Baby Z

This morning at 10:51 mountain daylight savings time, little Alice Azalea Gibbons made her entrance into the world! She is 8 pounds 3 ounces and 20 inches long. She now takes her place as our 4th granddaughter and 15th grandchild. I was very excited that I was invited to be at the birth. Melissa and Zaley both did their jobs well to get her here is perfect condition.  

Welcome, beautiful Zaley, our Baby Z. 

 

Jason will be a wonderful daddy to Zaley just as he is to Adam

Aunt Hannah, Grandpa and Marmee Gibbons

Mommy, Grammy and Zaley

Cheyenne & Dakota

I'm really behind on my 52 week project....like a month behind....so I'll have to catch up fast. But Cheyenne's wedding is one reason I've been so busy, because I have been making bridesmaid dresses - 6 of them plus 2 flower girl dresses. I LOVE to sew!  I was glad to make the dresses and I was especially grateful for the help that Sister Appel and Sister Kennedy offered,  but I was so nervous that, with only one fitting, that those dresses would fit the girls. On the appointed day I sent the dresses with a little bag of safety pins just in case. When I got to the wedding, the girls looked beautiful and hopefully only my critical eye discerned any fitting errors.

The wedding ceremony took place at Oak Hammock on the ranch, near the swimming hole. It was a beautiful location and Cheyenne looked absolutely radiant! 

Last Endeavour

This morning was the 134th space shuttle launch and the historic last launch of the shuttle Endeavour.  Because we live only about 45 miles from the Kennedy Space Center, we can see the launches from our driveway. There was some cloud cover this morning, so the shuttle disappeared into the clouds quite quickly and I wish it could have waited about 5 minutes to blast off because by then the clouds had blown out of the way...but I still got a shot of the lift-off before it went into the clouds and an after-lift-off shot of the rocket trail in the sky.

Not surprisingly, the cows grazing in the pasture didn't 

even notice the historic significance of the moment.

Within 5 minutes of lift-off the shuttle was 375 miles from Shuttle Pad A  

and all that remained was the rocket trail.

Children at Play

Having Melissa go out of town this past week to help her sister with their new baby was perfectly timed for me to be able to practice doing a photo shoot with her kids on the day I was scheduled to tend them.  They had so much fun digging into the Halloween costumes, showing me the ladder and swing on one of the big Oak trees in their back yard, jumping on the tramp, dancing, sword fighting, playing musical instruments and just being really cute kids.

 Origami hats and musical instruments!

 This is Lily. It was her birthday, so we made a birthday cake and later that day,

they had a birthday party for her :)

 We have 5 puppies at our house - puppies are always a hit with kids!

52 Week Project - Week 17

LOVE 

First "real" family photo shoot

As part of the online photography class I'm taking, my assignment this week was to prepare a shot list (proposed poses) and then find some subjects to be photographed. The Skousens were so great to work with and I felt really good about my first shoot even though I didn't remember to check ALL the details as far as the composition of the shots went all the time and even though I probably should have taken more pictures to ensure that all 6 sets of eyes were open in some of the shots. Because Dan is the manager over the orange groves, we used the Doxey Grove and the bright red barn with its white door for our location.  

Little Red

This beautiful cardinal sat still even when I got within 8 inches of him....through the window, of course.  Love cardinals!

52 Week Project - Weeks 15 & 16

Week 15: SOFT

What could be softer than a brand new puppy? 

Our dog Blue is new mom to five, born a week ago.

Week 16: Perspective 

Power lines going through one of the cow pastures on the ranch.