and finally...

Some new pages

I created the other night. These are completely digital. I did them on scrapblog.com
I do like the simple, easy layout of this site. Not to mention fixing a mistake is as simple
as a mouse click. Still figuring out all the features of the site and a few things have proved
a bit interesting, layering for one. I'm afraid that one is going to take awhile to
achieve.

and a few more

these were from templates also, love the drag and drop feature.
but I do miss the whole playing with paper and glue don't think
I'll be converting to completely digital anytime soon.

National Night Out

Last night was the annual night out, sponsored by the local police department and many community businesses and organizations.
Grilled burgers and hotdogs were on the menu. Attitude played for several hours, and to end the night activities was a movie on a giant screen. It was a perfect night to be outdoors, not too hot, no bugs or wind. Perfect!

Fire hose

a highlight from last night...getting to spray water out of a fire hose!

what is this?

What is he signing??? could it be? is it possible? perhaps something pertaining to the adoption?
it is an APA (Adoption Placement Agreement)
in normal terms...it's the form we have been waiting to sign for days, weeks, months, years. This is the one
that will make it official...the first step towards making this adoption final.
and here they are all signed, one for each child, and no I didn't even have to prompt the smile for the camera part.
I can't really show you a close up of the document, (well I could if I used my special setting on my camera for documents) but I'm wondering if it might fall into that category of I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you, you know data privacy and all that.
but here is a close up of our signatures, notice that spelling all correct and proper (ummm yeah I think I rolled my eyes as I typed that)
this is taken with the document setting on my camera, who knew I would actually have a reason to use that feature?
So what is next? good question and of course I do not have a good answer...guessing we wait.
Like we haven't done that before.
But, it's a step forward, and that is a very good direction to be heading.

fireworks setting

that is the setting I used to capture these pics of the kids with sparklers last night.
love the effect. Of course I had no idea how it worked, nor did I realize that it was a timed photo, (holding the camera still is rather important I discovered :) once I figured it out I had fun playing with pics, and the kids were certainly happy to pose for these pics as long as the sparklers continued to be present.

Zoo pics

Saturday we headed back to the zoo, Cassandra wanted to see the new exhibit and the little ones were certainly willing to venture there once again. The above pics are all taken with my new camera, I didn't change or fix anything on these, this is directly off the camera. I am so loving the zoom on this camera.
Rosie wouldn't leave the farm exhibit, she wants a cow, and a pig, and a horse, and chickens, no goats tho, they tried to eat her dress.
I'm afraid she is going to be disappointed, I'm a city girl. Farms are to visit, not live on.

a feature

I'm going to love using, panoramic shots.
creating the picture is amazingly fun..not to mention the finished picture is pretty cool to.

and finally

for Kelly a few more pics taken by my awesome camera tonight.
I told you I've been taking a lot of pics...and you asked to see them.
enjoy!

s'mores

a perfect night for grilling and naturally a perfect night for the fire pit.
Rosie and yahaira have to roast their own smushmallaws. Rosie of course will only eat the chocolate out of her s'more (smart girl)
and then looks for someone to finish off the rest.

sparklers

Yahaira and Anthony had so much fun on the 4th of July with these that I knew we needed to buy some more. Of course finding this sort of thing after the 4th is a bit impossible. Today I hit the jackpot at a dollar store no less. I purchased several packs, love the price for that :) We did it a bit early tonight simply because tomorrow is an incredibly busy day and these little wonders needed to be in bed earlier rather than later. They didn't seem to mind that it wasn't quite yet dark.

Beckie's new kitty...

Hunter has arrived...today was the day she picked him up.
Everyone from big people to little ones wanted a chance to hold and love this new little kitty.
Of course I was a bit worried one of the little people would hurt it, but thankfully he survived all their attention.

It's that season again...

corn on the cob season that is. The local farm that we have bought corn from for several years just began setting up their stand in town this week...so excited when I can purchase it fresh like this. The kids of course love corn on the cob....and for now cleaning it is almost as fun as eating it. Gotta love that!

new camera

just a few of the photos I've taken over the past several days.
Loving the zoom on this camera, slowly beginning to discover all the different buttons and options.
perhaps having your camera break can be a good thing when it results in pics like this.