Call The Guinness Book!

This HAS to bee some kind of record!

Or maybe not.... you might remember THIS beauty from March 2009.

You'll never look at my kid the same way... will you? Am I a bad parent for being kind of proud of my boy for this? Thoughts?

Christmas Around the World

We had the privilege of attending the Christmas Around the World Event.  It was VERY impressive to say the least!  It's a wonderful event held every year around the holiday season to celebrate the birth of the Savior with nativities and displays from all different parts of the world.  It is by far the largest nativity display I have ever seen or heard of for that matter!  It was so great to get to go and to take our kids.  I highly recommend everyone go and see it.  It's open until the end of the year and part of the proceeds go to the Children's Miracle Network.

Girls Night Out~ New Moon Edition

For our most recent girls night out we saw none other than Twilight sequel New Moon!  First of all we saw it at the NEW Maya theater downtown and I have to say that theater is amazing!  It's super nice inside and we went on a Tuesday night so the tickets were discounted to only $6.00.  The movie itself was AWESOME!  As a tried and true Twilight fanatic, having read all the books, it's really hard NOT to like it.  I couldn't help but laugh at the awes and giddy giggles from people in the theater when Jacob took his shirt off for the first time.  Jacob seriously dominated in the shirtless category.  I mean come on, it wasn't even close!  Go Team Jacob!

Thanks girls for going out with me and preserving some much needed sanity and thanks Andy for watching the kids for me.

Me, Mom, Lilly, Nichole & Grandma

at the Maya Theater

Fire Station Tour

Recently my sister and I took the kids on a tour of the Bakersfield Fire Station!  The Fire Fighters were so great with the kids.  They took pictures with them, let them stand in the fire engine and even let them shoot the fire hose.  With the exception of Preston not having such a great day everyone had a good time.

Bakersfield Fire Station 

Evelyn (3), Eliza (4), and Aubrey (2) with the fire engine driver.

Evelyn and Eliza were the first ones in.

Evelyn shooting the fire hose.

Preston shooting the fire hose.

Evelyn tells me almost everyday that Eliza is her BEST FRIEND.

See more photos HERE.

San Jorge

So for Thanksgiving weekend the Waite clan gathered in Saint George to celebrate Thanksgiving and to be there when Molly & Scott where sealed in the temple. It was a great trip full of great memories. We were really glad to be able to go and wish we could have stayed longer, but the trip was great and well worth the drive. On Friday I pulled out the camera and snapped a few photos, so I thought I would share a few of them on here.

Some BIG movie news!

Higher Definition Media's second feature film, Phase Two, was recently featured at the Bakersfield Comic-Con on November 8th!  There was a panel of some of the cast and crew who discussed some of the behind the scenes of the film and also talked a little about their upcoming projects.  It was really fun seeing everyone again and getting a chance to catch up.  Another highlight of the event was the Phase Two TRAILER!...

This is the Phase Two Teaser Trailer that premiered at Comic Con 2009 in Bakersfield, CA.

If you're interested in watching more clips from the movie you can check out the Phase Two facebook page.  Principle photography for Phase Two is completed, now it's just a matter of editing, and then on to the PREMIER!

And even bigger news!

HDM has began pre-production on it's next feature film!  We were lucky enough to have Liz, who is not only an amazing mother in law but a super talented writer, produce a screen play entitled Songs My Father Sang (working title).  The film is a 1950's period drama set in Kern County.  Songs my Father Sang will be a SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Union film and is slated to begin principle photography in March!  I can't tell you how excited I am to be involved!  I can't say this enough but it's really a great script and it's going to be amazing!  We'll definitely keep everyone up to date with the progress of the film.

HDM's new blog & kid/pet pictures

First I wanted to start off writing this blog thanking everyone for posting HDM's website link on your pages.  You all are amazing!  Since Google and Blogger are partners any links found on blogs hold some pretty good weight.  Andy completely revised our site recently so that combined with your links have moved us up a lot already. So thank you! And as I promised before if anyone has a website to promote I'd be happy to add a link on my page. Just email me at amber at higherdefinitionmedia dot com.

Also as I mentioned, Andy completely updated the Higher Definition Media website and one cool feature that it has now is a built in blog.  So if your interested in local films, keeping up with the business, and/or watching Andy's new videos feel free to check it out and add it to your blog list.  HDM's Blog

Now that that's over I've got some pictures for you!  The kids and I had a little outing with the pets.  I didn't mean for it to turn into a photoshoot but I had my Iphone on me so I figured I'd snap a few.  Our bunnys name is Buttercup and our turtles name is Dmitri.  It's true, we have a tortoise and a hare.

Baby Blessing and Birthday

Sunday we got to be a part of two special events.  The first was the blessing of my little niece, Lilly, who was born on October 4th.  She looked beautiful in her blessing dress!  She is just the sweetest little baby.  Holding her almost makes me miss having a little baby around.  

The other was Eliza's 4th birthday!  Her and Evelyn are the best of friends.  Most of my family all got together for these two special events and it was so nice to get to see everyone and celebrate these beautiful girls!

The Matson Kids, world premiere!

Here is a little some thing I cooked up when Emily was in town... Enjoy!

For all you Twighlight Fans out there

Halloween '09

This year Evelyn wanted to be pumpkin so in our efforts to find a pumpkin costume we found this little number.  She was a Pumpkin Princess!

And Preston's had a huge obsession with Dinosaur Train so he went as a pteranodon.    

We went to our ward Trunk or Treat and over to Tim & Brenda for some candy and company!

Andy and I even dressed up.  Once again Andy's costume was far superior to mine.  I wanted to go dressed as our kids but we just couldn't get the costumes right so as a last ditch effort I wore some old pajamas and Andy wore his pirate costume.

I NOW know what I want to be when I grow up!

OK... just the first few seconds are in Hungarian... enjoy the rest!

Zombie High~ The Premier!

This past summer the Arts Council and Joey Travolta's inclusion films put together a workshop for aspiring film makers with disabilities.  The students got to go through the entire process of making a film from concept to completion and the result of their efforts was a 30 minute short film entitled "Zombie High".  Andy's company, Higher Definition Media, was able to help in the production of "Zombie High" by providing audio recording and editing for the film.

"Zombie High" premier on October 22nd at the Bakersfield Fox Theater and Andy and I got to go!  It was really fun!  I've decided going to premiers is one of my new favorite things to do.  Everything was great.  First of all I got to meet Joey Travolta!  It's not everyday you get to meet someone famous.  Before they previewed the film they showed clips of the filmakers in action, kind of a behind the scenes, and interviews with each of the workshop students.  It was fun to watch, it's obvious they all had a great time making the movie and I'm sure they learned a lot in the process.

After the introductions and behind the scenes were done they played the movie and I was really impressed.  I thought everyone did a great job and I really enjoyed the movie!  It was an entertaining mix of zombie flick meets the 80's movie "The Breakfast Club".  And as far as I know was done with all local talent.  It was also mentioned they were discussing doing a feature film and shooting it right here in Bakersfield which was really exciting.  It was a super fun night hanging out with Andy and getting to support such a great cause! 

Day of Play~ Behind the Scenes

Andy didn't want to include himself in the video so I took the liberty of taking his picture while he wasn't looking.  He was actually talking on the phone and shooting at the same time.

The Good Old Kern County Fair

Recently, I took the kids to the fair!  I don't know what it is about this place (it's definitely NOT the smell) but it's something I look forward to every year.  And it's even more fun now that I have the incentive of taking the kids.  We went to the morning "school days" thing where admission is free from 9:00- noon.  We got to experience a whole bunch of new and excited things.

The kids watched their first magic show.

We stopped for a quick photo shoot while we waited around for the pig race to start (which never did).

We got to see the camels.

And pet a goat.

Evelyn was ready to take this little guy home.

We got to pet a baby calf.

And you just can't take pictures at the fair without getting one of these shots.

A little calf had just been born.

They had an animal exhibit with birds, lizards, tarantulas, scorpions and snakes.  Evelyn and I were standing next to one of the workers who was putting the giant snake back.  All the other surrounding kids were being squeamish and wouldn't touch it but Evelyn jumped in and with no hesitation at all started petting the snakes tail.  I was so proud.