Monthly Challenge #3 Street Photography

This was my first time attempting street photography. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement. I went to two different shops on Main St., and asked an employee at each place if I could take their pictures. Neither hesitated to say "yes". I learned that, you have to be ready with your composition in mind and your settings already in place before you go in. I'm am glad this little challenge got me out of my comfort zone. For your viewing pleasure, here is the nice lady at the tortilla shop. :)

Check out these other talented ladies

http://laurenjensenphotography.wordpress.com/
http://www.fotografiabyalea.com/
http://www.anchorandbirdblog.com/
http://www.bronandjessie.blogspot.com/

Our Christmas Card and Letter 2014

Merry Christmas

2014

Ty and Rachel – We spent this fall renovating Ty’s Grandpa and Grandma Dowdle’s home, and just moved in last week. I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it is watching an episode on HGTV with 4 kids, now imagine living through that episode for 4 months with 4 kids. Overall, it was a good experience, and we are really loving our new house. Also, I turned 30 this year, and am now old.

Luke (7)- Luke is growing up so fast. He’s missing his two front teeth now, and has a great smile. He loves waking up before dawn to watch cartoons, and staying up way past his bedtime reading books. He has quite the collection of rocks, quarters, and things that look like trash to his mother.

Grady (5) - Grady, a true man’s man, dresses like a cowboy and always puts in a full day of hard work. I’ve even caught him working outside with his shovel before mom and dad are even out of bed. He takes life very seriously, but always likes to end the day with a nice back scratch.

Reddic (3) -Oh, where do I begin with Reddic! He had his first crush this summer on a super cute lifeguard. He has a smile that gets him out of trouble all day long. He idolizes his big brothers and tries so hard to keep up with them all day. Basically, anything Grady says is cool, Reddic likes.

Ruby (8 months) - Ruby joined our family on April 7^th. Her favorite pastime is crawling around looking for tiny plastic toys or trash that her big brothers may have dropped on the floor and quickly shoving them into her mouth. She also loves wearing pretty dresses and having her picture taken. Her big brothers are absolutely smitten with her, and she thinks they are pretty great too.

Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year,

The Allen Family 

Bokeh

Monthly challenge: Bokeh

My boys snuggling watching Christmas videos 

Check out these other talented ladies

http://laurenjensenphotography.wordpress.com/
http://www.fotografiabyalea.com/
http://www.anchorandbirdblog.com/
http://www.bronandjessie.blogspot.com/

Night Images Challenge

Since I am a total ball  of stress right now finishing our renovation and preparing to move next week, I am cheating for this months challenge and posting old photos. :) The first one is from July. It is my dad reading a book to my nephew and my son Grady. The next three are from one of the first times Ruby was sleeping in her crib shot at a high ISO and low shutter speed with manual focus.

If you would like to see the other women's take on the theme in our monthly challenge club, check out these links.
http://laurenjensenphotography.wordpress.com/
http://www.fotografiabyalea.com/
http://www.anchorandbirdblog.com/
http://www.bronandjessie.blogspot.com/

Our Legoland and the Beach Trip

We went to the San Deigo area for a few days as a family. We spent two days at Legoland and 1 evening and 1 morning at two different beaches. We absolutely loved it! Legoland was perfect for our boys, and I could easily spend all day on the beach just watching the waves. I accidently left all my memory cards for my big camera at home, so I only had one litttle memory card that was already in the camera. I also forgot to charge my phone all the way one day too, so we didn't end up with very many pictures from our trip (at least I felt like I didn't take very many). I made a Shutterfly book with our pics, and you can look at it if you'd like.

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Easter

So, I know, I know, it has been forever, but I'm back. At least for today. :) We had a great Easter today. The boys woke up to books and eggs with money in them from the Easter Bunny. We ate breakfast, and then we went on an egg hunt outside. I am so proud of Reddic. He can say Peep and Egg, and he knows there is candy in eggs. He totally knows what he is doing on egg hunts. Enjoy the pics!

Love these three <3 p="">

Trading eggs.

This was the third egg hunt for each of the boys this week. We are seriously swimming in candy at our house.

Box

So Grady found a box today, and that means he wanted to sit in the box and be pushed around the house in it. Let face it, pushing a 3-year-old around the house in a box is exhausting back-breaking work. I do it because his little face just absolutely lights up with joy when we do.  I've been thinking about this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-tate/mom-pictures-with-kids_b_1926073.html the last couple of days, and so I decided if I am going to do all this work, I want Grady to be able to look back and know how much I loved him and that we did do fun things together (even if it was only for 15 minutes until I passed out on the couch). So here it is in all of it's out-of-focus and me still in my pj's evidence that I am part of my children's lives. 

The 24th of July Celebration

We went to hike Lady Bug Saddle in the middle of the day up on Mt. Graham. The weather started out so nice. It was so good to get away from the heat, even if it was only for a few hours. Then something happened. There were clouds in the sky when we got there, but they just kept building and building and building. By the time we got to the top, I was scared that we would get struck by lightning. We only stayed up there and looked at the lady bugs for a minute. We decided that I would wear Reddic down the mountain, so that Ty could help with carying Grady. About half way down the mountain Luke tripped and fell and skinned his knee. Ty set down Grady and picked up Luke. It was just then that I saw something that I had never seen before. I looked down and to the south and saw clouds literally racing in. I have never seen clouds move so fast in my entire life and it was so weird to be above the clouds and watch them move so incredibly fast below us to about where our car was. That is when I called to Ty, and told him to look at what I was looking at. Ty yelled to me that he would be back for me, and then took off running down the mountain with a screaming Luke in his arms. We were at the point where there were lots of switchbacks down a somewhat steep face of the mountain down to the car. Ty literaly ran down the mountain avoiding the swichbacks. We could just feel the temperature rapidly dropping. Getting scared myself, I scooped up Grady and ran down the mountain too. Ty made it back to the car with Luke before the full force of the storm hit. Grady, Reddic, and I were only in it for a little bit. Once we were all safe in our car. We just sat there taking in the storm for a while. I don't think my words can really do the story justice. It was quite the experience. 

 

These pictures are all from our hike up the mountain. I didn't take any on the way down.

Grady loves to pick flowers for mom.

We made it to the lady bugs.

The view from inside our car once we made it back.

We were seriously only in the storm for a minute, and look how soaked Reddic got.

Part II- The Pioneer Day Parade in Pima with the Allen cousins later that evening