My new camera

Is it possible to really like something but be scared to death of it at the same time? I'm thinking that this best describes my sentiments for my new camera.

Patrick lovingly took notice of my constant (complaining) requests for a new camera. I know I should just be thankful to have a camera and I hope I was. It's just that our camera was falling apart. I dropped it on the floor as a flustered new mom when Henry was only a few weeks old causing the battery compartment door to break and stay constantly open. I had to cover it with tape to keep it closed. Then on our first trip to Destin, FL. in 2006 I left it laying on my beach towel and sand got into it and must have caused a few things to go wrong -- the movie feature only recorded 30 second or less movies from that point on and my pictures turned out generally blurry. It also made the shutter speed so super slow causing me constant frustration at missing good shots of the boys who are always in motion. That frustration coupled with my latest hobby, stalking blogs of uber talented camera users (aka photographers, I suppose), drew me to wishfully wanting a new "nice" camera.

After doing just a small bit of research, mostly on those aforementioned blogs, I narrowed my wish list down to two cameras, either of which I thought would be perfect. The week of Christmas Patrick was very busy surfing the net. When I came into the office he'd quickly minimize the window on the screen, but not before I caught glances of such words as "Canon" and "Nikon". I reprimanded him for even thinking about buying me a gift since we had agreed that we would only give to the boys this year. Nonetheless he surprised me on Christmas with a picture in an envelope. Not just any picture though. A picture of the Nikon camera that would be coming for me in the mail. I was thrilled! Fast forward to a week or so later when my camera arrived. My excitement started to turn to terror and fear of this new beast of a camera. No problem, I thought, it's easy to read a user's manual. I for sure thought I could figure this thing out. I read my user's manual late into the night and started to feel overwhelmed. Words like "aperture", and phrases like "manipulating ISO and shutter speed" started to haunt me.

I signed up for a community ed class that starts next month. I hope that will help me figure out what all of those crazy words mean. In the meantime I am having fun with our new camera and even with my bare user knowledge I have definitely noticed a vast improvement in picture quality. And it is fun to feel a little bit like that paparazzi with that lens!

Here's a peek at a few recent pics ---

Henry gets really excited about this camera. I have a whole montage of "excited face" pictures I took (one after the next) of Henry looking at me taking his picture with the new camera. How sweet!Rachel
Love this picture of her!

Practicing for the paparazzi.

I think it makes Patrick laugh when I try to get really into it - he took this picture of me!We have another budding photographer in the house!
I took these with our old camera to compare.Look at that picture he took of me!
I look like an old man! LOL!

Lunch with Daddy

On New Year's Eve Henry, William and I went to visit Patrick at his office. We all went out to lunch with his assistant and her family for a late Christmas celebration. Since Patrick's office is about an hour from home and we don't go to visit him there often, it's a big, fun deal for the boys to go. Henry's very favorite thing in the entire office building is the water cooler and styrofoam cups. He usually fills up a cup for each person at the office, including William, and when he's done with that he keeps filling them up until we notice the conference room table is lined and ask him to stop!

I love the little town that Patrick works in and like trying the different local cuisine. Soon it will be our little town and our local cuisine. I'm trying to have an open mind and get familiar with it. I'm so proud of Patrick for his commitment to his job and the positive attitude he keeps every day driving an hour there and an hour back home again. (I wouldn't want to do it every day!) As much as I don't love the idea of leaving our house and starting over in a new town with strangers and strange places, there are some things I am really looking forward to. One of them is being able to visit Patrick at work on a whim. The boys love being there and playing with all of his "office-y" stuff (i.e. the water cooler). And it will be grrrrrrrrreat having Patrick home an hour earlier at night!

Henry at the water cooler, marveling at the glurping bubbles.

Patrick hard at work.Patrick's wonderful assistant Anita. She's so sweet to the boys. And they love her. They always flock around her desk when we're there. She keeps a stash of toys at the office for them, too. Very sweet.
Last but not least, check out the gorgeous view from Patrick's back office window...Mickey-D's + greasy nugget omissions = not good for Patrick's resolve.

Christmas with our families

We spent Christmas Eve with the Hogans. It's the holiday we traditionally spend with my Grandma and Grandpa and I really love it. It's a whirl of activity and commotion even more so with all of the great-grandbabies running around.

Grandma with Evajane and William. I love the way he's resting his arm on her knee.This year Dan and Grandpa read the Christmas story before we started opening presents. Gabe was a huge (and hilarious) helper. He sat quietly through the whole reading even though something was troubling him. When Dan and Grandpa were done reading he blurted to Grandpa, "You said clothes! It's supposed to be cloth."!!!! So observant and sweet! Love him!!

Caleb and William stayed busy mixing up some treats in the kitchen.

Grandma and William

Evajane and CalebEvajane loved giving Caleb spoonfuls of imaginary food from the play kitchen. He was a gracious recipient and loved accepting every bite!

Christmas morning we exchanged presents with my Dad and Sandi.

Sandi and Henry looking at his new, HUGE book including stickers and dry-erase markers! So much fun!

Love that William and my Dad are in a deep conversation in this one.

We spent Christmas Day and night at my Mom's.

The table set and ready for dinner.

Time to eat!

We woke Henry up from a deep-sleep nap when it was time to eat. Here he still isn't quite awake and ready to pose for me, even though he slept for a few hours!

William loved my Mom's tree! He stayed busy snatching ornaments off and running away.

The biggest thrill of Christmas!!! Throwing the Christmas garbage down the trash chute (and listening to it drop)!My Mom bought the boys matching pjs. We tried very hard to get a good picture of all four of them. It was tough!Oops, we lost one! Where could Caleb be?Surprise!!
My Mom bought this adorable tent and these sleeping bags for the big boys to have a camp-out.

Christmas with the Vances

Cousins! Henry, Caleb and Isaac

William got a big blue tractor.

Caleb, Isaac and Henry

Patrick opening Henry's new forklift (with remote).

We had a wonderful Christmas. It felt different this year; really meaningful. Christmas has always been very meaningful to me, but this year it was even more so. It was special having both boys to celebrate with and make things special for. And Henry really understood the meaning of Christmas and celebrating Jesus' birth. His excitement in the days leading up to Christmas made me feel giddy in anticipation. I'm so thankful for our family. We loved having the chance to celebrate with them. We've had lots of pj days in the past few weeks trying to catch up and settle back in to our normal, post-holiday routine. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2008

Henry waiting so patiently to drink his "bubble juice" (Welch's Sparkling White Grape). He talked about it all day and it was going to be a huge privilege.

Unfortunately, he didn't like it. He was so sweet and polite about it though and simply set his cup back down and said nothing. We asked him if he'd rather have a different drink and he chose pineapple juice. Still in the special glass!

We decided to have our Christmas with the boys on Christmas Eve morning and had a special Christmas dinner the night before. I made my first ham! Henry helped me bake a cake and after dinner we lit birthday candles and sang "Happy Birthday"to Jesus. The boys opened Christmas pj's before their bath that night.

We had a relaxing morning on Christmas Eve, Henry woke up early and was content to watch "Cars" in our bed until we decided to wake up William at 8:00 so we could all go downstairs together. After the boys opened their presents and stockings, we ate cinnamon rolls and packed the van for our trip to Rockford for Christmas with our family there. It was loaded down! I still am amazed at the amount of stuff that we need (or just decide to take) for a few nights away!

Our Christmas morning (Christmas Eve morning, really).

Now this is being really candid. This is me, completely un-done. Sans make-up, hair straightener, shower... ah, glorious Christmas morning pictures! The kids are so cute. The mom? (me) Not so much!!

All Henry asked for was this jack-hammer he spotted after Thanksgiving at Target.

He was thrilled to get it!

William playing with his Little People plane...

and Henry's new laptop (much to Henry's displeasure!).

Trying to get a pose by the tree, without luck!

We loved having Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning at our house with the boys. We definitely want to make it a tradition to do both. As a child I loved going to sleep in my bed on Christmas Eve and waking up to the magic of Christmas morning. I really want that for the boys, even if it's on a different day.