Oh Happy Day!

What a happy day when I finally feel like I am at last able to express myself again. I feel as if I've been mute for the last year or two while I haven't had a good camera. Well last year when I was unexpectedly paid for speaking two different places for counseling conferences / womens retreats I decided I was going to start saving up every penny until I could get a good digital camera. I was able to save $400 and Brian let me have $240 loan until my next speaking engagement and was able to find a sweet deal on an awesome camera. I found $729 Nikon D60 for $539. The very first photo I took was of my receipt. With the enormous $40 of taxes and the storage card I have a total of $3.27 left in my savings envelope. It's a great investment.

And finally. . . finally being able to express myself again. If the mom~ster and I hooked up we could write an amazing book. She can express herself so well in very few words and I can make sense of my world through the lense of a camera with a picture that speaks a million words. We'd make a million dollars!

My very first test subjects - naptime shots of my two favorite people in the whole world.

Last Minute Follies

Uncle Justin, put me down!

We're off to enjoy an authentic Philly Cheesesteak with Uncle Justin and Aunt Amanda before they go back to Colorado where they don't know how to make good food.

Real Cheesesteak! Yummy!

Shelby getting a final pass at the Rice toys. Hey, does anybody see Shelby?

Pairs of babies

We all think that dinner time chaos is the best kind of chaos. We should all have more kids. Especially if they come in pairs.

Where in the world did Shelby get her "I hate eating" genes? That must be alien DNA.

There they are. All babies should come in pairs. Double the fun!

Holy cow! That really is a lot of kids!

Another (Freezing) Day in Paradise

We looked forward to hiking at Fisherman's Paradise all week. When we were finally able to go it was freezing and made colder from a brisk wind, but we still braved it for at least a little while.

Visiting Grandma

Our favorite Sunshine Girl

Hailey and Shelby and cousins

Getting ready to go eat Chinese!


Chinese Feast with Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins

Baby Girl

One of the pair

Aunties and Shelby

Kids Christmas gift exchange

Visiting Grandpa and Grandma Jan

Hailey loved her new game!

Shelby also loved her alphabet practice pad game.

Grandma Jan and Grandpa visiting with Hailey.

Hailey, Uncle Justin, Grammy Millard, Jocelyn, Shelby, Grandpa

Hailey climbing the apple ladder on Dad's shed

Shelby loved the ride on Grandpa's shoulders to the park.

Hailey and Shelby loved the park.

Grandpa buying supplies from the girls at the General Store.

Grandpa swinging Hailey

The girls and Grandma Jan playing Connect Four.

Momentous Occasions

It's true. I'm back on the blog. Man, the past couple of months have been killers. I haven't even had time to do hardly anything other than work and the basics of life.

But things are getting in order, and I got a new modem, so now I'm back on line.

Surely, that is a momentous event.

But even more momentous . . . Hailey finally lost her first tooth!

More accurately, the dentist forced Hailey to lose her first tooth, and in the process we were presented with a $1,000+ bill. That's right, more than $1,000 in dental work on a 6 1/2 year old girl who will eventually be losing all of those fixed teeth.

Oh well, our baby who cost a quarter of a million dollars to be born, will surely continue costing a lot the rest of her life. We're just thankful we get to have her, so we'll afford her. :-)

Hailey has two grown up teeth growing in behind her baby teeth, so the dentist extracted them with their big long roots and all.



Then she diagnosed her with 4 new cavities and one missing filling.

Today we jetted her back for a last minute cavity filling session during which she became FREAKED out by the whirring of the drill. Oh what a festive experience.

But she's having a great time whistling her "s" sounds through her new tooth hole!

In case, you don't see what we see - check out how far back those big teeth are coming. When I asked the Dentist if they'll straighten out, she was like "Well, there's always a chance that the tongue will help push them forward . . . but . . . " Like I said, our quarter of a million dollar baby keeps getting more and more expensive. That looks like a future brace frace if I ever saw one. OI!