Bubbles, bubbles...

Playing with lots of bubbles one evening a while back... it just doesn't get old for me:)



A little bubble bokeh for you...

Marc's First Birthday

Our nephew celebrated his first birthday on the Fourth of July so we went up to celebrate, and I got to do a little photo shoot with the kiddo.



Zoey is a proud cousin...





Ross' parents were there too, so here are the Johnston boys and their parents.


Happy Birthday, little dude

Playing in the Rain

We have had quite a few storms rage through this summer! One evening, it was so hot, and we get a little relief with a fun, gentle rain. We took the opportunity to play in the puddles and with chalk... The chalk colors were so brilliant and bright, it was a nice change.

Later the kids mentioned how fun it was. I thought so, too. Instead of running inside from the rain, we made a lasting memory... love...

Daily Pictures...

I haven't forgotten about my daily pictures, but I definitely have been distracted... still, I have a couple from way back that I never posted...

Day 166 - robin's nest

I love the colors



Day 171 - spider web

Zoey and the Jumping Tigers

Playing catch-up...

Zoey was part of a jump rope group that performed at field day... I saw two performances, so the lighting is completely different...





It was a cute performance. I never knew there were so many different ways to jump rope. Nice Job, Zoey, we are proud of your hard work!

Five on Friday

And now, onto a more random note...

1. I like Pink's song "Perfect", although I just watched the explicit lyrics version video and that was a little disturbing... But the message is good... We take wrong turns, make a bad choice, get misunderstood
Pretty, pretty please
Don't you ever, ever feel
Like your less than perfect.
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You're perfect to me.

Not sure if Pink realizes it or not, but is seems similar to another message:)

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

2. I've seen two snakes in two days! yuck!

3. So I am sure the worst possible thing I could do with Ross's deployment is countdown days starting at the beginning... BUT the math person in me (serious math nerd here) CANNOT NOT DO IT! I'll be driving along and just calculate percentages in my head! Not a good idea when you are 1% done! At least I can laugh about it!

4. When we were in Denver, the kids had Ross speak into a voice recorder and had it put into a doggie at Build-A-Bear. It is really a great thing. Everytime they miss him, they can give the doggie a squeeze and hear an "i love you" from Daddy... The first couple days without him around though, I was jumping out of my skin... I wasn't expecting a male voice in the house and it would take a second for me to realize what it was!

5. Zoey just got her Bo Staff in Taekwondo and it is pretty darn cool...

Happy Friday;)

It's been awhile...

Hello blog and blogworld, are you still out there? I know its been a while... I guess you could say, we've been a little preoccupied! My last blog post was one month ago! Yikes! I will try and back track a little, while trying to stay up to date...

So, on our 10 year anniversary, Ross got notified of a short notice deployment to Afghanistan... Bummer, right? Our whole summer trip was altered, and well, we just went into crazy mode to prepare for his deployment. The kids and I went to Arizona (part of our summer trip) while Ross went off to training. We had fun in Arizona, and I will share some bits from that, and then were blessed with a chance to see Ross one more time before he headed overseas. He had 2.5 days in Denver, so we flew up there and took advantage of it! It was a nice, but short couple of days...

Off he went (two goodbyes, tough) and then home we came. Coming home without him was a lot harder than I thought, but nothing compared to the traveling ordeal Ross has been going through... Anyway, that's where we are now...

For those of you who know what's going on and having been praying for us, thank you. We feel your prayers. If my blog changes tone a little, its partly to share more of our everyday with Ross, as well as a way for me to chat with you I guess, so thanks for that as well.

We miss you Ross/Daddy:)