ThanksGiving!!!

It has been the craziest three weeks of my life from Thanksgiving to Christmas just around the corner. Writing in my blog has seemed so last option in my day as between completing school, work, family play time, and the holidays. Needless to say, these past weeks have been amazing in our lives as we've shared some wonderful moments of true happiness and joy with friends and family. I had the opportunity to shoot photos for my wife's cousin and her family:

We had Thanksgiving at Janelle's parents new home. It was really nice and a great time with family. Unfortunately, my job required I work that night and I had to leave my beautiful girls late in the afternoon. It is such an awesome feeling knowing that even if I can't always be there because of my job, my incredible wife is so able and ready to take care of my little ones while I'm away.

New Camera Lens

I've been shooting pictures for about 2 years now but I haven't had any formal training or great equipment. Recently I decided that it would awesome to be able to take great photos for our friends and family without charging what it costs to hire a professional photographer. But I don't just want to offer a "snapshot" photo session for people looking to capture their precious moments. So I've started studying and recently purchased an upgraded lens for my Canon. It's the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS. Anyways, I'm having tons of fun practicing and thought I'd share some of the photos I took today.

Where's Waldo?

Remember the days of Waldo!?!?!?! I use to spend hours upon hours searching for the candy striped nerd and all his mismatched followers. Then I would go back and find all the funny items that were placed throughout the pages such as a cane, bones, books, etc. I use to own all the Waldo books and ever time we would go any place in the car we would see who could find Waldo and his stuff the fastest. So this morning (actually 2:00pm, but that's morning when you work grave yards), Allie pulls out a Where's Waldo book and brings it over to me. I figured, "why not, I'll have fun showing where Waldo is." I don't know if my wife has some super mommy power or what, but my almost 3 year old is pointing out where Waldo is sometimes before I can find him! Mommy's smarts have to rubbing off on her because immediately after, she finds Waldo's "wife" and says, "it's Waldo's wife"! Ok, so I'm totally amazed and we spend the next 30 minutes laughing about how well Allie is able to find Waldo in every mess of a page. So I think I'm gonna be going on E-bay soon and buying all the Waldo books so she can have the fun and excitement I use to have! 

(Click on the photo and zoom in if you want a chance at finding Waldo. My 3 year old found him fast! )

First Halloween

I haven't done anything for Halloween in over 15 years and we hadn't actually planned on doing anything this year either, but Allie was invited to her little friends house of a family that I know from work. We decided to take her out together. Allie was the best Trick-or-Treat(er) I have ever seen. I though she'd be scared or intimidated to go up to the houses and strangers, but she walked straight up to each door and promptly stated "Christmas treat" in her almost 3 year old voice. It was adorable! Katie had a blast, falling asleep before we made it out the door and then waking up about half way through the night. Taking them out reminded me of when I use to go when I was a kid.

My Family

I have wanted to blog for many years now, but procrastination has kept me from ever beginning (I hate that guy). Now I am a dad of two beautiful little girls and I find myself surrounded by 3 awesome ladies everyday. It should be no surprise to me that the Lord gave me two girls since I have found myself surrounded by girls my entire life. It's any wonder how my brother and I ever turned out "normal", enjoying everything that guys enjoy, since almost all my friends were girls. Now I'm surrounded everyday by 3 lovely women who brighten my day with laughs and smiles.