Snow Fight

So since Dave was home today, he decided to get some shots of the girls playing in the snow and they turned out so good!!!

I just love the snow falling around them! So neat and fun looking!

This is Lindsey (Caleb's girlfriend) with I think Emma on back...

And so the fight begins...

It's looking fun but cold!

The snow looks so powdery...

"I am getting outta here!"

"Hey!! Come back here!!"

Love these girlies!!!

The many faces of Ashtyn

Well I have the new camera and while I still have so very much to learn....I am having fun with it. I have been dragging it to all Ashtyn's games and my facebook friends are worn out with bb pics but I am seeing some improvement and more importantly, I am learning how to adjust specific areas to address problems with my overall quality of exposure which is exciting. It is also awesome to understand why your picture isn't turning out exactly like you want it and that it isn't all about the user but also about the capabilities of the lens you are attempting to use in the specific circumstance you are trying to shoot. Since receiving my camera, I have made myself shoot in manual mode for the greatest portion of time and only in aperture or shutter priority the rest of the time...I am determined to master this! I must say that when I owned my film 35mm camera...it stayed on auto all the time...I couldn't afford to buy and develop film while attempting to learn. Digital makes the world such a better place :o) Okay so on with the topic at hand...

Mom's have to take pictures like the following...it's our child and their name is in "lights" or maybe just on the wall but who cares...it's their name!!!

So in discussing the faces of Ashtyn...she is first off gonna kill me for putting this pic up but it is just too good not to. We have had the best time laughing at all these "face" pics after ball games!

She cracks me up when she talks about her guarding the inbounding balls... "mom!...I always get a piece of it...like almost every single time!!!"...such humility we have instilled in the child!

I just love this...don't really know why this is one of my fav's but it is...

Faces...

Trying the pirouette move maybe...she loves her arm muscles in this pic...again with the humility!!

"Coming at me...okay...I'll just dribble around ya!"

Free throws...

Meg and Ash...besties!

I think she is just a fraction of a hair higher...did she get the ball...don't remember...I have spent way too much time worrying over my camera settings to tell you what actually happened in the games...

guilt coming over that one...but only a little...I am capturing memories for life people~

"Okay...so I get that your bigger than me but I will still block you out...don't think I won't!!" (Later I will for sure be counseled on how I shouldn't act like I know what she would be saying when I am blogging about her!)

Love this pic but wish I had waited a second longer...

So much fun...so excited for the grandparents to be able to see some of the games through pics as they don't live close enough to get to be there. I am just so thankful that we were able to purchase this camera and for this blog that allows family and friends to be able to keep up with what's going on in our neck of the woods.

Hello! Remember your memory card!

So I have spent the last several weeks reading every photograpy/photoshop book I can get my hands on as well as journaling all the neat finds in my carry-around friendly journal...my brain is overloaded with perfect exposure information...f-stops, shutter speed, and iso's are leaking out my ears as my brain is just mush. But I am so excited at the amount of information I have learned and am ready to put it into practice outside of my livingroom and back yard. (I can only take so many pictures of my scottie and yorkie. Not to mention, their laying around ways while looking up at me like "Really?? you're in my face again with that black thing...here let me turn around and show you my behind"...it just doesn't make for great pics! Please take my word on this as I have taken like 576 shots of this scene...I am now an expert on the subject!)

So today, I packed all my fun stuff up and drove to Norman, thinking I would play around on campus and see if I could put some of this brain cramming into practice...only to get there...drag everything out and snap my first pic. Anticipating a great skyline including the football stadium pressbox...what I saw was the words "no card" displayed across my lcd screen. Nice... Where oh where you might ask was my memory card ...plugged in all nice and cozy in the laptop...at home. Way to be prepared!! Well I guess from now on I will make sure that I actually have my card with the rest of the stuff I am dragging all over the countryside in order to not do this again. Sometimes these little learning experiences are beneficial on down the road. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! :o)

Customizing Blogger! Arrggghhhh!!

Anytime I learn something new...there is a great portion of time spent feeling less than real smart. And of course...since I am too cheap to buy a book about HTML code and learning it the easy way (if there is really an easy way)...most of my time has been spent using the trial and error approach...which A) makes me tired and B) makes me tired. I have learned that I just have to get up and walk away for a little while and try again later and repeat the process until it becomes second nature. The problem is that I am trying to become an expert at PSE and digital design while mastering my new dslr camera....maybe it would be better to just settle for adequate in each category...?? So as I try to learn all the tricks and tips, please excuse the not so perfect blogsite...as my family really would like it if I at least prepared one meal for them today :o)

Pickin and Strummin Ash

Ashtyn decided she was going to use her Amazon christmas money to purchase herself a new guitar. She finally received it and she has been holed up in her room "teaching" herself how to play...she is pretty amazing as she has already figured out several songs and plays them for us (albeit all the 'k..hold on's and 'oh...wait a minute's). So here are a few pics for the grandparents on her way to stardom :o)

I am just sooo excited!!!

Back in my younger (i.e., poorer) years....my husband and I saved and saved...had to use money for some crisis or another...so saved and saved again and then saved some more...well you get it...and finally purchased a Canon Rebel 35mm camera. Now mind you...this was well before the digital age but my kiddos were babies and I had just got into this new "scrapbooking" thing so.... keep in mind, I was also a stay at home mom at the time and so basically taking pics of said kiddos was my primary goal in life. While achieving my life's goal at the time in a most awesome fashion, and also attending OU football games, it became quickly apparent that a telephoto lens was a must! Thus the saving process commenced once more until I was able to purchase the awesome up to 300mm telephoto lens for my wonderful, then attached, extra appendage.

Fast forward many years later! Digital cameras are the only way to be in this technological era and my poor Canon Rebel has pined away in a dusty cabinet while a cheap point and shoot digital camera has taken it's place. Main reasons being 1) well its not digital 2) the amount of money that was spent on the original camera and lenses made me so sick that I just couldn't go through the process again and 3) I just hadn't taken the time to research...

One of my friends was just blogging about photography and having envy over seeing others' lenses...I hear you sister and I am so with you!! They are so expensive but so wonderful to have which is one of the biggest reasons why I have ademently refused to look at buying a new camera...and thus feeling cheated since I couldn't buy all of it at once. (Cheated...since even the most basic DSLR would be leaps and bounds above my point and shoot...I don't know how my mind reasons stuff out but somehow it gets to these beliefs in which upon later reflection I have no clue...anywho)

...all this of course precludes finding out one tiny little fact that has just changed my whole perspective overnight!! And the sad thing is, many of you probably already knew it...but for me...I just missed the boat completely! All of my canon lenses that I scrimped and saved for work with the new digital cameras!!!! WHAT DID YOU SAY??? Oh yes! It is true and I have been living underground in a cave for the past how many years??!!

So since I just happen to have two amazon gift cards given to us at Christmas and with my husband most graciously donating his half to the cause, we just purchased a "body only" (since all my lenses still work)new Canon Rebel digital camera and it will be shipping by Jan 7th or 8th!!

Can I just tell you that I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas? I can't hardly wait...it's seriously gonna kill me!! I am so excited to be able to take basketball pictures in a gym and actually have them be light enough to see faces and catch actions...okay well...I have to stop because I can just go on and on but just be warned that pictures are to come and add to that the whole deal of learning Photoshop...well there just simply is no words! Well there are...but I promise I'll stop!! It's the excitement!!!