November 10, 2014

Happy Halloween….A Million Days Late

Stephanie Family moments, Holiday, Homeschooling, Photography, thoughts 0 Comments

Life….am I right?! I took these photos on the Wednesday before Halloween and it has taken me that long to just to get them edited and a looking nice! Yikes! It took that long because the wind and the sun were just not allowing me to take pictures that were worth a crap. On top of that…….well life happens! Things have been busy and with some attitudes here that needed adjusting, and lots of fun stuff going on, it just hasn’t happened! But I know that you my fellow humans of our insane world, will understand and not think its totally nuts to post these a million days late! I took alot of pics of our homeschool group for Halloween and they were all just adorable all dressed up! But I will spare you the hundred pictures of everyone…….wait…….no I wont! 😉 You know me better then that right?! Well I will start with my own girls so you see then first before you get board……lol Bunny was Nancy Clancy (in case you are unaware of who that is, it is Fancy Nancy all grown up. Click here to see). Pup was Strawberry Shortcake! We made all the costumes and had fun doing it! I think that the wigs really make it all work! So……I proudly unveil…….Halloween pictures:

November 5, 2014

A Birthday Trip…..and Day of History!

Stephanie Family moments, Field Trips 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, my hubbie had his birthday! The girls and I took him off on a fun birthday adventure to The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Michigan! It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the weather was cool but not cold! We got to see SO many amazing things. From history to industry to transportation! There was a lot of cool pieces in this museum and if you ever have a chance to get there to check it out you should! I think one of the coolest thing was being able to see so many houses at the Village from famous people. We saw Webster’s House (you know…..he wrote the dictionary) and Robert Frost’s House, and Thomas Edison’s Workshop and the first places he installed electricity (this was a nice follow up to a trip we took to see Thomas Edison birthplace in the spring)! The girls, I think, thought that the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile was cool! My hubbie was really interested in seeing the original generators that Thomas Edison used! It was a great day for everyone…….at least until the end when our feet were killing us!

October 12, 2014

Fantasic Fall

Stephanie Family moments 2 Comments

This week I had a crazy need to shoot…..in good lighting…..like a professional! So I drafted my girls, cancelled school for the day, and took them to the park at 9 in the morning! Not exactly the golden hour, but pretty close! At least I wasn’t shooting midday like I usually am. The colors in the trees are starting to turn and we found a little bridge in the park, by the lake…….it was just beautiful. So I made the girls play photo shoot with me (with the promise of the playground afterward). We had a lot of fun. We talked about fall and how leaves change color, collected some acorns, and buckeyes, and enjoyed the fall weather! The next day we headed to the beach for an impromptu dinner of pizza. Since the sun was just starting to go down, I brought my camera and snapped more pictures. We had fun, they had fun, and I got to play photographer. Who knows…..maybe I will do this for real someday! Want to see some of my pictures? Here they are. Straight out of camera (because I really don’t know how to photo edit yet.). Don’t worry…..I plan to play around and do some before and after with them later on! I just had to share! 🙂

Tell me what you think! I would love some feedback! 🙂

October 12, 2014

Celebrating the Bucket List

Stephanie Family moments 0 Comments

So I am sure that many of you have been introduced to the amazing story of the Bucket List Baby…..Shane and his family. It is a quite a story that has gone viral a while ago. This amazing, loving couple found out that their baby had a birth defect and he would surely not live for more then a few hours. And they decided that, instead of terminating the pregnancy, they would love and live life with their baby as long as they could! So they went to the zoo, to baseball games, and many different things that they would have done when he was born. Shane was born Thursday and passed away a few hours later. In the words of his parents: “Shane spent his entire life in the arms of people that loved him unconditionally and I don’t think you could ask for a more beautiful life than that,”

This story touched my heart with the love, the deep love, of family. Love is something that spans the pain of death and the joy of life. It never ends. And this family was offered a huge, painful experience on a plate. They could have mourned and lived their time with overwhelming sadness…..and honestly they had every reason to. But instead they took hold of the joy of life and lived it to the fullest with their baby! His short life brought joy to his family and also to the world. Together they showed us all that love transcends sickness, pain, and even death. They celebrated life and their son!

What an awesome lesson for us. Celebrate life! Honestly we have no idea how long we have to live in this world together, so we should celebrate. Not just birthdays or holiday or large life event, but everyday moments! Celebrate the fact that we have love in our life, that we have our family, that we have been given our very own moments that are just ours. Some are bad, or unhappy, and some are amazing, simple or just plain ordinary. Yet they all can be celebrated. Light candles for dinner, take a trip to that local beach that you keep saying you will go to, hit the zoo, see a game at the big stadium, heck, just make a cake…..for the heck of it! Do something to celebrate! (Ps. this is a pictures of us having pizza on the beach the other day…..celebration of the sun that finally came out after three days of gray!)

What do you think? Do you ever celebrate life just because?

October 7, 2014

An Apple A Day

Stephanie Fall, Family moments 1 Comment

Today ended badly……really badly. It was one of those days that went down in a flaming glory of tears and yelling. After much crying (by them) and much yelling (by all of us), we hugged and decided that tomorrow would be better and that we were all sorry! So instead of telling you all about that…..I will share all the fun we had yesterday. (It was a better day).

Yesterday, our friend invited us to go to the local apple orchard for s festival they have there! It was wonderful! The weather was cool, but not freezing and it wasn’t raining! There was fair food, rides, ponies, and apple picking! But the coolest thing there (in my opinion) were the camels you could ride! Yes….read it again…..camel rides! AWESOME! All in all it was just a fun family day…..and those are the best kind right? Plus we did pick a very large half bushel of apples too…..there will be lots of yummy thing made from those! Here are some pictures of out fun (a very real happily ever after moment)

October 4, 2014

When We Feel Things Deeply

Stephanie Family moments, Parenting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Last October, my brother broke his ankle. Not just a little bit……like shattered it! He needed surgery and got a plate and seven screws! It took months to recover and lots of family support. Well recently, he was having pain again, and after some investigation, the doctor discovered that the bone was growing around the plate and causing pain! Ugh. So he got to have another surgery…..and that was today. I was at my mom’s with the kids (substitute teaching…..homeschool style) and helping make sure that everyone had help where they needed it. And the day was just a little crazy……seriously! Everyone was having issues randomly! And I just couldn’t understand what was going on. Even Pup and my little sister (who is the same age) who usually run off to play, just weren’t. Then, my brother got home and people went nuts…..it was like a celebrity was returing home ( yes I had my camera and was the paparazzi)! There was a flurry of activity and excited chatter as we got him on the bed and stuffed with pillows and packed with ice. All the while, the little girls were sitting near by watching him very intently. When the activity calmed down, my mom looked at the girls and told them that they could hug my brother. They were scared at first, but they did! When my little sister hugged him she burst into laughing tears (you know…..where you are laughing and crying at the same time?). It was then that I realized that the poor buggers were scared, unsure of how he would be, and worried about what would happen. Suddenly it all clicked. The kids were all worried……and when people are worried they don’t always operate at their best. And I think that was going on. Even at young ages kids can and are very capable of understanding when something is not right. They pick up on the tensions and the stress that flows around difficult situations. They don’t often tell us their thoughts and so as adults we think that they live in the happy bliss of not knowing. In reality, they do know, even without total understanding. Kids often don’t have the words to express their feeling so they just let it out……in ways that we don’t always appreciate! 🙂 It is always interesting to me to see behavior is a new way…..or to see it for what it is. I was really frustrated with my kids (and siblings at some points) and now I see that they were all waiting and worried…..not just being a pain. So here is a lesson for me…..sometimes bad behavior is just deep feelings, being felt deeply, by deeply beautiful people!

Have you ever noticed something like this with your kids? Do they seem to get mean when things are hard?

April 21, 2014

Happy Easter 2014

Stephanie Family moments, Holiday 0 Comments

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope that the blessings of the Lord Jesus are with you all this year and that he gives you the desires of your heart! We had a wonderful day that started early with Mass and was followed by egg hunts, yummy food, and lots of family fun! As always we spent the day with lots of family! Our holidays may be a bit busy, but they are oh so much fun. Plus we have lots of candy to keep the fun going to tomorrow! 😉 Happy Easter!

April 2, 2014

Spingtime is Here!

Stephanie Family moments, Nature Walk 2 Comments

Well it finally happened! The weather finally broke! Sunday it was in the mid fifties and it has stayed that way! Thank heaven! So we have been busy out in the sunshine and soaking up the warm. We headed out on an adventure on Sunday out to the lake. The paradox of warm sunshine and ice burgs was very interesting! The ice packed the shore and was solid around the edges! It was high, and so varied. Some was as clear as glass, and some wad like snow still. I have never seen this much ice on the lake even after the warmer weather and I think it was unusual. I was really glad that we were able to get the girls outside to see it. Plus there is always a lot of fun to be had climbing rock, running around, and being wee bit silly! Here are some of the pictures. I took a lot of them and some of them are purely artistic! I had a great time trying out my photography hobby a bit more then I have recently! It seems like our small adventures are always the best! Thank God for the beginning of spring!

March 21, 2014

A Springtime Craft!

Stephanie Family moments, projects 0 Comments

Happy First day of Spring! We are so excited that it is finally here and I cant wait for the weather to catch up with the idea! 🙂 With the temperature in the 40s all week so far, the snow is almost melted and that makes things feel so much better! The girls got out to play and find some of the things buried by all the snow!

And since it was the first day of my favorite season, I thought it deserved some celebration. I found some inspiration on Pintrest and came up with a pretty spring craft for the girls and I to make together! Beads, birds, and tiny eggs….what could be better! All you need to make these sweet bird hangers is:
a twig (perfect to use one from the collection that my kids always seem to have),
some wire,
beads,
a small nest,
eggs,
and a bird.

I simply cut a length of wire, wrapped it around one end of the stick and let the girls add whatever beads they wanted. When they had filled the wire with beads, I wrapped the other end of the wire around the stick and hot glued the ends so they stayed! Then we hot glued the nest and eggs to the stick. The bird was a bit more challenging. I didn’t have any of those little birds, but they Pup decided that pompoms would make a perfect bird! She was right! So out came pompoms, feathers, googly eyes and more hot glue! Each girl easily built a bird and glued it to the hanger too! I loved that this project was not just something we could do, but also was something that they were able to be very creative with too! Plus they look adorable hanging up!

A perfect touch of spring to an otherwise dreary looking outside! I hope you had a chance to have some springtime fun today too!

March 18, 2014

Happy St. Patty’s Day

Stephanie Family moments 0 Comments

I don’t know about you, but we don’t do a ton for St. Patty’s Day! This year however, we made some time for a family lunch! Of course we ate a great jigs dinner and there is nothing better then a family celebration! The girls were unsure of the corned beef, but they loved it! There is such fun in simple times isn’t there! 🙂 I hope you all got to have some great fun on this very fun holiday!