Christmas PIctures Galore

Well I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas, I know that I did. We started our holiday by going to my mother-in-law's for the weekend before Christmas. We went and visited with Tony's grandmother, went to the Merry Go Round and had a family dinner with Tony's family. On Monday we headed up to Birmingham. My brother came down on Sunday from West Virginia, and Tuesday Isabella had her cast removed. Having the cast removed was a little traumatic for my princess. She was sore, smelley, whiney and slept for most of that day. We took her to my dad's house and we bathed her off and visited with my brothers, sister, my grandmother who came up from Ellaville, and my Aunt Michelle who came to visit for the night from Carrolton GA. Needless to say it was a busy but fun Christmas week. Enjoy the pictures...

Visiting with Nanny...

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Most of you know that my hubby gave me a digital SLR camera for our anniversary 2 years ago (it is a Digital Canon Rebel XT). I have used it for the past couple years and not really known how to use all the features, so I have decided to start learning! I have started reading photography magazines, books and websites just trying to learn how to take better pictures. I will be posting most of them here, well the ones that I think are worth sharing and I would love any comments on them from anyone! I will mostly be taking pictures of MY kids because they live with me and the depend on me for their food and shelter so I figure I can take a couple pictures of them, though I know that Dylan usually makes the sillest faces when he sees my camera. I am also going to try and talk my friends kids and animals into posing for me, or not posing, I like taking pictures when my subject doesn't know I am taking it, unposed and natural.

The pictures in the slideshow above is from yesterday morning, Isabella woke me up at 1:30 am, she then went to sleep but I couldn't so I got up and read photography websites and decided to take pictures, then when the kids got up I took pictures of them. We went to Dothan for doctors appointments so we took Izzy to the mall and took her picture with Santa, they let me stand off to the side and take my own pictures for free.

Oh and just a little update::: Isabella will be having her cast removed on Tuesday! We are all excited and it will be just in time for Christmas, which we are spending with my dad, mom, 3 brothers, 1 sister, 1 sister-in-law, my 2 kids, my 2 nieces and my nephew... 14 people in one apartment, crowded but it will be FUN! I can not wait!
Merry Christmas to those of you that I will not be seeing this Christmas.

Thanksgiving and Stuff

Well for Thanksgiving this year we went down to Brunswick (for those of you who don't know Brunswick is where I went to middle school and high school before running off to Alabama to be with Tony). The whole family went down and had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner at my sister-in-law's house, and I mean the WHOLE Family... There was my mother-in-law and father-in-law ... My sister-in-law Alice and her hubby Patrick and 2 girls, Constance and Cheyenne... My brother-in-law and sister-in-law Chris and Cyndi and their 3 girls, Shelby, Stephanie, and Lora and their son Logan... My Niece (Stacy's oldest daughter) Lacey, her boyfriend and his 7 month old son... then there was us, Me, Tony, Dylan, Isabella and Gene ... and of course Stacy (my sis-in-law) her Hubby Mike, her son Ezra and her youngest daughter Kirsten, and all of stayed in her house! We had a great time, the kids were back and forth playing the Wii Fit and Dance Dance revolution, and the adults were just talking and enjoying everyone's company. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, a picture session with MOST of the family at the beach and an overall great time visiting with family. I know that Stacey enjoyed having us all there, but I am sure that she was more than ready for us all to get out of her house too.

We left Brunswick on Sunday morning, and what should have been a 5 hour drive ended up taking us about 10 hours. We kept having to stop for bathroom breaks, and the baby was fussy and we played lottery :) for a little bit, and then I remembered that I forgot to put my new insurance card in the car and we need that to get onto post, so we drove around Dothan trying to figure out where we could get our new card printed and finally got it at Office Max, well then Tony needed to get a haircut and we wouldn't have gotten back home in time for him to go to his usual barber so we stopped again at wal-mart and he got his haircut (after having to wait over an hour!). We finally got home about 7:30, sat down and ate some $5 little ceasars pizza and all went to bed.

I put up my Christmas tree yesterday but we have not gotten it decorated yet. I am hoping that I can get it all decorated today.