Last ones from Flagstaff

Oh boy this was fun. This crash was a High Flier.. Poor Oscar. I got it all. Missed the landing though. Just the after. These are all Oscar. I just masked them together so it wouldn't take 4 pictures to show it all.

Looks like he is going really fast hu.
YY was so excited to do this again. The first time we went he didn't quite know what to make of it. But by the end he was insisting on pulling up his own sled. Tough kid.

Emmett is always fun. He loves the ball balls. We usually name things for babies twice. Ball ball, car car, shoe shoes, hat hat, cup cup. It seems to only apply to one syllable words.

Shallow depth of field. Notice the strip of felt on the table that is in focus. This just fascinates me to no end!
YY in the car as we were leaving. We had a great vacation. Again I say we will always go to VRBO first from now on. So much fun.

I am just going to quickly list the reasons why it rocks

* you can cook in a real kitchen

*2 bathrooms

*No elevators, no neighbors to disturb ( we are disturbing)

*Drive right up to the house instead of walking through lobbies and hallways.

*Homey feel

*Rooms for babies to sleep in undisturbed. Again the disturbing thing.

So we are hooked. I am trying to figure out when we are going to Montreal to see my parents on their mission. Already on VRBO looking. 139.00 a night for 3 bedrooms. We are thinking of taking 3 kids with us. Awesome.

Sledding and boarding

We dropped T and O off at the hill. Put them in lessons. They did great. But before we picked them up we took the other 4 sledding. The snow was melting and there wasn't great hills, but kids don't know that.

Burton is usually the hardest to get pictures of. But his was the best of the day. So cute

Wes and Burton just went up and down over and over.
Emmett seemed to want to be down on the ground touching the snow. I think he was very curious about it.

This is the second time they have snow boarded and they are getting better. It is quite a thrill to see them coming down the hill. Oscar likes to go fast.

Tyler is more technical. He even does a hop as he is going.

It was a very active day. Boys were exhausted by the time we got home. Burton still says this is the best place he has ever been. Here is the listing so you can see it.

http://www.vrbo.com/245618

Exposure in Flagstaff

No I don't mean the cold. That is something I try to avoid. It is chilly up here.

I am talking exposure as in the new hobby that I love.

I since I love my hubby too, I was trying to get pictures of him playing pool in a room that is flooded with light but the images turn out so dark at first. I thought hum there has to be a way. I know I read about this some where..... Oh ya EXPOSURE. So I went

to the manual setting on the camera. The first pictures were done at ISO 200 and they were just too dark so I bumped the ISO to 400. Don't want to go any higher. I hate the grainy.

The initial picture was taken with F5.6 1/250 So dark. The shutter wasn't open long enough to let the light in.

So I opened the aperture up to 3.5F and slowed the shutter to 1/60. Oops too much.

3.5F and 1/250 worked great. I was so excited. I did it. I actually talked to Lorri Craig about using manual mode more. Thanks Lorri for the inspiration.

I didn't edit the above pics. But I did edit these of tyler. Pretty cute. He likes pool and being big.

We rented a house and I am telling you, it is the way to go. We love it. 200 a night. Which is what we would spend on a hotel and it wouldn't be as nice. The kids ran into the house and explored and pronounced that it was the coolest place they have EVER been. Burton actually followed me around saying, "I can't stop saying, this is the coolest house, mom it is so cool." BTW we have to get 2 rooms when we go to a hotel. Then we have to worry about the people below us. The kids escaping....

Tyler and Oscar are snowboarding right now. So fun. Tyler is determined to board like Shaun White. Oscar just heads straight down the hill.

Chihuahua Puppies

Ok. Who can resist these puppies, well besides me. I am not getting one. But they are sure cute and I loved taking pictures of them. They are Lindsey's new pups. Pure bred Chihuahuas. Cute as heck.

I set up a shoot in the back yard.
The boys just loved em.



This is Ezekiel. He is Lindsey's baby. So cute. He usually won't let me take pictures. But he did it this time. What a doll.

Sammo. She is going to be 13 this summer. I can't believe it. Love you Sam
Mitt and the puppies.
Valerie and the pups. She is such a fun girl. Thanks Lindsey for bringing over the fam. We had a great time.

My Birthday

Yay Mom's birthday!!!!

On March 16th. Guess what I wanted to do.... Take pictures. Yay. The light was midday so there weren't very many good ones.
Nunu came out to spend the day with me. Thanks Nunu. It was so wonderful to be with you.

Nate took me out for dinner later. I had a really nice day. Oh ya, I'm 34 now. What?

I feel about 24.
This is my weened baby...!!!!! It is very exciting.
I am playing with a name to put on my stuff.

Wyatt's birthday too

I have been saving up pictures for a while. And now the time has come. So, I will probably post about 4 times today.

Wyatt turned 2 years. But isn't 2. How is this.??? LEAP YEAR So he will be one in 2012.

This one cracks me up... It was a ELMO doll. Like YMCA. He sings the song but ELMO> So YY thought it was cool at first and then he started backing away. Hilarious. He gets further and further. So cute. He got a bunch of Sesame Street Characters. Loves Elmo.

Notice the front of the cake has been attacked. Hey it's his cake.

Wes and YY they are going to grow up to be good friends.

YY is a fun loving little kid. He enjoys

* Testing Limits

*Watching Elmo

*Reading Books

*Eating Oatmeal

*Playing with brothers

Happy Birthday baby

Wesley Turns 7

Wesley Bday was Feb 15th, he is the ultimate middle child. He is so darling and he is 7. We are so grateful to have him in our family.

For his birthday we went GeoCaching. It is our new thing. We are loving it. If you aren't familiar, (note you do not have to have 17-18 kids to do it. There is websites that have geocaches. You can read the clues, but most of the time we just head out. It give coordinates and you just find it. It does help to have kids because they spread out and find it. I have not found one yet. This time it was a bee. A stuffed Bee that played a song and had an led light thing.. Cute. No

you don't take them. Just leave them for the next person. The last one that we found had a log and you could take one of the little toys if you replaced it with one of your own. Of course we have toys in the car.

I got a bunch of crumby toys from the dollar store. The weather was beautiful. The GeoCache was on an empty lot. There was also this big big pile of roots and branches. The kids loved it.

Then we headed back to the house for presents and cake.

Cake in the front yard? Yes we are so outdoorsy.

Ok this cake is not exactly fancy. But my kids think it is really fancy if it has toys on it. This was a big hit.

Wesley has been experimenting with water and ice. He loves freezing water and melting it.. So cute.

Happy Birthday Wes