An exclusive deal if you are checking out the blog!! Photos not published anywhere else. Here's some pics from our trip!
Ok - sorry to everyone not from MN but if you visit you'll want to read on... We (Jan, the boys and I) just had lunch with my sister (Shelly) in Richfield. She took us to an awesome little bar/restaurant called Sandy's Tavern. It couldn't have been more then 400 square feet! It was a great small town bar in a big city. I had and absolutely fabulous mushroom and Swiss burger for 5 bucks. I'm pretty sure everything in the place is original - except for the new TV and speakers that seemed updated. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good tasting old-style hamburger on a toasted bun served in the classic red plastic baskets lined with waxed paper! One note though - better bring cash because they haven't updated to take credit cards...
CCV
I know it says "for Moms" but this site has same absolutely hilarious Webisodes starring Jenny McCarthy, Chelsea Handler and Leah Remini. http://www.inthemotherhood.com/
CCV
Here is a picture of Cayden hanging out with our wonderful babysitter Kelsey. She does an awesome job and the boys have a blast with her.
CCV
We had a nice lunch at my mom's house for Easter. In true Minnesota fashion she had a snow bunny in the front yard to greet us!
CCV
We stopped hitting the fabulous information from the conference long enough to enjoy some green beer for St. Patrick's day!!
Jan and I are having a blast at a photography convention in Vegas for the week! Jan's mom, Betsy, has graciously come to MN to watch the boys and it sounds like they are having fun!
In our first ten minutes at the hotel we saw some interesting stuff. First there were 6 police officers donning rubber gloves removing a transient from the casino. Then we made our way down the hall and noticed two bums digging in the fountain looking for change! Welcome to Vegas.
CCV
Cayden got some new shoes today...he's proudly wearing them around the house and is excited because they are velcrow and he can put them on himself. Gotta love independence. Mom's excited about it too!
The boys and I had a pajama day yesterday. I got the camera out and snapped a few shots of the happenings of the day including Cayden dressed as the "Flying Ladybug" superhero...flying in our living room from the chair to the big pile of couch cushions that he put on the floor.
At the end I put a little something I put together to print for Daddy's desk.
Enjoy!
jnv
You know you are happily married with kids when you can share a romantic dance in the kitchen to a Veggie Tales song during breakfast!
CCV
Why does Jell-O only come in fruit flavors? Why not peppermint or chocolate flavored Jell-O? Leave a comment for a Jell-O flavor you would like to see. I'm voting for Cotton Candy...
CCV
Cayden's first trip to the dentist was today! He was a little nervous, but once we got there and he saw what it was all about, he jumped right in the chair. Complete with fashionista sunglasses so the light isn't so bright...too funny.
Our favorite hygienist, Sue, was so awesome. She counted his teeth, cleaned them, and then polished them with Cayden's selected Vanilla flavored paste (he bypassed cookie dough and went with vanilla, I was shocked). Dr Evansen checked them over and said he's got perfect teeth. He was so proud. Then he got to pick a toothbrush, toothpaste, a prize, and a sticker. He made out well!
We go to Valley Dental in Golden Valley and would strongly recommend them for dental services. Chris and I have been very satisfied.
We posted three new photo albums on the boys site. Click the "Vokal Family Photos" link on the right side under links. Here is a video of Cayden tickling Dylan before he leaves for school on his sledding day.
CCV
Well, we've still got the boy streak going strong with our group of Mankato friends. Boys 7, Girls 0. Treve Mac Stoffel was born March 3 at 6:27 AM, he was 7 lbs 8oz, and was 20.5 inches long. Congratulations to Mel, Kyle, and big brother Davin!! We can't wait to meet him.
jnv
Dylan graduated...no more bottle! We tried to gradually introduce his cup, but he didn't take to it in a fond way...he would just arm swipe it off of the counter and on to the floor every time we would offer it.
So we just had to go cold turkey...it only took one meal...poor guy cried himself to sleep at lunch in his chair which totally broke my heart, but after he woke up he just took the cup and drank it dry.
Hooray Dylan!!
jnv
This has always been one of my favorite quotes:
Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth.
- Mark Twain
Many of you know that our boys love to dance - they'll run for the "stage" (fireplace) when one of their favorites songs comes on. In my efforts to entertain the kids Jan thinks I may take the dancing part of this quote to an extreme - maybe not a good idea in a house without blinds! :) I often look and feel a lot like the guy in this commercial.
This is by far my favorite commercial of all time. It's part of an ad campaign that Blue Cross & Blue Shield of MN has put on. To see more of the ads check out: http://www.do-groove.com/
CCV
Many of our friends are starting to buy the DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras now and have many questions about all the optional controls. Even some of the bigger point and shoots have manual settings. The key thing to remember is there are three settings that you can control to get the correct exposure on your pictures: Aperture (F-Stop), Shutter Speed, and ISO.
This is the best tutorial I have found online that explains the relationship of the three: http://www.pbase.com/otfchallenge/image/20708945
It's a simple "visual" way to learn the setting and will take you about 10 minutes to read! After that you just start experimenting and you will finally come up with some basic rules of thumb depending on what type of photo you want to capture. The beauty is that most photo viewing applications will show you the data that is saved with the picture so you don't have to remember what settings you had when you took each picture.
| File Name | 23_Flying Man.jpg |
| Camera Model | Canon EOS 30D |
| Shooting Date/Time | 10/7/2007 1:39:14 PM |
| Shooting Mode | Manual Exposure |
| Tv( Shutter Speed ) | 1/250 |
| Av( Aperture Value ) | 4.0 |
| Metering Mode | Evaluative Metering |
| ISO Speed | 100 |
| Lens | 28.0 - 75.0 mm |
| Focal Length | 28.0 mm |
| Image Size | 3504x2336 |
| Image Quality | Fine |
| Flash | Off |
| White Balance Mode | Auto |
| AF Mode | AI Focus AF |
| Picture Style | Standard |
| Sharpness | 4 |
| Contrast | 0 |
| Saturation | 0 |
| Color tone | 0 |
| Color Space | sRGB |
| Noise Reduction | Off |
Sometimes I hate my gym bag...it's just a material reminder when I go to leave work that I didn't have time to work out! @#$&@!
One of our first purchases when we had kids was a battery recharging unit that could recharge any size battery. It has been wonderful and I can't count how many times our batteries have been recharged. We have a few of every size and then shift them around to the toys that the boys are playing with that week.
Our problem however was that we couldn't remember what size each toy took - so we didn't know where to look for ones to move to a new toy.
I finally thought of a simple solution that will save me hours (of unscrewing battery covers)! I took a permanent marker and wrote on the toy the size and number of batteries that it took (e.g. 4C or 3AA)!! Simple...wish I would have thought if it sooner!
CCV
