Sunday Stills Happy New Year!

Yes, it's been awhile. A long while. Things have been a little chaotic here over the last few months as I settle into a new chapter of life. So, the photography has been a tad neglected lately. But, to start the New Year off right, I thought I'd answer the Sunday Stills challenge this week: post your favourite photo from 2011 and your photographic hopes from 2012.

Here's my flickr set for Best of 2011. But, if I had to pick one picture, it would be this one, for what is probably obvious reasons. I took this in Fort Myers airport waiting to board the plane. The light through the windows was incredible and the kids were happy to pose at the end of our Florida vacation.



For my photographic hopes for 2012, perhaps a new camera body and making time to take more pictures of everyday moments.

Happy New Year!

Sunday Stills: The Letter F

Thanks goodness for Sunday Stills! It gives me a much-needed kick in the butt each week to grab my camera and DO SOMETHING with it. After a year of taking pictures every day, I find it odd that I need more motivation now. But, of course, I'm working fuller time hours now, helping with the hubby's business handling their online marketing, helping more with our other business, real estate investments, taking up jogging and golf, helping coach soccer, raising two kids and generally trying to keep life running smoothly.

So,  Sunday Stills keeps me honest. This week's challenge, The Letter F, was an easy one for me. I have my very own F, Faith, that provides me excellent subject matter. We decided to take this one even  more seriously.

On Thursday, Faith got her first set of braces (top only). Now her smile is even more sparkly! (And the F is from her Gramma.)

The tooth saga continues

Warning: This will get a little gross.

Faith has lucked out in the tooth department. Her mouth is too small for her adult teeth to come in properly AND her teeth don't fall out very easily. She has used this to her advantage in the past by somehow scamming sympathy tooth money from her great-grandfather.

But, we have now entered into the realm of orthodontic care. So far, this has meant two separate (FREE!) visits to the orthodontist. The results so far have been a trip back to our family dentist, instructions in hand for him to pull out baby teeth. The theory is that by yanking the baby teeth, the adult teeth will pop in, and her mouth will continue to grow, so eventually she'll have room for all the adult teeth with no braces. I am suspicious though, since the orthodontist gave us a tour of her office the first time we visited, specifically showing Faith the "cool" colors of braces available.

So far, the teeth pulling venture hasn't been too bad. The teeth have been loose anyway, and generally came out fairly easily. Other than the visit where she didn't tell the dentist that the freezing wasn't working!!!! I normally sit in the room with her to make sure it's all going well and we're in and out in 15 minutes.

This time, however, she had two molars removed. Two solidly-in-the-mouth, baby molars. So, I took my seat in the room, Blake on my lap, and watched the proceedings. It started with the needle - which doesn't bother her normally, but this time they gave her some extra doses and it HURT. But the kid is so stoic, she doesn't say anything, or even move! I did however see the tear leak out the side of her eye and I just about started balling myself. So much for tough mom.

After the freezing took, Faith was completely fine. I, on the other hand, started getting a little woozy when they pulled out what looked like a giant pair of stainless steel pliers from the drawer. Yikes! But, I figured if she could do it, the least I could do is be in the room for support. But, when they started yanking on the tooth,  I admit that I sort of hid my eyes behind Blake's head. It was not pretty.

But, Faith was great through the whole experience and said she didn't feel a thing. We did, however, postpone a trip to the dollar store that I had promised because she was feeling dizzy after the walk to the car, and generally headachy. Then, we got home and I had to deal with the whole mouth full of bloody gauze...again with the woozy.

I cannot believe how totally brave she was to go through this...evidenced by how big the freakin' teeth were that she got pulled! Seems that the orthodontist knew what she was talking about though, because she had the teeth out yesterday morning, and her adult teeth are already popping through.

I did, however, inform George that he would be taking her to get next set of teeth pulled.

Grade 4

Faith started Grade 4 this week. (Grade 4!!!!) None of us were sure how it would go. Faith found out on the weekend that her best friend wouldn't be in her class, so she was pretty bummed and nervous about her first day. It didn't bode well.

But, when I picked her up at our sitter, Karen's, Faith was walking about 5 feet off the ground. Karen said she talked the whole way home, and I don't think she'd stopped by the time I picked her up. "My teacher was really FUN and my class is right next to L's and the classes do lots of things together and we've got two field trips already and we're going to the ZOO! and we've got a spelling test on Tuesday and ...." So far, grade 4 is looking like it will be a pretty good year.

Another weekend, another horse show

You may be detecting a theme this summer, and that theme would be horse shows. We've done three! This last one was at my hometown fair, so it was a great chance to see our families and see Faith, my dad, and Sydney show off their horse skills. George's parents even came up from Florida for the event. So, it was a mini family reunion.

First up for Faith was the carriage driving class. She drove Indigo, Sydney's horse, and for those horse lovers out there, they drove bitless -- no  metal piece in the horse's mouth. For this class, it's mandatory to have an adult with the kid, so Sydney is sitting next to her, holding the whip. As Faith explained, "That thing's too heavy for me." Faith's hands aren't big enough to hold the reins and the whip at the same time. But this year, at least, her feet can touch the floor of the carriage. She ended up with a second in the class, partly because she wasn't holding her own whip! (I could insert some sort of stage mother comment here, but I'll let the exclamation point speak for itself.) She did a great job!



Next up was the costume class. Thanks to the dollar store, we had lots of skulls, pirate hats, etc. to decorate Faith and Indigo, who was a very good sport about the whole thing.



Then it was Blake's turn -- stick pony race time! Note the pirate look. He was devastated when Indigo took his pirate hat, so he spent the previous 15 minutes crying (note the runny makeup). He snapped out of it as soon as he got his hat back, and wouldn't change out of it for the pony race. Just him and all the ladies.



He didn't win the race, but he gave it a good try. He should have won for fashion statement, at the very least. The spiderman face and pirate hat were priceless.



After a quick break, Faith rode Indigo in the next class. I know...she's on the lead line, which Faith finds particularly galling. ("I don't need a lead line!") But that's the only class she can ride in on Fridays, so lead line it was. Sydney had the honours again. And Faith finished third. Why? The judge told her she needed to be paying more attention. She was busy looking around at the great grandparents, her great aunt, her Nana, and Papa, her grampa, her dad, her brother...you get the idea. Basically, she was way too relaxed, which is kind of a good thing in my book. But, she was sitting up much straighter than at her first riding competition, which even the judge remarked on.



For her next class, Faith took the judge's comments to heart and actually paid attention! It was showmanship, and she got first prize because "I was the only one who knew my squares." (To which I replied, "What are squares?") From my meagre knowledge of horse showmanship (my years of dairy showmanship with 4-H doesn't translate), the class involves trotting the horse, walking the horse, and then standing it properly. The class was huge--about 10 kids--so Faith was pretty excited to get first. I think the skull and cross-bones on her cheek helped her along too.



Sydney and Indigo are both very good for Faith. Faith loves both of them and would happily spend every waking moment with horses and Sydney, so we really appreciate the time Sydney takes with her.

But of course, it wasn't just a show for Faith. My Dad had his two-year-old, Stormy, out again for carriage and showmanship classes. She was mighty pretty...Dad didn't look too bad either. But he's always so serious when he's driving.



And, of course, Sydney got her horse back to do her driving and showmanship classes, in which she won multiple prizes.





Not enough pictures for you? You can see the entire horse show/fair set on flickr.

Eager subjects

I've been taking a picture a day for 335 (!) days now, so I like to torture the kids into photo sessions on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately, I don't usually get as much cooperation as I did today. Either that, or I'm getting better at herding them in front of the lens. I didn't even have to bribe them with candy on this one.

I was very happy with the results, especially after applying some secrets that Curtis taught us at a recent photo gang get together. :) The only negative was that Faith found out the hard way she has some sort of allergy to the grass she's sitting under in the first photo. She was playing in the leaves, and ended up with a rash on her arms. Suffering for my art...sorry sweetheart!

A very hot horse show

A couple of weeks ago, the kids spent the week at Grampa and Gramma's house. Faith's been doing this since she was three, but it was Blake's first time. (Our house was eerily quiet while they were gone.) The week culminated in a horse show where we reunited.

It was a 40 degree day in the hot sun, but the we all survived -- with ribbons! Faith competed in the lead line class, walk, trot class, costume class and the grandparent driving class. She did miss her driving class due to scheduling changes, which she was not happy about. The kid  has a competitive streak. Anyway, here are a series of pictures from the day.

Lead line class with Indigo (Sydney's mare -- and Sydney's hat)...



This was my Dad's first show with Stormy, and she's already peaked. She won a grand prize for best something or other (my brain was melting, so I can't quite remember).



Blake even got to compete in the "stick pony" class. We didn't know you had to bring our own pony though, so we had to do a little improvising. When you've got a great-grandma, a gramma, and a mom together, you can do anything. Great-grandma donated her cane, my mom found Blake's stuffed dinosaur in the car, and I whipped off my pony tail elastic to strap it to the top of the cane. Presto! Stick pony.



It was ingenuity, and Blake's innate ability, that won him the class. First prize and $5. He bought us all timbits afterwards. :)



Faith rode Indigo again in the walk, trot, class, which she won. I'm not sure who was happier, Faith or Sydney, who was excited  to see Indigo so well-behaved for Faith. (Notice, no bit either!)



And, here's Sydney in one of her classes. Indigo and Sydney both got a big workout that day.



It was a great day seeing the family (great-grands, great-aunt, parents, etc., etc.) and watching everyone compete. More photos.

Ice cream in sweaters

It was an odd week with the hubby gone on a business trip. We were crazy busy, as per normal, but with one less person around to share in the craziness. The kids were actually really good and didn't torture me too much in the mornings. This is normally George's domain, so I really have no idea what goes on after I leave the house at 6:30. But, both of them got up and dressed and breakfasted with relative ease. Kids know when not to push their luck I guess.

As a treat on Thursday, we had supper and then walked down to the ice cream place. Believe it or not, we had to wear sweaters as it was a relatively chilly evening for August. It did help when eating ice cream--everyone could eat it before it melted all over our hands. Even Blake came through relatively clean!  And, I've also figured out that he's outgrown most of his warm clothes. The sweatshirt he's wearing is about 2 inches short in the arms. A cold snap in August has to be good for two things: non-melty ice cream and a pre-school size check.

Faith's horse show

Faith's riding stable held its first horse show of the summer, and this year we were actually in town so Faith could participate. She was a little unsure of the whole thing but once she decided to go for it, she was determined to win some ribbons.

She entered three classes, which I can list out, but have no real clue what the criteria is for "good". I just know that she can control her saucy horse, Nomi, really well. And, that she rides bitless (which Sydney would love).

George, Blake, and I watched all the classes and, for the grandparents, I videotaped two of them. Sorry for the strange clicking noises -- this was me zooming in and out. And, the quality is questionable. (Does this mean I need to upgrade to HD video?) You'll see Nomi is a handful, even at 22, but Faith keeps her cool.

In the end, Faith came away with two thirds, and a fifth. Not bad for her first official show, no lead lines. And, she's determined to do better next time. She also wants to start jumping more. Like this (yikes!):

More horse show pictures

Happy Father's Day!

This one goes out to Papa, Grampa, and Great-Grampa. The kids colored the card and then we did an early morning photoshoot (this explains Blake's hair).

Sunday Stills: Eyes

This week, they eyes have it. Sunday Stills was "Eyes", so here's an attempt at the theme.

Although not strictly an eye, I love Blake's eyelashes because they're so darn long:



I'm never sure how to describe Blake's eye color. It started out blue and has gradually been overlaid with brown, which results in an distinct hazel combination:



Faith's eyes are definitely blue, but in this case I liked how the catchlights looked in black and white:

a


At the stable I tried to get some horse eyes - low light, at 1800 ISO, and very low f-stop. It didn't work out perfectly, but I got a couple of decent shots:



Another one at the stable:

Exciting beginnings

Faith is gradually bringing home various papers and tests this week as her teacher cleans out the classroom for the end of the year. She just got through grade 3 testing, which, she was a little worried about until after the first day. I asked her how it went and she described the three hours of testing as "easy". Plus, they got to watch a movie each day after the testing. All in all, not a bad deal.

Today she brought home a worksheet entitled "Exciting Beginnings". Her task was to write a great beginning sentence for a series of topic sentences. My two favourites:

1. My biggest hero

"I was really sad one day then I heard a beautiful sound so I walked downstairs and I saw JUSTIN BIEBER singing Never let go and I was happy again."

2. The worst present I ever got

"The worst present I ever got was a math book. My parents actually thought I was going to study on my birthday."

No, we didn't give her a math book for her birthday. Yes, she does have Justin Bieber songs on her IPod. Not sure what this says about us.

Sunday Stills: Black and White

The Sunday Stills challenge this week was Black and White, so I took it quite literally and took pictures of black and white things. Faith was all too happy to help as my model. The dress and tights are hers (tights courtesy of her Aunt Kim).



Here's another one, this time she's in my rubber boots:



I didn't realize these boots were quite so shiny. I wear them out to the farm for Faith's horseback riding, or walking across the field of rainy days to pick up the kids. They are well used:



And, the whole look together...who knew her legs were this long?



And, to change it up a bit, my Mom and I got these crocs for Blake on the May long weekend. I figured they were black and he could wear them to church if need be. Obviously they have been well loved so I don't think they'll make it to church.



And, finally, not strictly a picture of black and white, but I like how the light brings out the tiny dimples in the wrought iron:

Cantering

Faith's been working on her cantering, so she's moved over to Texas because he has a smooth canter and is easier to learn on. But, Texas is about as fast moving as that state on a hot day, so Faith was having some trouble getting him mooooving. A couple weeks ago she tried spurs for the first time, and loved it. (Mmmmm....should we be worried?)

They're just little spurs to poke him in the side a bit - they actually look like those little metal dowels that you put into put-it-together-yourself furniture, but they make it much easier to get Texas going. I got a couple of quick shots of her cantering around the ring on Wednesday:

And one a little closer:

A good day for a parade

On the May long weekend, Faith again participated in the Parade of Horses at an historic site near my parents' farm. I'm not sure if Faith or my dad was more excited about it. The main idea of the parade is to show off various breeds of horses to the crowds that attend the event. People can get up close to the horses, talk to the owners, and see the horses in action in a show ring.

This year, 13 breeds were on display, including my dad's Morgan horse, Suzie. Faith's job was to ride Suzie in the show ring. They prepped Suzie and did some practice runs around the site, figuring out along the way that one stirrup was about 30 cms longer than the other! After they got this all fixed up, they were ready to go.

Faith rode western this time (different saddle for the non-horse lovers), and was completely at home in the ring. Dad had to lead her around the ring according to the rules...if you're under 12, you have to be on a lead line. The whole fan-damn-ily showed up to watch on the gorgeous day. And I took about a million pictures. I was so darn proud of her.

We couldn't stick around for the whole parade, because, as usual on our trips to my parents', it was a jam-packed schedule. But, we did get to see my brother's friend, Kyle, bring in a gorgeous pair of horses he's been training:

The owner of the horses rode with him in the ring (and yes, Kyle took this BIG setup through a very crowded site and made it look easy):

And they did some fancy tricks...

The mist in the background was a little strange though. We were next to Lake Erie, and it was a clear, blue day when we showed up. But, over the course of half an hour, a thick mist formed on the lake and rolled into the site. It was like the setup to a bad horror movie. But the eery mist was no match for the sun, and the show carried on.

Happy 9th birthday!

Happy Birthday to our nine-year old! I can't believe the time has gone by so fast. She's gone from fitting in one hand to wearing my sweater at dinner last night...and it pretty much fit. I think we've officially entered the tween years now, complete with a camera for her birthday to take pictures of her friends to post online (not).

Tonight, we'll be having the cake that the kids and I made. An annual tradition actually. We make chocolate cake, lick the beaters (George taught them), and then repeat the process for the icing. We have a crude but tasty decorating technique that always leads to an interesting final result:

Our official party will be on Friday. We had a slight postponement because Blake woke up sick today, but Faith took it in stride. She's already used up a set of batteries on her camera, so I'm thinking that will keep her busy the rest of the night. And, between that, homemade pizza, and cake and ice cream, it will be a birthday well done.

Mother's Day starts at midnight

As is normally the case when you have a three-year-old and a nine-year-old in the house, you're always going through a transition of some sort. In our case, Blake is transitioning from a daily afternoon nap to no nap at all. Mention this to any parent of a kid who's no longer napping, and you automatically get a look of sympathy. It's also a short-form excuse of sorts when we're out in the afternoons now and he has some sort of meltdown in a store. I just have to look slightly apologetic as I throw him under my arm and say, "He's not napping anymore."

So, this transition means that my normal afternoon nap on the weekends has been severely curtailed. Yesterday, I told George that all I wanted for Mother's Day was a nap. I should have kept my big mouth shut. Add to this the message I left on our friends' answering machine telling them we'd have Faith's birthday party on Monday night so we could have a peaceful day of doing nothing on Sunday. How could I have cursed myself so?

Yes, this year Mother's Day began at midnight when Blake woke up crying and struggling with his breathing. Croup. A fairly bad attack of it for him actually. George took him right out to the porch wrapped in a blanket and the cold night air helped straighten out his breathing almost immediately. (Thank you cold snap!) I'm not sure why it works, but I'm glad it does. Then, it was a call to TeleHealth (thank you Mike Harris...did I just type that?) to get a second opinion. Yes, we were doing the right things, and were to visit a doctor within 24 hours.

Blake spent the night in our room, in case of another attack, so I spent the night listening to his wheezing and George's snoring - a symphony to be sure. And, when 7:00 rolled around, who jumped out of bed completely refreshed and declared, "I'm all better now!" I can tell you it wasn't George and I.

But, as it was Mother's Day, the kids and George headed downstairs, and Faith brought me a bagel and juice in bed. I even got to read a little bit. Quite heavenly actually. The kids had made me cards and Faith created a paper-mache bowl, while Blake gave me a sparkly-painted tulip. George got me a card and my favourite chocolates, which promptly went into the new bowl to be shared.

Then we got back to real life. I took Blake to the on-call doctor, who told me he was fine now, and gave him a puffer for his next croup attack. Then, on to the grocery store/pharmacy to pick up said puffer, where all the other mom's were also out doing their shopping today.

Finally, back at the ranch, I headed up to bed for my now completely non-optional, I'm-going-to-fall-flat-on-my-face-I'm-so-tired nap. Blake crawled into bed with me and we both blacked out for an hour until Faith nudged me awake to make her birthday cake for tomorrow.

Yes, just another day of motherhood.

Now, here's to my two best mother's day presents....

A family of fractions

Faith is working on fractions at the moment, and had to write about our family using, what else? Fractions. Here it is:

Half of my human family are boys. A third of my family are girls. A forth of my family are mamals. One fifth person in my family is an animal that lives under water. 3 out of 5 people in my family have curly hair. One fifth in my family has a tail. 4 fourths like to swim. 1 fifth likes to build dinosaur traps.

Yes, she included our fish in the family. Who else would have a tail? I leave you to figure out who builds the dinosaur traps.

A major milestone

Riding a bike has been Faith's Waterloo for quite awhile now. She has insisted that riding a horse is much easier. Pointing out a horse is bigger and has a mind of its own hasn't worked. But, we took a chance and got her a new bike for Easter (thank-you Zeller's midnight madness). And, I told her that if she got really good at riding her bike, I'd do a horseback riding lesson with her. (!)

This weekend, she finally realized success! I give all the credit to George, who seemed to have the magic bike-riding touch. She still needs to work on starting and, perhaps more importantly, stopping. But she's OK with falling off. She dragged us out again after supper to ride around the school parking lot like a pro:

Sucking the fun, one rule at a time

I broke down and spent a whole $4 on a crazy carpet for Faith a couple of weeks ago. She takes it to school every day to slide on the small, but surprisingly fun, hill on the playground. She's one of many kids with crazy carpets and sled saucers flying down the hill for the two recesses they get each day.

Today, when I picked her up at school she informed me that the hill is now "closed". Why? "Because it's too icy and muddy! Adults suck the fun out of everything!"

Yes, I informed her, that's our job. To suck the fun out of every kid's life, one rule at a time.