New camera!!!

So my birthday is in a couple of days...and I decided to splurge and get a new camera.  This is the first time that I've had a camera that's not just a point and shoot.  Luckily, there IS a fully automatic setting which essentially makes it like a point and shoot.  In fact, that's the setting that all of these pictures were taken in.  I have a steep learning curve ahead of me to really figure out the ins and outs of this camera.  Aperature, ISO, lighting, movement, framing, etc.  So while I learn and play around with it, I still have the option of the camera pretty much doing everything for me in its automatic setting.  Apparently, once I *really* learn how to use this camera, the quality of pictures will be even better than what the automatic setting can do.  I'm pretty excited about that because I'm really impressed with the quality of pictures taken in that basic setting!!

 

Taken with the old camera but had to include it because it's just too cute.  As you can see, our old camera did take some nice pictures, but I had to try hard.  Really hard.  The new camera gives me a nice picture with almost every shot!!

New camera.

 

 

 

As you can see, the weather is finally warming up!!  I think the last of our snow melted on April 26th.  And we've been in the low 70s the past few days.  However, it looks like it's too good to be true.  Because in just a couple of days, we're going to drop back down to highs in the mid 40s.  Now that the girls got a taste of summer activities, I'm not sure how they'll handle being cooped up inside for the next week!  In addition to the lower temps, it's supposed to rain all week.  Ugh.

Mostly pictures...and crawling

We were at the waterpark the other weekend.  Livi loved this big chair!

 

Addi sticks her tongue out whenever she's focusing.

Sweet Emmi.

Thinking about crawling!!

Nah, just kidding!!

Patiently waiting for supper.

So excited to see her favorite...Cheerios!!

And yes, Emmi is now officially a crawler.  She doesn't move fast by any means, but she puts one little knee and one little hand in front of the other and actually moves forward.  For several days, she moved backwards quite well...and would then get pretty ticked off for backing herself into a corner.  But now she's figured out the forward movement.  I'm not ready for this.  I mean, she's our slowest crawler out of all four girls (probably because we really didn't encourage it!!), but I'm still not ready.

All about Miss Emmi

Wow, so this baby is a hair puller.  I don't ever remember the other three girls being quite as bad as she is.  I swear she seeks out the hair on the back of my neck.  She touches my face, touches my chin, touches my neck, BAM!!  She found what she was looking for!  I notice it more when she's getting sleepy.  I don't know if it's a comfort thing for her or what.  But ouch!

She cut her second tooth about a week ago.  She seems to be handling the teething process quite well.  I would never know she's getting teeth if I didn't put my finger in her mouth.  She's not any fussier than normal and she's still sleeping the same - getting up 2-3 times a night.

Eating wise she's a little roller coaster! She eats really, really well for a few days, followed by a couple of days where she won't eat what I thought had become favorite foods just the day before.  Overall, she's being a little more adventurous with her tastebuds.  Carrots, sweet potatoes, blueberry and strawberry yogurt, Cheerios, pancake and even peas!  Peas are a big deal.  Not a single one of the other girls liked baby food peas.  In fact, none of them liked beans either (I haven't tried with Emmi yet).  So here she actually likes peas...well yesterday she did anyway!!  The other girls despised peas.  Emmi refuses to touch baby cereals like rice or oatmeal.  The other three girls absolutely adored the stuff.  Hmmm.

I could swear that she is starting to say "mama."  It's quite possible that it's the mommy in me desperately wanting to hear it.  Sometimes she'll be in my arms just babbling away.  And if I put her down when she doesn't want to be put down, the "ba-ba-ba" and "ga-ga-ga" quickly turns into a "ma-ma-ma-ma" as she seeks out which direction I went and will continue to say it until I pick her back up.  Then she returns to the previously aforementioned babbling.  Yeah, I'm probably crazy.  But it sure does sound like she's calling out for me!!

Lastly, she's soooo close to crawling.  And I'm soooo not ready.  Just twisting in circles, she's able to get into some of the twins' things that they leave laying around.  Like tonight, she saw a bowl behind her, turned around, dumped it over and promptly put a Sweet Tart in her mouth.  Ugh.  The thought of her crawling is daunting.  I'd be quite content if she would just stay put.  But I'm guessing that it's a matter of maybe a week before she'll be taking off.  Look out!!

Farm Days

Today we took the girls to a local farm that had their annual spring lambing going on.  There were probably over 100 itty bitty lambs.  Some of them were old enough to be in a general viewing area with other lambs.  But most of them were small enough that they were still in the same pen as their mothers.  It was interesting to see how many of the sheep actually had a set of twin lambs!!

The girls also got to see HUGE mommy pigs with their little piglets.  And then we went over by the baby chicks.  There was a little coop there that probably had a hundred chicks in it that the girls were able to pick up and hold!!  Addi was a little gun shy.  She would make an attempt to pick one up, but when one of them would flap its wings, she would jump away.  Livi, on the other hand, wasn't afraid at all!  She probably picked up more than 5 of them by herself!

Lastly, the girls each got to ride on a pony.  Both of them chose to ride Molly...a cute little black pony.  They squealed with excitement and hollared out "yee-haw!!"  Too funny.  Oh yeah, and they also got to hold a baby goat!!  How awesome is that?!

Addi is contemplating picking up a chick.

Livi didn't hesitate to do so!!!

Look at Livi's smile when holding this little goat!

Brave little devil...going one-handed so she can wave for the camera!

Enjoying the ride.

 

She's inspecting the M&M's container.

Such a concerned look!!

She was whacking the block on the box so hard she kept squinting her eyes!!

 

This is her teething face.  She bites her tongue and plays with her new teeth.

A moment of getting along!!

Late night conversations

So this was the conversation I had with the girls before bed...actually, it wasn't so much a conversation as they just randomly made the following statements.

Addi:  Mommy, when I grow up, I'm going to marry Andy.
Livi:  And when I grow up, I'm going to marry Liam.

Uh-oh.  Andy and Liam are two of the daycare boys.  I'm not liking this!!

On a brighter note, here are a few recent pictures of Emmi.

She was focusing SO hard on those legos!

Bath time fun.

Playing with nail polish bottles.

As usual, Addi is missing from the picture because she didn't want to be in it.

Exhausted after a tiring workout of rocking on her hands and knees.

 

Smiley baby trying to get up on all fours.