Mommy is playing with her new toy....

 Loving the new camera. The black and white/sepia shots were taken last night in low lighting. I am going to need a trip-pod that is for sure. It is super hard to set the camera at a slow enough shutter speed to get enough light in and not wiggle. So some of these are a little on the unfocused side. The funny thing was last night looking through my viewfinder I thought they were turning out amazing and now, ugh kinda blurry.

 Weekend nights will always end with this cute scene of Ali. She never wants to head up to bed but just can't stay awake as long as the boys yet. It was funny when I switched from color to sepia in this photo. Her hair color didn't even alter. We could have named her Sepia.

 The birthday boy relaxing after his big party. He looks content in his 13 year old skin.

 Tyler is laughing at something that was happening on Johnny Test or whatever cartoon they were watching. I was definitely disrupting their TV viewing with my portrait sessions. Carter and Ali (she was asleep) were more cooperative than Tyler. He finally just said, "Mom stop taking pictures of me." Love this laugh/grimace look he is making.

 This may his been this little hummingbirds first trip to a feeder. His feathers look all jouvenile and ruffled. He sat there for a LONG time looking back and forth then staring at the water hoping it would just come to him. He never did actually put his little beak into the holes to get a drink. I had time to take a photo on my iphone. Then I got my cannon and took a photo on my cannon. Realize I was in manual from last nights night shots and the photo looked terrible. Set it to a manual setting, took two more shots. Decided I wanted to switch lenses, switched lenses and took a few more shots. This little guy was still just sitting there looking around when Carter had to go out and hunt down his shoes in the yard. We headed outside I thought maybe I could get a shot of him not through the glass but we did scare him off when we headed out onto the deck. Cute little hummer, we hope to see him again.

 Beautiful Ali right after a shower. Her hair is even all wet still.

 I took my camera out to the garden for a few shots. One of my favorite places to play.

 These yellow iris were transplanted from my Mom's garden in the Avenues. She dug them out of her Mom's garden in Rexburg ID when they sold her parents home. They are third generation iris. I always think of my grandma Smith when they come into bloom and am proud to have a little piece of her garden in mine. I have lots of fond memories picking raspberries in their backyard and being afraid of their potato cellar. I was convinced there would be snakes down in that cellar. There probably were.

 My grandma Smith and my grandma Livsey both had lilacs in their yards. I love, love, love the smell of lilacs in the spring. I planted my lilacs six years ago and this is their first blooming year. I think they would have last year but the deer ate all the tips off. This year they are tall enough the deer can't get to the top branches. I feel like i have finally had a little success in my garden.

I am distressed and saddened to have to admit our animals our seeming a bit old this year. Lucy and Jessie are both about 6 years old. Jessie has old lady toe troubles and really struggles the next few days after a good hunt. Lucy is slacking off as well. We have a vole that is stalking the hill I have found a new mound of dirt every morning for the last five mornings and nothing. Why can't she get this vole? I was even considering hiring a new cat for the job. What are we going to do? Byron plans on installing an owl  box up on the hill. Maybe we can entice an owl to live in the yard and take care of our vole troubles. It seems the cat is turning into an old lazy feline.

 Ali begged Byron to go on a snail hunt with her this morning. If there is one thing you can always find in my garden it will be snails. It could be part of our food storage plan if we got desperate enough. I have a real knack at growing snails.

My mother's day flowers. Thanks kids! They look beautiful.

I trimmed off a few of the lilacs and brought them inside this morning. Ali sat herself right down in front of them and began sketching them. I nearly cried. You wouldn't believe how many vases of lilacs my grandma Smith cut from her garden and painted at her kitchen table. It was a sweet thing to witness. Ali will be an amazing artist it is definitely in her genes.