Storm Clouds in Rochester

For today just cool pics of last Wednesday's very dramatic wind storm -- gusts up to 75mph. Not usually seen around here often -- it sounded like a train coming down the road. Around 5:15am we suddenly heard a huge rumbling sound, things hitting the window screens and the house, etc. Very bad for several areas who lost power and didn't recover it until Friday night. Phone and Cable are still out for a small percentage.













For a brief while {very brief believe me} I felt like someone from one of those storm chasers shows. It was both scary/exciting to be outside during the early hours of the storm. I wasn't out there very long, too many things flying around.....felt like Dorothy. What you can't see is the wind whipping around the other tree branches to the left side of me or how much it was pushing the pine tree over.

Wait........... let's take another look at that last one.....

the photo shoot-07

Every Christmas ever since 1999 I've {tried} to get all the kiddos in the shot....some years went better than others. The results are usually hysterical and I can bet on one good shot in 50 to be usable for the traditional card.....but lately I've seen the beauty in the not so posed shots because they show the side of the kids that is "real"and so fun. Well, I can tell that they are either getting used to the whole "mommy needs to take a "nice" picture idea" or they are simply growing up {gulp, no way} so they are more apt to play along. For a little bit at least.

So this year marks the first year that I only took a limited number of shots {probably like 14 instead of 50} and on the very first try I actually have all three looking at the camera!!!!! That is so major cool!!! So, I've neglected blogging for a while this week to finish up the cards....having a little trouble with walgreen's quality and cvs prints.....finally just did them up here at home with our Epson printer. I'm a little behind as usual :)

Slide show below......I converted some of them to black and white on my software...then there is the last one...of my two oldest just cracking up at lil'guy. I'm sure he will get his revenge some day.

icey

icey covered wires in the backyard this morning.
one thing I won't miss if, I mean,
when we ever move.
floppy branches and icey wires.

First Snow - Upstate NY

So the weather folks were right this time. We actually had a light dusting of snow soon after midnight. It's slowly melting now, and very sunny, so everything is glistening and glossy, but this is what the back deck looked like at sunrise.

Earliest snow in Upstate NY I think they said. I usually happily anticipate the first snow {like in November, around Thanksgiving} but this is a bit too early in the season for me....