Photo Newbies

Well yesterday I was looking through some clothes of Brin's, she has some cute stuff she is quickly growing out of (why do they do that?!).  So, my closet clean-out turned into our first attempted photo shoot.  Let's just say it was a learning experience.  We are 100% amateurs and still don't really know our camera (lovingly referred to as Tina), so in preparation I spent a little time on Google and picked up a few tips.

1. Camera settings.  This, still needs some serious work.  Tina has so many buttons!  We were first too dark, then too light, and often too slow and too blurry.

See? Not fantastic.  But it's coming.

2. Props.  It seemed to work, Brin was excited to have some friends

3. Patience.  I think we spent 90% of the time moving her around and trying to get her to sit.  Frustrating.  

4. Entertainment.  Tim was a one-man menagerie and, quite honestly, a huge hit.  I wish I had a few pictures of him during this.  Next time.

5. Make sure your model is super cute.  

Ok that one wasn't actually on Google, but it's the one we had down pat!  She's already such a girl!  Brin is a week and a half shy of 15 months now and has started to really work the attitude.  She is finally sporting some top teeth and has figured out that she can get anything with that smile.

Crash course in photography 101 take home message:  it is not as easy as it looks.  We are anxious to get better acquainted with Tina.  But even in our photography ignorance, this lady is fun to snap shots of.  We got a few (read: quite a lot) that didn't turn out, but even blurry that little face is so dang sweet!  LOVE this girl!!  :)

Still Summering

The weather's still been lovely!  We have been taking advantage of the heat and have been doing some more running around the last few days.  But first of all, is this not the dang cutest little face you've ever seen?!  She has gotten so good about letting me play with her hair and the other day we got these in.  Love!

The cutest little princess!!!

Yesterday we went to the swimming pool.  Brin actually did pretty good.  As always, I thought she would love it more.  But we did have some setbacks.  The little pool was closed for a bit (read: needed some help after some kid couldn't make it to the potty... nice).  We had to wait out a little rain too, and a bit of a cool breeze picked up.  Not the perfect day I guess.  

By the time we got into any water that was Brinlee appropriate she was a little tired.  We'll have to go back and try again on a hotter, less surprise-filled day.  But she was so cute, and loved her first Happy meal.

Today we spent the morning and afternoon hiking around Craters of the Moon.  This one I was prepared for Brinlee to not be so fond of, but surprisingly, she did awesome!  She kept her hat on, talked, smiled, and waved to everyone, loved the rocks, and even handled a couple caves.  

May I point out that these pictures over accentuate the fact that we are an incredibly white family?  Yikes.  We were hoping to be surprised today by some rain, or even some consistent cloud cover.  But alas, we were just hot.  Should have switched pool day for moon day I guess.

I managed to skimp on Brin's second application of sun screen, which left her arms a little fried  :(  But she was an angel, and we certainly got our exercise.  We are sure loving this summertime family time!

Dieting?

Just about every morning for the past month I've told Tim we need to eat better and are going to be starting a diet.  He's learned to tune me out.  Apparently, for me, "starting a diet" means eating oatmeal for breakfast, skipping lunch (because healthy options take way too much work), and totally abandoning ship for dinner because I'm A: too tired, or B: too lazy.  Just last week I gave my morning soapbox speech yet again, and that very night we had pizza for dinner, the next day we made brownies, and the night after that, Tim ran to the store for nothing but Twinkies and Cupcakes.  

Yes, we were thrilled to see Hostess make a comeback and we are not ashamed to admit it.  I know, I know, they're terrible for you.  But my goodness, it's childhood in a wrapper!  I used to live for a trip to that day-old Hostess store and can still smell the sweet scent that hit you at the door.  Every kid needs to experience a Twinkie!  I guess we're still just kids at heart.  The boxes were empty the next day...

I am hoping to stay motivated about better food one of these days.  Anyone have any good tips or meal ideas?  Pizza is just too tempting for us.

On Headaches Revisited

It has been so long since this subject popped up, but the other day I had a close call with an old enemy.  I call him Misery, the textbooks call him Headache.  

It is no secret that I hate headaches.  I have struggled some with them and have done some rambling about Misery in the past (see here, here, and here).  But honestly, for quite some time now, the little nuisances have been largely out of mind (no pun intended).  I went through a patch a while back where I was getting a headache just about every day and was fighting off a migraine a few times a month.  Then, I got pregnant and like magic, they were gone!  Sweet bliss!  I had one pretty bad migraine (read: absolutely the worst of my life, horrific pain, vomiting, the works, lets not go there) during my first trimester.  But aside from the occasional lack of sleep or not enough water type buggers, since then I have been mostly Misery free!  :)  I had hoped this would happen.  Sometime around my 34 week mark my OB asked me how my headaches were.  When I told him it had been several months since I last had one, he seemed very un-surprised.  He said I probably had hormonal migraines, a fairly common side-kick for women who suffer from excessively miserable monthly feminine stuff... me to a tee.  I had speculated about hormonal headaches before, but had had migraines that were so sporadic (or seemed to be anyway) that I had just logged the thought away.  He suggested that after the baby came to keep a headache journal, watch for trends, and if the headaches and times of the month did indeed seem to match up to let him know.  Apparently this kind of  migraine is very treatable.  Well, the baby came, I got back on schedule, and apparently the doctor was right.  They do seem to match up.  Not only has the monthly stuff been way less punishing (SO happy for that), but the headaches have not really come back at all.  Paradise!  If hormonal headaches really are easily treatable I wouldn't know, I never needed it.

Needless to say I have a very empty headache journal.

The close call the other night I've decided to write off as a fluke.  It was a super busy night at work and the bugger was scared away easily.  I have had little ones like that more consistently here and there.  But again, they've been hardly noticeable and nothing like they used to be.  Mostly they've just served as reminders that I haven't seen Misery for a while... not that I am complaining about that at all.

My conclusion for now: pregnancy is magic!  Though I'm sure some women wouldn't agree, for me it seemed to do the trick.  I have happily retired the type writer as far as the definitive work on headaches goes, and I am hoping to keep letting the dust collect.

Now... having penned this all out I've probably doomed myself to a bout with bad headaches.  Isn't that how things go?