Good-bye to this blog!

I am in the process of switching over to my Wordpress blog completely.  I'm ready to be done with Blogger. And, I simply can't keep up with two blogs. I will no longer post here as of today. Head over to my photography blog:

www.jenniferbacher.com

Oldest and Youngest

I love this darling toe grabbing stage little K is in right now. His toes are his favorite toy and teether. He'll be 6 months old tomorrow. I am dying! I can't believe that much time has already passed. He's growing at warp speed and changing every day. I also love the relationship between my oldest and my youngest. Brooklyn loves her baby brother so much and she's very nurturing towards him. She has been so wonderful and helpful to me. I'm just soaking it all in. This baby stage, although super time consuming and hard at times, will be gone before I know it. I am so fulfilled having a baby again. He brings me so much joy.

Common photography mistakes

I have been reading these posts (below) by Jean Smith Photography on the I Heart Faces photography blog that are a fabulous read for anyone trying to learn more about photography. I wish someone had told me these things when I was in my beginning stages. Just thought I would pass them along to all my friends who are learning too!

Common photography mistakes and how to fix them

Common lighting mistakes

Common posing mistakes

Common photo editing mistakes and how to fix them

Also, get a free download from my friend Courtney at Click It Up A Notch on her facebook page. The download is a 33 page pdf file to “Improve Your Photos No Matter What Camera You Have”. She dives into different topics like lighting, composition and the dreaded self portraits! You can use these tips with your iPhone, point and shoot or DSLR!

Also, check out this great post by Courtney as well on these 7 common photography mistakes.

Spring Blossoms!

I read this quote on Facebook today. The trees are in full bloom right now so I had to capture them this week before the blossoms were gone! I took this first one in my kitchen with some mat board as the background. I was needing a good quote to add to the side. When I read this quote it was perfect! Plus, I'm missing my hubby today (gone on business) and made me think of him :) The others were the blossoms on my trees with the evening sun peeking through. Happy Spring everyone! It's supposed to be in the 80's for us this weekend...oh how I've missed the sun lately!

His first baseball team

I was dying at the cuteness of these little 6 year old boys playing baseball this week. The season began and it's Boston's first time on a real team. I love baseball, I hope he stays interested. His daddy is helping as a coach and he couldn't be more proud. Now just wish me luck on keeping up with his three days a week schedule! Here he is at his first game...

Go Cubs!

A day in Hollywood

On our Spring Break trip we spent a day in Hollywood at Universal Studios. On the way back to we stopped at the Hollywood sign. I didn't get the shot I was hoping for though because I didn't have my 70-200 lens with me and I couldn't get the zoom I needed. It was also hazy and I was shooting into the sun, so I struggled to get a clear shot. Oh well, bucket list photo accomplished, even if it's not everything I dreamed it would be. Stuck in a traffic jam right in the perfect spot, I also grabbed a quick shot out my car window of the LA skyline at sunset. Bottom photo is the B man eating a huge piece of watermelon at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Avery and her cousin near Balboa Park, and another beautiful California Sunset shot off the balcony of our condo.

We caught Norman Bates at the famous Bates Motel sneaking a dead body in his trunk. And passed a house devastated by an earthquake (sets at Universal Studios).

We visited the town of Whoville and some other movie sets..

We saw the Back to the Future car, drove through a simulated European neighborhood, experienced a flash flood, and barely escaped a massive explosion! 

Good times. My niece came along with us too. I should have paused to find someone to snap the family shot so I could get in the pic, but my kiddos were way too excited to wait any longer to enter the gates!

I can't tell you how much I needed this trip with my family. Although I can't really call it a "vacation" when we go with our kids...tons of work, especially with a baby...it was still nice to spend quality time together. More pics from Easter weekend to come!

10 Tips for Photographing Your Baby

Want to learn some tips for photographing your baby? Check out my post I wrote for Click It Up A Notch last week. I just have to brag too...since this is MY blog and I go do that :) Wahoo! As of today, my post was pinned over 10,000 times on Pinterest! I'm famous! I was actually surprised this many people liked my post. I whipped it together in an afternoon thinking it wasn't that great. I guess you never know.

update 5/21/12...been pinned 22,000 times! So cool.

Spring Break in Oceanside, California

For Spring Break we headed out on a fun vacation to Oceanside with the kids. I needed a change of scenery big time. I have been home bound since the baby was born in November and I was ready to breathe some salt air! My sister was there with her family as well. She has a beach house in Oceanside, so we hooked up with them and did some fun activities together during our stay.

My sister adopted four Ethiopian siblings last year and this was their first time seeing the ocean. My new nephew stood like this for several minutes just taking it all in. I wish I could remember how I felt the first time I saw the ocean. I wonder what he was thinking...

I love it when birds fly into my picture just as I'm composing my shot!

The dads and kids hauled rocks from the beach and built a huge sea monster. The kids had fun sitting in the monster's mouth and pretending to be eaten. Pretty creative, huh?

I heart beach sunsets! I also love it when people hold hands on the beach as if to model for me just as I'm taking pics of the sunset. I actually didn't even notice they were there until I pulled up this photo on my computer! It seems some of my favorite images happen by chance.

I'll post some others from the rest of our trip in the next post. Stay tuned!

4 Months Old

My little man seems to be growing at warp speed. I can't believe he's already 4 months old! My life is also passing by at warp speed as he completely consumes me from morning till night. It's been a bit of an adjustment with this fourth babe of mine. I have NO free time, which has been a challenge at times for me. This blog is suffering and I've even considered stopping blogging all together so I don't have those nagging feelings that I need to catch up all the time! The only computer time I get is at night after I put the kids to bed. But most nights I am so exhausted by that time and that I just want to collapse in my bed! For now, I will continue to blog when I can. With life as crazy as it is, I feel the importance even more to pause and record my family's life through my blog. Here's little K and his fourth month stats. I'm so in love with this little guy. Seriously can't get enough of him...and I'm with him all day!

Spring means...

...Warming up the pool! I thought my husband was crazy when he said he wanted to warm up the pool on the first week in March. The way our Spring usually goes here is one day it will be 70 degrees and beautiful and the next it will snow. But this year has been unusually warm earlier on. We cranked up the heat in the pool to 90 degrees, so as long as you stayed in the water you were ok! The kids were sooo excited to jump in. Here's Brooklyn testing the water and then diving in. I loved that we were swimming, yet you could still see snow on the mountains!

We knew the warm was too good to be true. It snowed the following day (ugggh)...

Future little pianist

Today my daughter and I held little K on our laps while we played the piano. His first time feeling the ivory's! He gets really squirmy and excited when he's near the piano. I hope it's a sign that he loves music and will want to learn to play when he gets older! I loved his little chubby fingers on the keys.

Music has been such a gift in my life. I am sooo glad I listened to my mom and took piano lessons and sang in choirs growing up. My grandmother was a great example to me too. She was an amazing pianist. She could sit down and play any tune without printed music in front of her. She played everything by ear. I remember sitting down at the piano with her as a child and watching her long fingernails "click" the keys as she played. We could carry on a whole conversation with she played too!

I have a greater appreciation for music as an adult because of the minimal training I had as a child. Makes me happy to see my girls really enjoying learning to play too. I told them it's the one activity that I am requiring them to do no matter what. Although they complain about practicing sometimes, they will thank me later...haha. Most people I have talked to who have quit piano as a child say they wished they had kept going. I didn't have a ton of training, but it was enough that I can sit down and play most of the hymns and basic sheet music I come across.

These are Avery's hands as she was practicing today. I used a slow shutter speed to show the movement of her fingers.

First Baby laughs

The other night Ryan got baby to do his first giggles for us. I cannot tell you how big the smile is across my face every time I watch this. Korver will only do this for his daddy for some reason. I guess when he's with mommy he's all about business...and sweet smiles. They learn early on that daddy is the fun guy I guess. Here's our Sunday evening entertainment... (click play on the first image...not sure why its posting two)

I Fly!

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to an indoor sky diving simulator place called iFly. My husband has trained our kids to not be afraid of anything. I was so surprised that Boston was brave enough to do this. He loved every minute of it! I didn't bring my nice camera, but we snapped a few iphone pics. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. Seriously the coolest feeling to be weightless like that. I told my husband I will never do the real thing because I am too much of a whimp, but the simulator was awesome, and very safe.

Here's a video of one of the instructors doing tricks so you can see how cool this is. Not sure why it posted two images here, but click play on the first one to see it...

Things I Love: Cute hair

I have always been obsessed with great hair. Those who know me, know that I play with my hair a lot. I never let a day go by that I don't do my hair. It's an essential part of my daily routine! I don't have the most perfect hair, but I try and make the most of what I got! I usually notice when someone has a cute style and am quick to compliment when I see one. And I often have hair envy when I see thick, long hair, since that is something I will never have. Anyways, I watched my friend Sara's little girl last week and she showed up straight from the salon. I was dying over the style and all the glitter. So stinkin' cute! Love this little girl. She makes me want one more little girl...oh wait, I'm done, that's right...haha.  The other pic is a cute little moment I had to capture too. While Brooklyn was on her laptop, Macey had to be on hers too. She followed Brooklyn around all morning and did whatever she was doing. So cute.

Things I Love: My other half

OK, so I wasn't the best at posting every day in February on "Things I Love" like I wanted to. But I did the best I could considering I have a 3 month old, thus, very little blogging time! There was a few more posts that I wanted to do of things I love and although it is March, I still wanted to blog about them. One of those things I love is of course, my husband. I know, sappy, but how can I blog all month about things I love and not include him?

I posted this picture on Click It Up A Notch with an article I wrote on lenses, but it's one of my favorites  so I am posting it here too. My hubby's Birthday was last week and I was stumped on what to do for him. He has everything he needs, so I wanted to do something sweet from the kids. I saw this pose on Pinterest and knew I had the right amount of feet now to pull it off. We gave this to him framed along with a present that said "38 things we love about you" on top, since he was turning 38. I had the kids help me think of 38 reasons why we love him and we wrote them on some little papers and wrapped them up.

Another cute way to do this is to hang the papers on a garland or piece of string that they follow around the house when they walk through the door, reading each thing until they reach the end of the string. I was going to do it this way, but really wanted to wrap them up since I didn't get him much to open as a present. Coming up with 38 things was easy. There's so much love about that man. He is truly the greatest gift (and my kids) that Heavenly Father has given me. We had some friends over the night of his Birthday to help us celebrate. Rather than labor over a cake (I'm lazy), I just picked up some of these adorable "Buntini's" from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

Our friends the Johnson's made Ryan a candy poster with a funny message on it. They gave him some beer glasses to read it with haha. I was impressed with the creativity it took to make all those candy names work in a few sentences! It was pretty funny, here's what it said...

Happy Birthday sweetheart, we love you!!