A Brand New Camera...

The day has finally come.  I've got a new toy to play with!  Last night we picked up our first SLR camera.  I did a bunch of research on which ones to get, got a lot of opinions which were extremely helpful, and finally got the means and the sale to get our Canon Rebel T2i with an extra 55-200mm lens for a steal!  Wahoo!  A whole new hobby has opened its doors to us...and Ross--the poor guinea pig--will be my little victim to practice on.  I don't think he's had enough pictures taken of him yet...although my Grandma Grenny - who's lived a lot longer than me - has proclaimed him to be "probably the most photographed little boy in the land." She may be right, but I just can't help how cute and adorable this little guy can be.  Here are some sample shots...in my know-nothing-about-how-to-work-this-camera-yet skills.  

So it had been a really long day when we finally picked this up.  Babysitting two energized kids, making dinner, and feeding the missionaries, and then going to pick up Steve made for a bit of a frazzled end for me.  I was super excited to get the camera - but the tiredness was creeping up on me here!

These brown eyes of Steve's get me every time!!

I just love his cute chubby hands trying to grab things he shouldn't!

Hey mom!  What is that you're holding?

And why are you pointing it at me??

It snowed last night - so Ross is taking some time to contemplate this...

Very interesting....

Two teeth breakfast - yum!  He sure loves oatmeal. :)

Ross has some great faces...I think this new camera helps capture some of them...

Okay - this is my favorite - his face is totally saying "Mom - are you seriously doing this now?"

Get me out!

These are a couple of pics from my other camera.  Ross loves playing with the magnets on the fridge.  The big blue flower makes great scraping noises on the floor.  He likes to swish it back and forth in preparation as he slides it across the floor and then crawls over to it to start again. :)

We made some veggie grill cheese sandwiches.  Absolutely delicious with Dave's Bread.

I got this baked potato idea from my friend Margy on Pinterest.  Quite tasty.

The snow from today.

Steve took this picture of our Christus...beautiful.

   So we've mostly just been doing the same old same old.  Leap year was quite the event weatherwise.  We got everything - sunshine, rain, snow, wind - multiple times over.  I think since we only get leap year every four years it had to make up for all the weather its missed the last few years.  Ross has figured out how to open cupboards, chatters all the time, and definitely loves other kids.  Babysitting yesterday was a total party for him.  He was super excited to swap binkies with one of the kids whenever mommy wasn't looking.  He loved watching them play with his toys or even just sit there.  I think we need to get him around kids more often!  He loves laughing and throwing things off of his high chair tray or diaper changing pad.  He looks at you while he does it too - like it's a stand off or something and he's holding something you hold dear for ransom.  Hilarious.
Steve is still dreaming of the day when he won't dread the next morning of having to go to school and do more studying.  On that note - one of his professors gave him the ultimate compliment while they were dissecting cadavers by telling the whole class his dissection was the best one she had ever seen.  Steve has a real niche for human anatomy and dissection.  He's started a new class that has just about terrified him to death - but hopefully we'll get by without any life threatening events or mental break downs.  That goes for me and Steve.
My little stuffed balls I made for Ross turned out pretty well.  Here they are - though the fabric isn't going to last for very long I think - oh well - we'll enjoy them while we can. ;)...and yes I know the biggest one looks like a watermelon - or a rugby ball as Steve puts it.  I had some stuffing and sewing issues...more out of my lazy sewing ways than anything.

Oh - and P.S. I promise Ross wears more than these red fire engine pajamas...it seems I keep taking pictures of him when he's wearing them.  You can still judge me if you want though. ;)