The things I come up with...

April was such a slow business month for me!  I got kinda bored so I had some time to think of new things I might want to get into.

I spend a lot of time on the computer scanning pictures,  making videos and stuff so while I do that I check out a lot of blogs and websites, especially that of video professionals and photography professions. 

Lately I have enjoyed checking out Senior pictures, family group shots (mostly of kids though) and engagement shoots.  They can be SO much more fun and interesting than most of what you typically see!

So, anyway, I decided to try out doing some senior pictures.  My first appts were this past Sunday.  Here are some shots I got that I kinda like:

Spencer:

Kaitlynn:
(She wanted a few shots with her dog, that was interesting :) )

(and I shot a couple of her with her brother because I thought her mom would like to have those too)

It actually turned out to be a lot of fun and something that I hope turns into something more :)

I have 3 more appts this Sunday, maybe one on Saturday (it will be #4 on Sunday if Saturday doesn't work out) and then 2 more on May 19th.  It will be fun to see how things go!  

Grandparents Day!

Thanks for coming Grandma & Grandpa Wentzel!!!   Thanks Grandma Woods!!!!

(On a side note:  Alyssa-How cute would THESE (Click Here) be for Kendra's Lady Bug birthday, just add little lady bugs :) )

Wow, if you plant seeds they actually grow :)

I haven't done a whole lot of planting in my life and I have always assumed I am not that good with plants.  Funny how if you WATER them they GROW.  Who knew.

So, anyway, I have finally seen some of those little seeds turn into little teeny plants.  It's so cool.  I love it.

Here is the basil I planted.  I thought it was never going to show up, the parsley still has not :)

Here are the red sunflowers that I planted, they are thriving (most of them).
Here, you can't really see it, but here are the tiny little plants that are going to turn into flowers, they are doing pretty good.
So, on Saturday I planted more flowers and a few cucumber plants and 2 HUGE pumpkin plants, Ben isn't so thrilled about those.  :)

We are going to take the area we ripped the bushes out of (underneath the family room window) and we are going to turn it into a little garden for me.  We will see how that goes.  If it doesn't go so good with vegetables we just convert it into a flower garden.

Our Saturday Project :)

When we moved in there was a pre-existing bare spot in the yard.  In the past week or two Ben and I came up with the idea of turning it into a fire pit as opposed to seeding it with grass seeds and just filling it in.

We decided Saturday was a good day to do it, so after a trip to walmart and some digging for Ben, here it is.  We really like it.  Once we have to buy grass seed for the front of the house we will seed the dirt area around the pit.  We are excited to make our first fire in it soon  :)

Ben did a really good job on it!

Saturday was beautiful!

I was so thrilled that the weather was so nice!  Ben and I headed out to do some projects in the yard and I grabbed my camera and decided to shoot some pictures of Kobe :)

(I have to give Ben credit for this one, he shot it and it is my favorite)

My son "thinks he is the Burger KING"

Today Ben stayed home from work!  That will mean 3 days in one week he has been able to be home ALL day with us.  It is wonderful :)

He has been delivering cars like crazy so he is exhausted!  Praise God for all HE is doing with Ben at work, it is fun to see God move like that, HE is so abundantly good to us (even if things weren't going so great, that doesn't take away from how good God is).

So, anyway, it is supposed to rain here today, I don't know if it is going to, it never did yesterday like it was supposed to.  I hope it doesn't today or tomorrow, but then on Mon. & Tues. I hope it pours, we need the rain!  It has been a very dry spring here, very summer like, beautiful!

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

My Quirky Self

I LOVE GARBAGE DAY!!!  I am not sure anyone really likes it as much as I do.  See, Ben and I lived in an Apartment for 4 years and when you had garbage you took it out to a dumpster and it was gone-for good.  Now, in a house it doesn't work that way.  It sits.  In the garage.  Being gross.  And I don't like it.

Also, I have discovered "yard waste removal".  This is another wonderful thing.  You bag up your yard waste, put it out at the road on Garbage Day and they take it.  It's wonderful.  

Last week was the first week I tried out the Yard Waste Removal.  I didn't know what they would take or not take, so I just took our whole "brush pile" and put in a garbage can and put other various things in paper yard bags.

Then I stalked my front window to see if they would take it.

Here is our ton of stuff, waiting for our wonderful picker-up-ers.

LOOK!  SEE!!!  Yard waste-GONE.  Never to be seen or heard from again!  And they took everything I put out, ha ha!  
And then the garbage man comes and he also rescues me from our yucky garbage! 
Awe...the small things that amuse me.

No. I swear.  I do not have too much time on my hands.

Summer Deserts!

Lindsay Wentzel, after I made this Black Berry Cobbler I thought of you~Why you ask?  No, I don't know if you even like black berries, but I guess I want you to bake.  And while you are at it you might as well bake something easy and AMAZING!!!  You too Vicki!

This blackberry cobble floored me.  I do not usually go on and on about how good something it, but this desert turned my into a praise singing dork :)

It was really good though...

Make it!

Recipe Here
These Apple Dumplings are so easy to make and SO worth it!  I have had both sides of the family say they were just amazing!

Try them!

Recipe Here

My Kobe & Bobbie's David

David is getting old enough now to interact with Kobe.  He has always followed Kobe with his eyes, but now he is super interested in him and can play with him sitting up.

It is so funny how much our boys are such a mix of their parents but look nothing a like.  Bobbie and I are from opposite sides of the family tree so there just really isn't anything there that is the same.  

Kobe loves to try to make David laugh, David is usually too busy just watching Kobe with big eyed to remember to laugh.

In this pic they BOTH look huge!  David looks big because of the camera angle and Kobe looks so tall!  Kobe really has shot up there, he is going to be tall like his daddy which I am very happy about.
Pic by Kobe Wentzel:

Ludington!

Mom, Shelly & Lindsay-

The whole time you guys were on the phone making your reservations I was getting a busy signal.  :)  When I told the lady my name she said "Oh, I just talked to your Mom & sister."  She put us in the room next to Lindsay & Matt.  That will be fun!  I was so excited to pay $79 a night instead of $130 like last year!

I am so excited to go up north, it will be fun.

-Leah

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!!!

When Ben and I first bought this house one of the first things I loved to hate was the bushes in the front yard.  The were hugely over grown and neglected.  I also didn't like that ALL around the house there were these same bushes, every where.  Well, they aren't all here anymore.  Sunday my parents & Bobbie & Dave came over and they cut them all out.

Before:

After:
Before:
After:

Now, I just have to figure out what to do in the front yard to landscape it.  I am so happy they are gone and now I have room for flower beds!!!

The next day I went thru the yard and dug up all the pickers.  There were a lot.
Here is a shot of Kobe-he is a fashionista.
Here are some shots of Kobe and David from last night.



Bobbie and Dave came over to help us with the stumps that were left from the bushes.  They got almost all of them out~!  Also, yesterday Ben fixed the Dixon and he and Dave gave it a tune up and it is working amazingly!  It only cost us $15 which was wonderful.  We are so excited to have it back running!