Thanks to everyone who voted for me in Me Ra’s “fatherhood” photo contest. I didn’t win, but Brian and I were very blessed and encouraged by all the wonderful votes and comments about the photo. ♥

Now, for some Kaitlyn pictures!!

Thanks for enduring 16 large pictures of the cutest baby ever… I just can’t decide if I’m cut out for portrait photography. I’d like the chance to try it with some older kids or family groups. Kaitlyn is very squirmy and not a very obedient model.

Here’s the image that I submitted:

This was after I had lost my job and the baby was just born. Brian was working 10+ hours at the airport a day and then coming home and picking up car jobs on the side. He fell asleep on the garage floor, and he was missing a lot of life with the family inside the house to provide for us. I know he’d rather be inside with us but he does what needs to be done to take care of us, so here he was. He’s always worked harder than most people I’ve ever met. We’re so lucky to have him.

Anyway, please visit Me Ra’s blog and vote for my image! The prize this time is a $100 gift card to Home Depot, so on the off chance I win, Brian can build the workbench for his Man Cave. Plus, 2 random voters will win a $20 Starbucks gift certificate.

The next photo contest on Me Ra’s blog is “water,” and I haven’t figure out what to submit yet. I think I’m going to get Brian to take some pictures of Kaitlyn jumping in the water at the pool where she and I are taking a baby swimming class.

Have a great weekend!

Wouldn’t it be neat if you could scratch your computer moniter and smell it?? Maybe in “The Future” that will happen.

On Wednesday afternoon, a really nasty storm moved in fast across the lake. I wish I’d taken a screen shot of the radar, because the cell was a deep, angry red. Red on radar is never good. Most of the storm was north of us, but starting around 6:00pm it hit us full-force. Within a few minutes, we had lost several trees, including the big one we really liked in the back yard. Within an hour, we had lost power and a raging river had flowed across the street, into our yard, down our side yard, and filled the backyard.

Here are some photographs that do no justice to what had happened; sorry for the graininess, but it was almost dark as night outside and I had my precious Rebel XTi inside a plastic Zip-Lock bag with a hairtie holding the bag tight around the lens.

 
Water coming off the road (several inches deep) and into neighbor’s front yard.

 
Trees and branches down all over our yard.

 
Following path of least resistance, which happens to lead into our side yard and down the hill.

 
This is the side yard, just to the east of the garage. Please note the saving grace of this event: the water is NOT washing up against our foundation. Basement stayed dry.

 
Coming down the side into the back yard and down the hill. See the downed trees on the right?

 
Our favorite tree that came down; this picture was taken later, so the ‘river’ is not as bad here but still flowing steadily.

 
And now the bottom of our yard, aka Lake Schmidt, where the water finally came to rest. Some of it flowed into the neighbor’s yard on the other side - he had the gall to come over in the rain and accuse us of flooding his yard.

We had lost power around 6:45pm. It came back for us around 2:30am, but most of Richland didn’t get power back until sometime today (Saturday - 3 days after the storm).

On Indenpendence Day, my parents came down to go to the Battle Creek Field of Flight airshow that is held every Fourth of July at KBTL. We go to the maintenance hangar where Brian works and we have the best seats in the whole place - it’s free, closed parking lot, no crowds, access to real bathrooms, and no carnies! A friend from work came as well and brought along four mini-kegs of Bell’s Oberon for us to enjoy. This year the main attraction was the Air Force Thunderbirds again. We also enjoyed the F-15 demo team, the F-18 demo team, and the F-104 Starfighter demo.

Kaitlyn loved her first airshow! Everytime a plane would fly in front of us, she would smile and wave her arms and kick her legs. We covered her ears for the jets, but it really wasn’t too loud except for the occassional high-speed, low-altitude fly-bys. (Fly-bies?) She was also completely enthralled with her first fireworks show. I had a bottle for her and she wanted nothing to do with it while the fireworks were going.

Enough talk, here’s some pictures!

 
Kaitlyn loved the airplanes.

 
One of the school’s Piper aircraft. It was not part of the show, but we stood next to it for most of the Thunderbird’s show.

 
Biplane about to perform a snap roll.

 
USAF Thunderbird F-16 Falcon taxiing to runway 23 for takeoff.

 
High-speed fly-by.

 
I want one!

 
Diamond formation.

 
Don’t you LOVE those colors? See the white tails of the Thunderbirds on the bottom left, and you can also see the silhoette of the Piper Seneca I have a picture of above.

 
Some friends of ours sat nearby and their 2-year-old daughter kept jumping up and saying, “Pop! Pop!”

That’s enough for now. Have a great holiday weekend! We’ll be cutting trees apart for weeks to come.

I thought it would be appropriate to show some pictures of the plantlife around our home and a few shots from Brian’s parents’ home.

And what would an update be without pictures of Kaitlyn?

Edit 5.18.08: More pictures!!

In fun photography news, we picked up a nice new lens to be our #1 walk-around lens. I can’t wait to get it! It’s a Tamron AF 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Maco/Telephoto lens. We’ve heard insanely wonderful reviews of it, and some friends of Brian’s at work have the same lens and let him try it. We may never need to drop the 18-55mm kit lens back on the Rebel.

In slightly-related-to-photography news, I am sort of a dork and like to take pictures of my food. This time, I decided to take pictures of the meal as I made it and when it was ready. Bonus - yummy pictures plus yummy recipe!

Marinated Steak & Chicken Kabobs

• 1 pack McCormick “Mesquite” marinade powder
• Minced garlic
• Lowry’s Steak & Chop marinade
• Dash of peri peri sauce (by Nando’s - available at World Market. It’s the best chicken sauce EVER and I use it in EVERYTHING)
• Cajun seasoning
• Dash dillweed
• Worchestershire sauce
• 1.5 lbs sliced ribeye
• 1-2 large chicken breasts
• 1 small red pepper
• 1 small green pepper
• Cherry tomatoes
• Baby bella mushrooms
• 1 half medium sweet onion

I kind of wing the amounts on the marinade. I do NOT marinate the chicken & the beef together. I put all the veggies into a grill basket with a dash of pepper, sea salt, and some cajun seasoning. Then I put the chicken pieces all onto bamboo sticks, and all the beef onto bamboo sticks.

Start the veggies first on the grill, then add the chicken. Take chicken off when cooked, add steak.

I also serve with white rice and crescent rolls and a favorite red wine (last night was a Mattie’s Perch Shiraz Cabernet - yum!).

The best part about those pictures is even though they looked SO good, the didn’t do the meal ANY justice… yum.

(Tonight, for reference, was a Red Baron pizza. Woooo.)

Applebee’s Fiesta Lime Chicken

• 2-4 cloves minced garlic
• 2 limes - juice of
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tsp onion salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 oz tequila
• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp mayo
• 4 tbsp spicy, chunky salsa
• 1 tsp cajun spice
• 2 dashes dillweed
• 2 dashes cumin
• shredded colby jack cheese
• crumbled tortilla chips (or tortilla strips - sometimes found in salad/produce section near croutons)

Mix together garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, liquid smoke, onion salt, pepper, and tequila in a large plastic zipper bag. Place chicken in bag. Marinate at least one hour - note: If you plan to marinate overnight, do not add the soy sauce until 1-2 hours before you plan to cook the chicken.

Mix together sour cream, mayo, salsa, cajun spice, dill and cumin. Cover and refridgerate until needed.

Grill marinated chicken breasts until done. Place cooked chicken on a foil-lined cookie sheet or broiler pan. Spread prepared sauce over each breast and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Broil until cheese is melted. Serve on a bed of trotilla strips with extra sauce on the side.

• My alternate directions when grilling is not an option: Pour all of the marinade and the chicken into a stoneware casserole dish and bake at 375° F until chicken is cooked through - be sure to flip your chicken over halfway through. When chicken is totally done, spread the sauce on top of the chicken in the dish, cover with cheese and continue to bake 3-5 minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve on tortilla strips.

I wish I had taken a picture of our dinner tonight but the delicious Applebee’s picture will have to do. I also make the sauce every now and then and serve it alongside any chicken that we’re having. It tastes GREAT with roasted potatoes, too!

I have been looking for years for the tortilla strips and one of the local grocery stores started carrying the Fresh Gourmet “Crunchy Toppings” kind. They don’t always have the plain kind in stock, so I buy 2-3 bags whenever they do.

Today we got a box in the mail from my friend Jenny. She sent me a belated birthday card and a belated “congrats on your new baby” card and present. I let Kaitlyn open the present - she loved the paper and tried to eat it. The blanket is adorable and hand-crocheted by Jenny - along the top it says KAITLYN in big purple letters. Sooooooooooo adorable!

Thank you Jenny! ♥

Then came bathtime; as Brian was home for this bath, I had him take some pictures. I am looking forward to Kaitlyn being able to sit on her own so she can have more fun playing in the tub - soon! The little red crab is a squirtie toy, but it always surprises her when it squirts.

I’m testing this new gallery function for the blog; hopefully it will work right away.

We went to church at the new Vineyard Kalamazoo; it was their first service. It was very rough going but overall it was good. I think they have a lot of potential and because it’s new, it’s small and will be close-knit. I would like to see if they have a weekly group I can go to because it’s hard to get everyone out and about on Sunday mornings. After church we got home and met my brother, then all went to Brian’s parent’s house for Easter dinner and hanging out. Dennis & Keva always make great food and far too much. I think it was nice that they were more than happy for Justin to join us. I’m glad I got to see him too.

Here are some pictures from Kaitlyn’s first Easter:

And, I just have to share this, too. Kaitlyn’s Easter basket had a few candies in it for me to eat (haha), but she also got a pink bunny (the one you see in the pictures above), a little toy fox, and a pair of ADORABLE shoes. Aren’t they so cute?? Baby girl clothes and shoes are some of the best things in the world.

I’m waiting for a good chance (and a good mood from Kaitlyn) to take some “formal” portraits of her in her cute little Easter dress. I don’t have any professional lighting yet so I use daylight, which has been hit or miss lately.

Tonight, I decided to check out Craigs List for the first time. I ended up calling a guy about a dresser he listed for $20, picking up Dennis’ truck, and driving down to Portage to pick up a dresser. What a STEAL, too. I’ll have to take a picture of it because it’s unbelievable that I got this for $20. It’s HUGE - it’s a dark honey wood and it has 6 large drawers and four small drawers. There are black iron drawer pulls on it. Brian is shocked that I not only found this thing online and got a truck and drove down there by myself, but that the dresser is so nice and huge and it’s REAL wood (not particle board) and it was only $20. Ha! I’m going to keep going checking out Craigs List. I am going through the baby gear section and seeing if I can find some cool stuff.

I visited my parents the weekend after Easter and had a wonderful time seeing some friends. My dad had some old photography equipment and I wanted to look at it; they ended up giving it all to me. There’s an old Minolta 35mm SLR camera with a bunch of fancy lenses and filters and a flash, a normal Canon 35mm automatic camera, and a very, very, VERY old Kodak Stereo/3D camera. The 3D camera is pretty cool - it’s got two 35mm lenses that are side by side so it takes a stereo image that you can look at through a special viewer. I don’t care about the old Canon, but the Minolta is pretty cool; Brian and I are going to get some rolls of 35mm film and try it out. There’s a wide-angle lense and a pretty nice telephoto. One of the filters is a star filters (not sure if that’s what it’s called) - it has this weird grid embedded in the glass but if you look at a light source through it it creates really pretty rainbow crosses. If I ever get it working, I’ll be sure to scan the images and show you all.

We got our Digital Rebel shortly after these portraits and I am LOVING this camera. It is so much fun to use and I am constantly amazed at how fantastic the pictures turn out - especially compared to our old Canon G5.

I stopped by the fabric store and picked up some white fuzzy fabric that would be great for Kaitlyn portraits at home. I decided that I would set up by the large glass doors to the porch and take some 7 month portraits of Kaitie myself. What do you think? Plus, these were FREE and super high-quality.

My baby girl is such the little model!

I registered a domain for a photography business - at some point I’d love to do this on the side but I need more training with my camera and I have no where to start. I’d like to get one of the info kits from Me Ra Koh but I’m not sure which one would be the best one to get off the bat. There’s an SLR and Photoshop class at the local art institute that I think I will take it this summer. All the other local photography classes are all about the “art” of photography and not the technical skills.

Off to clean!

[insert pictures here - coming soon!]

Every year we use most of our tax return to pay off as many bills as we can, then we also set aside part of it to get ourselves a toy. This year is perhaps my favorite toy so far, a Canon Digital Rebel XTi!

It should be getting here on Friday, so we are very excited to venture deeper into the world of digital photography.