Christmas Eve Blizzard

We'll start with a few images of Christmas Eve. Yep - snow. A lot of snow. We ended up after three days of snow with eight inches in the middle of the yard. . . as much as 24 inches in drifts!

Dan scraping. No matter the weather, the kids think they need to go out. I did, when I was that age, too.

This shot is quite blizzardy! Is that a word?

Chris gets in on the scraping, as well.

Now all that's left to do is wait for Christmas morning!

Fall - Chapter Two!

Well. Fall decided to stay very late here in Lenexa. In fact, it was only about a week ago that I had to start wearing a coat and gloves. I was very interested to see how my spring and summer flowers were so kind as to share space with all the fall leaves. Above and below are the yellow snapdragons and pink begonias in the front yard flower bed.

I like the way this rose thorn looks. Simple. Ahh.

Many of you recognize the fall form of the beautiful hydrangia. The rusty, green color gives it a wonderful new look.This was fun - - a VERY late blooming clematis. Look carefully and see a visitor buzzing in the middle!

This is the reason I brought the camera out on November 22. This lovely yellow bearded iris decided that once this year was not enough when it bloomed in early summer - it wanted to come out again for a late fall hurrah! I have never seen and iris bloom so late. I really love this image of the red maple leaves and the cool grey sky of late November.

But I must say, of this batch of images - this one is my favorite. This sweet maple leaf sure does spiff up my 15 year old Ford van. I love it ! ! !

Extremely Thankful Thanksgiving

The Saturday before Thanksgiving is not the day we usually celebrate the holiday . . .. . . but this one is very special. Please meet Tommy C. here with his daughter, Shelley.Several weeks ago, Tommy went in for a fairly straightforward surgical procedure, and then - long story short - no one (except God, of course) thought Tommy would ever see another Thanksgiving. So Shelley and Tommy's sister Bev hosted a wonderful afternoon full of friends and family. Here is Tommy with Bryan.And, being who I am; I got some grandchildren shots for Bev, and we just kept rolling for awhile.

We needed shots of each family group

as well as Bev's entire gang. To keep the kids attention, we promised goofy shots at the end. . . .. . .they were all very impressive!Thanks so much Bev and Shelley, for including us in this most wonderful Thanksgiving celebration!

Autumn Beauty - not far from home

I have a wonderful friend in Tampa, Florida. Over the past few weeks, she has been lamenting the fact that the temperature has been in the upper 80's there. As a transplanted Kansan, she has been longing for a taste of home.

So, I went out to my yard yesterday to capture a few images.

I didn't have to go any farther to get a wonderful variety of color and texture. The last of the yellow roses, with their beautiful orange rose hips, to the fabulous deep veined red leaves of my new viburnums, everywhere I turned, there was something beautiful!

We have had an unusually cool and wet year.

I'm sure that must have helped the trees and shrubs give us such a wonderful, colorful fall.

I love the sunlight pouring through the leaves.

Angie - this post is for you, kid. Miss you tons - and I hope you're enjoying these images of home. . . with the breath of autumn you just can't get at the beach!

The beautiful blue sky was an extra treat yesterday. We have had so much rain, I thought I was in Seattle.

I love this one - so simple, yet so beautiful. These are the little crabapples from our three-year-old pink flowering crab that I love so much. It is a beautiful little tree, and was featured in my blog when we got a dreadful late snow. Fortunately, it didn't ruin the tree.

Marlee in the Fall

It's been an interesting day, so I thought I would start Marlee's Senior Session with this image. Her best friend, Jenna joined us at Mi Ranchito for lunch, and Marlee mentioned to the server that it was Jenna's birthday . . . so she got the fried ice cream, the singing, and of course, the hat!
And, as you can see - she couldn't resist smacking Marlee with the whipped cream.
What are friends for - if not to smack you with random dairy products?

This is Marlee. You met her in the summer when she modeled for me at Kauffman Gardens.

We're thinking this is the "Fall Edition" of Marlee's Senior Session. We started at her old elementary school in Olathe.

Then we moved to Overland Park, and the New Theater Restaurant. Marlee is quite an actress, so the stage door was a necessity.

We did have one possible, little problem. As we were going down the alley to get to the stage door, a car was rolling slowly toward us in our lane. He finally looked up and swerved to miss us - and we saw it was Barry Williams, who is currently starring at the NTR.

Then we headed to Old Town Lenexa - a place near and dear to my heart.

We did a few poses on the tracks - - in our few short minutes there, three trains passed us by. I didn't realize it would be so busy on a Sunday afternoon.

We stopped at other places in Old Town, like in front of this flower shop.

Marlee is currently a senior at Olathe North, and will be heading off to college at Tabor where she will be working on a music education degree.

We love Kansas - either it's too hot, raining, or freezing. Today was good - - except for the wind. I ended up with a frozen Marlee by the end of the afternoon, but we sure had fun!

Amber

It was a cold afternoon today, when Amber and I trekked downtown for her Senior Session.

We sure didn't have to go far to find some graffiti - her special request.

Amber is a senior at Olathe East. She is planning on attending Hutchison Community College next year, and is trying to decide between Nursing, Criminal Justice, and Education. With her sweet spirit, she'd be great at elementary ed. - she works with kids now in an after- school program and really gets a kick out of the little ones. After braving the cold, we finished at JCCC at the Nerman Museum.NO ONE has to tell us girls that the shoes make the outfit. Check out these sweet red pumps! She is so darned beautiful that I could put her in front of a garbage can and she'd look great. Oh, wait - I DID put her in front of a garbage can - and she is beautiful!

Congratulations, Amber! Have a great senior year, and thanks for the fun afternoon!