Happiness Week 1: Cheatham Hill

Leigh from Leigh Vs. Laundry sent me an invite to her 52 Weeks of Happiness Photo Project. I had seen this on other blogs, but I never checked it out. I love the idea. So I'm very glad she sent me a link! Thanks Leigh! So, I'm participating today! Leigh is also trying to spread the happiness! So I encourage all of you to join in this project and focus on something happy!

Here it goes....

Something that makes me happy is spending time with my son. Just me and him. Bonding, talking, playing. I'm so blessed to be able to spend most of the week home with him. And recently I've realized that he will be starting preschool soon and this time we have together will be shorter! So I've been trying to make the most of it lately.

Last week, Digger and I went to Cheatham Hill. It one of my favorite outdoor places to be! For those of you not familiar with it, it is part of the National Battefield Park here in Georgia. It is the site of several battles that took place during the Civil War. There are monuments there to remember these battles and the people who died there. There are also locations that have trails through them and many use these trails for walking, running, biking, and horseback riding. It's very close to our home and a place that became special to Dada and I during our dating years. It is a beautiful and peaceful place, despite the battles that occurred there. Digger had not been there since he first learned to walk and I thought it would be a fun place for us to go for a walk and picnic. And so we did! And it was a very special, memorable, and fun day! Below are a few pics from the day!

This was also an opportunity to use some new photography skills and get to know my camera settings (which also makes me happy!). Some of the pics may be strangely colored or a little grainy because of this, but I learned a ton about my camera that day! FYI- Week 2 of my photography course will be posted tomorrow!

I so made him take this, but he didn't protest TOO much.

I mean flowers are kind cool to boys, right? Even if just to tear apart!

Brandon was a little whiny during this walk because I mentioned the word picnic. He kept leaving me! ALL he cared about was getting back to the picnic tables so we could start the picnic!

We found this little guy sunning at the picnic tables.

The best part of my day was when Digger actually started POSING for me! This never happens. And I got some cute shots out of it that make me soo happy :)

Oreos :)

And this just came out so much better than I expected! My sweet shot, maybe? There are so many fun shots from this day, it's hard to decide!

It was a good day!

Looking back at these pictures makes me so very happy! I can't wait to get back there. Being there makes me happy, but being there with my little guy makes it that much better!

Happy Tuesday! See you tomorrow!

Nicole

Funny Friday #3

Happy Friday folks! I'm taking a break from Friendly Friday for awhile (if you really miss it, let me know). But for your enjoyment, here's another exciting installment of Funny Friday!

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1) Scene: Digger and I were discussing the difference between heroes and superheroes. I was explaining that heroes could be anyone that helps someone else. A firefighter, a police officer, a nurse, even Mom or Dad. His response...

Digger: I like Mommas to be Wonder Woman, Dadas to be Batman, and boys to be Robin.

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2) Digger: Knock, knock.
Me: Who's there?
Digger: Cargo.
Me: Cargo, who?
Digger: Car go beep, beep, vroom vroom!

Where does he get this stuff?

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3) Digger: Momma, quit talking to yourself.

HAHA! Busted. I totally talk to myself all the time.

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4) Here's a funny face for you to enjoy. This is the look I get when I want to take pictures and Digger has other plans.

Hope you all have had an enjoyable and funny Friday the 13th! See you next week!

 

WW-You Capture/Twisted Fate Challenges

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the momma's out there! I hope you all had a wonderful day and felt loved and appreciated for all the hard work you do as a mother! I spent mine at work, unfortunately, but came home to surprise gifts and well wishes so it ended well!


So this week, I've got two photo challenges. For You Capture- I have Motherhood and for Twisted Fate Photography- I have Red. I struggled a bit with both of these. I'm not so good at the color photo challenges and the motherhood thing, well I didn't just want to be generic with it.


And I don't think I mentioned our struggles these past two weeks. A stomach virus made it's way to our house, it went through all four of us and also made it's way through my in-laws house. This consisted of much throwing up and general gross-ness. Once we made it through that, then Digger caught round two of it, diarrhea and more gross-ness. A few members of my in-laws house also suffered with this. It lasted a week for Digger. Then we are all feeling better and all join together again for a return to our normal routine. Then my nephew gets diagnosed with a stomach virus, pink eye and strep throat. Poor kid, right? And since we had returned to our normal routine and the kids were around each other...yep, Digger then got pink eye, as did my neice. So, as you can imagine, it's been a rough few weeks. As of today, we have all recovered and Digger's pink eye is clearing (just in time for his check up and shots...but don't tell him that!).


All of this rambling, has a point. I promise. To bring this all together, I found one photo that met both photo challenge requirements and sort of summed up our past few weeks!

We ate lots of chicken soup these weeks and MOM is always the one making it. So, red and motherhood combined for this one!

Here are a few other captures I made this week:

This red guy makes a regular appearence in our lives.

I took this using my new found aperture knowledge :) But it does represent a big part of motherhood-potty training. We used these little guys to mark our potty success calendar! It really helped get us on track or get us back on track! I also like that the subject sticker really catches the mood around here- "Really Improved."

I share just because I love it :) I accidently took this in landscape mode. But I learned something and so it was worth it! I love the way it stretches and distorts. And Digger just looks so happy to be out in the sun after being cooped up in the house, sick, for so long.

You think he learned how to pose for pictures from me?

Hope you enjoyed! Have a happy Wednesday! Check out more great pictures and blogs at the links below!

You Capture

Stacy Uncorked

Seven Clown Circus

 

Nicole

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh

 

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning



When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

WW-You Capture-Outdoors

I knew this week's You Capture theme would be an easy one. One of my favorite things to do is take the camera outdoors, usually on a lovely spring walk! However, nature has a funny way of changing things up. When I'm ready to get the camera out, it rains. But, luckily still provided some outdoor photo fun. On my way to take the dogs out, I noticed some birds had made a nest on our front porch. This particular spot is quite popular with the birds. We've had multiple nests in this spot. This time, though, there is a different kind of bird. So that's exciting!

I did a little research on them and they appear to be house finches. I know, so much for an outdoorsy name :) Here's a link to what I found about finches (click the book corner and then scroll down to House Finch to see info). See if you agree with my bird identification. If I'm correct, then the brown bird is the female and the red one is the male.

Here's the pics! FYI-lots of editing required on the first few pics.

The brown bird (most likely female) stays in the nest mostly.

Not a great shot, but the only decent one of them together.

I had a hard time editing this one. I just love her eyes. Wish I could've zoomed in more!

While I was snapping photos of the female, the male peeked over the edge of the drain to see if it was safe to approach nest.

With much stress, the birds retreated to a nearby tree and chirped at me while I snapped more pictures from underneath their nest.

I've become quite fond of bird watching and photographing. Birds have such great personalities if you just take the time to stop and watch them for awhile. Do you enjoy bird watching or photographing? Share your favorite bird pics with me!

Check out more pics and blogs at the links below!

Nicole

You Capture