round 3

We are on antibiotics for the third time in a month's span for yet another ear infection! This time it was again the left ear (left ear, then both ears, now the left again). They say each time you get an ear infection you get a stronger version of the medicine. The doctor said if she gets one again, we should get tubes. Poor thing!

Today we went to the zoo with some friends. It was really busy, but the weather was warm with a nice breeze, so it wasn't so bad. The kids rode the carousel and Molly was too scared to ride on one of the animals on her own. This whole heights thing is just crazy! She still cries whenever I put her up on a changing table. I wonder if she will grow out of it to an extent or if it will stay with her.

Justin has started a class for spring and is still working for a judge for the rest of the summer. The judge is a criminal judge so he goes to hearings for criminals and also sees some divorce cases once in a while. He has also written a memo for the judge and done a few other projects.

I have a bunch of pictures, but I have to load them first! I'm enjoying my photo class. I'm in week 2 (of 4) and this week we are talking about taking interesting pictures. Last week was on exposure, f-stop, aperture, and shutter speed. It's going to take a lot of practice before I really know what I'm doing, but I figure if I learn now, this is something I can do forever (my grandma would be so proud of me! she was always taking pictures...she was ahead of her time as my mom would say). Anyway, I don't claim to know a whole lot, so don't judge me if the pictures I post aren't great yet!!

Photo homework 1

I have been so looking forward to learning how to do what I have done in these pictures.

Can you tell what the difference is? Depth of field. You can see everything clearly in the first picture from the flowers to the background. The second has a blurred background. I have always wondered how photographers do this and now I know!

rolling

My baby girl finally rolls over! She did it yesterday for the first time.

I came in from the other room and saw her like this. She did it several times yesterday and this morning so now onto sitting up!
She rolls from her back to her tummy. She hasn't done the opposite way yet, but we are trying to teach her how.

This is Ali in the bumbo chair after she had some rice cereal. She just looked too cute.

Mom

My mom's birthday was Sunday and we had most of the family over to celebrate. We tried to not have her do any work!
My mom is amazing. She does so much for us. She is so helpful with the girls. She is always helping them with getting food or toys, watching them for me, keeping them entertained, holding them, changing them, etc. It is so nice to have an extra hand and I am pretty sure I rely on her too much! She is also my personal shopper. She always calls me from the store and asks if I need anything or tells me before she goes. She will be very missed when we are on our own!

I love you mom! Thanks for all you do!

new for me

We are adjusting to nice weather here! Finally!! It actually feels like summer, now that it officially is :)

My fun news is that I am taking an online photography class this month! I started yesterday and so far I really like it, although I have MUCH TO LEARN!! I am taking classes from Nicole Hill Gerulat. You can read about the classes she offers here: http://nicolesclasses.blogspot.com/

To see her "regular" blog, go here: http://nicolehill.blogspot.com/

There are 4 weeks of class and you learn to shoot in manual mode. Since getting my new camera last year, I decided that it was kind of pointless having one if I didn't know how to use it! So this was my mother's day/anniversary gift.

In class you have lessons and at the end of the week you submit pictures as homework and then the instructors critique them for you. Once a week they also have all of the students get online and you can ask the instructors questions. I plan on posting my "homework" on my blog. I have lots of room for improvement!!

I also got some fitness dvds while I was pregnant (to be used after pregnancy)that I've been doing for a couple of months now that I like. They are called Mom's Into Fitness, Post Natal Boot Camp by Lindsay Brin. She has several different dvds and I got mine on sale from babysteals.com one day. She also does a prenatal series that you can do while pregnant. I like that she mixes it up and has you do the video every other day. She also knows that you have a baby, so it can be pretty quick if you want it to be.

gift

I made a receiving blanket today and it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!! (humble, I know!)

I got the fabric at Cotton Shop where I normally don't go, but I found these two fabrics and thought they were sweet. Isn't the houndstooth fun? I love that print. And you can NEVER go wrong with polka dots!

I decided to personalize it, so I added the first letter of the name (since I already know what her name is!). And I added a heart too, just for fun. The circles for the B are little rosettes I made and the brown is minky. I loooove minky. I should make myself a giant minky blanket I think!

Mother of the year goes to me...

Yep, that's my baby! She wanted to learn to sew, so I laid her down and taught her! Ha ha, ok so maybe not, but she is asleep there.

Today we actually went to the doctor. Poor Ali hasn't gotten over being fussy and the nurse suggested we get her ears checked out again since she got over an ear infection a couple weeks ago. Turns out she has a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION now. But we have medicine again (a larger dose) and luckily it's white this time, not pepto bismol pink that tried to stain EVERYTHING she wore during round one of the ear infection! Hopefully this is the last time we have to deal with this for a while.

Memorial Weekend

I hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend! We headed up to Wyoming to visit family and had a good time. I wouldn't say great because somebody didn't sleep well AT ALL and was FUSSY most of the time! And I'm not talking about Justin!! :) Poor babies. At least I only had one baby and one toddler.

Lucky for us, we got to see the triplets!! Justin's sister has three adorable girls, Mckenna, Madison and Carly. We haven't seen them since they were about 2 1/2 pounds in the nicu in Boise, ID a year ago.

Justin and Mckenna. Kenna is the smallest. She is so cute and always has a little smile on her face as she gazes at things!

Here is grandma with Madison! Maddy is a mover and a shaker! She can crawl and pulls herself up to things. The others aren't quite at her speed yet, so we are always watching for where she has gone. (However the other two are mastering their army crawl!)

Carly. What a cutie! Ok, well they all are! She was always really content! She loves shoes, laces and to be held! As long as she was being held, she looked like she does in this picture.

Molly had fun playing with the girls. They are at the fun stage where they just lay around and a toy is anything they can get their hands on! So fun.

Carly also loved my necklace! It was a big hit amongst the grandkids...I guess I should say granddaughters!

Here they all are! 6 girls. Left to right: Molly, Laney, Alison, Maddy, Carly and Mckenna.

Of course on Monday, the day we were leaving, the sun finally came out and it was nice enough to go outside!! Molly had some fun on the four wheelers!

Us outside just chilling.

Molly and Laney had their good and bad moments! Molly has definitely gotten better at sharing, but of course there is still a long ways to go!!

This is everyone minus Kyle, Sunny and Justin. We also went to visit a few graves but I didn't take any pictures-oops.

While there, we enjoyed lots of family time (including extended who visited as well), games, little sleep, good food and lots of watching babies!!

We don't have another trip planned until July and we are soo hoping that Alison will cooperate better then! Hope you enjoyed your weekend!