A Good Day for Scooters

The kids got scooters for Christmas this year, but with it being cold they haven't been able to use them much.  With the warmer weather pushing in, they've been able to get outside more often and ride their scooters.  Here's a few pics.

Revving up the engine

Full speed ahead

Game face

Bimmer wanted me to take pictures of him with this stick. Notice the mismatched shoes.  He had fallen on his scooter and received some near life threatening scrapes (not even any blood) and felt this setup would be more conducive to his crippled state.

Faster than fast, quicker than quick.

Welcomed Visitors and HD's Blessing

Taking a rest from the tiring schedule of eating and filling up diapers

Last weekend Q's parents came to visit. Q's mom stayed up with HD both nights they were here so we could actually get some good rest. That was really nice! That Sunday we also had some of my family over for HD's blessing. Following are a few photos from both visits. Unfortunately I didn't get my camera out enough and missed a lot of photos of family members who came to visit over the weekend. Fail on my part, I'll try and be a little more proactive for future visits!

Firebolt sporting some new accessories she got in the mail from her Aunt

Bimmer showing off his muscles in his new dragon pj's courtesy of Aunt 

HD getting ready for his blessing

HD chilling with Grandma

Firebolt kind of likes her Aunt Smarty Pants

Deep in thought...about eating

The Masked Crusader

Here are just a few quick photos I took before leaving for work one morning this week.  The kids made masks with their aunt Smarty Pants the night before and had a blast.  I'm hoping to take more photos of HD and the kids this weekend.  We'll see if time and circumstance permit...

The Masked Crusader

Armed with laughs and smiles

Our masked hero in his normal identity saying good morning to his little brother

All wrapped up and cozy

Where Have They Gone?

A friend of mine at work has been doing photography for several years now, and lately we've worked on a different theme each month and then compared our results.  February's theme was damage.  As I tend to do with everything, the end of the month was coming up and I hadn't taken any photos of damage yet.

I've had the same job for about 4 1/2 years now and have for the most part have taken the same route to and from work everyday.  As I was looking around one morning on my way to work for a damaged scene I could photograph I saw this abandoned home up on a hill in the middle of some trees about 1/4 a mile from the office.  Now I realize old abandoned buildings/homes are not uncommon, but I was kind of taken back that I had never noticed this one before.

During a lunch break I grabbed my camera and took several photos.  Whenever I see a place like this, I always wonder what happened.  Did a storm tear it apart never to be repaired?  Was it just abandoned and left to decay?  What sort of people lived here and where are they now?  I guess those questions will remained unanswered.  Following are a few of the photos I snapped.  Again, all were processed in Lightroom.  I desaturated, upped the contrast and clarity, and did some cropping and sharpening.  In the image of the front door I played around with the split toning feature to try and give it an old film camera look.

No welcome mat on this doorstep

A shelter in shambles

When I saw this shirt hanging from the crossbeams, I was a little creeped out thinking someone might be lurking...fortunately no one was.

Empty cupboards

Crumbled throne.

Doorway to destruction

No more warm family gatherings

Welcome HD!

HD was born on Saturday, February 26 at 11:00am.  He weighed in at 8lbs and 10oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.  Following is a brief happening of events.

Q with HD on his birthday

I hope you have more hair than me, son.

Q had slept on the couch Friday night, as she had done the previous few nights since it was more comfortable than the bed.  She woke up at about 1:30am with some pretty strong contractions.  By 7:00am they were getting more regular and then by around 8:30 - 9:00am they were coming about every 3 1/2 minutes.  We left for the hospital by around 9:45 (I had been trying to get Q out the door more quickly, but she kept doing other things instead of getting ready).  When I called the hospital to say we were coming, for some reason they told us to go to the ER.  Once we got there the people at the ER told us we should have went straight to women's and children's.

Making faces at the camera

What's up with the choke hold, huh?

A couple of nurses had to wheel Q on a gurney over to the delivery room at women's and children's while I moved the car.  The nurses had to take Q on the tram, and while in the tram they kept telling Q not to push!  The time was getting very close.  Once we finally made it to a delivery room around four or five nurses came in and very quickly got everything ready.  The doctor came in shortly after and within probably 10 minutes of being in the room, HD was born.

Resting with a full stomach.

Uppercut to the jaw

The nurses put HD on Q's chest and he immediately gave her a warm greeting by peeing in her face.  Although it did not even phase her, she was kind of in a state of shock at this point.  Everything had happened so fast, and even though it was not planned this way, she had just given birth with out any drugs.  

Sweet dreams

The life of a newborn is so rough.

We feel very blessed with all that has happened.  The nurses and doctors were great, HD and Q are both healthy, Q has been recovering very well, and we've had terrific help from friends being supportive and taking care of our other two kids while we were in the hospital.  

Firebolt keeps saying that she loves her brother so much. It's our challenge to make sure she doesn't smother him. :)

Checking out the new arrival

Welcome HD!

Super Kid Date

Q got the idea from a friend to each week have one of our kids be the super kid. As the super kid, they get certain privileges. One privilege being a date with mom or dad. A couple of nights ago Q had a date night with our current super kid. They did several puzzles and had a good time. Here are just a few of photos from the date night.

A Quick Portrait Practice

I went outside on Friday evening to try and take photos of the birds we get in our backyard. However, the kids decided to come out and play as well. I decided that I would be better off taking pictures of them instead of the birds they would be scaring away. :D

I would like to eventually do some outdoor portraits of the kids, but I have never tried it.  So I decided since the lighting was just about right with the sun about to set, I'd get some practice in.  As you can see, our little girl's hair was messy (and you can also see she took a pair of scissors to her bangs a few weeks ago) and she needed to be cleaned up some if it were a real "photo session", but she was very accommodating. 

I use Adobe Lightroom 3 for my photo organizing and editing.  Found a really good deal on it a few months back and it is great.  Anyway, I had to use it to really clean up her face (she had just eaten a snack and still had some on her), adjust the white balance some, contrast, sharpening, exposure, and brought out her eyes.  I used my 50mm f/1.4 prime lens at an aperture f/2.8.

It was a good learning experience and I think I caught some fun ones.

The kids were also having a good time running in the backyard, so I tried a little panning practice as well. Maybe that will help me get a good bird in flight photo one day. :)

Hope you enjoyed them, and thanks for looking!