Getting Acquainted with my K-r

I mentioned in my last post that my darling hubby bought me this pretty little camera for Christmas.

My film SLR was a Pentax and I loved that camera. Now that everything is going all digital...and I'm not entirely sure that I love that direction...I'm trying to adapt. Even though I have been shooting digital with a great camera for at least the past three years, I still have yet to find that groove and get the quality pictures that I was getting before I began homeschooling. In an effort to find out if it is me or the camera, Dan bought me a Pentax digital that will fit my Pentax SLR lenses (namely my zoom lens!).

My first practice session has left me thinking that I am totally rusty and therefore it must be me :) But getting to know a new camera, especially a digital, takes some time and practice. I endeavor to find my groove and master this new digital age. **Cool hats courtesy of Granny and Papa!

A Christmas Montage

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! It was quite busy around here but it was good. Since my poor blog has clearly been neglected in the craziness of the season, I thought it right to post a montage of our Christmas festivities. This doesn't include the Christmas drama that we were all a part of at church (where Dan sang "The Grinch" song), our co-op Christmas Party, or the evening we spent exchanging presents with our dear friends. Come to think of it, there is probably more that I've missed. Oh, well. Maybe I'll get to posting some of those and maybe I won't :)

My wonderful husband bought me a new Pentax DSLR for Christmas! Isn't he amazing :) I spent Christmas Eve wiping the Canon's memory cards and backing up my files. I put the Canon on the bench so I could put a charged battery in it Christmas morning. Well, the Canon wasn't where I left it. As I'm looking all over for it, I realize my camera bag was full. He had put the Pentax in the camera bag to surprise me! It's a cute camera with a black and white body. It fits my hand perfectly AND it will fit my zoom lens from my film SLR. I'm still trying to figure it out so excuse the quality while I get used to it.

Dan and Aly getting the Angel on top of the tree.

Dan, Granny, Papa, and Skyeler playing foosball. It took Dan, Skyeler, and I to get that thing in from the garage to the downstairs bedroom! Many bruises (on my part) and tears (again, on my part...I'm such a wimp...Skye is stronger than me!) later, we got it. The plan was to give the kids something to do when Dan's family came for Christmas. The irony...none of the kids played. Papa enjoyed playing with the girls, though :)

Aly on Christmas morning trying on her new coat.

Papa loved the present that Aly picked out for him. We put a picture of him and Granny with the girls and Bryce and Carter in it. It was his favorite!

Aly and Skye both got new hats from Granny and Papa. Poor Skye. My new camera's flash is really bright. Add that to an early morning and she's a bit bleary eyed :)

Dan giving Aly a hug. Her present to him...two magnets for the car. One said "26.2" for his marathon run. The other just says "Run."

Skyeler got many new journals for Christmas. She writes poetry and finds these small journals to be perfect for recording her poetry. If you would like to read some of her poetry, check out her blog "A Maiden's Notes," it's linked in the sidebar.

Skyeler also got a coat from Granny and Papa. I got a picture of them with their coats and hats.

After Granny and Papa headed back home, we all just bummed out :) Both Dan and Aly received an ITouch for Christmas. Oh. My. Goodness. They were like this most of Christmas day LOL! Dan is addicted to Plants vs. Zombies :)

We got to host Dan's family Christmas get together at our house this year! We had such a wonderful time having everyone here. The family has grown and we were quite packed but the kids were great and we had plenty of food. It was nice to spend time with them considering we usually only see them once a year. Here are Zac and Skyeler. I take their picture every year. I can't believe they are practically all grown up. Zac turned 18 December 29th. Where did time go? He used to play with Power Rangers and give Skyeler the pink one because she was a girl LOL! Zac got Skyeler to play the piano for him...in front of all the family... quite the amazing feat :)

Aly and Elena and David Henry playing together. Elena will be as tall as her Aunt Angel very soon!

Diane's husband Tim got all the kids together for a picture. This was the best of my four. I don't know if anyone else got anything better!

Then someone had the big idea that all the adults needed a picture, too. I'm glad we did. As my dad says...it's great to be making memories!

Jordan, Oliver, Zac, Skyeler, and Skyeler's friend Elizabeth. I had some great shots of them cracking up and being silly but they were kind of blurry from all the movement.

After opening presents we played LCR for pennies, dimes, and nickels. Even though Oliver was cheating by pulling more coins from his pocket (yeah, Skye told on you!), it still came down to Dan and Skyeler. Dan ended up winning. The funny thing is, the game is totally random. Dan gloated about getting change to go to Starbuck's with.

It really was a great holiday! I love spending time with family and friends. We still have one more Christmas to go, though. Cheryl and I haven't got a chance to get together yet. I know the kids are really looking forward to that too.

Dan Qualifies for the Boston Marathon!

Dan has been training for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon for months. At first his goal was just to run another marathon. Then he decided he would like to qualify for the Boston Marathon. See you just can't sign up and run The Boston. There is a qualifying time that you have to meet for your age category. Dan had to run another marathon at 3 hours 20 minutes and 59 seconds to qualify for The Boston. I can't tell you all the hours that Dan put into training for this. Yesterday, we drove to Indianapolis to pick up his packet and stay the night. Today, 1,400 miles of training (since June 1) and four pairs of shoes later, he made it!! Dan's official time was 3 hours 19 minutes and 4 seconds! His pace was 7 minutes 36 seconds a mile. He came in 236th overall. He worked so hard. The girls and I are so proud!

Here he is, 7 a.m., dressed and ready. This is the "before" picture. Those are his snazzy racing shoes :)

Here he is crossing the finish line! The time on the clock is a little off from his official time. The official time is tracked by a chip attached to his shoe. It doesn't begin till he crosses the starting line and he was in Level 3 seeding so he crossed the starting line a little after the clock shown started. I was getting so worried. The clock said 3:18 and he hadn't come around the corner of the far building. I was getting a little teary eyed thinking that he wasn't going to make it. He came around the corner at 3:19 (by the finish line clock) and I wanted to tell him to hurry up! Skyeler was calmer, she told me that it wasn't going to take him a whole minute to run that short distance :)

Here he is getting his shiny, wrappy thingy. It helps him stay warm. We knew we were headed in the right direction on our way to the finish line when we saw a bunch of sparkling people headed our way. Unfortunately, it was still freezing at the end of the race and by the time we picked up his track pants and made our way back to the car, he was really cold.

The sight at the end of the finish line...the Indianapolis State Capitol Building.

Here he is with Aly and Skye inside the Convention Center. He told me I should have said his hair was a wreck. Who cares about his hair!! He just ran 26.2 miles :)

Trick or Treat

This Halloween Cheryl and Glen brought the boys here to Trick or Treat with Aly. We were kind of hoping that they would do a theme again this year, but Aly had other plans. First, she wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story 3. Bryce and Carter didn't want to be Toy Story 3 characters. They were going for Star Wars. So we thought Aly would make a great Princes Lea or Padme. Aly didn't want to be either. So no theme. Bryce and Carter stuck with their Star Wars theme, Bryce being Darth Maul and Carter Darth Vader. Aly chose to go with a Percy Jackson and the Olympians theme and was Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Aly looked very pretty in her costume and got quite a few compliments telling her so. She also got at least one Princess Lea comment :) Carter sounded like Darth Vader behind his mask and Bryce's was actually pretty scary. They had a great time and got quite a bit of loot. It was so nice to have them here to visit. We wish we could get together more often.


Darth Maul, Athena, and Darth Vader ready for Trick or Treat. I think Darth Vader is trying to use his Force powers on me :)

I tried to do Aly's hair into some intricate looking thing. Not too shabby. You can't imagine the bobby pins it took to keep it that way!

On a mission ... a candy mission

Skyeler walked with us but didn't dress up. She's checking out Aly's stash to see what she can confiscate. Lucky for her, Aly doesn't like a bunch of mini chocolate bars. Skye and I had quite a pile to ourselves.

The piles...

Skye turns Sweet Sixteen Part III

Ok, so there is one more post on Skyeler's 16th Birthday. I guess she partied pretty hard. :) The funny thing is, none of these pictures were actually taken on her birthday. Her party was the weekend before. The ones to follow the day before. Why no pictures on her birthday? Her friend Elizabeth was testing for her Black Belt in Tai Kwon Do on her birthday, which was immediately followed by our church's Harvest Party.

One thing you need to know about Skyeler...she hates surprises. Usually, Dan and I are very good at NOT surprising her, however, we had two great opportunities for surprises the week of her birthday. Granny and Papa decided that they just couldn't miss being here for her 16th birthday. I decided that I couldn't miss the opportunity to surprise her when they got here :) She was surprised! Papa beeped the horn as they pulled in the driveway and she looked out the window and saw the red truck. It was great!

The second surprise was her birthday present. She had asked for a dress for the Renaissance Festival for an early birthday present. We bought it for her and told her that that was pretty much it for her presents. Well, her laptop, which had been Elizabeth's old one, was not keeping up with some of the new photo/video editing that she was trying to do. Dan decided that she needed a new one and since it was her 16th birthday, he wanted to do something special for her. So we bought her a new laptop. She had NO idea :) Dan took her out to Panera and took his own laptop case with her new laptop in it (with all her stuff already installed and ready to go). He pulled it out and surprised her. Needless to say...she LOVED it!!! And was VERY surprised! Dan took a couple pictures at Panera ...

While Dan and Skye were out at Panera...Granny, Aly, and I went shopping. Aly wanted to buy something for her sister for her birthday. She was so excited to find the purse that Skyeler had been looking at! She bought that and some pretty push pins for Skye's bulletin board. We happened across a birthday card from a cat at Target. It was perfect! So not only did Aly come home with a birthday present for Skye, but Sparkles (unknowingly) came home with a card and a present...a burnt orange shirt with a cat on it.

It didn't take long for Aly to realize what Skyeler getting a new laptop meant...the trickle down effect :) We got a chuckle when Aly said "Can I call Skyeler's old laptop 'my' laptop now?!" Dan wiped all of Skyeler's stuff off it and got it ready for Aly. Who knows how long it will keep running, but for the moment, we have a pair of geeky, techy girls. This is what they looked like that evening! The best part...it wasn't staged :)

So we are glad that Skyeler had a wonderful Sweet Sixteen! She's such a blessing and we love her very much.

Skyeler turns Sweet Sixteen Part II

I "dressed to match" for the photo shoot so I could have my picture taken with Skyeler. I rarely like to have pictures taken of myself, but couldn't let the opportunity pass by.

After the photo shoot, we came back to the house for some pizza. Then we were off again for a scavenger hunt at Skyeler's favorite outdoor mall. Dan and I had spent a couple hours getting questions and riddles ready for the scavenger hunt. Questions like "Which direction is 'Nine?'" Answer: West. "What lotion might Alice wear in Wonderland?" Answer: Secret Wonderland by Bath & Body Works. "Bring back a Caribou Coffee napkin with a signature on it. Get 2 extra points if the signature is Aly's." Well, you get the idea! The girls had a blast! After two hours, Hadley, Skyeler, and Elizabeth won the hunt. Tori, Calleigh, and Sarah were only a couple points behind, however. The girls were so tired that they didn't even want to shop :0 We dropped by Dairy Queen to pick up the ice cream cake and then headed home for dinner. Skyeler had an awesome time just hanging with her friends. It was a great day!

Skyeler is Sweet Sixteen!

Shh, don't tell anyone but I am extremely behind on my blog. Shamefully so, really, considering how much I want to share. My anal self couldn't post Dan's marathon pictures before catching up, however, so here we go :)

Skyeler, my first baby girl, turned Sweet Sixteen October 23rd. Ridiculous! Unbelievable! We were all set to throw a big birthday bash, but Skye's not into "big" or "bashes." We had her closest friends over and spent the morning at a nearby park having a photo shoot. This is something Skyeler had been wanting to do for a while. Two memory cards later, we had some pictures to go in the frames we bought for the party favor.

Aly, not to be left out, had to jump into a few of the pictures. My favorite of her and Skyeler alone is in the sidebar. Her favorite was her and Skye in the canoe, a picture she had planned from the moment we went to the park :)