Happy Thanksgiving

especially for spending the day with this little cutie...

and for being able to spend the entire weekend with all the family!

nuthatch portraits...

I haven't had the camera out in a week and there were days the cell phone camera was quiet as well so I am missing a week of photo inspired posts and hope to get back in the "inspired" mode soon.

In the meantime, I was lucky enough to get a white breasted nuthatch to sit for a portrait session yesterday, she was even a little bored at times and closed her eyes :)

Harvest...

"Autumn ends the harvest
And breathes old thanks-filled tunes.
A fruitful, swollen storing time,
It hangs huge, yellow moons."
Mike Logan

Harvest is almost done in my area of the country and most of the tractors I see driving by are now pulling plows instead of wagons. The fields across the road have already been tilled and the field next to my house was harvested while I was gone last week. Cornstalks and partial cobs await the next round of equipment to move in to turn the soil.

Sight

Today's photo prompt is "Sight". I spent most of my day on the road with a few shopping stops to stretch my legs during the 4 hour drive home from Jayme's. The only photo I took today was with my cell phone on the drive home when I saw someone already hauling home a Christmas tree! I thought November 3rd was a little early to be selecting a tree but I guess if you want a perfect one then it might be for you. It was a "sight" to see for me :)

Lessons learned...

Saturday, I was up at still up at my daughter Jayme's house visiting and I was having my second large cup of coffee because I was TIRED.  We were talking and I told her the photo prompt of the the day was "lessons learned" and she told me to go take a photo of my iPad because I had stayed up reading till 2:30 am and didn't fall asleep until almost 3 am and my "lesson learned" was I would be tired if I stayed up that late :)    I love to read but I get so involved in a book if it is good that it is sometimes hard to put down.  Friday night's book was "What Alice Forgot" the third  of Liane Moriarty's five books, I have finished the first 3 and look forward to the last two.

So Jayme was right - I learned my lesson!  But that didn't stop me from enjoying a busy and full day.  So full as a matter of fact the only photos I took in the entire day were on my cell phone of 2 pairs of purple shoes I want to buy my little Princesses to go with their Christmas dresses.  A second lesson might be "a princess can never have too many shoes"….just wish they were still 87 cents!

Surprises...

November is a quieter month for me and I'm going to try the daily photo challenge once again even if it ends up being a photo from my phone which I always have with me. This month's challenge also emphasizes gratitude which is a lot easier for me to elaborate on the subject title.

Today's subject was Surprises. I'm spending a few days up north with Brooklyn and we are having lots of one on one Brooklyn and Grandma time. She is a very vocal little girl and her vocabulary for someone just turning two is amazing, I'm not just being a proud grandma either - people comment to J & S all the time on her vocal skills for her age. To say that this little girl is full of surprises is an understatement to me. Today she told me a long story about a little boy that came over to play and he pushed another little friend, so his mommy had to have a talk with him and he had to go to timeout in her room. When I ask her if she needs to go potty, she tells me "No, I'm fine, I'm really fine". A new favorite is to tease her mommy with a line from a movie…"MOM, the Meatloaf!" and then she giggles and giggles. Finally, the biggest surprise to me is her aptitude with the iPad and her mommy's phone. She just whizzes through games and sings many songs with the apps and I sometimes struggle with new computer skills :)

So surprised and proud of this little two year old!

I'm equally proud and constantly surprised by the new things my darling little 15 month old, Bailey! She walks backward and does the moonwalk. She has no fear so needs to be watched closely. She is learning to talk and learns new words daily, even if she can't say the exact word, all the syllables are present.

My trick or treaters trying on their costumes together earlier in October…

Grandma added a bow to Brooklyn's penquin to make it a little more feminine like Bailey's leopard.

I'm so filled with gratitude for these two little angels and can't wait to experience our expanded family in 2014!