The Big Leagues

J bought me a 50mm lens for my camera for Christmas.  It is supposed to be the best lens for portraits.  We did some test shots on Sunday and I sent one into Costco to see what it would look like when printed.  When I picked it up, the lady at the counter said "This one was flagged for copyright infringement". I told her I took it myself and she asked me if I was a professional photographer.  I told her no, that I was still learning and what I did was relatively easy.  I had to fill out a form to be put in the system as a professional so that my future orders aren't flagged.  I told her I was very flattered.  I don't personally think it was that fabulous of a picture, but I can understand why someone would think it was professional.  Here is the picture:

I'll be attempting a family portrait for Jenn hopefully later this week if I get my new flash cord in time.  I need to get our family portrait done soon too.

Xmas is Legit

Life lived vicariously through kids is a life well lived.

Fefe really loves stuff animals right now.  Who knows how long the stage will last, but she sure appreciated her new doggy from Ephant.

Ephant gave Brother B a nice hug for giving her a Hannah Montana puzzle.

Digging for treasure:

The Wii Fit, boy is my shoulder sore!

Fefe knows you are supposed to stand on the balance board:

Brother B mentioned to J that night that he realizes he only plays with his new toys for a few days and then they aren't fun anymore.  Luckily the Wii seems to have broken that trend.  This is why Toys R Us is so terrible.  It is so hard to find toys that the kids will actually play with for an extended period of time.  Part of the problem is that my kids have never been big on pretend play.

For those of you wondering, J is currently editing his latest nativity creation.  

This Day is Such a Special One

Loofa's much anticipated 4th birthday finally arrived last week.  He's been so desperate for a remote control car for months now.  That was the one thing he told Santa he wanted for Christmas.

Fefe was really upset that she couldn't get down and attack the presents:

Fefe couldn't get enough of Loofa's Fusion scooter, J probably pushed her around 50 times on it and she was still upset when he stopped.

The long awaited remote control car:

And There Was Fire

We've lived in this house for over 6 years now and have never used the fireplace.  At times we've considered adding in a gas fireplace or a stove, but that's been secondary to all the other work we've done.  With the recent snowstorm I decided to buy some wood in case the power went out.  The power never went out, but J built us a couple fires over the course of the last week.  It was fun to finally use the fireplace and it sure was pretty with all the Christmas decorations.

RSS Feeds For Dummies

If you are new to blogging you may be thinking that it is really cool to read everyone's blogs, but you get sick and tired of clicking through 10 people's blogs to find out only 2 of them have put up any new posts since last time you looked (I'll refrain from naming names here).

There are a couple of different solutions to this problem and they all have to do with RSS feeds. All blogs (and lots of other sites (like news sites)) provide an RSS feed which basically gives other programs a standard way to read that site and tell when things were posted so that it can pull content together from many different sites. Instead of clicking on lots of links every time you want to see what is new on everyone's blogs, you can get an RSS reader set up with just the sites you care about and go to one place to see everything that's new. Its like checking your email except that instead of emails, it has blog posts. Easy.

Since Google is the best at everything, I'm going to recommend Google Reader (all you need is a google identity and you can get set up in about 5 minutes), but other sites have their versions of the same thing. Here is a very short video explaining the idea and how to use google reader:



For a video walking you through a couple of more options, try clicking on this:
Google Reader Tutorial by Andy Wibbels

Just like any program, there are a bunch of different options and views. Once you subscribe to your favorite blogs, you'll have to play around with it for a few minutes to get it to display the way you want, but it is a million times better than clicking all the links (unless you are Marv and like clicking on lots of links). You can ask questions in the comments if you have problems and we will read your questions and laugh.

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Better

The snow has continued and Saturday brought the heaviest accumulation of all.  I swear it was about a foot of snow, maybe a tad less.  I'm sure the cats are hating it.  I'm also sure the retailers are hating it.  So much for heavy duty Christmas shopping yesterday.  We still went out.  J had a gift card for Powells and I needed a couple books for the kids so we headed out to Beaverton.  We had to pull over periodically to de-ice the wipers.  I need to get better wiper fluid for that.  Once we got there we only had about 20 minutes before they announced they were closing early.  I wasn't too surprised about that.  When we got home we decided to run out and enjoy the snow.  It was pretty cool having the snow up to my mid-calf.  I felt bad for the kids with their less than desirable winter wear.  I do pretty well since I still have all my snow gear from Utah.

During the night the snow transitioned to freezing rain so there is a thick rind of ice on top of the snow now.  The kitties are enjoying the fact that they can walk across the snow without sinking in.  

My snowman has a nice skirt from later snowstorms:

The kitties really want to get back to the railroad tracks, but their efforts have been hindered:

Last, but not least, No Church Today!

Cabin Fever

Well, the snow continues.  It now looks like the kids are getting an extra week of Christmas vacation.  I don't mind too much.  It is an adjustment to have all of four of them home constantly, but since the troublemaker is Loofa, it is not a big adjustment.  Loofa decided to a little crazy on Tuesday.  Of course it is always when I decide to take a nap.  At one point he came upstairs and asked if he could use a marker.  Little did I know that on the way down he would decide to use it on the banister, downstairs wall and door.  At some point he also decided his hair needed a trim and snipped off a few chunks up top.

In other news, the boy is partially deaf.  Before you get too worried though, it is most likely due to fluid in his ear.  I'm glad we weren't wrong though about him having a problem.  His pediatrician said they don't put tubes in ears anymore if it is just one ear affected so I guess we just continue to deal with "Whadyasay" for a while longer.  His tonsils are enlarged, which could mean enlarged adenoids, which themselves can cause the fluid problem.  We are supposed to listen if he has apnea episodes when he snores.  If he does he'll need to see an ENT.  He seemed fine when I listened to him last night, but we'll keep an eye on him.

Since we were tired of sitting around the house we decided to venture out today.  The roads really aren't terrible to drive on as long as you are slow and think ahead.  We ate lunch with J since it has been awhile.  The kids were excited to see the workplace, especially the break room with the Foosball table.  Brother B especially liked it since he doesn't remember what it looked like from when we've visited before.  In the afternoon we built a couple snowmen and a snow fort since the snow is less powdery now.  Ephant hid behind the fort so she could pelt J when he got home from work.  It warmed up enough to rain tonight, but it is supposed to cool down and freeze again the next few days.  I'm enjoying it, snow has always seemed so magical to me.

Ice Children

We went sledding nice and early this morning, hoping to beat the rush.  It was cold!  It's about 21 degrees right now.  The kids were warm enough everywhere except their faces.  Loofa got pretty upset towards the end because of how cold he was.  Fefe cried the whole way home.  Her poor little red face was so sad.  I'm wondering it school will be cancelled tomorrow.  It isn't going to get warm enough to melt and I don't think this town owns a plow.

I can stand!

I can walk!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Snow was predicted for the weekend, but I was starting to doubt it when we woke up to no snow this morning.  However, while getting ready for church, the snow started to fall.  Luckily, it was cold enough to actually stick.  It built up a good amount during church so as soon as we came home the kids threw on their snow clothes and ran outside.  I think Brother B last the longest, about 1/2 hour.  Fefe wasn't totally sure what to think of it.  She was interested, but also slightly disturbed.

Loofa followed me outside and for some reason thought it would be fun to lay in the street and do a snow angel with no coat.  He was okay at first, but then realized how cold he was.

School has already been cancelled.  It isn't snowing anymore, but we'll have a fair amount of ice tomorrow due to freezing temperatures.  I'm sure if this was Utah that school wouldn't be cancelled, but this IS Oregon.  If we still have enough left tomorrow we are planning to go sledding.

Ghosts

I had fun playing with my cameras flash sync the other day. While doing so I discovered that our house is haunted.