Brennan's First Masterpiece

My baby's very first artwork. Well, I'll clarify, the first artwork that didn't consist of spaghetti sauce or apple butter. I'm so proud! I think he's going to be the next Claude Monet.

A Bee in Nana's Garden

My Mom, aka Nana, grows wild flowers in her flower beds. Here's one of the little critters all those pretty flowers attacts.

Old Boots, New Blog

Jason's Old Boots
Read about them here.


And check us out over at the new blog: The Bal Family blog


No worries, I'll still be posting plenty of photos over here, too! : )

Old Boots

If you know Jason at all, you definitely know these boots.

I bought these boots for Jason back when he was in basic training for the Air Force. They were supposed to be a Christmas present that year, but if I remember correctly, I ended up giving them to him that summer. Since then, they've practically been a part of the family. They've been through about everything, water, mud, manure - who knows what else. They've been washed up several time, they've been polished, and they've been resoled.

I have suggested several times that these boots in their scruffy, ugly, broken down state, really needed to be transitioned into "work only" boots. Jason' reply has always been that they are perfectly broken in, and that's how they're supposed to look (and then usually prompted a thorough wash up and polish). I've even gone the route of buying new boots to replace them, three different pairs over the years, but yet they sit in the closet barely worn.

Then, a few weeks ago, Jason came downstairs with one of the "new" pairs of boots on. He announced the retirement of the old, worn out boots. Just like that, just a day out of the blue, it's time for new boots. He was sad, I could tell, and actually I was too. Like I said before, the boots were like family. And now that I think about it, I think the boots had more significance than just footwear. The year I gave Jason the boots was a major year in our life. Jason joined the military, we got married and we moved to North Carolina, all within a few months. From that time forward, they were alway there. Through happy times, bad times, deployments, moves, promotions, travels, crisis, and so on, those boots have always been there.

So, to commemorate the boots, I took the picture shown at the beginning of the post. I'm going to have it printed and framed. So even if the boots never get worn again, the spirit and memories of the boots will always be with us.



...and one from the little tykster.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!
Love, Brennan

Jason's Big News

The Air Force Tech Sgt results came out this morning. Guess who was on the list to be promoted! Yep, that's right! Jason got his line number for Tech! They do however, only promote a certain number of selectees every month, so he has to wait for his number to come up. That's ok though, the hard part is over. It's a very happy day in the Bal family today!

Congratulations, honey. You did good. :)

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I thought the best way to start out the new blog would be by sharing some photos from Brennan's first days until now.

You know, some of the same pictures I used to send out in mass emails.

I have taken so many pictures over the course of the last year and a half, it was hard to narrow it down to just a few. It was amazing going back though all my old photos. It's still unbelievable how much Brennan has changed in such a short amount of time. He's turning into such a big boy now, walking around and saying a few words, it's hard to believe that a year ago he was sitting in his Bumbo seat and eating rice cereal for the first time.

Here are some of my favorites.



Ultrasound, Our first amazing peek at our little guy.




Brennan's Birth Day




18 days old




One Month Old - It was Spring Break for Shanny and Andrew, so everyone came down to visit. Brennan's first time meeting his brother and sister, Grandma Brenda and Harry.




Six Weeks Old




Three Months Old




Four months old, and eating cereal for the first time.




Five months old, this was one of the first pictures taken in our new house.




Six Months




Seven Months




Eight Months - First Halloween




Eight Months - In the Pumpkin Patch with Nana




Nine Months - Thanksgiving




Ten Months




Eleven Months




First Birthday




February 2009, Mardi Gras Parade




March 2009, A day at the beach




April 2009, Easter Egg Hunting




May 2009, Mother's Day




June 2009, Swinging in the Park

The New Blog!

I decided over the last couple days that it was time for a new blog. Not that I am giving up the photography blog, but rather adding a more specific family blog. That way I can post silly, possibly out of focus, underexposed, not following "the rules" photos and funny stories over here for everyone interested, without feeling bad about them being on a "photography" blog. Then, on the photo side of the house, I can take as many pictures of fruit, trees, flowers, macros of dirt, or whatever without having to disappoint those of you who are just stopping by to look at Brennan's cuteness.

I will still be posting plenty of pictures on both!! : )

Since we found out that we will be moving to Massachusetts this fall, (not South Dakota anymore for those that aren't up to date on the happenings around here) I thought it would be a good idea to put this together so all of our friends and family can keep track of us. After Brennan was born, I emailed pictures every month, (ok, sometimes it was more than once a month) but I started feeling that not everyone wanted pictures of my kid spamming their email inboxes all the time, so with the blog if you want to see our smiling faces, here we are. If not, well, just don't tell me who you are or it might hurt my feelings! haha!

So here we go! This is the official new home on the web for The Bal Family. And if you want to see what's up with my photography hobby, you can still find me here. Thanks for stopping by.