Foote Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas - For those of you that didn't get our letter in the mail (sorry, we ran out) Here is the picture we sent and bellow is the letter, you can click on them to see full sized

Photography

I have really enjoyed experimenting with a new photography technique called HDR Photography or High Dynamic Range Photography. I really like the way Trey Ratcliff of www.stuckincustoms.com describes what HDR is. He basically says that we have all been an amazing place - take a picture - and then when we show someone we say something like - You really had to be there - or the picture doesn't really show it. That is because our eyes are so much more advanced than any camera. But we can cheat with cameras - that is where HDR comes in. What HDR does is take several pictures of a scene and combine them into one photo - so the really light spots are not washed out and the really dark spots still have detail - the same way your eye could see the scene. Anyway, here are a few examples I have taken over the past couple of months.

For the full effect feel free to click on the photo and go to the larger size on flickr



Venetian Grand Entrance



The cliffs out the front door of my grandpa's ranch



Same as the last picture but with a little patriotism added in!



Scum Pond - we hiked up a mountain to get here - so I took some pictures of it and everyone made fun of me. I think it turned out really cool though



The famous Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell - bellow you can see the original (or one of the three that I used to combine above) The original is edited as I would have edited in the past. So hopefully you can see the difference and why I am excited about this new technique.

Viva Bike Vegas/I wanted to die

So somehow my little brother Steven talked me into doing a 115 mile ride with him. Once I was committed I decided to help him convince my dad he should do it to. so Saturday Oct 9 at 6:30 AM we left downtown Las Vegas only to return 10 hours later - and much more tired.

There were 1500 riders that left with us and it was fun to leave town with cops at every intersection stopping traffic for us. I felt great the first 40 miles. I had energy, we were passing way more people than were passing us. We were doing really well and ahead of the pace I was hoping for (a little slower than what Steven wanted)

One of the highlights of the ride was the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge. It is scheduled to open for traffic in about a month, but what better way to test it than to send 1500 bikes out on it right? It was a cool bridge and neat to cross the bridge before it opens to the public.

The three of us on the bridge


The view of the dam

This is about where the fun stopped (other than a few pick me ups from family) We had crossed the bridge and had to ride up the biggest, longest, steepest hill of the entire course into boulder city. Not only that, for the first time in several years my asthma was starting to act up. I have exercise induced asthma and I felt it a little bit about 10 days before the ride, but just hoped it was because I had a stuffy nose and shouldn't worry about it. Little did I know what I was in for.

So about halfway up this hill I had to stop and lie down and try to breathe, I was getting dizzy and light headed and decided I better stop. After about 5 minutes I felt better and we went up the rest of the hill. Through Boulder City. Into Henderson where my wife, daughter, mother, sister and sister in law were all waiting to cheer us on as we pulled into the lunch stop. What a blessing it was to feel their love and support, not to mention encouragement. I was seriously considering calling it quits right there (halfway) but Katie and Sarah told me that they knew I could do it. So I was going to.

One funny quote from lunch - my mom was refilling our water bottles for us and said, "I actually feel awkward not wearing spandex pants."

Sarah told me her sign says, "I love my daddy" I love my kid!

After lunch was by far the hardest part of the ride for me. Even though the Boulder City hill should have been worse, on our way up Horizon Ridge we were trying to keep up with this group of about 30 other riders who were really cranking up the hill. I started breathing heavy, then heavier, then hyperventalating. I felt like I was only using 1/4 of my lungs -through a straw - if I tried to breathe deep I went into a coughing fit and then couldn't breathe at all. But I really wanted to keep up, if I could only make it to the top of the hill I would be ok. I had to push through it, plus I was falling behind my dad and brother. Well I caught up to my dad at a red light, clicked my shoe out of my pedal and fell over and started shaking. Several people started freaking out. I told them I was fine and then laid down in the shade for 10 minutes. Again, I felt like quiting, but I really wanted to ride a century (100 + mile ride) So I got up and kept riding.

Katie and Sarah met up with us again out by Red Rock, which was nice, I really needed another pick me up, and then said they would be waiting for us at the finish line.

Dad and I completing our first century!

There wasn't anyone else to take the picture so we took turns. This is Steven and I at the 100 mile mark.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I had to go much slower than I wanted as my lungs wouldn't let me breathe normally still. I could use about 50% of my lungs, and for hours after the race my breathe sounded wheezy, like I was breathing through a straw. But I finished the race, and we made it to the finish line 17 minutes before they packed up and left. It was not the experience I was hoping for, and I know I could have done much better. My legs are not really sore and I could tell my muscles had plenty of strength left. I just couldn't breathe.

One of the best parts of finishing was getting a big congratulations hug from Katie and Sarah, and for them to tell me that they were proud of me.

So I didn't die and my wife and daughter are proud. Sounds like success to me. But give me a month or so before you ask if I will do it again next year!

The finish line at last!


Yes her shirt says "I love Daddy!" Does life get better? I submit that it does not!

I love my family! They were so nice to support me and drive all over town cheering for us!

Team Foote - victorious - ready to collapse (at least I was)

This was Sarah during the last picture wiggling her fingers and making funny faces to make sure we were smiling while our picture was taken. Super cute!

Lisa and Miguel

So I need to learn to spell my sisters soon to be last name. She just got engaged last weekend to Miguel Tixsdfiasdfnaera or something like that. (Miguel, at least I kind of know how to pronounce it right?) So much good stuff happening in our family right now! Miguel is awesome and Lisa is super excited. They are going to be married in March (when Miguel's family can come over from Germany, or Portugal or where ever they are)

Here are a few photos I took of them a few months ago on a family hike.

HAHA - I love this picture - I don't know what they are unsure about - perhaps why they would make those faces while I was taking pictures that might end up on our blog?

John and Jaime

So Katie's little brother John got engaged a few weeks ago! We are super excited about this and they will be getting married the Tuesday before Thanksgiving! That is coming up quick! We love Jaime and are glad she is joining our family.

We have a better picture (or over 500) where you can see Jaime's face but we decided not to post them yet. They are prewedding wedding pictures. They came down last weekend and we spent the day all over town getting tons of fun wedding pictures so they can relax (at least more) the day of the wedding. Get the group shots done and get over to the reception (which is like 2 hours after the wedding!) We decided not to post them yet since we don't have their permission.

Congrats John and Jaime!

It's a boy!

So we just found out. . . about 2 months ago. . . that we are going to be having a boy! As you can guess I am super excited to have a boy. I know we want a couple of each, but it is nice to be sure we will have a boy in the family. After all, I would feel bad making my girls mow the lawn, take out the trash, dig post holes and prune the trees. Not bad enough not to make them do it, but I would feel kinda bad. So Sarah, count your blessings and baby boy Foote - look out - I am working on my list already.

Too bad everything we bought for Sarah is pink!

Sarah's first day of preschool!

Our little girl is growing up so dang fast. We spent the last 15 minutes looking at old photos of her and she has grown soooooo much in the last year. I know, everyone says that they grow up too fast. . . well guess what - THEY ARE RIGHT! Except for the missing the infant infant phase - maybe Katie misses it more than me, but I am not looking forward to waking up every 14 minutes all night and changing a million diapers and getting spit up on all my ties again. I really love having kids, and there are some great things about the first couples of months for sure. But they go the right speed, everything else is too fast, but those first months are pretty rough. I am sure I will change my tune the first time I hold that little dude. But I am kinda scared to have a infant again. I don't remember how to take care of a baby, since with Sarah we just "run and jump and play" (as Sarah would say).

Anyway, enough about me being nervous about another kid, the title of this post is Sarah's first day of preschool. Katie signed Sarah up for Miss Lacie's Montessori Preschool and Sarah is loving it. She was excited for weeks before and still gets excited and tells us "I get to go to preschool tomorrow" when we are putting her to bed. She only goes two days a week, but she is really enjoying it and getting a lot out of it.

Here she is with her new backpack - which she loves!

As you can tell she was so excited she could barely contain herself, or eat her breakfast for that matter!

Elder Brian Davis Farewell

So we are obviously not the best at posting on our blog. I would say that we will do better, but that would probably be a lie. But we will try to do better.

So a while back - Aug 25th to be exact - Brian Davis became Eldeste Brian Davis - He is still in the MTC learning Norwegian and will soon be leaving for Norway! Before he left the whole Davis clan got together and I brought my camera and tripod and Jaime (she will be mentioned more in an upcoming post) took some pictures for us. I also took some of Brian with all of his nieces and nephews. They love Uncle Brian and Sarah prays for him every day! (We do too!)

It is so fun to hear from him every week. We really love that the MTC let's missionaries use e-mail now. It makes it so much easier to hear about all of the awesome and spiritual experiences they are having. We really love Elder Davis and are super proud of him!

It is really interesting - John Davis entered the MTC one year and one day after Steven Foote and then Brian entered the MTC one year and one day after Jason Foote (currently serving in El Salvador and rocking it! - with the spirit!) It is awesome to have missionary brothers. They are great examples to us.

Things are Growing in Las Vegas

Good news, things are growing in Las Vegas. We have been working really hard this spring trying to get our garden to grow and it is going great! Our peas are already bearing fruit, we have some amazing raspberries, awesome spinach, great tomatoes. It has been really fun to see it grow. But that is not the only thing growing in Vegas. Enjoy the picture bellow. :)

P.S. If you can't read Katie's shirt it says "Everybody loves a pregnant chick"

Easter Fun

Easter was great this year. Although we missed out on family conference time in Provo (because Sarah was sick...it was sad), we were still able to still have a really nice, relaxing, uplifting day.

Our day started with some yummy cinnamon rolls. (This has kind of become a tradition for us.....a not so healthy but worth it as a special conference treat splurge that I look forward to)


Then Sarah had a fun Easter egg hunt because the Easter bunny had visited our home.
   
Then our day continued by watching LDS General Conference on TV. I love to hear our modern day prophet and apostles. I always feel a renewed energy to be better when I hear general conference. It gives me a good uplift. It seemed like a lot of the talks were about women nurturing the children in the home and men using their priesthood righteously in their home. It was a great conference and I loved the talks. They were powerful. Anyone who missed out should definitely hit up LDS.org and go to the general conference archives. I loved them all, but a few of my favorites were President Eyring, Elder Holland, and Elder Ballard.
   

After both sessions of conference we had Easter dinner. This is the first Easter dinner I have cooked all by myself and it was scrumdiddlyumpscious, if I do say so myself. :)

  
  
   
  
There were rolls too to go with the jam. :)

Following dinner we decided to die some Easter eggs. It was fun!
 
The above speckled egg is Tyler's favorite egg he made.
 
Sarah made this really cool speckled pink egg. It was her favorite one.

These two were the best ones I made. I know, I know, not quite as cool as Sarah or Tyler's...they've got mad skills....but hey--I still like mine too! :)

After such a good day we were all tuckered out, and our beautiful Easter ended with this:

Sarah's Easter Dress and pink Chuck Taylors

Katie and Sarah came to work to visit me the other day so I could spend some time with Sarah in the studio. We just got a new white background and I was excited to use it. It was so much fun, and we got some great photos. You can find them all on flickr and I will put a few highlights here. She got a new dress from Grams for Easter (and one from Grandma, but we couldn't find a good white jacket in time for the photo shoot, why do all cute little girl dresses h5ave to be sleeveless) and she also just got some new pink Chuck Taylors so we did a few wardrobe changes.

it was really cute, Sarah was super scared of the background. It is a big white piece of vinyl and it was impossible to tell the difference between the wall and the floor. Sarah could not tell where she could stand and was scared she was going to fall through. Once she took some with Katie she started to feel a lot more comfortable.

Here are a few of the favorites

This is when Sarah was too scared to be alone on the background.

This is Sarah shaking her booty - pretty cute :)

Sarah's dress a little closer up, and a cute smile ;)

Sarah was still a little scared, so Katie held her for a little while, and she gave me a really cute smile. I love my girls!

Cutest kid EVER!

Sarah decided to lay down, it was super cute, then she said she was going to close her eyes and go to sleep. This is how she closes her eyes. when I tell her to close her eyes and go to sleep she always says, "But that's tricky" now that I can see her in the light I can see why it is tricky, I don't think that would help me fall asleep either.

She loves to make funny faces

she ran over and sat next to mom along the wall. Turned out pretty good.

Katie took some pictures too, and some great ones, Katie was shooting and I told Sarah to do this. I love it, my favorite from the whole shoot.

This was her pose, she put her hands in her pocket, she did the sideways foot thing. ADORABLE!

cutest shoes ever.

well that was it, sorry I posted soooooo many photos. There were 245 to choose from and I skipped at least 30 more I wanted to post as well. I love my little girl and I am so glad I am able to capture these cute memories.