Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I mailed out about 90% of my cards, with the exception of a few still hanging out in the glove box of the van :) They will eventually have updated addresses put on them and someday make it to the mailbox.

In case you missed it, this is basically what was on the card.  Our cute faces and a Merry Christmas of sorts.  My neighbors could be quite possibly the cutest people ever. He remodeled this truck after it sat in a field for years. It was his dad's truck, a 1949 Chevy.  He took his high school sweetheart out in this truck and so when they drive it around town you just wanna hug them.  They celebrate 50 years this coming summer, and I'm excited to take some photos for them.  So grateful they let me borrow their truck :)

 I actually put a newsletter in this year, for the first time in 8 years.  I figured I had better actually say "We have moved" because last year and this year cards are still going to old addresses.  Whoops.  But we have moved a lot and we have 2 more moves in the next year or two so... probably should keep people updated on that.  *NOTE* Put our address in pencil in your address book :)

We spent Christmas this year at Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas.  Tristan was beyond thrilled to be there with most of his cousins and they spent hours doing the wand quest and playing in the park.  Christmas dinner we went to Medieval Times, which is Tristan's favorite place in the world, and loved every minute of it.  Then we all went to my sisters house and met up with my parents for a week in Houston.  Of course, it rained almost every day so half the plans we had got cancelled, but it was still fun to be with everyone.

I got a new camera and a few lens for Christmas.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I have really decided to change my business structure with photography. I'll post more about that later.  But, I've been thinking about it and building a plan for a few months now and I think I've got it figured out.

I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas-the holidays always seem like such a happy time but we forget those who have lost loved ones or who are struggling with other issues.  Working on being more sensitive to that.

Tew is Company

I love that I have my own personal fan club, made up of children.   It makes me think of that song, "Kid sister... wherever I go she goes... kid sister and meeee..." because wherever I go, they go.  All. The. Time.  Sometimes it's exhausting, but most of the time it makes me laugh.  I love it when Jeff comes home and the focus switches to Daddy.  There is just something so cute about them piling on his lap anytime he quits moving for two seconds and sits down.

 

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween has come and gone and I have eaten all the Butterfinger's from Tristan's candy.  But every year with the kids gets more and more fun. Last year Tristan really loved carving pumpkins, but this year he REALLY loved it.  He was very into cutting and scraping and was crazy proud of his pumpkin when we lit it up on the porch.  Summer enjoyed about 10 minutes of pumpkin carving and then went to bed.  She is usually toast after 7:30-8.

Here in town there is a tradition that the high school kids steal all the pumpkins that night, and then roll them down main street so they crash into a big pile at the bottom.  I pulled in my big pretty white pumpkin and the other two little ones that I liked.  I am hoping to have them through Thanksgiving.  I have had to tell a kid or two that it would be next to my bed, where I sleep with a gun, if they wanted to come and get it.   I was a little worried what Tristan would do when the kids stole his pumpkin Halloween night-he was pretty proud of it and checked on it every day.  His pumpkin somehow made it through the night... but now that it's all sketchy looking I think he is ready to see it go.

This Chicken...

We have a little bit of a garden growing in our backyard, and if I don't get my butt out and feed the chickens first thing,

They tend to peck holes in my cantaloupes, or this sweet little pumpkin we are growing.
It's kind of rude.

My Photography Site

Pretty sure if you have known me in the last 15+ years you know I have had a camera in my hand.   Anyway, check out my new site and feel free to book a session.  It looks like I'll be in Dallas in October and Houston in November. Dates pending.  
www.annamicheale.com
I'll be a photographer based out of Oklahoma City in the future, but for right now I'm still in the Texas panhandle.

Fall is Here

Every time a new season rolls around (in the panhandle, we actually HAVE seasons), I always say, "Oh this is my favorite season!" But I really do think I like fall the best. Until Christmas comes or it snows. Or then spring blooms. But right now I'm pretty stoked about 55 degree mornings and a high of the 80's in the afternoons. It makes my heart sing.

Anyway, we found an apple orchard not far away and I could have just died at how pretty it was.  And, it couldn't have been a better day.  Normally I like my photos as sunlight as possible, but we went out at about 10:30am, and the light would have been far too harsh. So overcast made my day.  And then I pretty much spent the time taking photos and just letting Tristan pick all the apples. It's a relatively new orchard, so the tress were just little.    Summer wanted a nap, so the idea of smiling was foreign and not about to happen.  Anyway, this could be one of my favorite photo shoots I've done with my kids.  I can't decide if I want family photos here, or in our home town with the buttes.  Maybe we'll do both.

Safari

I wish it was a little more exciting other than I wanted to see what it was like to post from my phone browser. .... I linked the ability to text/email my photos when I registered my phone to my private blog.  Anyway... These are all the photos i can post from my phone browser and not even sure where they came from. Kind of disappointing.

Backyard Chickens

When we moved out here to the middle of nowhere, we had no idea what to expect housing wise.  Jeff's company took care of the move and our housing, so about a week before we got here they said, "Here's the address to your 3/2 fully furnished house.  Enjoy!"   We google earthed it, but it didn't help a whole lot.  It was a pleasant surprise when we got here to find the house and yard were more than we expected.  I'm not sure what we expected, but it surpassed that :) Anyway, the backyard has been fenced into 2 sections.  After being here a few months I know now the one section was for a garden, but when we got here it was just dirt.  Kinda sad looking.  Actually, looked like it needed some chickens.  I said that.  Jeff said no.  He's been saying no since we lived in Lubbock.

Anyway, my visiting teacher, one of the few other Mormons that live in town, came by.  She just got a flock of chickens.  We talked chickens.  Then she called up a few days later and said that 2 of the chickens were being picked on pretty bad by the rest.  Soooo my backyard ended up turning into a chicken rescue, and Jeff's weekends and evenings turned into engineering a chicken coop.  I know, he's not that kind of engineer, but he's pullin it off pretty good. I wish I had recorded the phone call to Jeff that we had chickens.  I love how he humors me-he pretty much just laughed.   Tristan was only a little excited at first, more like assuming the role of big brother to some feathery siblings... but as time has gone on, he has pretty much fallen in love with his chickens.

One of Tristan's favorite friends is a boy named Wyatt.  We named our turtle Wyatt.  One of the chickens is named Wyatt, and his stuffed tiger is Wyatt.  We like that name a lot.  THe other chicken is named Orange.  Tristan's favorite colors are blue and orange, so I dubbed the chicken with orange feathers on her chest Orange, and the other one is Wyatt.  Tristan runs out in the mornings by himself to feed and water the chickens.  They have really come to like him.  It takes him about 2 seconds to catch a chicken, whereas tonight Jeff and I found out that it takes the both of us about 2 minutes to catch one.  It's really funny to watch Tristan with his chickens.  Melts my heart.  He is pretty good to them.

Anyway.  Those are our chickens.  We didn't get them just because they lay eggs-although that's a bonus.  It's really not cost effective to get chickens to lay eggs.  By the time you raise them, build a coop, do all that jazz, you're in a chunk of change.  I think cost wise those eggs are about $10 a piece.  We mostly got the chickens because they crack me up.

Happy Fourth of July

We celebrated the fourth of July this year in Canadian, Texas. It was pretty fantastic. We all slept in a little, made french toast, and then headed over to the parade. We brought our turtle, Wyatt, with us so we could race him in the turtle race. It's a BYOT, so the night before we had to put him in a box to make sure we could find him in the morning ;) On the way out there, we rescued a littler turtle who was hanging out on the highway. We brought them both with us. Canadian is an ADORABLE little town, population 2500, but they put on a heck of a 4th of July. The parade was pretty awesome, bigger and way better that what I was expecting. Tristan made friends with the lady next to us, and she caught an entire bag of candy for him while he was out registering his turtle. When he got back, she held his hand and helped him catch all kinds of goodies.

 After the parade we went to the turtle race. Jeff regrets not registering both turtles-he left the little one as a spare in case some other kid didn't have one. He ended up not getting used. Wyatt did pretty good-except he paused and took a left when if he would have gone straight he would have actually placed. UGH! All our training... wasted.
Happy 4th of July from Anna Tew on Vimeo.


Then we just walked around and enjoyed the art gallery, booths, wagon rides, bubbles, farm toys, $.25 hot dogs and drinks... it was awesome.  After lunch we headed home and everyone took a nap and it was pretty much AWESOME.  Then we woke up, drank root beer floats, had the most amazing hamburgers, had pie and ice cream, and then headed back to Canadian to enjoy some fishing and fireworks.  It was one of the most perfect days we could have ever had.  Minus my bad hair.

June

June has been so beautiful. The average temperature is about 75 degrees and cool at night.  We're expecting some hot days coming up soon, but so far its been beautiful.  At the beginning of the month we celebrated the National Cow Calling championship.  It was pretty adorable.    

 Summer enjoyed her first ice cream cone from the ice cream man.  He has come by once so far and I haven't seen him since.  Is there something about being an ice cream man that means you have to be creepy?  In Lubbock we would sit around with Tim and Joe and see if the guy was wearing his Hawaiian or blue shirt for the day, and then cringe if the black ice cream van went by.  This guy was about the same level of creepy.

 Mom and Whit drove home with us from Iowa.  It was fun.  We stopped to see the bridges of Madison county.  I wish they would have stayed longer-I still have more boxes to unpack ;)

 Tristan and the Friday the 13th full moon.  He saw this picture and was impressed with himself and the ball on his finger.

 We went camping this last weekend about 30 miles from the house.  Summer was not impressed with the flowers. She just wanted to eat them.  Then she tipped over and almost hit her head on a tiny cactus I hadn't noticed.

 Tristan was in love with the fire and doubly impressed with his dad and his fire skills.   Our campground had like 10 downed trees from the crazy storm we had last weekend.  It blew over a million trees-winds were about 115 mph.  It was pretty crazy.  Lots of scorpions and creepy things at the bathroom.

 We took Tristan fishing.  He caught his first fish and it might have been the cutest thing I have ever seen.  Jeff caught a reed, and volunteered me to go untangle it.

 We like to go down to the tracks and to see the sun set and watch the trains go by at 60 mph ...  tonight we got a double train.   Not that big of a deal since they come by every 15 minutes.  But it was still fun.