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Blossom Stalking April 27, 2011 I awoke to a rainy, but warm, morning. Cold rainy mornings I'm not so fond of. Warm I can deal with. So I grabbed the camera and as I left my kids at school I took off in search of those pretty blossoms on trees to get some pics of. We don't have pretty trees in our yard, so I felt a bit like I was a stalker pointing my lens at people's houses - I promise I was taking photos of your trees, not through your windows (Cause taking pics of trees while it's pouring outside is so much more sane!)    I'm normally a purest. I don't like the look of most edited images. I like clean edits. But that doesn't mean I can't have a bit of fun sometimes too :)  and I LOVE tulips. Most of our tulips didn't do well this year. I think we only are getting three blooms total. But a neighbors yard is doing beautifully (their tulips of course are in a much better spot sun wise then ours).  In the alley behind our house is a sad looking back yard. Literally it's weeds from the back door to the alley. In the middle of the weeds are a bunch of tulips ready to bloom. I want to 'rescue' them and put them in a vase in my kitchen so they can be enjoyed, but I know I'd hear a stealing lecture from my children... and have lots of guilt too.  One of our new tulips we planted this spring. And then at this time the rain went crazy. As in it was so dark I had my ISO at 2000 and the downpour was intense. Here's a puddle in our back yard to give you an idea.  So my picture taken was over. I love warm rain, but more on the lines of sprinkles and showers and thunderstorms... not complete downpours creating ideal conditions for flash floods and being swept away. :) And More Bunny Pics April 26, 2011 Yeah it's been a few days so we gotta show more of Frederick, right? We've (and by we, I mean myself only, because I'm mom and that's what we do) have been reading about bunny care and such, and you may be surprised on what's good, and bad, for bunnies. One thing that's bad? too many treats. Same as kids - too many treats and they won't eat their borring dinner. So we've been very bad giving lots of treats trying to see what healthy snacks he likes best. Just and FYI, did you know carrots are actually bad for a bunny? Too much sugar. Perhaps that's why Bugs was always such an ornery rabbit.  One thing I've found - more of the veggies are being used. If we don't like the leafy parts, we hand them off to Frederick, much to his delight.  Nataley tested out a radish on Frederick. I've literally not seen him in such a crazy trance of pure enjoyment for anything else. He LOVED it.  I almost felt like I needed to give Frederick and the radish some alone time he seemed to be liking it so much.  Turnip leaves are also a big hit. With Uncle Jason's help teaching Frederick a new trick I was able to determined that yes, I was right, Frederick is indeed a boy. Empty Tomb ''Cookies'' April 24, 2011 I feel as if there are two things I need to warn everyone about with this post. One, I am soooo not a baker. I can measure everything out, like with this, and follow the directions to a T, and yet somehow, I ruin it. Secondly, my computer is sick and I'm on the kids computer. This computer is not calibrated and I really am just guessing at any of the coloring. The skin may be green, or yellow, I can't tell. This is the worst monitor for a photographer - EVER. But with that said, we had the greatest devotional time with the three kiddos last night. It was truly awesome, a blessing, and very exciting to see them totally 'get' what they were reading in the bible with the lesson being totally hands on. The discussion was really wonderful and it was equally wonderful seeing their wheels turning picturing and understanding what Jesus went through by dying on the cross.  If you'd like to try this at your home, you'll need 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vinegar, 3 egg whites, 1 cup pecans in large or who pieces, salt, and mixing bowl, spoons, and bible. Preheat your oven to 300.  Start in John 19:1-3. "Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. The soldiers twisted thorns together to make a crown. They put it on Jesus' head. Then they put a purple rose on him. The went up to him again and again. They kept saying, ''We honor you, king of the Jews.'' and hit him in the face.'' Nataley read this for us.  And then the kids get to all beat up the pecans, breaking them into little pieces.  Next Joshua read John 19:29-30 "Jesus said, I am thirsty...'' A Jar of vinegar was there so they soaked a sponge in it and put it to Jesus' lips. and the kids get to smell (or taste) the vinegar.  Christopher did not enjoy the smell. Add one teaspoon of vinegar into the mixing bowl.  Then Christopher read John 10:10,11 for us. ''The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so they can have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way.'' We add three egg whiles, representing the new life we have with Jesus. Next each kid gets a pinch of salt to add to the bowl - for Luke 23:27, ''A large number of people followed Jesus. Some were women whose hearts were filled with sorrow. They cried loudly because of him.'' and we talked about that sometimes when we cry we notice the taste of salt in our tears as we add the salt to the bowl. Psalm 34:8 comes next. ''Taste and see that the Lord is good.'' We add a cup of sugar after we each taste a few granduals - and they tasted GOOD.  Supposably you mix on high for 12-15 minutes. This is where it became obvious something was wrong. It's suppose to become a tough, thick kind of better that you can lump on to your wax paper on the cookie tray. Um, it didn't. The verses are Isaiah 1:18 and Matthew 27:57-90. It just didn't work for me. :(  At this time you put the 'lumps' into the oven, turn the oven off, and LEAVE the oven alone overnight. The verse is Matthew 27:65-66. ''Take some guards with you,'' said Pilate. ''Go. Make the tomb as secure as you can.'' So they went and made the tomb secure. They put a seal on the stone and placed some guards on duty.'' We took tape and each kid taped the oven shut, writing their name with a sharpie on their piece of tape. So you wake up on Easter morning and the lumps are suppose to have harden on the outside, and are empty, hollow, on the inside. Get it, get it? Ours did the same, but were so flat it was difficult to show what happened. Hmph. Oh well. At least Jesus didn't have issues that first Easter morning and decide, ''Oh well, guess they didn't really need me to raise from the dead afterall.''  Despite the weird cookies, it was a great Easter weekend for us. Saturday we had planned to do an egg hunt, that was rescheduled (too wet) and it was so warm we went for water balloons instead.  And of course everyone got fabulous Easter baskets... even Frederick :) Bunny Pics April 22, 2011 Yup, we're a tad obsessed here at the moment, and here's the pics to prove it :)  Getting into the Easter spirit, wearing his new Don't Follow Me, Follow Jesus shirt from Emme Lu's     |
 I'm Jodi, a military wife, mom to three, and an award winning photographer Jodi Hattery Photography
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