December 31st, 2008 by Heidi
This is now becoming a common scene in the living room. It’s not enough to just play Tony Hawk skateboarding on the Wii, but the boys feel they need to also stand on their Tony Hawk skateboards while they play. I love it!
December 25th, 2008 by Heidi
From my family to yours!
December 23rd, 2008 by Heidi
Yesterday I spent some time in Connor’s classroom to help them with a gingerbread man project. I always love spending time with the kids. I love their stories and listening to and seeing their thought processes. Here are a few pictures from my time with them.
Mrs. Stewart explains the craft
The group at Connor’s table that I was helping
Toothless Connor sports a green string
Connor glues his man together
Almost complete!
December 22nd, 2008 by Heidi
This is the one day of winter that I actually look forward to seeing. Though today seems much to cold to care about – the significance of the solstice pushes that aside. As the shortest day of the year, it can only get better from here. Now, I’m not kidding myself, I know there are still MONTHS of winter to get through, but at least there will be just a little more light each day. Up here in the north, I really cherish that sunshine. Even when it’s -16* with a -29* windchill [yes, that's what it is right now], the sun shining has a small way of making it feel a little less cold.
And when the sun is shining, we get some beautiful scenery. While picking up the boys this afternoon, this is what we saw. I stopped the truck and got out to snap a few images.
The image doesn’t show how the wind was blowing and drifting or give you a feel for how bitter the windchill was. But the sun was shining, and tomorrow it will shine just a little bit longer. Even just a minute, it’s one minute more than today. And those minutes add up so fast. And before I know it, spring will arrive again and I can put another North Dakota winter behind me.
December 17th, 2008 by Heidi
Our first big snowfall came this weekend. A storm that was well anticipated, it come in quite fierce and lived up to the expectations. We even made national news. The Weather Channel was in downtown Fargo. Saturday evening, the wind started blowing, the temperatures dropped, and the snowflakes fell. It was quite fine and very blustery at times. We knew Sunday would be a doozy. And it was. All day and all night the snow came down – very heavy at times. the wind was gusting 45+mph. The dogs would go out to do their business and within a few minutes their tracks were filled in again. Sometime through the middle of the night the snow stopped and Monday morning the city was burried in snow. Here is what we saw…
Our patio door frosted over in the extreme below zero temps
The trampoline does not look happy
The garage and front door – quite drifted over
This is where the driveway is supposed to be
We couldn’t open the front door
Casey is curious – and yes, the snow blew IN the door
Thank goodness for Roy!
James tackles things from this side
Despite Ruby loving the snow, she is totally unthrilled with the frigid temperatures
This is Casey’s first big snow – he loves it! He goes in and out nonstop all day. He runs and jumps and plays in the snow!
Ok, I’ve had enough now. We can have summer back ASAP.
December 14th, 2008 by Heidi
Yesterday we celebrated Connor’s 7th birthday with his school friends at Skateland. Despite James and I feeling unsteand and uncool on skates, all the kiddos had a great time. 7 friends came and Hannah and Dillan too. We skated and played video games and had some really awesome cake thanks to my friend Marlene made.
Sadly, the lighting at Skateland is dark. I know it’s super cool to have spot lights and colored lights and glow sticks, but it really makes for cruddy images. I all of a sudden felt like an ameteur with a camera. I salvaged what I could to commemorate the day. At least we’ll know that the lighting was so cool that even the picutures didn’t turn out!
Connor was looking for his friends
Marlene and all of her awesome cake making skill made a totally awesome skateboarding cake for Connor. Connor specificially requested it to say “Tony Hawk” on it. There were even some random Skateland strangers that commented on how cool it was!
Here is the table full of party guests!
Blowing out the candles, cha cha cha.
Doing the Limbo! Connor didn’t win but he got pretty far. He loves playing the skating games.
Happy Birthday Son!! We had a great time!
December 14th, 2008 by Heidi
Friday was ‘gingerbread house’ day in Dillan’s kindergarten class. They were actually 2 milk cartons, slathered with icing and graham crackers stuck to them – but that’s ok, it’s the concept. Parents showed up to help their child with the decorating and to have some fun. Dillan was so into the decorating of the house. Some of it he was very meticulous about and other parts he just willy nilly slapped things on. I really think he was more interested in eating the goodies than making the house. We had a really good time together – he loves when I’m able to come to his class with him. He’s so proud to show me all around and all the neat things they have in the classroom.
Dillan’s teacher, Mrs. Meline, caught us both at a weird face moment – but here we are – she took our picture.
December 7th, 2008 by Heidi
Business has been good to me this fall. Finally! Just a few short months ago I was feeling discouraged and frustrated and wanting to throw in the towel. I had some great words of advice shared from friends and some good kicks in the rear too. I stuck with it. And it paid off nicely. Enough that I was able to dive in and upgrade my camera – the source of some of my frustrations. It arrived yesterday and while I’m consumed with finishing the last of my session images, I haven’t had much time to fiddle around with it. There is a learning curve with this one – it’s a bit different than what I’m used to.
But so far, I’m so in love. The clarity and color is gorgeous. The low light issues I was having are disappearing. The sound of the shutter makes my heart flutter, seriously.
To add to the love, I photographed my gorgeous and stunning Hannah. How could my heart not do backflips with a natural beauty like her infront of the lens on my spiffy new gear? wowsers!
December 4th, 2008 by Heidi
Seven years really isn’t supposed to go by so fast. Today Connor turned 7. And he’s so excited! He’s such a great kid! He’s always full of hugs and “I love you’s”. He’s enthusiastic and compassionate and growing up a fine boy. He was so excited to get a ‘big’ skateboard. And this one is extra cool because it’s a “Tony Hawk” board. I’m not sure what he’ll do waiting for spring to get out and use it! Though trying to get a good picture was a bit hard, he just wanted to ham it up – that’s my boy! I love you, son!
