Pretty in Pink -- Day 182

A pretty flower in the garden

A Proposal -- Day 181

Today was a special day. It's mine and Amber's birthday and her now fiance picked today to surprise here with an unexpected birthday visit and an even more unexpected proposal. What a happy weekend it has been. I'm so happy for them and so glad I got to photograph his proposal. I love this picture, especially that our Dad was so happy in the background. :D

Mixing -- Day 180

My sister bakes for the Farmer's Market (https://www.facebook.com/ladyabigailsbakery) and last night she was out late finishing some things up. I ended up going to help her and got to mix up cream cheese icing for the Zucchini cakes. :)

Dream Boy -- Day 179

I love seeing little guys sleep. :)

Sunflower Petals -- Day 178

My sister, Hannah, took a photo of her sunflowers the other day that turned out really neat. So she kinda inspired this one. :D

Prickly Pear -- Day 177

A Vase of Zinnias -- Day 176

Sisters -- Day 175

It's Official -- Day 174

Today was finally court day for the finalization of Nate's adoption. :) I got to go along and see the smiles. He is now officially Nate Hosana Workman. Yay!

PS I usually like to stick with reality, but today I made an exception and photoshopped someone's head. :) But I'm not telling who's :)

An Everyday Photo Alphabet -- Day 173

Back in 2010 when I was doing my first 365 day  photo project, I started a project within a project, I called it the Alphabet Project (If you'd like to see some of the photos in that project click on that label in the right side column of this blog). Today that project has almost reached completion. Today, in the mail, I received the proof copy of my new children's picture book. I'm so excited to finally have this collection of photographs all together in book form! And to make it even better my wonderful friend, Rebekah, has written a poem to go with each of the photos. We are both very excited about the book. If you'd like to see more of Rebekah's published work you can visit her blog at http://rsreadingbooks.blogspot.com/
As soon as I have my book up and ready to go (just a few small things still to do in order to have it ready to sell), I'll post a link. :)

Amber and Jon -- Day 172

It's so fun having Amber working with Jon everyday. I used to get him up in the mornings and take care of him some throughout my days of cleaning and laundry and everything else I do at my job. He's such a happy boy. I never could spend as much time with him as I wanted because of my other responsibilities, so I'm so glad Amber is there to be his buddy. :D

Mark -- Day 171

Today I took a rare walk with Amber, David, Jon and Mark. Usually I'm busy with things around the house, so I stay and get some work done while they take a walk, but today was a quiet day and all the rest of the kids were gone so I joined them on their walk. Got this cute shot of Mark in a little drainage ditch with trees and brush on both sides. Doesn't he have a great smile?

New Bus -- Day 170

The family I work for just purchased a 15 passenger bus with a wheelchair lift. What a blessing it is going to be! They've been needing one for a long time now and finally found the bus of their dreams, one that will allow the whole family to take a trip in the same vehicle and one that will allow the powerchairs to come along too. :D It needs a major repair before it hits the road again, but today we loaded most of the kids up in two vehicles for a field trip to "meet" the new bus which was parked at the mechanic's shop. The bus received high rates of approval by everyone except Jon (the one back there leaning over the arm rest), who doesn't like new and uncertain changes. He'll get used to it though. He's one of the ones who never got to take his wheelchair along, 'cause it wouldn't fit in the car. :) The twins were thrilled as you can see by their expressions. :D

Robin's Nest -- Day 169

I noticed the other day that a robin was working on a nest in our dogwood. She's been sitting on her eggs now for a couple days. Today when she flew off for a few minutes I got out the ladder to take a peek. :)

Upside-Down Apple Pie -- Day 168

My sister Abigail bakes for our farmer's market. Today I took some pictures of her pies. Yum! This is her Upside-Down Apple Pie. If you live nearby, I suggest going to the farmer's market on Tuesday or Friday and getting one of Lady Abigail's pies. https://www.facebook.com/ladyabigailsbakery. They really are good. :) If you don't live nearby and want to try it you can find the recipe here http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Upside-Down-Apple-Pie. Keep in mind though, Abbie tweaked this recipe, so it's not exactly the same as hers, she won't share her "secret" recipe. :)

Porch at Night -- Day 167

Aqua Necklace -- Day 166

Amber brought this home for me from Florida. I love it!

Mustard Seed -- Day 165

It just takes a little faith!

Red Pepper -- Day 164

Tonight we had Dominoes for supper. Thought I'd make use of all the red pepper we never use. :D

Robin Silhouetted -- Day 163

As I sat outside reading my bible in the evening I was wishing I could capture the sounds of dusk on my camera. Not possible, but I managed to get this silhouette of a robin on the power line. He was tweeting away filling the evening with the songs of summer. :)

Brushes -- Day 162

Sometimes a little wander around the house can provide some cool subjects. :) I found these three paint brushes left on the table by my brother. They were already in the perfect lighting, so I just rearranged them and took a few shots. :)

Grilling Burgers -- Day 161

Today was my younger brother's birthday and Dad grilled burgers as the birthday dinner. Burgers on the grill are delicious!

Sea Shell -- Day 160

My sister just returned from a week long trip to Florida. She told me she brought home the ocean. :) Here it is!

Nate: Gift of God -- Day 159

This little guy is so fun! He's looking serious in this picture, but usually he's hamming it up, just not when there's a camera pointed at him. :D He's also a real climber and likes to get into things. :)
But he's also the sweetest little guy you could meet. Definitely a gift from God. :)

His hair has recently gotten long enough to do something fun with. :) Today I redid a bunch of finger coils and thought I'd get a picture. Now if only he'd sit still enough for corn rows. :)

Lavender Blue -- Day 158

Ok, so it's not blue, but it still reminds me of the song, "Lavender blue, dilly, dilly..."
That bumble bee was enjoying his breakfast this morning when I arrived at work, so I stopped to take a few photos. :)

Flock of Birds at Sunset -- Day 157

I drove across town (where there weren't trees and buildings to block the view) to watch the sunset hoping to see the Transit of Venus. The horizon was cloudy though, so I didn't get to see Venus make it's way across the sun, but I did capture this cool shot of a flock of birds. :) I upped the contrast quite a bit, so it didn't look quite like this. And I don't think that is smoke, even though it does kinda look smokey.

Cloud Pillar -- Day 156

The clouds were so beautiful just before sunset! I climbed on the roof for this shot. :D

Hannah -- Day 155

Took a walk to the park today and Hannah posed on the fountain. She's so photogenic! :)

Sunny Flowers -- Day 154

Some days I just feel like a photo needs to portray my thoughts/mood of the day. This photo does not. Today the 16 month old baby of some friends died very suddenly of an infection that went very bad very quickly. Not a very sunny day. I took this picture next to Wal-Mart before I heard the news that little Avery had gone home to heaven. Couldn't really think of anything else to photograph. My heart is heavy for my friends.

Cheese from the Bunkbed -- Day 153

Nate loves to climb! He is especially daring since going off of daytime oxygen. I think he feels his freedom, or maybe he knows we can't track him as well as we used to by following the oxygen line. :) The problem about the bunk bed is that he doesn't know how to get down. :) So while he was stuck in a small area I decided I should do an impromptu photo shoot. :) He obliged. :D