212 Carvin' punkins.

This year is going to be hard.  I can tell that Richie is "past" the "kids stuff" like carving pumpkins, trick or treating,  etc....  Stephen is barely hanging in there, but in the next couple of years, he'll probably be too big too.  Their childhood has gone by WAY too fast.

211 Creme Horn

Growing up, I used to spend pretty much every Saturday night with my Grandma.  We would always walk up to Star Bakery in Troy and make a stop and buy creme horns and chocolate milk for the morning.  We would stop at Allen's Drugstore and pick up stuff there {and hit the candy}, and we would stop at Adam's General Store and look around, and somehow...I would always manage to come out of there with a new toy from the basement of the store.
The next morning, we'd wake up and eat our creme horns  {or sometimes, we would eat them on Saturday night}.  Now, I can't ever pass one up without buying it and enjoying it with thoughts of her while I'm eating it (or three).
I miss you Grandma- so much.  I hope you're enjoying the creme horns with me somehow.

210...Pumpkin farm

Headed out to the pumpkin farm today to pick out our pumpkins and enjoy the beauty of fall!



Here are some tiny pumpkins- I always think these are so cute!


Here's my little stud holding up his pumpkin:


Here's Stevo running around in the field trying to find the perfect one:


I L.O.V.E. fall colors!!!! Gorgeous!


Richie picked out some apple butter and bread as his treat.  He's so funny!


My kids sure love this stuff:


Stevo got to ride a camel and was very excited about it!

209 Soy beans

Went out on a mini photo excursion this morning before everybody else woke up.  The sun was coming up and it was hitting a soybean field by my house in a pretty way.  I did some bracketed shots and wanted to try some HDR on it to capture the sunrise in the back and the way the light was falling really beautifully on the soybeans, but I didn't have enough patience to try to figure that out.
I also realized that my camera was not on RAW and I had shot in JPG.  UGH!!!  I don't like JPG anymore at all- I have so much more control over the image if I shoot in RAW.
I got a Creve Coeur camera gift certificate from my StuCo kids to say thanks for homecoming and I still have the last one my mom got me for my birthday.  I think it's almost time to purchase something really awesome.  What shall it be?????
I'd love a new lens- the Canon 24-70 f 2.8 lens- that would really come in handy at weddings.  However, those run about $1400.00, so I'm still saving up for that.  Will I save these cards or will I spend them on a new kick butt tripod and monopod and reflectors???  We shall see soon!

208...fall photo outing

Had another amazing outing with Paige and Mendy!  I love hanging out, taking pictures and talking with these girls.  I'm happy I have some friends that share my love of taking pics.  It's so much better than heading out by myself to take them.
We headed out to the river road today.

So funny I couldn't stop laughing for a while:


I love bugs and flowers!


Got to see a beautiful view!


Paige can't stop breaking the law...


A nice, peaceful place to sit:


Some fab bokeh:


Not the best butterfly shot I've ever done, but still pretty :)

207.....trying to get back in the swing of things!

Here is today's outing.  We went to my parents' house for my Dad's birthday celebration.  His birthday was actually on the 8th, but that was homecoming, so there was no way I could make it.  After homecoming, I got really sick and he had some other things going on, so this is the first chance we could get together.

The boys are really into airsoft guns right now and brought their airsoft guns with them and they all had a war.  Boys!