My camera died

And of course in the middle of a very important event - the girls' very first ballet recital. Apparently, it's our style, since our first camera died the day before Samantha's 1st birthday. I'm not sure what happened this time though. It worked fine all weekend. We switched out a memory card since we hadn't had time to download all the pictures from the weekend and it was working just fine through the first half of their performance. All of sudden it started putting lines through all our pictures and making them really blurry. Thinking it was a memory card problem, we put our original card back in, but we were still getting the same problem. We reset the camera at this point and it seemed to have fixed the problem. For about 6 pictures and then it went back to doing it. Maybe the memory card is bad and somehow fried the camera? Regardless, the camera is now over 4 years old, has taken over 15,000 pictures and has served it's purpose.

I have really wanted a Canon Rebel. And I'm not sure why. I know it takes awesome pictures - I have friends & family who have one and I've seen their pictures. But I don't think I really have it in my right now to learn how to use it properly. I'm not a budding photographer. I really just take pictures of my family, and while I want them to look great, so far I've been able to do that with my regular point & shoot. So last night when it came time for us to buy a new camera, I had a big decision to make. We have agreed we will get a Rebel, but it's something we're going to save for. So I really didn't want to have to charge it right now, when I know we've got other expenses coming up (two trips, car registration for 2 cars which thanks to CA has now doubled in price, etc). But was it worth it to put down half of that amount on another point & shoot? We must have gone back in forth for hours yesterday deciding what was best and finally came to the conclusion that for right now we would get another point & shoot, with the idea that it will become the backup/always in the diaper bag camera when we do eventually get the Rebel and we won't be going into debt for either camera.

But now on to which point & shoot to get. We researched online yesterday afternoon and then decided to take our list to Costco and compare those ones in person. I really thought I had settled on a Nikon which had some amazing features, when we saw another Sony (what we previously had) that has a Carl Zeiss lens - amazing for a point & shoot. The camera guy working there said that the Nikon did have more features, but that the Sony would take better quality pictures. So the Sony it was. When we got home last night I played around with it and I LOVE it. I'm so glad we made this decision. The pictures are clear, bright & so far always in focus! And it has an awesome "smile" feature, which when put on this setting will wait until the subject smiles and will automatically take the picture - perfect for our stubborn Lu who recently hasn't been a big fan of pictures.

I'll put a few pictures up later from our new camera and y'all can give me your opinion.

Oh and as an added bonus, to indulge my girly side - it's a beautiful ice blue color, which matches my cell phone ;)

The End of an Era

At least for me. We just spent a fabulous weekend on the coast, although it may have been the last in the house my grandparents always so generously let us borrow. They have owned this house my entire life, an well before that, but decided to sell it this year and I believe the sale is now final. This is a house that I grew up going to - spending almost every 4th of July there as well as other weekend trips. And I was lucky enough that I was able to share it with my children and it truly has become a place they love. How awesome is to know that it was one of my first places after I came home from the hospital and that it's a place I was able to take my own children? Have I mentioned how absolutely generous my grandparents have been.

But now the sale is final and although it stayed in the family, I'm not quite sure that it will have the same "sharing" factor as it had with it's previous owner. I am glad that is stayed in the family and honestly the new owner does love it and will treat it right. They did go up there more than anybody else!

So this past weekend we signed up to go. The final weekend. And we were lucky enough that my best friend and her family joined us. It was so nice to be able to go and relax and catch up. And watching the kids all play together was just amazing. Our lives have gotten so busy with work, family and especially kids I think was a much needed trip for all of us. And I think we gave the house a pretty good send off, wouldn't you agree Jenn? ;)

6 months

That's how old my baby boy is today. How has half a year gone by already? Half of his FIRST year? I know it seems to go by quicker with each additional child, but nobody told me it would happen in the blink of an eye. As I was going through pictures to put with this post, I was amazed at how much he's changed. How does somebody change so much in what is honestly such a short amount of time?

I am amazed at how lucky we got with him. After all, the girls were pretty easy babies. But he is always so happy. Nothing makes him smile bigger than simply being talked to. Or seeing me, which of course makes me happy. And even though the time has gone much too quickly, I can't believe how seemlessly he's fit into our family, as if he's always been here.

I didn't know I wanted a boy. And I'm pretty sure if you had asked me a year ago, I would have told you I wanted another girl. I love my girls like no other, they are my heart and soul. But now I know - I was meant to be a mother to a son.

I want...

A Canon Rebel. I want it so bad. Can you imagine the adorable pictures I could get of my children? We were at Costco last night and we stopped to look at the cameras. And it's on sale. Unfortantly, that sales price is still out of our budget right now. We're trying to be responsible after all. Nacho did tell me when we have #4, he'll get me the camera. Hmm, something to consider ;)

A Picture That's Worth a Thousand Words

Take Me Out To The Ballgame...

We were lucky enough to be offered tickets to yesterday's Giants game, so we took the kids to their first ever Major League Baseball game. I wasn't sure how they'd do, but Samantha had been begging to go to a game after we toured Fenway last summer in Boston. It took them awhile to get settled and figure out what was going on, but not too long after they were right in it, cheering and screaming and generally carrying on! It was made even better by the fact that the Giants won, beating St. Louis 5-3. After the game, the girls were allowed to run the bases, which I can promise was the highlight of their day!

There was a woman who was sitting a few rows behind us who was just in love with the baby. After the game she came up to us and told us how beautiful our children are and how well behaved they were. I don't know what constitutes being well behaved at a baseball game, but I'll take the compliment!

The Perfect Weekend

It's not often that I get to say we had the perfect weekend, but this past holiday weekend came pretty damn close. All the kids slept in - maybe because we kept them going all day, every day, the weather was pretty good and everybody was in good moods. Saturday started with us taking the kids to Discovery Kingdom after a lunch at Sonic. Sonic, aka the roller skating place to the girls, is extra fun for them because we fold down the backseats in the van and let them have a "picnic". We sat in the front to eat and the entire time listened to little girl giggles from the back. Those giggles = pure heaven! So after lunch, we headed over the amusement park. We have season passes, so we aren't too concerned about getting to the whole park in one day, which is good because the girls ended up having definite ideas of what we were going to do. They started the day in one of the kids areas, which is great for Nacho and I because they are big enough to (and more importantly want to) go on the rides by themselves. Lu has always been our daredevil, so nothing regarding rides surprises me much. Sam has always been a little more timid, so it shocked me when she was fine riding on one of the roller coasters by herself (Lu just barely missed the height requirement to ride by herself, so I had to ride with her). Then they BOTH shocked me when the eagerly agreed to go on the Cobra - an adult size roller coaster. Lu loved it so much I think she went on it 4-5 times. They also got a big kick out of one of those rocking boat rides that swings back & forth. After getting me on it once, they took Nacho and then somehow talked me into going again. They would have kept going if I were willing to go again, but I wasn't. Since having kids, my motion sickness is even worse. It was such a great day and it was nice to do something just the 5 of us.

Sunday was spent with the Luas, after a quick trip (and lunch made up of free samples) to Costco. Two of our nephews and a niece were being confirmed, so after attending church to watch that, we went to my sister-in-law's for a bbq. It was so nice to catch up and see everybody, since in all honesty we had sort of neglected that side of the family with all that's been going on in my family. I'm admittedly not very religious, but I'm very proud of them, so congratulations Bianka, Brandon & Daniel!

Monday was the perfect end to the weekend. We went over to Nacho's cousins' house, who while family, are really good friends also. We hung out by the pool all day and just relaxed. The kids all had a blast - Jack made the perfect lounge lizard in one of the baby floats they have and the girls are finally confident enough in their own swimming abilities to swim the entire length of the pool by themselves (using arm floats). It was hard to bribe them out of the pool at the end of the day. I really wish life wasn't always so hectic because it would be great to get together with them more often. You hear that Elena?? ;)

And now it's back to reality. Luckily this week is short and we've actually got another busy weekend coming up. We actually have our weekends spoken for until the beginning of July. But this one was stress free and mostly on our terms, so it's going to be hard to top.