I love pictures of Christmas Trees!

This morning on Pinterest I found a tutorial to photograph your Christmas tree.  Thanks 

August Tea Photography . I had lots of fun.

Inspecting the Apricots

First of the season

My boys

My new niece

She is just the cutest thing!  

Banana Muffins

A while ago I signed up for a freezer cooking class online with One Roast Vegetable.  One of the bonus recipes was for banana bread/muffins.  Today I finally made them after Logan begged me to make him banana bread.  So quick and easy to make and they were delicious.

5 days at the N17 and a photoshoot.

Orin has been ill for a week.  We spent 5 days in hospital and it took an age.  My poor little boy!

 The doctor suspects glandular fever is causing all the illness.  We have to wait until Monday for the test results and decided to skip church this Sunday and stay home.  Orin and I decided to take some photos to pass the time.  He makes me laugh.

Marriage advice

Paul Newman's letter to his wife on their wedding day: “ Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the Art of Marriage, the little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say ‘I love you’ at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon; it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have the wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding rooms for things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner."

Happy Reunion

I have been wanting to post this for a while but my sister had a few people to surprise so I had to wait until now.

My sister lives in England.  She was coming to South Africa to visit my mom without telling her.  She asked me to help her with the surprise.  The timing of this visit couldn't not have been planned - everything just worked out so well.  My mom invited us to Sunday lunch and Tannith had arrived on the Saturday.  We picked her up in Kempton Park and drove through to my mom.  I had planned weeks before with my brothers to make sure they were also there for lunch.

When we arrived Tannith hid in the study.  Logan told everyone that he was going to take a few pictures before lunch in the lounge.  Here we have my mom, Jesse and my brother that is four years younger than me. They are waiting for us all to sit down.

My mom was saying that she was so happy we were all together and wished that Tannith could be with us.  I told her that we could Skype Tannith after lunch.

Here my sister had already said, "Surprise!"  and my mother and sister hadn't heard.  Look at my younger brother and I gleefully laughing inside :-)

My mom finally sees my sister after her second "Surprise".  My little sister on right also clicks.

 Absolute disbelief!  My mother's jaw dropped and she was in shock.  My little sister's face just cracks me up.

Look at me rubbing my hands together.  I was enjoying this so much.

Then my mom started to cry and I knew the surprise was worth it :-)  She was just so happy!

Big hugs all around.

We then tried to have a proper portrait but it just wasn't working.  My mom couldn't stop crying and we were all laughing and so happy.  (*Note to self:  slow shutter speeds do not work with lots of movement!)

Look at the Moon

I recently acquired an old tripod and my first subject was the moon.  Just beautiful I think.

Frozen Dragon Eggs

Aidan and I had a lot of fun making "frozen dragon eggs" a few days ago.  We bought water balloons and put food colouring water in them.  They sat in the freezer the whole day (which was very hard for Aidan).

We found the idea on Pinterest.

For the beauty of the earth

I have been eyeing the dandelion seeds on a lot of pavements this week but I am always too scared to stop the car on the side of the road.  Well today I finally couldn't take it anymore and took two photos of them.