photography for dummies

What kind of camera are you using?? We have 2 cameras.........a small one (Canon Power Shot SD750) that I keep in the diaper bag so I will always have it handy to catch a priceless moment of Bryce, and a big SLR (Canon Rebel XSI) to take professional pictures of Bryce so we don't have to take Bryce anywhere for pictures. Only problem.................we have no idea how to take good pictures with the SLR.

Above, is our small point and shoot camera that I take with me everywhere. It is very easy to use, it only has a few settings, and I feel like it takes decent pictures for the kind of camera that it is.

Above, is the digital SLR camera we bought to take pictures of Bryce. It looks fancy, but we can't seem to take fancy pictures with it. I get too overwhelmed when I try to take pictures. I feel like for as much as we paid for it, it should take fabulous pictures every time. Unfortunately, neither of us have ever taken photography classes so our camera doesn't take outstanding pictures every time. HA! My brain turns to mush when I hear aperture (fstop?), ISO, white balance, histogram...........and the list goes on I'm sure. We even bought a book to teach us about the camera, but it is way over my head. I'm just confused!! Do you know anyone who can teach us how to use it?

future duck caller

Bryce is already making his daddy proud! I think this is what Jason dreams about at night. HA!

I guess it's never too early to start practicing your duck call.

This is the only duck Bryce will be calling for a while!

His daddy will have to teach him how to eat duck. I'm not sure the feet would really be all that tasty!

happy birthday to me

I just love coconut! I know tons of people don't like coconut, but I just can't get enough. On the 4th of July, Jason bought a bag of coconut M&Ms at 7-Eleven. They were so delicious and I'm pretty sure the best thing since sliced bread. HA! Well, we have been searching for them ever since, with no luck. I did a little research and found out they were only limited edition, would be out in August, and they were small bags. So maybe the bag we got in July was an early shipment for a test market. Who knows...........but, to make a long story short, I was at Kroger today and they had BIG bags. So being that today is my birthday, I could of done what any girl would do and buy jewelry, clothes, shoes, and get a mani/pedi, but I decided I would rather have 10 (yes, that's right, TEN) bags of M&M's for my birthday!

On a side note, thanks to all my blog friends and facebook friends for all the birthday wishes! And thanks to my wonderful hubby for the hot pinkish roses and new pandora charms. Love them!

MckLinky Blog Hop - Favorite Kid Photo

I decided to play along in the blog hop again this week. This week the theme is favorite kid photo. Just so happens that I have a kid and a favorite photo! Well I have a ton of favorite photos, but I just love this one.

I was so excited when Bryce started rolling over and could hold his head up. I looked forward to taking pictures like this one. Isn't he a cuite?!?

play time

Bryce has started to enjoy spending more time in his exersaucer and he can even turn himself all the way around and play with all the toys! I am very entertained when I watch him play.

Look at his tongue! It obviously takes a lot of concentration to play. His daddy does the same thing when he is working hard.

When you hit the buttons, the toy says the animal of the picture you hit (in English). When you hit it a second time it says the animal in Spanish. The third time you hit it you get the noise the animal makes and then the fourth time it plays music. Unfortunately we never get to hear the music because Bryce bangs the buttons so fast that the music never has a chance to play before it says what the animal is again. And we only get to hear the cow and the lion and sometimes the duck. The cat and dog are on the back and he can't reach them yet!

It totally looks like he is saying, "What in the heck is that strange puppet doing staring at me!" He looks a little freaked out by it.

He can't quite make the balls move over from one side to the other yet!

I just love his chubby little legs dangling from the seat since they aren't long enough to touch the bottom yet.

Macy enjoys play time too. She sat right beside Bryce on the floor and squeaked her toy and I threw it to her every now and then.

*Did you notice the color variation in almost every picture?? I am desperately trying to figure out how to take a "good" picture with our fancy camera! Hopefully I will have it figured out before Bryce goes to kindergarten. HA!

Giveaway

My good friend, Beth , is hosting a giveaway on her blog. Check it out for your chance to win! She is giving away a stamp from Sweet Papery.


The Carson stamp is my favorite. I hope I win!

Mmm Mmm.....

We introduced Bryce to the world of real food last night. Well rice cereal, but you have to start somewhere, right?! Bryce has been on a pretty regular feeding schedule for a while. Tonight was kind of off so we decided to wait until close to bedtime to try the rice cereal.

Here he is waiting patiently for his first meal in his Bumbo high chair. He sees it coming, but has no clue, hehe.

Taking his first bite

Testing it out

Coming back for more

Yummy....look at that face! That's how you know it's good!

He catches on quick

I think he really likes it

And he's had enough

All in all, I think Bryce had about 5 very small spoons of cereal. I think it was pretty successful. He would eat it right off the spoon and play around with it in his mouth and get fussy for more. Maybe once we can get a little more in him, he might start getting a better night sleep!

5 months

Bryce man is already 5 months old and he is getting SO big! He didn't gain as much weight as we thought he would when we went in at 4 months, but I'm pretty sure he has caught back up to his average 2 pound a month weight gain, if not more. HA!

I'm all about taking a million pictures in order to get one perfect picture for the blog. In my mind, the picture above is not the perfect picture to capture what I think Bryce looks like, but it is the perfect picture to capture the rolls and jowls that he has gained since last month!

Here is an update as to what Bryce is up to these days:

• He is still wearing size 2 diapers
• He is wearing 3-6 months clothes
• He likes waking up A LOT during the night (he didn't use to do this), but a pacifier will put him right back to sleep
• He takes a 2 hour nap everyday and sometimes more!

• He can roll over to his right side to his belly and back to his back
• He LOVES talking to his daddy
• He laughs when we tickle his neck
• His eyes are hazel (we think)

Yum-O

Have you ever tried nutella? I am absolutely obsessed with it. I try not to buy it often because I could eat an entire jar in one sitting. HA! It has been a while since I have had any and I almost bought some at the store the other day, but I fought the urge. It just so happened that my Nanny had an ENORMOUS jar of nutella at her house when we went and visited on Saturday and she sent it home with me. Not a good idea for a girl who is desperately trying to lose pregnancy weight. Oh well..............someone was going to have to eat it.

My favorite way to enjoy nutella is with pretzel snaps! What is your favorite snack?

Recipe Blog Hop

I decided to give the blog hop a try this week. Hopefully I can figure it out. Ha!

Crab Dip in a Bread Bowl

This is my most favorite dish to take to gatherings!

Ingredients:

11 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 small onion, finely chopped

5 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 (6 ounce) cans crab meat, drained and flaked

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 (1 pound) round loaf Italian bread

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine cream cheese, onion, mayonnaise, crab meat, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Spread into a baking dish.

Bake for 20 min.

While the dip is baking, cut a circle in the top of the bread and scoop out the inside to create a bread bowl.

Tear the removed bread into pieces for dipping.

Remove baked crab dip from the oven and stir well.

Spoon the mixture into the hollowed out loaf.

Place bread bowl and chunks of bread on a medium baking sheet.

Bake for 10 additional minutes.

Serve hot.

*I usually serve it with crackers too. It's so good that the bread pieces don't last long! ENJOY!

Getting Ready

I'm counting down the days until we introduce Bryce to real food! I feel kind of bad saying that because it's like I'm trying to make him grow up too fast, but I look forward to all the fun things he gets to do as he gets older! We're going to try rice cereal at 5 months, which happens to be THIS Saturday. Can you believe it?!? I've been looking for a high chair so he can eat in a big boy chair, but I have not been able to find one that I like. I decided to get a tray for the Bumbo instead. This way he can sit on the table and eat with us. Unfortunately after a few meals of real food he may be too big for the Bumbo. Ha! Just look at those rolls.

He looks like he knows what he is doing. Hopefully he will sit that straight and still when it really is time to eat. Wishful thinking!

If he could talk I'm pretty sure he would be saying, "Where's the food?"

Now he is saying, "I guess I'll just have to eat my hands if you aren't going to give me anything."

He knew there was suppose to be something on the tray for him so I gave him a toy. Hopefully that doesn't encourage him to play with his food. I'm sure he will do that anyway!

You can never have too many pictues of this cutie

Feet for dinner

I've been waiting for the day that Bryce could get his feet in his mouth

This is Bryce taking a nap. Ha! More like play time in the crib to tire him out for a nap. He goes right to sleep at night when we put him in his crib, but he hasn't figured out how to do that during the day for a nap. He rolls around and wedges himself into the corner and then finally falls asleep.

Once he gets himself wedged into the corner, he puts his hands out and holds on to the rails.

Too cute

A visit to Suffolk

We took a trip to Suffolk today to visit Nanny and Poppy. Bryce was such a good boy. He usually sleeps in the car, but not today. He was wide awake on the way down there and on the way back, but he was good the whole time! He has been taking a 2 hour nap everyday, but not today. He decided he needed to be awake for the whole trip since he doesn't get to see Nanny and Poppy very often.

Poppy enjoyed holding Bryce

Bryce enjoyed riding in Nanny's lap on the way to visit Poppy

We picked Nanny and Poppy up and took them to lunch at Wendy's. They can't turn down a chocolate Frosty! Mama and Nanny ran some errands while the rest of us relaxed and watched tv. When everyone got back, we enjoyed this lovely cupcake rainbow cake. Isn't it cute?! We stopped at the Tasty Treat on the way home to get the rest of our sugar fix for the day. They have the BEST soft serve.

Where's Bryce?

Jason loves playtime with Bryce. He enjoys putting stuff over Bryce's face and asking, "Where's Bryce?" Normally, Bryce wiggles and squirms because he doesn't like having his face covered. So Jason uncovers him and says, "There he is." Well as of today, Bryce doesn't mind having his face covered and he plays along with the game on his own. Check out this video Jason made tonight. I just love how wide open his eyes are when he takes the blanket off!

Pictures of Bryce

I found some random pictures on my camera so I decided to post them.

Nana and Pappy bought Bryce a life jacket so he would be safe and legal on the boat the next time we go out. I think it will fit better once we put him in the water with it on.

Bryce is putting everything in his mouth these days. We keep waiting for a tooth to pop up.

I love a boy in plaid pants. I have to put them on Bryce because Jason won't wear plaid!

Are You Following??

I have recently become obsessed with blogging. It might be due to the fact that I have an incredible amount of time to kill now that I'm at home with Bryce. I'm curious as to how many people are following our blog. I love blogging for our 7 known followers (as seen in the followers window on the sidebar), but I would love to know how many of you are closet followers. If you want to come out, simply click on the join this site button on the followers window on the sidebar!

Ugh......

Yes, this site is ALL about Bryce, but I couldn't help myself. Jon Gosselin is just trash! I loved their family and their show and I felt so bad when they announced their divorce. I don't feel so bad for him anymore. I realize they are divorcing because they are not happy anymore, and people move on, but SO soon?? I feel so bad for their kids when they see this on the front of a magazine in the grocery store. Just a SAD story.

taco night

Last night we went over to Justin and Beth's for tacos. Don't the newlyweds look happy! Bryce was an absolute angel last night. I'm not sure if he liked being away from home and in a new setting or if he just loved 2 hours of attention from his daddy! We may need to have taco night every week!

As you can see, Bryce loves his daddy and he misses him SO much during the day. Bryce didn't fuss at all while we were at their house. Daddy is good at entertaining. Bryce enjoyed listening to his daddy talk about guns and hunting as long as he was patting his back.

We forgot to bring a bib............can you tell?!? I just love the little drop of drool on his chin. You would think Bryce has about 5 teeth coming in with the amount of drool he produces, but he has NONE.

So excited to finally get some family photos.