Photo of the 'Whatever'

04-30-09. Thicket of Tiny Toadstools. With all the rain we've had lately, the mushrooms have sprung up everywhere in the mulch in our backyard. I also spotted hundreds of tiny snails out enjoying the wet mulch.

04-25-09. Beautiful Blue Robin Eggs. We had a busy day today. After breakfast, Camille and I drove to Dad & Karen's house to borrow their extension ladder for a few projects around the house. After we got home, we headed to Fassnight Park for a city-wide play date. The park was full of kids and various activities for them. After lunch and a quick nap, I got to work on our siding. We had about 6 or 7 pieces of damaged siding from last January's hail storm. (yes, it has taken me more than a year to fix this) The damage wasn't very noticeable, but it needed to be fixed. Luckily, I was able to find the exact match for our existing siding. The process of removing and replacing the individual siding pieces was pretty straight forward, but it took about 10 trips up and down a 20 ft extension ladder for each piece. It took about 2 hours to make the repairs. I can't believe I waited so long to take care of such an easy fix. While I had the ladder out, I decided to trim a couple trees in the backyard. Sorry Noel, for taking the redneck approach, but I don't have a pole saw, and the trees weren't big enough to climb. Our cherry tree had the top broken out in the 2007 ice storm. The top had grown a bunch of sprouts, so I thinned them out in hopes of improving the shape of the tree. While I was in the tree, I had a good view of a Robin's nest, so I couldn't resist taking a picture. After cleaning up the brush from the tree I spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the backyard with Camille and Kate. Camille ended up getting pretty hot and sweaty. The swingset, slide, and grass were all coated with a nice thick dusting of pollen. The pollen ended up covering Camille's sweaty body from head to toe. She ended up getting a rash over most of her body, and her face and eyes were a little swollen. It didn't seem to slow her down much though.

04-19-09. Photo shoot with a toad. This little guy (or gal) stayed on our front porch all day today. He didn't seem to mind me taking pictures of him. I was even able to position him just the way I wanted, and I had time to set up my flash at just the right angle. I wouldn't be surpised if this isn't the same toad that I've found and photographed on the front porch several times before. I do think this is one of my better toad photos- the green background makes the photo. I took a few other ultra-close-ups of just his face. I sure think he is one beautiful creature. Camille liked him too.

04-18-09. Grandpa's 90th Birthday. We had a short visit with Grandpa and Grandma today in Hartville. Camille was a little ornery while we were there. I can't remember what kind of crazy story she was telling here, but she definitely has a look of mischief in her eye.

04-12-09. Kate and Camille ready for Easter.

04-11-09. Photo Shoot with a few kids I've photographed before. Fun times.

04-10-09. Easter Eggs. Camille had fun with this project, but I think I had more fun.

04-05-09. Cloudy Sunrise.

04-04-09. Camille throwing rocks at the Nature Center. We had a busy morning that started with a kids workshop at Home Depot. Camille built a birdhouse (with a little help from Mom & Dad.) Next, we went for a walk at the Nature Center. We saw 2 turkeys and 6 deer on our walk, but Camille had more fun throwing rocks in the stream. Next was lunch at McDonalds, followed by play time in the playground. Camille made it all the way to the top of all the tubes, but then got upset about something. There were a bunch of rowdy boys running around that probably freaked her out. Anyway, she couldn't figure out how to get back down, so Kate had to go in after her. It was somewhat traumatic. Next we met up with Granny- shopping for appliances. During Camille's nap, I re-stained her swingset in the backyard. And we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beautiful weather. So there is a recap of another exciting day in the Boyer house.

03-29-09. Photoshoot with Kate, Camille, and James. Every once in a while, Camille will ask "has baby James popped out yet?"

03-27-09. Just Abby.

03-24-09. Abby & Camille playing outside.

03-16-09. Nursery Window Seat and Shelves. I've spent the past few weeks getting the nursery ready for our new arrival. Not content with just throwing some paint on the wall, I decided to take on the project of filling in this window bump-out with a window seat and shelves. This turned out to be a little more work than I had originally planned, but I'm glad I did it. I kind of designed this as I went, and I kept adding more details as I went along (like the accent light at the top, the indirect lighting that shines on the ceiling, and the seat cushion.) Kate and I picked out fabric for the seat cushion and curtains on Friday, and I spent Saturday morning sewing it all up. The seat cushion was also a bit of a challenge because I decided to sew piping around the edges. After a little experimentation, I think I made it work. We picked out an area rug from Lowe's last night. Now we just need to hang up some pictures and add a few more finishing touches. I'll take another picture when the room is complete. Oh yeah, this project also involved installing chair rail around the room. In case you are curious, the paint colors are Olympic "Crocodile Tears" and "Bread Basket." The brown isn't quite as orange as it shows in this photo. I was a bit skeptical after getting both colors on the wall, but the chair rail tied them together nicely. Here is a link to what the room looked like when we bought the house: http://www.milesboyer.com/gallery/1945754_HmGXC#98705249_PL8Av

03-15-09. Ready for Church.

03-06-09. Plenty of Plain Pointy Push Pins Placed Perfectly on Prismatic Paper. Phew.

03-05-09. Moon Halo. Did anyone else notice the ring around the moon tonight? This isn't lens flare or some other camera defect. This is what the moon actually looked like. I know I've seen this in the past, but it seemed more pronounced tonight. I took the day off work today to catch up on some projects I needed to finish around the house. What a wonderful day to be outside. The high temp reached 75 degrees in Springfield. Not bad for early March. I spent most of the day finishing up a built-in window seat and bookshelves for the nursery. This project has taken me a little longer than originally expected, but I haven't had a chance to work on it since starting on it 2 weeks ago. I also installed chair rail in the nursery and cleaned out the garage (which was covered in a nice layer of dust from cutting MDF) Note to self: never ever cut MDF in the garage again. This whole nursery project relied on getting certain parts done before being able to finish another part (can't finish chair rail until I get the shelves done- can't finish the shelves until I patch some drywall- can't patch the drywall until I finish the seat- can't finish the seat until I relocate an outlet, etc, etc.) Anyway, I just have a little bit of touch up painting to do, and I'll post a picture of the finished room. Shortly after taking this picture, I checked my email. I had a message from a wedding coordinator in NW Arkansas. She was checking in with me about an engagement photo shoot previously scheduled for this weekend. Instantly, I panicked. I couldn't remember having anything scheduled. Had I forgotten? Was this lady nuts? As I continued reading, she had included enough details that I knew she had actually spoken to Miles Boyer about this wedding. She even included alternate dates that she had discussed with Miles. Then, I remembered googling myself a few years back. I had found another Miles Boyer attending John Brown University (in NW AR), and I found that his interests were photography and graphic design. That was all the information that I could find on him at the time. After remembering this information, and after getting this strange email, I googled my name again (along with photography) and I find his website. He is quite the talented photographer. After making the assumption that he is the intended recipient of the email, I reply to the coordinator and send it to the other Miles Boyer as well. The email listed on his website is miles@mileswittboyer.com - mine is miles@milesboyer.com. What are the chances of 2 photographers within 150 miles of each other are named Miles Boyer. Strange, huh?

02-20-09. Got Moles? I've driven by this mole city a few times lately, so I finally had to stop and take a picture. I can't believe how many mole holes there are in such close proximity. Not the best picture in the world, but I thought it was a bit funny.

02-13-09. Camille's new room. Over the course of the last 2 weeks, we've moved the office downstairs, painted the walls and ceiling, installed chair rail, installed blinds, and made new curtains. I made these curtains last night. We found a perfect match to the green and pink walls. If you can't tell from the photo, the fabric has outlined polka dots in various shades of pink, green, and beige. We think it is very well suited for a little girl's room without being too over the top. I'll post a picture of the whole room as soon as we get the rest of the furniture moved in. I plan on getting a new mattress today. I've already painted an old metal bed that was passed down through Kate's family. Hopefully the transition to a real bed will go smoothly. We wanted to get her moved a few months before the baby comes, so she doesn't feel like the baby is pushing her out of her space. I've had a few people asking for pictures of the rest of the room. Here you go: http://www.milesboyer.com/gallery/7695418_ujhJP

02-08-09. Camille and Jayden playing in the backyard. I haven't posted too many pictures of Camille lately, so I just wanted everyone to see how she is growing up.

02-07-09. Camille showing off her heart-shaped sunglasses at Jayden's Valentine party. Camille was the youngest girl at the party, but she still had fun playing with all the big girls (who were all 5 or 6 years old.)

01-28-09. Snow Tracks. I've taken a similar picture in the past, but I couldn't resist stopping again. There was actually a train idling on the tracks just around the corner. I was hoping to catch it in action, but I didn't have time to wait for it. If you look closely, you'll see that the tracks are still covered in fresh snow. I'm surprised that there hadn't been any trains pass through since the snow had fallen. Normally, a train passes through here about every 20 minutes.

01-28-09. Snowy Playground. I spotted this colorful playground on my way to the post office this morning. I couldn't resist the bright colors contrasted against the clean white snow. This was taken at a church playground. As I walked up to the church, the minister (I'm guessing) walked outside to see what I was up to. He started to ask if he could help me, but as soon as he saw my camera, he just smiled and walked back inside. This snowstorm started as ice/freezing rain/sleet on Monday night. It continued to sleet most of the day on Tuesday. Tuesday night about 3 or 4 inches of snow fell on top of the inch or so of sleet. Areas to the south and east of Springfield got hit pretty hard with ice.