Homework!

Courtney, Casey and I have been taking a photography class once a week for the last 6 weeks. Tonight is our last night, or I should say Courts and my last night, Casey hasn't been going the last few weeks, something about a baby! Just kidding of course! But we have had so much fun and have learned so much more, can't wait for her to have some more classes this Fall! Here are a few of my favorites that I've taken for homework that she has given us each week. These last 6 weeks have gone by so fast, can't hardly believe it! If there is anyone out there in our area who is interested in taking her class this fall just let me know and I will be more than happy to give you her email.



This is from the first week, she really pushed us to set our cameras in total manual, a bit scary but once we started it was addicting! I've never really used my camera in auto but 90 % of the time have it in aperture priority, picking the size of the lens opening and letting the camera pick the rest. Her teaching us to use our cameras in manual really stretched us to learn all the settings and how to use them with each other. Fantastic!




Casey and Jacob. Learning exposure. I over exposed on purpose, just enough to keep the details! Not what everyone likes but fun!






A little over exposure again.

Shutter speeds and stopping motion, another fun one! Like Connie said "Like magic!"

Composition, leading lines and the color pink!

Working on composition-thirds.

Using available light instead of a flash. Baby Homer is just out of the bright sunlight of Casey's windows but in enough natural light.

Composition and sun flare.

Composition and the color green-Peyton has green eyes.

And composition using fifths. I've heard of thirds but never fifths, very cool!

I love pictures and photography and this class has been a blast! Thank you Connie for being such an excellent and completely fun teacher! Looking forward to this Fall!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER!

Happy Birthday Chris! We kid this poor guy about not being the number 1 son-in-law and he really takes it very well. All kidding aside all three of the guys are definitely number one to us, we couldn't ask for better! Chris is very athletic and very good at everything he is in, it's always fun to go watch him play, be it basketball, softball or football! Just a couple of shots above of him playing basketball at alumni this year, his team didn't win but they sure played hard. Hope you had a great birthday Chris!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTYN!

I can't believe Austyn is 7! I'm sounding like a broken record but where does the time go! I remember when she was a baby how she loved to be outside, just loved to be held while swinging on the swing. Such a sweet little girl who like Courtney said this morning, always remembers to tell everyone Happy Birthday on their day and makes all kinds of cards with pictures. She would wear dresses all the time if she could, loves princesses and has absolutely no shyness singing in front of a a school gym full of people! Yes I think this little girl is going somewhere and we all agree she'll be on stage someday! Happy Birthday Austyn, we all love you sooo much!

Homer Nicholas Scott Smith

Welcome to the world baby Homer. Can't hardly believe it, we have grand baby number 9! Just a few pictures to introduce our newest addition to the family!

Contractions

Getting our hair done

Visitors

Proud daddy!



New cousin



Aunt Courtney

Aunt Meg

Megans House

Our daughter Megan bought her first house! YEAH!!!! Wait......don't get too excited, it's been empty for 18 months, but it is really cute and has great potential and has a fantastic yard! If I remember right it is right around 2 acres(Meg will correct me if I'm wrong) and has a large variety of trees! Flowering ones, big ones, small ones, you name she's got it. Randy and Meg and their helper Jose have been very busy since the first of February pretty much gutting it and starting over. Hopefully you can see from the pictures just how far this little house has come!

First picture in Feb. Front of house.

Back of house to the north.

Back of house to the west and south.

Garage.

Another front picture.

Attached garage that will become the living room.

Spare room which will be laundry room/office and leads into new door for bathroom.

Looking into kitchen from garage/living room area.

Hallway going into master bedroom.

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bathroom

Kitchen looking towards garage/living room.

New cement floor for living room.

All new roof, new windows, new patio door leading into hallway by master bedroom. Love the overhang Randy built for a covered patio area! Oh and this is the back of the house on the south side.

Front and north side of house, new windows all around. No more garage door, beautiful big window instead!

North and west side of house. Notice the piece to the left, Randy completely tore off the roof  and replaced it at a different pitch and was then able to put larger windows in. Love it!

New living room, was the attached garage.

Looking into kitchen from new living room. Bedroom on the right.

View from corner of kitchen looking into dining area and bedroom on the right.

View from master bedroom looking thru the hall(patio door on right going out into the overhang) all the way thru the kitchen and towards the living room.

View from dining area into what will be the kitchen.

New living room.

Very hard to see but this will be the new bathroom.

View from living room looking into laundry/office, kitchen will be on the right.



Sorry if this is a bit confusing, it's a bit hard to see some of the rooms right now but I will keep posting updates. This week they are hoping to start hanging drywall so it will be changing looks again! Stay tuned for more updates on Randy's latest project!