Alert Level ORANGE!

Today Eva showcased her mad Tae Kwon Do skills at the local university in front of 9 judges! They were measuring her discipline, skills and how long it would take Eva to put the other 4 year old girl in a choke hold. I kid, no choke holds, only good sportsmanship. It was neat to see Eva, without fear, walk out onto that big mat and do her thing as the head instructor barked out orders.

Warm-up time!


Eva with her teacher Barbara.


I love this look.


Eva's cheering section.


The class was stretching it out.


She's got her Dad's flexibility.


The jumping jacks were amazing. The kids were all over the mat.


Some more stretching.


Eva really takes direction well. I love how attentive she is in this photo.


EXAM TIME!






The judges.


Good yelling Eva!


Great form!


Time for a little defense.


Attack!


Everyone loves a high leg kick.


FIGHT! (ok, there was no contact)


After the exam all the kids from Eva's class had to wait for the other classes to finish. Eva waited very patiently.


You are officially looking at an Orange Belt.


GREAT JOB E!

EVA TKO in TOKYO

Here is Eva in her new outfit!



Big test on Friday. We'll be sure to take a bunch of photos of the big day!

Eva

Today I tried to capture Eva learning how to pump. This is not that easy to do using a still camera. I also brought my flashes, umbrella and stand to try some off camera flash work. I'm loving the strobist stuff but I need more time to learn. I'm looking forward to some time at Christmas to shoot with Gary and a bunch of strobes. Here are a few pics of Eva with some off camera flash. (

When we got to the park the sprinklers were running so Eva wasn't overly impressed. (Flash with shoot through umbrella camera left) I like how Eva pops in this image.)


There is a hint of a smirk...


Again, it's hard to catch her pumping but this panned shot worked pretty well. Go Eva! (Dana gave me the panning idea)

Las Dunas de Bilbao

Yesterday we drove out to Las Dunas de Bilbao. It's about a 40 minute drive or an hour and a half if you take a wrong turn. My bad.

Anyway, we have visited the sand dunes before and had a horrible time. I guess this is why we hadn't returned in the last 3 years. Dana, Eva and I went in July 2006. It's kind of weird looking at photos from that event and seeing Eva as a 1.5 year old and Micah in the womb. Weird. When we went in July it was 40 plus degrees and was absolutely no fun. Eva cried the whole time. But the kids are older now and it's winter here in Torreon which means it's only 27, so we thought we'd give it another go. IT WAS AWESOME!

We had originally thought it would be nice to get a family photo out there. But after Micah and Eva face planted on the first dune we thought better of it.

First things first, we have to get to the top of the dune.


Micah chose to slide down.


Eva chose to jump down. We tried to give her direction on leaning back but I guess it just didn't register with her. Good thing the sand was super soft.



Normally Eva cries in these embarrassing situations but not this time. She came up laughing hard.



Micah was trying to see how dirty he could get.


Now Eva is getting it. Cool.


Back to getting dirty.



Eva was having so much fun going down.


...not so much fun walking back up.


And Micah dirty again.


Eva climbing the dune.




Josh was beaching it.


Kicking it back with Mom.


Okay, so the pants Micah wore were a touch too big. So he decided to strip down to his undies. I love this shot. Micah walking out in the desert in just his undies. Awesome.


So then I asked Micah if he had to go pee and he said no. However, judging from the sand stuck to the front of his underwear I'd say he'd already taken care of business.
This was supposed to be just a shot of me but it's far better with Micah in it. Too funny.


The dunes looked amazing at the end of the day.


Time to hustle back to the van before the sun sets.


What a great outing!

The Full Christmas Card Shoot.

This first shot was a test to see how we wanted to set up Josh. I thought the Bumbo seat would be a great idea. I thought wrong.



Dana suggested that we put all the kids on their tummies. Perfect...for a while at least.

Shot 1.


Hair and make-up please.


Shot 2.


Shot 3.


And Josh is done.


And the final result...


We are "planning" to do another shoot today so that I can improve my lighting and hopefully nail a shot of Josh actually smiling. So the photo above may or may not be our Willms family Christmas card.
For some of you out there I'm sure it's still way too early to talk about Christmas. My apologies. Come back and look at this post on December 1.