Photography

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Bye-um-pum-pum, bye-um-pum-pum, bye-um-pum-pum, bye-um…

October 25, 2010 in Andrew, Jacob, Jarvis, Marriage, Military, Paige, Photography by Petra | 3 comments

I cannot believe it has been a week and a half since my last post!  Where is the time going?  Well, the last two weeks HAVE been incredibly busy – I’m pretty much just chilling out today, and the change is kind of nice (though I do have some errands to run in a little while).  I’m pretty sure it’s time for a bulleted list – it’s the only way my brain is going to cooperate for updates.  :)

  • Jarvis has one more game in the fall soccer season (the 31st).  He’s really good and his team has had some good games and some bad games.  He’s having a blast with it, and we love watching him play!  He’ll be on the same Challenge team in the spring.  I really need to remember my camera next week!
  • Andrea and Gideon came for a week-long visit and we LOVED having them here.  They left on Saturday and Paige got all excited last night when I showed her pictures of Gideon on my computer.  She kept pointing and going “who’s that?” (which doesn’t mean she doesn’t know, it just means she wants me to say his name because she can’t say it).   The two of them were actually starting to enjoy each other’s company by the time Gideon left.  However, Jacob remains Gideon’s favorite, I think. (and these photos are much clearer on my computer – whenever I upload to my blog, even if I size them properly first, they get blurry and pixelated – what’s up with that, wordpress?!)

  • I was actually pretty horrible about taking photos while Andrea and Gideon were here.  I managed to get the above series and just a few more, but for some reason I have not been using my camera much as of late.  I’m not sure why – I love photos, I love taking photos… seems like a no brainer that I would get my camera out now and then.  Oh well.
  • I love how well Andrea and I get along.  It really does not seem like there are eleven years between us.  I totally wish we lived near one another. 

  • And how adorable is Gideon?!?!  He is just the cutest thing!! And he’s so lovable and let’s you hug and squeeze him without complaint (unlike Paige, who has to be in the mood to cuddle or she shoves you away).  :)

  • While Andrea was here, we did some shopping (including finding these adorable neon converse for Paige and Gideon), we hung out at the house, we took one very full day and drove to Richmond (see next bullet), and we didn’t get enough chances to watch nearly enough TV… something we both thoroughly enjoy. 

  • My friend, Ali, who I’ve mentioned many times before, met us in Richmond this past Thursday.  We had a really fun day together walking around, eating, and laughing – and she took lots of totally fabulous photos!!  Seriously, if you are in Virginia or DC or anywhere close, hire her for a shoot – you’ll be thrilled with the images and she is totally affordable as far as photographers go!!!  A sample of our photoshoot is below, but to see more become a fan of her photography page on Facebook and scroll down to the “Carden Family” and “Gideon” albums…

  • (photo by Ali McLaughlin)

  • We found out a few days ago that Andrew will be deployed much sooner than we thought.  Please keep him (and us) in your prayers.  I am soaking up every second of time with him while I can.  We will really miss him, but know that he is in God’s very capable Hands and, after all, trials make us stronger.  And might I also add that Andrew is the most amazing husband ever and I am so thankful for all God has done in our lives and in our marriage – life gets sweeter every day!!! :)

I have more stories to tell and photos to share, but alas, I have a life, and it has already taken me several hours to get this far into this post (lots of interruptions in my house).  I shall try my best to keep the ole blog updated more frequently.  I know you are excited at the prospect, but are also fearful because I have made similar empty promises in the past.  ;)   Hopefully I will get a chance to get caught up on stories and photos this week though! :)

Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key…

August 28, 2010 in Brittany, Photography by Petra | 5 comments

I took Britta and our friend, Allie, downtown (which seems like a big word for our tiny town) for a senior photo shoot. We had a blast, and even though I’m certainly nowhere close to being a pro, I think we ended up with some fun shots.  Here are a few of my faves…

Bright copper kettels and warm woolen mittens…

February 27, 2010 in Animals, Brittany, Health, Paige, Photography by Petra | 4 comments

Bulleted lists are my favorite.

  • Luna (our white cat) is in heat. It disturbs us all. Hopefully this passes soon.  Because wow!
  • Paige is getting three teeth right now. Have I mentioned that? Probably. They are RIGHT there – why won’t they just poke through the gums already??
  • BUT… Paige slept for TEN hours straight last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don’t know if it was a fluke or what, but here’s how it all went down: 1. She’s been teething and NOT sleeping well, 2. two nights ago, it was cold, so I put her in the sleep sack (a pajama-type piece of clothing that has sleeves, but the rest is just like a zipped up bag) and she slept pretty well, going back to sleep each time she got up to nurse, but still 5 hours was the longest she went – and that was an improvement!, 3. Last night, I put her back in the sleep sack, thinking maybe being super warm was helping her sleep and she slept TEN hours.  So – the sleep sack is getting washed today and we’ll try it again tonight. Cross your fingers everyone – because Petra needs her sleep! And almost-11 months is definitely time to sleep through the night!!! Yeesh!!!
  • I am off the antibiotics finally and am feeling a bit more human – my body does not deal well with chemicals so taking pills three times a day for two weeks was wearing on me. More on MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) later.
  • I am dying to upgrade my camera and get some new lenses. One day, one day. Meanwhile, I’ll just keep learning more about photography – learned some more this past week – and hopefully it’ll be warm enough to really get outside and practice sometime soon.
  • Speaking of warmth, we’ve had a few hints-of-spring days over the past couple of weeks. I love spring! It would be my favorite season if it didn’t have school days. I am so ready for warm days, sunny skies, green trees, flowers…
  • Britta is finally getting to do the driving portion of driver’s ed this coming week! Yay! Then she’ll be able to get her permit, and eventually her license! Whew! About time, eh?
  • And since I am trying not to have any posts without photos, here is a couple of oldies but goodies – I threw a bunch of photos in a folder a while back, meaning to put them into a facebook album (maybe I’ll do that today)…

    The kiddos in September 2006, at our house in Texas.


    The fam on December 24, 2001 at Andy’s parent’s house… so fun/funny to look back at older photos, eh? :)

I love being a mom! :)

September 16, 2009 in Fashion, Paige, Photography by Petra | 1 comment

Andrea is in labor! Hooray!!!

I am vowing right here and now to start taking more photos with my ‘real’ camera instead of just using my phone all the time. I like my photos to be good, and cell phone photos just aren’t.

I bought an outfit for 8 bucks yesterday – shorts and a shirt on clearance at Target. I needed something besides the same ole t-shirt and jeans to wear so I grabbed these when I saw how cheap they were. I can’t wait until my cute clothes fit me again.

Crows have been coming to my deck today. We keep scaring them away. I need to add them to my ‘no doves allowed’ sign!

I have perfected my gluten-free tacos and chili recipes. Recipe shares coming soon on the ‘food’ tab. Be excited!

I chopped my hair off. I started cutting my own hair a while back, after always going months and months (and sometimes a year!) without being able to get a haircut because of being on bedrest, too busy with babies, lack of funds, or a combination of the above… (I learned by watching a couple of youtube videos). Well, I trimmed a few inches off a few weeks ago, but I really needed my layers cut too, so over the weekend, I decided to do layers… It didn’t work out so well. I tried something different because I wanted shorter layers, and the basic rule of thumb for cutting hair is “if you don’t know how, don’t do it!” I’ve learned this lesson. Over and over. Anyway, so yesterday, I chopped about six more inches off to fix it (I’ve lost about a foot over the past several months). It’s got a ‘Rachel’ quality to it? Even though it’s not 1995. Whatever. All the old used-to-be-bleached-blonde ends are gone now, and it’s healthy and natural… until I get tired of the fading and already-turned-silvery-white hairs and start experimenting with color again. And that’s my really long I-just-cut-my-hair story.

Check out those eyes! (Paige, 5 months and 8 days)

Check out that drool! :)

(and note the photo-quality difference when I use my ‘real’ camera!) :)

December 2, 2005 in Military, Photography by Petra | No comments

It just dawned on me as I started to update my blog that I haven’t updated for December. Never fear… I will give you a nice Christmas-y background to look at soon. I’m sure you were all concerned. :)

I heard from Andrew a couple mornings ago (in the wee hours) – he made it over there after spending 21 hours on the plane. But we could only talk for a few minutes and I haven’t heard from him since, so I can only assume everything else is going well. I miss him! A lot!

Happy Birthday to Michael today (Michael is my brother-in-law, not to be confused with my friend Ali’s husband Michael – whose birthday is ALSO today – but happy birthday to him as well). :)

I am back to using 35mm film. I sent my digital camera with Andy. I don’t know if I’ll survive. I do know I’ll be spending way too much on film and developing (maybe – I have about 26 roles of film accumulated in the last couple of years that need to be developed? They just sort of piled up on us). Okay, so my question is – for those who still use the archaic 35mm film – where do you get your photos developed? I usually use Wally World’s one-hour developing, but the quality isn’t stellar. But I don’t want to spend ten dollars more PER roll at some specialty shop. So let me know who you use and how satisfactory the results are. I may try the other two Wal-Marts that are here – maybe theirs will be better? Or does anyone use Target or KMart? Seems like I used KMart in KY and they actually did a good job (even though I don’t care for that store and never go there). It may be a few months before I get my new digital camera (or longer), so I need to figure something out since I am such a picture freak (not as much while pregnant because I feel ugh, but once Jacob is here I’ll be snapping away again).

Consumer help requested…

November 10, 2005 in Photography by Petra | No comments

I am in the market for a few things that I’ve been researching online, but really the best kind of research is word-of-mouth from people who have had good and/or bad experiences with certain products. So, the two main items I am looking for are a new washing machine (mine is about to kick the bucket and I’ve never really had a good one – I want a GOOD one this time), and a digital camcorder (one that is very easy to make DVD’s from for sending to Andy in Iraq and also takes good quality videos – without costing a small fortune, of course). I would love to hear from anyone that has suggestions regarding either of these items. :)

I’m also going to get a new digital camera at some point and have been researching what I want. Of course I could go for the fancy schmancy top-of-the-line stuff, but the more I look, the more I think I want something a little smaller and that I don’t have to take a photography class to learn how to use (that’ll come one day, but not yet). Plus, I don’t think I want to tote around a hefty camera when I have five kids to tote around, but I want something nice that will take really good photos. The two I’m looking at are the Nikon D50 and the Canon Powershot Pro1. Expensive, yes, but I should be able to get one of these in a few months (hopefully). So give me your thoughts – I know Nikon Vs. Canon is a pretty controversial topic for some people – ha! I’m leaning more towards the Nikon D50, even though the Canon is a little cheaper. So all you photographers out there – give me your feedback. And if you know of one that is cheaper but just as good, let me know about that too. I’m so ready for a nice camera – the one I have now is such a source of frustration! I NEED to be able to take quality photos since I’m so obsessed with taking pictures (especially with a new baby!). :)