Photo 365!!!! I made it!

My last photo-of-the-day for 2009!!! I thought it would be fun to take a photo of the last minute of the year on our atomic clock. It even shows the indoor temp, full moon and day of the week! After snapping this photo, I still had time to watch Dick Clark's countdown. What a fun project this has been!!!!

December 30, 2009

I realized I never took a photo of our vehicles all year. Here's the truck and mini-van...dirt and all!

December 29, 2009

I need to explain this photo. First of all I got a new Canon 500D close-up lens today that turns my 70-200mm lens into a (almost 1:1) macro lens. Greg just happened to be playing around today making a battery out of pennies so I thought it would make an interesting item to practice my new lens on! More explanation on what you're looking at...a stack of 8 pennies (with the copper plating shaved off one side of each to expose the zinc) with a thin piece of cardboard soaked in salt water layered in between each penny. Then, it was all taped together. As you can see, that's all that's required to light this little LED! Cool huh?

December 28, 2009

We've had this keyboard forever and all it does is collect dust snce nobody knows how to play it (and we didn't have a speaker for it so you had to have headphones to hear it). Greg finally bought an amplifier/speaker for it so now hopefully with some teaching software, someone in the family will learn to play it!

December 27, 2009

Greg has been promising the boys that one night he would put the air-bed in their room and sleep in there for a night. Since we're all on vacation this week they decided to give it a go. This is the 3 of them snuggling before reading a book. Soon after, the boys headed to their own beds for the night very excited that dad was going to be sleeping in there, too!

December 26, 2009

I finally got a digital picture frame! Greg bought one for me for xmas and I love it. I can't believe it took me so long to own one of these...I can use a few more, now!

December 25, 2009

Christmas morning family picture, courtesy of the tripod!

December 24, 2009

The beautiful collection of Christmas cards we received this year!

December 23, 2009

Taken in my backyard! I thought the blue looked nice against the gray sky on this snowy afternoon!

December 22, 2009

My view in the eye examination room while waiting for the Dr. to come in!

December 21, 2009

Mallard ducks on ice!

December 20, 2009

We set out to look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood tonight! This is the first one we saw and it ended up being my favorite as far as lights go. However, we really enjoyed one house that had it's lights synchronized to music that you can tune your car radio to. Very Cool!

December 19, 2009

As i was walking Kayla this evening I came across this great shot. I love reflections and glad i had my camera with me!

December 18, 2009

I found a recipe online that I just had to try! This EGGNOG CAKE is fabulous! I was a bit skeptical due to the fact that it didn't get a great rating but I think it's awesome. I was attracted to it because I'm not a big fan of frosting but I love powdered sugar! If you love eggnog and cake, try this!

December 17, 2009

Another fun holiday event! Hunter's online school hosted an ice-skating/ gingerbread house contest today! It was the first time on ice skates for the boys and they did great and loved it! They also had a great time voting for their favorite gingerbread houses, too!

December 16, 2009

Hinter and Riley had a Christmas party with their homeschool group today! Crafts, cookie decorating, Christmas music and basketball! They had a blast!

December 15, 2009

I decided since I'm always keeping an eye on my birdfeeders I may as well keep track and enter the data online for Project FeederWatch. The data is used by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology to learn all sorts of things about bird behavior and migration patterns.

December 14, 2009

Our Nativity set!

December 13, 2009

Hunter was sick today and didn't move from the couch all day! I took this picture right before we put in a movie to watch...Indiana Jones- Raiders of the Lost Ark!

December 12, 2009

It would NOT be Christmas without the smell of Pizzelles wafting through the house. I grew up with my Italian grandma making these, then my mom and last year I finally bought a Pizzelle iron for myself to keep the tradition going! I made these to bring to a cookie exchange at Greg's sister's house.

December 11, 2009

12 degrees farenheight! This photo was not taken to show how cold it is but rather to show how 'warm' it is today compared to the single-digit and sub-zero temps we've been having this past week! 12 degrees feels like the new 50!

December 10, 2009

This was a pie I made to bring over to my brother's house for their Holiday Party! I was quite impressed with how it looked while cooking but later at the party...well...let's just say the slices didn't hold their form well and needed to be scooped out with a spoon. It still tasted good, though!

December 9, 2009

Many years ago, I taught myself to quilt from books but after making several on my own I decided to take a class at the local fabric store. This is the pattern we used in the class and I still love this quilt! I made a couple of pillows to match, too!

December 8, 2009

Greg loves to support my photography hobby and he thought I could use some new lenses just in time for Christmas! He's the best!! One is an extender to turn my 200mm into a 400mm zoom, perfect for my bird photography! The other is a Tamron wide angle lens perfect for all sorts of creative photos!

Decmeber 7, 2009

Today was the day I took photos of the boys and Kayla for our Christmas card. Of all the photos, I thought this one deserved 'Photo of the day'

December 6, 2009

Today I discovered a super cool method of post processing photos called HDR (high dynamic range) You basically take three identical shots (with a tripod) with 3 different exposure levels... underexposed, correct exposure and overexposed. Drag them into a software program called Photomatix...play around with the settings until you get something you like. This is my first attempt using a trial version of the software, hence the watermark.

Decmeber 5, 2009

Hunter's 'bed-head'. Time for a haircut!

December 4, 2009

The boys at their cool Jungle-themed dental office! No cavities!

December 3, 2009

Riley LOVES to play games! Today he challenged me to a few games of "Don't break the ice" and "Don't spill the beans" Of course I made sure to include in this pic his favorite pair of my "fluffy socks" that he's obsessed with!

December 2, 2009

Greg's mom buys us Christmas ornaments each year and these are the two she bought for Greg and I! They look good enough to eat :)

December 1, 2009

Each year, the Westminster fire department delivers Santa in a fire truck to select houses full of kids. The boys love going to their cousins' house for this tradition and can't wait to give Santa their Christmas lists!