Cold...

January 23...

Noah's first snowball... first of many...

Just look at that innocent face. Isn't he adorable??

... and right after that sweet smile, the little snot smacked me right in the head with that stupid snowball. *sigh* Gotta love having boys!!! The camera had to go in my ski jacket pocket to keep dry because the snowball war kicked in to high gear!!

And for the record... I WON!!!!!

*note: I used Andrew's new little point-n-shoot Sony camera for today's photos. Much easier to play in the snow with a teeny tiny camera!

Jan 22

Jan 21

{holding a spot so I can add my photo later}

Jan 20

{holding a spot so I can add my photo later}

Jan 19

{holding a spot so I can add my photo later}

ABC's & 123's

January 18...

I love word art and I've been noticing words and individual letters a lot lately. I want to get a photo of every letter of the alphabet and numbers 0 through 9. So... here's A.

Surprise...

January 17...

Woke up to a nice little surprise this morning!!

surprise [ser-prahyz, suh-] -–verb (used with object)
1. to strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment, as through unexpectedness: Her beauty surprised me. 2. to come upon or discover suddenly and unexpectedly: We surprised the children raiding the cookie jar.

Drastic...

January 16...

There was more than one photo today. :)

Before:

After:

drastic [dras-tik] –adjective 1. acting with force or violence; violent. 2. extremely severe or extensive: a drastic tax-reduction measure.

And if you're interested... here's all the "in-between" pics too.

Emotional...

January 15... (several photos!)

Today is the day. We all got up super early (4am to be exact) and had breakfast together... but I think at least 2 of the boys was eating while still asleep. ;) I took Tom to the squadron and snapped a few photos. Here he is being a goofball when I told him to strike a pose for Amy because she thinks he's hawt in that flight suit... hahahaaaaa

And one last look at the important stuff before flying... flight updates & email from the boss... and apparently an email from Chris with a video of military guys rapping in the desert is "important" too. ;)Said our good-byes and he headed to the plane... while I went home to grouchy, sleep-deprived kids!

He departed here about 7:30am...

Commitment...

January 14...

After seeing Amy's photo for January 13th, I really wanted to try to photograph my ring. When Tom took his ring off & put it on his dresser, I couldn't help myself. Although I have 4 months to get the photo, I snapped this one the night before he left. He can't wear it when he flies so it spends quite a bit of time on the dresser. :)

I hope you don't mind that I copied your idea Ames!!!

Luck...

January 13...

I wanted to photograph Tom's boots on the black background... and while I was playing with this set up, Noah decided it looked pretty fun. I got some decent shots of the boots... then Noah stepped in...
And something about his solemn expression with the boots in the blurred background just really caught my eye. I wish he was more in focus, but he would NOT be still. This was as good as it was gonna get.
Sometimes photography is all about the luck. I don't think I could have gotten this photo if I'd tried to pose him.

Countdown...

January 12...

Noah's calendar... marking off the days till Daddy leaves in blue... then we'll mark the off the days till Daddy returns in red. :)

This is a photo of the calendar on the wall but Noah uses my Photoshop to mark the X's every day!!! :) He loooooooooves to edit the photo every day. heehee

Cocoa...

January 11...

Daily indulgence... in my favorite Starbucks mug. :)

Cozy...

January 10...

My new fuzzy, pink Crocs!

cozy [koh-zee] -adjective 1. snugly warm and comfortable: a cozy little house.

Real...

January 9...

My hubby is getting ready to deploy again. He spent the day getting some of his things ready to pack... including his uniforms... the brown ones. Makes it very real.





real [ree-uhl, reel] -adjective. 1. true; not merely ostensible, nominal, or apparent: the real reason for an act. 2. existing or occurring as fact; actual rather than imaginary, ideal, or fictitious: a story taken from real life. 3. being an actual thing; having objective existence; not imaginary: The events you will see in the film are real and not just made up. 4. being actually such; not merely so-called: a real victory.

Ball...

January 8...


ball [bawl] -noun. 1. a spherical or approximately spherical body or shape; sphere: He rolled the piece of paper into a ball. 2. a round or roundish body, of various sizes and materials, either hollow or solid, for use in games, as baseball, football, tennis, or golf. 3. a game played with a ball, esp. baseball: The boys are out playing ball.

Build...

January 7...


build [bild] -verb. 1. to construct (esp. something complex) by assembling and joining parts or materials: to build a house. 2. to establish, increase, or strengthen (often fol. by up): to build a business; to build up one's hopes. 3. to mold, form, or create: to build boys into men.

Owl...

January 6...

owl [aul] -noun 1. a type of bird that flies at night and feeds on small birds and animals.


This is my owl shirt! Everytime I wear it I think of Monica!!! It's a really comfy, stretchy thermal material with a felt leaf near the bottom hem. I need to find a long sleeved shirt that I can wear under it while it's cold!

And even if I had make-up on, I still wouldn't have taken a full self-portrait today. :)

Technical stuff: Canon Rebel XT, 18-55mm lens, 430EX flash... f./5.6, ss 100, ISO 100, 55mm focal length, bounced flash using mirror for self-portrait.

Box...

January 5...

box [boks] -noun. 1. a container, case, or receptacle, usually rectangular, of wood, metal, cardboard, etc., and often with a lid or removable cover.

It's pretty typical for my kid.... buy him a $50 toy & he'll play with the box for hours while the toy sits on the floor. :) In this case it was the box for his new booster seat... but he played in the box until I forced him to go get a bath. Oh, and did ya notice the nice clean fingernails?! heehee... He had been outside for a few hours before this photo. "Someone" was supposed to be helping Dad rake leaves... but I think he did more to scatter leaves than rake them.

.

Technical stuff: Canon Rebel XT, 85mm lens, 430EX flash... f./4.0, ss 200, ISO 100, bounced flash... both photos!

Dedicated...

January 4...

ded·i·cat·ed [ded-i-key-tid] –adjective 1. wholly committed to something, as to an ideal, political cause, or personal goal: a dedicated artist.

This is a photo of a wooden C-130 model of the plane my husband deployed on last year. It's scale and very realistic. He had it made after he returned home. It sits on top of our entertainment center with a wooden F-15... the plane he worked on before he started flying on C-130's.

The "dedication" comes from my husband, Tom, serving in the United States Air Force. He loves what he does and it's obvious when he talks about it. He has such a dedication to his fellow flight crew members, his squadron, the country. I am so proud of him.

Technical stuff: Canon Rebel XT, 85mm lens, 430EX external flash... f./1.8, ss 200, ISO 100, bounced flash.

Pose...

January 3...

pose [pohz] -noun 1. a bodily attitude or posture: Her pose had a note of defiance in it. 2. the act or period of posing, as for a picture.

(although "cheesy" or "annoyed" would probably go a little better with his attitude today!)

Technical stuff: Canon Rebel XT, 85mm lens, external flash... f./4.0, ss 200, ISO 100, bounced flash... and one little boy that just wanted me to go away! :)

Faith...

January 2nd...

And starting today, I'm going to use one descriptive word, along with the definition, for each of my photos. This was the idea of a very talented photographer & crafter at ScrapFreak.com (thanks for the idea Chickie!!) and I hope I do it justice!

Faith [feyth] -noun. - the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

technical stuff: Canon dRebel XT camera w/ 85mm lens & 430EX flash ... manual settings: f/1.8, ss 1/200, ISO 100, bounced flash.

2008: a year of photos

a new year, a new beginning...

I started last year with good intentions. I loved the idea of taking a photo every day so I joined the challenge on a message board & started out with lots of enthusiasm. It made me think about my photos and gave me some ideas for trying new things... but life got in the way. Sadly, photography wasn't high on the list of priorities around here. I let my 'photo a day' slowly dwindle down to 'photo a month' then stopped all together before I even made it to the summer.

So... here we are at the beginning of another year... and I'm going to give it another shot. I have the same enthusiasm but this year I'm going to make photography more of a priority. I want to take more than one photo a day (because, honestly I've never been able to take just ONE photo of anything!) and to work on specific skills. I want to see an improvement by the end of this year and that requires dedication and perserverance.

I will do this. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this.

Let's get this party started!!!

These are two of my boys... the oldest and the youngest... putting together a K'nex car! Dewayne has NO chance when Noah looks at him with those big eyes & asks his brother to play with him. heehee

1 down... 365 to go. :) Can't forget about Leap Year!!!