DDJ Images

It's official, my extremely talented mother has finally decided to open her own Etsy shop called DDJ Images where she will be selling her gorgeous prints!

She has a wide variety of photographs ranging from gorgeous flowers... 

to breathtaking landscapes,

Including some amazing nature shots,

along with some amazing black and white shots.

Do me a favor and stop by her shop to check it out! I spent hours setting it up and making it look as professional as possible. I'm still in the process of uploading some photographs. Any feedback would be fantastic! :)

Our Weekend Recap: Nana & Papa Came to Visit!

I apologize for the lack of posts over the weekend. Friday afternoon my dad called to let me know that he and my mom were coming out for a quick visit! Woohoo! Apparently he had a rough day at work and he really just needed to get away. As I mentioned before, he owns his own business so he can do things like that! :) The fun thing was that it was a surprise for my mom as well. She had really been hoping they could come out for a visit since she is done with school for the summer but every weekend seemed to get filled up. So Friday evening, after dad got done with work, they loaded up the truck and drove 900 miles to get here by Saturday morning! Needless to say, my house wasn't too clean but they were forgiving and actually helped me get it cleaner than it has been since Addison was born. I appreciated it SO much!

So anyway, we didn't just clean while they were here. We spent a lot of time outdoors since the weather was gorgeous. We didn't get to spend near as much time as we would like since the smoke from all these fires is really affecting our air quality. We did spend some time swinging on our porch swing and just relaxing. We also took a nice drive down to Lake Isabel on Sunday afternoon so my mom could take some pictures.

Speaking of my mom's pictures. She has just started developing her photography skills and I can't even believe how far she's come! She is so amazingly talented! I keep telling her she should start a blog but she hasn't yet. She does however have a 365 project and a Facebook page where others can view her pictures. She has quite the following too!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures that she took over the weekend. Click on them if you want to see them bigger, which I highly recommend!

 I love that Addie is wearing Papa's hat in this picture!

 

The two above are my favorites (for obvious reasons)!

 Even though it was really smokey, these pictures turned out really great! This is the first glimpse of the mountains when you are headed towards our town.

This is an old homestead that can be found on the way to the lake.

 Here is a picture of Lake Isabel

She didn't even realize there was an ant on the flower!

 I couldn't decide which of these I liked better so I am sharing both of them with you! Aren't wild irises gorgeous?

She took this just before the sun started to set last night.

Isn't she talented?

This morning they headed back for Iowa. :( We already miss them but it was great to spend a couple of days with them, even if it was an extremely short trip. Now we have Nick's parents visiting this weekend and then next week my mom is coming back out with my grandparents. This will be their first visit and they are thrilled about it!

I guess this is my advanced warning: my posts are definitely going to be sporadic this month!

Our Easter Recap

Addison and I were in Iowa visiting family over Easter. Nick wasn't able to come out with us because of his work schedule. We definitely missed him but it was great to spend some quality time with both of our families, especially since they don't get to see Addie very much!
I kind of failed as a mom Easter morning because I completely forgot to take pictures! It's a good thing my mom was prepared and took a few for me! :) Thanks mom!Addison looked super cute in her Easter dress! I love dressing her up and I have a feeling that if she's anything like her mommy, she won't let me do it once she's older!
I didn't wear anything fancy for Easter morning. I haven't gone shopping since I've had a baby and let's just say that my old clothes don't quite fit me the same anymore. :( I am in desperate need of some cute summer clothes!
Spending Easter with Nana and Papa was amazing! I hadn't had a chance to celebrate Easter with them for 5 years! It was fun for them to be able to give Addie her Easter basket in person instead of mailing it.
We had such a great day. What a blessing it was to be able to hold my miracle baby on the day that Christ was resurrected!

Our Camera Sux!

Seriously. It's awful. It's the same one that I have had since high school. I tried to take some pictures with it today and they look pathetic. It is almost impossible to take a crisp picture with it. We had a good one but my husband sold it to his parents over Christmas break. Now we are stuck with my ancient one and I am really getting sick of it! I was hoping to share some pictures of the delicious meal that I cooked the other day but nope. No such luck. Sorry. I hate not posting my own pictures but what other choice do I have? Haha! The good news, he has one picked out. The bad news, it is a new model that won't be released until mid March. It's not exactly what I wanted.

I wanted this one....

but this one is not affordable right now.

So instead we are getting this one.

It's much closer to our price range (and cute too)!

Until then, here is the camera I am stuck with. It used to be great. That was until I had something better to compare it to. I am sure my parents will understand why I bash the camera they bought me. My mom DOES have the Nikon D90 (lucky)! :)

So anyway, that is my whining post for the evening. Sorry for not having any personal photos lately. It happens I guess.