Day 38

The kids were wrapping up their Valentine cards tonight when  GothGirl called me into the dining room.  I had set an empty casserole dish on the table temporarily and Kenai made himself right at home.  I think I mentioned before that he loves to lay in strange places: on top of lumpy bags, inside boxes & containers that are a tad too small, on top of loose paper, and even on top of our hard metal cable box (it’s warm!).

Editing: increase exposure & brightness in ACR, slight sharpening

• f/3.2
• 1/15 sec
• 800 ISO
• 37mm

This shot was taken on Jan. 26th, but thought you’d like to see him in action lounging on the cable box.  Pretty darn cute, huh?!!

SOCC shot, no editing

• f/4
• 1/25 sec
• 400 ISO
• 50mm

Day 37

Today was Superbowl Sunday; but since the game wasn’t until evening, we tried to get some other things done beforehand.  I spent most of the day getting our tax documents ready and going through tons of old paperwork.  Meanwhile, the kids sat down to “address” their class Valentine cards, with GothGirl keeping an eye on LilCrockett.  I got some great photos of the kids.  In particular, I love the last close-up photo.  Not only does it show LilCrockett’s cute little hands, but his chicken-scratch hand-writing too. 

SOOC shots, no editing

• f/5
• 1/80 –1/100 sec
• 800 ISO
• 28mm

LilCrockett and Crockett all decked out in Packers jerseys.  One of our friends is a big Packers fan, so it’s only natural that my two have increased their love for the team as well.  LilCrockett’s face and pants are dirty from playing with a couple of friends.  Of course I realized this after I took the photo.  Ah well, boys will be boys!  We were pretty excited that the Packers won the SuperBowl.  Too bad LilCrockett was already asleep by then…..we’ll have to tell him first thing in the morning. 

Editing: increase exposure in ACR

• f/6.3
• 1/60 sec
• 200 ISO     
• 32mm

Day 36

GothGirl signed up to play volleyball at a local gym and today was her first practice.  She was a little nervous beforehand because 1) she wasn’t sure if she would know anyone on the team other than one person, and 2) she’s never played in an actual volleyball league before (though she did take a volleyball camp at school for a few weeks last year).  Practice went great.  It turns out that 3 of the girls on her team go to her school.  The coach worked them pretty hard, which is a good thing since there are only 2 practices before they start actual games. 

I took quite a few photos of practice, but this one was my favorite action shot of GothGirl.  She is normally not very coordinated (I can say that because she takes after me), but she did really well.  I look forward to seeing how she improves in the next few weeks. 

Editing: increase exposure in ACR

• f/4
• 1/200 sec
• 800 ISO
• 50mm

Day 35

A few shots of the gorgeous sunset tonight.  The first one was taken just behind the mound of snow outside our front door.  The second one was taken a little bit down the driveway and though there was alot of clutter in the background (tree, swing, mailbox), I wanted to get a picture of the entire bottle tree this time.  Love the light within the bottles. 

Editing: adjustments in ACR

• f/4.5
• 1/2000 sec
• 200 ISO
• 28mm

Day 34

Just some pics of Seth playing in the snow today.  Crazy boy would throw himself down belly first into the snow.  It was bitterly cold out, so GothGirl and I stayed indoors where it was warm.  I took these shots from inside from the doorway.

Editing: top photo has cropping and slight adjustments in ACR.

• f/4.5
• 1/2000 – 1/2500 sec
• 200 ISO
• 71mm

Day 33

The blizzard finally hit and we ended up with about 13.7 inches of snow on top of about a quarter inch of ice/sleet.  We typically only see about 3-6 inches of snow at a time here, so we’re a little overwhelmed.  The kids had a Snow Day from school and my work was closed as well.  Crockett is considered “essential emergency personnel” so he had to work, but at least he could do so from home…mainly via email and phone.

Fortunately we never lost power and our neighbor helped us plow our drive with his 4-wheeler.  It took the city quite awhile to get all of the streets plowed.  Most neighborhoods didn’t get plowed until late in the day today and I heard that some are still unplowed.  The unplowed roads are basically impossible to travel if you don’t have 4WD.  We ended up taking the 4-wheeler out through the neighborhood yesterday morning to see all of the snow. 

This is how most of the roads looked.  Our 4-wheeler was barely able to pass through and that was only if we maintained speed.  You could not slow down or you would get stuck.  Nearly everyone was out shoveling or snow-blowing their driveways.  Snowplows finally made it through mid-day. 

Editing: slight adjustments in ACR 

• f/4.5
• 1/3200 sec
• 200 ISO
• 28mm

We get some crazy snow drifts in our yard since we live on the very west side of town and there is merely a field across from us (no trees or other structures to break the wind).  All the snow blows up against and around the back of our house.  Here’s Crockett standing at the edge of one of our deepest snow drifts in our backyard.  He’s not even in the deepest part of the drift, which would be mid-thigh high on his 5’ 9” frame.  There were parts of our yard that had hardly any snow and then sections like this.  Shawn White could nearly train back here if he wanted to.  Crazy!  

Editing: cropping & slights adjustments in ACR

• f/4.5
• 1/1600 sec
• 200 ISO
• 28mm

A shot of GothGirl and LilCrockett in the neighbor’s backyard.  They played outside most of the morning and then again in the afternoon.

Editing: slight adjustments in ACR

• f/4.5
• 1/1250 sec
• 200 ISO
• 44mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A shot of GothGirl (in blue) and the neighbor girls hanging out between the neighbor’s fence & dog kennel.  Sweet!

Editing: cropping, slight adjustments in ACR, the pioneer woman boost action

• f/4.5
• 1/800 sec
• 200 ISO
• 28mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least, a picture of LilCrockett sitting down in the snow in the corner of the neighbor’s yard. 

Editing: slight adjustments in ACR, the pioneer woman boost action

• f/4.5
• 1/1600 sec
• 200 ISO
• 63mm

I have TONS (200+) more pictures from today, but I will stop at these! 

Day 32

Today was a snow day from school due to the weather, so I was home with the kids.  We didn’t have much snow for most of the day & the wind was really blowing; thus, we spend the day doing indoor activities.  Here’s a shot of Mia playing WebKinz on my laptop. 

I opted for a square crop to this photo in honor of Miz Booshay herself, Donna Boucher, who has been doing a lot of square crops lately.  Love it! 

Editing: cropping, the pioneer woman boost action, icing action

• f/3.5
• 1/15 sec
• 400 ISO
• 50mm

Here’s Seth vegging on the floor while watching a movie, Impy’s Island.  On most days, it’s hard to catch him being this still unless it’s bedtime.   

 

Editing: cropping, the pioneer woman boost action

• f/3.5
• 1/30 sec
• 400 ISO
• 50mm

When Brian got home from work, we had a little mini celebration. Mia’s team competed in the Regional TeamQuest academic challenge (click here for my first post about this) last Friday.  Her team placed 6th out of 24 teams and though they did not get trophies (which were only given through 5th place), her team did qualify to go to the State Championships.  They ended up advancing the top 12 teams. 

Our school sent 4 teams to Regionals and 3 of the teams advanced.  Mia’s team, which was the team to score the lowest at the local event out of our school’s 4 teams actually ended up scoring 2nd out of our school’s 4 teams at Regionals.  We’re so proud of her!

A little background info:

Team Quest is a program that challenges students to apply their knowledge in a group
setting to come up with an answer to a question or a solution to a problem.  It also allows
students to come up with their own ideas and to be creative to accomplish the
challenges of the program.  This program is a competitive activity which makes the
students strive for the top award.  Our goal is to encourage students and give them the
opportunity to show their talents while working on a team together.  By placing students that are high achievers together we have found that it challenges them to work harder and get excited about what they can achieve.  The challenges are based on a wide range of subjects:

• Engineering - a problem is given which must be solved by constructing something to complete a task.
• Trivia - a challenge where questions are asked in a game format.  Strategy and applying knowledge must be used in this challenge.
• Math - math questions and applying math to help solve problems.  How math is applied in everyday life and why math knowledge is important in solving everyday problems.
• Music - questions on theory, recognizing types of music, where and when different types of music is found, and what role music plays in the lives of people. 
• Creativity - a challenge to come up with totally new and innovative ideas and be able to communicate that to others.

Since I was gone to my scrapbooking retreat when Mia got home from Regionals, I wanted to do something to celebrate her achievement.  Our celebration was a few days late, but she was still just as excited.  Here’s a shot of her with the ice cream cake I picked up for her.  And despite the low light, my picture turned out pretty darn good!

Editing: exposure & brightness increase in ACR, cropping, the pioneer woman boost action, icing action

• f/2.8
• 1/60 sec
• 800 ISO
• 28mm