Trip to the Arboretum...

In the middle of a very busy week, we decided to take a morning and spend some time with my good friend Amanda and her son Miles. We met up at the Arboretum and used their family pass and packed a picnic lunch. We missed the beginning of Dallas Bloom by a few days, and you could tell because many of the tulips weren't up yet, but it was still beautiful to see, and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

Beck was obsessed with seeing water the entire time we were there...

Run, Forrest, Run!

Newie, debating if crawling on the rocks would be worth checking out the water...look! he's even wearing shoes!!!! see...we're not ALWAYS white trash! Although we won't mention the lady on the golf cart who yelled at me, and maybe even considered kicking me out, when Beck picked a flower moments after we walked through the entrance to the gardens. Sheesh!

The best we could get of all the boys. Its hard to get one to sit still, let alone three...and esp. when Beck has a ball that Miles is VERY interested in....

Picnic lunch, however, Miles thought it must all have been for him. Because he helped himself to just about everyone's food =)

My lil' boy is getting so big!

He was actually fairly cooperative with me taking pictures, which is RARE!

The boys...

Playing Peek-A-Boo!

It's always a blast whenever we get the kids together to play! And even better when its spent outside on such a beautiful day!

One thing I learned this week...

My daughter's ability to focus so surpasses that of her peers that it is almost scary. She is quite honestly the hardest worker I have ever seen. I was able to take Ky to her makeup soccer practice on Sunday without the boys (it was nap time and J was home doing the "wifely" cooking duties he does so well) While all the other girls played on the nearby bike rack between turns, Ky would go straight from finishing her turn to the back of the line. Everyone else's lack of focus, combined with my daughter's intense obsession with mastering a skill caused her to have at least 10 more reps than each of her teammates. Sports may or may not be her thing, but her dedication and determination will cause her to be good at just about anything she's willing to try. She was not the best, but I'll put my money on the fact that she will be by the end of her first season...

Kylie is, and always has been, this fascinating mix of Jason and I. I couldn't tell you how many times we've passed glances between each other with our mouths agape as we wonder how in the world God could take the strongest parts of both our personalities and make a person out of it (and he/she not completely explode on the inside.)

From Jason, she got her amazing attention to detail, competitive nature, desire of debate, infallible confidence, and great self awareness. From me she got her creativity, corkiness, desire to please, a NEED to follow instructions, and a deep love of learning. Unfortunately, she received her desire for perfection from us both...each day more of Jason comes out in her. And each day I see a little less of me. For as much as I long for her to hold on to her imagination and ability to laugh, her free spirit becomes a little more rigid each passing day. I take refuge in the fact that J is the most amazing person I have ever met. And although he isn't perfect, there are far worse people I would want her emulating, and none that I would place above him.

There will be a day, maybe not many from today, where she is a mini-him. But until then, I will love the girl she is NOW....and hope that she'll still laugh at my corny jokes of tomorrow even though she won't think they're funny....because Jason never does....never. =)

Photography Class part IV...

Here are the images I ended up bringing to class this past weekend! It was a rough week of picture taking, I think I'm a bit burnt out. All I did was shoot and I liked very little of what I saw....

Below is a night shot of a bell at a local church. The picture was taken at 7:15 at night, so all dark minus the glow of the church lights behind me. The aperture was f/4.5 and the shutter speed was 30" so of course it was on a tripod. The idea was to show how auto white balance isn't always true to color. The first picture is with a white balance of Incandescent, which is accurate since the lights behind were very yellow. If you look close enough you can see that the light on the bell is more white, or more true to color in the first shot.

The following one if auto white balance, you can see how the entire shot takes on a more yellowish tent, even the sky. Goes to show how manual is oftentimes more successful than auto.

Here is the shot I brought in to show the skills I've learned so far. The shot was taken very early in the morning, so I manually set my white balance, iso (200) shutter speed (13") and aperture (5.6) so I could capture the idea of motion in the ballerina on top of the jewelry box. I was also focusing on composition, filling the dead space to the right with something to balance out the shot, and blurred the background just a little so you can see what the focus should be. The shot isn't the least bit interesting to me, but it shows what I've learned.

Our last class is this coming Saturday. And our homework is to bring in one 8 by 10 that captures "The Ideal" or whatever that means to us. Wow, that's a tough one....hoping I find some creative mojo soon!

Here are the other shots that didn't make the cut when it came to night shooting...

Here is a close up of a nearby fountain. I love the colors and motion of the water, but it was too up close...

Picture below was too busy...

Entire Fountain, but I couldn't find an angle that didn't have a busy background...

Railroad tracks, would have like this one if I had more exposure...

Again, shot is too busy...

Stratton turns 1!

Today we celebrated our littlest BIG man's first birthday with our party of five. We have more celebrating to come on Sunday with family, but we thought a little bit here and there would be better than a big hoopla event! We started with opening presents, and its safe to say the CAT ride/push toy Beck and Ky picked out for him was by far his favorite!

Sitting on it for the first time. The rest of the evening was horrible...he cried EVERY second he wasn't on this thing! And I mean REALLY wailed!

Beck giving Stratton a push...

First look at the cake...
I'm kicking myself that I didn't get the cake in the shots below, but his face says it all....He's a fan of the icing...

Trying to do the two hand pick up. This must have been about the time when he realized he wasn't on his new riding toy, because he took off and headed straight for it before J or I could stop to clean him off.

We had blue icing hand prints all over the place. But right about this time, we were more concerned with making sure Ky and Beck didn't gobble down the entire rest of the cake while we had our backs turned!

Playing with his new toy from Memaw and Papap.

I can't believe he's already one. The last year has definitely been trying and tiring, but it sure did fly by in a hurry...
Happy Birthday Newie! I couldn't imagine not having your craziness in our family of 5!

Intro to soccer...

Kylie had her first soccer practice last night. I took a few shots of the team, but wanted to post just this one since the other kids are in the other shots. She had a lot of fun (minus having to endure the cold wind) and I think she liked it more than I thought she would. And I'm not going to lie, her form here gives me hope that maybe she is the hidden athlete my mom says I was at her age!

I do have to share, however, that while we were getting dressed for practice Ky was very adamant about wanting to wear this red sweat shirt. Mainly because it has a zipper pocket she said in case she "finds something at practice she wants to keep." I had a quick glimpse of her searching for rocks, or picking weeds. Luckily, she didn't, and her pocket came home empty!

Shooting Practice...

For class this week, we're suppose to continue to practice our dim light / indoor / night shooting. My Achilles' heel, and apparently everyone else's since the instructor is having us do it again. I haven't gotten a chance to shoot for this assignment, other than a couple indoor shots. But here's some randomness I caught this week.

Using a tripod at night. Only light coming from the t.v. Jason wasn't very excited to be my model, but he didn't really have a choice, all the kids were asleep.

I was playing with white balance trying to get the color right on the fire, but I like how the light from the t.v. is reflecting on one side of his frame. Random, I know, but I thought it was cool.

Glass ball my mom got me years ago. Pitch dark minus light above microwave.

Obviously, our focus was White Balance, here's a shot of Ky taken at night, on a tripod, only light is dim bathroom light from across the hall. You can tell the yellow undertones, but I can't say I've mastered this white balance thing yet. I know what I'm looking for most of the time, but not where to set the camera to find it.

This shot is still a little off (Heavy on the pinks) but her room is all pink so its hard to tell what is true to color, I would guess something in between these two shots, unfortunately, I didn't find it!

Beck watching t.v. this week

This is a necklace my parents gave me this past Christmas. The reason why I think it is so significant is that there's an obvious reference to my current blog title, but one they didn't even know existed (apparently, my parents don't keep up with the blog too much). Strange that both my mom and I picked the same theme without even knowing it.

Surprise!

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to surprise Jason with a couple new shots of the kids for his office. I wanted to do it more as a thank you for the photography class he got me as a Christmas gift. I had a lot of fun dressing Stratton up (in a bow tie that I made) and playing with him outside. Beck's shots didn't turn out nearly as good as I would have liked, but I was also practicing my indoor shooting for class (which I'm still pretty sucky at) so that's most likely why....

I love this sideways glance I always seem to capture of his. It shows exactly how corky he is.

Mom, this grass doesn't taste very good, but I'm going to keep eating it anyways!

This shot below is the one I ended up choosing to blow up and frame.

This was me practicing my dim light shooting with Stratton inside. Then I turned it black and white just because i liked it better.

The picture below is the one I ended up blowing up and framing of Beck.

Funny story about Beck's. As I was loading the shots onto the computer, he apparently found the box of markers and decided to add some more "pizzaz" to his stomach artwork. He came into the study covered from head to foot yelling, "mom, I do more, I do more!" I just died laughing. Now why I didn't take a shot of that? No idea! Luckily, it all wiped write up with a wipe.

For Kylie I picked a shot I took earlier last week that I've already shared on the blog. Overall, I think the class is really paying off. I'm not where I want to be yet, but I've seen dramatic improvement. AND I'm having a BLAST doing it!

Valentine's Day...

I'm not gonna lie. Ever since having kids (esp. Kylie), I LOVE Valentine's Day . Jason and I have never really celebrated, outside our tradition of a good glass of wine and delivered pizza. This year, as we munched down on pizza, I looked around at our table of 5 and smiled. I can still remember when it was just the two of us. Our life is so much deeper now, somehow more meaningful and definitely more fulfilling. Valentine's Day is about love, and my heart was so overflowing with it yesterday, that I woke up this morning still grinning ear to ear...heck, why not make today Love Day # dos?

Kylie has always been a big fan of Valentine's Day. This year we made her valentine's for her class and she wrote out all her kids valentine's cards herself (and she really enjoyed doing it!) They had breakfast with Dad at her school in the morning that Jason went to, and then had a Vday party in her class. At the end of the day we exchanged gifts. Kylie had made Beck a container of goodies (picked out from our pantry) and a homemade envelope filled with change (b/c he's always trying to play with her money). She was more excited to give this to him than she was to open her own gifts. Sometimes her compassion and care for others is overwhelming in such a good way! Kylie also picked out a little bear with a heart sweater that she gave to me. I ADORE it and HER!

Ky dressed for school on Valentine's day.

Her Valentine box she decorated full of goodies from her class.

Kylie writing down the names of all her classmates...

She really enjoys any sort of art project.

These we ordered from Oriental Trading Company. They turned out really cute, but what I thought was sticker foam, turned out not to be, and all the little pieces needed glued on. It was too much for Ky to do all of them on her own, so I ended up helping a bit more than I had wanted to.

I didn't get a single shot of Beck that I liked all day. But to my defense, both he and Strat have been a little under the weather. In fact, they're both on antibiotics now to hopefully kick these crummies they've had for the last two weeks or so.

I forgot I had been playing with the white balance settings on my camera before snapping this shot. Oddly enough, it turned out to be my favorite. This boy is definitely the KING of MY heart!