Renting lenses for the holidays

Since the rental place was having a promotion, I decided to rent a couple of lenses I've had my eye on for a while.  I rented a 20mm f/2.8 and a 180mm f/2.8.  After about 2 seconds I decided the 20mm and I weren't going to get along.  I think my vision is just so poor that wide angle lenses bore and frustrate me.  I have a ridiculously difficult time getting them to focus on what I want them to focus on.  I'll give it another try before I send it back, but it kind of felt like I was looking through the wrong end of a set of binoculars.  

The 180 on the other hand...I LOVE LOVE LOVE!  I wasn't so sure that it was focusing on what I wanted it to when I took it out to take some pics of Anna and my nieces in the back yard, but when I pulled the pics up on the computer they didn't look half bad!  And that's even with my slightly unsteady hand!  I am thinking this will be a good lens for me for outdoor sports for the kids when they get bigger.  

All of these were shot with the 180, and I was about 50 feet away from the kids, which is awesome because I can take pics without being a distraction!

I'm so glad the auto focus wasn't getting confused!  I know I keep complaining about my vision, but seriously...it makes me heavily dependent on the auto focus....so it's crazy important.

Wallace is SO pale right now!

My sister's kids crack me up.  I'm not sure if they are extremely well camera-trained...or the complete opposite.  They refuse to ignore the fact that I am there.  :)  But for the purpose of testing out this lens, it was perfect.  Carson kept finding new places to pose for me. 

Honestly thought the bark of the tree would trip up the auto focus, but nope!

This lens can do no wrong!

I just happened to have it super-glued onto the camera (I seriously don't think I'm going to remove the 180 until I am forced to put it back in the mail....) when Josh pulled out some fireworks.

School Christmas Program - 2014

This year was the first time we had two kiddos in the school Christmas program, so it was especially adorable!  Wallace has been walking around singing Jingle Bells all month and he's actually quite good at it, so I was all prepared to watch him rock it out up there.  Well, I have no idea what the song was that they sang!  I'd never heard it before.  "/  He seemed to know the words though!  So now I have no clue where he picked up Jingle Bells.  

He turned around for most of the group picture time...  This kid marches to the beat of his own drum....

He kind of half turned around at the end. :)

I took Anna in for a doctor's appointment earlier this week and decided to peek in on Wallace's class through the 2-way mirror while I was there.  I'm not sure why I torture myself like this.  It has never panned out well for me.  Each time I peek in on one of my kids they are misbehaving!  Or at least they appear to be...  One of Wallace's teachers managed to break her foot during class one day recently.  

No judgement here...it's apparently pretty easy to break your foot in the most ridiculous ways...  "/

Anyway...his other teacher has been pretty much left to fend for herself with about 10 2-year-olds.  So, when I peeked in the first time she was trying to get all of the kids to sit around the table to play with puzzles and stuff like that.  Every child in that class was sitting in their chair doing the activity she had given them...except mine.  She was attempting to carry him over to his chair to get him started on his puzzle, and he was doing the whole limp noodle thing on her.  "/  I just shook my head and walked away.  

So, I took Anna on over to her class to drop her off, and on my way back to my truck decided to peek in one more time...you know...maybe the limp noodle child was just an anomaly.  This time all of the kids were sitting around Ms. Jennifer on the rug for circle time, and Wallace was actually participating, but he wasn't sitting on the rug....  Instead, he was sitting up in a chair just a little outside of the circle.  She assured my Mom, when she asked about it, that he wasn't in any kind of trouble...that's just where he prefers to sit for circle time.  I can only imagine that he has just slowly worn her down... 

I know this looks cute and all, but in reality.....

...Ms. Jennifer has enlisted the help of her daughter to keep Wallace in line.  "/  He would try to get up during the program, and she would reign him back in.  Haha!

Anna's class sang The Little Drummer Boy.  She's been rehearsing it around the house for a month!  I'm so glad they got this song.  Every year I see one of the classes preform it, and it looks like the most fun one to do!

Because they get sticks!!!

And they get to beat them on the steps!!!  How fun is that!

I am so super frustrated with the lighting in the church.  I honestly don't know how my wedding photographer managed to master it...with film no less!  Guess it was something to do with him being a professional and all.  I had a really rough time with it this go around.  All there are are halogen lights, some sky lights (it was a cloudy day), and a bunch of stained glass windows.  The white balance gets all confused.  So, rather than show a bunch of yellow-orange children, I was pretty much forced to convert everything to black and white.  "/  Boo!  

Bath Time for Meredith!

Bath time with Meredith is getting to be a lot of fun!  She's sitting up on her own, so I can just sit back and watch her play now.  :)  When I start to draw the water I'll have her in my lap, and as I undress her, she literally is trying to throw herself into the tub!  Hard to believe she's the same kid that hated her very first bath so much.

Lately, in an effort to save time in the evenings, I've had Wallace sharing bath time with her, but since it is Saturday and there was no need to rush, Meredith got to have it all to herself tonight.

She's always chewing on the foamy letters.

Always!

She's been watching Wallace lay down and splash around, so tonight she gave it a try for herself.  It was super cute!

She's been pulling up in the tub this past week.  It's a little nerve wracking because I know she's going to end up slipping and nailing herself, but it's kind of fruitless to try to fight her on it.  I remember Anna standing up through her entire bath for months when she'd mastered that skill.  

Anna's first camping trip!

Anna and I ate and ran at Granny's on Thanksgiving so we could go camping with my sister and her girls!  Every year we all go to Canton to shop, and since Sarah and Kevin have a camper, they always stay at a park.  Jen and I have been going on this annual trip for about 8 or 9 years now, but since she's in Alaska, it seems a bit crazy to ask her to come back to Texas for a day-long shopping excursion and a couple of nights in a tent.  It only makes sense to start taking my kids.  Anna's finally old enough for all of the walking that's required, so the timing was really perfect.  I have been looking forward to this, and so I started getting her prepped earlier in the week by talking about camping.  By the time Thursday rolled around she didn't even want to bother with Thanksgiving dinner, she just wanted to go straight to the campsite.  Next time I will just hold off on telling her where we are going until we are in the car and headed there.  ;)

It was dark when we got there on Thursday, so I was really glad I'd sent my tent up ahead of us, and Sarah and Kevin had found time to put it up for us so I didn't have to try to do it in the dark.  I was even more thankful after I heard that one of the poles had broken on them, and so they had to find a way to get the pole together without the tension string.  "/  There was some duct tape involved, but I can't say I'd of been able to do that.  Kevin is super handy!  And he even set us up with a light and had a heater running in the tent when we arrived.  How sweet is that?!  

The next morning we got up early and headed to Canton for some Black Friday madness!!!

These girls were ready to shop!

Our first stop....funnel cakes!  And insanely hot hot chocolate!  Sure, we'd already eaten breakfast, but who can walk by a perfectly good funnel cake vendor at 9:00am and not buy one?  We all burned our taste buds with the hot chocolate...  In fact, the roof of my mouth was still peeling this morning.  "/

Anna was super interested in handing the vendors money.  She saw the girls doing this and wanted to give it a try.  Too bad she doesn't wait around for the change or get the concept that she's handing them cash in return for something...  Maybe next year.  :)

This is how she rolls!  I don't think Anna really understood what we were going to Canton to do, but she quickly caught on.  She's quite the shopper.  Our $200 didn't really last long with things like Indian head dresses, toys, bracelets, and sunglasses to buy.  

This was lunch time.  Can you tell it was insanely windy!  

I brought the wagon just in case Anna's legs started hurting.  Good thing I did.  She didn't really sleep in it, but she and the other girls used it extensively the second half of the day.  

Oh yeah.  That's my girl.  :)  I love me some turkey leg!  She, Carson, and I devoured that thing.

The next morning the girls had a short-lived tea party.  :)  

And they made some Christmas ornaments.

This is what it looks like when you try to do anything crafty with 5 little girls.  It may not look like it here, but it was a little bit chaotic.  

Since Cora and Anna tend to fight a lot...Sarah and I took Cora to the play ground while the other girls went fishing with Kevin.  The wind made for some rough fishing weather, so I think Cora ended up getting the better deal. :)

I learned a lot about Cora this weekend.  She talks WAY more than I thought she did, and she's ridiculously mischievous.  :)

Anna's already asking when we will get to go camping again, so I'd say the trip was a success!  Thank goodness she wasn't a grumpy camper, even with the first night being fairly cold.  So, it looks like I've found my new shopping buddy!  She might cut into my personal spending budget, but oh well.  I'd say it's a win-win.  

Scouting

Today I managed to get the whole family to go outside and take pictures for a Christmas card!!!  I am determined to get one sent out this year.  I think it's been about 3 years since we last sent one.  "/

Before we could do that though, Anna helped me scout out a good location to take them!  

And who would scout out locations without their handy pool float?  Not this girl!  

I made her sit on it.  :)