Happy Holidays 2017

December 2017

Dear Family & Friends -

We hope this holiday greeting finds you well.  The joy and magic of this season is very much alive
in our household.  It’s so fun to decorate the house, make treats for neighbors,
watch Christmas shows, and just enjoy each other’s company.  
We are well aware that the Lord has blessed us immensely this year.  
We are grateful for this wonderful life.

SAM - Husband, Father, 9th year with Juniper Systems as a Repair Technician, #1 Mr. Fix It Guy,
Loves to Netflix & Chill, has a Sweet Tooth, enjoys being Uncle Sam

LISA - Wife, Mother, 1st Counselor in Primary, Professional Photographer, Indecisive Home Decorator,
Early Afternoon Napper, Kettlebell Queen, Modern Calligrapher in Training   

BRIAN (12): Straight A 7th grader, Percussion Master, Mom’s Wednesday Morning Baker,
Resourceful Researcher, Engineer in Training, Ordained a Deacon at church

TYLER (9): Super Social 4th grader, Multiplication Facts Master, Creative Drawer,
Competitive Soccer Star, 1st Place 1 Mile Wildcat Runner for his grade (every year since kindergarten)  

KATIE (7): Best Writer in 2nd grade class, Thoughtful GIft Giver, Super Swimmer,
Biggest Fan of TMNT, Batman, & Wonder Woman, Quality Time and Snuggling are her favorite

JULIA (4): Youngest Student in Preschool Class, Starting to Read, Collects PEZ dispensers,
Colorful Artist, Cosmic Kid Yoga Girl, Aaron Richards is her best buddy

Thank you for all the love and support you show our family.  Take care!        Love, The Wards

2014 Ward Family Greeting

This digital greeting card customized with Smilebox

Fred & Carolyn Ward Family Photos - June 2014

Fred & Carolyn Ward Family - June 2014

Wesley, Owen, Maddy, Carolyn, Zoey, Tyler, Fred, Sadie, Kimball, Julia, Brian, Simon, Gideon, Eleanor, Kristen, Katie

Carolyn, Fred

Kimball, Sarah, Aaron, Eleanor, Gideon, Kristen, Simon

Maddy, Wesley, Owen, Becky, Kevin

Brian, Tyler, Lisa, Sam, Katie, Julia

Zoey, Rafa, Rosanne, Sadie, Nova

Laura

Kyle, Staci, Bella, Bauer

How To Take Your Own Family Photos

The whole process of taking family photos yourself is exhausting but so worth it!  I thought it would be fun to tell you all about the process.

1.  Picking the outfits.  Now, this task is daunting in and of itself.  This may sound selfish, but I always think about myself first when deciding what outfits our family will wear.  You know the saying that goes something like, "If momma ain't happy, no one is."  So I always make sure that I am wearing something that makes me feel fabulous.  Then I look through our closets and use what we have and make it work.  I looked for colors that coordinate with the outfit I wore.

2.  Picking the location.  I went into this photo shoot with the idea of having our annual family photo taken in a location surrounded by fall leaves.  I wasn't set on an exact location but I knew we should be able to find a suitable place at one of our favorite nearby parks.  We got there about 3:30pm.  I scouted out the area… a really pretty place a river, a bridge, and a wooded area.  I just loved the look of the bright yellow leaf covered ground in the wooded area.  The lighting was perfect and started to set up.

3.  Equipment.  The equipment I used for this photo shoot: my Canon 7D DSLR camera, my 18-55mm lens, my tripod, a metal chair, and my wireless remote.  I put a bright orange hair scrunchie around the lens so everyone would easily know where to look for the pictures.  It had been awhile since I had used the wireless remote, so I had to look up the proper camera settings in my camera manual.  (I let the boys just play and get their wiggles out while I got things set up.  B almost fell down.  So glad he didn't.  T was a good sport and sat down for a few seconds while I locked the focus.)

This photo cracked me up and made me nervous.  I loved T's face but K was super fussy and we hadn't even started yet.

4.  The progression of the family set up.  My husband is really tall, so I had him sit in the metal chair.  And since I was in charge of the remote, my husband ended up with both girls on his lap.  T really wanted to stand by K, so I let him.

B doesn't really like getting his picture taken.  He wanted to just poke his head out by his dad.  I humored B and took a shot of his idea.  I just used the camera timer and hopped in too.  B agreed after seeing that shot that he would look best if he stood up on the other side of his dad.

My second camera timer shot.  I ran over really quick to jump in my spot and my smile and hair went all crazy.

Okay, so here is the best set up I came up with for our family.  I started with my husband and had him sit in the metal chair.  Then I put the girls on his lap.  I let T stand where he wanted to so he wouldn't fuss.  I convinced B that he would look best if he stood up on the other side of his dad.  That left the perfect pocket of space for me to go right behind my middle kids.  I wanted our faces to all be kind of close together.  So even though I am short, but I still decided to not stand up completely.    The heavy tree on one side and the smaller trees on the other framed our family just right.  The photos look nice and balanced.  

All that was left was to take a few shots and pick the best one for our Christmas card.  

I exposed the photos for our skin, which resulted in blowing out the sky.  

The overexposed sky doesn't distract from the overall look of the photos.  

The winning photo!  I just cropped this photo in a bit for our Christmas card.  

Two bonus shots of the day:

J, S, K

B, Lisa, T

*All of these photos were taken in manual mode.

Just keeping it real.  I could've let the craziness of the kids overwhelm me and not even attempt to do family photos.   I like a challenge though and kept going.  I challenge you to learn your camera and take your own family photos.  Your family will thank you for it.  Promise.

MVI 3272 from Lisa Ward on Vimeo.
A fun perk to my Canon 7D camera is that it has the HD video feature built in.  All I had to do was flip a switch on my camera, and voila, instant home video.  Love it!

Ward Family Photos 2013

Fred & Carolyn Ward Family 2013

Fred, Carolyn, Zoey, Brian, Kimball, Owen, Tyler, Katie, Kristen, Eleanor, Simon, Madalyn, Wesley

 Aaron, Kevin, Sam, Carolyn, Fred, Rosanne, Laura, Staci

Fred & Carolyn

Aaron, Sarah, Kevin, Becky, Laura, Rafa, Rosanne, Katie, Sam, Lisa, Staci, Kyle

Kimball, Kristen, Aaron, Eleanor, Sarah, Simon

Wesley, Kevin, Madalyn, Becky, Owen

Rafa, Zoey, Rosanne

Katie, Sam, Brian, Lisa, Tyler

Rosanne, Laura, Staci

 Rafa, Zoey, Rosanne

 Laura

Kyle, Bauer, Staci, Bella

3rd Annual Ward Family Reunion - Day 1

Sam and I were in charge of the 3rd Annual Ward Family Reunion.
We decided to spend the weekend in Heber City, Utah.
We rented out a rental home and we all stayed there together for 3 nights.
Our first activity was taking a scenic train ride on the Heber Creeper Train.
Aaron and Sarah were in charge of making the t-shirts and did a fantastic job.
We all wore our t-shirts on the train. It was fun to ride on the old train and see
the kids so excited to buy a treat from the concession stand and enjoy each other's company.  

Left this train station for a scenic train ride

#samandiareincharge

 Brian, Lisa, Train Conductor, Katie, Sam, Tyler

 Katie, Sam

 Grandpa Ward (Fred), Uncle Kyle, Aunt Staci, Simon, Tyler, Katie

 Aunt Becky, Uncle Kevin, Maddy

 Owen, Kimball

 Katie

View of Deer Creek from the train

When the train ride was over, we went to check in to our rental home.
Sam and I served dinner 
(poppy seed chicken, corn, applesauce, lemonade, and chocolate zucchini cake).
We spent the rest of the evening settling in.
After the kids were in bed, the adults all played mafia.  Good times.