Welcoming 2009!

We had a great time at our church's family New Year's Eve party with a sock hop theme. When I asked Cat if she wanted to dress up or dress 50's style, she whole-heartedly went for the 50's. We had a lot of fun putting our costumes together which comprised of a day of shopping at the local thrift stores where we found our plain skirts, the scarves and Cat's shirt. Good ol' "Wally World" had crystal sequins and my shirt and a little on-line shopping found us the poodle appliques, crinolines and glasses. The rest of the accessories were found in my closet. We spent the good part of a Saturday hemming the skirts to the right length and applying the appliques and the sequins to make the leash. Cat did an amazing job with sequins! We had a lot of fun at the dance, too, spending our fair share of time on the dance floor. Shanti even got in on the action a couple times. When Wes and I slow "danced", he was right there with us.

Wing it!

I don't know what it is that intrigues me so much about taking pics of butterflies and insects. One thing I know for sure is that it is not an easy task! When you want the wings to move they don't or when you get close enough to snap the picture, all of a sudden the subject is gone. I think this first photo is my all time favorite butterfly shot. . I love the colors that have been captured and this image is 100% real.... no retouching, photoshop or enhancement of any kind has been done. Actually, none of the pics are edited.

2008 seemed to be abundant with butterflies. (I loved it) Most of them photographed were seen out in my garden. I did see several out hiking as well, but they were always more elusive out there. I did hit the jackpot during a late August hike. I came upon a field of 20 or so. (the last pic is from that time) My hiking partner gave up on waiting for me and continued to head up the trail as I took advantage of this rare opportunity.

Blending In

I spotted this unusual caterpillar while out hiking on the 4th of July. He was about 2 inches long and very lucky that I didn't step on him. I couldn't not stop to take a pic.

Mother's Day 2008

Cat and I made plans to attend a Mother-Daughter Tea the Saturday before Mother's Day. We decided since both of our mothers were out of town, we would make our own very special duo.

The evening before our outing we decided that it would be fun to have matching outfits to wear.
So....after a few hours, a few stores, lots of try-ons, lots of giggles and lots of fun, we finally found an outfit that we both liked. Gaucho pants, a sleeveless top (same style top, with a slight color/pattern variance) and "strappy" shoes. We were the best dressed at the event on Saturday. (At least we thought so!) We also decided to wear our outfits to church on Sunday. It was a little bit cooler than the day before, but we managed to find coordinating sweater tops in the closet.


Zach got in on some of the picture taking

Bec's Flower pics

Welcome 2008!

Reflections