Holiday Bokeh

A few years ago I stumbled upon what I like to call "holiday bokeh".  Bokeh is the photography term that describes the blurry background in a picture.  It looks like this:

See that blur of Christmas lights in the background?  That's holiday bokeh.  Holiday bokeh (or any blurry background, for that matter) is achieved when you get the camera as close is as reasonable to the subject in focus and put the background at a distance.  In other words, if I had backed this gingerbread house up to the tree, the lights wouldn't have been blurry.  No holiday bokeh.  Also, you need to set your aperture as low as possible (that number will look like a 1.4 or 2.8 or 3.6, etc).

Ever since I discovered holiday bokeh, I've had it on my to-do list to take holiday photos of my kids with a background of Christmas lights.  I finally did it this weekend!  I just taped Christmas lights up to my wall, layed down a white sheet, and put my kids about 6 feet in front of the wall.  Here's how they turned out:

Try it sometime this holiday season!  It's a lot of fun!

Hazie's Surgery and Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

I spent most of Hazel's life being impatient for her surgery, but when it came time to actually schedule it, I started to really panic!  Who wants to subject their baby to surgery?  Not to mention, her droopy eyelid was so cute!  I wasn't sure I was ready to part with it.  But, it had to be done or risk her going blind in that eye.  I took a few pictures of her the day before her surgery so I could remember her sweet little eyelid.

When I explained what we were going to do, she would say, "Eye" and point to her bad eye.  Cute baby.

I took a few of her siblings, too!

After the surgery, a few of the kids teared up to see their baby sister all cut up and in pain.  Hazie, on the other hand, had no complaints!

Honestly, she's been a total angel.  She hasn't cried or fussed at all.  The eye is looking great, although still swollen and bruised.

 

The day after the surgery, my parents came for a visit.  They are leaving on their mission to Panama in January, and this is their last hurrah with their east coast kids.  We decided to take them to the New River Gorge and my favorite place, Babcock State Park.

 

 

Why yes, I do still have THREE MONTHS TO GO!  How will my stomach get any bigger???

We also did something we've talked about doing since the first time we moved to WV for dental school; we had a little open house for my parents.  They have so many old friends from their years in WV, we thought it was only right to have a little gathering to get them all together.

And with that, we bid farewell to my parents for 20 months or so.  Good luck, Mom and Dad!  We're so glad you visited!