Portraits of Megan

At the beginning of July Megan had a Portrait session with Nick at Lechnir Designs. The photos were taken in our back yard and came out wonderfully! I hope Nick doesn't mind that I share one directly here and link to the rest. I'm ordering a few, but if family wants more, I'm sure we can order additional ones as well. What a beautiful young lady we have!

You can see the rest of the photo proofs here: http://lechnirdesign.com/accounts/groth/20080706/

Now, how am I supposed to decide what to order!?!

Overheard

Here are a few things heard at our house recently:

Shawn (while Nessa is putting on her underwear): There's no need to fear, underwear is here! (Think Underdog...)
Nessa, 10 seconds later: We don't need to care, we have underwear!

Shawn: Time to get up sweet girl, it's a daycare day.
A very tired Nessa: No! No more days!

Grandpa Don: Should we count your ribs?
Nessa, giggling: I don't have ribs!
Grandpa Don: How about bones--do you have bones?
Nessa, laughing: No! Only dogs have bones!!

Beautiful Beets!

DCP_5524
Originally uploaded by Tami of BrooksGroth

Yes, those are beets. They are from our CSA box. I think they are the most beautiful beets I've ever seen. Not that I'm a beet expert or anything (I can't even remember the name of this variety). They also made WONDERFUL beet fries (seriously, sweet!).

Has anyone noticed all of the food photos on our flickr stream? Well, besides being seriously overjoyed by pure food lately, I'm adding those photos in case I ever get time to start a food blog. Stop laughing. I might find/make time! Oh, you're laughing about me in the kitchen ... well, that can happen too. Regaining my health (slowly but seriously) and discovering new ways to eat my veggies (and fruits too) is bringing so much joy that I'm going to have to share it soon. Shawn is probably a wee bit tired of me dancing around the kitchen and talking about my beautiful greens (I never knew fresh Chard and Basil were so gorgeous before!)

For now, maybe you can be inspired by the pics (ask you if you want to know what something is before I get around to labeling items).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooksgroth/tags/food/

Eat Well. Be Happy!

Megan and her trumpet

Megan started summer band lessons last week. She is playing the trumpet, and so far loves it! Both of her teachers think she is a natural at it (I admit, I can't tell yet.)



By the way this wonderful girl is officially 11 now! No practically about it, we have a beautiful (and talented!) young lady on our hands!

Nessa -- morning and night

Nessa was being so pleasant and looked so cute in her dress that I asked Shawn to take a few pictures ... the best is the last one he took after the photo shoot was actually over...

this was the first picture where he let her be goofy ...

and this is her "look at me and smile" pose ... this kid does NOT have a modeling career ahead of her! So adorable in many other ways though!
This was all before church. She stayed pleasant through church (first time I think she has made it through church without having to leave the sanctuary since hitting toddler hood!) After church she soon showed us she could still give us some grey hairs though!

One of the ways she tested our patience was by not napping. Some may say she simply doesn't need naps anymore. Maybe they should spend a napless afternoon with her! She did however sit quietly and look at books for nearly an hour, so I relented and we went about our day. We had an early supper because we knew bedtime had to early. I took Nessa on a bike ride after we played in the back yard after supper. We left on our bike ride about 6 p.m. ... I was home by 6:30 and these are the pictures I took ... (bedtime on a regular day is about 8 p.m.)





Next time I think we'll go for a bike ride mid-afternoon instead so she has a nap instead of falling asleep and then refusing to wake up to put jammies on, go potty, etc. ...

On a more positive note I'm glad she's starting to enjoy bike rides more!

Home Sweet Home

OK, a few of you may be thinking that we got lost on our way south. No, we made it home from Walker in a very timely manner last Saturday. Then we spent Sunday basically recovering from the drive and unpacking a bit (I couldn't just say unpacking because *I* still have a suitcase in the bedroom). Then the week started, and here it is Friday already!

Megan came home Monday afternoon, and she needed a little recovery time too. Monday night Megan showed me all the fun stuff she found or purchased while in Washington and Oregon, and we also watched all of the video she took with the Flip camera (SOME of it will be posted later). Megan had SO much fun I can't even begin to express it here. I'm glad she was able to go on this trip and I was even more happy to have her home again (that's a mom thing). :-)

We did get back into the swing of things this week though with going to band lessons (stay tuned for an update on that), going to Wednesday night Yoga (Megan and Mom), and Shawn going to game night as well as a movie with friends. And of course how could we forget work. Tami returned to meetings and more meetings as well as more deadline work, and Shawn returned to a week of Java training.

My nights were spent soaking up time with my girls and attempting to catch up on my sleep. At least some after-bedtime time the next couple of weeks will be spent working with photos and blog entries ...

... of course there are a couple of big events coming up too ;-)

Up North Vacation

DCP_5466
Originally uploaded by Tami of BrooksGroth

We're on vacation ... check flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooksgroth/) for photos I uploaded this morning not only from vacation but also from our busy time before that!

Stay tuned for more soon ...