Happy New Year!!!

It's been a fantastic 2009, and I can only imagine that 2010 will be even better. We have been so blessed. Happy New Year!

New Camera, Day 2

The number of pictures we have taken is ridiculous. Ri. dic. u. lous. Guess it's easy when you have such cute subjects! Maya does smile occasionally in real life, but to get her to smile for the camera, we have to bribe her. With rice cakes. Strange kid :)

Pictures!

Our new camera came today at around 3pm. It is now 9:55 and I just uploaded over 450 pictures! The camera is amazing ~ Michael and I basically passed it back and forth all night trying to capture good shots of the girls. Maya doesn't like having her picture taken as much, so many of the shots we have are of Charlotte. Here are some of my favorites!

Photoshop Elements

Thanks to our very generous families at Christmas time, Michael and I were able to purchase a nice new camera. Our camera that we have already is great and we'll still use it for photos and video (new camera doesn't do video), but I wanted to start getting into more complex photography than I could do with our point-n-shoot. As part of the decision to get the new camera, I agreed to learn how to actually use it (no sense in getting a fancy camera with lots of bells and whistles if I'm just gonna leave it in "auto" mode! :)). I've gotten books from the library, done lots and lots of research online, and now we sit holding our breath waiting for the UPS truck to arrive...

In the meantime, I decided that I'd also like to be able to do some fancy editing of the photos, so I downloaded a free trial version of Photoshop Elements. After using it for all of one day, I am loving it! It's really easy to use (especially with the online tutorials :)) and makes pretty awesome pictures, if I may say so!

Here are some examples (original pictures taken with a Canon PowerShot SD1000, except for the first which was taken by my friend Sierra)

Maya's best friend, Isabella:


Charlotte in her new Christmas bow:


Charlotte during nakey time:


Maya and her friend Adam at Isabella's birthday party (on Isabella's new tricycle)


Maya and Isabella at Isabella's birthday party:

Snow!

We got our first big snow of the winter yesterday, so we decided to pull out Maya's sled that she got for Christmas and try it out. It was really fun! She did NOT like getting snow in her face (looks like we'll be getting her a ski mask!) but otherwise really liked going down the hill and getting pulled around on her sled by Michael :) Also, she was wearing so many layers that she couldn't move around very well (kinda like the little kid in A Christmas Story).

She rode around like this for a bit while Michael pulled the sled:


Getting ready to go down the hill:


First sled ride:

For Aunt Jen

This should make you proud ~ here is a picture of Charlotte watching the "Single Ladies" video. She was ENTHRALLED! Maybe next time we get together she and Unai can have a dance party :)

I can't believe...

...that Charlotte is almost 6 months old! I think that at least once every day I say something to that effect. I keep telling her to stop growing but she doesn't listen (stubborn, just like her sister...and her mama ;)).

Lots of people have told me how different Maya and Charlotte look ~ Maya is basically a carbon copy of Michael, while Charlotte kinda looks like my sister, Katie. I often think how they really don't look ANYTHING alike. But then I look at pictures of Maya at Charlotte's age, and find this..

Maya at 5 months, 19 days


Charlotte at 5 months, 19 days:


I know, I know ~ Maya's chin is a little pointier, and Charlotte's ears are a little less elvish, but wow! Guess they look alike afterall!

The Elf on the Shelf

This has been a really fun activity for Maya ~ she likes looking for the elf each morning. He has been hiding in pretty traditional places, you know, in the tree, on top of the dryer, hanging out with the angel in our nativity. But this morning she found him hanging upside down on the shower rod ~ silly elf!





Part of the story is to name the elf. Because she is 2, she very creatively named him "Elf the Elf". But, because of her newfound fondness of her uncle, she has renamed him "Chris the Elf".

Uncle Chris

Maya thinks that what we have in the living room is an "Uncle Christmas Tree" :D

Santa

Rovisys (where Michael's works) had a Christmas party for all the kids. It was great! Breakfast, a craft, gifts for all the kids, and Santa!

Last year Maya FREAKED OUT when we tried to sit her on Santa's lap. You would have thought his lap was made of lava or something:


This year, she was a bit apprehensive and unenthusiastic about the whole process, but knew that in order to get her gift she'd have to sit on his lap:


Charlotte was unphased by him (and pretty much everything else in life)


They were both much more enthusiastic about the whole Santa thing when mommy and daddy were standing there, too :)