He is clearly seen.

Being stuck inside due to the cold has forced me to try some different kinds of photography relative to lighting, etc.  I took these today….and the girls were thrilled not to be out in the cold!

I love getting up early.  Although during the winter months, it is hard for me to drag myself from under the warm fleece sheets.  Yes, fleece sheets.  The most wonderful Christmas gift ever.  Seriously.  If you don’t have fleece sheets, please, please listen to me and go and get yourself some.  You will never ever be cold again.  I promise.

I captured the view from the window in our office this morning.  The sky was so very clear.

We went with Mak to her spelling bee today.  She went down in 5th place with the word paralysis.  The first place winner snagged the ribbon with the word smarmy.  Afterwards we decided to pull her sister out of school and play hooky……at the movies.  I just happened to spy a nice spot for a photograph or two.

First I must tell you that I don’t even have to tell them what to do anymore.  They go where I ask them, strike a pose and we move on.  Second, I have to tell you this:  the little one – in the second photograph – pulled that entire outfit together on her own this morning.  You must understand that it’s Friday. Therefore, I no longer have the energy or the desire to reason with her about clothing in the morning.  Can you imagine coming up with that ensemble all on our own at 6 – complete with rolled up jeans?  Yes, she rolled them up and wore those socks.  Oh my Lord in heaven I love that child.  My heart laughs and giggles at with her everyday!

She’s getting grown up.  It doesn’t even feel right to say she’s getting so big – anymore.  That even seems too little.  Except that she still loves cake batter ice cream……that makes her still a kid in my mind.  Right?

I was blessed enough to spend some time with my sweet friends this weekend.  When I say sweet friends, I don’t quite think the words convey what I feel about them.  These are 3 o’clock in the morning friends.  If I needed them at 3am, I would call them.  And they’d be there in a flash – kids in tow if timing required.

Cultivating a friendship is an interesting thing.  Ever wonder what it takes?  I did.  I’ve learned that it takes time.  Consistent time together.  God was so good to us that He saw fit to plant the idea in our heads (simultaneously I must tell you) to meet every Monday.  And we did just that.  Most of the time we read our Bibles outloud to one another.  As time went on and January turned into February and summer arrived, some Mondays we’d just chat.  For three hours at a time, we would spend time with one another, while all of our kids played together with a babysitter’s watchful eye keeping them safe.  So that we could cultivate our friendship.  

That year was magical.  Not in a weird kind of way.  In a God-breathed-blessing kind of way.  He knew just the friendship we needed – what each of us needed.  Because each of us had incredible struggles that year.  Amazingly, because we had taken the time and made the effort to nourish our relationship, we held one another up during those hard times.  And I mean sobbing ’til you are looking putrid kind of hard times.  Without these friends and my God, I’m not sure where I would be right now after the things that happened that year.

For the first time since we’ve intertwined our lives with one another, one of us is having a baby.  We talked and talked about being pregnant, giving birth, nursing, loving and anticipating this new baby a lot this weekend.  And more than once I felt all tingly warm.

Kim sweetly allowed me to photograph her.  It was an honor, my dear friend.  I can’t wait to meet this precious new baby girl.

The little one is convinced that there is a word “thet”.

“No, Mama!” she says when she asks me how to spell the words in the following sentence:

“She forgot that she had to do the dishes…….”  She was  writing a story, don’t you know?

“Livy….the word is ‘that’, not ‘thet’”.

“No, it’s not Mama!  How do you spell ‘thet’?”

She will not believe me.  Or her Papa.

And remember the stage?  We’ve had quite a many performances thus far this year, which is fantabulous.  Whenever she introduces herself (from behind the curtain, of course!) she says:

“Ladies and gentlemen…..Prouncing Livy Nahorniak!”  Life is good my friends.  Sweet as can be.

……….and it wasn’t because I didn’t try.  The snow was beautiful and I had some ideas floating around in my head – things I wanted to photograph with my girls.  The problem?  They weren’t game today.  Therefore, I’ve pulled up some of my favorites from the summer.  I’ve been promised that they will cooperate with me tomorrow.  Now I know it’s time to finish up my shooting schedule for the spring.  I’m really dying to take some photographs…..soon!

This young girl loves to play volleyball.  Her Papa is a master carpenter.  And I don’t use the term “master” lightly.  Really, he is.  And so this girl’s Papa:

Built her a little contraption to help her learn to serve better:

kinda cool, isn’t is?