Mothers Day

I took this picture on Mother's Day and meant to do a Mother's Day post. So here it is....... Penni is a great mother and we are glad to have her. Happy Mothers Day Honey!!

Piano and Violin Recitial

Here are some pictures from Kristine and Nichole's recital today. Penni took the pictures and I took the video. I will put the video up later.

What does 4K get you -

Yes I take requests - Grandma Hansen her are the braces.

Dance Recitial Season - Kristine

Last night Kristine had her first of two dance recitials and she did a great job - but ...........



Top five reasons I hate dance recitials ( I could go 20 but I will get in trouble)




- People that cut in line - I have to go 1 hour ahead of time to get good seats, shouldn't you. As I get older I have less patiences so i have started to say something - and they act all surprised.

- More about seats - Why is that I am always the 3-5 one through that door and the audortium is half full? Tell me why????

- Why is that I always get seats behind the head bobber - their head goes back and forth as they try talk to the people on the right and left of them - back and forth - back and forth.

- People in front of me that get up in the middle of my kids performance while I am taken a picture or video.

- New for this show - the solo dance - this dance studio loves the solo dance - why? well because each kid is just so special. Come on -

- Another new one - having a dance group do their dance again because some little girl didn't want to go out there the first time they did there dance - now I would be disappointed if my kid didn't go out there and dance after all the money and time that I put into it - but if you do it for one you got to do it for all - which thank goodness they didn't. But when the dance recital starts at 6 and it is now 8:20 and we are on dance 29 of 46. I have to go to work Monday morning.

And lastly - they have outlawed video taping, flash photos and so on. So over the years I have spend thousands of dollars on two cameras, three lens and two books. So that I can take a picture - seating in my seat - 200 feet from the stage - of my daughter dancing. But by photo I mean one that is not blurry and one that you can see there face. I am happy to say that I finally got my shot - but and I really mean BUTT - this dood came and sat right is front on me so .... you look at the pictures.


and you are right if you counted seven - I got on a role.



Now for the only reason I go to these %@&# things.

I have the most beatiful daugthers in the world and I am in heaven when they are up there dancing.



OK let me explain why there is a picture of two girls on my blog that I have no idea what their names are. As I explained I haven't been successful in taking pictures so I practice taking pictures with different settings so that when Kristine dances I am dialed in. I take pictures of other girls dancing so I know where the dark spots are and so forth. Well I normally delete my "practice" pictures but I thought that this was a great picture so I decided to share - it was taken from about 160 feet away with a telephoto lens, 1/125 sec shutter speed, 1/125 exposure time and a aperture value of f/5.00.




















Now the good stuff - Kristine

Not blurry

WOW she is in focus

She is in focus and I am still able to show movement - the key is the right shutter speed

More motion and in focus

Zoe's Birthday

This weekend we had Zoe’s birthday party. She told me earlier in the week that for the next four days she gets whatever she wants. How do you come up with 4. She said that today (Thursday) is my birthday, Saturday is my party and then Sunday is my family party. Every year we joke what the kids birthdays seem to last for a week – now I know why. Here are some pictures – they decorated flip-flips and had pedicures. Nichole was in charge of the pedicures – She was complaining that she has to do them and how much work it was going to be. So I said no problem – Kristine would love to do it – and you can entertain the kids doing their flip flops. Well that is not what she wanted to do – she just wanted to complain she was actually excited to do the pedicures – I just called her bluff – preteenagers.

Penni works so hard on these parties. The table looked great.

The craft table

OK look at me and smile - three our of four was the best that I could get.

Nichole making sure that her mom does it right.

The drying station

The toes

A game they played - I liked Zoe in this picture. Hands on both hips.

This is my artistic shot of the party - that as good as I get.

Oh webkinz - so exciting

ok we started with a circle.............

the circle strank and then Zoe got mobbed

I didn't do a good job of taking a picture of the cake - it was a flip flop

And I have to mention Kristine. Some girls finished their flip flops and had their toes painted – so they (led by Zoe) decided to run around the house and try to scare Roscoe. I went to Kristine and said do you know any games – she said sure – in 15 seconds she had them all in a circle playing a game – great job Kristine.

Kristine

Last week we went to a ceremony to watch Kristine receive the Golden Scholar award for getting straight A’s this year in school. Kristine has done a great job with her school work. She did a report on Annie Oakley and her teacher said that it was the best in the class. We are so proud of Kristine and all of her hard work.






Nichole

We also had the honor of going to see Nichole receive the Golden Scholar award for getting straight A’s this year in 7th grade. Nichole has worked really hard to keep up her grades, she is taking an honors math class and have piles of math homework every night. She received an award from her math teacher for her hard work in his class. Like Kristine, Nichole did a poster for one of her classes and it blew the teacher away on how well she did on it. We couldn't be prouder.





Penni

One of the ladies our ward came up to Nichole and asked which one of her parents did she get her smarts from because the lady had heard that Nichole had received the Golden Scholar award. Nichole thought for a second – my dad was not a good high school student so it’s not him. My mom is not smart because she can’t do my math homework. So the answer must be neither. Kids – what can you say.

But we all know where our kids get there smarts from. Penni is the one on the front lines everyday encouraging our girls to get their homework done and keep education a high priority. I am grateful for everything that Penni does for us. All of the nice things that our said about our kids are a direct reflection on what a good mother Penni is and that is why we love her so much.

Random Happenings

The girls helped clean Mom's van.

Zoe making her favorite breakfast - cinnamon toast

The full picture

Random Thoughts -

Kristine comes into my room the other morning while I was getting dressed and I had the news on – it was showing highlights of a John McCain speech. Kristine said “Man, I wish he was still running for President.” I didn’t say another just yet because I was a little shocked that she even cared. Then she came out with this gem “Grandma, said that it makes her sick that Hillary could be President.” I am not sure which Grandma would have said such a thing.


Zoe loves to play Uno. So she came to me the other day and wanted to play. I take her on and she beat me three games in a row. Then the next day she came to me and wanted to play and I said “You are too good, I can’t win” and she said “Maybe I will let you win”. So I played, just because I am sure that this is one of the things that I am going to look back on in a few years and yearn for the days when my little girls wanted to play with me. So we play the first game and I won. Then I look at her two remaining cards which were both wild draw four cards. The little stinker let me win.

I had to throw in a story about Nichole. If you have been around me the last couple of years, I am sure that you have heard me talk about Nichole babysitting and her competitive advantage. Well a lady called up and wanted to see if Nichole could babysit. She had never used Nichole before but some of the ladies had recommended Nichole. So Nichole went and babysat and gave them our competitive advantage – did the dishes and picked up the house. Well the couple came home and they were blown away. They couldn’t believe that she had done the dishes and cleaned the house. The last time they had gone out they had to wake the babysitter up to take her home. The lady said that she had found her new babysitter and was going to keep Nichole a secret.

Nichole's Violin Concert