Happy Early Mother's Day to Me :)

Here I am again wondering where to start.  The excitement of spring is in the air and we've been happily busy playing outside, brushing the horses, and taking pictures with my new camera!  I've been wanting a digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera for a very long time.  I took photography classes all through high school and I've always been very passionate about photography. The camera I had was awesome, but it ran off of film, which has quickly become a thing of the past.  The camera I've been using takes great pictures, but it's not an SLR and doesn't offer the same possibilities as an SLR.  Anyway, I found a very nice used DSLR for a very nice price and as fate would have it, it's now mine :) That sentence might actually deserve a multitude of smiley faces at the end of it.  I am one happy girl, and Jonathan's off the hook for Mother's Day, our anniversary, and my birthday for letting me get it.  

My friend Laura just had her baby and I watched two of her kids for her while they went in for their one week check-up.  Kenna and Johnathan are the same age as Maggie and Lane, so naturally they have a lot of fun playing together.  I had to laugh when they sat down to watch a movie and I tried to take a picture of them together. Few things illustrate the difference between boys and girls when a camera appears as well as these pictures.           

 This is take one of telling the girls to smile at me...

and this is take one of saying the same thing to the boys.  I'm not sure what Lane looks so mad about, but it took three tries to get them to even look at me.  I gave up on the looking and smiling simultaneously.

I'm still trying to think of a caption for this photo.  The weirdest thing about this picture is while I was taking it, this horse was yawning on cue.  I'd say "Yawn Knucklehead" (yes, that is her name and yes, it is fitting) and she would immediately yawn.  I could wait a few minutes before I said it again and she'd yawn as soon as I said it.  Of course no one is going to believe me because no one was there to witness it.  The only proof I have is several pictures of her yawning.  Too bad I can't say "stop acting like a spoiled brat" and have her follow those directions :)  

It's really hard to believe that next week is our one year mark for living here.  I love this area and I love the people we've met.  I truly believe we were meant to be here.  Time flies when you're having fun!

We went on a picnic on the ranch one evening.  It's a somewhat bumpy drive to where we went, and somehow Lane managed to fall asleep like this.  I kept trying to scoot him back and situate him more comfortably, but he insisted on resting his head against the seat.

My leather working bug is kicking in again.  I just got some samples of leather in the mail from Wickett and Craig Tannery.  I ended up ordering a side of saddle skirting from them and once it gets here I'll be working on the saddles a lot.

Easter was great.  One of our neighbors put on an easter egg hunt for all the kids in our little community, plus she put together goodie baskets for each of them.  Maggie didn't really grasp the concept of racing to pick up eggs, so she ended up with only one egg in her basket.  Lane did better with four.  They were both really happy and didn't seem to care about their lack of eggs because they were so excited about what was in their baskets.

Uh-oh.  Lane got in to Maggie's friend's dress ups.  

Here's my beauty.  It came with four lenses and a few other accessories.  The only reason she sold it was because her husband just upgraded her camera for her (she's a local photographer).  The following pictures are a few of my favorites that I've taken so far.  I've only had it for a few days, so they're nothing super spectacular since I'm still getting a feel for the camera.  They're straight out of the camera (sooc) shots with no special editing done to them.  

This chicken is about to go down the road.  She keeps pecking all the eggs open if I don't beat her to them.  It is getting really frustrating when I go to gather the eggs and they all have a hole pecked through them.  I know it's her because I've caught her in the act a few times/I've seen the evidence on her face.  I've read that if I blow out an egg, then fill it with dijon mustard it will cure the pecking habit.  I guess I could give it a try, but we don't have any dijon mustard.

Ignore the fact that he looks really fat in this picture.  I think Dunny could eat straw the rest of his life and still look fat.  He's just plain thick.  That and he's coming off his winter hiatus from doing any sort of work.  He'll be back to chasing cows soon enough.  He's also a very photogenic horse; my favorite to take pictures of.  

Lane is not easy to get a picture of.  I mentioned that earlier, but it's worth repeating.  The only shots I can seem to get of him are action shots.  He's a busy kid.

 I have a whole bunch of Maggie running (she's busy too, but she'll at least stop and smile for me) but this one is my favorite.

This new camera just might inspire me to blog more often so stay tuned for more pictures :) 

(that or I'll end up with a major overload of pictures to blog about...)