Macro Overload! A story of photos for friday!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

To preface this, I took excedrin for a nasty migraine, and it worked in more ways than one! I am not a caffeine person any more. It has been over a year and a half since I have had any caffeinated pop(well, pop of any kind really)...so two little excedrin pills are like uppers to me! I am wired and full of WAY too much energy, and the headache is gone! So here I am at midnight blogging, and this after a short night of rest last night and an early morning to contend with. Oh well!
Now onto the business at hand...my newest and most favoritest lens ever. The 100m macro! LOVE IT! There is no other way to say it. I am a macro happy girl as it is, and now I have the lens at my disposal always...heaven is something like this, I am sure of it!


I am sure this is going to be a life long love affair for me. I may not be the greatest photographer, but I will always love the thrill of trying to capture the moments!

Don't worry, my husband is having the same affair as me! It really is wonderful to have a man who shares so many of the same passions in life...our kids, of marriage and photography! I think, and hope Javin will share this particular one!

Chocolate, Strawberries and Mum!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Yesterday we finally made them! My mum purchased some ripe, delicious huge strawberries the other day and was going on and on about how she just HAD to cover them with rich dark chocolate. Well, you don't have to twist my arm when it comes to that particular combination.

Oh is was so yummy! Orissa just couldn't wait for the chocolate to set, and was greedily eating the chocolate covered banana that we made (we had extra melted chocolate). That was the first time she ate a bite of banana...usually she bites and them promptly spits it back out!

Javin was taking his nap while we made them...don't worry he had more than his share of them. They are made of two of his favorite things too! He woke up before me this morning and decided to get his own breakfast...one guess what he chose!

An Extra Day Off!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Today Aaron had a free day off, by this I mean it wasn't vacation or sick time, time that they are counting that he was there when he was not. I t all has to do with the last project he worked on for work and logged like a million extra hours...only when you have a salaried job they aren't really extra since they can work ya how ever much they want...but they are nice and gave him this free day. Now on to the meat of the story now that I have completely confused and befuddle most of you. We had the day roughly planned out. Step one: sleep in as long as the kids would let us! I failed on this step, I just couldn't sleep so I got up and started cleaning a bit, you know, doing the dishes and the laundry...all things that were NOT in the game plan. Step two: have a good breakfast as a family! Check, we got that one done. Step three: get all bundled up (cause it decided to be kind of gloomy and blowy) and head out to the Finch Arboretum (our utmost favorite place to play). Check! We spent a couple of hours roaming the open fields and following the stream and taking an abundance of pictures along the way.

Orissa has a bit of a cold, again, so she spend the afternoon bundled up in the baby carrier on my front. She however, didn't seem to mind the arrangements and quickly fell asleep!


When we first arrived, we were the only visitors to the park. There was no one else in sight, well, no one but the people blowing up the ground squirrels that is. I guess that is the city's solution to the overwhelming population that has been increasingly worse from year to year.

Javin thought the loud booms were pretty sweet, I however, don't think the ground squirrels liked it all that much. By the end of our time there, two bus loads of children had arrived...definitely time to go home. Javin wasn't happy about leaving, but alas he never is. We got home just in time for lunch which Javin "made". He went straight to the fridge and started pulling out his lunch. First he had to have his meats, pepperoni, hotdog and BBQ pork (asian style). Then he needed his drink, a strawberry Danimal, after the liquids were covered he had to get all the other goodies that go along with lunch, you know, the pudding candy bar chips and fruit snacks. He insisted Aaron have much of what he was "making" and then they sat down to eat. It was VERY cute. He sat down, and said a prayer of thanksgiving for his trip to the park, for the car, for playing and for Sissy.

After lunch, while Aaron tried to show my sister some pointers on iPhoto Javin and I played pirates, and Orissa had to walk the plank for being a spy. Oh it was a blast! We were sailors in Her Majesties Royal Navy and Orissa was one of those dastardly pirates trying to steal all our gold and riches from the new world.
Then alas my captain Javin and scary pirate girl Rissa had to go down for well deserved naps!
We had a great afternoon, just the four of us spending time together laughing and playing. I wish I could have captured the pirate play in pictures, but I didn't want to ruin the fun by pulling out the camera again...sometimes Javin gets a bit weary of the camera always being in his face...but it is such a cute little face!

Paisley Kay...the newest niece in the Leavitt Clan!

I know, two post in one day...I guess I am trying to make up for lost time! This past weekend we had a very busy, family filled time. First we went to Wenatchee for a Court of Honor...that is another post mind you...then we headed to Warden for the blessing of Paisley Kay Leavitt. She is the daughter of Benjamin and Jamie, Aaron's brother and Sister-in-law. Well she is so adorable, how could I resist showing her off to all of you?

Judge Not

Today was a lovely spring day, so we decided to head out for an urban hike (aka a walk with the kids in the baby carriers instead of the strollers). It was me carrying Orissa, Aaron carrying Javin and Megan carrying Shaylee. We headed a direction that we hadn't gone in quite sometime. At about the half way point Aaron was starting to lag behind so we made a kid swap. From that point on I carried the Flave and he the Miss Oriss! We were heading north on a newly redone road, so new in fact, they hadn't really finished it and it was technically still closed to through traffic. As we were "hiking" along, just chatting about this and that, when a some what older and kind of ratty looking car passed us by then a few yard ahead of us slowed to a stop. I commented that maybe they were lost, and Megan promptly added that she hoped not cause she was terrible with directions. Then a man, in many some what worn and used layers of clothing, got out of the car and started heading toward us. In my mind I was thinking that maybe he needed some help, maybe a few bucks for gas or something, or maybe be he was a panhandler. Then we all noticed that as he was walking towards us, he had his wallet out and was pulling out a few dollar bill. Wrong Ryanne, this man wasn't asking, but trying to give. He came up and said, "I saw you and asked my friend to pull over, I want to help. Here please take this and make sure you get something for those kids, something to drink or maybe eat. You take care of those little ones." He was so kind, so sincere. He thought we were homeless and needed aid, and though he had but little, he was there to offer what aid he had. Tears came freely to my eyes, I was so touch by his Christ-like desire to help. We assured him that we were fine and that we were so grateful that he thought enough to make sure, and then we continued on our walk and they drove on.
At first we asked each other if we looked like street people or people down on our luck, even joked a bit about the way we were currently dressed, then I really started to think. A few questions came to my mind. Am I willing to stop to see if I can help? Do I often miss opportunities to help because of pride or indifference? Do I judge people by how they are dressed or the car they drive? Do I look for chances to make a difference? I hope I am doing a good job being a decent human, I hope I am willing always to help. This good Samaritan reminded me what I need to be doing, and put it all back into perspective, "judge not that ye be not judged."

What a Silly Girl!

Yeah so this morning I went upstairs to check and see if Orissa was awake yet. I kept hearing noises that I thought were her, only they were the upstairs TV. I opened her door and this is what I saw.

Yeah, she was sound asleep, happily sleeping with both legs sticking through the bars of the crib. She is a very funny sleeper! I think it is the Keiser in her. My sister's kids used to sleep in very strange ways too! And you might think I am a bit silly or even a bit strange, but when I saw her legs all hanging out that way, the ZZ Top song "Legs" popped into my head. You know when they sing, "she's got legs and she knows how to use them..."

Aww, Come on Mum!

While at Gramma and Granpa Leavitt's house this weekend I tried to get a few portrait shots of my little man. He wasn't too fond of the idea...too many tractors to climb on and too many other cool farm related things to see and such. When I finally got him to sit still for a SHORT shoot, this is what I got!

Sure there were a couple that turned out pretty good, but this picture says it all!

Scour and Scrub! a fotostory friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Thursday, cleaning day! Oh joy of joys, the day to do my house work...laundry, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, scouring etc...This was made more FUN and exciting by the two monsterkeys (i mean my sweetest children of all children) demanding that I pay attention to them and do just what they want. The kitchen took nearly three hours to clean. Yes, it was VERY dirty and yes, there was lots of the aforementioned tasks to get it clean, but it was Orissa clinging to my legs and the Javin throwing a ball for me to hit with my "bat" aka the fly swatter, that cause the job to be so time consuming. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those times. I love to be needed and wanted by my children, it just isn't always conducive to house cleaning...at least not for me. Then nap time came. I put Orissa down and she readily went to sleep, "Yay," I thought, "now if I can get Javin to take his nap, I can get the rest of the first floor clean!" There was only one flaw in that logic, one hitch in my get-a-long. He didn't nap, he refused to nap. Now being the optimistic person that I try to be, I thought, "well that's ok, he can help me clean. We can work on his room." Yeah, no! He wasn't about to do anything that resembled work or cleaning, no way no how, and it didn't matter what approach I took or what I promised. Javin was going to play with his cars and that was that! I left him to it. That was fine, he would be out of my way and I could do my house work. Again wrong! He followed me down stairs with his arms full of toys to scatter around the living room. By then I was getting ready to blow my top. I counted to a million (ok not really but I did count to 10 what seemed like a million times), then I put in my favorite show to watch (BBC's MI:5) and folded laundry. I would get Aaron to help me clean and motivate the lad to help with the cleaning.
Of course there were a couple of hours until that time so we spent it playing fly swatter baseball and chasing Orissa up and down the stairs. As you can tell the day was not wasted, the house didn't get sparkling clean but the kids were happy and I was only mildly frustrated. Then Aaron got home, and he seemed pretty confident that he could get the non-napper to help clean. After about fifteen fits he was far less upbeat about it. I had turned the whole motivation over to him whilst I made a yummy dinner of ham, cheese, egg and bacon sandwiches on homemade bread.
After the hearty meal I was re-energized and started to get the cleaning supplies for bathroom duty ready while Aaron got the vacuuming started. At first Javin seemed like he wanted to help with the vacuuming, that was until he saw me scrubbing the toilets.


There was a twinkle in his eyes and he took the scrubber from me and joyfully went about scrubbing the "CAN". He was completely fascinated with the whole process (I swear this is NOT the first time I have cleaned the bathroom, really, I'm not lying!).

He wanted to clean the sink and the floor and the countertops. Well, after all the trouble I had trying to get him to pick up his toys, I was overjoyed! The it came to the mirrors. I pulled out the foaming window cleaner and sprayed a smily face on it,and then stared cleaning. He LOVED it. He wanted so much to make the faces and clean the mirror. After the mirror he wanted more faces, he wanted to make the faces and he wanted to clean the faces. I was not about to let this moment pass me by. We cleaned every window in living room, some of them inside and out!

Finally my little man had decided to help and I soon forgot all the frustrations of earlier in the day. I still hold this truth (about small children) to be self evident, "God made children so stinkin' cute, so that in those frustrating times, we look at them and are so wrapped up by their cuteness that we just smile and shrug all else off instead of wanting to hang them from their toenails!!"