random pictures

Almost every time I sit down to take my pictures off my camera to put them onto my computer I find some surprise pictures, compliments of Isabelle.  She just grabs up the camera whenever she takes the fancy, and without my knowledge goes on a picture-taking spree. Some of them are really good for comic relief:

But I've got to say that all the pictures that are half-way decent on my other blogs were taken by her! She is able to capture life, so simply, as it is happening. She took these next two pictures:

 I love this picture of Nolan

Maddie with a baby kitten

This is where I find Maddie almost every nice day now that Shawn has pruned these trees.  Up in the branches enjoying a good book.

I've got to thank Isabelle for the next three pictures, too:

Just working in my little rice paddy:)

My job is to rake all of the rocks out of the dirt all over the yard (I think that I took about 10 wheelbarrow loads off of this one piece).  I just finished this section and now we have grass planted as of tonight.  Yipee!!

Kami is really good at catching the turtles in our pond - then she brings them inside and gets the little kids all excited.

Shawn and Nolan leveling out the ground for grass

Caden burning some brush on our island

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but Caden has started the work of clearing all the old logs and things off from our land across the pond.  Shawn tells me that a job like that would have been a dream job to him when he was Caden's age, so he has set Cade to work on it.  Caden is at an age where he often has a lot of extra energy, which often results in lots of obnoxious noises and hyperactivity.  ( This has been so interesting to me because he has been so calm his whole life.) Anyway, this job keeps him from coming out of his own skin and saves our sanity!

Maddie and her Uke

We want all of our kids to play a musical instrument, but when Maddie got old enough to start the piano, she wasn't very excited about the prospect.  She told me that she already played an instrument!  "I play the ukelele!!"  She couldn't think of anything else that she wanted to play, so we went ahead with piano.  Now, one year later, she is still unimpressed with piano and she says, "I just want to play the electric guitar, mom!!!" 

Meanwhile, she keeps practicing that uke!