We are all on the mend, but still got that icky cough thing, but we are all feeling human and in better spirits. Cassie had an off day, but now and then she just does.
I started my new photography class online this week. I took some all-manual photos and they turned out pretty decent. I was pleased 
More on my Flickr Stream
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Yeah, so we have been passing this virus around for the past week. It sucks and it kind of ticks me off. We are sick because someone didn’t keep their sick kid home. Ugh.
That also means that we didn’t get to go a friend’s house like we were supposed to. I’m so bummed out. We had so many plans that have just gotten destroyed this week.
Ugh. So 2007 is ending with a whimper over here.
We got some fireworks for the kids to do in the backyard. Here they are:
Yeah, they looked just thrilled, don’t they? We stopped after just a few minutes because they wanted to go in and finish the fireworks another day. How sad is that? They are too sick to watch fireworks.
Ugh.
Anyway, I got some pictures because well, it’s what I do now, take pictures of everything and make my husband crazy (I almost asked him to move the trash around them, but he already thinks I’m completely crazy).
Happy Freaking New Year.
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If You Give A Kid A Camera – it’s a blog project that I keep doing in hopes it will take off one day. The premise is you give your kid a camera once per month (or more) and then post what they take… it’s pretty funny (and amazing) what kids can do!
Check us out over at http://ifyougiveakidacamera.blogspot.com/
Wanna join us? Email me (link at the right) and I’ll add you!
One day I’ll make it all pretty, but well… not today 
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We had Christmas at Tom’s grandmother’s house today… it was actually kind of nice. Sometimes it’s so chaotic that I feel so overwhelmed that I am not able to relax, but either I’m getting used to it (lol – finally) or everyone was calmer, not sure which one
We had shrimp and so many side dishes and pies I lost count and Tom and I brought the chocolate fountain. We bought it a year ago on sale and never used it. Let me tell you that if you want to have one of those whisper fights with your spouse at a family function, decide to set up a chocolate fountain together for the first time. *laugh*. First, the chocolate wasn’t melted enough, then he cooked it, then we didn’t add enough oil, then I had globs of it all over the table. Oh man, it was CRAZY. Luckily we quickly realized we were arguing over a stupid chocolate thing, read the directions again and realized we didn’t put enough oil in the stupid thing and we didn’t turn it off to let the bubbles settle so it would “sheet” down in a fountain-like way.
Eureka. We have also decided this thing will only come out on special occasions
Here’s Jamie playing with the tinker toys he got…
Cassie was in one of her moods about pictures today, so we didn’t get many of her, but here’s one of her playing with her Daddy
And one of “baby” Jack, playing with a ball, with a little editing help from Auntie Candy…
Tom and I took pity on ourselves and let the kids open their gifts from us tonight – they are already bored and we needed a break. And Santa came a little early and gave me an external flash for my camera… so I got to play… I’m proud of quite a few of them! And it’s like having a whole new camera… that flash makes a HUGE difference in indoor photography!
Anyway… here’s some of my faves from tonight – see my flikr for more (that annoying thing to the right)
I love this one of Cassie… it’s kind of backlit… and yes, I actually did this on purpose!
Can you say bounce flash? Yeah, baby, yeah! Aside from that, Jamie has the most soulful eyes… I love taking pictures of him like this.
Here they are showing us what they got. Cassie got some new BearyTales stories and a few gameboy movies/games. Jamie got some new gameboy games. (Thank you, GameSpy, sorry you went out of business, but we SCORED!)
We ventured down to Zilker and walked the Trail of Lights last night. We hadn’t done it since 2004, so it was a lot of fun. The kids behaved and I got to practice taking photos.
Our friend and her kid went with us. She had a scarf and each kid grabbed a section. It worked great. We didn’t have to hold their hands the whole way but we couldn’t lose them, they were grouped together. They did really well considering they don’t open it until 7pm and bedtime is 7:15 here!
Here’s a slideshow… it was SO neat this year.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
My favorite was Where The Wild Things Are – and I think my photo turned out pretty good on that one. The dinosaur around the tree was REALLY neat as well. It was a great time. We hope to try to do this every year
Oh, and yes, we twirled under the tree. I think you have to.
NOTE: If you are here looking for the tree topper saga that one of my so-called friends told you about (LOL)… it’s here
My desk looks out over a window. I have a gap area where the edge of the wall and the computer monitor don’t meet from my point of view. It’s great because I can see the kids on the swings while I work and there’s also this beautiful old tree that I can see the edge of. Several times per day, I see squirrels running up and down the tree with acorns they find on the ground. I’ve tried to get pictures before, but if I try to sneak outside they catch me and disappear… so today, I grabbed the camera, zoomed in close and took pictures! Not too bad consider that window is dirty. I can NOT believe I got the one sitting on the branch. It was in a deep shadow. I have no idea how I did that, but gift horse, mouth, etc etc…
So, here’s one of my little buddies…
You can see on the left the dark area there is actually the edge of the window frame, it was a tight fit!
He’s a little out of focus, but at least you can see him up there… he perches there to store his loot and stare around waiting for a blade of grass to move so he can scurry away. Jittery little guys!
I’m not even going to complain that we had the A/C on earlier today. Nor will I complain that we even HAVE squirrels around in DECEMBER. It got cold tonight. For a while. Who knows how long. I’m moving back to Hawaii, I swear it! Watch me! Ummm… okay, maybe not. But geez!
First the pictures… Jamie’s last game of the season was on Saturday and I took some pictures:
I think this is the first time Jamie actually got to throw in!
He spent, what I think, is a lot of time on the bench. I know he isn’t the most athletic, but it’s the YMCA, where they don’t keep score and everyone plays. I dunno. I’m going to see how next year goes for him (he says he wants to play basketball this Winter). Anyway, he and this one little girl were almost ALWAYS on the bench together. I think they are looking for bugs here:
I took this one for my photo class, but I still think it’s a cool shot of him running. That’s his coach in the background:
He lost his shoe during the game… poor coach – Jamie’s feet REEK.
See! He does actually kick the ball now and then!
I finished the final weeks photos for my photography class tonight. Just showing off what I learned:
Shutter speeds:
Fill Flash:
Lit / Buildings:
Macro (I need better lights)
Tom is gonna build me a little in-garage studio! Stay tuned for even better photos of him constructing stuff!
Oohh.. I cannot wait! That’s always a fun time!
Cassie’s Fall soccer season is over. She had the BEST time, and she’s quite a little player too! She will be doing indoor soccer in January. We had a little celebration afterwards with the team and we made a soccer cake. I took pictures of each of the kids, cut them out, glued them on sticks and here ya go… (Tom did most of the work, he rocks):
Tom and I have a running joke about CVS. He goes to CVS like every 2-3 days. He’s addicted to CVS. And he can never remember what he bought. I don’t go there often, but I went in for something and came home. I finally realized what it is about that place he likes. It has an amazing amount of crap. Just random crap. Everywhere. It’s all just craptacular “stuff”.
The kids have been asking me about their advent calendars. Every years, we get them each one of those calendars with the nasty chocolate pieces, they open a door each day until Christmas. Anyway… cannot find them, we have looked everywhere. I get a text from Tom “HEB is out, World Market is out, but luckily they must fall under the category of crap” *laugh* Thank you, CVS.
Some shots from my photo class. We did framing and shutter priority modes. The weather sucked and I was in a hurry, but I like the spin on the ball and my kids are already cute, so I’m showing them off too
This is my nephew, Jack… The blurred picture in the back is him as “Baby Jack”… I dunno, I thought this was a cute little mini-series. The thing on his head is a ball that popped and grandma cut open… now it’s a funky hat
And yes, he will always be Baby Jack to us ‘Sides since my sister-in-law hasn’t updated her blog with new pics since FEBRUARY, I figured I’d show the world how cute he is
