes.  The girls loved them, and they magically disappeared throughout the evening.

It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate –

you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.
Julia Child

The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.
Julia Child

Spider Woman!

To find out who you really are, one must first be yourself

Who you are matters more than who others want you to be.

No matter what happens, life always has one thing that can get you through anything - Hope

Kayla - I don't want to do this!

Alas! Alas! Life is full of disappointments; as one reaches one ridge there is always another and a higher one beyond which blocks the view.

Fridtjof Nansen

Of course there will be disappointments and the way will not always be as I expected it. But if it seemed easy, then that would be the time to worry that I am on the wrong path.

Anne Perry

Nothing like a day for dress up

For Halloween this year, Anya decided to be the floor on the morning after.  You can see she has candy all over herself.  I actually thought this was a fun one for her.  She made it all by herself and was really happy to do it.  

"Truly wonderful the mind of a child is."

YODA, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Childhood is the world of miracle or of magic: it is as if creation rose luminously out of the night, all new and fresh and astonishing. Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing. When the world gives you a feeling of "déjà vu," when you are used to existence, you become an adult.
EUGENE IONESCO

Leaning

Friends are like the pillars on your front porch.

Sometimes they hold you up,

Sometimes they lean on you,

And sometimes, it's enough to know

That they are just standing by.

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!!

In our walk around a local creek, we were able to see some of the fish swimming in the water.  I suppose that they could sense that we did not have poles and were not a danger to them.  I know that I have never seen this many fish in a running stream before.  They were all over the place, just waiting.

May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it. ~Irish Blessing

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.  John Buchan

Barefoot

And forget not that the earth delights 

to feel your bare feet 

and the winds long 

to play with your hair.  

Khalil Gibran

Autumn Colors all around

Winter is coming up in my mountains.  This morning the temperature was a frosty 17 degrees outside.  I can still find fall beauty, I just have to drive a little further.  I am just grateful that the snow from last week already melted!

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious 

as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. 

So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air."

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Every leaf speaks bliss to me,

Fluttering from the autumn tree.

Emily Bronte

"Autumn burned brightly, 

a running flame through the mountains, 

a torch flung to the trees."

Faith Baldwin