Shotsnaps

Leftovers

One big project we somehow finished in extreme summer heat was clearing a chicken yard and putting in fencing.

Oh, yeah! Now I remember how we finished it.

Sheer panic.

We were going to host weekly worship at our place for the first time, and I thought it'd be best if people didn't have to sit on layers of dried chicken mess. An hour of power-washing and a fresh coat of stain later, and no one will ever know about the disgusting layers...except for the poor family members we hosted for an impromptu barbeque a few weeks prior.

Sunday morning bedroom. This is what I saw when I came upstairs to get dressed for church, and it made me happy. We had some Newmans over, and the little girls thought that they needed to dress in costumes immediately upon waking.

Another sleepover, this time with the cousins. Everyone flocks when Candida pulls out the funny videos.

After she shared some, I meant to take pictures of every last one of Deborah's birthday chocolates from Evan and Justin, including the impressive chocolate-coated honeycomb square (yeah, you heard me-- chocolate-coated HONEYCOMB), but all I got was this one of the best raspberry chocolate I've ever eaten.

Millie finally finished Annika's birthday bag, hand embroidered and all.

It was worth the wait!

She doesn't have her ears pierced and doesn't wear makeup, and there's a good reason for both. ;)
(Whatever's on my phone is fair game.)

Pip looking lovely in the garden (photo by Susannah).

All the Owen cousins except for the Nyes together in one place! Aidan was thrilled by forced picture-taking.

Trevor and a baby chick.

One of the children took this picture of Grandma Owen and Zion a week later.

We went blueberry picking.

Zeke bought his own portion so he could binge on berries at his leisure and without permission from higher household authorities.

A true leftover from early spring. I love these two.

Spring

Joel breaks ground in the lower garden.

After months of chaos, bare floor appears in the bedroom.

Bare floor does not mean bare shelves, however...ulp.

Millie suffered some hard loss this spring. This is the last picture I took of her with Lewis before his untimely death.

Annika unearths treasure in the upper garden.

Someone needs to help her define treasure better.

Millie uses the camera more than I do. After seeing color ribbon the sky, I later find it stored in the camera.

Nixie tests out a new look.

Millie made a cake. Rude pedestrians photo-bombed it.

Always take a snack to bed. You never know when you might need it.

Lazy boy sits in the sumac.

Richest woman in the world.

A tornado at rest.

As you can guess from a four-month dearth of snapshots, spring and summer strongholded me and never let go. Even now, blogging instead of Other-ing is probably not the best choice, but I want to catch up before h'learning begins again. I haven't taken many photos except for "duty" ones while M.I.A.-- birthday parties and the like-- but here's to another fresh start.

So it goes...

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p.s. APONI JOI!!! WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!!!

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Piper Joy

I'm still not sure how it happens, but I know by now that it does, and will, no matter what. Little Pip-- our Pipsqueak-Pippilotta-Nut Berry-Lovey Dovey-Sugarplum-- is growing up.

Proof positive? On June 1st, she turned 12 years old.

She requested a birthday breakfast that involved lemon buns with lemony cream cheese frosting. I was excited about this breakfast, which may be why I over-estimated how much frosting we'd need.

Birthday suppers are usually too involved and chaotic for me to remember to snap a picture these days, but Millie made Pip a delicious raspberry cream trifle for dessert, and I took a picture of our elegant birthday lady.

After supper (the which I do not remember except that it involved lots of frying, as birthday suppers generally do), we celebrated her properly with song and wishes.

Happy birthday, sweet girl! We loved you from the first moment we knew of you, and we are so glad to have you with us! May God grow you even more in the years to come.

Little Fire, Arrow Ours

The "Birthday Couch" has designs on the whole house and spreads further with each birthday.

When I came in first thing in the morning, I saw Aidan doling out little pebbles from his teacup.

Oh! Nerds. Perfect pre-birthday breakfast appetizer.

He requested Swedish pancakes drenched in syrup and.....what else but Nerds?

Bad quality photo, but just try to look at his face without grinning.

Later that afternoon, he almost fell asleep on Grandma Owen's lap. Nerd-eating on a heroic scale exhausts little boys, even boys who are newly six years old.

One haircut later, he revived enough to enjoy his birthday supper and a Jello poke cake (the easiest cake ever, by request, and since it was gardening week, it met with my full approval).

I can't handle that cheesy grin! What a boy.

Our boy. Our wonderful work. Our joy.

We love you, Little Fire. Here's to six!

Birthday Boy Blue

Because the memory card on which Zeke's 8th birthday celebration is likely lost for good, here's a birthday post featuring, instead of his strawberry rhubarb pie and apple pie burritos, his loose front tooth.

This boy is still sweet and sensitive, and he's still obsessed with building and all things motoring.

The most amazing birthday gift he has probably ever received in his life was this year's gift from Grandpa Owen. He gave Zeke a new battery for this old, bladeless mower, which turned Zeke into an Immediate Driver 8 years before his official time.