Christmas Fun

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful day. Jill, Emma, and I spent last night here at home with all of Jill's family. Emma loved playing with all of her cousins.

Today we spent the day at my parent's house. They gave Emma a big set of wooden blocks for Christmas, which kept us all occupied for a while. We would stack them up and Emma would crash through them. It was quite a challenge getting them built up before Emma would spot them and pounce. I built the tower above when she was being distracted. As you can see, once she spotted it, the results were the same...

Pony Tail

We've been trying to get Emma's hair in a pony tail for a few weeks unsuccessfully. Her hair is so pin straight and thin that it's hard to gather into a bunch. The girls across the street finally managed to wrangle her hair into the first pony tail. I'm not sure how we feel about the Bam Bam look, but it's still a first...

Henriksens

Today I also shot the Henriksen family. As you can see, they enjoyed hamming it up for the camera...

Katie & Keith

Here are a few pictures from my shoot with Katie and Keith. They are expecting their first child in the spring. Congratulations guys, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Christmas Pic

Here it is, the official 2007 Hildwine's Christmas picture! And you get the sneak peek before it even goes in the mail, don't you feel lucky???

On another note, I just registered the domain name for my website. I'll keep you posted, but I hope to have it up soon.

Rainy Day With Dad

Jill was back in California this past weekend for a wedding. Emma and I spent the weekend together and had a lot of fun. It rained a lot on Saturday morning and Emma enjoyed watching the rain from the couch in our front room. I had to put the pics up because I just love her eyes and how they caught the light, especially in the last one.

California Trip

Well, we've made it back to Arizona. It was a crazy week in California. We got back at about 5 this afternoon and of course the computer was immediately fired up so that all the pictures could be looked at. Here are some samples of our trip, with comments interspersed:


Jill and Emma arrived in California by plane a few hours after I arrived with her parents. After 40 minutes in traffic getting back to the grandparent's in Santa Ana, Emma warmed up to her great grandpa with a wave and got to exploring.

Jill's grandpa has a scooter that he uses to get around from time to time. Of course this became Emma's favorite mode of transportation and everyone was giving her rides around the neighborhood. Jill's dad couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive something, even if it was just a scooter...
Jill and her sister Danielle share a hug for the camera while Mark was taking Emma around the block on the scooter.

Emma wanted to lend a hand on Thanksgiving, but she couldn't quite reach...

Any time Jill's dad is around his brothers, the basketball seems to come out. These Wiemanns are way too competitive. Jill and Emma watch as they beat each other up.

On Friday we visited my cousin Paul and his family in Ladera Ranch. Paul is the real photographer of the family and of course the cameras came out. Emma enjoyed playing with Kate, her cousin who knows how many times removed.

On Saturday, we went to the beach and then to visit one of Jill's uncles (on her mom's side.) Emma had a great time playing in the sand at the beach and swinging on the swings that they had at the playground on the beach.

There are many more pictures and many more things that we did, but it's almost 8:00 and I need to rest since it's back to work tomorrow.

On a sad note, please pray for Jill's grandpa (from the first picture.) He was up all night with bad chest pains and after a lot of prodding from us and a visit to the doctor, he ended up in the hospital. It appears that he did have a heart attack last night and they are still running tests to see what exactly is going on. Needless to say it wasn't the best note to end our trip on, especially since we were still on the road when we got the news.

New Lens

Today my new 135mm lens came. I didn't really have a lot of time to play around with it, but the image above was a quick frame I took while Emma was eating. This thing is SHARP! I can't wait to play around with it some more. I'm sure it will get lots of use in California later this week. It will be a wonderful portrait lens too (hint, hint-give me a call if you need some Christmas pics.)

On another note, I'm always curious as to who is on the blog. I have enabled anonymous (you don't need a Blogger account) posting, so drop a comment just so I know who's around. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. As I said above, we will be in California for most of the week, so there probably won't be any more updates (at least ones with pictures) until next week.

New Chair/In the Wagon

Boy, it's been a while since I've had the time to post anything! We've had a busy week and the camera hasn't come out too much. Emma got a new chair today since she loves climbing all over the couches, but they're a little too high for us to let her go. One day she'll figure out that you are supposed to sit in the chair and not use it as a stepping stool. After she woke up from her afternoon nap we went outside and played a little in her wagon. The sun was just about to set and the light was beautiful. Emma didn't mind me taking her picture even though she had quite severe bed head going on.

Halloween/Day at Home

I worked on Halloween day until 6:30, so I missed a bit of the fun. Emma and Jill were already outside when I arrived home. Of course I ran and grabbed the camera to get some pictures. Emma wasn't super excited about her costume because it was making her very warm. We bribed her a bit with candy so that I could get some shots.

The last couple of frames are from today. Emma is still off her game and running a fever, but she still had her happy moments (courtesy of my friend Ibu Profin.) She likes to read (upside down) and flip through the pages of whatever is around. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Emma's First Pumpkin

Tonight we carved Emma's first pumpkin. She wasn't too into the "guts" of the pumpkin, but once we put a candle in it, she became fascinated.

Day Off

Today was my day off and Emma and I spent the whole day together. We spent the morning at the zoo, which was cut a little shorter than expected because they now don't open until 9 AM (as opposed to 7 in the summer). We got there right as the doors were opening and many of the animals were not out yet. The top frame is at the zoo by the cheetahs, one of the few big animals that were out. The other images are from the back yard later in the day. Emma's new thing is to take the rocks and put them in the grass, which drives me nuts. I still let her do it though....go ahead and call me a pushover.