My new camera

Brad bought me a new camera this week and I am really excited. Nothing was wrong with my old camera, but when I bought it we had decided that I would upgrade every couple years just to keep up with a newer model while my old one still had value to it. I got the Canon rebel t4i which comes with a 18-55mm lens, but he also bought me a 55-250 mm lens since they had a $150 off special if I bought when when I bought my camera (so I got a $200 lens for $50!) Anyway, the new lens will be good for distance shots. Here are some pics I took playing around with it. Keep in mind I know nothing about photography, so the camera can probably do a lot better that what I do with it, lol.

This is taken from my front door with the distance lens (his car was parked clear down the street)

This one was taken from my back door (this tree is across our whole backyard)

You can also take photos in Sephia or black and white mode

This one has to much flash, but it was pretty anyways, so I wanted to post it.

I took this one with the regular lens to see how the sports mode worked.  It is supposed to reduce blur when your subject is moving.  I thought it did pretty good, considering she was running as fast as she could.

In case your wondering why most of the pictures are of Hailey, it is because she loves to pose, in case you can't tell!

I love him

Isn't his little dimple just the cutest?

Brynlee's 2nd Birthday!

It's hard to believe Brynlee turned two this week. She still seems so petite to me. She feels like my baby still, but she definitely acts like she is two. She is getting very smart and saying a lot of new things.

It was very hard for our two year old to wait for her sisters and dad to get home for her birthday party.  So Hailey and I sang to her at lunch and she had a cupcake.  And then when Callie got home from school we sang to her again and had another cupcake, and then at the party with grandpa and grandma later that night she ate her third cupcake!  In my defense I have never let any of my kids have that many cupcakes in one day before.  But it is very hard to tell a two year old "no", and I especially couldn't make her cry on her birthday.

This is how she smiles when she's saying "Cheese!"

As soon as Callie and Hailey saw the birthday decorations they said "Zebra print!"  They are really into that right now.  And they begged and begged to wear there zebra print shirts.  I laughed and told them that might be a little much, but ultimately i let them do what they wanted, lol.

Later that night we met Papa and Grandma and Jillian and her girls at a restaurant called "All Aboard".  It is a place where a train goes around the top of the room and delivers your food straight to your table by lowering it down in front of you.  The girls thought it was the coolest thing!

Thank you everyone for making Brynlee's birthday so special!

Valentines Day

Carrying on my parents Valentine breakfast tradition, we got up extra early so that we could have valentines breakfast with Brad.  We had some yummy heart shape pancakes, eggs, sausage and hot cocoa!  Kayla bought me roses this year with her own money, and Brad got me some new pink fuzzy slippers, which I love.

Then we got the girls ready for all of their Valentines day parties at school.  We had lot's of pink and red going on in our wardrobe.  

And I made sure to do a heart in each of the girls hair for the special occasion.

Thank you everyone for our valentines treats, we loved them!
Later that night Brad and I went out to eat with several of our friends: Brandon and Beth Waddell, Bradley and Amber Doom, Adam and Tiffany Aukes, Chase and Jessica Slack and their two kids, and Crystal Payne and her husband.  We had a blast and the food was great.  We went to Cajun noodle and they had a live band singing country music.  Felt just a little bit like Wyoming.

Brynlee's 2 year old pictures

Brynlee is turning two next week. I just love her little face, I don't want her to grow up!

At two years old Brynlee loves to:

Sing & dance
Say her ABC's and count
Use 3 word sentences
Yell
Act a lot like her big sister Callie
Be funny and always make us laugh
Go to school (daycare) and loves her teacher
Color and paint
Say awesome prayers
Listen very well
Give the best hugs and kisses

Love is in the air

I have started feeling a lot better this last week, and I am so grateful! It has been nice to get back into the swing of things again. The other night we decided to make valentines for all of the girls valentines day parties. Callie, Hailey and Brynlee each helped make their own. Callie even read and wrote her own this year!

The next night we decided to make some Valentine sugar cookies.  The girls loved doing this, because they each got to frost and decorate their own however they wanted.  Brynlee even dumped an entire bottle of sprinkles on one cookie when we weren't looking.  And another funny thing that happened was that Hailey tried to be sneaky and get into the sugar bag, but she got into the wrong one and started eating flour!  Ha ha .. she was spitting it all out after that.

I must say that Callie's cookie was the most impressive, she layered that thing full of toppings and ate every last drop!