visitors

We had two waves of visitors over the holiday this year. 

We had the joy of spending

both Thanksgiving and Christmas day at Num Num and Papa's house. 

How I love heading to the country! 

Usually they come our way for Christmas, so it was a first for our family to be there. 

Of course, we have loved being close to them since moving to the Northwest,

but it has been an adjustment not to be near at least some of my family. 

So what a joy it was for me this year, to have my WHOLE family come here! 

My only brother and his family arrived the Friday after Christmas with their two

kids, cousin Chase and baby brudder Beck .... They came from San Diego.

AND then, the following Wednesday, my folks arrived from Georgia,

overlapping two days with them. Talk about a crazy house!! 

But we are so thankful the Lord has provided us with a rental

that is big enough for everyone to stay in. 

This was our first time all being together since our move to the Northwest. 

Sweet times, again shared from (mostly) camera pictures: 

  

I'll have to share some of this years family pictures in another post real soon ...

We actually had nice ones taken of both sides of the family! 

On another note, this month I'm taking an online photography course by a fabulous lady

by the name of Kristin Rogers. The class is called "The Inspired Home"
and is given through an online school called The Define School.
I fell in love with her and her photography through Instagram and jumped
at the opportunity to learn from her. This is really a first for me, and has been
quite doable since I can make my own study hours .... and a lot of the class simply
involves taking pictures (which I love :) posting them, and getting feedback from
the other students and the instructor. Last week I learned some of the coolest
things about taking and editing pictures with my phone. My habits are
forever changed! I submitted that last black and white picture of Ellie's hands,
and the picture of Abby laying on her bed with a book, looking out her window,
for last week's homework.
THIS week, we've moved on to the big girl camera,
and I've had such fun pulling it out, as I've neglected it as of late.
The sun has been SHINING and so yesterday and today proved to be
wonderful opportunities to get outside and take pictures.
The next two weeks in the class, we will be focusing a bit more on the home,
documenting family life, and making it an inspiring place.

If you can't already tell, I'm loving this opportunity to learn and focus a bit
on being creative. It is so good for me to do so!!
And Lord willing, you will be seeing some more of the fruit of this
class in the weeks ahead!!