I THINK......

it MIGHT be....

Winter here.

BLAST! It's cold!

Fun with my Family

AWESOME Madi.
Couldn't give enough kisses and squeezes to her.

Rare photo of my
sweet sis -
Smiling!
(and then a normal shot!)

Extremely rare photo,
it included myself,
(sigh)
my darling baby sis,
and my way HOT soon to be
sis-in-law
xoxo

I love this.
My family is full of nerds.

See?
Nerds everywhere.
I totally love my brothers.

Lot's of fun~

Lot's of family~

Good way to spend the weekend.
( i {heart} you guys!)

Just a small part of the holiday weekend.....

It's not every day that I get to take AWESOME shots of two of my most wonderful family members. Well, I do get to shoot a lot of my family - (I don't mean literally!)
This project had a purpose - and although it was a bit time consuming - it's always fun shooting my parents. Their true personalities just bubble to the surface. I get a small glimpse of what they must have been like a few.... (hmmm, almost 40?) years ago, when the romance began. It's a lot of fun, a bit amusing, very endearing - however - they are still my mom and dad,
so there's a small part of {BARF} in there too.
;)

This is a SOOC (straight out of camera) shot of
my mother. So many times I get asked if she's my
sister. She laughs, and thinks I hate it.
But looking at this, how can that be a bad thing? ;)

again, sooc. With another one of my FAV's.
(smooch!)

ok, since I was so nice in the first few - here's an
example of how the shoot REALLY went.....
hahahahahahahahaha

My studly dad.
He's so handsome.
All of my brothers
look like him too.
I was lucky enough to
have my own two boys get a
smidge of 'Cook' in them.
(except for that height thing??!)

My parents are wonderful people.
Congratulations on your
"project".
You will both do wonderful.

Craziness at our house

So, once again we've had many things going on at our house the last little while. I finally got through the Primary program (huge sigh of relief!); and then we were thrust into the chaos of State Football championship. Now, I realize - this is a bit of a stretch for me - but I'm actually going to post about how much (gasp) FUN I had prepping with our cheer team for state. This was a HUGE deal here in Thermop. The last time our football team went to state was 15 years ago. Needless to say, our town has been a bit pumped up. So, as a "cheer mom", I've tried my best to be supportive to my (once again, can I say GAG!) cheerleader, and I've been busy putting together care packages, putting balloons ALL OVER town, selling state sweatshirts, running flowers here and there, and blah blah blah.......

We've had such a fun time. So my post today, sigh, I have to admit, I've had a fun CHEER week. (sheepish grin)

The night before state, our girls got to have a quick clinic with the UW Cheer Team~

They had a blast. They learned stunts and a few cheers. It was cool for our team.

The day of the game, of course being Laramie Wyoming, we got DUMPED on with snow! Our girls were just as tough as those football players and were cheering their hearts out!

This is our lovely assistant coach, Ashley. She's awesome - as this
photo shows her true personality.

Coach Bailey, (also one of our friends) Always SO
composed during a game....... well, almost.
(wink)

Our smiley girls

It was so stinkin cold! This is one of my
friends - Shelly - awesome example of how
everyone was dressed.... but we still froze!!

Shelly's daughter - and one of my piano
students, Katie,
SHE ROCKS!
(i love katie!!!)

It was a pretty tense game, and I hate football. But I have to admit, I LOVED this! I enjoyed every bit of this game - freezing temps and all. My throat was raw, my butt and toes were popcycles, but in the end........

IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

CONGRATS THERMOP BOBCATS!!!
WYOMING STATE CHAMPS!!!
WAHOO!

November 3

After 8 kids,
1 grandbaby,
SEVERAL dogs,
a few cats,
many horses,
three different companies,
five "homes"
four cities,
two states,
through thick and thin,
(ok, maybe more thick than thin)
a lot of ups and downs,
and more love than one could expect........

Week in Review - ish?

This is what happens when
you stay home sick, and mom has an itch
to play with her camera.
Poor girl had a fever, bit of a runny
nose and cough,
but thankfully,
just a cold and
no swine flu!

This was just plain weird.
(Maybe HE has swine flu?)
Stockton loves to pose for me when
I'm practicing with exposure and such.
Gosh I appreciate it. (cough cough)

... and then there's the homework side of things.

And somehow Bryan got the camera.
*sigh*
But I've promised to post photos of the pictures
they take of me.
(I'm not sure why I agreed
to that one? Some late night shady deal?)

We read stories this week.
And there was a trip to the fire department too.

This was one of the highlights.....
Although you can't tell, the blur in the background
is Bryan. Swiftly "de-pantsing" Taylor.. heh heh

... just as it happened, and Taylor realizing what's occurred...

...dying that mom still is shooting....

...finally giving in. Ha ha ha! We're so mean.
(notice the camo attire?)

Stockton threatening Dad to not
pull the same stunt on him

Now this seems a little odd,
and would need explaining...

...until you saw this.
No more explanation necessary.
Ok, it really wasn't bad. Just
an in depth conversation.
(But it looked
way too good to not post.)

Stockton went to Scouts for the first time this week too.
It was GREAT!

Another highlight this week was an assignment for Brinlee.
She had to decorate a potato for class.
I did NOT get to help.
Brin wouldn't let me.
(kinda sad for mom?)
But she was very proud taking
her potato to class on Friday.

The week ended with Bryan and I running away to Billings to stay overnight
to celebrate an upcoming anniversary.
(no photos, whew!)

It was a good week.

something new

I'm really excited,
(Other than the fact that my laptop is back)
I've been trying out some new techniques today
with my photoshop.

Oh relief....

I am finally over the trauma.

No red lines, and most of all
NO LOSS OF DATA OR APPLICATIONS!
See, what some don't know, is that two years ago
I had a very VERY traumatic event with our
home computer. I lost
EVERYTHING.
Pictures from Disneyland, all my
handouts for piano, several vital
legal documents.
Ev-er-y-thing.
So, part of the stress of having to relinquish my laptop
has been the threat of having to wipe the hard
drive, and losing everything again.
I backed up, and re-backed up.
I even did the Mac "Time machine".
But I've still been very stressed.
Thankfully,
it's home.
unharmed.
All is right with my world....
today.

Ugh....
I'm sending my laptop in to Apple.
I'm SO glad I have a mac - they're fixing my
obnoxious red line FOR FREE!! SHIPPING AND ALL!
Thanks for comments - emails- and even phone calls for help.
All was appreciated. However, now comes the
excruciating week without my computer.
ACK!
will I survive??!!
Not sure.
Signing off-
be back in a week,
maybe?

HELP!!!

Can anyone help me with this??!
I have this nasty red line through the screen on my laptop!!
I'm just sick about it!
Any suggestions??
Anyone??

please....?