"The Lost Generation"

Here is a video I stumbled on while cruising the blogosphere. If you watch the entire thing the first time I bet you will watch it again.

J's Karate test and Zambonis.

Saturday J had a karate test for belt advancement. As usual he totally rocked it. Here are a few pictures I got of him in action:







Natasha had to come with me and she was totally bored because there were no little girls for her to play with. She did have a good time watching a couple of girls practice figure skating in the ice skating arena which is is right next to the karate room. She kept begging me to let her go up to the observation area so she could watch people ice skate. I relented and let her go, but I was paranoid the whole time thinking someone was going to walk off with her. She let me know in no uncertain terms that she is a big girl and can take care of herself. I checked on her a couple of times and she was fine. At one point they brought out the Zamboni. (for all you non-Peanuts fans, that is a machine used to clean the ice) She asked me if I had ever driven one. I of course told her I hadn't. She told me, "You should get that job because it looks fun." I couldn't argue there, "Zamboni driver" sounds a lot cooler than "IT Analyst" and my redneck friends would think I raced European sports cars.

Playing with my new toy.

December was filled with dentist appointments and doctor appointments as we tried to fit as much in as we could before the insurance deductibles reset on January 1st. Somehow we managed to get Christmas shopping done too. Mom and Dad came down for the extended weekend. We had a good time despite half of us being sick with a really nasty chest cold. I am on the tail end of it now and Nuan is in the middle of it. We are really hoping that the kids don't catch it. It was a Wii Christmas for the kids. They got a console, a few Wii-motes, and nunchucks and some games. They also got a Wii-Fit which we all like, despite the fact that it called us fat and clumsy within the first few minutes. Well, it called me fat and clumsy, it told Nuan and the kids they were just clumsy. For Christmas, my lovely wife gave me a flash for my camera. These are pictures I took the next day with it.

Kindergarten Christmas program.

Here are some pictures of Natasha performing in the Christmas program her teacher organized. It was a very nice treat for us parents and I really appreciate the work that Mrs. Armstrong put into it. You can click here if you want to view all 13 photos.

I Can Explain!!

Last weekend I took some more pictures of the kids holding the signs. It is funny how they can make sad faces and michievous grins really well, but once the camera is pointed at them all they can do is smile, unless of course I ask them to smile. Then they start looking at me like they are constipated.



We also took a family picture last weekend. It took me a while to balance everything out so the Christmas lights were glowing and we were visible. I think it was worth the effort. If you want to see the rest of the pictures you can click here.

Thanksgiving.

We went to Nampa for Thanksgiving this year. It was nice to see everyone. While there we played some Wii. Nuan and I had sore arms the next day. It was a lot of fun. I did a family portrait for the Trowells while I was there too. We used a king size sheet for the background and my Nikon speedlights and umbrellas for light. Could of used another flash for Alex's hair to separate it from the background but those things don't grow on trees :-)

Nemo.

Today J had a Doctor appointment. We had to wait for a long time in the lobby so I took some pictures of the fish in the aquarium. They have it stocked like the aquarium in Finding Nemo.

J's Karate tournament.

Today I took J to a karate tournament. He won the gold medal in the Kata or form competition and he won the silver in the Kumite or sparring competition. That was very good since he had to do two rounds of two fights with only one short break in between. That left him very tired for the final match. The other kid had only fought once. Most of the action shots I took were blurry because they were moving really fast and there wasn't much light in the gym. Here is a shot of J being awarded his medals.

Portrait of J and Natasha.

Today I took a portrait of the kids. It turned out about as good as I could do it with just one flash.



We also did some fun ones. J's didn't turn out, so I will have to do a re-take another day. Here are some of Natasha.

Bouncing Off The Walls.

Natasha was invited to a birthday party at Bouncing Off The Walls.  I was going to take J with me to run some errands but the birthday Mom invited J to stay and play.  I grabbed a few pictures of the kids while they were there. Click the picture to see it in actual size.