Macros?

I'm not sure what the definition of a macro shot is and the rules/settings that apply to them- but here are a couple. They are made with my current understanding of a macro photo. I really like the third picture (not a macro?) of the mum before I cropped it for the second picture. I think it would make a good background for my computer. Enjoy!

Lunch Irony

I noticed that Dallin was through with his lunch the other day and I asked him if he was all done. He just looked up at me with his bright eyes and smiled. From the leftovers on his tray, it looked like he ate about half of what I put on his tray. This didn't bother me too much since he isn't a big eater and it's common for toddlers to go through a faze when their appetite slows down. I then took off his tray and found most of the rest of his lunch on his lap! It's hard to get those noodles in your mouth when you're thirteen months old!

Sugarhouse Park

This post will be my favorite post so far. I'm so excited to show these pictures! This afternoon began as a rush to get to Salt Lake City to have a VHS transfered to DVD for Young Womens. I decided to go last minute and tried to hurry so I could get back in time to pick up Syndey and a couple of kids from school. Tyler and Dallin were coming with me since Tyler is off-track until January. I got about 2 miles away from home when I realized I FORGOT the VHS TAPE! I turned around and realized there was no way I was going to make it back from SLC in time to pick up Sydney. I decided to call the other mom in the carpool and have her pick the kids up after school and have Sydney stay with them until I got home. THEN, after picking up the tape and making the phone call, on a whim, I decided to grab the new camera just in case I had a photo opportunity. Boy am I glad I did!

After dropping off the video in South Salt Lake City, we started to head home. Tyler and I were looking for anything that might make a good photo as we were driving. Suddenly I looked to the sky and saw this beautiful cloud formation. We looked for a place to pull off of I-80 and exited at 1300 E (Utahns recognize this as a major road running along the east bench.) We made a right turn and I realized we were next to Sugarhouse Park and that we could get some great photos of the sky there.

Not only was the sky beautiful, but the park was gorgeous as well. It had been a couple years since I had been to that park and a good portion of that was in the dark because of the 4th of July fireworks (I highly recommend the fireworks at Sugarhouse Park). Tyler was begging to take a couple of pictures and I let him from inside the van. This is his first good photo of the sky!

He tried to get a photo of a bird in flight and I doctored up his photo to get this next image.

I can't remember if he or I took this next photo.

Tyler took this one of the Sky through our front windshield of the van!

This is one Tyler took of the Rockies- looking so dark, tall and majestic. The next four photos I took.

I love the aspen(?) in the photo above! The creek below was one of my favorite photos!

Lights of the Season

For this shot I purposely pulled Joseph forward a little to look like he is protecting his new family. I also tucked their heads in to give a three-Dimentional look to it. Baby Jesus is pulled out slightly in front of Mary.

More shots playing with the new camera

Our feather duster that we never use! Actually, Ryan got it to use the feathers to tie flies for fishing.

Nickels, our cat putting up with me!

A flag near Syndey's school. There was a strong breeze that day and it was hard to get a shot with the flag fully open!

Our new camera is here!

We just bought a new Nikon D40 camera for our family and Ryan's business. I've been having a bit of fun with it and found out I like taking close up and macro shots. I use Jasic Paint Shop Pro 9 to edit them. Like I''ve said before, I've never had lessons or classes and I just take pictures of things I think are pretty, symbolic, artistic, colorful or important to me or others. I hope you enjoy these first pictures as much as I had fun taking them!

Thanksgiving with Loved Ones

This year I started the popcorn kernal thankful bowl- say that three times fast. It was an adaptation of Kim Greenfield's past family Thanksgiving idea of putting a candy corn in a bowl for the things you are thankful for. I decided since the kids definetly didn't need any candy and I had already spent enough on other food, that we would use popcorn kernels. Then, later on in the evening I made homemade popcorn on the stove with a frying pan to show how after we thank Heavenly Father for our blessings, he blesses us even more because gratitude is so important. By the time the kids had worn out their brains thinking of things to be greatful for, Tyler started saying "And I'm thankful for this kernel and this kernel" and Sydney chimed in. Pretty soon the bowl was full!

We were blessed to have my brother Randy and his wife Katie and their four kids join us for Thanksgiving. Katie is great at making sweet potato casserole and she also did our stuffing and deviled eggs (A Tucker tradition- deviled eggs at family dinners!). I cooked the turkey and made a yummy fruit salad and a few other things. Left to right- Sydney, Mc Kenzie- Randy's oldest, and Randy.

Here is the rest of the spread. This reminds me of my favorite punch that I made but served in my plastic pitcher:) Notice the late blooming Memorial Day Mums that I cut from my back yard. Gotta love the color purple!

3/4 of a 2 liter bottle of Sprite

1 can of frozen Welches white grape juice

Raspberry sherbert icecream

Water

Directions:

Mix the first two ingredients together and add water until you get the right flavor. Then add scoops of the raspberry sherbert until you get the right frothiness. Okay, I know these directions are worthless- just mix everything together and add sprite until you like the taste- you can't go wrong with this combo! You can only mess it up by making it too sweet or too watery!

Katie and her newest addition- Malia! Morgan is Katie's second child and she is the grinning one in the back. Tyler snuck into this photo and as usual, made a funny face!

Dallin, Me, Katie, Malia and Tyler! Grandma will love this picture!

Micah! He is the third child in Randy's family.

Cute pics

Here is a totally raw photo that I haven't touched up at all. I'm so impatient, I just like to post my photos without fixing them up!

Ryan and I got the kids together for a christmas photo shoot and here are some of the bloopers! Notice how absent Ryan and I are from the photos- we were too lazy to get dressed up for the shots and Walgreens was having a sale that day on photo greeting cards. I know- I'm cheap!

My Drama King and Queen.......

This one would have been great but there wasn't enough lighting.

I really liked the way Sydney looked in this photo, but you can see it was too blurry:(

I finally chose this photo to put on the card, but as you know, haste makes waste- the cards didn't turn out very well. When I took the CD into Walgreens, there was a button on the screen that said enhance photo. Well, I thought why not enhance it a little more. Bad idea! Since the screen didn't have high resolution, I couldn't see that it made the colors look too saturated. I should have ordered one print and then checked how it looked before printing 60. Live and learn.......

Memories

I haven't taken any recent photos but I wanted to blog- so I dug out some old photos! Most of these my sister Kristi took a while ago, but they are so cute that I wanted to share! I guess today I am glad to have my little Dallin and I am pondering how much joy he has brought our family. We waited 7 years before trying for our third child, but I am glad we did. This first picture is of Dallin and Sampson- best buddies. Sampson is very patient with him and never nips or bites. He will get up and move if Dallin is pestering him too much. I just got some great video (not digital) clips of Dallin taking a toy away from Sampson, and then holding it out for Sampson to grab. Sampson will carefully take the toy from Dallin and chew on it for a second before Dallin takes it away again. Then Dallin holds out the toy and Sampson grabs it again, over and over. It is amazing because Sampson is four times bigger than Dallin (80+ lbs) but he is so gentle with him. I remember after I brought Dallin home from the hospital, Sampson acted different- like he knew how special this little one was. He would nuzzle me just a little and sit and watch the baby in my arms. He also began to mark his territory in the neighborhood when he got loose. Sampson never did this before since he viewed all dogs as friends. It was like he became the baby's protector overnight. Luckily this never turned to aggression which is not a good thing. As Dallin has grown, Sampson forgot about marking his turf and is back to thinking any dog is his friend!

This is one of Kristi's great baby photos. I just love baby feet and hands, don't you?

How Sweet is that?

Do I see a hint of family resemblance here? This is a great photo of my brother Randy at my parents house holding Dallin.

My little dishwasher helper. What is it about dishes and toddlers? So far none have been broken, but atleast one has been dropped! Hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me :)

Time for a Change....

Today I want to get my hair cut. I've been wanting too for a couple of weeks but have been having a hard time deciding what to do with it. I also want to put highlights in it again but I don't want to take three hours and have someone babysitting Dallin during all that time. I've decided that I will break up the appointment and just get it cut. I hope they will let me do that! Otherwise I'll wait until next month to get it highlighted. I asked some of the girls at our weekly young women's night how I should get my hair done. One of our girls suggested that I get it short in the back and spike it up. I chuckled and said that the last haircut I had- an A-line with short layers in the back, I could have spiked up but never did. I sometimes flipped it out, but didn't spike it. It has been quite a while and has since grown out. One of the leaders came over and felt my hair and suggested that since it is thick with a little wave to it, that I should not have too many layers. She suggested an A-line cut along the jaw-bone but keep it blunt. I like bob haircuts, but I look really plain with it and need some angles to look a little less matronly or freckle-faced country girlish. Any other suggestions? I can't afford a weave and don't want to go to the cosmetology schools for a cheaper price. (I've been to a couple of them for just haircuts and one time saw a girls hair turn bright orange from coloring- she was devastated). I vowed to never go to one for coloring. Someone else can be the guinea pig:) I'll post a picture after I'm done getting the color and cut!

Happy 1st B-day Dallin!

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS~~~ 1. What does a one-year-old do with a present? He eats the wrapping! 2. How do you know if they DON'T like a recycled Dora doll from their sister as a gift?

If they find the buckle on their high chair more interesting!

3. How can you tell they DO like a gift?

They stare transfixed at it and then cry if you try to take it away to open the package!

4. How do you know if you've given a great gift?

They AND their older siblings play with it until it's time for bed!

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Tyler took Dallin out for a quick jump on the trampoline before the birthday party. Pretty soon Sydney was outside too and I got this cute picture of them together!

Okay- I admit I am too cheap to buy a cake at the store if I'm not doing daycare or earning extra money somehow. This is my best attempt at using a box mix, can of frosting and different colors of sugar crystals. I tried to be creative! Don't you like the sugar crystal stripes?

Dallin liked the Lactose-free ice cream (Yea Breyers!!) better than the cake. He also didn't dive into the ice cream or the cake- he prefered that I spoon feed him! Spoiled boy. It was really interesting to see his personality emerge as we did traditions that we have done with all our kids.

One of our traditions is on the first birthday, we let the b-day child play with a whole roll of toilet paper! Dallin is not as wild as his older brother and sister were. He really didn't play with the roll much- so Tyler and Dad helped him out. Soon after this picture was took, we all went to bed for some much needed rest!