March Madness

This year, March came in like a lion.... and went out like a lion. We woke up to about four inches of snow this morning. Ahhh, the joys of Spring storms!

Sunrise, Sunset

Actually, just a sunset! I need to be an earlier riser to get shots of the sunrise, I guess. I took these from the middle of the street in front of my house last night. Don't worry. I looked both ways before heading out into the street. And anyway, according to my son, we live on the most boring street in the United States of America. (That's a line he borrowed from Home Alone).

Thanks for looking.

Cattitude

A while back, I posted some pictures of Noel, my neighbor's cat. Well, she was visiting my backyard again today, so here are some more shots. She's defintely showing her 'cattitude' here!

Easter with the Evans Fam

We had a busy weekend. Easter Sunday was Alex's birthday and my sister Jan's birthday, too. We went to church in the morning, then to visit the Salt Lake Temple grounds after that. We had dinner at Jan's in the evening. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Saturday, we dyed Easter eggs. Always a fun activity!

Mallory has to reach high for that egg!

Alex got some of that disgusting sour spray from the Easter Bunny. He loves it, but I think it's atrocious! Alex is very intrigued by the present he just opened!

Nate and Alex getting a little rowdy by the fountain. Alex was pretty worried Nate was going to throw him in, but he didn't. :) The Salt Lake Temple.

Our family by the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Love those rock walls!
Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Georgia On His Mind

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments on my blog yesterday in response to what I wrote about missing my mom. I appreciate your thoughtfulness so much.

My brother recently took a job in Georgia. He flew out there today to start work on Monday. He has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and does drug discovery research. (Yeah, he got the brains in the family!) Anyway.... last night we got together for dessert and to tell him goodbye. We all met up at a hotel where my sister and her family were spending the night to celebrate her birthday, which is tomorrow.

My brother, Lance, his daughter, Patricia, son-in-law, Jon and wife Sue Zan. They even color-coordinated for the picture...not even on purpose!

My sister Jan (left), brother and me (right). My siblings mean the world to me! We've been through a lot together. I don't know what I would do without them. Note to self: Dress up a little more next time you know you're going to be in a photo!

My brother and his wife with some of the nieces and nephews. My oldest son is missing from the picture, as are four of my sister's kids.

Aunt Sue Zan and the girls. We got a nice smile out of them when we said, "Say y'all!"

Can you tell Lance has a great sense of humor that's contagious to everyone around him?

Lance doesn't actually play the piano, but he wanted to pretend like he did. You just can't take him anywhere!

Love You. Miss You

Four years ago today, I lost my mom. She died unexpectedly... and far too soon... at the age of 61. She was dealing with some health issues at the time she died, but her death came as such a complete shock. For so long, I struggled with the fact that I never got to tell her goodbye. One minute she was there...the next she was gone.

Losing my mom and going on without her has been one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. She was such an important part of my life. She wasn't perfect, but she was the perfect mom for me. She was funny. She had the most hearty laugh. She was friendly and outgoing. For years, she worked in a grocery store in the town where I grew up. My brother once said he always wondered what everyone knew about him when he walked in there because my mom always went on and on about us! My mom could strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere. I sometimes wish I was more like her in that way. I tend to be more reserved around people I don't know very well. But not my mom. She could make friends with anyone.

My mom was never rich in terms of material things, but she was one of the most generous, giving people I have ever known. She shared of her time and talents with everyone. She served willingly and happily in many different ways in her church. She loved working with the children in her congregation. Many of them told us at her funeral how much they loved her and would miss her.

My mom struggled with many difficulties throughout her life. She and my dad divorced when I was 8. The divorce and the aftermath was very difficult for her. She faced emotional and physical difficulties at different times throughout her life. But through it all, she never lost hope and she never neglected me and my needs. I could talk to my mom about anything. I loved spending time with her. My children adored her (and she them). Losing Grandma Diana was so difficult for my children. Seeing them suffer made my grieving that much harder.

I love her and miss her, and many times have wanted so badly to pick up the phone and call her. How wonderful it would be to hear her voice. Losing her left an empty space in my heart.
Today, I am posting some of my favorite pictures of my mom.
Mom, age 3

My mom's love of reading began when she was just a little girl.

One of my favorite pictures of my mom. She and Mallory look so happy. This was taken on Christmas Eve, just a few months before my mom died.

I love you Mom.

Church Ball

We had a little friendly competition at a church basketball tournament tonight. Anyone age 12 and up was invited to join a team. Parker, my 15-year-old played tonight. They lost by one point when the other team scored a heartbreaking buzzer beater.:( Bummer. But it was a fun game to watch. My shots aren't great technically, but they show Parker with his game face on. By the way, it was interesting to hear all the different opinions about Peeps from my post yesterday. Personally, I think they're gross to eat, but they make great photo subjects!

Peep!

I've so enjoyed other's Peep posts, so I thought I would do a couple of my own today. Of course with green Peeps!

First, we have the Peep posing on the tree trunk pieces I wrote about yesterday. See, my kids were so right when they said those would be great for posing. As you can see, the Peep is having the time of his sugary sweet life.

And next, we have a group of Peeps enjoying themselves on the swing on this lovely day. My daughter suggested we name this picture, "Swing into Spring."

These Peeps almost didn't live long enough to be photographed. I put the box on the counter, and Alex and his friend decided to dig in after school when they were playing here. These Peeps were thinking, "Wow! It isn't easy being green!"

Okay, I'll stop now!

Thanks for peeping in!

Really, now I'm done.

Timmmmmberrrrrr

We had some trees in our backyard that were encroaching on the overhead power lines, so some city lumberjacks came to remove them today. One was a HUGE pine tree. Here's a shot of it when most of the branches had been cut off, but the trunk was still there. I guess you can't be afraid of heights to do this job.

My other shots are of Alex, posing for me on the pile of wood that was left behind today. The deal is, the city cuts down the tree for free, shreds the branches in the big shredding machine, but leaves the trunk. My kids love the trunk pieces. They think they'll make great posing props for my photography. (Scary how my children's minds work like that, isn't it?) My daughter also thinks it would be great to have one of them in her room as a side table. I'm not sure how she thinks she'll be able to lug it into the house, but I'm not one to stifle her creativity in decorating!

I'm not really sure why Alex's hair has a blue cast to it in this first shot. HMMMM.

Presidential Flashcards

Here's my take on the green theme today. My daughter was more than willing to get her little paws on all this dough. Her comment, "Do you know how many Webkinz I could buy with this?"

I'm thinkin' way more than we need.

Fuzzy!

More signs of spring!

Almost 8!

Although Alex won't turn 8 until next week, we had his birthday party today because next weekend is Spring Break, and we though some people might be out of town if we did a party closer to his birthday. He wanted a sports theme, but the weather today didn't really cooperate for an outdoor party, so I had to improvise and planned some fun indoor activities. We were able to do a couple of short things outside, but most of the time, we stayed in. I can't believe Alex is almost 8! Wow! Time flies wayyyyy tooo fast!

I took some quick shots of each of the kids as they arrived. I'm going to make these into trading cards.

Now, how often does your mom encourage you to spit? The kids loved the sunflower seed spitting contest.

We had fun seeing who could blow the biggest bubble!

And of course, opening presents is always fun! We'll definitely get some good use out of those baseballs when it gets a little warmer outside!

The party also included lunch, baseball card bingo, a fun candy bar game, musical bases and cupcakes and ice cream!

Cutie Pies

Mallory and her friend Emily were nice enough to pose for me the other day. In fact, they're always willing to pose for me. I have been experimenting with different black and white conversions and did this one with the channel mixer (as explained in Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS2 Book). I'm liking the look of the channel mixer conversion. What do you think?

CC always welcome here!

Daffodils!

I'm very horticulturally challenged, but luckily my neighbor is not. She has some beautiful daffodils in front of her house. I've been watching them lately -- just waiting for them to bloom so I could take some pictures. Well, today was the day. I called her to ask if it was okay if I lurked around in her yard taking pictures today. I wish I had waited a while until the sun wasn't directly on them. I got a lot of blown-out shots, but I'm posting some of the better ones. I guess I can try some more tomorrow!

That bee in the flower counts as my animal for today!:)

Oh, spring must really be here!:) YAY!

That Darn Cat!

I'm kidding about that title. I just thought it went well with cat photos. I do like this cat, even though she's not mine. Meet Noel, my neighbor's cat, who for some reason likes to spend a lot of time in my backyard. I thought I'd take advantage of that fact and get some shots of her today to go with the animal theme this week. I realized while taking pictures of Noel, that photographing animals -- especially cats -- is even more difficult than photographing toddlers! If a cat isn't interested in looking at you -- well -- forget it!:)

Little Red Corvette

One of our neighbors, apparently going through a mid-life crisis :) bought himself a brand-new, shiny, red Corvette this week. He came over to give my husband and boys a ride. Let me tell you, this was a dream-come-true for the guys in our household. To say they love cars is an understatement. Nate, my oldest, has been in love with cars and machines since Day 1, I think. When he was 2, he knew practically all the names of every car he saw, and would tell me, "There's a Honda Accord... That's a Jeep Wrangler..., etc." It was quite a hoot. I was excited to be able to take some shots of such a fine automobile. The sun was right overhead, so they didn't turn out too great, but still kind of fun anyway.:)