my blessed life

And it's here!  Our first day of {home}school for 2012-2013!   This past Saturday we had a fun back-to-{home}school photo shoot at the literary park of our local community college.  I only recently discovered the park and thought it would make a fun setting for some pictures.  I was really pleased with the way they turned out (I've also been having a lot of fun on a cool new editing site I've just discovered--thank you, Heidi !). I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about our first day and how it went!  

This past week on our anniversary getaway we enjoyed a beautiful drive through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park .  The thoughtful people from whom we rented our cabin had provided some great brochures on the park for us and one of those was all about the wildflowers that are native to the Smokies.  During our drive we (I) got a little carried away snapping up pictures of the beautiful flowers all over.  It was sort of like a scavenger hunt and Vince was gracious enough to pull the car over every time I thought I saw one I hadn't seen before.  I've included the names of the ones I've been able to identify, but some I'm not sure of.  Feel free to leave me a comment if you know the name of them.  I think wildflowers have the most charming names! (Robin's plantain) (fringed phacelia) (yellow trillium) (lyre-leaf sage) (sweet white trillium) (thyme-leaved bluets) (blue violet)

While we were packing for our trip to the beach last month, I decided to throw in some photo-shoot-worthy clothes for the kiddos and try to take some of them while we were there. I knew it was a long shot (pun intended) because I am no professional children's photographer with a seemingly-endless-supply-of-patience. Nope, that is not me at all. I am , however, on a tight portrait budget this year and I do love to take pictures. And while I don't love the standard-Sears-portrait-studio-type shots, I do LOVE outdoor, natural-light shots. So, I thought, why not at least try. I was pleased with my first try at this. Just had to share some of my faves.