Tom is precious. Tom got me a Canon Rebel XS today at Circuit City for my birthday in July. I have been DYING, literally freaking out over getting a new camera. It's Tammy's fault, she knows and understands, and now I guess our obsessions will feed off each other. (Except I can't cash in anymore birthday advances until 2010...so no lenses for me!!)

Here is some of the fun I had today playing with it. Right out the box, of course I had to snap the flowers next to my bed. Can't go wrong with flowers. (And go wrong, I did. All day. I took a ton of pictures and dumped about 2/3 of them.)



Broccoli Wokley



Goku is a natural.



This is me trying out different stuff (yes, I moved my flowers out here so I would have something pretty to snap.) This is landscape mode where everything is in focus instead of one particular thing. Kinda neat that you can't tell what I am taking a picture of. I only used the "basic" modes today, there is a set of "creative" modes I have hardly thought of trying.



Puddin' peaking out from between the kayaks.

She is so beautiful - it is hard to get a good picture of her.

Sasha by the fridge waiting for Tom to come back in.

Greg.

Greg working while Tom watches.

OMG Tom, quit dodging the camera, and a picture like this could be all GQ instead of BLURRY.

He is going to HAVE to get over this camera shyness.

My fall garden, rockin' just in time to plant my spring stuff in a couple months. Sheesh.

He is irresistable. What a ham.

A decent "before" shot of the bedroom. Basically, here is our new furniture and the new wall color. Keep in mind a "real" before shot would have all white walls and ugly, unmatching furniture with no headboard.

Puddin' was curled up in our bed on my camera software.

Tom and Greg driving the go kart they have been building. Buy a man a go-kart, and he'll break it. Buy him a welder for Christmas, he'll build a go kart himself, break it, then go weld it back together.

Here is a sort of "after" shot. (I know I need a dust ruffle...LOL. This is the kind of thing that people who have never had a real bed have never thought of before.) I finished painting the window-wall today. FINALLY. We will probably keep the white blinds and ceiling...who knows, though. It is a work in progress.

Still need stuff on the walls...

View from the other side. I haven't done a wonderful job on the line up top, but that's what touching up is for.

Anyway, now my camera is ready for my upcoming travels and all the little stuff in between. :-)

In other news, Tom got a new job this week and really enjoyed it. It is contract work, and really perfect for him. I had a bunch of ups and downs this week, physically and mentally. It was a strange week with the ice day that wasn't icy and the class day that was. Had a hard week at work too...but I worked through it.

Tomorrow is a superbowl party, then I'll get back to it on Monday. :-) Hope everyone is having a picture perfect weekend!

AMBER - go find your stinkin' debit card that UNT sent you.

(Sorry, I have left myself notes everywhere and still keep forgetting to do this...)

I am in the market for a camera. I mulled over my mini-laptop decision for several months, and I will probably do the same thing for this camera. I'm looking at the digital SLR's even though I don't even know what that means. All I know is I loved the feel of Tammy's Nikon D40 (right?) and I have thought about upgrading my camera, so I am thinking something along those lines.

I am looking at this one, based on reviews and price:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CBKJGG?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=cnet-ce-20&linkCode=asn

What do you have, and do you have any advice for me?

I totally forgot I took Christmas pictures. LOL Right after Christmas, I went straight into home improvement mode. But here they are.

Sunday before Christmas, we had a get-together at my parents' house. Snickers loved his presents. My mom took them out of his stocking one by one, and he ran them over to his bed.



We ended up getting Miranda the next day, to keep until Christmas Eve. It wasn't all "pull my finger" this time. Oh no. This time, Miranda had a new trick. She'd rub her feet on the carpet, then walk up and shock you! I got bored with this pretty quick (it isn't really fun to get shocked!), but as usual, Tom and Miranda entertained each other for hours.

It couldn't all be fun though - I put them to work wrapping presents!

We were going to spend the night with the in-laws Christmas Eve, so Sasha got to ride in the Mustang!

We got to my aunt's house, where Landon, my cousin's son, was the main attraction.

Then we headed to the Ellison's, and Sasha took advantage of a rare quiet moment on Christmas morning, before the kids woke up.

Even after the kids woke up, Emma doesn't seem to be awake!

Alexx loved his new Cars cars.

Emma wouldn't get her hair out of her face...LOL

Alex LOVED the furreal panda. I think it was meant for Emma, but he wanted to nurture it. He carried it around very carefully most of the morning.

Amanda's been wanting another baby....

Rusty trying to open his video game from Tom, who had wrapped it in multiple boxes covered in electrical tape.

We were laughing because Rusty got this from his family. He had asked for a plain black sweatshirt.

Everyone, meet my father-in-law, Don.

Alex got this cute bomber jacket.

Hahaha! When boys shop together, this is the result. (They picked these up on Black Friday)

Then it was time to see if Emma liked her Cadillac. This was actually a Christmas present from one or two years ago. Alex is holding on for dear life. Smart kid, that one.

Amanda making sure they don't get too far off course.

This would be the most hilarious picture if it just weren't blurry. I need a new camera...

Amanda's steering assistance wasn't that effective, and the kids headed straight for the road.

She got them off the road, but then they had a fender bender in the yard.

They decided maybe Emma needed a break from driving, so Alex got behind the wheel. He looks like, "Uncle Tom, why don't you just do this for me?"

"I'm glad you asked, Alex!" Yes, that's a Corona in his hand. We are a classy bunch. (BTW, no children were hurt in the making of this blog. And no, Tom isn't drunk.)

Tom's using the door to get out...LOL

Emma wanted to ride with Uncle Tom.

You can't have Sasha, Amanda.

Itty Bitty peeping out from behind Mom's chair.

And so the Ellison Christmas ends the same way it began, with an adorable picture of Sasha.

We had a nice holiday, but it was REALLY nice for it to be over. It is tiring!