Okay, so this is a little personal, but I am a personal sort of fellow now aren’t I? These are my favorite two little ladies in the entire world! My daughters are growing up so fast. I really can’t keep up. They gang up on me and cheat at Uno. They say the most precious of things. They are creative and eloquent. Ashlyn is assertive and intelligent and a teacher. Jillian is tender and caring and brilliant.

Anyway, we snapped these photos a few weeks ago after church. Ashlyn Grace is 7 (going into second grade) and Jillian Joy is 5 (going into kindergarten).

I just thought I would share. I hope you don’t mind…

Outspoken friends and quiet blog-stalkers, please comment and let me know what is going on in your heart, in your life, in your business.

Smiles, friends. (This is Casei from St. Louis, by the way)

Happy Christmas to you all! Thank you for making this year wonderful and I can’t wait to see what 2009 holds!

FIRST Day of School!! My baby started real school this past week!! Ashlyn Grace Steller is now in kindergarten. Wow. It was tramatizing!! Well…at least it was for mommy and daddy. Daddy feels a lot older and we were both truly overwhelmed by emotions we have never felt before! Ashlyn was just fine and took everything in stride.

We got to the school as a family and waited to take her to her class. I can imagine that walking into the building for the first day was a bit awe-inspiring, with the ordered chaos of throngs of children and parents walking to their respective classes. Ashlyn had her own little Nikon paparazzi snapping away with tears in his eyes and pride in his heart. We got the typical shots of the first day (with sissy, mommy and daddy and teacher, but I snapped of few of her moments of school…the embarrassment walking down the hall with daddy shooting away and all the other kids looking on…a tentative “do I sit down at my desk now?” look of bewilderment…some little details that some folks tend to miss, but the photographer in me kicks into gear.

My favorite photo is this last one and it is a bit heart-wrenching to say the least. As we were walking out of the room, after saying our good-byes, I turned one last time and saw my big girl apprehensively looking at her peers for the very first time, wondering if she should start her coloring now, and wondering if she was following directions, wondering if she was doing the right thing, wondering if she could be brave and make it through her first minutes, first hours, first days of this new journey towards growing up.

Ashlyn, I am so proud of you, baby. God gave me a beautiful, red-haired little angel, with a sweet temperament and a quick, intelligent mind. I already know how smart you are and I just know that you will continue to love school as much as your daddy did. Baby, just know that I am always here for you whenever you need me, for anything, anytime. When you can read this yourself, I want you to test me on this. I am your number one fan. I love you, my big girl.

SIDENOTE: Half a week into it, she already loves school. After her second day, I overly-animatedly (that’s a new word, I think) asked if she had fun and what she had learned that was cool. She calmy stated that “her teacher still hadn’t taught her how to read, yet.” I stifled an uproarous laugh and replied that I was sure they would get to that later this year, then followed up with a question about recess, which she told me was a lot of fun and that they got to have two of them! It’s an all day kindergarten, so they break it up a bit, for everyone’s sanity, I imagine.

I care about the environment and respect it. Everyone should.

I would like to preface this post to say that I am not a huge environmentalist tree-hugger who carries a sign in protests and boycotts this, that and the other. I have nothing against those that do (to each his own, I always say).

It is Blog Action Day. To do my part, I am taking a bit different turn of thought into this. I am going to be mean, which, if you know me, it is hard for me.

One of my biggest pet peeves is a person with no consideration for other’s property, public property and the environment (as a whole…like parks, forests, farmland, etc).  I grew up learning to respect in all things. Respect people regardless of status, respect property no matter where it is or who it belongs to, and respect yourself. It is the simple Golden Rule that says it all, treat others the way you would want to be treated.

Growing up on a farm off a busy highway, it would annoy me to no end when we would have to go to the property’s edge and clean the litter nearly every week. Many disrespectful drivers would toss out their refuse and it would land in our ditch or blow into our property. We would alway work hard to make sure our property looked clean and presentable (in a way, we were showing respect to the community and for ourselves).

I remember we had people in a neighborhood behind our 80 acres of crops who would use parts of the back of our property without asking to grow their own gardens. My dad probably would have been more than happy to give permission, but they did it without asking. I still don’t think it bothered dad, but it always bothered me. Why would a person do such a thing?…weren’t adults supposed to know better? Now that I am adult, it is not a shock that I can totally see how inconsiderate and disrespectful many adults are in many aspects of their lives.

So, for Blog Action Day, I want you to do me a favor. Be courteous. Be kind. Be respectful of the environment.

We get one chance at the environment. One opportunity…one lifetime to get it right so as to leave it better for the next generation. Respect the environment and yourself and your future by not littering and leaving things better than when you got there. It is common courtesy! It is common respect, and it makes for uncommon people who can rise up and make it better.

Last weekend, we did our annual family foray about an hour north of Kansas City to Weston, MO. It is kind of our kick-off for Fall and a wonderful time for everybody. Almost the whole crew made it (with the exception of my little sister Hannah & her husband, Kyle, who live in Hawaii and are moving back later this month).

It was not a good year for apples in this area. Due to 4 late frosts in the Spring, the apples were literally not available. Out of 1,000 trees at one particular orchard, there were only 33 apples harvested! They still have plenty to do around the farms (country store, tours, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, barnyard animals, and much more). At the Red Barn there was a beautiful wedding happening at the end of one of the barns.

Storms were rolling in as we got there and we were outside in the cool breeze for about 45 minutes and then the rains and hail came…it hailed dime and nickel-sized wallops of ice there for a little while! It was crazy LOUD under the metal roof of the barns and country store!

My newest niece (Lacey’s baby!), Ruby.

The girls. Lily Mae (my niece), Jillian Joy (my 2 year old) and Ashlyn Grace (my 4 year old).

There is a guy standing on the far right of the giant covered deck of the barn. I think he was the groom standing outside. There were about 100 people on the inside of the beautifully decorated reception hall. I would love to shoot a wedding out there. All I had was my 50mm, otherwise we could have had an amazing wide shot there, but oh well.

Dad & my brother-in-law, Danny (Lacey’s hubby). They were walking down from the barn you see in the background, admiring the new construction.

The girls! Nice directing by the moms. I almost missed the shots. The wind was beginning to pick up and the thunder had begun to roll.

My girls…

One cleanly and pristine princess, trying to control and keep the younger ornery one under control.

Chillin’ on a bench.

Great photo op idea, but right when we stuck them in there, the rain came…hard!

And it came…and came.

And came…

Mom and dad talking across the room. My mom had stuck my hat on her head! It cracked me up… You can see Ashlyn’s head next to paw-paw’s arm. The girls are never far away form them.

For those of you who would like to see the ultimate mother in a not-so-pregnant state.

Thanks for letting me share my family a bit.

My wife is taking up scuba diving for a trip we have booked next year. I dropped by with the girls at her class at the Dive Shop. Of course i had my camera with me and the girls were ecstatic watching mommy at the bottom of the pool…for about 5 minutes. Then they were bored so we walked around and looked at stuff. They had a really colorful and well-done mural on a wall and we decided to “go swimming” like fish. It was fun! I hope you all enjoy!

By the way, no fish were harmed during the making of this post. 

Ground rules: I tell you eight things about me that you may not have already known, then I tag eight other bloggers.

Eight things about Dustin Steller:

1. Oldest of 5
2. Begged mom to home-school…and she did (with 4 other siblings) from 7th grade through high-school.
3. Started college at 15 and is self-taught both Design and Photography.
4. Love sweets, but not so much on the chocolate side of things.
5. Played baseball for 13 years.
6. Worked at a church for 6 years.
7. Likes to make new friends and is probably overly friendly.
8. Always lived in the Kansas City area and grew up on a farm.

I am tagging:

1. Kelly Talele
2. Erin Vey
3. Luke Cornwell
4. Jan & Tey Garcia
5. Jamie Huffman
6. Kate Mefford
7. Lisa Fitts
8. Priscilla & Bob Rathbone

As is the new tradition…If you comment (and I hope you do!), please tell us one thing people may not know about you!

We added a cute little addition to my immediate household. Born May 8th and adopted last week. She is an Australian Shepherd and Golden Lab mix. She was the runt of the litter and is calm and sweet and loving. Her name is Madison (after the President…her brother was Truman and her sister was Kennedy). She is already fitting in with our routine and becoming a permanent fixture in our lives. I only wish the ever talented Erin Vey lived closer so she and Gracie could play!

My sister, Lacey (from a previous post), had her healthy baby girl! 3 hour, natural delivery with no drugs…yeah, she’s super-woman.

In the photos, you see Ruby only 24 hours young, still in the hospital. She is now a week or so old. In one of the photos, you see daddy’s proud hands holding his second daughter. I know exactly how proud he feels right now! Congratulations, Lacey & Danny and Lily!

Sneaky, sneaky! Anyway, we only had a few minutes to do these photos on one day (the 4th of July) and about 10 minutes a couple days later…The reason for the sneakiness is we are surprising my brother-in-law with the photos. We had to be very quick, we literally just shot the pics and ran back inside in a span of about 10 minutes. They were shot at my folk’s 400 acre farm.

Oh! And my sister is due in just a week or two.