Random pics

There’s been quite a few pictures taken over the last few months that I’ll look at and think, “Oh I have to get this one on the blog!” and then it hasn’t happened. So this is my attempt to get those pictures out here and show once again how adorable my kids are, just in case you aren’t convinced yet. :)

Sorry in advance, this is kind of long.

Look at that attitude!

BIG yawn! And by the way, I can’t believe how little he looks here. Look at those tiny toes!

Her great grandpa’s hat.

Doesn’t she look so angelic? (Don’t let her fool you!)

Leg warmers! Lily loves her leg warmers!

Michael in Lily’s dolly stroller. :)

I think my Dad was having more fun than Michael was!

Obviously not my kids, but this was so cool – the two lions kept taking turns trying to “attack” each other!

Look at her go!

I love the way her eyes look in the sunlight!

Peek-a-boo!

Mmm, ice cream!

A lot of the time this is the only way I can get things in the kitchen done -  I stick her up on the counter. Hey, it works!

Tippy-toes!

He gets this expression a lot – just very content. I love it, it makes my heart melt.

“Can you hear me now?”

Michael is a big thumb sucker.

Just try and tell me I don’t have the cutest kids in the world. Come on… see, you can’t do it. :) Told ya.

All Smiles

Hi all, Ben here for a change.  I woke up this morning, read Emily’s great post about the pumpkin patch & corn maze, and noticed that there’s so many cute pictures she didn’t post.  So without further ado, he’s a bunch of smile pictures.  I dare you to find a cuter bunch of kids.

“Vedy Muddy!”

On Saturday we met the Roths and the Moyas at the South 47 Farm to do the Corn Maze and pick pumpkins. We had heard that Saturday was supposed to be dry and I was looking forward to good weather. I don’t know about everyone else, but it didn’t occur to me until Saturday morning that just because it wasn’t going to rain didn’t mean it would be dry. As Lily said, it was “vedy muddy!” We were pretty much prepared for that, although we all came home even dirtier than we expected. It was worth it though – everybody had a great time!

All ready to go! Doesn’t this look like a First Day of School picture?

My sweet family.

Jocelyn and Mike Moya

Benjamin being shy.

Michael all bundled up and ready to go.

Our family, pre-mud.

Lily walking with Mari Moya while I’m trying to get pictures.

Experimenting with the mud – it took her a little while to decide she liked it.

Benjamin wasn’t such a fan of the mud, though.

And cute Jocelyn had NO reservations! She was definitely the muddiest one when the day was over!

Lily - 21 months, Benjamin – 2 1/2 years, and Jocelyn – just turned two a couple months ago.

Sharing!

Don’t ya just love little girl pony-tails?

I *LOVE* this picture of you guys, Stephanie!

I just really liked the way the color of the corn pops in all the mud.

I love the sky in this one! I think it captures just how the day felt.

All done with the corn maze! For anyone in the area wanting to go, they say it takes 30-45 minutes, but with the kids it took over an hour.

Hmm, which pumpkin to pick?

We got our pumpkins after the maze, and by that time, Lily was ready to go home, so we didn’t linger long. I’ve got pictures of our carved pumpkins, but they’re not on the camera yet. I’ll put them up with pictures of the kids costumes after Trunk-or-Treat at the church this Wednesday. I’m really looking forward to that – I made a fairy-princess costume for Lily and she looks so adorable in it! Michael’s going to be a little baseball player. I have the cutest kids ever! :)

On a photography note, I have a couple of questions for the photography-minded who read my blog. I took all these pictures with my Nikon D70s and had it on Aperture Priority with an F-stop of f/4.5 or f/5. I thought I had it on Auto-focus the whole time, but some of them the focus was completely off, focusing on the background instead of the people in the foreground. Here, like this one:

I don’t know if you can tell, but the stalks behind the kids are definitely more in focus than the kids themselves. Here, this one shows what I mean even better:

If I did have it on auto-focus, why wouldn’t it focus on the subject? Maybe I’m showing how naive I am when it comes to using my new camera, but if anyone knows what I’m doing wrong, can you let me know? I might have just been bumping the focus when I went to zoom in and out, but I thought it would correct itself before it took the picture. Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, please let me know, I would really appreciate it!