The Lake

I've been trying to keep the girls busy lately. I try to give the things to do during the day and the occasional movie or two. But when Steven is home we definitely try to get out of the house to let them 'run out their crazies' before bedtime. It helps bedtime go a little more smoothly, especially Lilly who will try to keep herself awake until she can't keep her eyes open any longer. We've been going to the playground behind our house, but we decided to try and find the lake that the base owns here. We've tried to find it before but always ended up in the wrong place, but it wasn't a 'need' to find place, we were always just exploring.

Last weekend we finally found it! Since we don't really fish, yet, or go boating, Steven took the opportunity to try and teach the girls to skip rocks. It didn't go so well, but they had fun anyways and I got to take lots of photos of them. I edited some of them and the rest I'm going to save for my treatment days. 

Lilly got a little frustrated because she couldn't skip the rocks, but she kept trying. 

Sadie figured out an alternative way to skip rocks. She would throw handfuls of small rocks and since they hit the water in different places she said they 'looked' like skipping rocks.

Ruby? She collected sticks and rocks. And tried to bring them home. We had fun and the girls seemed very interested in learning how to fish.

 Hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to take them out there to fish with Daddy. I'll go and take photos, ha! For now they are just happy to go and throw rocks and play at the playground there.  I think we'll try to spend as much time there as we can this summer. 

Oh, and when we left to go home, we got stopped by a freight train. I thought it'd be fun to count the cars. We started counting and I thought it'd be a small train, but it had 120 cars! Crazy long, but they had fun. And they slept pretty well!

-K

i ♥ faces

With 2011 ending, I ♥ Faces is doing a Best Face of 2011 challenge. I've taken so many photos this past year that I can't even count, and I wouldn't want to simply because I know it would take a long time. I've many photos that I love, but I keep coming back to this one of Sadie-Mae. Everything about it is just so Sadie and that genuine smile doesn't come out much for photos. This is definitely my favorite photo of the year. And here's to all the future favorites of 2012. There's a lot of big things happening this year, some good- our move back to the States!- and some not so good- thyroid cancer surgery. But I plan to document it all!





-K

Project 365

I have wanted to do a P365 for a long time now, but being my neurotic self I couldn't possibly start one on just any day of the year. It had to be January 1st. It's a pretty simple project. All you have to do is take one photo a day, everyday for a year. See, simple. I'm hoping that this will help with my 'lack of motivation' problem. I've definitely noticed that my photography and blogging has seriously lacked in all aspects. I know how fast these kiddos are growing. I love being able to look back and see how far they've come and how big they are. So hopefully this will remind me that no matter what mood I'm in that I need to take at least one photo a day.



Ruby is constantly getting into things she shouldn't. Today she was into our massive collection of movies and found 'Happy Feet'. Lilly loved this movie when she was teeny tiny, and she still does today. So after a lot of 'Pease mommy, pease mommy?'s and pouting I caved and put it for her. She loved it and danced through a lot of it. Overall it was a success. It kept the kiddos occupied for long enough that Mommy didn't lose her marbles :)

-K

I Heart Faces- Tickled Pink

Lilly and the playground merry-go-round, you can't get more tickled than that!





Check out more tickled pink photos or join the fun at I Heart Faces.

-K

I Heart Faces- People’s Choice

I love this picture of Ruby Lane. It shows so much of her personality. The focus is a little off on her face because she is, literally, always on the go. She is like a tornado, hurricane, typhoon, and an earthquake all rolled into one. I kid you not, she is a force to be reckon with. She’s almost always smiling, loving on her family, and playing passionately. She doesn’t do anything without putting everything she has into it. We just love her so much!




Check out some more beautiful faces at I ♥ Faces.
                                                                                                 
-k

I Heart Faces- A Touch of Sun

This week's challenge is A Touch of Sun. You can join in the fun or view other entries at I Heart Faces.

-k

Bethlehem

A couple of weekends ago we ventured out to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for some fresh air and some exploring. My parent's live about 20 minutes from there and we had a pretty good time. It was a nice change of scenery and a whole lot of fun for me to take some photos. I feel like a kid with a new toy every time I get the chance to photograph something new. I hope and pray that the feeling never goes away or gets old.





Just driving around was nice. Once we got there we parked and walked around. We found a nice little deli and had some lunch. The weather was beautiful and we were able to just enjoy our walk.





After lunch and a walk we headed out for Party City. Papou needed some costume pieces for work and Party City was just down the road. He found what he needed as well as some dress up stuff for all the little girls. We even managed to find Ruby a coveted Batman mask. We had been trying to find a replacement for the one at home that broke. She wasn't feeling good so she didn't wear it for a few days, until she started to feel a lot better. And when she rediscovered it at Papou's house she was so excited.






Little did we know that Ruby would end up at the hospital latter that day. Our kids never act sick unless they are throwing up or have a fever. It makes it very hard to judge just how sick they really are when they're still running around a playing. And I kid you not, you would never ave guessed that Ruby was battling a bad case of strep throat. The hospital was nice and even had a Children's ER separate from the main Er. The nurses and doctors were really nice and we got taken care of pretty fast.




On our way out of the parking lot I got a call from my sister Gabbie that Sadie wasn't feeling good and she thought that she had a fever as well. Great! Now I have two sick kiddos. When we got back o the house, Gabbie took me to a pharmacy that was still opened as it was going on 7:30PM. We didn't get home until after 9 and by then Sadie was burning up. I gave her and Ruby some medicine, set up camp in the living room and prayed for a good night of sleep. At this point we were all still jet lagged. Thankfully the Tylenol and Motrin kept the fevers down and we had a pretty good night of sleep, considering.




Oh the joys of military life. I'm just thankful we were with family that helped the best they could. Dealing with jet lagged kids is hard enough. Add strep throat and all it does is make life miserable for days. I'm grateful were over that hump though. I'll finish this in another post, this one is long enough!

-K

Fleur De Lis Photographie

So I have decided that I would like to start a photography business. When, I don’t know. I am in no rush to get it started because we’ll be moving in 9 months and we don’t know where and I am taking the kiddos back to the states for the summer. So in the mean time I am absolutely content on practicing until we are are settled at our next base. I started a new blog that I’ll start just posting anything photography related over there. I also have a bunch of photos that I have wanted to share but take much too long to load onto Facebook. I’ll still be posting about our everyday lives on here. You can find my photography blog here, Fleur De Lis Photographie. If your wondering about the name, it is after Miss Lillian. She was the first reason I wanted to learn photography. Also, Steven and I have always been partial to the number 3. Three words in “I love you”,  3 baby girls, and 3 kisses when we say goodbye, and three petals on the fleur de lis. It just fit.  Looking around our house you’ll find clusters of 3 everywhere, which I just noticed so it just seemed like the natural choice.

So for the foreseeable future I will continue shooting everything and anything and build a potfolio, so if you know anyone who’d like some photos done let me know!

And because it just doesn’t feel right to leave a post without photos, these are some of  my favorites from this spring.

-k

I ♥ Faces- Shadows

This week’s challenge is shadows, and I think this photo is perfectly fitting for it! You can join in the

fun too at I ♥ Faces! 

Dkrissy

DSLR Equipment and Resources

This is for my father-in-law Gene, or who we commonly and lovingly call him Papop :) I was going to email this, but it is really hard for me to send emails from here for some reason. Rather than giving myself a headache and pressing send all day long- I kid you not- I figured why not blog it?
First off lenses. These are the lenses I have:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens

This one is my favorite, it’s great for indoor/low light conditions.

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SLD DG Macro Lens

I usually use this one outside.

Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical Lens

This is an everday use lens. I got it to replace the lens that came with the D40. There’s nothing wrong with the 18-55, it just didn’t focus quick enough to keep up with the monsters kiddos.

Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens

This one came with my D90 and I love it too :)
These are lenses I want:

Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical Macro Large Aperture Wide Angle Lens

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens

And I would also love:

Deluxe DSLR Camera Lens Bag

This is the bag I like. I think it would be great for travelling since I’ll be taking the kids back to the states by myself and we’ll be PCSing in a year. I would much rather carry on my camera than leave it in the hands of baggage handlers.
Professor Kobre's Lightscoop, Standard Version
.
This is something I will probably buy in the very near future. I think it will save me from buying an external flash until I really need it and can research all the different options.  The before and afters with us are
amazing :)

I also use these for editing:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7

Adobe Lightroom 3

There are also a lot of resources online that will help in learning new skills. These are some of my favorites:
I ♥ Faces
The Coffeshop Blog
The Pioneer Woman Photography
You can also just google whatever you are looking for when these don’t work.
There are also some IPod/IPhone apps that I like:
You can just search the App Store for these- I’ll give you the full name of the apps.
dSLR Toolkit for Dummies
PhotoCaddy
Rockwell D40 Guide

And I am by no means a pro at this. I don’t think I will ever consider myself a pro because there is always more to learn and better your skills. The more you practice the better your skills become, I fully believe that. And with that you’ll probably need an external hard drive to store all of your photos.Along with leaving space on your computer hard drive, it also ensures that if your computer crashes your photos are safe. I’ve learned the hard way, which is why we have less than 5 photos of our wedding day.
I will update this as I find and learn more. If you have any questions, I be more than happy to help :)
b krissy

Spring Has Sprung

I have trying to give the girls a break from the camera lately. The other day when Lilly asked if we could go pick flowers I caught myself saying, “so we could take some more pictures”. Instead of always having a lens in their faces I have started to take some photos of the flowers here. There are so many different and beautiful kinds here and since spring has sprung they are starting too as well. Now I just need to convince Steve that I really need a good macro lens, hehe! These are some that I have taken in the past week.

♥krissy

Nothing New on the Homefront

It’s been a while since I posted anything about what we’re up too.  But seriously, we’re not up to much. Lilly has been enjoying school, Sadie is handful, and Ruby doesn’t  really nap anymore. She has been trying to transition from 2 naps to 1, but it hasn’t worked out really well. She tries to hold off of  a morning nap, eats lunch,  then goes to sleep. But Lilly gets out of school at 2, so she usually wakes up when I pick her up. Or lately she has been taking a nap in the morning and Sadie or Lilly, depending on the day, usually wake her up after 15 minutes.

While I do have some time I have been trying to soak up and learn every little thing I can about photography. I have always wanted to take my own photos of the girls and be able get them at the quality I like. I think I am slowly getting  there. There is so much more left to learn. I have also been participating in I ♥ Faces weekly challenges so that I can learn more. I’ve also been experimenting with editing and using different actions. I just bought the Florabella Luxe Collection, and I am loving all the actions  it has. And I am so grateful for the girls cooperating with me.  We do have some moments when Sadie will only give  me dirty looks and makes faces at the camera, but for the most part they have been willing little models for me. They are all about wearing dresses and we don’t have enough of them for them to wear one everyday, so they are happy to dress up or put on a dress from their closet and let me take their photos. And Lilly has figured out that if she has something she wants to show Daddy or do for Daddy while he’s sleeping or at work, she just has to ask me to take a photo or a video. She’s such smart little cookie :)

And on a completely different note, I am so sorry that I am terrible at mailing things. We have had boxes started for family since we got back from the states in December. And yes, I do know it is March now. We still need to buy a few little Turkish things for them and then tape them up. I think it’s because I have to take a 3 year old and a 15 month old  with me and carry all the boxes. Then why haven’t I mailed those Valentine’s Day cards? Who knows? I need to work on that.  I am going to get all of that sent out within the week. Fingers crossed.

Lilly’s birthday is coming up and I cannot believe she is going to be 5. Where has the time gone? Since there are no party supplies here on base, you have to order them online or make them. I found a great website a few months ago. Smitten Blog Designs some great free printables that include party decorations. I showed Lilly and she decided on the cute circus theme. I just need to print everything out and cut it out. I’m going to make lots of cupcakes and popcorn. Since it is an afternoon party, I think I am going to skip meal type foods and have lots of snacks and drinks. I am actually pretty excited about it and not stressing like I usually do. I always want everything to be just right. I think I started planning it well enough ahead of time that everything is going smoothly. I’ll have to remember that for Sadie and Ruby’s birthdays because I’ll have 2 to plan at the same time. Sadie’s birthday is December 10th and Ruby’s is December 9th. I’ll need a pretty good head start on those.

All is good here and now though. The weather has been really nice and I am starting to dread the inevitable heat that is coming. At least we’ll spend a good chunk of summer vacation in the states! We’re so excited to go back. Sadie wants to go to Target and Walmart :) And all the pictures are from the past few weeks.
♥krissy

i heart faces–cell phone

This week’s challenge is a photo you’ve taken with your cell phone. I don’t have a cell phone  but I do have my trusty iPod touch. I take it everywhere with me so I have 100’s of photos on it.
This is a photo of my baby girl. Ruby is a grandparent-loving fool. Since we live so far away we take full advantage of Skype. This is how she shows her affection and gives everyone hugs. This was a hug for Papop in Texas. She is such a sweetie♥

This was taken using Hipstamatic.
You can still join in the fun over at i heart faces.

Playground Walks

There are a lot of playgrounds here on base, and one of our favorite things to do is walk around the neighborhood. We started “playground walks” where we just walk to  a playground and play for a bit, then go to another one. The girls love it and I find it much more enjoyable for me. I really don’t like to sit still so it works out perfectly for us.

Today after we got Lilly from school we went to the playground. It was so nice out and so sunny. I had to change my camera settings when the girls were in the shade and in direct sunlight. It was a pain in the butt because my kids don’t like to stand still while mommy tries to take the picture. Oh well. I’ll just be grateful for editing software. I did manage to get a few that I liked. And next time I will pay more attention to the settings.

♥krissy

I Heart Faces–Hearts

This is my first time entering in the I Heart Faces Photo Challenges, but I have admired the site and photographers for a while now. This week’s challenge is hearts and I just took those photos of the girls for Valentine’s Day. Since I did those, I thought it would be perfect to enter one. This photo was taken in our backyard here in Turkey and is of two of my beautiful girls, Lillian and Sadie-Mae. Ruby wanted no part of the photography fun and proceeding to run around chasing balls. She’s only 13 months old, so she can have this one pass

To join in all the fun check out I Heart Faces!

♥krissy

Mini Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

So I have been playing around with photo editing software, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. Now I am no where near proficient but I have been playing around with some actions and presets. I've found a lot of free ones on different websites and of course downloaded some to try. I found some ones that I really like so I decided to take some photos of the girls and maybe use them to send out Valentine's Day cards since we didn't have enough time to get out Christmas ones. With Steven's help, we cut out some hearts from scrapbook paper and construction paper and taped them onto our fence in the backyard. We dressed the girls is pinks, reds, and purples and brought out one of the girls' chairs. I only got a couple with all three of them and in those not everyone was looking at the camera so I made due with what I got. The big girls were nice enough to cooperate for me and I got a couple of good ones.
I am really liking how they came out. I only wish I got one with the 3 of them smiling at the camera. Maybe one of these years they'll all cooperate. I can dream, can't I? Well here are some that I edited and really like.