Pictures!

Finally, Finally, Finally! I am doing something for myself! I have wanted to get involved with photography since high school but have always put it off. Well now it's all about me! I took a giant leap and bought an awesome camera and signed up for a photography class. I love it! It is so exciting learning all these things you never think about that go into making a great picture. Of course, Libby is my favorite subject! Here are some pictures I've taken over the past few weeks. I'm just getting started, but I think these are pretty good! Enjoy!

Bowling Night

Libby and I haven't been bowling in a long time so I thought it would be a good Saturday night activity for us to do. We brought Nathan along too...the more the merrier! I decided we should grab some dinner first. Libby picked "the place with the peanuts" of course, which is fine by me! Yum! I figured to beat the crowds we should go at 4pm. I guess there was nothing else to do that day because there was already a wait at the restaurant. Not too long luckily. We finished our dinner and headed to the bowling alley. It was 530pm. The lanes were packed!! They said they wouldn't have any open lanes until 7pm. Um...no thanks. We went back out to my truck and I called the other bowling alley in Kokomo thinking surely both places wouldn't be busy. Think again! They didn't have any open lanes until 8pm! Really?! Craziness! One more try...I'll call Suburban Lanes in Tipton. I asked if they had any open lanes, with my fingers crossed and two eager children sitting in the back seat...Jackpot! They were only using one lane! Hahaha! Off to Tipton we go to bowl! I did have to learn how to keep score though because it's old school like that...no computers!

Here is Libby practicing her photography skills. Nathan wasn't impressed!

Here I am courtesy of Libby. We bowled with the bumpers up of course. It's still hard to get much over 100! I think 114 was my high!

This is Libby's "give me a strike" dance! It doesn't work 100%, but she did get a few strikes and some spares. The spare has it's own dance as well, don't worry!

She will love these pics when she becomes a pro bowler some day!

We had fun and can't wait to go back again!

First Grade Program

Now that Libby is in first grade they get to participate in a school program. When my nephew, Nathan, was in kindergarten he had a program and it involved the whole elementary school. It was a little overwhelming for the kids. Fortunately now, they have the grades divided up and they dropped kindergarten all together! I could hardly wait for the first grader's spring program this year! Libby was keeping details about the program very hush-hush! She would only tell me what the program was called, "The Principal and the Pea" and a few songs they would be singing. Every time I would ask her to sing me a song she would just say, "No! You have to wait...It's a surprise!" Little booger! But the day finally came!

Here is my little superstar before her performance! I love it when I get to dress her up all fancy! She likes it too, I promise! She was just extra happy because I told her I wouldn't get the flat iron out to straighten her hair!

She really likes to pose now for her pictures. Sometimes I have to say, "OK, that's enough!" Secretly though I could take her picture and watch her pose all day long! It's quite amusing some of the stuff she comes up with!

I was trying to give her some direction for a pose and she obviously thought she didn't need any assistance being fabulous! That's the look I get!

Here she is making her entrance into the gym for the big performance! She's silly! But on another note, look how my child is dresses compared to hmmm...the girl in front of her! May I just say it was early March, cold and windy out that day! Cold!!! Not sundress and sandal weather. And that was not the only girl dressed that way.

Let the show begin! I wish I would have had my new camera so I could have gotten better pictures! Anyway...Here's the story line:

The principal of the elementary school is retiring and they have to find a replacement. The children want to make sure they find the perfect principal. So they hide a pea in a bowl of soup. The principal who discovers the pea is the right fit for their school.

Plot twist:

They find the perfect principal but...he loves brussel sprouts and decides they will be served everyday for lunch! It was pretty funny! The kids did a great job with the singing and dancing. And yes, I had my camcorder and taped the whole thing! So I really wasn't too upset my pictures didn't turn out that great. Libby wanted to watch the show when we got home. After I quick drive thru DQ for some celebratory ice cream that is exactly what we did!

Mini 4H

Libby brought home some papers from school for Mini 4H. She was so excited and said she wanted to sign up. There is a choice of about 10 categories you can choose from. You get to pick two. Libby picked sewing and photography (after I told her photography meant taking pictures). We went to the 4H building and signed up and picked up her packets. She read through them on the way home.

One of the packets had the 4H pledge. She read it several times in the car on the way home. Then when we got home she wanted to show me how good she had gotten at saying the 4H pledge. I like how she even put her hand over her heart.

Here she is taking a bow for her great performance.
She's so dramatic! I'm glad my child is so entertaining. I would still love her if she was boring...but I love her even more because she makes me laugh.

She started right away on the photography. She thought she should take a picture of herself.

She also thought she should take a picture of me doing laundry. Maybe our first lesson should be subject matter.

Another self-portrait.

Feeling Nostalgic

OK...it may only be March, but my baby is turning 7 in July! It's so hard to believe! I've always heard other parents say how time goes by so fast and I never believed them. To me, other people's children stay kids forever it seems! I also used to think my mom was crazy when she would say how quickly you forget what your children were like when they were young. I told myself, "I'm not like that! I would never forget! I'll remember everything!" But now...Oh how my perspective has changed! I'm so glad I've taken so many pictures over the years, because believe me...sometimes you need a little reminder to get those memories started! But how sweet they are once I do remember something I'd forgotten...something I swore I wouldn't forget! So please take a few minutes and take a random trip down memory lane with me:

I wish I had more pictures of me pregnant. I have this one, when I'm 28 weeks. My other picture is before I left for the hospital to deliver!

Elizabeth Grace Hoover...

My little Libby.

The was her first night at home. She's two days old and as orange as a sweet potato! She had to come home on a bili blanket. Even though I'm a NICU nurse, there are things you don't think about when you become a mom. If this was a baby at work, I would tell you in an instant this is one jaundiced baby! But since it was my baby, I just thought she had gotten her daddy's coloring...tan! Hahaha! I still laugh about that! Just look at that color!! But she's beautiful...and tan!



I love this picture. This was taken when she was three. We were outside playing in the leaves. I would rake them into a big pile and she would run and jump in the leaves over and over again. Sometimes she would just lie there and look at the leaves and the sky, like in this picture. I could kiss that face all day long!

You may think I had a baby, but really she's 50% puppy, 50% baby. This is when she was going through her puppy phase. We had just finished decorating a cake and she wanted some icing...on the floor, in a dish...so she could lick it up like a dog! I love that face! Look how happy my little puppy is! Look at her little diaper butt! My heart is aching!

Call me crazy, but I love the face she makes when she cries! Whenever she cries, to this day, she gets these two little creases on her forehead between her eyebrows. And when I look at her like that I can always see her as she was when she was my newborn baby. She's two in this picture and wearing the John Deere jumper I made her. The head scarf is the best! Cutie Patootie!

It gets very muddy around our house in the spring. I bought these rain boots for Libby so she could still play on her playground. They went up to her knees. They were a little big. She loved them. She had been outside playing all day. She was taking a short rest in her "clubhouse."

More crying! Again...I love that face!

I took Libby to the park after I had gotten her one year old pictures taken so I could take some of her outside with nature. They turned out to be some of my favorites. Look how she is studying that little petal. And her little ponytail with the tiny pink bow. So sweet. My Beautiful Baby.

I love her hair in this picture! It really kills me! She had just gone swimming in her new baby pool and I brought her inside, got her dressed and popped this headband on. That face, that hair, her little fat feet with the curled up toes!

I took Libby outside to get some pictures of her when she was 10 months old since I didn't take her anywhere to get 9 month pictures...bad mommy! She found those helicopters that fall from the trees. She thought they looked tasty, but quickly changed her mind! But I got a great picture out of it!

I find this picture amusing. She had just woke up from a nap and her daddy thought it was time she tried her first girl scout cookie. It was one of those peanut butter sandwich cookies. She got it nice and gooey!

The palm tree ponytail on top of the head never gets old! Barely two and already a movie star! Libby has always had an impressive sunglasses collection! Look at her tiny little lips!

This is probably one of my all time favorite pictures. It's the hat. It reminds me of a "Little House on the Prairie" sleeping cap. It cracks me up. I love her chubby little cheeks, her cheesy little smile, her pretty blue eyes and I could go on all day...

I could look at pictures of Libby all day long, over and over. It never gets old.

My baby...forever and ever...no matter how old she is!

Is it Christmas?

You would have thought that if you were at our house this past weekend. Since Valentine's Day was on Monday, Libby and I celebrated over the weekend...the whole weekend. I picked Libby up from school on Friday and we went shopping for treat bag stuff for her school Valentine's party on Monday. Then we went out for dinner at Cracker Barrel and requested a table by the fire. It was so nice! I was warm and toasty all through dinner. Libby got hot and had to move to a chair across the table, away from the fire.

I told Libby Saturday was going to be our fun day and asked her what she wanted to do. I was going to take her somewhere and do something. Sometimes I think I really do have the sweetest little girl in the world. She was so excited about Fun Day. She said we could play games all day, read books and drink hot chocolate! I love her to pieces! So that is what we did on Saturday.

On Sunday we went out to eat at a little local place called Mike's Pizza. We had a nice little table by the fire. I stayed warm and toasty all through dinner. Libby got hot and had to move to a seat across the table, away from the fire. Deja vu?

Oh...How could I forget Libby's Valentine's surprise:

Before I let Libby open her prize, I wanted to check the lighting to make sure there wasn't going to be a glare. This is the pose Libby gave me.


Ok. Let the fun begin!

A box of Tinkerbell chocolate! It just doesn't get better than that!

Or does it?

Valentine's Slipper socks.

Lots of Valentine socks! Libby loves funny socks.

She also loves stickers...

...pens and notebooks!

Since spring is just around the corner, according to Mr. Groundhog, it's time for a new umbrella!

Libby was pretty excited about this umbrella because she said it was just like Mary Poppins' umbrella in the Jolly Holiday song. I love this little girl.

I love that she gets excited about anything and everything makes her happy...

Like these Valentine's tights!

We are getting to the big presents now. See I told you...Christmas all over again! I have no self control! Just look how happy she is, so it's all worth it.

Two new Tinkerbell dolls: Fawn and Iridessa. Libby opened Iridessa first. When she noticed she had two boxes shaped the same she said she hoped the next box was Fawn. It was! You would have thought she just won the lottery! Of course I didn't think this through very well. After Libby opened all her presents, she ditched me and went upstairs to play...leaving me all alone...to crochet.

Speaking of which, here is one of my latest projects. I made an iPod case/pouch for Libby. Isn't it cute?! She loved it.

Perfect fit!

Here is another one of my projects I just finished. I made a baby blanket for one of my friend's little boy, Colten. He was born in October, but I didn't know how to crochet then! My friend just got the blanket today and loved it. She's supposed to be sending me a pic with the baby in the blanket! I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

And that pretty much sums up the week for my little love bug and me! I hope all of you found something to warm your hearts and bring you joy this week. My week was overflowing with love and joy!