In The Pink

Today's lighting (outdoors) and dressed in pink yielded way better pictures. 
I'm much happier with these!

We'll have to consider these Rills's 2yr. photo shoot. (25 Mon. technically )

I'm out of here!

A Good Book

Still Winter But.....

As soon as Christmas festivities are over I find myself looking for spring. I know January is still (technically) the heart of winter and we could still be in for some nasty weather but I am impatient with this winter grey. However the fields are becoming lime green and sheep are being put out on pastures. 

I start imagining I detect new bird sounds, (arriving from their winter migration?) and knowing morning appears sooner, daylight lingering a smidge later each afternoon.

If the sun comes out I'm likely to head outdoors looking for even the slightest hint of something budding out or emerging from the soggy ground in our garden. This is all I came up with recently but its a start anyway. It gives a little  hope. Spring is surely on the way.

Peace

Christmas ~ All is Calm, All is Bright! (Mostly just the bright part)

Blessings

A wonderful family day.

"Calm"  ( pictures, however, can be sort of deceptive)

Board Game ~ Eldest vs. Youngest

Some of these photos are just too adorable to leave
in the small format of the collage in the last post. So here they are full size.

Great Grandpa entertains 4 yr. old Lola for a while on Monday while she is here. {I get to have her most Mondays while Heidi and the boys are at CC and this week Grandpa joins us due to his fabulous Thanksgiving week visit}.As you can tell Grandpa can play it up or down with a poker face of intense conviction and totally sell it. And she's clearly buying it, by the expression on her face! Lola tends to have a face so full of expression you can read it like a book. I love it.

.They changed the rules a bit to 'simplify' but what 4 year old wouldn't enjoy a board game which includes bunny game pieces, blackberries, and tiny baskets to put them in. Winning or losing berries, almost getting caught by Mr. McGregor and escaping under the fence! {To say nothing of having Grandpa all to herself for a while.} 

Thankfull

Today we put Dad on a plane for home.

How difficult that was.

And yet  we are so grateful....

That he could be with us for a week....

That he felt well enough to come.

And each of us now has a few more very special moments to treasure.

{John and Melody, thank you for making this trip happen!}

{My iPhone is not the camera that the Nikon is}
{Rainy, low light, Oregon winter! Maybe someone else got better photos of these two groups.}

Rilla, the littlest, gives hugs and kisses to "Pietsch" as she calls him.

Lola and Great Grandpa play the Peter Rabbit game with all the intensity of a high stakes chess match!