A Growing Wish List

I've run across several cool gadgets over the last few months that have made it to my wish list.

When you enter the world of DLSR photography, it can get expensive really quickly. I haven't invested in a tripod yet, but this one looks like a great option. It wouldn't matter what kind of situation you were dealing with, you could set this thing up on any surface and take pics from any angle. The website shows how you can wrap it around trees, light poles, fences, you name it. I think it'd be cool to wrap it around my ceiling fan for some over head shots.

It would also be helpful to have one of these. I'm usually always behind the camera. Occasionally I do use the timer to get in a picture but waiting out that 10 seconds with an almost 2 year old doesn't always work. Plus I'd like to control when the shutter opens and also take several in a row without having to be behind the lens.


I want to be able to take my own kids photos instead of having to take them to a studio. I can manage this is an outdoor setting, but I'd really like to be able to do it in my home. Because our house is completely covered up and surrounded with trees, we don't get much of any natural light in our house. So it would be nice to have this external flash. I have a friend who uses one of these and she gets the best "studio-like" pictures taken right in her home.

One other cool electronic that I've recently heard about from Heather, is the flip. Because it's so small it would be ideal for carrying in my purse/diaper bag and maybe I would manage to catch some good video. I need to just go ahead and purchase this one so I can video Natalie dancing to any Disney song that comes on and her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle little star while standing on top of the toilet... that deserves to be on film.

It's Saturday?

This has been one of those weeks that got away from me. I blinked and it's Saturday.

Just a few quick things to share.

Abigail is continuing to do better at night. She slept for 6 hours straight (WOO HOO) night before last, and otherwise has been sleeping in 3 to 4 hours stretches. Boy it feels good to get a little more sleep. She's still crying a lot during the day some days, which I can't figure out. Maybe it's the colic, but sometimes I think she might be fighting sleep now that she's becoming more aware that there is stuff to look at.

This was yesterday afternoon.


We took Natalie swimming on Thursday. Here she is right before we left. Ketchup face and all..

Playing Catchup

Random things post:

Since my last post I have had several sleepless nights. The colic continues; however it does seem to be getting better. She actually slept in her crib last night after just a short period of crying. So that's pretty much it for the last four or five days.

Random #1 - On Saturday I did get a chance to do a layout. A few weeks back Scrapping the Music featured a song by Steven Curtis Chapman. I loved the lyrics and again realize how fast my children will grow up. So I wanted to use them on a page.

You can click this link to see the story behind the lyrics. I didn't realize it until after I did the page, but this family lost their 3 yr old daughter in a car accident just a few months ago. He wrote the song much before that, so it takes on a whole new meaning for what their family has been through.

Random #2 - On the day I went into labor with Abigail I finished up the canvases I had started for Natalie's room. I finally got pictures of them today and now I just need to hang them up.




Random #3 - When Natalie gets up from her nap, her hair is out. of. control. Today I got evidence.



Random #4 - Abigail is already changing so fast.


Random #5 - She's already pinned her sister in their first wrestling match.

Happy Monday!

Wedding Bliss

I haven't had the chance to edit many of the wedding photos yet because Abigail has decided to keep me up all night for the past few nights. My best guess is that she has colic because as soon as night time hits we have 3 to 4 hours of crazy crying and screaming. When she's done with that, she just will not sleep on her back. The only way I can get her to sleep is laying on my chest on her belly. So we've spent the last 3 nights sleeping in the recliner in our living room. During the day she's fine. In fact she's been sleeping great since about 5am, which of course is about the time kiddo #1 gets up. We're making it, but I'm very tired.

Here's a couple pics from the wedding:



Edited to add at 11:20am:
I'm using a new program called Picnik and it will do some cool stuff. I was able to add this text to this picture, and can print them out this way too.

One Month Old

Today is Abigail's one month birthday!




We've had a busy weekend with my father-in-law's wedding yesterday. I've got a little bit of photo editing to do and I'll share some pics from that.
Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Some Pictures from Today

Natalie likes looking out the front door. We had some storms this afternoon, so she watched it POUR down.





Have I said yet how I just can't get used to how big Abigail is in comparison to Natalie?

Just Me and the Girls

John's time off eventually came to an end and today is day two of being at home all day by myself with the girls. It may sound silly to be a little apprehensive about that, but I'm still a little sore from the C-section and not completely back to being able to take care of all the household chores. Also things like, how quick I can take a shower, and how can I occupy Natalie while I'm feeding Abigail half the day; cross my mind. It's gives me a greater appreciation for single moms and people like this girl, whose husband is about to deploy for 15 months.

I have had several comments about being "super mom" or "wonderwoman" because I'm also finding time to scrapbook. Let me just put those ideas right out of your head. LOL! See scrapbooking requires little physical energy. I can grab a few supplies and sit on the couch and do a couple pages. Now ask me if my bathrooms are clean or if my kitchen floor needs mopping and you'll see I'm no June Cleaver. But you know what; I'm ok with that. I'm enjoying just hanging out with my girls. Things have gone really well and I have no doubt we'll be back into a good regular routine before long.

So of course during nap time I got some scrapping done. I needed to finish up a layout for a challenge over at the Scrapbook Nook about where I'm from. Also wanted to participate in some of the challenges at paperpopsicles. So this layout is doing double duty. The challenge over at PP was to use circle punches to create a "fishscale". Journaling says: There's nothing like a nice spring day down south. Hanging out at Papa's was one of those simple pleasures on this day. Spending time with family feels like home to me.

Another challenge over at PP was to do a summer/water layout. So here's what I did for that.

Also you'll notice a new blinkie over on the right in my sidebar. DixiePieces is having an online crop the first weekend in August. I hope some of my scrappy friends will get over there and register and join in the fun!

Quick Weekend Recap

We had two days of 4th of July celebration. A few highlights:
Edited to add: John had to work on the 4th; so that is his twin brother (uncle Alan) in the first two pics.
Our first trip to the pool:



Playing ball with Kelsey:


Relaxing at Aunt J's and Uncle R's:

According to the grandparent's scale, as of yesterday, Abigail weighs 9.5 lbs. That means she's gained a pound and a half in just over a week. Last night after church we had our first restaurant outing with both kiddos. It's somewhat of a tradition to eat at our favorite Mexican place every Sunday with our friend Jeff. One of the waitresses asked how old the baby was and when I told her 3 weeks, she said, "Wow, she big!" LOL

One thing's for sure. If big sis decides to pick on little sis down the road, she better be ready cause Abby can totally take her. ;)

A Couple of Pages!

Ok, so I'm a tad bit sleep deprived, but I just needed to scrap. I got 2 pages done.



I also decided I would throw my hat in the ring for the Design Team call over at The Scrapbook Nook. They had over 100 applications, so I didn't figure I had much of a shot. I found out yesterday that I made the top 25! So now over the next couple weeks, we're all getting acquainted on the forum and we'll have a few challenges to do. There are only 4 or 5 spots and there are some amazing scrappers in the running, but I know it will be fun regardless of the outcome.

A couple of other tidbits from today:
Natalie is obsessed with pretending to drink out of water bottles.

And Miss. Pudgy says hello!

A New Day

Thanks so much for the sweet comments on yesterday's post. It's funny how easily we forget the hard part of the first few weeks. I think that's mainly because the good stuff just so outweighs the tougher parts.
Last night was so much better. I put her to bed around 9:30 and she only woke up to eat at 1am and 4am. Now hopefully we can continue that trend!
I really want to do some scrapbooking, so I'm hoping to get a few pages done today.
Have a good Tuesday!