First Birthday Video

Remember the amazing video recorder I told you about here? Well, that has led to super fun videos like this:



I can't even tell you how much I love this. Seriously, I have watched it probably 20 times. I had to cut out a LOT of content to make it fit, but I still feel like it captured the day perfectly. Plus, I know family will watch this and feel like they were part of the day, and it feels even more special than just pictures. My hubby wants me to go back and make these for our older kids now too. We will see....

New Toys for the New Year

Ahhhhh, what a wonderful New Year this has been. After Christmas we have been taking it easy, chillin' out, relaxin' all cool and shootin' some b-ball..... oh, wait. I finally finished the last of the Christmas presents on Friday night and it's blocking right now. And I am TOTALLY kicking myself for not taking any pictures of the Christmas gifts I made. My camera had a major ouch, right before Christmas. My hubby was shooting pictures of kids making gingerbread houses and he heard a weird grinding noise, then an error popped up that said "error, release shutter again." We tried and tried, but nothing would work. We looked it up online and many people who had this same problem were dumb enough to open their camera and put WD-40 inside of it. Seriously, people!?! No way was I going to do that. I took it to our local camera repair shop, and yes, it was a very expensive repair. Here's how I look at it though: I could either a)cry about it, decide that the repair was too expensive and wait and save up for a new camera. Most likely this would lead to an upgrade, because who wants to spend money on something that is the same as they already have? Probably total cost = $900. Or, I could b)put my tears away and cough out the $200 for the repair, not have my camera for Christmas, and keep using the camera I already know and love and keep exploring with. For me, this was no contest. $200<$900. Camera home > no camera for months. It amazes me how many people I know that would have just said "too bad, so sad," and bought another camera, most likely on credit and paid it off over the next year. I figure I might as well spend less money, take care of what I already have, and not have a very large credit card bill to pay off. Okay, enough ranting.

My camera is back now, and I love it so much. The nice repairman (a.k.a. total jerk until you are sugary-sweet nice to him, then he is super friendly and helpful) actually found sand in it. GAH! Sand!?! I need to start taking better care of this thing. A new camera bag for me is in the queue for sewing projects. Anyways, it was really hard not having it for Christmas, but my hubby got a friend for it under the tree. Here is the new buddy in the house:

Ahhhhhhh, I love having a 50mm f/1.8 lens in my home. I am still learning a LOT about this lens, but oh boy is it fun. The parts that are in focus are very sharp, while the parts that are out of focus are very blurred. We played with a bit of bokeh techniques and focal range points, and I love how well it auto-focuses. It has been really great for taking more monthly pictures of Baby J (photos to come soon) and I love shooting at 1.8 for lots of stuff now. I think I will name it Sherman.

I also ordered a remote for my camera right after Christmas. I am hoping to use this to start getting myself in more of our pictures, and making family photos a heckuvalot easier. It works really well, too!

Another buddy showed up under our tree this year from "Santa" (my parents). Seriously, this has changed how we are documenting our family.

It's not this exact model (I think she ordered it from QVC) but it's an AMAZING video recorder. It shoots in 1080p, it's waterproof and shockproof, and it also works as a point-and-shoot camera. Wow, do I love this thing. I have been shooting random clips from different events, then putting them together with music to make really fun movies. (I'll start posting them soon.) We had a video camera before, but it used stupid tapes and you could always hear the tape humming in the background, plus it was a pain to upload the video. This thing makes it SO MUCH EASIER to capture life on video. Okay, enough blabbing. Look forward to the next month with lots more pictures, videos, and cards to share! And yay for getting 4 new followers after the feature on beckyhiggins.com. I had such a fun time with that, so welcome newcomers :) Blessings!

2011 Reflections - Project Life

(pssst.... this video was featured on Becky Higgins' Blog!! Major yay for the day!)

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My Project Life kit from 2011 is finished! Well, almost. Like, 99.9% done. If I wanted to stop now and not mess with it any more, it would be perfectly okay.

I have to say that I love, love, love how it turned out. Sometimes I would get a little bit down reading all of the amazing blog posts from Becky's blog and links where people would do amazing customizations. Stamps, stickers, extra paper, and even sewing new pocket protectors were popping up all over the place, and sometimes I felt like mine was too simple. But the more I looked at it, the more I was really happy with it. I like simple and clean. I also like easy. Sometimes the pictures are sideways or even missing, and I am 100% okay with that. This is the first year of my life where I actually felt somewhat caught up on my scrapbooking. My kids love to look through the album and have me read it to them. I am amazed every time I look at it how much my family has changed. We had 3 new babies enter our family this year, along with many more all around us. My kids learned new skills and I tried new recipes. Some things didn't change, and it was actually nice to document that as well. Most of all I feel like I grew with this project. My photography and editing got better and I became a bit more bold with the products. I let myself off the hook for not having a "picture a day" and instead focused on documenting those precious times. It might sound corny, but I really think Project Life helped me grow as a person. Thank you, Becky Higgins, for "making my dreams come true." Because of you, 2011 will be a year that myself and my children will never forget.

IKEA Adventures

Well,six months after it opened, I finally got to go to the new IKEA that opened in Denver. My sister and I took the day (with Baby J) and spent several hours in this super fun store. Instead of showing a bunch of pictures, I thought I would make a video of our adventures:





I looked at entertainment centers, but my good hubby talked me down from spending a BUNCH of money. We decided to really plan our living room and make sure we get something we will love for a long time. In the meantime, I picked up some storage boxes for the living room and closet, some drawer dividers, and bins for the amazing amounts of legos that are now in our home. We sure had a great time!

PS - I know the video is SUPER cheesy. My mom and dad gave us a great new video camera for Christmas, so be expecting a lot more super cheesy videos in the future.