Per Jill's Request

Jill requested that I take and post Halloween pictures of the kids, I say...if she wants to see them so bad, she should save up enough to fly out every Halloween to spend a little time with them. (just kidding, but we would love to see you more often.) So instead of just taking pictures of my kids, I caught all of the kids of the Brookings dwellers and I am posting them now. They are posted in order of when I captured them in costume or lack thereof.

The Hatch Family (special thanks to Jason for snapping this of us.) I'm a hick fisherman complete with harmonica playing.--

Jason (he gets in because he took our picture) He is a non-glittering vampire, I do believe.--
Connor, a dragon?--
Olivia, a fairy?--
Noah as a bumblebee--
Abigail, a ballerina--
Ella, a PowerRanger? (maybe next year we don't wear blue underwear under a white outfit)--
Alana, an angel (or as the Pilot put it, an angle. That is a horse on her cheek if you're wondering)-
Elise, a raver?? (someone who dances at a rave not a stark raving mad lunatic)--
Johnny, a Hobbit (when I asked, "which one?" he replied, "I don't know." I think Sam fits.)--
Carmen, a witch--
Patrick, Hikoichi (a "male child with a very good head" from a Japanese fairy tale)
Holly, a bunch of grapes (she's in cause I love her.)
Rebekah, a fairy princess (sans wings of course.)
Perry, The grim reaper? (or just a guy with a scythe and a cloak?, not sure)
It was a fun Halloween, for the first time Holly got actively involved in costuming herself as well as the kids and they all look great.

I realize that the last post to the family blog was made in January, and I realize that others of you have started your own blogs, but it is not that hard to copy and paste each time you post anywhere into this blog. I'm hoping that I'll remember to post more often and hopefully you'll all contribute whether it be through comments or posting yourself.

Love from the Hatch Family.

Hatch Family Christmas 2008

Well,

We just had Christmas here as a family and I just wanted to show some reactions to some gifts and put a general thank you to all who made our Christmas so much fun.

Holly opening her "favorite" gift (or at least the gift that got the biggest reaction) brand new slippers.

Alana, showing off her chapstick.

Rebekah, so excited about her finger paints.

Patrick "What do you mean I can't eat the wrapping paper?"

Patrick, "Ha, I did it anyway."

Test

I just wanted to take some pictures with my new 50mm f/1.2 Canon lens (which is an amazing lens by the way) mounted on my new Canon EOS 50D which has amazing noise reduction and the ability to expand ISO up to 12,800.  Anyway...thought that since it had been so long since I posted that I would post those images here. 

Luck would have it that Patrick was having a field day with a chocolate covered pretzel and so I took a picture of that.

And then it was bathtime...I hurried into the bathroom to find that Holly had already pulled the plug and was getting Patrick ready for bed.

Wet and Cute

Wild Hair

GQ (Holly said that this hair style wasn't very flattering, I loved it.)

That was my bathtime experience.

Halloween 2008

HALLOWEEN

Halloween.... we survived.

We had a great time at Trunk or Treat.

Everyone's costume fit them this year.

I managed to throw something together in the 2 minutes before we left the house.

Olivia got her face painted.

Ella got her costume wet and did a quick change from princess to cheerleader. Is there really a difference?

Abby was a ballerina, so was Olivia, and Johnny, of course, was Indiana Jones. His favorite part of his costume? The fake stubble... (no, not really - I thought he was going to kill himself practicing with that whip, but everyone escaped unscathed).

Olivia loved being a ballerina. We trick or treated over at Macklyn House, and when the little old ladies were asking her what she was, she'd say,

"I'm a ballet girl. I mean, a ballerina."

Then she'd hand me her basket, and show off her ballet moves. She's quite a dancer, let me tell ya.

And Noah....?

Noah was the cutest ladybug.... ever.

a couple of Halloween pictures

Well, Holly and I had a rather busy Halloween. We had our friends, Brian and Heidi Carlson over for fish and chips with some ling cod and black rock cod that I had pulled out of the ocean on a fishing trip. We ate around 4:30 and then went to a co-worker of Heidi's for trick or treat and to see some ducks. Here is a picture of all the kids and and two adults.

(from l to r) Brian, Zander, Rebekah, Zachary, Alana, Zoe, Patrick, Holly

After trick or treating we went to the trunk or treat party at the church where we ran into these two folks...

nothing like recycling huh Jere?

After the trunk or treat, we had to split up for a little while, I went to the football game to work shooting photos.

This one ran in the Pilot

Up until this game versus Sutherlin the Bruins had had a dismal season with no wins going into Friday's game losing most games by margins larger than 28-0. They pulled this one out of the hat and won 22-21, going for the win with a two point conversion, with limited time on the clock. I missed the end of the game as I went to catch up with Holly and friends at a Halloween party at the Clarkes.

Anyway, that's our Halloween...Doris had asked for pictures of the kid's costumes and I provided what I could. Heather, Jamie, post some pictures of your kids if you have them, PLEASE...

Jef

Summer is almost over...

Well, summer is about over for us... and we are gearing up for school. We have had kind of a busy few months with the new baby, getting Ella ready for Kindergarten, and all the family reunion stuff. Ella finished Safety City and had a great time.

She would NOT pull up her hat during the graduation ceremony, and believe it or not, this is the best picture out of 10 that I got of her!

We also have been getting used to Noah, and life with a new baby. I have almost forgotten him in the car twice now, and vaguely remember what sleeping through the night was like. He is a great baby, and the kids are so good with him, we are just having to do that 'baby thing' all over again!

Ella also wanted me to chop off her hair before school started, so she could completely do it herself, and it is SO much easier, and very cute. We took pictures for my mom's birthday yesterday with all five kids (the first photos of all five and Noah is already 10 weeks old!), and you can sort of see her new haircut.

I hope everyone is great... We are all fine, if totally exhausted. I used to wonder why my parents looked forward to the end of summer vacation... I don't wonder that anymore. :)

Noah Benjamin...

Well, I am finally putting our 'new news' on the family blog. It took me a week to get off of the couch and over to the computer. Noah Benjamin has arrived. He is one week old today, and he is VERY cute, if I do say so myself. The c-section went well, and recovery is going fine. He was 8 lbs 15 oz, and he sleeps a lot. They were worried about the bones in his skull, because baby's bones aren't supposed to be fusing together until after they are a year old, so the head can grow. They thought his skull bones might be growing together too soon. But, they took some x-rays, and he is just fine. Jeremy goes back to work on Monday, but then he gets two weeks off for the reunion in just a couple of weeks, so hopefully I can handle things on my own until then!

The kids are so excited about the new baby, and everyone is doing really well. The kids are in swimming lessons, and baseball is over (thank goodness), so we are taking it easy. I will post some pictures when I get around to it, and hope to see everyone soon.

Karianne's Birthday Party

Tommy and I went to Karianne's birthday party last night. I took some pictures and posted them on our blog, if anyone wants to look.

Our newest arrival

Our baby girl has made her debute weighing in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long. I made apost to mine and Loren's blog. The address is lorenandsandra.blogspot.com
Jef can you please make a link from the lrmarksprogeny to ours? Thanks

We're Still Alive

Tommy and I got our new place just over a month ago. We have finally got everything furnished and love it. However, we are still working on getting our internet working. We've had several problems. Once we finally get everything up and running, though, I'll post some pictures on our blog.

We are really excited to come out to Oregon in just over a month. I really hope the weather will be great while we're there, because the weather is still terrible here. I don't think we're ever going to get a real summer again, and I'm really depressed about it. So everyone pray for good weather for the reunion! We'll see you soon.

Well,

Holly, Alana, Rebekah, Patrick and I just got back from camping at Nook over Memorial Day weekend with our friends, the Hillers, Clarkes, and Carlsons. We had a grand time, with campfires, swimming (albeit a little chilly), games and all around good fun.

While we were there, I let Alana use my "back-up" camera to take pictures of whatever she wanted. While a few were of "nothing" or out of focus, she took some really great shots and I just wanted to share some of them with you. I made her sit down with me last night and edit pictures, so that she gets an idea of what constitutes a "good" picture vs. a "bad" one. I let a few of the "bad" pictures slide when, after pressing her for a reason to keep them, she said, "I just like them." It was good enough for me...unless I could talk her into deleting them.

Her main subject seemed to be Maddie, Alan and Melissa's dog, as everytime she got the camera, she would eventually wind up taking pictures of her. Here is one that I really liked.

Mind you, I have done nothing to these images except post them to the site, all the cropping was done in camera by Alana.

Here is one of Brekken, Alan and Melissa's boy...he is two months younger than Alana.

and finally a two shot image of Aisha, one of Alan and Melissa's little girls, who is a year older than Alana and Brekken.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did. It was especially fun to watch her take the images.

Some of you may be wondering how it came to be that I would let a 4.5 yr old use a 1500 dollar piece of equipment, and it's simple really...it's insured! Actually, I was at the theatre one night doing head shots for the production I was in (Shadowlands) and needed someone to take my picture. Alana was standing there and I thought it would be fun for her to do it and so I handed her the camera and showed her which button to push and how to look through the "window" to be able to see me and told her to push the button. She did and when I got her down she wanted to take more pictures so I let her for about 3 minutes, during which time she captured two great images. So during the camping trip, I decided to let her have 3 different 15 min. periods during which she could take pictures as long as she, 1. didn't go near the water, 2. didn't press play to show her playmates, 3. didn't look through the "window" while she was walking, and 4. didn't go near the water.

Anyway, I figure it this way...things are just that, things! and while I was concerned about my things, I was more concerned that if I let time slip away, it would never come back...of course, this opens up a whole new world of exploration for Alana and me as I take her on photo expeditions and to assist me on shoots as she gets older. (as long as that is what she wants to do.)

We love and miss all of you who are far away, and we love those of you who are near.