Cook Family Birthdays

Birthdays are always a time to celebrate for the Cook family. And my husbands birthday today was no exception! My mother in-law, Beth [Hi Nana!] always makes us feel so special on our birthdays with our very own special cake, candles, and Happy Birthday song. Afterwards or before cake we are also taken out to a special dinner as well. We are truely blessed to have her in our lives.

We are always surrounded by the whole family. Here is my brother in- law, Geoff and my beautiful Sis In-Law, Heather.There is never a dull moment with them around! They bring the "LIFE" to the parties!Here is my other beautiful Sis In- Law, Auntie Lisa. The parties just aren't the same without her there!And here is our dear, sweet Bumma. My Grandmother In- Law. I feel like I've known her my whole life and she welcomed me into the family with open, loving arms, as did the whole family. She is someone you can talk with about anything and she is so non judgemental. You can always count on Bumma's opinion and advice.And last but not least, my Father In- Law Norm and my Mother In- Law Beth. AKA Papa and Nana.

They love their family deeply and are the best grandparents ever. Grayse and Dylan adore them. We are always made to feel so welcomed and loved in their home and they are always happy to see us.We always get sweet, thoughtful cards on our birthdays.

And even if the cards aren't meant for her, Bumma reads each and everyone and cries. I think she gets overwhelmed with how much love this family has for eachother.

  Beth, Thank you for all the wonderful birthday celebrations. They mean so much to all of us and make us feel so loved. This family may not be perfect but I am proud to be a Cook. I love you all so much!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBS!!
I love you!

~Cheech

Playing around with aperature and shutter speed

So, my darling SIL forwarded me this great little tutorial on practicing with an SLR camera in manual mode.http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/blog/index.php/2010/06/23/focus-on-photos-shooting-on-manual-a-brief-look-at-aperture/. So, I went outside while the kids were swimming and tried a couple of her suggestions. First off, I won't even pretend to act like I know even a smidgen about camera's. Let alone my new Nikon D5000. But I'm learning [slowly!] about a few of the features and how to get a semi decent picture. The way I understand it is Aperature, Shutter Speed, and ISO all have to do with the amount of light your camera lets in. If they are out of sinc with eachother your photo will be over-exposed, under-exposed, blurry or focused and everything in between.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but the way my tiny brain has comprehended Aperature, or f -stop, is it controls the amount of focus you want in your photo. The lower the number the less focus. So, If you want to focus on only one thing in your photo you would use a smaller aperature number. If you want the whole scene to be in focus you would use the highest aperature.

I these first few pictures I used a 4.5 aperature. The lowest number I can get with this particular lens. I wanted only my children to be the focus.

Now lets talk about Shutter Speed. The way my funky brain comprehends this one, is it controls the amount of movement in the photo. The faster the movement the higher the shutter speed number. The slower the movement the lower the number. For instance, if a herd of horses was galloping by and you wanted them all to be in focus with no action blur you would set your shutter speed number high. For a still life photo the shutter speed number would be low. I also found out today that it also does some adjusting with how light or dark your photos are. I will get into that another time, though.

If you can see it, the photo's above were a little lighter and maybe a tad less focused. Here were the settings for those Aperature 4.5

Shutter 1250

ISO 500

These next pics' settings are Aperature 4.5

Shutter 1600

ISO 500

So, I only adjusted the shutter speed [tips from the tutorial!] and I think they had a little more depth to them. I also love that the shutter speed captured the water in mid air!

I hope that I'm not totally off about the way my brain comprehends all of this. I think I automatically look for easy ways to learn things that tend to boggle my brain! I hope this helps some of you and I will be adding more as I learn!

Have a great day everyone!

~Cheech

A little Fathers Day fishing

For Fathers day we had a lazy day at home and then took daddy out to dinner. Afterwards, we headed to a local pond and did some fishing. It was so relaxing and the perfect end to a perfect day!

Grayse is always the lucky fisherwoman. She caught the one and only fish!

Here is poor Grayse having a little time out. She bounced right back, though!

Hubs and I took some pictures of eachother, too! It always seems that we take so many of the kids but never have any of us. I really don't like my picture taken and try to avoid it at all costs but I figured it would be nice to have a couple even if I wasn't looking so great! It was so windy!

Give away at The Red Door Home!!

The Red Door Home is giving away one of these darling totes by Dash and Albert! You get to choose which color you want if you win!! So, head on over there http://reddoorhome.blogspot.com and leave a comment! The contest ends Tuesday at midnight.

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day everyone! Here is a picture of my dad. He was a wonderful dad and still is. It can't be easy to have raised 5 kids yet, he always made us feel loved. He was always so proud of us when we were young and we never wanted to let him down. Some how he instilled that in us and he raised [ with the help of mom] 5 wonderful kids. We try to instill that in our kids as well, now. Without his great example I wouldn't be who I am today. Or the parent I am today! I love you dad! And here is my love, my soul mate, my beloved. The father of my children. The keeper of our hearts. He is a loving father whom his kids adore. They are so lucky to have him for a dad.

We love you!

A Boy, A Hole and a Track Hoe

Little Dill has been operating machinery since he was about 5 years old. He hasn't been able to run anything for about 8 months. So, when daddy brought home a track hoe for the day recently, Dill had to go out back and dig a hole! He got some careful instruction from daddy and then he was set free!

It was like he had been running it forever. He surprisingly didn't lose his touch! His feet were even a little closer to the ground this time.

He is very serious about digging holes and does a great job.

Pretty good, hugh?

A boy in his hole.

A boy on top of his hole. As proud as can be! So proud that he didn't want to fill it in and now we have a big hole in our back yard that him and sis like to play in.

Then he walked the hoe all the way back to the dump truck and trailer to get loaded up.

I was worried about this tight squeeze between the camp trailer and the tree. Just like the pro he is, he plowed right through without hitting a thing.

There is his proud daddy waiting.

God has truely blessed us with this little man. We couldn't be more proud of him.

~Cheech

Some of our most favorite people in the world!!

This past weekend was so, so fun! Not only did we get to go to the Farm Chicks but we also got to visit my aunt and uncles and cousins. [ We also got to go to Mary Janes' store which I'll post about soon!] We really love visiting them and wish we all lived closer. They are so welcoming and never make it awkward when we stay in their homes. What a lovely time we had..........

visiting with my lovely Aunt Barbara. She is such a Godly person and her home is filled with peace. I always leave there feeling God's presence and am inspired to bring that to my home as well. What a wonderful person she is and someone I look up to. Here she is holding precious little Gillian. My cousin's daughter so, my second cousin? Or cousin once removed? I'm really not sure but she is family!

Here is my handsome Uncle Keith. He is always so welcoming even with all of us ladies. You can always count on Keith for good advice and always giving us a good laugh! He is holding my cousins' other beautiful daughter, Annella.

This is my Uncle Arnie who recently moved to Spokane and my Aunt's best friend, Saydee. They were a great addition to our weekend and fun to catch up with!

And just so you know the girl on the left is my beautiful cousin, Carley. We got to stay at her lovely home. The home in this picture is my Aunts home where we had dinner and got to catch up with everyone
.

There was a little baseball playing after dinner!

Barbara lives on beautiful Lake Liberty and the next day he kids got to take a quick swim before we headed for home. It is always the highlight of our trip!

My mom came with us and stayed with Barbara and Keith and Saydee.

On our way home we saw this sunset and had to pull over and snap a few shots! Grayse actually took this one. Can you see the windtowers on the hill! We were amazed with the brilliant colors!