Ain't Got No Camera Blues

It's just killing me not to have any pictures of Christmas. My camera broke earlier this month, and we are broke, too, coincidentally. So no camera for me. Thankfully, I was able to take lots of photos with Nelda's camera (my mom-in-law), but I didn't bring any CDs to burn them on. So I will have to wait til next time we visit to get the pictures. I do have video though. I'll have to clip together a little video when I get a chance (still crashing from the usual "after Christmas" let-down).

I made do during Bailey's birthday party by taking video with our little flip camera (you can snap photos from the video), and I broke out my good 'ol 35 mm from way back in the day which coincidentally is also a Canon Powershot like my poor broken camera. My dead camera was 3.1 mega pixels and was our major purchase that year, about 3 or 4 years ago, I think, and that was pretty darn good at the time. It cost us almost $300.

I was just at Wal-mart pricing cameras to see how much I will have to save up to get one, and you can get a 6 mega pixel camera for $85. Wow. They sure have gone down in price. But just like last time, I will get on the net and spend a good while researching to see how I can get the best bang for my buck: the features that are important to me for the least moo-lah. This time around, one of the most important features for me is the shutter lag time. I loved my Powershot; it took some really great, clear pictures, but the shutter lag time and time between shots was a little annoying. When you are trying to get a good shot of all the kids in front of the Christmas tree and you miss that split second money shot when they were all smiling at once - you just want to curse because it ain't gonna happen again. That was it. I keep trying for several minutes more; I always do, but it just ends in someone crying, someone screaming and the rest sighing in agony wondering when it will end!

Image stabilization also would be nice, but I'm not sure if I can get it in my price range. Gotta research! I will have to save up for a few months or more (taxes are due at the end of January, this time of year is always hard for us, especially if I have not done a great job at the budget, as is the case for this year - still not used to having 4 kids), but I would like to spend under $200, might have to settle for less than $150, depends on how I can control the budget. Pictures are precious to me, so maybe I will be motivated to do better this year.

I've already started planning my budget. I have a simple Excel spreadsheet Dan made for me to keep track of expenses and so I am not late on any bills. Email me if you want a copy: carriemays@gmail.com. Although I am sure Quicken or something like that is probably much better because it does the math and all, but this works really well for me. I got a calculator right here. I ain't afraida no math. It is like my Precious Moments bill organizer that I got from the kids' school fundraiser that ran out after December. I made it last for 2 years. In my own makeshift organizer, I print the table for inputting data on one side of card stock paper, then cut another piece of card stock into 2 pieces. I take one of those pieces and hot glue it to the back of the paper on the bottom, so it is a pocket for keeping your receipts and bill statements. I make 12 of them, one for each month, hole punch it and put it in a pocket brad folder, so you have more folder space for other things like stamps for mailing bills, special statements like taxes, etc. It's really nice to have all that stuff handy in a folder like that in case a bill doesn't come in the mail, or if you are like me mail just gets scattered around the house by little gremlins, so you can see the date it is usually due and look at the previous month to get the amount you paid. With 4 kids, right now all that I can seem to do right is make sure the kids are fed like they should be, and I only get that right because I have 4 kids saying "I'm hungry," every few hours. They might not always tell you they've pooped their pants, but they will surely tell you when they're even slightly hungry! Anything else is easily and most surely forgotten unless I have some sort of reminder set up, like my bill book, my Google calendar, the alarm on my watch. My life: crazy and unpredictable. And right now, not being documented with pictures...

I hope to rectify this soon. I'll check back later with my camera research!

Happy Holidays!
and my favorite holiday saying...
Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Bailey Turns 2 Today!

We just had a small family party - well, not that small since there are six of us! Bailey is still getting over a cold, but he had some good fun tonight at his birthday bash.

If you have time (about 11 min), here's a video mix (on Google video) of Bailey's 2nd birthday party: Party Video.

I love the look on his face as he watched his lit up cake when we sang happy birthday to him.

He seemed to enjoy himself, and we had fun watching him enjoy himself. We recycled some of Savanna, Dallas, & Noah's old toys, but he didn't care. He's my clean little man; he was sure to pass along his pieces of trash before continuing to unwrap his gifts so as not to make a mess with the wrapping paper. It's really funny if you listen to what Savanna is saying in the background as Bailey opens the gifts. She was there when we wrapped a couple of them. Of course, she was a little jealous, so we gave her a recycled gift as well. You can hear some of Bailey's words - trash, ball, car (go-go), Chelsea (for "dog," our dog's name), and also his screaming to get attention amidst all the chaos. Plus, he ate chocolate cake without making a mess on his clothes or eating area, a HUGE improvement over last year. I'm sorry you couldn't be there, but it was short and sweet, just like Bailey likes (he's little on patience), so enjoy the video!

Happy Birthday, Bailey!



Here's some more photos from the birthday bash:

Peek-a-Boo!

Mmmm, chocolate cake:


A "ba-ba"

A "go-go"

Hello?

Right here, Savanna said, "It's a box of shoes!" We all got a kick out of that comment!

Savanna's gift:


Checkin' out the go-go:

Daddy's girl:

Bye-Bye!