Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for-- faith, family, friends, food and good health! This is the time of our life and we are trying to savor every part of early parenthood even if moment to moment things are crazy and hectic. Thank the Lord for providing us with so many blessings and help us to not take them for granted!

We had a fun weekend full of visiting, cooking and enjoying family time! Santa Fe on Thurs and our house on Sat...

Beautiful table setting and beautiful hostess!

Kyle entertained us so gently on the piano, he was even reading the music notes!

Grandee dee enjoyed some cuddle time with Jacob

And Grandma Barker enjoyed some tickle time with Kyle

The guests of honor came all the way from DC...

After a nice meal and great conversations, the boys were spent!

We had a wonderful time on Sat hanging out with G & G Reinert, but failed to take any pictures!  I guess we were too busy cooking away! 

I heart Faces & TOOSHIES!

This week's challenge is about tooshies and here is a shot of my youngest as he has recently discovered his his toes!  Who can resist a squishy baby bottom?!  To see more entries visit:

More sun flare...

I had fun learning a new technique in photography called sunflare... I learned that using a low aperture (higher number value) I could capture the sun beams.  All I needed to accomplish this was a setting change on my camera (I set mine to f/22) and to get the sun in the back of the subject that I was photographing.  Ironically, just a couple of days ago I was on a walk with the kids and Josh told me that he saw the lasers in the street light (we were heading home around dusk)... I looked at him to figure out what he was talking about and saw that his eyes were squinted as he looked at the light.  I squinted my own eyes and saw beams in the street light by turning the aperture of my eyes way down!  What a great visual analogy to how the aperture in a camera works.  The down fall to this (as I soon found out after taking lots of pictures) is that the lighting isn't the best, so most of the time the subject was dark and grainy.  I used my bounce flash on a few of the pictures and that certainly helped sharpen and brighten the subject, but you lost some of the effects of the sun flare.  So until next time, I am still trying to figure this all out--- But here are some learning examples! 

I Heart Faces week 46: Sun Flare

This I Heart Faces contest thing is a bit addictive, but also challenging in that you get to go try out something new with your camera... I personally did not know what sun flare was until I saw this contest, but I think it is pretty cool!  I looked through my old picture (the ones in which I accidently got sun flare) and then I experimented with it this weekend and this is what i came up with.  There lots of other fun pictures posted at I Heart Faces, so go check them out!  I also posted a few of my other attempts at capturing sun flare here if you are interested in seeing them...

Jacob 4 months

Last week Jacob turned 4 months! I am not sure if it is the fact that he is the 3rd baby or the fact that he is so easy going, but time is flying!!!! His sweetness is a happy little retreat that I sink into when I feel overwhelmed by the hectic toddler life put on by the other 2... I wish I could put all of his cute gestures and looks into a priority folder in my memory, but unfortunately all I can do is take as many pictures and video as possible because I have learned that as much as you think that you may remember every detail of babyhood it fades fast as they grow onto the next stage. We occasionally watch videos of the other two and constantly say "oh yeah, remember that?!". So, as I write this blog segment, I want to emphasize the things he is doing lately...
He loves to talk and smile, he will do that to just about anyone that is willing to listen!

His Ohhhhhs & Ahhhhs are his favorite!

He is a drooler... the front of his shirt is constantly wet from all that drool.

He found his feet and toys... he likes to eat his piggies just about as much as mom and dad do!

When he gets really excited, his whole body shivers with glee!

He doesn't like baths too well :(.

He rolls from tummy to back and frequently holds his Pilates v-shaped crunch.

He loves watching all the commotion of the household...

I love all his rolls and his squishy thick legs and cheeks!

Bosque Playtime part II

I told you I would post more pictures from our gorgous fall kissed bosque, so here they are.  We truly enjoyed our fall this year and are sad to see most of the leaves on the ground after our windy storms this past weekend (we even got another sprinkling of snow).  At least I can look back at these pictures and remember the lovely fall of '09! 

I Heart Face week 45: Autumn Beauty

This week is celebrating fall colors and boy have we been enjoying them around here!  We have made a few visits to the bosque to play and capture some colors.  Here is my little autumn beauty taking a moment (a very quick moment!) to stop and ponder the big trees and colors after a busy playdate of stick swords and running!  To see all the beauties, go visit: I Heart Faces. 

Playdate in the woods

About a week ago we we spent an afternoon with Megan and Mallory at the bosque (the wooded area by the Rio Grande river).  It was so enjoyable to hike and play among the HUGE cottonwood trees that were so vibrantly yellow... The evening fall sun gleamed into the woods like a fairytale.  The kids had so much fun running along finding sticks, logs, leafs and dirt trails.  We found out quickly how differently 3 year old boys and girls play... Mallory brought her baby doll and pranced around pretending that the sticks that Josh found for her were fairy wands, while Josh used the sticks as swords and lasers.  Josh would zoom past us as fast as he could with his sound effects in full force, while Mallory seemed to sit back and take in nature as much as a 3 year old could, that is in her little fairy tale world!  Fall is a beautiful time to photograph nature, there are so many colors and lighting effects!  These pictures make me want to just go set up a fort in the woods and play there all day!

Josh was always on the move... It was nearly impossible to capture a still shot.

What a sweetie pie!

Kyle, always enjoying life!

His imagination is running wild!

On the chase to catch each other!

Sticks are nature's toys!

You can almost hear their laughter!

This is also how he feels the texture of his blanket...

This is Mallory's fairytale... Oh, my!  Look at the beams of sunlight!

This is Josh's laser... psssst, psssst!

We had so much fun, that we made it a family trip the next day... Pictures from that day coming soon!