New Macro Lens

Brian here,

Nikon had a good rebate on a macro lens and then Google gave an extra 6% off for using Google Wallet so I decided to take the plunge and buy the Nikon 105mm macro lens that I've been wanting.  A year or two ago I bought some macro rings that turn my current lenses into macro lenses. The problem with them is that the lens will only focus on something that is 1-6 inches away. My new lens lets me achieve the really close up shots by being 8 inches away, and I can be further than that and still be able to focus. This is a big bonus because I can just step back to get more in my shots now if I want.

Enjoy the pictures:

This is Joel from 5 feet away. This lens also makes a good portrait lens.

This is Rachel's geode

This is one of my warhammer models. He stands about an inch and a half tall.

This is Rachel's lady bug larva. I set up the tripod and turned on live view. I would focus, and she would press the button to take the picture.

This is one of our roses from our front yard. It isn't the best looking rose, but it still makes a nice picture.

This is another rose from our yard. I am about 2 feet back from this bud which is something I couldn't do before.  Because it's a telephoto lens, it's really easy to get the blurred background. 

Sledding and Snowmen

Here we are in April and we made it up to Tahoe for some snow play.  We headed up early this morning for Donner Summit, our favorite sno park.  This was Rachel's third time sledding at Donner Summit and the first time she really enjoyed herself.  She was able to walk in the snow and when she fell down or rolled off the sled she would laugh instead of bursting into tears.  She absolutely loved sledding and was brave enough to go down the hill all by herself.  My independent girl even tried to walk up the hill all by herself and was so proud of herself when she made it part way up without holding our hand.  She has grown up so much since last year.  It was fun to watch her experience and enjoy snow.

She and I made a tiny snowman in the morning, but he got smooshed by a sled.  Later in the afternoon, she and Brian  made a big snowman.  The bottom was a snow covered rock which provided an excellent base.  Their snowman was so "fabulous" (Rachel's very accurate description) that Brian took a trip to the car to get the camera so we could take a picture.

 

Many Milestones

 

 Happy St Patrick's Day!

 Both kids have been learning new skills lately, so we thought it was time to share.  Rachel has been learning to roller skate.  Brian is a great teacher.  He is really good at breaking things down and explaining them.  I may be able to teach academics, but I am glad Brian is around to teach Rachel other skills like roller skating.  We make a pretty good team.
 

Joel will be 9 months tomorrow and has been working on pulling up.  A whole new world of things to get into are now within his reach.  He is also getting to be quite the speedy crawler.  Thanks to his army crawl he is currently sporting two lovely rug burned arms, but it doesn't phase him. 

Mobile Baby and Other Fun

I am posting these videos mostly for the grandparents because I realize that watching more than about 30 seconds of other people's babies doing baby things is not all that exciting.  So without further ado here are multiple videos of my adorable children.

Snacking (I must have been in a very generous and relaxed mood to allow the kiddos to eat on the carpet.)

 Rolling Around - Joel's favorite way to get from point A to point B

And finally....Joel is just learning to crawl

Rainy Day Fun

I has been raining the last couple of days, and we are so excited and grateful for the rain.  There has been lots of conversations with Rachel about leaving her mittens out so she can be ready for Tahoe and the snow (she has been asking to go sledding for the last month) and how the plants need the water to grow but not too much or they might drown.

We have mostly been staying inside these last couple days.  Rachel has been into pretending to go camping lately, so I thought it would be fun to bring out the play doghouse.  We all crowded in Rachel's "tent" to go camping.  She kept us safe from bears which all turned out to be nice, so we fed them.  Joel even got to play the role of "Joel Bear" one day, but he was not such a nice bear.  He had to stay out of the tent until he cried to be picked up.

This afternoon Rachel begged to go outside and play in the rain, so I let her go outside of a little while.  Really so what if she gets a little wet.  She will dry and can always change her clothes if they get soaked.  Rachel had quite the ensemble on to brave the cold and wet: snow boots, snow jacket, dress, and capris.  She looked so cute and happy I had to take a picture.  Joel and I stayed inside and watched the fun from the window.

A Completed Project (wow!)

Last weekend and this weekend during the kids' nap time I worked on putting in a new shelf on the wall of our garage to hold my tool boxes and my drill press. This was my first under slung shelf that I've put up and it seems to be pretty sturdy.  This evening I finished it and I think it turned out really well.  It's a little over 24" deep.  I would have made it exactly 24", but I already had a piece cut that was a bit more than that, and it seemed a shame to waste a few inches of expensive ply wood so I just made the shelf extra large.

Joel came out to check it out this afternoon.

Now it's all done, and the lawn mower fits underneath the shelf!

More Work Bench Progress

I took a whole bunch of days off work over the break and Rebekah worked really hard to get me an hour or two most days we were home to work on my work bench. It's coming along nicely!  In fact, I was able to get the out feed table portion of the work bench complete.  And it's 5 feet from the end of the blade, to the end of the out feed table so I can run an 8 foot piece of plywood through the table saw and it will only over hang 3 feet so it doesn't fall off. This is very nice.  Anyway, here are the pictures.