Random Picture Saturday

From Britany at 4 Little Men & Girly Twins

Find the 44th picture from November 2007

Mine are all on an external harddrive, so I went to flickr and counted the November pictures to get to the 44th one.



We went to Iowa to visit family for Thanksgiving and celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Abby's birthday with everyone since we wouldn't be back in December. Abby STILL talks about that Dora cake!

Teeth

Way Back When-sday

Date: May 18, 2005
Age: Abby, Exactly 5 months old

This is pretty much exactly what Emma looks like when I try and change her these days. If she's not reaching for her feet, and trying to get them in her mouth, she's pushing her butt up in the air. Cora just loves to kick so hard she knocks everything off. Fun times.

Thanks to Cheryl at Twinfatuation for starting Way Back When-sdays!

Jumperoo videos

I just taped the girls in the Jumperoo. Here you go:

Cora


Emma. She's not doing much in this one, but Abby's hilarious in the background!


Emma again, this time jumping.


Bonus Abby singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Quick Baby Update

The very early morning wakeups from Cora must've been tooth-related. After a few days, she's now back to waking up around 6:30-7. If that's the only teething issue we'll have, I'll take it! Emma's also back to waking up once a night, typically between 3-5, and going back to sleep until 7. This morning, Emma actually woke up first around 7:15! Emma still doesn't have any teeth, but Cora's two are about a third out. They still have a little ways to go.

Both girls are also on the verge of sitting up unassisted. They can sit with just a minimum of support now, and if we position them just right, they'll stay by themselves for a few seconds before falling. Cora LOVES it when we try sitting her on our bed and let her fall instead of catching her. That's one of her favorite games.

Both girls can roll both ways now. When they want to. They rarely do, but we've seen them both do it on occasion. Cora's also getting up on her elbows and knees and rocking already! It won't be long before she starts crawling. Scary! She's figured out how to work herself like a froggy to get a toy out of reach. She brings her arms and legs in under her, then "swims" out. The best way I can explain it is that she looks like a frog trying to move from one spot to the next. I'll have to dig out the video camera and film it.

8 Things

I was tagged by Chelle and Paige to do this meme. Sorry it took so long for me to get to it girls!

8 TV Shows I watch:
1. American Idol
2. Fringe
3. Days of our Lives (shut up)
4. Rock of Love Bus
5. Real Housewives
6. Top Chef
7. Grey's Anatomy
8. The Daily Show

8 Restaurants I love:
1. Mackensie's Chop House
2. The brewery in Castle Rock (can't remember the name off the top of my head)
3. Jack in the Box
4. Chipotle
5. Red Robin (Abby's favorite)
6. Culver's
7. Ted's Montana Grill
8. Kura Sushi

8 Things that Happened Today
(or yesterday in my case since it's only 7am)
1. Emma slept until 6:30 again!
2. Watched the inauguration
3. Picked up Abby from preschool
4. Went to a playgroup
5. Had lunch at Panera Bread with everyone
6. We all took a 2-hour nap when we got home!
7. Watched American Idol
8. Abby got a bloody nose before bed

8 Things I look forward to:
1. The babies sitting up, but not crawling (they're close!)
2. Spring!
3. Being done with this class
4. naptime
5. Going to the park this afternoon (68 degrees here today!)
6. No more spit up
7. The babies' 6-month checkup to see how big they've gotten
8. Getting rid of the co-sleeper once Emma's consistently sleeping through the night

8 Things I wish for:
1. No more spit up!
2. Babies who sleep past 6am
3. Lenses
4. A Speedlite
5. Other camera toys
6. A cleaning fairy
7. A personal chef
8. To magically lose 30lbs without any effort from me

8 Songs I just listened to:
Again, it's only 7am, so I put my ipod on shuffle and picked the first 8 songs
1. No Doubt--Spider Webs
2. Rehab--Bartender Song
3. Blues Traveler--Crash Burn
4. Pearl Jam--Betterman
5. Naughty by Nature--You Down with OPP (shut up)
6. Paula Abdul--Straight Up (shut up)
7. David Cook--Light On
8. Sublime--Garden Grove

8 Favorite Movies:
1. Steel Magnolias
2. Trading Places
3. The Goonies
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's
5. Silence of the Lambs
6. Heathers
7. Lady in White
8. White Christmas

Tag 8 people for this meme:
1. Beckett (Tali)
2. Bella
3. Heather
4. Kim
5. Niki
6. Rachael
7. Rachael
8. Robin

We officially have teeth!

Cora finally cut her bottom two teeth a few days ago. They're still not completely out, but they've both cut through her gums. Hopefully now she'll start sleeping past 5:45am! My baby who's been sleeping 12 hours almost every night the last few months has now decided 5:45 is a great time to get up for the day! At least when Abby would wake up at 5:30, it was already light out. Cora has managed to go back to sleep for about an hour a couple times, but only if she's nursing. The second I stop, she wakes up.

Emma looks like she'll be cutting her first two teeth soon too. She actually slept from 7-8pm to 3-5am for about 2 or 3 weeks. Until a few days ago. Then, she started waking up around midnight as well. Last night, she woke up at 8:30 and 9pm, then I had to wake her up at 7 since Cora was already up! I haven't looked today to see if her teeth are in.

My Fourth Baby

First off, a huge thank you to those who commented. I loved reading your comments. Some of you really cracked me up! I'll be sure to check out your blogs too. Chelle and Paige, I'm so sorry I haven't gotten to your memes yet. Thanks for tagging me!

This post won't be of any interest to the grandparents, so here are a couple pictures for them. Feel free to skip this post if you don't have any interest in photography.






 

Back to the title of this post. Recently, I've been asked about my camera quite a bit so I thought I'd answer your questions in a post instead of in the comments. I got a Canon Digital Rebel XTi for Christmas last year. Wait, I guess it was the year before now! I love my camera! This is my only experience with a dSLR camera, so I can't get into the Nikon vs. Canon debate. The only reason I got a Canon instead of a Nikon was because the price was right. I did buy it with the kit lens, but if I had to do it over again I'd just buy the body. My other lens is a 50mm f/1.8. This lens lives on my camera. The wide aperture (the f/1.8 part) is essential for me since most of my shots are indoors, and it's what gives pictures that blurry background that I love. Best of all, it was extremely cheap compared to pretty much every other lens out there. I'm fortunate that I have a lot of windows that let in a ton of natural light in my house, so I never use the camera's built-in flash.

I just got Photoshop CS4 this Christmas (the big guns! Because I'm a student, so I got it for 80% off retail! Yes, EIGHTY percent off! Squee!), but I'm still learning to use it, so the majority of the pictures I post are SOOC (straight out of the camera). Before I got Photoshop, I'd been using Paint Shop Pro for several years. I've never used Photoshop Elements, but from what I've read, Paint Shop Pro does a lot more for the same price. Paint Shop Pro has features like layers and masks, which I don't think Elements does? If you're just starting out, or don't want to spend your child's college fund on Photoshop, I highly recommend Paint Shop Pro. The only drawback is that you won't find nearly as many tutorials and books on it as you will Photoshop. One big reason I wanted Photoshop was to be able to use some of the great actions out there.

For Nicole, who emailed me that she recently bought an XTi, or anyone else who just bought a dSLR and wants to learn how to use it, I love Digital Photography School and Pioneer Woman's photography section for tutorials. Diary of an Air Force Wife recently started posting some great tutorials as well. The most important things to learn are

1. Aperture
   
2. Shutter Speed
   
3. ISO
   
4. Exposure
   
5. White balance
   

One of the best tips I found a while back was to the use the camera's meter to get proper exposure. I had no idea what that little ruler thing was before! I always adjust my camera's settings until I'm one or two notches to the right of what my camera says should be proper exposure. This should make my pictures overexposed, but they come out too dark if I listen to my camera. The best way to learn is to put your camera in Manual and shoot shoot shoot! Play around with the settings until you're comfortable. I also love browsing the discussion boards at Digital Photography School and various flickr groups for tips as well.

What did I miss? I'd love to hear your tips or photography sites you'd recommend in the comments.

Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are!

I just read that today is Delurking Day, a day for all or you who read but don't comment regularly to come out of lurkdom and leave a comment. I know you're out there, and I'd love to hear from you! I'm horrible about commenting on my favorite blogs; it can be a little scary to leave a comment on some stranger's blog, even if I've been reading their posts for a long time. Being on this side of the fence, however, I can say we bloggers really appreciate your comments! Your opinions and advice are always welcome!

To make it easier, I have a few questions. Feel free to answer any or all of them. Thanks for stopping by!

**Where are you from?
**How did you find my blog?
**Do you have children too?
**Do you have a blog yourself? I'd love to check it out!

Test

Just testing Word 2007's blogging feature.

To Cut or Not To Cut

Abby's been begging for a haircut for some time. I think she just wants to go back to the kiddie haircut place again, though. Damon thinks she needs a haircut. But I can't bring myself to take her! What if the curls on the ends don't come back? Sure, it stayed curly after the first cut 1.5 years ago, but that was then. My biggest issue with cutting her hair is that she still has a lot of blonde on the ends from when she was a baby. If we cut her hair, we're cutting the last bit of baby away! It's so hard to let go! The thing is her hair always looks messy, no matter how often I brush it, because of the curls. She's constantly pushing it out of her face. It's not THAT long yet, so maybe we should wait until summer. But maybe cutting it would save us some time in the mornings. If we do cut it, how short should we go? But, but, but...I just don't know! I love her hair, and wish mine was as soft and healthy and had that gorgeous curl.

Housekeeping

TONS of pictures added to flickr today. Happy Birthday Mom!

Some of my favorites:

Abby has really changed

While looking at old pictures for the last post, I couldn't believe how much Abby has grown in the last year. I didn't notice it since it happened so slowly, but she lost the last of the "baby" this year and developed into a child!

Taken on 12/17/07, the day before her birthday


Taken by Abby on Christmas day

2008 in Pictures

I've seen this on a bunch of blogs and thought it would be a good way to chronicle the high points of 2008 in pictures.

December 2007Ok, so this didn't happen in 2008, but it changed our family forever.


January
I was so sick the first part of the year that I didn't take many pictures. I literally found one handful of January pictures on flickr.

We had her birthday party in January since we had a big snowstorm come through the weekend we were supposed to have her party in December.


We found out we were having twins in January. Suddenly, we went from comfortable with the thought of having another baby to complete shock and panic at having two.


February
This is the ONLY picture I found on flickr taken in February!


March
Again, the only March picture I found on flickr! I was so sick those couple months I spent the majority of my time on the couch or in the bathroom.


April
The day of my "big" ultrasound, Abby was supposed to go to a friend's, but she got sick at Target. She threw up in the seasonal section, in the ultrasound room, and again in her carseat a couple blocks from home. I was still pretty sick at the time, so there was no way I could clean it up. We ended up buying her a booster seat instead since she was ready for it anyway, and Damon was to clean the carseat for when we needed it for the babies. Yeah. That never happened.


That was the day we found out we'd have a house full of GIRLS!


May
I was finally able to pull myself out of the bathroom by May. Only to be too big and uncomfortable to enjoy being pregnant.


One of my all-time favorite Abby pictures.


June
Happy Father's Day!


July


The last belly shot I took. This was 2 weeks before they were born (35 weeks).


August
This was definitely the biggest month of the year for us. Our babies were born the 5th.


Cora


Emma




September
Abby's first school picture




Getting chubby already


October
Cora's first documented smile


Emma's first documented smile






November
Both girls rolled over from front to back for the first time. Cora still hasn't rolled since!


One of my all-time most popular pictures.


Abby can now write her own name.


December
The babies tried solids for the first time the beginning of the month.




We had a great Christmas!




I hope everyone had a Happy New Year!