A Day in the Life

For those of you who don’t know, I have a secret passion for photography.  I don’t talk about it much because I don’t think I am that good but I really love doing it.  A few years ago my in-laws gave Andrea and me a DSLR for Christmas.  Since then I have been enthralled with taking pictures and reading lots of photography blogs to learn more.  I have been wanting to improve our photos for a long time and since photography is one of the areas where you definitely get what you pay for I have been looking at new lenses.  The problem is the lens I want is $1,300 .  Ya you are right, that is a LOT of money.  So instead of spending the money on it I have just been lusting over other peoples equipment and dreaming about a big promotion to pay for my hobbies.  This weekend I rented this dream lens to give it a little test drive.  I thought I would share some of the photos we took over the weekend.  Sorry that most of the photos are of Addie, but she is the only model I know.

After Bath Time

Making Faces

Funny Face

Sweet Girl

Necklace

Look a Tree

Dressed to the Nines

Little Shadow

Look Birdies

Playing House

Just the Two of Us

Daddy and Addie

Clap for my Song

As you can see from the number of photos that I felt were worth of sharing on the blog I LOVED the lens.  I guess I will have to start saving those pennies until I can afford my own.  I hope you enjoyed all of the photos as much as I liked shooting and editing them.

Adelyn had a great birthday. She had her friends, grandmas, grandpas, and even a great grandma here to celebrate with her! She loved the wrapping paper, the new toys, and the cupcake! I can’t believe she is a year old! The time is starting to fly by, and soon I’ll have a toddler on my hands. Am I old enough to have a toddler? Yikes.

Addie’s newest favorite thing is to make this face:

She raises her eyebrows SO HIGH that it almost throws her head back. It is hilarious. Often it is accompanied with this big mouth:

She does this over and over again, especially if I’m laughing along with her. She is such a ham.

Not much has happened the last couple of weeks, but the blog needs an update, so here we are. Adelyn turned 11 months on October 5th, and weighed in at 17 lbs 2 oz. She is so close to walking, and it is so cute! She walks all over the house holding onto our fingers, or pushing her train, and she LOVES it. She does this funny laugh, where her face gets all scrunched up and smiley and she breathes really heavy through her nose. I’ll have to post a video of that.

Zac went on his 2nd to last business trip of the year, so we are excited about that! He was in Chicago, and next week he’ll be in Newark, NJ. After that, he’s homefree for the rest of the year! I wanted to come with him and spend a few days in NYC, but it was too last minute and I wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d be, traveling from Newark to NYC everyday, alone, and with a baby. Maybe next time.

I’m still teaching piano and voice lessons, and really enjoying it! I also love spending time with Adelyn and watching her learn new things every day. She is such a talker! She can say “Addie”, “Daddy”, “Mommy”, “Bottle” (sounds more like “body”), “Baby”, “Wow”, and “Hi”. And she still gives those slobbery kisses. She actually kissed a boy yesterday at church. Isn’t that where it always starts?! Good thing we like him and his parents:)

Here are some pictures of our little angel:

Andrea and I spent the weekend in Oklahoma City at the Red Man Triathlon.  Since December my Dad has been a workout machine.   He exercises a few hours a day and has since lost a lot of weight.  He is in great shape but wanted some additional motivation to keep going.  He signed up for the Half Aqua Bike event at the Red Man Triathlon.  The Half Aqua Bike consists of a 1.1 mile swim in a lake followed by a 56 mile bike race.  This was his first triathlon event and we are so proud of him for working so hard and accomplishing something so difficult.

The day started out rainy and cold.  The race was delayed about an hour because some of the bike race roads were under water.  Dangerous for road bikes…  We didn’t prepare for cold rainy weather but we did our best.  Notice the baby in a trash bag poncho / blanket in every photo.  We were trying to keep her lips from turning blue.  It rained all day and it turned the whole park into a red mud pit.  Needless to say we were wet, tired, and covered in red mud at the end of the day.

Even though the weather was poor my Dad had a great race.  He took second place in his age group and was 15th overall in his event.  Not too bad for a “Big Guy” (that is what every one called him as he passed, “Good Job Big Guy!”) and for his first triathlon type event. Congratulations Dad, and thanks for inviting us.  Now we just need to get training for the next one!  Maybe I will join you.