Here are some recent pictures from JD’s birthday, Project 365, and around the house.

Tami has been out of town for almost a whole week. We have never done a “split vacation” before, but this time we couldn’t see all of us flying back to Illinois, so Tami took Lindsey and JD. I took some time off of work, and to ease the boys’ pain of not being able to ride an airplane or see Grandma and PawPaw we stacked the days with boy stuff. Pizza, breakfast for dinner, movies, videos, and all sorts of other things. It’s been a lot of fun, but we sure are anxious to be reunited (Monday evening can’t come fast enough!). And split vacations are a stupid idea; even though we really have had fun it’s a bummer not all being together.

One of the fun places we went was JJ Jump here in Vancouver. Tami has taken the kids before, but I’ve never been. When the boys heard we might go there, that was about all I heard every day: “are we going to JJ Jump today?”

We finally went on Friday. It wasn’t all that busy there, with only three or four other moms with kids, so the boys had free reign. And they ran non-stop for over an hour. JJ Jump is an indoor play area with five or six of the huge inflatable play structures such as slides, obstacle courses, and a ball pit (I think?). Unlike many indoor play areas, this place was quite clean, even requiring use of hand sanitizer before playing! It wasn’t as loud as I would have expected a warehouse with six or more industrial inflation fans running. And the boys loved every second of it.

One of the funniest things, at least for me, was the music they had playing. It was all kid friendly, undoubtedly, but it cracked me up to hear “Ice Ice Baby” (Ice Age), “I Like to Move it Move it” (Madagascar), and others. “Cotton Eye Joe” and a version of the ABC Song with heavy techno beats were awesome. Next time we go I need to find out what they all were.

Lighting for pictures was three steps below horrible, so next time I need to break out an off-camera flash.

Timothy started martial arts this week. The introduction package at the facility he is attending provided two one-on-one classes and the initial group lesson with a uniform and first belt. I have no doubt that the first two classes were focused as much on selling me as they were on keeping him excited, and his instructor did a great job. Timothy thoroughly enjoyed the classes, and I think he may have enjoyed walked around the stores after class in full uniform almost as much.

Our goal for him is to increase his confidence and discipline. He’s a really good boy (in our humble opinion), but tends to have a bit of a lazy streak, not unlike his father. We’re trusting that the goals and motivation associated with this sport will help overcome that, and that he’ll really enjoy himself. If the past two days have been any indication, he’s well on his way to learning some exciting and useful things.

Next week he starts forms with the rest of the white belts. I’m sure there will be more pictures and posts as he progresses!

Late last year my sister mentioned she was going to participate in “Project 365″ this year. I remember seeing something about it a while ago, and thought it sounded like a great idea. It’s pretty simple: take a picture a day for the entire year (and post it online). That’s about it, though you can read more here if you’re interested. Focusing on this through the year encourages more consistent camera carrying, develops more familiarity with the camera’s capabilities, and I’ve already seen that it forces new perspectives on things that might otherwise be uninteresting.

Anyway, I’ve been having fun with it. I really am going to try to grab a picture on each and every day. I may not post on the same day I take the picture, but I do intend to capture something every day.

Amy’s is doing it too. And so is Dad. They’ve got some great shots already, and we’ve barely started!

You can see my progress so far this year by clicking here.

*Post updated to include a link to Dad’s pictures here and above — more photo goodness!

Tags: Project365

We made gingerbread cookies the other day to pass out to the neighbors. There was flour everywhere, but we had a lot of fun!

And we made a special one for Uncle Paul:

We tried for weeks to get pictures of the kids that would be good enough to send out this year on our Christmas cards. And it wasn’t until we decided to have fun doing it that we finally captured some good pictures.

We (I) missed sending out announcements about Jeremiah’s birth, so we opted to do a bit more for Christmas cards this year. I put together a background, found some great resources with Amy’s help, and sent the order off to Whitehouse Custom Color for press-printed 5×5 tri-fold cards on their watercolor paper. We’re immensely pleased with the results!

The full layout above is the inside of the card. The three laying flat are the outside flap, inside flap, and back of the card respectively. The card reads “Merry Christmas! Jesus, the founder of our salvation, the radiance of the glory of God is the One who’s birth we celebrate! Love, the Norwoods”

Despite much proof-reading, we noticed after we received the order shipment that we (I!) forgot to put the year on them. We have the kids’ ages on the back, but not the year!

Here are the full original layouts (click for larger versions):

Here are some more pictures from our fun time last night:

After three very frustrating attempts at some Christmas pictures for the cards we want to send out this year, I think we finally did it. With some “handling” advice from my sister (“if they’re not having fun, it’ll show”) and some technical advice from my dad (“bring up the [exposure on the] box a bit”), we had a wonderfully fun shoot tonight. The kids had fun eating way too many cookies, and Tami and I had fun making them laugh. I still have some processing work to do on them, but here’s a teaser:

More to come over the next couple of days!

And for those who have been asking and insisting, I do believe we will be including the “take one” picture on our card somewhere. Happy happy joy joy.

UPDATE – here’s one more from tonight:

Wow, I’m finding the perfect “Christmas picture” of the kids this year to be incredibly evasive. They’re doing quite well, considering, and I’m learning patience far more quickly than I might have liked.

Tami and I decided we wanted to do some pretty special cards this year, since I waffled and missed doing baby announcements for Jeremiah. So I’ve been trying some new equipment to capture the perfect family picture. And other than patience, the big thing I’ve learned is the importance of knowing how to take a picture with the mindset that the extra equipment is supposed to be there to aide, not to drive the shot.

No matter how nice the kids look, without creativity I’ll end up with another session of WalMart-looking pictures. Grrr.