Canon EOS 30D
F 4 - 1/60 seconds
ISO 200

Some more Halloween pics.  The family pic shows off all of our costumes, and then I tried to get more of the kids, since yesterday's wasn't that great.  Neither are these, for that matter, so you may get some more costume pics as I'll probably set up the studio and take some of the kids in there.  In case you're wondering, Laura was a farmer to match Timothy's chicken, and I was an MTC teacher, which, as my former missionaries would attest, is one of the scariest costumes ever.

( +2 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 5.6 - 1/125 seconds
ISO 1600

Today was work's Halloween party, so I tried to get some pictures of the kids to show off how incredible Laura is.  Laura made both Audrey's and Chester's costumes this year.  Audrey is a peacock, and Chester is a marching band guy with a drum (inspired not by Laura, amazingly enough, but by his many many repeated viewings of "The Music Man."  The chicken costume is Old Navy (and you've seen it elsewhere on this site, we got it for Audrey's first Halloween.)

Canon EOS 30D
F 10 - 1/500 seconds
ISO 1250

We took off today for a mini-vacation to Gotland, the big island southeast of Stockholm.  A pretty quick trip, we took the ferry down to Visby (the capital there), arriving about 2.  On the way we played a new game called Zingo that my folks had sent us.  We arrived in time for a walk around the old part of the city, including the botanical gardens (with a weirdo tree called the "Monkey's Puzzle" - deciduous, but with a pine feel).  Then we had dinner and went back to the hotel for the night.
( +8 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 3.2 - 1/125 seconds
ISO 800

Hooray for Day-in-the-lifes!  Today was supposed to be fairly relaxed, but it got busy.
( +27 pics! )

Canon EOS 30D
F 3.5 - 1/60 seconds
ISO 250

Hooray for 3 years of photo-a-day!!!!  2006, 2007, 2008, and now 2009.  As you know, it's also mole day, the anniversary of our engagement, and, as I found out today, Weird Al Yankovic's birthday.  Now, if that isn't cause to celebrate, I don't know what is.

Canon EOS 30D
F 9 - 1/320 seconds
ISO 200

We met up with some old friends from the Philippines who currently live in Latvia (fun, huh!) for the day today.  We went to Junibacken and the zoo, both of which have been on my photo-a-day before, so you mostly just get pics of the kids. The last time these two girls saw eachother, they were 8 and 4 months old (Audrey's older) - it was fun to see them hit it off and be friends.
( +7 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 9 - 1/320 seconds
ISO 200

We took Laura to the airport today for a trip to Italy!  Two of Laura's old roommates both happen to be living in Florence, Italy right now, so Laura took advantage of the long weekend to go visit! This is the first time in 7 years that she's traveled by herself.  I'm so excited for her, and can't wait to see her pictures. 
( on the way home, we stopped by the grocery store... )

Canon EOS 30D
F 2.8 - 1/60 seconds
ISO 400

It's my birthday!  Celebrated with lasagna, princess tårta and my family!  What more could I ask for?

Fuji Finepix F31d
F 5.6 - 1/480 seconds
ISO 100

Thanks to Laura for taking the picture of me at kilometer marker 20 of my 30K today.  The race didn't go quite as well as I had hoped.  The first 20 K were OK, but then I got leg cramps really bad, leading to me having to walk for 2K, leading to a really really bad last 10K.  Final time was 3:30.49 - I had hoped for under 3, but oh well.  The best part was that Laura and the kids came to cheer me on.  They saw me at 20K and then again at the end - which means they had to wait around for awhile in between, but they had fun dancing to the music and running around. After the race, we went out for pizza for dinner (I got my reward of banana-ham-curry pizza!) - I took the picture of the kids watching the pizza guys.  Oh, and check out Tim's mouthful of breadstick.  We're giving him more and more big kid food and he's loving it.  
( +3 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 13 - 1/250 seconds
ISO 100
Alien Bees 800 studio lights x2

Today, believe it or not, is Timothy's 6-month birthday!  I can believe it's been six months, but it sure has been a quick six months.  Timothy loves his brother and sister, is generally a happy baby, loves to play his little piano, loves to zoom around the house in his walker, and is starting to crawl (he's gotten to the all-fours-rock-back-and-forth stage -  I give it about 10 more days until he's a full fledged crawler) and he's sitting up really well on his own.  We sure do love this little guy and are happy he's in our family. 
( +3 more and b&w versions )

Canon EOS 30D
F 2.8 - 1/125 seconds
ISO 500

So I was in the kitchen keeping an eye on Timothy while I cleaned some strawberries.  I looked over and he was not on his blanket anymore.  I started talking to Laura figuring she had come downstairs and picked him up.  When she didn't answer I went in to investigate.  I think we can safely say that Timothy is now mobile.  I also couldn't pass up posting the bottom pic.  It was all that remained of Audrey's snack - cherries, a piece of bread and some peanut butter crackers. She did that all herself.
( + leftovers )

Fuji Finepix F31fd
F 5 - 1/420 seconds
ISO 200

Happy Midsummer!  Today is perhaps my favorite Swedish holiday.  To celebrate, the two Stockholm stakes got together, raised a May pole, danced around it, had a little 5K run (my official time was 24:20 - an OK time, but I had hoped for better), and just had a good time in general.  Here's a bit of Swedish tradition history, if you care.  The May pole was imported from the continent, where they would wrap the pole in branches and wildflowers (top pic).  Of course, the 1st of May in Sweden is still a bit too cold to have a lot of greenery, so they moved the tradition to Midsummer.  They kept the name, however, as the Swedish verb "maja" means to wrap with branches.  The middle pic is dancing around the pole (a favorite song has one hopping around acting like a frog).  The bottom pic is our friend who was feeding Timothy when he fell asleep.
( +2 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 3.5 - 1/50 seconds
ISO 1250

Our little guy just keeps getting cuter and cuter - although he's been doing a really annoying thing where he gets up at 5:00-ish in the morning and just wants to play, but we adore him anyway.  Tonight was our weekly webcam session with my folks.  Speaking of moving pictures on computer screens, we finally created a YouTube page on which to host our videos - hopefully this means that you'll get more moving pictures instead of just stills.  Laura spent quite a bit of time and prepped about, um five or six videos for your enjoyment.  You should CHECK THEM OUT!!!
( +1 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 2.8 - 1/60 seconds
ISO 800

A very big day in every baby's life.  Timothy had his first 'solid' food today.  He dug it.

Canon EOS 30D
F 2.8 - 1/30 seconds
ISO 400

Laura gets photo-a-day props for this one!  We recently got a bouncy thing for Timothy that you hang in the doorway.  He loves it!  He loves it so much, he sleeps in it!  So cute.  I get last-minute-of-the-day props for my shot!  We also pulled out the guitar again tonight, because we had some friends over that really play the guitar (unlike me, who fakes it pretty poorly).

( +1 more of Timothy and my lame one )

Canon EOS 30D
F 4.3 - 1/420 seconds
ISO 100

Big day today - We gave Timothy a hair cut!  His hair was a little bit out of control.  Audrey was the official photographer for the event (she forgets to take her hand off the flash sometimes :).  Then we went to Skansen, and then, because it was such a nice day, we pulled out sprinklers to let the kids run through them for awhile.  They didn't dare get too close, though!
( +5 )

Canon EOS 30D
F 2.8 - 1/200 seconds
ISO 400

Laura picked the subject today - our sleeping kids.  Audrey's been really funny lately.  She thinks that sleeping on the floor is cool, and she has to "watch over Twilla (her stuffed cat) while she sleeps."  You can see Twilla in her little bed.

( +Chet and Timmy )

Canon EOS 30D
F 5 - 1/250 seconds
ISO 400

Some better pics of the kids than the ones you got the other day.  I asked Audrey to strike a pose for me, and this is what I got.  Chet's picture is of him 'hiding' behind a rock playing hide and go seek.  Earlier in the day, the kids collected snails.  I was actually really surprised that they would touch the snails and not get freaked out by them.
( Chester, Timothy and some snails )

Canon EOS 30D
Multiple Everything

I thought I needed some pics of the kids up (not that these are the greatest).  I haven't had some of those in awhile. Looking back through the archives, I realized that there were TONS of pictures of the kids in February, but that's when I was on papa leave and was home all day every day.  I'll try to make more of a concerted effort to have them in here!

Canon EOS 30D
F 2.8 - 1/160 seconds
ISO 1000

Tonight is Valpurgis!  I love the pagan holidays that the Swedes celebrate!  This holiday originated as a way of welcoming in Spring, and I always have understood that the reason they light the big bonfires is to scare away the evil spirits and ensure a good crop.  Laura tells me that she's never heard the good crop bit in her reading about it, though. At any rate, it doesn't matter if they're hoping for a bountiful crop or not, because fires are cool.  These bonfires are easily the size of a double wide, and the funny part is there's no kind of safety barrier.  Kids are running around, throwing more sticks on the blaze, etc.  (You can see the silhouette of one in the pic below).  Once the fire gets started, however, it's really hard to stand too close because the heat is a little bit incredible.  The highlight of this Valpurgis, however, was seeing Caroline af Ugglas by accident.  If you recall, she was the second place finisher in the Melodifestivalen, (she's in the blue boots) and one of my favorites.  
( +5 )