Saturday, January 21, 2012

jan 15 – jan 17 (project 365)

jan 15 (sunday)

 

as i was writing my last post i was breathing this:

Jan15

f/2.8, 1/40, iso 640, 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

mitch, along with nani and kale’a made a loaf of whole wheat bread, and two loafs of macaroni grill bread!  the house was full of delicious smells!  we call the macoroni bread “mitch’s special bread” and it is amazing!  ask anyone who has tried it!!

 

jan 16 (monday)

Jan16

f/2.8, 1/30, iso 640, 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

kawena and mae mae started swim lessons on monday.  this was their first swim lesson with the new swim school.  this is kawena doing her back float with the noodle to get ready for the back float without the noodle.  she is doing awesome!!  i don’t know how to get a good picture in this condition! everything looked very blue.  this was the best i could get. anyone know how to get it right without a flash? malia?

 

jan 17 (tuesday)

Jan17

f/2.8, 1/30, iso 200, 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

i may be biased, but this is one beautiful girl!!  i think this is my new favorite picture!  i love the natural smile, as opposed to the “fake” one i get so often with my kids!  i took this is our front room with natural light coming in the front window.  she, of course ,was wearing her ballet outfit and dancing around the room with mae mae to music from the keyboard!  it is a favorite thing for our girls to do… dress up and dance!

 

i LOVE this shot of my pretty kawena!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

jan 12 – jan 14 (project 365)

jan 12 (thursday)

Jan12.2

f/2.8, 1/20, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

can you guess what i did this day? i typically go to costco on saturday because i refuse to go with 1 year old twin boys and a 2 year old. call me crazy!  so, i always go when i can leave them home with mitch, which saturday is the only day.  sucks, but that’s where we are right now! 

 

anyway, obviously the events of the previous saturday did not leave time for my weekly costco run!  by thursday we were out of milk, cheese, bread, eggs, yogurt, you get the idea!  there really was no option… i HAD to go.  so, i put the boys down for their nap and the minute nani and kale’a walked in the door i loaded kawena and mae mae into the truck and we took off for costco.  it was a bit liberating to leave nani home with the boys, to see a light at the end of the tunnel! woot!

 

i made the costco run and loaded up the fridge and nani and kale’a and the boys were fine! 

 

whenever i go to costco this is the traditional dinner, rice, veggies, and this:

Jan12f/2.8, 1/15, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

jan 13 (friday)

Jan13f/2.8, 1/10, iso 400, 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

remember in my last post how i said i even used this project to get my girls to clean their room? well, here’s the proof.  they weren’t cleaning their room, so i whipped out the camera and started threatening posting pictures of their dirty room on my blog! hah!!  it got clean!

 

i love this picture!  as i was snapping a shot of this pile of shoes and clothes nani attempted to cover it up by throwing a blanket over it. i captured it just as the blanket was crossing the path of the shot! pretty cool, right?

 

jan 14 (saturday)

Jan14   f/2.8, 1/40, iso 500, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

through the “glass” at the ice skating rink.  this was kale’a’s second ice skating lesson.  she is doing awesome!  she is very steady on her skates and she is always one of the first two students to make it across the rink when they “race”.  ever since the 2010 winter olympics this girl has wanted to do hockey.  i thought she might grow out of it, but she still wants to do it, so for christmas we gave her ice skating lessons in preparation to start hockey. we will just have to wait and see where this takes us!

 

this love of hockey also was the reason for the hockey tickets that she got for christmas that kale’a and got to enjoy the saturday before!  and we sure did enjoy it!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

jan 8 – jan11 (project 365)

this week has been a pretty good week, as far as this project goes.  i am getting better at remembering to get the camera out.  i am becoming more familiar with the settings on my camera, which is exciting for me!  i am remembering to check my iso!  i am beginning to use this project to chronicle some of the mundane, some of the traditions, some of the daily hum drum of life.  i even used this project to motivate my children to clean their room this week (check jan 13, friday)!  who knew?!  so, some of the pictures might be a bit “boring”, but this is all about the photography experience!

 

jan 8 (sunday)

Jan08

f/2.8, shutter 1/20, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

we have a fast sunday tradition in our family.  each fast sunday we have breakfast for dinner.  last sunday was fast sunday and for dinner we had sticky buns, eggs, bacon, and breakfast potatoes. oh, and we can’t forget the fresh fruit smoothies!  YUM!  fast sunday’s seem to be a family favorite for dinner. in fact, it is one of the few nights when there isn’t a complaint mumbled from the lips of any of my children!!  hmmm, maybe we should have breakfast for dinner every night!!

 

jan 9 (monday)

Jan09

f/2.8, shutter 1/15, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

have i ever told you what awesome manners our kids have?  no? well, probably because they don’t!  this is mae mae eating her spaghetti on monday night. i actually didn’t grab my camera fast enough!  if i had ,you would have seen her head tilted back, her big hand of spaghetti perched high above her mouth, dropping noodles in!!  but because the camera wasn’t sitting next to me at that moment, this is what i captured!

 

jan 10 (tuesday)

Jan10f/2.8, 1/15, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

i find the boys giggling and babbling in this spot several times a day. it seems to be a favorite spot for them.  there is a treadmill below this window which makes it the perfect height for them to be able to look out.  i don’t know what they find so fascinating about this spot, but it sure is fun to hear them playing and laughing together as they stand there together!

 

i got several pictures this day of the kids.  i will share one more cute one of the boys:

Jan10.2

f/2.8, 1/25, iso 200, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

maui is in front and kaio is standing in back (for those who don’t know which is which!)

 

these boys L.O.V.E. to play in laundry baskets!  it’s another “favorite place!  sometimes i walk into the room and maui is just sitting in a laundry basket smiling! no toys, no books, nothing… just him sitting in the basket smiling! it cracks me up!  when both of the boys are playing in it together it is hilarious to watch them climb in and sit there together. then they will tip it over and coming spilling out!  i love that these boys love each other and are best buds!

 

jan 11 (wednesday)

Jan11 f/2.8, 1/15, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

this was maui thursday morning, cursted snot under his nose from his cold, tear coming from his crying eyes that are begging me to pick him up and feed him!  such a sad boy!

 

we have a room in our house that is two steps lower then the other rooms on the first floor.  a couple months back the boys were driving me crazy with how suddenly mobile they became.  we had a gate in front of the stairs to the second floor, but they figured out how to weasel their way onto the stairs, despite the gate.  with the gate at the bottom of the stairs it only kept them from going upstairs, sort of, but they still had access to the kitchen and ALL the cabinets.  my life was NOT fun!  i spent most of my day trying to keep them from careening to their death onto the tile floor at the bottom of the stairs or pulling big, heavy pots on themselves.

 

until my brilliant husband had a great idea!! he put the gate at the entrance to the family room which has the 2 steps down!  ever since that day my life has gotten SOOOO much better!  i toss the boys in their “cage”, as i lovingly call it, and they have a whole room to play in.  their toys were already in that room, so it is perfect!!  however, they are beginning to catch on and sometimes are not exactly happy to be in the “cage”, but at least i know they are safe!  most of the time they DO love it!

 

this photo just happens to be one of the times when they DIDN’T love it!  kaio was somewhere sprawled on the floor equally as sad!

 

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that’s all i have time for right now.  i will finish the rest of the week tomorrow!  i am off to bed!

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Jan 1 – Jan 7 (project 365)

i am trying to become re-familiarized with my camera after such a long hiatus from photography.  the good part is that photography is somewhat like riding a bike, once you learn to ride you can pretty much can pick up where you left off and still know how to ride.  the bad part is that photography is much, MUCH more complex than riding a bike… like a hundred times over. this is why i am excited about doing this project right now… the improvement will be like night and day, at least i hope it will!! haha

 

a couple of years ago my sister, malia, who, by the way, is an amazing destination wedding photographer in fiji, told me briefly (very briefly) about how she learned how to take the white balance off of auto to use kelvin/temperature to set white balance.  back then i was busy with a new baby and wasn’t able to try it out and, frankly, it seemed way too complicated, not to mention intimidating, at the time (i already had too much to adjust with aperture/shutter speed/light meter/etc.).  but now i am finally ready to look it square in the face and conquer it! i have decided that i want to learn to use kelvin to set white balance and take myself out of the auto wb setting. i know that my photos will be so much richer and the colors more true to what they truly are.

 

this means that much of my photos may be off for awhile, as i figure it out so bear that in mind as i learn by trial and error!  i’ve been told and have read everywhere, and totally agree, that to become a better photographer the best thing to do is to take pictures… and that is what i am doing!

 

jan 1 (sunday)

Jan01 

f/2.8, shutter 1/30, iso 320, lens 24-70 f/2.8, exposure manual

 

on sunday, we left in such a hurry to church that no one grabbed the church bag which contained the cups, snacks, and toys.  so, after sacrament meeting we had to go home and grab the food and cups for the boys because they NEVER would have lasted through church without those things. however, we are in that stage in the boys life when i can’t stay in relief society because they are way too busy.  on top of that, mitch was teaching in his deacons class that day …which meant i had both boys for the last hour… which meant i wasn’t going to actually be able to stay in class.  don’t judge, but we decided since we had to go home anyway, that i might as well stay home and put the boys down for their nap (the joys of 11 o’clock church).  so, that is exactly what we did!

 

kaio and maui were looking so sharp and adorable in their cute blazers and ties (thank you barbmom and darbie), that i wanted to get a picture.  it was impossible to get both of them in the same shot (i know because i tried), but i got this cute one of kaio. 

 

i opened the shutters in our family room to let in the natural light.

 

jan 2 (monday)

Jan02 

f/2.8, shutter 1/25, iso 320, lens 24-70 f/2.8, exposure manual

 

monday, mitch went to work and came home at lunchtime (after going to the gym) and decided to stay home.  we played a game of ticket to ride with nani and kale’a.  phoenix was the hot spot of the game and just happens to be where we live. so, i snapped a shot of the game board. mitch won this game!

 

today has two pictures:

Jan02.2 

f/2.8, shutter 1/25, iso 320, lens 24-70 f/2.8, exposure manual

 

nani taught our family home evening lesson.  she gave each of us a new piece of foil and told us to crumpled it into to a loose ball… mine is the one on the left, kawena’s is the one on the right.  i don’t think she listened very well to the instructions!! haha!  then, nani told us the story of saul who had been persecuting the church of God until he repented and instead, began to serve God.  though he repented and changed his ways the damage he did to the church was hard to repair, if not impossible. 

 

nani asked us to straighten out our foil balls and return them to what they looked like before we crumpled them. of course it was impossible to get them to look as perfect as they did when she first gave them to us. 

 

she reminded us that we need to be careful about what we do and say because we can’t always repair the damage we can do by our actions and words!  ii thought it was a great object lesson and a great reminder for our family.

 

jan 3 (tuesday)

Jan03 

f/2.8, shutter 1/400, iso 320, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

i should have paid attention to the iso

 

this girl is a candy hog!  if anyone leaves candy within her sight, she will get to it and eat it!  it has been the source of many tears of lost candy on her sisters part and on mae mae’s part because we will take away whatever she hasn’t already ingested! 

 

the girls were outside riding their bikes.  when i got outside mae mae was riding her bike while holding this bag of reese’s and sour straws!  she asked me to open it for her. i told her no because she had already had her piece of candy.

 

i went to take a shower.  before i got in she came to me with this same bag of reese’s and asked me to open it for her. again i told her no because she had already had her candy.  she bursts into tears and runs out of the bathroom.  the second i turn the shower off, she is right outside the shower with the same bag of reese’s in her hand and says, “are you done? can you open this for me?”  again, i tell her no and she bursts into tears and runs out of the bathroom!!

 

she IS persistent, i will give her that much!  i know that some day that persistence will be a great asset for her to have!!

 

jan 4 (wednesday)

Jan04f/2.8, shutter, shutter 1/10, iso 320, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

again, i should have paid attention to iso

 

ok, this was my, “oh crap i forgot to take a picture” day. kale’a wanted me to take a picture of her with kaio because they “matched”.  she asked me earlier in the day, but i was doing something else and totally forgot to take the picture until it was bedtime and the sun was long gone.  my indoor/nighttime photography stinks!  so, this is what i got!  i am embarrassed to post it, but it’s all i got…

 

let’s move on!!

 

jan 5 (thursday)

Jan05

f/2.8, shutter, 1/1000, iso 100, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

this day i got up early and exercised before the kids were up so we could get out of the house and have some fun.  there is this awesome park a block away from our house, right next to the elementary school.  the girls hoped on their bikes and i put the boys in the bob jogger and we headed to the park. parks are great places for photo ops. i snapped away as the kids played and monkeyed  around. 

 

nani and kale’a had brought a beach ball so we could play volleyball at the sand court.  the only problem was that there was a light breeze!  the ball had a mind of its own and the game was anything but predictable, but we had fun just the same! 

 

as nani was letting the air out of the ball, just before we headed home, i got this photo. 

 

jan 6 (friday)

Jan06

f/2.8, shutter 1/10, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

we had so much fun at the park the day before, so i planned to take the girls again the next day.  unfortunately, kaio woke up in the middle of the night with the croupe.  so, we hunkered down and had a house day. 

 

for Christmas, we got our very first tv in our 12 years of marriage!  wow!  it’s a pretty big deal around here!  friday morning a package arrived and it was the just dance kids for the wii!  we were excited to try it out.  we had a ton of fun and got a good workout!  i was breathing heavy and sweating from dancing! it was a blast!

 

i had to get a picture of how cute the girls looked doing the dance!  they were doing great! look how in sync they are!!  our girls are so much fun!!

 

jan 7 (saturday)

Jan07

f/2.8, shutter 1/1250, iso 400, lens 24-70 f/2.8, manual

 

not the most exciting picture, but this pretty much threw a wrench in our whole day, so i had to use this picture!  i took many more pictures that were more fun, cute, and not nearly as dull, but this is the one that says so much more about this day! i will post the other ones, as i said i would, but tomorrow.

 

so, there you have it! my first week of my project 365!

not at all what i planned

what i planned to do today (saturday):

  • get kale’a ready for her first ice skating lesson
  • send kale’a off to her first skating lesson with mitch
  • hangout with the other 5 kids at home having a leisurely saturday morning
  • go to costco
  • exercise
  • shower
  • send mitch and kale’a off to enjoy her christmas present of going to a coyotes hockey game
  • get the kids bathed for church tomorrow
  • have a movie/wii night with the other kids at home
  • start my very first project 365 post with pictures
  • go to bed at a decent hour

what ACTUALLY happened:

  • woke up a little late (about 9:30) because i stayed up late blogging last night :)
  • noticed mitch wasn’t home, the girls were playing wii and kale’a wasn’t ready for ice skating which they were supposed to be leaving for in a half hour
  • turned into a crazy woman trying to find kale’a’s “snow” gear for ice skating
  • mitch walked in the door covered in grass and limping worse than i’ve every seen him limp before asking for me to help pull his shoe off and saying, “ i think you’re going to have to take kale’a to ice skating today.”
  • run upstairs throw on some clothes
  • run downstairs and inhale some greek yogurt
  • leave 15 minutes late to take kale’a to her first ice skating lesson
  • come home to hungry children and my stomach is growling, too
  • mitch says he needs to go to urgent care because he thinks he tore a tendon playing football
  • we all pile into the car after getting everyone out of pj’s and into clothes (it is almost 1 pm), still hungry, and head to the urgent care
  • drop mitch off and take all the kids to in n’ out and bring it back to the urgent care so mitch can eat while he waits his turn
  • realize that in all the craziness that was this morning no one changed mae mae’s diaper and she is still in the diaper that we put on her last night before bed!! ack!!
  • corral 6 kids who are running around like a bunch of crazies outside the urgent care, while trying not to GO crazy myself (took some pictures while there, though)
  • over two hours later mitch comes out with the news that he tore his achilles tendon and needs an mri. oh man!!
  • the hockey game starts in less than 3 hours and is 45 minutes away which wouldn’t be a problem except that we bought the tickets on groupon under mitch’s name because he was supposed to take kale’a but now couldn't because of his newly acquired football injury.

this is when things REALLY get annoying… according to the groupon deal the tickets could only be picked up at the box office by the person whose name was on the groupon, which is mitch, the injured, unable to go dad!

  • we all pile into the car and make the 45 minute drive to the arena so mitch can hobble to the box office window and flash his id to acquire the tickets that will now be used by me and kale’a
  • the game now starts in less than 2 hours, so we turn back around and head home so i can drop everyone off just to turn back around to make it to the game on time
  • 15 minutes into the drive home mitch says, “we should have just left you there so you wouldn’t miss the beginning of the game.”
  • we get off at the next off-ramp and head back to the arena
  • we park the car so i can nurse the boys
  • kale’a and i wave goodbye as the family heads back home, again

this is where things got better for kale’a and i

  • the arena is next to an outdoor mall and there is 45 minutes before the game starts. on the way we walked by a coldstone and decide to make that our dinner
  • we finish our ice cream dinner and sit down in our seats just as the game begins
  • the game was awesome!!  we had a great time watching the coyotes beat the new york islanders
  • in the last half second of the final period, no joke, doan the team captain for the coyotes, scored his third goal of the game. those of you who don’t know hockey that is called a “hat trick”.  the crowd, including us, went crazy!  according to the guy sitting next to us ,this has not happened in 12 years for this team! wow!  and we were there when it happened!
  • mitch drives back to pick us up, leaving nani home with all of the kids, except maui, still awake (her first babysitting for longer than 30 minutes)
  • we get home just before 10:00
  • none of the children have bathed
  • the house is a DISASTER (only because mitch couldn’t do anything with his bum ankle)
  • i nurse makaio (who, i forgot to mention, has croup), put him to bed
  • the girls all jump into the shower TOGETHER
  • i start cleaning the house
  • nani puts the 2 and 5 year olds to bed
  • meltdown ensues with the 2 year old who wants to play the leapster in her bed, but mean ole’ mommy won’t let her because it is now 11:30
  • everyone is in bed by midnight… except me

instead, i am blogging about this crazy day because if i hadn’t lived it i wouldn’t believe that we could have survived it!  and because it will all be a big blur tomorrow, or i guess i should say today because it is now more than an hour into sunday, if i waited to write it down!  i will have to add the pictures of the day later after i get some sleep because i am way to exhausted to go through them and add them now!

 

let’s see:

  • no shower
  • no costco
  • no exercise, not to mention the horrid things i ate all day
  • no sleep
  • nothing leisurely about the day… i woke up and hit the ground running, not because i wanted to, but because i HAD to

some days just don’t turn out to be what you plan them to be!!  GOOD NIGHT!

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Project 365

ok, i know it has been a horribly LOOOOOONG time since i blogged, but i have a great excuse… 6 kids, the last 2 twins. nuf said!

 

well, those twins are now 13 months old and i lament at the goobs of stuff that i have not documented of our small little lives since they entered the picture.  if i think about it too long it makes me sick to my stomach… so i won’t dwell on that.  instead, i look to the future…

 

i have embarked on a HUGE undertaking, well, it is huge for this busy mom of 6.  this busy mom who used to take pictures like they were going out of style. this little mom who once started a very teeny, tiny photography business only to be brought to an abrupt halt at the news of twins growing in her soon to be large tummy.  this mom who has not wielded her camera near enough in the last 13 months (i’m getting that sick feeling in my tummy right now)! 

 

all of this has been mulling around in my brain;  how i need to document our lives like i used to, how i have missed so much of what we have done (and believe me there have been HUGE changes since i last posted, HUGE), how i have forgotten how to use my camera, how much i love taking pictures, how i used be an awesome photographer (hehe), how much i love to go back and read my blog and laugh at all the stuff that i otherwise would have forgotten had i not written it down, how this all needs to change!

 

i found the solution in Project 365!  i’m sure you have heard of it before! it’s been around for some time now.  in short, i will take at least one photo a day, plain and simple!  no themes, no restrictions, no rules.  just pure photography of whatever!

 

i am excited and scared. it is a big deal!  i will be carrying my camera just about everywhere with me.  capturing whatever i want to.  then i will share, at least, one of these photos from each day here on my blog.  i will add little tidbits, or big tidbits, of my life.  in this way, i will solve many of my concern that i mentioned above.  i will NOT be blogging everyday, but i will blog at least once a week the pictures from each day of that week.  it may be more often than that, but i hope to blog at least once a week so i don’t get too behind. of course, things happen, so i will be flexible.

 

so, there you have it!  i started on january 1st and so far i am 6 for 6!  not bad for a girl who was gotten VERY rusty and out of the habit of taking pictures!

i am excited to see what happens to my photographic abilities in the next year, but i am even more excited to start writing my history… AGAIN!

 

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and while i am at it i think i should update my blog header to include my other 3 children and the photos on my sidebar to include a current family photo with our twins…

ya think??!!

 

i’ll work on that…