This is me NOT crying

It didn't take a year.
Actually it only took a few days!

I know, Jon was disappointed too at how short the search was, but I wasn't. I was ready to get this decision decided upon and get to snappin' pictures!

So the debate went on and on. Nikon? Canon? Nikon? Canon?

and it came down to the one thing that it always tends to come down to in this family, money.

We could get the Canon equivalent to the Nikon we wanted for about $500 cheaper if we would settle on the 30D.
They don't make the 30D anymore (they are up to the 50D), but it is still a great camera.

So I have myself a Canon 30D with a really nice 28-135 lens with built in image stabilization. I don't know what that means... YET. I plan on hitting up my photographer buddies, namely Brad Shull, to give me some pointers. We got the camera for $550 and the guy was asking for over $600, so Jon got to haggle a little bit, which made him feel good.

Jonathan also gave me my own user name on his desktop which has Photoshop on it, so now I have access to photoshop for editing pictures.
And what would you know, but Pioneer Woman posted some of her favorite PS Actions on her website, so I grabbed those as well. Photoshop actions are the way to go. You can get the look you want just at the click of a button. I just need to learn how to adjust them a bit.

The only other thing I want to know how to do as far as editing goes is how to get rid of blemishes -- or in my case messy face syndrome because I feel like every time I take Lyric's picture she has leftover pb&j or popsicle or some other food residue on her mouth.


Now I know that goes back to me as a parent needing to clean her face OR I could just learn how to photoshop it out :-) I'm sure Jonathan can show me a trick or two or I may have to go over to Brad or Teddi's house for a tutorial.

Here are a few shots I took today in the "dummy mode" aka automatic setting with a color boost action:
Lyric after she got her vaccinations today :-)

I felt like it was a little too orangy, but I don't know how to fix that... YET.

Here she is falling asleep sitting up.


Just to foray into that for a second,I took Lyric back in for vaccinations and so that they could check her weight.
If you remember 2 weeks ago, my dreaded day from hell... oh it was awful. Lyric screamed and cried, they said she was very underweight so they wanted to check her blood, more screaming and crying... yuck.
So when I had to go in today I was not looking forward to it.
Jon was going to try and go in to work late, but it didn't happen and I was going to ask Jodie to go with me, but I totally forgot to remind her till late last night (like after Midnight) and I didn't want to call and wake her up and ask her to be there at 9am with me. So I decided to just go at it alone.

Knowing that Lyric doesn't do change very well, we talked about it a lot the last few days about how she was going to have to go to see the doctor again and get another shot. This morning, I also brought this Elmo book with me and in it, Elmo gets a shot. So we read that book a few times in the waiting room and talked about how we were getting shots to make us strong. She was pretty okay with it.
The only thing was when we pulled up to the office and I put the car in park, she started having second thoughts. She said, "Mom, I no want to go in. I stay here. Mom, don't open my door. I stay here." It was really cute.
Anyways, we met with the doctor (after over an hour weight-ugh. beating.) and she had only gained 6 ounces and apparently she needs to be gaining 1 ounce a day, so she should have gained at least 14 ounces. SO they want me to once again beef up her food intake and then start keeping a food journal of what she eats. blah, blah. Lyric is totally healthy. She eats a lot. She's just petite. I'm supposed to go in 2 weeks so she can get weighed again. BUT if she still hasn't gained another pound, I'm not going to keep going back in. She's just small. I'll monitor her weight gain at home and if she starts LOSING weight, we'll go in. But this every 2 week, food journal thing is silly.
So she had to get shots and of course screamed bloody murder, but this time I did things a little different. This time I took Shiloh in his stroller so I could easily push the stroller and carry her to the car. This time, she stopped screaming/crying before we even left the room and was done snubbing by the time we were in the car and was fine by the time we got to the house. As long as she doesn't SEE her bandaids she's fine. I put a dress on her this time so she could pull it over the bandaids. For her it is totally out of sight out of mind. She sees her bandaids and she starts crying imemdiately. It's totally mental with her, but whatever.
Now she didn't want to get off the couch, but when I sat her down she did immediately ask for an icecream bar (which is what I let her have last time) so she remembered the routine.
I'm telling you people. My daughter thrives on routine. She loves when she knows what's happening and what's going to happen. She does NOT like the unknown and will freak out. hmmm.... that sounds familiar... OKAY FINE, SHE'S MY CARBON COPY!
Yes, it's my little control freak in training, but that's how she rolls.
So by explaining to her more what was going to happen and that she was going to get a shot and it was going to hurt, but only for a second then reading her the book about Elmo getting on a scale and getting shots, it helped her more this time. She could wrap her little mind around it which gave her more confidence.
So I feel MUCH better about the whole thing this time around.
Now Shiloh gets his vaccinations tomorrow morning. More shots. woohoo :-(
BUT, I want them all caught up before we move. (again, if you have strong opinions about me vaccinating my kids, I encourage you to read my blog about why I am choosing to vaccinate)

SO we get back home and my friend Nikki calls to see if we were up for company... uh yes! I'm always up for chatting with Nikki and letting our kiddos play. She has a little girl named Evie who is a few months younger than Shiloh and let's be honest. Shi kind of has a thing for her.


He really does. He gets so excited when he's near her, he loses all ability to control his head. It becomes a 18 inch, 90lb weight that just plummets into the floor!


Though I feel that Evie finds the attention endearing. I mean look at how she looks at him. Yup. She has a thing for him too.

So overall this day has not been as bad as I thought it would be, and I have started playing around with my new camera.

Me = Happy