At Last...

A Phares family photo. Paul is now 9 months old and we have our first photo of us all together since we took one at the hospital the day after he was born. Ben has a strong dislike of posing for pictures but he was being very kind to me by allowing us to get this photo taken at a wedding we attended this past Saturday. As you can see, the children have changed quite a bit :-)

May 2013

August 2012

Hummingbirds

Ben and I recently got a nice new digital camera. This was my first attempt at capturing video footage of the two lovely hummingbirds that visit our feeder. Hopefully more to follow, as I can squeeze in the video time in between normal life priorities!

Lots of Snow

Over the last couple of days we've had a LOT of snow - at least for western Washington. My non-scientific guess is about 8". I don't remember having this much snow since my family moved to Washington about 20 years ago. So since Ben was home we built snowmen (Ben did all the work, Lucy and I helped by bringing out the eyes and noses) and we had fun in the snow with the neighbors. Still, for the majority of our time we were cuddled up inside. Lucy and Helen have loved having Daddy home, but I think he is ready to get back to work. He's not as good at "doing nothing" as I am. :-)

Our snowman family

Lucy got to hold the "noses and eyes"

Our kind of "walk" - Lucy couldn't have walked far in that deep snow.

The girls in their stroller / trailer

Lucy - BEFORE she got cold :-)

Here we are

 Ben put together a video today of some of the more "icy" photographs he took today, now that the snow has turned to wet hail and slush.

Snowy days

"Can we PLEASE come out Mommy?"

Yes, we got our first snow of the year. No, I haven't taken my girls out in the snow yet. :-( I guess I'm just not looking forward to spending the time to get them both bundled up, taking them out and see if they'll even like it or if they'll just cry because the snow is cold, then bringing them in and changing them into dry clothes. Maybe if the snow lasts another day we'll make it out. In the meantime... Ben made a video of some of the beautiful snow, birds, and nature photos he's taken over the last few days. I love the hummingbird pictures.

Now I've Done It

I actually took the girls to a "real" photo studio. After all the years of saying that it's a waste of money (which it is) and saying that I can take my own "formal" pictures (which I can't, now that I have two girls to try to position, keep happy, and stop from crawling and running to me while I'm at the camera). In my defense, I did have a gift card for $25 and so I actually spent less than that out of my "splurge" money I had saved.

My two sweet girls - December 2011

Beautiful Pacific Northwest Sunrise

The heavens declare the glory of God;

The skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

Psalm 19:1

The sunrise was so beautiful this morning we had to run out and take photos.

  I love how the Mount Rainier casts a shadow on the clouds.