We can't see any fireworks from our house due to so many tall trees. So instead I thought I would take one last photo (or two) of the Christmas tree to end the season. This is our snowflake tree topper to go along with all of my snowman ornaments.
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| f/32, 1/60 sec, 105 mm |
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| f/36, 10 sec, 105 mm |
It has been pouring rain all evening. I thought I would try and get a photo of the rain in front of the barn light, but you can only see a few raindrops near the light.
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| f/1.5, 1/8 sec, Samsung Galaxy 10+ |
This time of year we always have a few trees on our property covered with lichens - they love the moisture here. I was curious about them, so I read that they are not harmful to the trees, but they need sunlight along with moisture so they are usually found on trees that are declining in health and don't have as many leaves. They are also fascinating to look at.
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| f/5.6, 1/160 sec, 300 mm |
I wandered the property today looking for something colorful to take a photo of and found these yellow flowers. They were quite small - I almost missed them! The entire bunch was only about the size of a quarter.
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| f/14, 1/20 sec, 105 mm |
It has been down to 29 degrees a few nights and we are finally getting some colorful fall leaves. Only a few though since most of the leaves have already turned brown.
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| f/3.5, 1/400 sec, 105 mm |
Since we already celebrated Christmas with the kids before they left town, it was a nice, quiet day for us. Steve made some cutting boards for Christmas gifts this year and they are absolutely beautiful! This first one is for my step mom, Joan.
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| This is the cutting side |
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| This is the decorative side |
This one is for Steve's parents. His dad LOVES the rodeo.
Yesterday and today I used up the last of the goat milk and made some holiday goat cheese to sell - honey cranberry pecan. It's yummy! No more milk or cheese until probably February. My goats are pregnant and dried up so now I have to wait for babies to be born before I can have more milk. But it's nice to have a break from milking!
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| f/3, 1/50 sec, 105 mm |
Steve has been making some cutting boards lately. One wasn't completely flat and he got out his hand plane to even it up. His hand plane is quite a beautiful tool and I love the wood curls it makes!
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| f/5.6, 1/25 sec, 105 mm |
It was another beautiful, sunny day in Texas! Even though it was cold this morning, it was 70 degrees today. I love living here!
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| f/5.6, 1/15 sec, 300 mm |
My family did their annual Christmas party virtually this year. It was great because I got to attend, and Quade and Sariah did too! We had a gingerbread house decorating contest. You weren't allowed to use a kit and everything had to be edible. You had 90 minutes to complete your house. I kept it simple and made chocolate waffles to use to build my house. After I cooked them, I put them in the oven to bake so they would harden a bit. It worked great!
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| f/3, 1/13 sec, 105 mm |
Steve has been busy building his own Christmas tree farm using his CNC machine. He made a total of 18 tree candy dishes for our friends for Christmas gifts.
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| f/3, 2.5 sec, 105 mm |
It really poured today! So I braved the weather and went out to take photos of raindrops in puddles.
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| f/7.1, 1/250 sec, 105 mm |
I was trying to think of something to take a photo of tonight and thought it would be fun to take some photos of bubbles. But when I went to get a can of soda, we were out. Steve doesn't drink much soda and I don't drink it at all, but we usually have some for the kids. So I filled the glass with water instead. Not too exciting. I focused on the glass and then turned off the lights. I played with long exposures in an almost completely dark room. The lights in the photo came from outside.
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| f/4.5, 15 sec, 105 mm |
I got up early to take frosty photos this morning before the frost disappeared. It was gone as soon as the sun hit the garden. This is actually a weed.
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| f/3.2, 1/20 sec, 105 mm |
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| f/3.2, 1/250 sec, 105 mm |
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| f/3, 1/125, 105 mm |
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| f/2.8, 1/2000 sec, 105 mm |
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| f/3, 1/400 sec, 105 mm |
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| f/1.8, 1/2 sec, 85 mm |
For Christmas, Braxton made me this metal Christmas tree. It's made of two pieces of metal that cross fit into one another. It's quite intricate and very pretty.
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| f/1.8, 1/10 sec, 85 mm |
Tonight I finished making Christmas stockings for Quade and Sariah's kids and will be mailing them tomorrow. It sure was faster than cross stitching them like Steve's mom did for my kids! (Although hers are much prettier!)
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| f/1.8, 1/2 sec, 85 mm |
We celebrated Christmas today with Braxton and Alisa and the boys since they are headed to her parents house this week to spend Christmas there. It was a great day!
We also celebrated Alaric's birthday since they'll be gone for that too! We gave him a remote control robot. He loved it!
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| Steve was adjusting my settings for me and took this cute photo of Barrett :) |
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| We gave Alaric a Play-Doh toy that makes cars |
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| Barrett got a Play-Doh firetruck toy |
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| Barrett got a Toy Story Lego train. He knew exactly what it was when he opened it! |
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| I made the boys each a small quilt to drive their cars on. Alaric's had race cars on it. |
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| Barrett's had construction vehicles on it. He liked the race cars better though! |
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| We also gave the boys each a drawing tablet that erases by clicking on a button. Barrett especially loved it! He's been drawing on everything in the house lately, so hopefully this will help. |
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| Braxton bought Alisa a fancy new air fryer with two baskets! She was pretty excited since they use theirs almost daily and it is half broken. Steve got me an air fryer too but they had me open it yesterday so we could make French fries. I'm excited to have one too! |
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| Wonder Woman's son in training! |
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| The boys in their new Christmas jammies. |
The boys had a sleepover here last night and this morning we played outside on the swing set. They love playing outside!
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| f/5, 1/250 sec, 82 mm |
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| f/5.6, 1/250 sec, 125 mm |
A couple of my quilting friends, Trish and Judy, gave me this beautiful wooden bowl for my birthday. I couldn't resist filling it with pinecones for Christmas. Steve's mom made me this pretty table topper a few years ago. 😊
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| f/3, 1 sec, 105 mm |
Steve surprised me with two Christmas swags for my birthday this year. I love them! This is a closeup of one of them.
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| f/3, 1.3 sec, 105 mm |
Alisa and the boys came over today and we took a picnic lunch to the park. It was another beautiful day!
Alaric saw leaves all over the floor of the pavilion and decided to make a leaf angel :) Then they both had fun playing on the playground. These kids sure have loads of personality!
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| f/1.8, 1/400 sec, 85 mm |
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| f/1.8, 1/1000 sec, 85 mm |
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| f/1.8, 1/800 sec, 85 mm |
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| f/1.8, 1/640 sec, 85 mm |
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| f/8, 1/60 sec, 85 mm |
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| f/2.2, 1/2500 sec, 85 mm |
