Where do I start??

I got home last night from another little mini-vaca to my hometown.  It was a nice and relaxing time.  I got to hang out with my mom and my baby sister for a while and then Erik joined us Thursday night for a truck pull and a relaxing weekend.  Erik was a "sweetie pie" and used my Papa's tractor to pull out six crazy-big and ugly shrubs from my mom's landscape.  He also knocked down three pine trees and two tall arbor vitae that were hogging up the landscape.  I had a moment of panic when Erik started pulling out shrubs because we had discussed the process very late the night before and apparently had cross-communicated and he started ripping out the wrong ones.  Which, was a blessing in disguise because my mom wanted them out anyway.  Poor Maisey, the family border collie, no longer has her hide-away, but the landscape is clearer and much prettier.However, now that I am home, I look around and see a host of things that need to be done within a limited time frame.  It is Farm Show week here in Butler, and you faithful follwers (all three of you) of my post, remember what Farm Show Week means 'round these here parts.  So, I've had a few hours here at the house to clean up stuff, get organized and next I'm onto making lists for all the things I need to get done this week.  I may need to borrow Walker's new notebook I've got so many lists to make!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the mundane household stuff I need to do, so in accordance with family tradition, I procrastinated and I started looking through some pictures that I took over the weekend, justifying my procrastination by saying I HAVE to get these

 photos uploaded in case for some reason the card would become compromised and I would lose the photos of Baby Brett's 1 year pictures.  Thank you, Scott Kelby for even putting into mymind that a compact flash could become compromised.  I'm sure it is true, it is just not something I ever thought of by myself.   I've been studying Scott Kelby's photography books lately in order to improve my craft.  (not so much evidenced by the following photos, but I will explain in captions under the photos).

Anyway, I keep procrastinating and right now I'm going to stop.  I will tend to the tasks at hand, but not before I share some photos from the weekend. 

Around sunset Wednesday night, we were headed out to get some ice cream.  As we walked toward the car, down in the field below my mom's house were these deer.  A beautiful doe and her two fawns.  The fawns are pretty evident in this picture, but the doe is in there too - she's got her head down to the right of the fawn on the left.  You can barely see the brown of her back as she is moving through the brush.  They were closer, but as my hoodlum children lumbered out to the minivan they scared mama deer and the fawns quickly followed her for safetys sake.

When we got home from getting ice cream, these magnificent beauties were in the field as well.  Luckily, I still had my zoom lens on my camera and I propped my elbows up in the window of my van and tried to take these shots.  You don't realize how fast the sun is setting until you try to take pictures with a zoom lens at dusk!  These three bucks were not startled at all by our presence - they were in the mood for some good grazing.
The sun was setting fast and I tried to get as many shots as I could of these three bucks, but the lighting was just not working.  Plus, it was pretty far away and my lens worked as hard as it could to get the shots, but they all ended up pretty blurry.  But at least I had proof that three - at least six point bucks were in my moms field.  
I love it when they look up at  you like this.  They weren't scared at all.  Just slightly annoyed that I was making noises at them to try to get them to all look up at me.  They never did though - it was as if they had a pact that they would take turns checking out the area for danger.  

Finally, my most breathtaking capture of the night.  This happened just as the sun was setting. The older one folded the baby into her arms and they looked out into the distance of the field.  The golden glow of the sun lit up the sky around them and kissed the tops of their heads.  How very precious.

My baby sister and my baby boy.  There is nothing more satisfying in the world than seeing someone you love with all your heart loving your child with all their heart.  

I am blessed!

Housework, schmousework!