The Essence of Love

Where does this instant, massive love come from? The love of new parents towards their baby?

God surely knew what He was doing when he decided Family was the perfect place for a new child and then {miracle of miracles} gives the parents {who, by the way, claimed not to have a "maternal bone in their body"!}this unbelievable adoring passion for their baby.

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RILLA, Cont.

Actually, this is only the beginning.

Rilla

Pretty sure the house is going to go to wrack and ruin, my husband is going to wonder where dinner is, and I simply won't get another thing done! Newborn photos however, will get taken. By me. Today. I want to learn how to do this. And little Rilla baby is so easy and fun to photograph right now. The main challenge is to get enough light on these dark December days! { natural light only!}

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Our Christmas Day

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Christmas:Ready or not here I come

Decorating done, check.

Packages wrapped, check.

Cards received (but not sent), check.

Baking done (sort of. If one batch of cookies and one pie counts) check.

Dickens's Christmas Carol read, check.

Newest baby welcomed, check, check, check.

Well then, I think we're ready! 

Christmas Present

Ben and Shannon's little girl has arrived. Her name is Rilla Grey and she is wonderful. What an indescribable miracle is a new life .

And Baby makes 3

Yawn! 

Mother and Daughter

Love

  

I am so glad I was able to travel by train to California for a two week visit with Mom and Dad and my brother, John, his wife Melody and daughter Aimee who live next door to them. I'm finally getting to some of the pictures I took of my time with them.

Mom is currently having treatment for cancer and I'm so sorry I can't be with her for the whole time of her treatment. Dad had his own battle with Lymphoma the last 2 1/2 years and is doing so much better, and now it seems it's Moms turn. Dad is doing a lot for her now as she did for him {except for the driving which the doctors say he shouldn't do}.  John and Melody are a continuous support and encouragement for them and take such wonderful care with shared dinner times, help with errands and Dr. appointments, and all manner of assistance  too numerous to count.

The first days of my visit are so balmy I just don't want to be inside. They're so used to their wonderful climate that they don't really give it much thought but it is a real treat to this soggy, chilled Oregonian I can tell you!. So we enjoy lunch al-fresco in 80 degrees several days running.

The Sunday of Veteran's Day Dad and I go to the ceremony held at the beautiful veterans memorial park near them. There are several speakers {including a Marine from their church},a fly-over of "war birds", color guard, bagpipers, WWII era choir numbers, and honors for the various branches of service.

Melody's birthday is also on that same Sunday and John and Aimee cook up a feast fit for a Queen and the rest of us get to enjoy it too! Would you believe salmon, shrimp risotto, and salad. And Aimee is perfecting her gluten-free cupcakes. Beautiful.

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While going through some things to organize at Mom and Dad's we find two old photo albums among the lot. What fun to go through them with Mom, having her tell us who everyone was. Now Dad has another project on the computer to scan and digitize the best ones so Mom can put them with a story on video. {Right, Mom?}

My visit comes to an end all too quickly and the train bears me home. The scenery that flashes by is almost impossible to capture. It is a tranquil
and peaceful interlude preparing me for the busy week that follows. {Baby shower for Shannon and then Thanksgiving.}

Misty Morning

"A Misty morning does not signify a cloudy day."

Early morning fog calling me out of the house to do some picture taking.

Interesting Concept

Yup! pretty sure this is the first time this has ever been tried. Ivy and Leif had a brilliant idea on how to improve on ways to feed our horse some little apples. Fortunately she{Misty} had had her fill before they came up with this one. Genius  though! And "Bambi you must come see and bring your camera!"
 They tell me the horse did pluck a few off the fence before I got there but she was done with that before I could capture it on film. They also felt is was important to demonstrate how they would do it were they lucky enough to be a horse!

Lola @ 2

Life is good,

Summers are always endless and

Anywhere's a stage 

when you're 2!

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Shannon - 27 Weeks

Late Summer Campers

Camping in September isn't always a good idea in Oregon but this year was a beautiful exception.
Ben and Shannon are the ones camping (and this only the first trip to House Rock for "Baby Girl"!)
John and I are visiting for the day.

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Spectators

......at a Parade, oops- football game. And yes the spectators were more numerous this time and it worked its noisy magic! Drake's team won! 

Lola started out sitting in this cool backpack that her Mother was hoping she would stay in. Ha! Dream on Mom. The hat didn't last very long either. But it was sooo cute and since she rarely will suffer a "head decoration" of any kind it was irresistible.

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A Little More Sunshine

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Little Miss Sunshine

Lola is just a ray of sherbet colored cheerfulness today.

We go to a Football Game

We couldn't miss Drake's very first football game. He's number 75 in these photos.This may be the start of something big. And what a gorgeous evening to start the season.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Let me just state right here, I love! our! book club! and the ladies who attend. And sometimes we really hit a winner of a book as well. This was one of those times.

Leif Enger at Book Club: A couple of short excerpts from Peace Like a River.{ I realize this tells you nothing of the plot or even subject of the book but if you'r intrigued just read the book. You won't be sorry.}


“I was drawn on. Conscious now that something needed doing, I moved ever higher on the land. Here entering an orchard of immense and archaic beauty. I say orchard: The trees were dense in one place, scattered in another, as though planted by random throw, but all were heavy trunked and capaciously limbed, and they were fruit trees, every one of them. Apples, gold-skinned apricots, immaculate pears. The leaves about them were thick and cool and stirred at my approach; touched with a finger, they imparted a palpable rhythm....


It took a long while to traverse the orchard. I began to feel hungry but didn't pause; though all this fruit appeared perfectly available, I felt prodded to appear before the master. The place had a master! Realizing this, I know he was already aware of me - comforting and fearful knowledge. Still I wanted to see him. The farther I went the more I seemed to know or remember about him - the way he'd planted this orchard, walking over the hills, casting seed from his hand. I kept moving.... 



And now, from beneath the audible, came a low reverberation. It came up through the soles of my feet. I stood still while it hummed upward bone by bone. There is no adequate simile. The pulse of the country worked through my body until I recognized it as music. As language. And the language ran everywhere inside me, like blood; and for feeling, it was as if through time I had been made of earth or mud or other insensate matter. Like a rhyme learned in antiquity a verse blazed to mind: O be quick, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet! And sure enough my soul leapt dancing inside my chest, and my feet sprang up and sped me forward, and the sense came to me of undergoing creation, as the land and the trees and the beasts of the orchard had done some long time before. And the pulse of the country came around me, as of voices lifted at great distance, and moved through me as I ran until the words came clear, and I sang with them a beautiful and curious chant.... 


I breathe deeply, and certainty enters into me like light, like a piece of science, and curious music seems to hum inside my fingers.
Is there a single person on whom I can press belief?
No sir.
All I can do is say, Here’s how it went. Here’s what I saw.
I’ve been there and am going back.
Make of it what you will.”

― Leif Enger, Peace Like a River

Military Display - John's Favorite Things

Random Things --- Kids' Play, Dust at Dusk, Chair Appeal

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