Josh and Heather

I got to take pictures for Ross and Cathryn's older son's wedding reception. Josh and Heather were recently married in Utah.  (They met at BYU, and I understand a mutual fondness for Batman may have been involved.) 



We got some pictures at the house before heading over to the reception. Here's Josh surrounded by a bevy of beauties.



The reception was at this gorgeous house on the water, looking across to Raft Island. The sun was going down and the lighting was excitingly dramatic.



Oldest sister Brittany's kids.



The kids kept wanting to help carry the train. So cute!



The family! Dad Ross had to be away for work, and younger son Seth is serving a mission in Florida.  (It's rather shocking to see everyone so grown up--I remember them like this.)



Cathryn with the newest grandbaby (Brittany's fourth), Ellie Jane. Awww!



Gorgeous sunset!



Newlyweds on the dock.



I ran up onto the lanai for a bird's-eye perspective while they went all the way out to the end. (Heather was so cute, holding her dress up and skipping down the dock.)



It was a really lovely evening.  I got only slightly lost finding my way back through Gig Harbor (in the dark!)  Congratulations to the happy couple!

Over the River and Through the Woods

We went out to Ross and Cathryn's house in Gig Harbor for Thanksgiving. We hadn't seen them since last Thanksgiving, but Cathryn sent me an email about a week ago saying, "Hey, are you guys coming for Thanksgiving?" and I said, "Sure, if you want us!"




Going over the bridge (okay, so it's not actually a river).



Kate, in the back of the car, made the observation that the bridge was a lot like the ones that we have in our train set.



...and through the woods...



...to Ross and Cathryn's house! I loved the pumpkins and just had to get a picture.

They hadn't met Andy yet. The girls thought he was adorable and took turns passing him around. We had a lovely meal (with some of the best gravy ever), watched The Princess Bride, played with my pipe chimes, listened to a story and drew pictures, and then cut snowflakes. We also called and sang Happy Birthday to my brother Peter, with Noelle on the piano.



We liked this sturdy wooden rocking airplane. That's some hefty construction.



Noelle and Tsia cutting snowflakes.




Doug helps Kate with a snowflake.




(One of mine.)

We've had a nice weekend, and Kate got to play over at other people's houses three days in a row! (Her bedtime has been pretty much shot. Must get back on track.)

On Friday (his eleven-month birthday) Andy took a couple of steps. Look out world!

Giving Thanks

We went over to Ross and Cathryn's house for Thanksgiving, and had a lovely meal and a nice visit. Kate had a great time playing with their youngest daughter. After dinner we sang some Thanksgiving hymns and patriotic songs, and then we cut out paper snowflakes with the girls. Thanks for having us over!

Goat Girls

This last Saturday we went out to Ross and Cathryn's house in Gig Harbor to take pictures. Their oldest daughter was visiting with her husband, so they wanted to get some family pictures while they had everyone together. They were also going to a wedding later that day, so the three younger girls were all wearing their Easter dresses. I got some really cute pictures of the girls with the goats.



I thought the lighting was neat, but the processing was kind of tricky. I'm still not really sure on the color.

I only got a few pictures of the three girls together here, because right after this the goat stepped backward and very nearly pushed Cathryne into the pond. I was so sure she was going to fall in. Whew!



Kate got to help feed the fish...



...and the chickens!



It was very sunny and probably the warmest day we'd had so far. (Doug ended up on sweater duty, as you can see here.) It was also our first time going across the new bridge. It's been open for almost a year, but we just haven't had any reason to go over that way. Kate thought it was pretty cool.

Christmas and a tangent

Yesterday I ran up to Tacoma Boys to get a few things for dinner, and while I was there I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "Come With Me to Bethlehem." (On the radio, that is--the Tabernacle Choir was not actually at Tacoma Boys.) I had an instant flashback to three years ago--I was very pregnant, I was at Ross and Cathryn's place painting, the house was all warm and decorated for Christmas, and a CD with that song was playing. Even though the painting I was copying was of Jerusalem and had absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, the song and the setting just seemed to go together--the Holy Land, and the buildings glowing pink in the sunset. Apparently I was not the only one who thought so, as one of the girls asked me if the people with the camel were Mary and Joseph.

I had never heard "Come With Me to Bethlehem" anywhere else before last night. The timing seemed especially significant, since I had just been talking to Cathryn that morning. Their daughter Brittany got married this summer and they wanted some books to give to the grandparents for Christmas, so I'd been working on that. (I just happened to check Shared Ink and noticed that their deadline for Christmas orders was Dec. 4, so it was a bit of a scramble there, getting it all put together over a couple of days.) It was fun to be able to work with these lovely photos. Here are a few of the pages:






That picture of all the kids is going on a Christmas card, too. Isn't it great?

We made bacon lentil soup again tonight (Doug made it--I helped a bit). I'm starving! Time to go eat!

Check out this beautiful family...

This is what I've been working on the past week. Actually more than the past week. I've been editing photos, but I got sick, and then Kate got sick, and everything ended up taking a lot longer than it should have.

I took these pictures for Ross and Cathryn (owners of the Jerusalem mural) back in October. They were going to order some for Christmas, but I never got the final word from them (I was insanely busy, anyway, what with the drawing and Barb's wedding and all). Then a couple of weeks ago Cathryn found an email in her draft box that she thought she had sent to me back in December, with the list of pictures they wanted. So, I've been editing.



Some of these were posed and some were just spur-of-the-moment candids (and hence not too well focused). You can see the mural in the background on those last two. We'd been taking pictures outside, but it was getting cold, so we went in and were just hanging out in the living room. One of the girls was looking at a book by the lamp, and I just loved the way the light fell on her, so I started taking pictures. Then we had to get the other girls in too.



This was one of my favorites--Cathryn didn't order any of this one, but I had to post it anyway because it's so cute. They're such a sweet family.

The camera

This is what Kate sees when she looks at me. Ha! No, I don't really have this thing stuck to my face all the time, it just seems like it.

The camera is a Canon EOS 20D. Some time last summer I decided that we needed a digital camera (probably soon after finding out I was pregnant), so I started researching. I had almost decided on the Canon G6, and then I ran across a review that convinced me that if I wanted something with a quick response time that would work in low light levels, I really needed a digital SLR. (Doug has a manual film SLR, a Pentax K1000, so I was at least a little familiar with the concept.) Of course that led to more research, and before I knew it I was drooling over lens reviews and reading the forum on dpreview, and bookmarking stunning photo galleries. I got my heart set on the 20D, but had no idea where I would come up with the money.

Then one day I was at a meeting of the Stake Emergency Management Team. (It's a church thing.) Our friend Scott is the president, so he got me to be the secretary. So we were at this meeting, and Ross, one of the counselors, had recently seen the mural that I painted in Scott's apartment, and asked me if I would like to come paint a wall for him. I said I thought I could probably do that. He asked how much I would charge, and I said, "Well, there's this camera that I've been lusting after..."

We arranged that Ross would get me a 20D in exchange for a mural. I started painting around the end of October. I was very pregnant by this point, which made things interesting, but I finished about two weeks before my due date and had the camera in my hands before Kate was born. I've gotten much better at using it now (though I've still got a lot to learn, of course!) so some of those early shots weren't as good as they could have been, but I'm happy to have them.

The trouble with having a camera like this is that it makes you want more. More memory cards, more lenses... (oooh, the lenses...) I only have the 50mm f/1.4 lens right now, but there are a couple more that I've got my eye on. Soon. Hopefully. (If I ever get the Cupboard Under the Stairs finished.)

We took Kate out to see Ross's family a few weeks ago, since they'd never actually met her. It was fun to see the mural again, and of course I took my camera along.



While I was painting we were having car trouble, so I used one of Ross's cars to get back and forth. About halfway through the project he asked if perhaps I would like the car instead of the camera. We tossed the idea around for a while (car, camera, car, camera...) and decided to go with the camera. I was so happy that Doug supported me in that. He knew it was something that was important to me, and he's mentioned several times since then that he's glad we got the camera. And we were able to find another car when we needed one, so everything worked out all right.

Now we have a sweet little baby girl and a great camera to take lots and lots of pictures of her.