I am alive again...

I have my computer back and it is working. Knox IT is the BEST. So, I have some catching up to do and then I will be back to blogging.

Computer Trouble

I thought I would let everyone know that my computer oficially bit the dust. I am using Rick's and since I don't want to load photos on his, I will not be posting much. Reed did have his 9 month check up on Thursday and his Doctor said "He is the poster child for a 9 month old". So, he is doing well and I will post his stats later.

Easter

This Easter turned out nice and much healthier than last year, if you don't remember check here...The weather was wonderful which is nice because in Indiana, Easter is usually still cold. We were able to visit all of our family in Dale and Floyd Knobs which was a nice treat. Millie enjoyed hunting eggs and I enjoyed playing with my new camera! I am still learning but all of the photos on this post are with the new camera. They are showing up here more grainy than they really are.





Millie got to play some WII while we were in Dale, she loves it. We don't have one and don't plan to get one but when she gets a chance to play, she really enjoys it.

Reed is 9 Months

We were out of town for Easter so this is a little late. Reed is getting into everything now that he is crawling like a champ. He loves to walk and that is all he wants to do. Unfortunately he is not doing it on his own yet so we have to hold his hands. He will crawl over to us, pull up, grab our hands and start dancing and tugging hoping we will stand up and let him walk around. We have been giving him more table food lately and not food made just for him. He has liked everything so far...tenderloin, beef stew, BBQ chicken. He ate a dill pickle the other day and really liked it too. He is a big fan of Cheerios and is drinking out of his cup just fine.

I think that about sums it up, he has his 9 month checkup next week so I will have his stats then.

Update - after his checkup, he weighed 21 pounds 6 ounces, head was 47 1/2 cm and height was 28 1/4 inches. That is 70%, 97% and 50% respectively.

Reed Crawling

Reed has perfected his crawling this past week. I think it is so very cute because Millie never crawled and I didn't think Reed was going to. I just love seeing his big old butt wiggle across the floor.

Story Dice Update

We finally got to play with them today (see the previous blog following this one if you need more info). Our story was funny and I think Millie did great...here is goes...
Millie rolled at kite - Once upon a time we went to fly our kite and it was so windy we didn't even need to go to the big hill. It was a green kite with no pictures on it and it was very windy...
I rolled a J (so I picked Jelly Bean) - When we were finished flying our kite, we went home to get a snack. We had yummy jelly beans of all different colors and a glass of milk...
Millie rolled a witch hat - But a mean witch came and took our jelly beans and our kite and she was so mean with her big witch hat...
I rolled at B (I picked Balloon) - We caught the witch and tied a big balloon to her so she flew up, up, up into the sky. She was so scared, she dropped the jelly beans and the kite. We caught them and we never saw the witch again.

Now, how fun is that! Millie loved it and thought it was pretty silly.

I have had several questions about my dice. I got the blocks at AC Moore but probably any place with an unpainted wood craft section would have them. Also, I already had all the stamps I needed. If you want me to make you a set, I would be happy to, just let me know.

Reed is running the excavator here, he was enjoying himself. He now has 4 teeth, 2 on bottom and 2 on top but the 2 on top are next to his 2 front ones so I hope he gets the front ones soon or he will look like Edward Cullen!

Story Dice

I got this idea from Crafty Crow and it is such a neat idea. I thought it would be fun for Millie to do and fun to make so since we had such a beautiful day today, we sat out on the screen porch and made these.

So what are they? Each person gets a dice (die?) and rolls one. Then that person starts telling a story having something to do with what ever was rolled. If a house was rolled, your story has to have a house; a kite, about a kite...you get the drift. If you roll a letter, you have to think of something that starts with that letter and use it as your story theme. When one minute is up (or however you decide to play) the next person rolls their dice and continues the story from where the first person stopped making sure to incorporate whatever image they rolled.

The set I was looking at had hand painted images on them (never going to happen with this un-artistic gal)but I thought is was a great chance to use some of my small rubber stamps. I also thought it would be neat to have a photo on each one. I made Millie a set of 4. Each block, or dice, has one photo, one letter and 4 rubber stamped images. Millie picked out the letters she wanted on each one and the stamps she wanted. I lightly sanded the edges and corners of the 1" blocks. After we stamped them, I covered them in Mod Podge to give them a bit of a shine. That is also how I put the photos on, giving that side a few extra coats.

We were going to use them tonight at bedtime for her story but she was so tired she just wanted to go straight to bed. Oh well, hopefully we will get to try them out tomorrow night.

I Have No Will Power

So I waited about...2 days. I ordered the camera last night, but I blame Becky. She mentioned a web site where she buys her camera items and I had already scoped out that site before she mentioned it. They had the camera for LOTS less than local stores and even included a free 4 GB memory card. I figured it was too good to be true but when Becky mentioned the site and confirmed it was legit, I ordered it last night. I can not wait until it gets here and I will be reading the manual online so I will know all about it when it arrives.

I Want It Bad

...but, I am still waiting. This does not mean I won't get one soon, but I was checking around and it sounds like Best Buy runs a special once in awhile on it where they include a free lens. I am not sure how often they do this so I am thinking if it does not happen next week, I may have to just get it. The good news is, I learned a few techniques today when I went to Wolf Camera. Apparently, the camera I have is pretty good if I use some of the features I did not understand, ISO for one. I still have not figured out how to navigate to it within my camera settings, but when I do, it is supposed to help with some lighting issues I am having for Millie's soccer photos. Also, for those of you who did not know, the more you zoom, the less light enters your camera so in an already poor lighting condition, zooming will only make it worse, who knew? (yes Kelly did, I am certain of it).

So I took Reed out this evening as my guinea pig and I messed around with some aperture settings (my new favorite thing about photography). My camera does not have near the range of aperture values an SLR would have, but it was neat and I liked what I was able to achieve. I also found (by mistake) my camera would do sepia and black and white so that was kind of interesting as well. Here are some photos of my drooling subject.

And I think I have not mentioned that Reed does have 2 teeth now and enjoys eating dill pickles and re-fried beans from our favorite Mexican place here in town.





You can see my teeth in this one!