My Favorite Photo - January

Hi swappers and friends :)  There's no way I can narrow this month's photos down to just one!  I got to mark something off my Bucket List, and it did not disappoint...  

I visited COLORADO for the first time, and stayed with my friend Kimberly.  Her house is up in the mountains and it's absolutely amazing.  She was the perfect hostess and tour guide, and we had such a good time together.  Here are a few photos from our visit, and you can see more in the album on my FACEBOOK.

Downtown Denver

Red Rocks

Red Rocks

It's LEGAL in Colorado 

We really had an awesome time!

Here are a few more from the month:

Awesome sunrise - love the pink clouds!

 I cleaned up and organized my home office, getting ready for my new job that starts on Monday.  

Cleaned up, rearranged

My daughter brought me roses and a balloon the day I accepted the new job :)

So --- that's my month in pictures, and I hope you enjoyed seeing them.  Thanks for posting a rating so I know you received this... and I'd love to see your swap too, even if we're not partnered on Swap-bot.  Have a great month!

Cheers,

Ilyse - Happy Mom 

ESG: My Favorite Photo - December

Hello all - this month, I'm happy to share these photos with you and hope you enjoy seeing them.

First up, is a picture of Salman.  He's the child my husband and I are sponsoring through World Vision, and you can see him holding our photo.  World Vision now has the children select their sponsors, and we're so glad that Salman picked us!  Salman is 5 years old and lives in Bangladesh.  

What would a month be, without pictures of the doggies?

This is Pica, longingly looking at my daughter's pizza.  She cracks me up.  You can see all the boxes of ornaments that we brought out, as we prepared to decorate for Christmas.

Here's what the tree looks like, plus a short video clip from Christmas Day.

One thing about December is the beautiful sunsets.  This one shows the fading colors from our front steps to the west.

One of our traditions is having "Monkey Bread" on Christmas Day.  Not only does it taste so good, but the whole house smells like sugar and cinnamon!

Callie gave me a Christmas cactus, and its flowers were so beautiful!

From our house to yours.....  Here's to an amazing year ahead!

Hope you have a happy and healthy New Year, and here's to a great 2020 !!!

ESG: My Favorite Photo - November

Hi everyone!  So glad to share a few of my favorite photos from November with you.  This is one of my favorite swaps we do on Swap-bot.  And, even if I'm not one of your "send-to" partners this time around, I would love to see your photos too, if you care to share ❤️😀

Let's start with a panoramic photo of some lovely Fall colors:

The thing about November that makes me kind of sad, is that while the colors above are truly beautiful... the reality is that most days look more like this one:

Cold, dreary, rainy, damp, chill-you-to-the-bone kind of BLAH.  Give me my summer any day!!

However, since we can't control the weather... I try to find the beauty.  I know it's there somewhere...

Next is a photo I snagged from my son's Instagram.  He's been attempting a rather difficult rock-climbing 'problem' and finally made it.  A friend of his shared this one of him on the way up, and, being the super-proud mom, of course I snagged it.  The second photo shows another view from the ground of the climb.  

The next photo comes from a wedding.  One of my best friend's sons got married, and these are her grandchildren all dressed up and so well-behaved.  They are precious!

That's all I've got this month.... Always fun to share, and hope you've had a good time looking at the ones I chose.  Here's to a lovely December!

Cheers,

Ilyse

Photo Scavenger Hunt - November - Email - from Happy Mom

Hi Swappers!  Happy to share my finds for the Photo Scavenger Hunt this month.  Enjoy!

• Something with multiple buttons on it - Think we have enough remotes for our TV?

• Something circular - My church is doing a sermon series called "At The Movies" and we decorated the lobby with circular film reels dangling from the ceiling.  It's actually quite festive!

• Something nested (something inside something else) - A few things stacked in my kitchen.

• Something red and black (other colors are OK, but red and black should be prominent) - This umbrella caught my eye.  Reminds me of a lady bug!

• A mural, street art on a building or larger-than-life painting - This is from Virginia Beach, which has a strong military presence.  I thought this was cool.

• Something that floats - This one was tough, and I tried using a video of leaves floating in the air as they fell off the trees.... However, the video wouldn't upload here.  Instead, here are 2 pix - one shows the trees and the other shows clouds floating in the sky.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pictures and thank you for posting a rating so I know you've received my swap!  

Till next time,

Ilyse - Happy Mom

ESG: 3 Quotes from Happy Mom

I should have known I couldn't include just 3 quotes.... I love quotes. I collect them!  I have a Pinterest Board of favorites. 

Here are a few I found for this swap - Hope you find a few you like as well!  Some are not attributed to anyone in particular, but I love them anyway!

First is actually a piece of prose that I cherish.  It explains a lot and has encouraged me to get through the loss of friends over the years.  

Hope you enjoyed reading these, and thanks for posting a rating so I know you received my swap!

Thanks,
Ilyse 

My Favorite Photo of the Month - October - from Happy Mom

Hello swappers!  

It's been another busy month, and I'm happy to share a few fun pictures with you.

First -- The Washington Nationals winning the World Series was an awesome finish to the month!  We've always been big baseball fans and my son loves the Nats.  It was fun watching the games together, and winning the Series was the icing on the cake!

Next up is a picture my daughter sent me, letting me know that she arrived safely to the engagement party she attended in Northern Virginia.  I worry about her driving in that area, as it's super crowded and people drive like they've got a death wish 🥴 -- She's the one in the hat.

It's definitely Fall here... the leaves are so pretty!  Here's one picture I took when I walked the dogs the other day, and I like the way it came out.  I used the Portrait setting on my phone.

This next photo is one I took of my new comforter.  I wanted something with bold colors, and really liked this one.  

And my last shot of the month is one I took at sunrise when I stayed in Virginia Beach.  There's something super special about waking up at the ocean, and it does my heart and soul good - Even the lousy in-room coffee tastes better at the beach!

So, that's it for this time around.  I hope you enjoyed the visit, and also hope to swap again soon.

Have an awesome month!

Ilyse - Happy Mom

Photo Scavenger Hunt - October

I had fun with this month's Scavenger Hunt, and hope you did too.  I tried to be mindful of the swap all month, so I could gather pictures as I was out and about, and then have some to choose from.  That worked well, but then I had to decide which ones to use 😀

Here's what I decided:

1 - Something held together with rope, ribbon or string:

This is a packet that's given to people who request a Bible or more info from my church.

2 - Something related to travel:

I picked up a friend at the Richmond airport, and snapped this picture as we headed down to the baggage claim when she arrived.

3 - Someplace people gather:

This was our pre-service "huddle" at church.  Everyone who serves gathers before we get started for announcements, prayer and worship.  Usually we do this in the sanctuary, but this particular Sunday, we met in the lobby.  Great acoustics with unplugged guitars!

4 - Something very cold or frozen:

I snapped this picture of the shelves inside my freezer.  We're not big beer drinkers, but we keep some mugs in the freezer just in case...and the Swell bottles are great for keeping cold drinks cold!

5 - Something with a hole in it:

While out shopping the other day, I noticed these trees coming up from the ground, and thought it was interesting the way they came through the holes in the pavement.

6 - Something striped:

These stripes caught my eye while I was inside the store.  I was looking for towels or home decor with stripes, but when I saw this woman's dress, I decided to sneak a photo!

So... those are the photos I chose to include with the swap, and I hope you enjoyed seeing them!  Thanks for posting a rating for me, so I know you've received this.

Hope you have a great month, and look forward to swapping again soon.

Cheers,

Ilyse - Happy Mom 😀😀😀