It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!!

Yup...this season has been pretty good so far! Great decorations, beautiful tree, awesome traditions, telling and retelling of the REAL Christmas story, deals on presents, and MIKE is HOME for it! I saw a tutorial on how to make your Christmas Tree glow and I had fun playing with it...basically you close your aperature (F number...as high as possible) open your shutter speed to over 5 seconds, USE A TRIPOD and set your timer on your camera so it doesn't shake. I think my ISO was around 800. Only have your tree lights on and the rest of the house dark or very dim and shoot away! I believe my settings were "10 shutter speed, 22 F, ISO 800. Then I added a slight boost with photoshop...but it really didn't need it.

Then the bokeh tree...I may be wrong on this, but the way I did it was by manually making it out of focus and I could see the bokeh through my camera. I believe my shutter speed was 1/50 and a 2.2F, ISO stil 800. Good thing about this is that you don't really have to worry about shaking too much.

Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season so far! Wishing we were closer to home for family, but we will make do this year...:-)

Unedited, SOOC, Family photos:-0

Love this place I found to take photos and I love fall colors! Oh...most of all...love my boys...

Chaos among the calm...

By the obvious lack of posts...life has been quite chaotic. Which is always good right? Well, in this case it is. I have had numerous photo sessions during the week and weekends for friends and friends of friends. I seriously thought once I started charging people, then it would slow down a bunch, but it is amazing how my second job now is to edit pics and be creative! Loving it!

The boys have found new ways to entertain themselves while I sit next to them on the computer..."little legos" is one of the things they do:-) Hence my table being full of them, while I sip on my coffee and enjoy the chitter of two imaginative buddies. This pic was also taken with my new prime lens...LOVE IT!

Mike has been enjoying getting the boys out and running around (still wishing for a swing set in our backyard) but the obstacle course will do fine for now. Boys sure will be boys!!
Such a big guy climbing the ropes!
Always a teaching moment for Daddy and Son. Austin is so independent and so brave...but sometimes he does need help! Notice the look on his face?

I FINALLY got to meet my wonderful nephew! And yes, my great sister and brother in law visited also:-) It was so awesome to see them as a family, growing their own precious boy. It is always so fun to have them visit because of how laid back we can all be, the video gaming by the men, and constant conversation for me and Jillian. They were amazing though...they saw a glimpse of my chaotic life and the messiness that goes along with it...and yet they still wanted to be here. Josh (my BIL) did the dishes several times, and Jillian as well. So great to have helpful visitors! Anyways, we stayed home a bunch, but got to take family photos of both our families, did a little shopping, movie watching, and mothering.

Here are all four boys together...Logan 4.5, Everett 7.5 months, Noah 3 months, and Austin 2.5!

All in the tub one night:-) Everett is obsessed with splashing, more so than his older brothers and poor Noah got so much water in his face! He was a trooper though...I know there will be pay back some day:-)

Crazy kids...Everett was a little interested in Noah, but mainly like to have something to climb on...the bouncer!

I got to hold him while he was sleeping one time...oh HEAVEN! He kept smiling and making silly expressions...love him!

Here are a few shots of Everett exploring...I think he really wanted to go outside that day!

On the move:-)

Beautiful Mommy and her handsome son!

Yes, Logan was in love with Noah and we had to keep reminding him to be gentle with him. "Noah doesn't have brothers like EVerett does" (who is used to the roughness by now).
Logan kept making the funniest faces when we were taking pics of them...Noah enjoyed the attention.

Stay tuned....I have plenty more photos coming!!

Still here!

Hey ya'll...we are still here! SUPER busy and growing up fast! Everett is officially a crawler and is hilarious. He basically uses one foot and drags the other leg under him. Kinda like a hurt let. Oh well! Gets him around places huh? Logan was super excited at first but now has to constantly move his toys and keep things on the table. Oh the joys of a little brother.

Halloween was fun...we thought the boys would be more into it, but they were done in about 10 minutes. Austin actually walked into the first two houses and was very upset when we told him he couldn't go into strangers houses. What a goof! Overall, they had a good time and got lots of candy for only an hour!

IronHide

Spidey and his web
Me and my cute puppy:-) Found it at a thrift store!
Going around the neighborhood!
I made some Santa Fe Chicken Chili the other night and it was quite beautiful in the crockpot before it cooked!! From www.skinnytaste.com

Me finishing my 10K. It seriously was the worst weather...so windy that when the gust of 30-40 mile and hour wind hit my jello like legs at mile 5, I about fell over! I ran the whole way though, I was determined to do that even if it wasn't that fast. This was a halloween race, so you were encouraged to dress up. There were some hilarious costumes like slinky dog, Michael Jackson on an IV running with his doctor, several Flinestones, etc. Great race. Haven't run since though because I am trying to heal some severe shin splints. I can't wait to get back out there!