A Weekend on the Farm

This weekend has been a normal weekend.  We have been pretty low key and it has been nice.

On Friday night we went out to eat with some friends at a local Italian restaurant and it was AMAZING.  We always have lots of laughs and a good time.

Saturday morning we headed over to a neighbors house to look at a new addition to the farm.  We brought home Albert and he is the cutest mini mule ever!!

I'm so excited about Albert because he is going to be a huge part of the new LLF Photography. 

I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon and you can tell by Opys face he was ready by his Sunday afternoon nap.

After checking on Albert this afternoon and snapping a few shots it was back to the house for our Sunday afternoon nap, watching TV, ad eating supper with family.

Snow Day Weekend

I just LOVE when it snows.  It is so magical and just brings to life the beauty of our farm.  I feel like a little kid when it snows and I just want to run and play it in all day long...or at least until I am frozen.

We got up early on Saturday morning and I looked out the window and it was still snowing  We suited up and headed up to the barn to start feeding everyone.  I had put the horses up so they would stay warm because for some reason they do not like to be up.  They have a huge barn to get into but they refuse to use it.  They will stand out in the rain and snow and never make their way to the barn.

Once we got everyone fed I turned the horses out to play in the snow.  They bolted like a rocket and took off bucking across the pasture.  They soon ventured back for some hay and I started snapping a few pictures.

We got the dogs jackets on before we headed out and they were waiting patiently on us before we headed out.

 We have added some new cows to the herd since the last time I have blogged.  One of my favorites is "Big Mamma" (she was named before we bought her) and she is a 3 year old Guernsey out of Virginia.  She is three months pregnant and we can not wait to welcome another little one to the farm.

"Buffy" is my next favorite one.  He is so cute and has the furriest ears ever.  He is so friendly and is a Brown Swiss cross.

One of the new horses on the farm is "Jed".  He came to us from Greenville, NC.  He is a 10 year old registered Quarter Horse.  When he first arrived his name was "Doug" but that wasn't going to work to well because my dad's name is Doug and that was just to weird.  

He is the coolest horse ever.  Everyone around here loves him because he is just as chill as the come.

Chris throwing hay out on Saturday morning.

After spending a few hours playing in the snow and feeding everyone we headed up to his mom and dad's house for a warm breakfast.  Chris was relaxing reading the local paper.

I got a little bored so I headed outside with my camera and threw on a few layers and tried to capture a few pictures.  Taking pictures of yourself is really hard but I had fun and got a few awkward shots.

On Sunday church was canceled so we hung out at the house just relaxing and having fun.  

Sunday afternoon I finally ventured out to enjoy an afternoon with some friends.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a local Mexican restaurant before heading back before the roads started freezing again.

Coming back home the sunset was beyond amazing so I had to snag a quick picture.

It was a perfect weekend being snowed in and enjoying time together.

If you would like to see all the pictures from our snow day please feel free to visit my photography page to view the images:  http://lazelfarmphotography.com/blog/2017/1/snow-day-on-the-farm-1-7-17

Also if you want to follow me on social media:

Snap Chat: @mardia1

Instagram: @lazelfarm

Facebook: Laze L Farm Photography

Christmas Country Connection Reveal

This is the third year that I have participated in this swap and it has been a lot of fun.  I have met some awesome people through this swap.  Thank you to the  Guernsey Dairy Mamma and The Magic Farmhouse

I receive a package from Taylor Short in Missouri and I was really excited to see what she had sent.  Taylor blogs over at The Aggie Hipster and has a cool take on agriculture and being a female farmer. She has a small family farm where they raise Angus cows and work on a cow/calf operation.  That is similar to what me and my husband do but we are more on the dairy/beef crosses.  We like the dairy flavor with the size of the beef steer.

Taylor was kind enough to write a sweet note and send a really cute Christmas card.

In the box she also included a butcher block in the shape of Missouri, a cute Christmas ornament and a really sweet children's book about Christmas in the woods.

I was honored to be able to participate in this swap again this year and can not wait again until next year!!

West bound and down

Well I have been MIA for well over a month now.  Once the weather started changing I have been wide open.  Don't get me wrong it has been a blast but it definetely keeps you hopping.  

Photography has been amazing.  I have had some great places to shoot from rodeos, to beautiful weddings, to sweet families on our farm.  I pour my heart and soul into each one.  I feel like I become friends with people I do pictures with because I want to get to know new people!

Right now I am sitting in an airport in Charlotte, NC waiting to board a plane to Montana.  This has been a dream of mine to be able to visit this part of the country.  I can't wait to visit yellow stone and maybe see the Teton Mountains.  It is going to be beautiful and a dream come true!!

If you would like to follow along on this crazy adventure follow me on Snapchat @mardia1 or on Instagram at @lazelfarms

I will post as often as I can but I'm not sure how good the wifi and cell service is out there!  

Let me know of some good places to visit if you have any ideas!

-Sarah

3rd Anniversary Trip to Gatlinburg, TN

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary on May 4.  It's hard to believe I have been married to this guy for three whole years.  Time really does start flying by once you get married.

We first arrived at our hotel in Gatlinburg.  It is right on the river and the views are gorgeous.

We had to snap a few selfies on the balcony before heading out into down town Gatlinburg to walk around.

One of my favorite places to visit is Old Smokey Moonshine Brewery in downtown Gatlinburg.  They have a live bluegrass band playing and you can sit in rocking chairs and listen to the bands play.

We walked around Gatlinbug for several hours and then we came back to the room, took a short nap, and then headed out to grab a bite to eat at the Alamo.  They had some great steaks and we really enjoyed our time.

After eating we decided to take a drive up to Piegeon Forge and check out the night scenery.  They have added a lot of stores since last year so we were excited for Saturday when we got to check all of this out.

As we were leaving Gatlinburg on Saturday morning I looked up and saw these guys repelling down the side of the mountain.  They were doing a lot of road work so they were patching the moutain to keep the rocks from sliding.

Our first stop was French's Boot Store where Chris decided to get some new work boots.

Then we headed to Smoky Mountain Knife Works and walked around for an hour or so and looked at every type of knife you could imagine.

Our next stop was Cades Cove which is an old civilization in the Smokey Mountains of TN.

The drive between Gatlinburg and Cades Cove is beautiful.  The Smokey Mountains are breath taking along as all the livestock we saw on the sides of the road.

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Once into Cades Cove we were excited to see some more beautiful scenery.

They do guided trail rides and also hay rides so we had to stop and get a few pictures with the horses.

We got to the first cabin and decided to take a walk up into the woods.  This black crow was just chilling on the post watching us.  It was kind of freaky but beautiful at the same time.

I could have moved into this cabin yesterday.  The views were amazing and it was in the perfect location.  We snapped a few more selfies in front of the cabin.

I mean look at this view.  Who could not wake up to this everyday?

We ran across this old church with a super old graveyard.  It was beautiful to see the architecture inside and how the church pews are a lot different than today.

There was beautiful wild life everywhere!

So right after we saw this sign we saw...

A freaking blackbear cub in the middle of the road.  It was the first time I have ever seen one in the wild.

This was right after the end of tour.  When we made the turn out of the park, the cubs mom was going up the mountain trying to find it.  So in one day we saw to wild bears in the bark.  It was pretty amazing.