My New Lens!

After about four months of babysitting, I made enough money to purchase a new lens.  I bought a 50mm lens, and I absolutely love it!  It was actually priced really well - only about $120 - which means I have a lot of money left over.  (Which is good.  Very good.)

This is what it looks like.  It's small - it makes my camera look tiny!!  But, it takes amazing pictures!

The only bad thing - there's always a bad thing - is that is does not have auto-focus with my body.  I probably should have looked at that before I bought it, but now I can practice manual focus!

Here are some of the pictures I have taken.  The one above is SOOC.  Look at that beautiful bokeh!!  :)

This one is edited, but it still looks great I think.

So there you have it.  That was the surprise I told you about.  If you go to my 365 blog, you will see more photos that I have taken with it!

A 365 Blog!

I am so excited to tell you guys about this.  This is not the surprise I mentioned in my last post though....

I started a 365 blog!  You know you all want to go check it out!!  Here is the link.

Let me know what you think!

Happy Monday

It's been a while since I've linked up to Allie's Happy Monday Photo Challenge.  I love this week's theme: pets.  If you have followed my blog for a while, you might remember this post where I talked about this little guy.  His names is Socks.  I'm not kidding when I say that besides my baby sister, he is the joy of our lives.  He and his brother Tuffy make us laugh almost every day!

p.s. I have a surprise.  I'll tell you about it tomorrow!

Giveaway

{life's to short not to} wear red shoes is having an amazing giveaway!  Click on the button and go check it out!

Has Spring Sprung?

Well, that's a very good question.  Because if I remember correctly, it was 75 degrees a week ago.  What happened?? 

The flowers think it's spring...

Ahhh...green.  I love green in spring.  (That rhymed!  Kind of.)  The trees start to fill out and the grass loses its brown color.

The trees are beginning to look like this. 

If you who live where it's always warm - you are lucky.  You see, on Monday last week, I was wearing shorts.  Today, when I got in the car for church, it was 28 degrees.  How do these things happen??

The birds thought it was spring.  They started singing early in the mornings, and digging around for worms.

Lord, I am really beginning to think that part of the problem with this world is the fact that it has been cold way too long.  Could you please bring the sun and warm temperatures back?

I think my chat status on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last week had to do with "Warm weather!!!"  or "Shorts!  Yes!".  Sadly, that statues went from that to "So much for warm weather".

Father, your people are waiting for warmth.  We don't like cold.  Please bless us with warm weather this week!  For those of you who live where it's warm - I am very jealous!   :)  Have a wonderful week!

p.s. Like the new blog design?

p.s.s. I was venting up there.  Sorry you had to read that.  You can just go on your merry way now and forget you ever read this post!  :) 

under construction

Hi everyone!  I'm giving my blog a new April makeover.  So, even though my blog looks a little wierd right now, it is going to look amazing when it's all done!  ;) 

these are the things i can't capture with a camera

There are days when I realize that there are some moments in my life that I will never be able to capture with a camera.  There are days when I just decide to put the camera away and enjoy the moment, rather than make sure the light is perfect. 

Take tonight for example.  I was giving my three youngest siblings a bath.  I scrubbed leftover temporary tattooes off little arms, and wiped water out of blinking eyes.  This, I thought, I cannot capture with a camera.  I can't bottle the laughter, the smiles, the overall joy of this night. 

I can't replace any of those memories with a photo.  I just can't.  I can tell you in words, but the memory that I have will remain, telling me just exactly how it really was.

I will laugh at our kitten sitting on the ledge of the bathtub throughout the bathtime.  He got splashed and poked and knowcked off,  but he climbed back up and kept watch over us.

I will smile and maybe someday cry over the faces my baby sister made.  I will always, always, always remember the way she looked up at me every few minutes to make sure I was still there.  When she was reassured, an innocent, contented smile lit her face. 

These aren't things that I can photograph.  In fact, these aren't even things that most of you care about.  But to me, I take comfort and joy in the fact that there are just some things you can't capture with a camera.  These are the memories that will last - the ones that I can only remember in my head.  Isn't it exciting to think that sometimes, we just need to revel in the moment instead of worrying about capturing the moment?

*Just to show you what I mean, I stopped writing this post so I could go have a dance party with the whole family.  We were dancing to Disney songs and having a lot of fun!  I don't have any pictures of that, but it was one of the best weeknights I've had in a long time!*