Christmas

A bit of bokeh fun with my new lens. :)

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  Many more photos to come!

Thanksgiving 2013

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving!  We certainly did.

We went to Austin to have Thanksgiving dinner with Nathan's family at his Uncle Steve and Aunt Jennifer's new house.  Their home and accompanying property is wonderful; in fact, I told Nathan, "I want this house."  Our dream is to buy five or ten acres and build a house on it one of these days, and this little visit helped confirm some ideas we have about what we'd like.

Besides the lovely setting, we really enjoyed being with family and felt thankful for some restful time to play pool, crochet, sleep, watch TV, enjoy the outdoors, and play.  Oh, and eat!

The first thing we did when we arrived was feed the chickens.  They are docile enough to eat out of your hand, which Noah enjoyed.

Eggs!  Different colors from different varieties of chicken.

Noah was fascinated by these "eggs," as he called them.  They were on the back of many leaves.  Anybody know what they are?  Perhaps some kind of insect produces them? 

Climbing up into an old tree house.

One thing I really liked about Uncle Steve and Aunt Jennifer's property was the rock wall that surrounds their yard. 

 It is made of rocks that were cleared from the yard, and, evidently, it was even photographed for Southern Living magazine.

 And if you're thinking, "There's no way the yard had enough rocks to build that," let me just give you a peek into the neighbor's property, which is typical of this area in the Texas Hill Country.

Nathan and his dad, tightening the zip line.  

The zip line starts about 20 feet off the ground but dips pretty low before the end.

Go Nathan!

I love Austin's face here.  Hold on tight!

Meanwhile, Clara was loving her pillow throne.

The food was delicious.  And I think we had about as many desserts as we did dinner items!

That's my bourbon pecan pie, which I make every year now.

Aunt Jennifer, Emily, and Aunt Traci.

It's nice to have some cheerful conversation while you wash up!

And, bless them, Uncle Steve and Aunt Jennifer had gotten out lots of their boys' old toys for my children.  All three kids loved the old Fisher Price goodies, as you can tell by the magnificent mess they made on the living room floor.

That night, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in their fire pit, and Noah and Jane went to bed nicely worn out and happy.

 The next morning, I stepped out of the sleeping house and took some photos of the foggy morning.

Sometime along my little jaunt, I realized that one of the pleasures photography can bring me is solitude.

And another is the space to simply observe and find the beauty in the mundane.  Like fog amidst the trees.

Later that day, we headed to Waco to stay at Nathan's parents' house for the rest of the weekend.  I must have been pretty relaxed, because I didn't even bother to get the camera out for the rest of the holiday!  Ha!  Mostly, what we did in Waco was watch football, crochet, eat, watch movies, clean up Jane's forts, eat, and hunt feral hogs (Nathan).  

Our family has had a particularly busy fall, and it was lovely that Nathan had the whole week off of work and we were able to really enjoy each other for several days.  Even though we still kept busy, it definitely felt like a holiday.  And now we are really looking forward to Christmas!

I hope you had as lovely a Thanksgiving as we did!

Halloween

Last night, we had some friends over, had a nice fall dinner, and took the kids trick or treating.  It was a nice time for the adults, and the kids had a fabulous time. 

Elizabeth, Jane, Noah, and our neighbor, Addie.

Clara loved Noah's NASA hat.

Elizabeth was super cute.  I'm loving this picture of her.

Off went the three Musketeers!  Trick or treating we go!

I like this picture.  It looks almost as if she's a fairy tale character walking on a forest path.

This boy had a great night.  He completely embraced trick or treating and was running pellmell down the street yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!" at the top of his lungs.  I loved the childlike exuberance and fun!

 

Did you notice the half of a ball on a stick?  He made it.  He called it his candy launcher.  Ha!

What a happy kid.  I love it.

My little Cinderella Jane.

Happy friends.

 It was a great night!

A Wee Bit of Catching Up to Do

So I have a wee bit of catching up to do on the blog, eh?  Just a tad.  I had three blog posts last month.  Three.  The lowest monthly number ever.  Oh well.  Life is busy!  And I've been busy living it rather than writing about it!

I'll try to write individual posts about bigger events like Jane's birthday, but for now, here are a few random pics from the last little while.

For Valentine's Day, I made these cute little lavender filled sachets/ornaments.  I think they turned out so sweet.

By the way, I got the idea and the how-to from Pippa Middleton's book, Celebrate, which I would recommend.  It's an event planning book, organized by season, and I really like it.  When I opened it up, I expected that she would be trying to be the British Martha Stewart, but, actually, her ideas are far less fussy.  There's nothing in there like a craft that will take me an entire weekend and make my fingertips sore, for example. :)  But everything is still classy, sweet, fun, and thoughtful.

This is my Janey Beth after a party at Mother's Day Out.  My happy girl. :)

Jane and her friend, Elizabeth, having a little play date at our house.  In their laps: Jane has Pink Rosie, and Elizabeth has Pink Rosie's friend, Banana Pink Rosie. :)

I ran across this handsome guy at a lovely garden store I just discovered.  I want him.  But I have no place to put him. I'm tempted to buy him and save him to put out in my cottage garden I dream of having one day.

That's it for today, friends!  More later.

For Easter: Resurrection Rolls

Here's a sweet Easter recipe that you moms out there may have seen before: resurrection rolls.

It's used as an illustration for preschoolers about how Jesus was put into the tomb and how it was empty on Easter morning.  Basically, it's just a marshmallow wrapped in a crescent roll, and when you bake it, the marshmallow melts, creating an empty space in the middle, just like the empty tomb.  It can really elicit a "wow" reaction in some kids, and besides that, it's delicious!

On Saturday night, we'll assemble the rolls, and I'll bake them for breakfast on Easter Sunday morning, the day that Jesus rose from the dead!  (Hopefully the overnight rest won't affect anything.)  And here's a tip: baking them in a muffin tin helps the rolls stay together.  Just grease it really well.

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Resurrection Rolls

1 package of 8 Pillsbury crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
1/2 cup melted butter, for dipping
cinnamon and sugar

Preheat the oven according to package instructions.  Unroll the crescent rolls.  Place each marshmallow in the wide end of each triangle.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Roll the crescent around the marshmallow, sealing it off as well as you can.  Dip the roll in butter, then roll it in more sugar and cinnamon.  Bake according to package instructions.

Happy Easter!

Christmas!

Easter

We spent Easter this year with Grandma and Grandpa Benesh in Waco.

The kids got to have an Easter egg hunt in their front yard, which, of course, they very much enjoyed.

 

Perhaps this is the first egg hunt Jane will remember.  If so, she'll remember how delighted she was!

Happy girl.  She picked out her Easter dress for the day, by the way.

 

I think Noah is pleased with what's in his basket. ;)

Here's hoping you all had a happy and blessed Easter season this year!

Christmas at the Beneshes'

Taking a break from opening presents with Grandma and Grandpa

The Fam (part of it, anyway)

There are just a few stockings at the Benesh house.

Nap time!

Playing games with Matthew and Emily in our new robes from Grandma T.

Some funny plays in Apples to Apples

Really, you can't beat this one.