OH......IO

This past weekend we went to Columbus with the Chiles'. We spent Friday night at a hotel and had yummy Donatos pizza for supper (you HAVE to have Donatos when you go to Columbus). On Saturday morning we headed to The Ohio State University for the pre-game festivities, including the skull session at St. John's Arena. If you have never been to the skull session before, I recommend it. It was basically a huge pep rally with the OSU band and a brief appearence by Coach Tressel and the football team. After the skull session we walked outside and watched the cheerleaders warm up. Jenna could have sat and watched them for hours. She told me later that she is not going to be a Cougar cheerleader anymore. She just wants to be an Ohio State Cheerleader. Later we watched the "parade" of the band, cheerleaders, and Brutus from St. John's into the stadium and then wandered around the bookstores. We would have loved to have actually gone into the stadium to watch the game, but the tickets were hard to come by and pretty pricey....so we drove to Dave and Busters to eat lunch, watch the game, and let the kids play video games.

Sorry for the overload of Buckeye photos....there was just too much going on and too much excitement!


At the skull session.....you just have to do the O H I O motions while you are there!

Jenna and Gage...
I love this photo...they had so much fun cheering and dancing along with the music!

Coach Tressel....this was the best I could do. He was basically right underneath us, so we couldn't get a good view.
The kids (minus Dane....he has issues with dressed up characters) with Brutus....

A glimpse inside the stadium.....I love how much RED you could see!

Dane.....He kept asking me to take his photo all day. He totally makes me smile!

New and improved....

Since we moved in 4 years ago, our living room has been pretty much untouched and fairly empty. For 4 years we had our piano and a table from Chris' grandma along with a couch the previous owners had left. Other than that, the room was a big open plain space. In August we finally decided to redecorate it. We knew we wanted it to look nice, but really didn't know where to start. With some help, we came up with a room that we absolutely love. Jacob keeps telling me that it looks like something out of a magazine. I wish I had remembered to take a "before" photo so you could compare, but you'll just have to trust me that it looks 100 times better now!

The view of the fireplace area . . .It's hard to really tell what the loveseat and chairs look like, but we love the fabric we chose. The walls are actually a greyish taupe, which looks amazing with the white trim (Chris put in lots and lots of painting hours!).

A closer view of our fireplace and mantle. I love how the mantle turned out! I don't know that I would have picked the accessories out by myself, but I love the finished product. A framed family photo is going above the mantle in the blank space. We also splurged and had a ventless gas log installed in our fireplace. I cannot wait for a cold, snowy Sunday afternoon. I have big plans to turn on the fireplace (with our handy-dandy remote control), curl up on the loveseat, and read!

The opposite end of the room. The dining room table belonged to Chris' grandma. Unfortunately she no longer had the chairs, so I have been searching antique stores trying to find some chairs that will work. The two prints are going to be hung on the wall above the table.

The third part of the room contains our piano and the secretary desk that belonged to Chris' Grandma B. While I've been searching through antique stores for chairs for the table, I've also been on the lookout for antique cameras. I have a nice collection started and on display in the secretary desk. This window was wide open before....and a little scary at night! We had blinds installed and a window seat made (same fabric as the chairs). This has quickly become Jenna's favorite spot to hang out! I also have some framed photos to put above the piano.

Looking from the piano area back into the fireplace area. You can get a little better idea of the pattern on the chairs and the layout.

One hit wonder.....

Sometimes I can take tons of photos and not really get a photo that I just love. Or sometimes I can take just one picture and get a GREAT result. This is one of those photos....a one hit wonder!Isn't this little guy a cutie?? His dad is Chris' assistant basketball coach, so we spend a lot of time together between November and March. They also happen to be our new (one street over) neighbors. On move-in day, I offered to keep Rylan and his older brother, Carter at our house during the move. I was taking my camera to the computer room and Rylan just kept looking up at it. So, I asked him if he wanted me to take his picture....he said yes...and this is the resulting photo. He only stood there long enough for me to take one photo....but I love how it turned out.

Nothing to say....

....I just love Jenna's smile and wanted to share it with all of you!

*Random photos taken at Jacob's soccer game last week (soccer photos will be coming soon!)

A little left over summer....

Most of my summer flowers have bit the dust (mainly due to neglect from me)...but a few of our plants are still blooming. One of those is our hibiscus plant in the backyard. When we moved into our new house, my Grandma D. brought us a start of her hibiscus plant from her yard. Basically it looked like a stick in a styrofoam cup. So, we planted it in our flower bed and it actually grew and bloomed! This summer we demolished that flower bed and the hibiscus had to be transplanted. We put by the back corner of our house and crossed our fingers that it would survive. Chris was convinced it wasn't going to make it...but it kept getting stronger and stronger and eventually was loaded with big red blooms. It just makes me smile and think of Grandma D. every time I see it....and I'm so glad she shared it with us.

PS Living room photos are coming...but you will have to wait a little longer. When they came to install our curtain rods and curtains, we found out that the curtains were a tiny bit too long, so they are being hemmed. I really want you to see the whole effect of the room, including curtains, so you will just have to wait.

Milestone....

Jenna reached a HUGE milestone today (at least it's huge to her). After months and months of weighing herself, she finally has reached 40 pounds!! I know some of you are wondering why that is such a big deal. Well, in Ohio the law is that children under 4 years old and children under 40 pounds have to ride in a booster seat. Jenna passed the 4 years old milestone 3 years ago....but the 40 pound mark has been pretty slow. She is so excited to finally be out of the booster seat. Do you think I should tell her that the law in Indiana is 8 years old and 80 pounds? That means she still needs a carseat every time we go to Ft Wayne to shop or eat. I think I'll wait and break that bad news later.

PS Living room photos are coming. I decided to wait until the curtains and blinds are installed on Friday and then share photos.

{M} family

Nicole and Ricky are two of Chris' former students and we have kept in touch with them since they graduated from Wayne Trace. Nicole owns her own photography business and has asked me to help take pictures with her at a few weddings. We also get together once in a while to talk photography.


Nicole recently asked me to take family photos of her family. It took us several tries to get a date coordinated, but we finally were able to get together last Friday. The weather was perfect and it was fun taking photos of someone who just automatically did the posing. Her boys, Lane and Cole, are too cute and were easily bribed with Smarties. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the best and it really showed in my photos. I was hoping to be able to give her tons of awesome photos, but a lot of them just weren't good. Luckily, there are several I was really happy with...and I think she liked them too. She is going to take our family photos in October, and I can't wait to see what she does!


Photos by me.....photo editting by Nicole (she did an AWESOME job of making my photos look amazing!)

Saturday shares....

Just thought I'd share two fun things I found on the internet this week while I was blog-stalking. That's truly one of my favorite things about checking out other people's blogs....I find some links to some fun websites.

1. Crockpot 365 - This blog has a new crockpot recipe a day for a year. I love my crockpot, especially once school starts. There is nothing like coming home and having your house smell yummy and knowing supper is done! I plan to spend some time on this blog today and print off some new recipes to share.

2. This commercial I saw on TV. It just made me laugh....maybe because Jenna is constantly cheering and I could see her talking her dad into helping her out.




Have a good weekend. Brenda and Jill - hope you don't get too wet from Ike. We finally have some rain here. I'm excited about a rainy Saturday. I plan to get things done around the house this morning and spend the rest of the day scrapping or reading.

Be sure to check back this week for photos from a recent family shoot I did and photos of our newly redecorated living room!

9/11

Remembering.......

Photos from our trip to NYC this past summer.

Gorge Park

After our visit to the scary bridge last Sunday, we all went to Gorge Park. I had been there several times before, but no one else - including Mom and Dad - had ever been there. We started hiking the trail that led us to Mary Campbell Cave. Jacob was excited to see the cave because his 4th grade teacher had read a book about Mary Campbell last year. Mary Campbell was a 12 year old white girl who was captured by the Delaware Indians in 1759 and taken to this cave. After the cave we continued our hike along the Gorge trail and eventually down near the Cuyahoga River and the dam. The park is beautiful and has so many awesome places to stop and photograph. I tried to shoot some photos as we were hiking along, but it was a little difficult since we were hiking along cliffs and I had to constantly watch where I was walking! Living in flat NW Ohio, I really miss the hills and amazing parks that are near Stow. I think we may need to make an effort to try to visit more of them when we visit Mom and Dad.

Mary Campbell Cave (that's Jacob in the red shirt)....

Waterfall along the trail.... This deer walked right across the trail in front of us and stood still long enough for us to snap a few photos....
Loved this pile of rocks that cascaded down the hill. The Gorge was actually formed by a glacier long ago and there are really neat rock formations throughout the whole park.
Jacob and Jenna near another small waterfall....

Water falling over layers and layers of rock....
We FINALLY made it to the bottom of the trail where the dam and the river were....
Grandpa, Grandma, Jacob and Jenna near the dam.....

the bottom of the dam....

The Scary Bridge....

When we were younger, Mom and Dad would sometimes take us to the "scary bridge". The "scary bridge" (I'm not sure if it has a real name, but it will forever be the "scary bridge" to me) is an observation bridge that extends over the falls on the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Falls. The scary bridge was scary because....(A) it is high above the Cuyahoga River with nothing but water and rocks below. (B) It is made of wooden slats that you can see through (straight down into the rocks and water) as you walk across (C) the sides were also made of slats - and I was sure I was going to fall right through them into the water. My sisters never had an issue with the scary bridge - just me.....although I also had issues with the ferris wheel and cable cars at Cedar Point.Their favorite time to take us to the scary bridge was on the way home from church after a heavy rain. The falls would be really flowing and there would be rapids down below.

The Scary Bridge.....

On Sunday we decided to go hike through Gorge Park in Cuyahoga Falls (pictures and story to come soon). To get to Gorge Park you have to drive right past the scary bridge and as we started talking about it, Jacob wanted to stop. (I had to stop calling it the scary bridge though because Jenna was getting a little worried). As we approached the entrance to the bridge, I saw this sign .....proof that it really is, and forever will be, the scary bridge.
You'll be happy to know that I've gotten a little braver over the past 30 years (although I still won't ride the giant ferris wheel at Cedar Point), and I walked right out onto the bridge and started taking photos. I even stopped to look down through the cracks between the boards with Jacob and stand at the edge and look over to take photos.

It's funnel cake time!!!

It's Labor Day weekend...and that means fair time. We debated whether or not to get fair passes this year since we were going to be gone over the weekend. I also wasn't sure if I'd feel up to walking around the fair or if I'd just be too tired or sore. But at the last minute, I ended up getting our passes. So far we've only been there once. Cheryl came with the kids and I on Thursday night so we could get our funnel cake fix! YUMMY!! Jenna chose cotton candy instead, but Cheryl, Jacob and I visited our favorite funnel cake stand and stuffed our faces!! It was fun showing Cheryl around the fair and the kids were thrilled to spend some time with her.