Saj Advice

Shots of the yard

We spent some time over at Andy’s parents’ house today. They live on 10 acres and have great wildlife out there. I think I saw 3 or 4 blue jays coming to their bird feeder. And there are deer tracks all over their backyard. See? (This is my shot for today for Project 365, btw.)

And those tracks come right up to the basement windows. They’re pretty bold. See?

This deer was hanging out on their front walk! It’s standing about 10 feet from the front door. Bold, huh?

And here are some nice shots of their backyard. I love their yard!

Thanks Mathy!

Yesterday, a couple of boxes were left in our front door. The return address was for the Brewers. My brother and sister-in-law, lovingly called Mathy, enrolled the boys in the Brewers Kids Club for their birthdays. The enrollment package arrived yesterday and included the following:

*A hat
*A wristband
*A piggy bank
*A neck lanyard with a membership card to attach to the end
*Vouchers for tickets to six (yep, six!) home games
*A voucher for a Brewers poster
*A voucher for a tour of Miller Park
*A voucher to have a picture taken with Bernie Brewer and the Racing Sausages

And it’s only $25 each! They were pretty excited. Here they are in their gear.

Mathy, when will you be here this summer? We’ll take you to a game! Thanks so much!!!

You Capture: Your Winter

It should be fun to see what everyone comes up with for this week’s You Capture theme. See, Beth is really popular in many areas of the country (and probably the world!) and not everyone lives in a snowy winter wonderland like I do here in Wisconsin. But this is what we’ve got around here.

Winter in Wisconsin is:

*frost-coated trees and bushes in the morning, with a colorful sunrise-painted backdrop*

*a snow-covered roof, lit by the sun setting at 4:00 (excuse the open garage door!)*

*bushes and plants struggling to keep their “heads” above the snow*

*footprints, showing the path of an animal searching for food*

*bare branches silhouetted against a blue sky on a crisp, clear day*

(And for fun, and because I can’t miss a chance to put one of my kids on my blog)
*kids bundled up in heavy coats, hats, gloves, snow pants and boots, ready to play (check out the snow mound!)*

What’s winter like elsewhere?

Diptych #1::Red

My wonderful sister-in-law, Catheroo, and I have embarked on this Project 365 together. It’s so nice to have someone along on the journey, and to have someone who can ~~kick me in the ass~~ motivate me to keep up with the challenge. And seeing as how we live 2000 miles apart, it’s fun to find things we can do together.

Last week she introduced me to a fun photo project called a diptych. Go ahead, Google it. I did. Really, go. Okay, you back? One of the blogs that Catheroo follows is called A Life Less Ordinary and Finn started her diptych with Ren last week. Their first theme was Red, so we decided to just follow their themes. They will work their way through the rainbow, then move on from there.

I have a ton of red in my house, and I still had a hard time finding something to shoot. I finally settled on my cherub tomatoes. Apparently Catheroo almost used her tomatoes as her subject too! So here we go!

Catheroo’s red shot:

Saj’s red shot:

We’ll be back on Tuesdays, hopefully for the next 51 weeks!

Sledding in the yard

We got about 8 or 9 inches of snow yesterday. Add that to the several inches that were still on the ground from our snowstorm a month ago and that leaves a good base on the ground. When Andy plowed the driveway yesterday, he made a huge pile of snow in our front yard so the boys could sled. And sled they did!

You Capture: 2009 in pictures

You Capture is back! It’s been a busy few weeks for everyone, especially Beth. So she took a little hiatus, then challenged us to gather up our favorite photos from 2009.

Well, seeing as I’ve challenged myself to a Project 365, I’m not too ambitious in pulling together pictures again. So I’m going to re-post my “Ode to 2009” where I posted a bunch of pictures from the year. I’m also quite proud of my creativity, and it’s fun to share again!

So for those of you who haven’t seen this yet, enjoy! And those who saw it the first time, enjoy!

Ode to 2009

We’ve had quite a year, a year so fine.

Let’s review what’s happened for the Hoffman’s in 2009!

The year started with visiting the art museum and Domes.

Noah lost his first tooth and the tooth fairy visited our home.

In February we drove to Oshkosh to see the museum of the EAA.

Warm temps took us to the playground, and we had a sledding day.

Frisbees and scooters were pulled out in March for fun.

Betty Brinn was a cool outing, and a warm day led us out to run.

April was filled with music class, Easter, running Crazylegs and the zoo.

Seeing the Badger Band concert, ice cream on the Terrace and celebrating Boppa’s birthday (and Noah’s half) at a Brewer game-that’s a lot to do!

Noah graduated from preschool and the boys sang in the choir in May.

We blew bubbles, went to the park, and made our own parade to celebrate Memorial Day.

June was a big month-Sarah won from Macy’s (for moms) a great cross-country trip.

It started in Disneyland with Matte and Cathy for some fun-filled days, then off we went to Disney World-we were so excited we could have flipped!

The boys rode an elephant with Nana and Boppa, and in lessons the boys swam.

The Fourth of July was great fun at the lake and at the parade with the fam.

August found us at the beach to swim, eat lunch, and play in the sand.

We celebrated Andy’s birthday, Noah played t-ball, and we went for walks hand in hand.

The boys started school, Noah in Kindergarten, and Caden in preschool.

We went apple picking, found pumpkins, and went to Dozer Day in September which was cool!

Noah turned 6 in October, and Sarah turned (ahem!) 33.

It was all Star Wars for Halloween, and Andy and Sarah went to Las Vegas kid-free!

November started with a zoo tour, gymnastics for Caden, warm weekends and kite-flying fun.

Sarah had a picture published, Andy played hockey, and for Thanksgiving we ate a ton.

As for festive December, we celebrated Caden’s birthday-how can he be 4?!

Noah was a shepherd in the church Christmas pageant, we went to the Quad Christmas party, had fun Advent activities-we wish there were time for more!

Which brings 2009 to a close, a wonderful year with my three men.

We’re so thankful for friends and family, our health and our home, now bring on 2010!

Go see what others captured in 2009!

Here goes nothing!

I’ve set a pretty lofty goal for myself for 2010. I really want to take it up a notch with my photography. I want to improve my eye, my skill, and my creativity. I’ve heard that one of the best ways to improve in photography is to just take pictures. So that’s what I’m going to do.

Starting today, (Happy New Year!), I’ve joined a Flickr group called “Project 365”. The challenge of this group is to take a picture every day for a year. Sounds simple, right? We’ll see what I think of it in about three weeks!

Anyway, I was going to keep quiet about this, until I realized I need all the support I can get. So feel free to send me encouraging words, photo opportunities, or even heckling. Just let me know you’re out there!

Here’s my first shot of the project. It seemed fitting!

I’m not sure if I’ll get every shot up on my blog. I need to do some tweaking with my blog to figure that all out. Otherwise, feel free to check on my progress over at Flickr. I’m “Saj13” over there. YIKES!!!

Our Christmas Day

Well, there’s no You Capture this week, but I made up this post anyway. It’s about our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Day. Enjoy!

On Christmas Eve, the boys laid out the cookies, coffee cake, carrots, and cheese (for Santa Mouse), along with a letter to Santa explaining that the cheese was for Santa Mouse.

Continue reading Our Christmas Day

Long time no see!

We’ve been a little busy around here, as I’m sure many of you are, too. We had a great Christmas weekend, then I had to work for a couple of days, then the boys and I joined the throngs of other parents and kids looking for a place to play in the midst of our cold, snowy winter and headed to Monkey Joe’s to meet our friends this morning. So I’ve been a little uninspired.

Then I found this YouTube video and had to share it with you. It combines two of my obsessions:

1. Flash mobs (I SO want to be part of one someday!)

2. Glee

Enjoy!

Ode to 2009