The beauty of fall...

One of my most favorite things about fall is the changing leaves. Here in Florida we don't have many trees that change... but the few that do are definitely worth seeing! (and photographing!)

I stand in awe gazing at this tree thinking "Wow. He made this a a single day?..." His beautiful creation never ceases to amaze me.

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Sneak peak of Michael's 2 week photo-shoot...

Sweet little Jochebed...

{precious little feet}
{immense sweetness}
This dress and bonnet set she is wearing is one that Mama made for MaryVance when she was a baby.

Two Terrific Two Year Olds!

We, Jennifer and I as the photographers, and Sam as the 'court jester', took Nehemiah's and Landon's two year portraits last week... and as usual, they were a delight! It was a little difficult at times, but it all turned out wonderfully in the end! And, no, I can't believe they are TWO already!

We had trouble getting Nehemiah to laugh at first... until Sam had this brilliant idea to throw leaves on top of my head... Nehemiah laughed at that to say the least! :-D Rocking... Laughing... And just bein' plain "borable"!!
The Delightful Duo! I have no idea what Sam was doing at this point to make them laugh... ah, there's no tellin'!!
We love this one!!
Again, I'm not sure what Sam was doing...
but I love the thoughtful look on his face!

Jennifer's 37 week pictures...

Jennifer is due October 31st, so 2 weeks from Sunday...

Oh, I can't wait! :-)

{sweet baby shoes}
Jennifer is so easy to take pictures of!
And she is loads of fun too! :-)

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD,

children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a

warrior are sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose

quiver is full of them."

Psalms 127:3-5

Buttercup's first photo-shoot...

Yesterday I (along with my trusty, and extremely helpful assistant, Sam) took Buttercup out for a fun photo-shoot... I (as I mentioned earlier) had so many ideas for props, setups, and so on for the puppies... one that I really wanted to do was to use a pair of Matt's old work boots and put Buttercup in one of them while she chewed on the other... well, I found out yesterday that our cute little puppy obviously has a very big appetite because of her big belly she just wouldn't fit in the boot!! Oh well, maybe I'll try Sam's boots later... :-D

So then I took a basket out to the front porch, placed Buttercup in it, and of course, she jumped right back out! Sigh. By this time I was a little frustrated... I sent Isaac to go get Sam with a kitten... thinking if she had a distraction in the basket she might stay... well, I was right and wrong... she stayed, but was tearing up the kitten in the process! Sam grabbed the kitten and Buttercup was glued! Finally! She sat there staring at the kitten for a good 5 minutes, allowing me to snap quite a few pictures! I must say she makes a very good model! :-)

I also had a blast editing these!

I love her face!

Then I grabbed Joseph, washed all the dirt off of him, dressed him up, and headed out to snap these...

This one is my favorite!!
I have a few more of Joseph and Buttercup, but they are gonna take a little more editing... got to try and get rid of the "hot spots"...

Westley and Buttercup...

"Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up" (The Princess Bride)

For those of you who don't know, at one time (not too long ago) we owned six large (their weights ranged between 70 and 95 lbs) dogs. Pure-bred mutts. They had their own fenced it area that kept them happy for a good many months. Until they discovered chickens. Long story shorter, they broke out (several different times) and killed a dozen chickens. All you chicken/dog owners know what that means... your dogs either find new homes, or be put down. We decided to try and find new homes. Tipper (the ring-leader) was the first to go. She went to a hog hunter. And soon we found a new home for the rest of them... all except Daisy (who we planned on keeping anyway) and Loper who didn't cause any major problems.

Daddy promised the little boys that we'd buy a small dog to replace the others. We talked about it for a long time and finally decided that a beagle would be best for us. Small, short-haired, and a good family dog. So, we started looked on the internet for beagle puppies for sale for a reasonable price (there are too many "for"s in that sentence!). You'd be amazed at how high some beagles go for! We saw some for twelve hundred dollars! But the average was around $350.

After many, many searches we finally found two beagle puppies for sale for a reasonable price, and they weren't too far away!

We are now the proud owners of Westley and Buttercup! (for those of you who haven't seen the movie titled "The Princess Bride", 'Westley' and 'Buttercup' are the names of the main characters) Westley is 11 weeks old, and Buttercup is 7 weeks old. (We bought two because in the future Sam and I would like to breed them and sell puppies).

So, without further ado... here are some snapshots of them... :-)

Nehemiah and Buttercup!
She has the sweetest face!

Joseph and Buttercup
MaryVance and Westley
Westley and Buttercup playing

My sweet Westley!

(Sam and I bought Westley and Daddy bought Buttercup)

I know this one is a little blurry... but I just love her face!

:-)

Elijah and Buttercup

Sleeping on Joseph...

the first night they stayed in the house, in a kennel in my room, by the time I went to bed they had made a mess in it... anyway, Buttercup ended up sleeping all night in bed with me, and at 2:09 am (exactly) Westley started whining his head off... so I let him up in the bed too... what a night! :-D

Oh, and she loves playing with Swiss! As you can see, he played back... :-)

"Got a tiger by the tale she does!" (quote from Jungle Book)

Before they get too big I want to do some 'photography' setups with them... I have so many neat ideas I can't wait to try them out!