Picture Overload

Right after Jackson was born, my dad gave me a really nice digital camera. It's fast and it takes pretty pictures. With my limited photography skills, I'm unworthy of having such a great camera, but I love it. Scores of parents have learned the hard way that when you're taking pictures of squirrely kids, slow digital cameras just don't get the job done. You say "One, two, three, cheese!", your kid flashes an over the top grin and squints his eyes, and then five more seconds pass before it takes the picture. By then your child is either picking his nose or running to the breakfast room to make another spit drawing on the glass table top. (Not that my child does those things.) The camera my dad gave me has been such a blessing. Melissa just got one for her birthday and I can't wait to see what she does with it.

There are two drawbacks to my nice camera. One, it's heavy and not very fun to lug around sometimes. It's not one that you can just tuck away in your purse in case something cute or funny happens. Two, I miss out on some good picture taking opportunities because I refuse to take it near water or leave it in my pool bag while I play with the kids. If it gets damaged or lost, I can't replace it.

Those are the times when Mom has my back. She always says, "Honey, take mine!" Hers is a little point and shoot camera. I took her up on the offer last weekend. When I uploaded the images onto my computer, all 256 pictures that she's never done anything with came right along with the ones I'd taken.

You may be wondering why we had never done anything with these pictures. Well, the cord that connects the camera to the computer got lost long ago and, until a few days ago, Dumb and Dumber didn't know you could just stick the photo card straight into the computer. (There I go using bad words from my thought closet!) I wasn't going to share this detail, but Mom insisted I let you know that she didn't even know how to review her pictures on her camera's little screen. Bless her heart.

Your faithful Siesta Mama and Siesta Daughter thought you might like to see a sample of the smorgasbord of pictures from the last year and a half. It's never too late to share, right?


Here's the back of Melissa's head when she was doing a wedding hair and makeup trial run.

There's a story to this but I don't remember what it was. That was before the puppies came and obliterated the back yard. (Mom just reminded me that this was when Dad asked her if she had gotten a new makeup smock. He had no idea she was going to wear this to work.)



Here's my dad with his two-year-old cowboy. This was the day we took Jackson to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo for the first time.



I had to include this one because of Sunny.



The miniature Wranglers were just too much.

We ran into one of my best friends, Kay, and her little boy.

We'll try that one again.

We had a lot of fun watching the baby goats. They're so naughty.



A carnival ride.



Bibby and Jackson on the carousel.



Mom spending a few minutes in the correspondence office at LPM. The person who sent her those slippers must have just done Daniel.

Starley McFarley as a wee pup!

Bad Dog Geli laying on the furniture. Nowadays she jumps on tables. She's very goat-like.

A deer feeder at the ranch. There were a ton of beautiful pictures from there, but I think we'll do a separate post for them.



A view of the sunset from the ranch.



This is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. Mom took this when Jackson stared at it and said, "Bibby, birds love Jesus."



Here's my family on a carriage ride last December. I was sweating in that track suit with my hot chocolate. That's Houston for you.



Absolutely no idea.

Bibby and Jackson playing some air hockey at our church.

Jackson was making a Popeye face.

You may not know that the Chick-fil-a cow recently visited LPM.

Mom loves Chick-fil-a.





This was my mom's birthday lunch at P.F. Chang's. Praise the Lord.



Star on her way to work. Part of me thinks she should be in a 5-point harness.



This is what happened when Mom snubbed the perfectly good milk that had technically reached its expiration date. Dad was terribly offended.



The milk carton says, "For Keith Only" and the drawing is supposed to be a skull and crossbones. Welcome to the family freak show.