Resolution

It seems like everyone is posting their resolutions for 2011, so I figured I would jump on the bandwagon. However, my resolution for this year is not your standard one-I've decided that I want to learn how to hunt.

This has actually been a goal of mine for quite a while, but for one reason or another I didn't actually take the jump to do it. Most people I know aren't the hunting type and so I have had to go out of the box to learn the basics. I took a coyote hunting class almost a year ago and kept making excuses that kept me from going out into the field-namely my cheapness to buy a hunting license halfway through the year and not make use of it.

For 2011, I made sure I had my license bought way in advance and back in December I decided that I was going to try and make it out New Year's Day to start my hunting adventures. Jill was good with it at first when it looked like I would have a companion out there with me, but when that didn't happen she decided that she didn't really want me to be out there by myself. After a lot of reassuring that nobody would mess with (or probably even see) the heavily camouflaged man with an AR-15, she relented.

Then came the biggest test of my will to go out-the weather. We had a major cold front come through right before the first, and it was a beast. The morning I was planning to go out was forecast to be 27 degrees (yes, below freezing in the desert). I stuck to my plans though and bought a bigger jacket.

So long story slightly shorter, I made it out on the first at the break of dawn to a beautiful sunrise over snow-capped mountains. I trudged through some thick brush in sub-freezing weather and saw frozen ponds in the desert. I saw tons of quail and a few coyotes (between myself and a road, no safe shot). In the end, I came home empty handed but loved every minute of it. I think I'm officially hooked.

I'll be heading out this weekend to try again and hopefully I will have some better luck. But even if I don't, I'll still be outside enjoying nature and learning a new skill I can pass on to my children someday.

Christmas Events

Warning-Picture Explosion Ahead...

We had an eventful couple of days of Christmas here. I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking...

First was Christmas Eve. Jill and I have been talking about/trying to adopt a dog for over a year through a rescue society. We finally came to the realization that the rescue people cared more about dogs than anything and were simply going to refuse to give us a dog due to the kids (not because the kids may be hurt by the dog, but because the dog may be annoyed by the kids).

On a whim we went to check out a dog on Thursday and Jill was instantly in love. We wanted to surprise the kids on Christmas morning, but it was going to be a logistical nightmare with all of our travels, so we did it on Christmas Eve at the Wiemann's.

Emma coming outside to see the surprise.

Emma saying something about the dog (probably "She's so cute!)

Emma decided on the name Sophie for her.

After the excitement of the dog, we got to work opening presents at the Wiemann's. This was not an easy job as the tree was actually being supported by the number of presents.

Josh wearing Poppa's glasses.

Look at all those presents!

Emma's bow holder that Grammie made for her.

And that concludes Christmas Eve. Christmas morning we opened presents here in the morning. I left the camera in the bag for our present opening so I could spend time helping with the kids (and Sophie). After we were done, we headed to my parent's house for breakfast.

Josh loving his spinny shark light.

Dave, Iyla, and Lin watching the fun.

Josh marveling at the car Poppy just revealed to him.

Josh driving.

It was a whirlwind couple of days, but we had a lot of fun. I'm glad I took a couple of days off after the holiday to recover...I'm going to need them.

Family Pic 2010

Here is a sneak peek of our Christmas card photo for this year. I set this shot up in record time as the sun was dipping below the horizon. Josh didn't quite want to look at the camera, but it was close enough and he at least has somewhat of a smile on his face. Another successful self-timer shot in the bag...

Photo Shoot with Carlos

These are a few images from a photo shoot my friend Carlos did for us a couple of weeks ago. We met up at a park by our house with a really neat farm area. The weather was beautiful and the cloud cover gave us some great soft light. I still have tons of the images to go through, but there were some of our favorites so far.

Bath

Jill has wanted me to take pictures of Josh in his ducky towel for quite a while. One evening when I was home from work last week I broke out the camera and took some images of bath time. I put on a longer lens and hid behind the closet door to try and keep things as regular as possible for the kids. I am usually not home on work nights for this ritual, so Jill did her usual running of the show. The kids love their time in the water and throw a fit when it's time to get out. Emma was in the water with Josh, but managed to stay hidden from the camera most of the time. These were a few of my favorite images.

Santa

Here's an image from Monday morning. We all went to Bass to get our yearly Santa picture. We got right in and although the kids were a little tentative when approaching him, they hopped right on Santa's lap and posed well. Emma refused to talk to Santa, but she was a good sport. I've been taking quite a few pictures over the last couple of weeks, so stay tuned. More to come soon.

Decorating

Anyone who knows Jill is well aware of the fact that she loves to decorate for the holidays. It was made perfectly clear to me that I would be putting lights up outside on Thanksgiving day and I'm honestly pretty surprised that we made it all the way to today to set up the trees.

Emma was very excited to help put ornaments on the tree this year. Since this morning was very cold and dreary, we made the most of our time by busting out the decorations and getting to work. These are a few images from the action.