my favorites!

one of my very favorite things about being back north is the spring bulb flowers (they don't grow easily or well in florida).






these top them all.




If one daffodil is worth a thousand pleasures, then one is
too few.
- William Wordsworth

more catching up

last month when we had nick's birthday party, karis, her friend brittany from church and olivia went on an impromptu photo shoot around the corner. it's so fun to see what pictures end up on my camera....

karis bought her first car with a little help from grandpa craven.
it's a honda accord 4 dr that "drives like a dream" and has the dings to prove it.

flashback friday

two questions:

do you recognize the friends?

do you know in what state we were living at the time the photos were taken?
(you can answer in the comments, you don't have to send an email)

the new family member

our neice just had a sweet baby girl that we get to babysit!
here's an impromptu photo shoot we did this week with haley holding her on her shoulder and karis giving her a bottle.

lancaster county

some of our favorite scenes locally.....



lest you think it too idyllic.....see that gargantuan building in the back? it's QVC's warehouse :)

employment

there's a stream that runs right through the building.
it's a re-done warehouse by some very old railroad tracks.
the boys love to look in the stream to see what's heading under the building, under the road, across the street.


i think it's a cool building.
hip, urban, modern looking.
starkly contrasting the quaint, old town where it sits.
founded by moravians many moons ago.
stay tuned for more pictures of this picturesque town, lititz.

i'm such a dork

and since making fun of parents runs in our family (we don't laugh *at* you, mom and jerry, we laugh *with* you.....) i'll post this just so the kids remember what they can make fun of me for years down the road.

we're getting karis' graduation announcements ready to send, i'm making a collage of pictures of her whole life, plus planning haley's birthday party, a camping trip and returning home to florida the day after graduation. it's a busy month. lots on my mind. i love that you can order pictures from costco online and pick them up in an hour. robin's mom had requested a prom picture, so i ordered that too.

i decided to get 20 wallet size pictures of karis' senior picture (that i took at maclay gardens in the fall) and a few wallet size of her prom picture because it's such a great picture.

only, i didn't read the fine print and see that each wallet size order was actually 4 wallets per sheet.

so now i have 24 wallet size pictures of prom instead of 6.
and 80, yes EIGHTY wallet size of her senior picture.

i offered to use it as wallpaper, or stickers on the drinks at her party, but she thought that was a bit much. :)

What I can't do anymore

is take pictures like these. you save for over a year and still end up using part of your "economic stimulus check" to purchase your dream "I'll-never-have-to-buy-another-one" camera and what do you end up with?









needing to send it back to the manufacturer for a glitch in the battery/auto focus feature. thanks, Nikon. you broke my heart.

New Camera/ 1st pictures

Muscle pictures (doesn't N. look like the pale version of the Hulk?)

beauty....

bravery.....

boy

We need your vote!

Number 1 (above)

#2 (the irony of this one cracks me up. H. was going for effect)

#3. who's the tallest? M. is singing

#4. Yes, it really is Dec. 5

#5. The street urchins/Von Trapps

So which is your favorite? Comment in the comments, and look for the results in your mailbox in about 2 weeks.

Now and then

A special Flashback Friday sequence. Do you think they look much different? They don't act much different at all. Notice in the "then" picture, N. is the only one wearing shoes. It wasn't any different today. The girls are all wearing no shoes, but N. decided (yes, at 13 years old) that he didn't want to have his shoes off for the pic. What's up with that?

Flashback Friday-cousins!

It's not flashing back too far to see this pictures. It's just been a long day, and I don't want to take the time to try to download other pictures, and we can't figure out how to post the pictures Jerry sent us (I haven't asked K. the computer guru yet, though).

Still hot and steamy in Florida-----