Kids who sleep much later than normal. And a mom who has time to accomplish something before 8 am.

I decided to surprise them with muffins this morning. And not the “just add water” kind. Homemade, from scratch, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins.

As much as I LOVE these muffins, I never get the itch to make them except in the fall. As a matter of fact, it’s usually the first “fall-ish” thing that I do. It sets the tone for pumpkin spice candles, warm fuzzy sweatshirts, and the beginning of packing on those pesky holiday pounds!

Oh well, ya gotta start somewhere, right? Now where did I put my cup of coffee….

(Capture more “Feelings of Fall” at Beth’s)

Still, not bad. I didn’t crop it or change it any way.

Check out more up close and personal shots at Beth’s.

One night we all went to the park. Savannah and Emery began picking acorns up off the ground. First, they held them in their hand. When they couldn’t hold them all, they started putting them in an empty chicken nuggets container we found in the truck. (Don’t judge me, you know you’ve got ‘em too).

More and more acorns were gathered into their rolled up shirt tails. Big ones, shiny ones, the ones wearing “hats”.

They couldn’t wait to bring them home to add to their collections. You know, collections of gum wrappers, expired coupons, and clipped Webkinz tags. The important things.

But first, I wanted to put them in a glass jar. I thought it would make a nice picture. What do you think?

I can’t help but smile when I see those little brown nuts that signify fall is just around the corner. When Savannah was just a tot she spent one day a week with Jeremy’s great aunt Irene. Her yard is full of beautiful, shady oak trees.

Autumn rolled around that year and one day Savannah came up to me holding an acorn in her hand. “Akern”, she said. I laughed and corrected my little one who was just learning to talk. “No,” she insisted. “Akern.”

The next time I picked her up from Aunt Irene’s, she had a whole bowl acorns to show me. Irene was telling me she spent all afternoon collecting those “akerns”. And that’s just how she said it. “Akerns.”

Once I realized why Savannah was saying it the way she was, I got tickled and it’s made me laugh ever since. I guess it’s just a southern thang.

***Check out more amazing pictures by clicking here.***

Believe me when I say not a single one of us could have performed a sit up after what we ate!

Twice!!!!

So I took my little guy outside to let him play with it for a while and as I sat on the front steps rolling it back and forth with him, I remembered the challenge and grabbed my little purse sized Canon from the car.

My shape for this week? Round. Especially after going back for more fried food and homemade butter pecan ice cream later that night!

Emery took that one of me. He got the whole ball in the picture, but I played with the photo and turned myself a little crooked just for fun. I lost part of the circle in the process. Oh well. It’s still cute and surprisingly, it’s a picture of myself that doesn’t immediately make me say “delete”.

There are lots more shapes to be seen at You Capture this week. Check it out!

Instead, how about a nice peaceful one of the handsome fisherman?

While Daddy caught our dinner in Papa’s pond, the kids cooled off amid the shadow of the U.S. flag flying high above his gazebo.

And speaking of flags, I don’t think this post would be complete without focusing on the one and only American flag, to which we celebrate our freedom every July 4th!

For more 4th of July captures, click here.

Although I didn’t have a photography challenge, I was faced with a challenge all its own. “What do you do when your kids come home from the beach with buckets full of shells that they insist they HAVE TO keep FOREVER”?

Ya make ‘em purty:

Washable paint. Crayola is my hero.

Aren’t those fingers cute? Would you like to see more cute pictures? Check out more of You Capture here.

We headed to my parent’s house over the weekend to give her pool some action. I’m not sure though, I wish there were some way to tell if my kids were having a good time. Hmmmm…

I seriously love taking pool pictures in the summer. There’s just something about brightly colored bathing suits against the crystal blue water on sunny days. And everybody is always smiling! At the end of the season I print out way too many favorites and have the arduous task of choosing a select few for the scrapbooks.

It’s very cut throat.

I thought that was all I’d have to submit for You Capture this week until today when my dog got a little too curious in the backyard.

I’m not completely positive, but he’s either thinking:

A. “I can’t believe I spent all that time rolling around, getting that road kill odor perfectly even, and now she’s gone and washed it all off. Geez, what a wasted morning!”

B. (sniff, sniff) “Do you smell that??? Is that Tropical Breeze??? I hate Tropical Breeze. I smell like a Plug In.”

or

C. “Three times??? Really? I mean, I worked so hard. You could leave a little bit of the skunk-ish smell. It’s not that bad. (pause) I did it for you.”

***For more captured Expressions, visit Beth.***

I was surprised to see them here because the bushes we had last year were at the base of our driveway and created such an eyesore that we mowed them down in the fall. We didn’t have (or I didn’t notice) any blackberries up by the house last year.

And if you remember this post from last summer, you know that personally I am not a fan of blackberries, but the rest of my household is. So we picked the few that were ripe and now everybody is anxiously awaiting all these sour red berries to turn sweet, black.

For more You Capture, visit Beth.

Nothing says “family” like an open tool box and greasy bicycle chains.

During the bike repair I looked up to a different sort of family. This little nest of birds is tucked up under our back porch, directly above where we were working that day.

I wish I could have edited the poop out of that picture! I wish I could edit all the poop off my deck, walkway, and outdoor furniture as well!!! Those birds come every year to lay their eggs in the same nest. Each spring I get excited to see them and their babies, but by the time they’re ready to take flight, I’m shooing them off with my pressure washer!

Catch more Captured Family pictures here! Next week’s challenge is “Feel”. Happy shooting!

The theme for this week was color. Last weekend we went to Bass Pro Shop and as we pulled into the parking lot I could have kicked myself for not bringing my camera. Right out in front of the store was a display of kayaks. There were about 15 of them, standing on end, back to back, in every color you can imagine.

That would have been so cool!

But since I missed that photo op, I turned my thoughts to some pink wave petunias I planted a couple weeks ago. I took pictures of them in the container at different angles and they turned out okay. Then I had the idea of plucking one of the flowers off and holding it up to the beautiful, blue sky backdrop.

I think that one shows off the color best of all:

For more color capturing, go here.