At The Playground

So we decided to take Miss Nona out to the playground beside our apartment a few afternoons ago.  And of course we took Miss Dixie as well.  And I took the camera, Nona is going to think the camera is a part of my body.  Anyways I took a ton of shots outside.  I loved it!  It was so much easier to take pictures outside than inside.  Natural light is so much better!

I am getting better at using my camera and understanding some of the settings.  I took a few pictures and now looking back I wish I had changed the focus point on a few and taken the picture.  But I am learning.  Just something to remember for in the future.  We did have a good time playing though, well Nona played, I took pictures, Dixie sniffed EVERYTHING, and Daddy just watched it all.

So I just had to post a few of my pictures.  I tried my hand a little bit at landscape pictures.  I found that I am much better at taking pictures of my delightful daughter, and handsome husband.  But I think I will keep trying.

I have been reading a few books trying to get some more ideas on how to use my camera.  I am looking at a few different websites, just to get a few creative ideas.  I am still unsure if I will end up taking a class or not.  Right now I am leaning towards no, but we shall see in the future.  I do pretty well learning on my own with most things.  And besides practice makes perfect and I am definitely willing to practice this craft and I am determined to succeed at it.  

So now I will leave you with this.  If you would like to go and check out more of our playground adventures go check out my Mobile Me Gallery:  At the Playground

March....

I know that this month isn't over yet, but that's okay.  If I don't write it down now, I won't remember later what happened at the first of the month.  So here goes:

We found out that little Miss Nona Leigh loves to sing.  She was holding her baby doll the other night and I asked her to sing to her baby and rock her.  Well she did and it was just too cute!  Just watch and see what happens.

Lets see, Nona Leigh has also learned to sign more.  It is so funny to watch her doing it.  I'll have to try and get a video of her doing it one night at dinner time.  Nona Leigh also had her 15 month appointment near the middle of the month.  Well she was 21.5 lbs, and 31" tall.  Her height has slowed down a little bit, she is only in the 75th percentile now.  Whereas before she was in the 95th percentile.  I am hoping this is only a momentary lapse in growth and that she won't get the short genes on my side of the family!  Come on tall genes!!

Aaron has had a great month as well.  He has been working at Hobby Lobby since November of 2010.  Well he has wanted to leave since the day he took the job, so he was applying for jobs left and right.  Well one of them contacted him and he starts next Monday.  He is so excited and so ready to be done with Hobby Lobby!  And hopefully he can teach a few lessons on the side.  No students yet, but if you know any drummers looking for a great teacher, send them our way!

Now for me, saved the best for last!  Well okay Nona's the best but this really has to do with her.  So my MIL got a new camera a few weeks ago and I have been looking at her pictures and getting more and more jealous.  Well I talked to a co-worker, and he had me sold after looking at the pictures he had taken. Well I came home and that evening talked to Aaron, and we decided to take the leap into the world of Dslr cameras.  I am so happy that we did.  It is a lot of fun to have so much control over your photographs.  And the quality of these photos is incredible!  I have only played around with it, but I have taken quite a few great pictures.

The picture above of just Nona and the one to the left of just Aaron were "lucky" shots, that actually turned out really nice.  I tweaked the picture of Aaron a bit and did a sepia coloring on it.  The first picture in my post was a shot I actually meant to take.  I just thought it was so cute.  You can tell that Nona Leigh loves her daddy!

So that is pretty much what has happened up to this point.  We have been a busy little family, and hopefully it will stay that way.  And there will definitely be more pictures in the future!!

If you want to check out the rest of my pictures that I've taken so far, check out my Mobile Me.

February....

Was a blur of a month.  And a lot of firsts for Nona.  She went on her first 10 hour car trip to Pennsylvania.  She got to meet the rest of my Mother's family, even though it wasn't under the most pleasant of circumstances.  My Grandmother had passed away after her battle with cancer.  Don't be sad, she is now with her Lord and Savior, and no longer suffering.  It was great to see family that I hadn't seen in a long time though!  And if you are wondering Nona did fantastic in the car.  Mainly because we traveled between the hours of 6pm to 2am.  Yes I am aware of the fact that is not 10 hours, but we met an ice storm on the way up, and took a shorter route on the way back.  She is such a laid back little girl that Aaron and I are afraid to have another one just for the simple fact that he/she will come out and you will be able to see the horns.  And they won't be holding up a halo.

Anyways, I digress.  On the way up to PA, I got a phone call.  A leak in the water heater in our house in TN had occurred and water was all over the first floor of the house.  Thank goodness no one was living in the house, and we had no furniture in the house.  And I thank God, every chance I get, that our real-estate agent went to the house when she did.  Otherwise we would be in even worse shape.  Well we are now in the process of getting the house "renovated" and "upgraded".  Aaron and I decided that while we are getting a lot of things fixed we should upgrade a few things to hopefully help sell the house quicker once we can get it back on the market.  As renovations go along hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures.  And on the same note as the house we are very lucky that my Father has been able to help us every step of the way.  He has been involved in just about every aspect of construction.  And therefore is really able to help us get things going with our contractor!!
 
And now something that made me laugh this month.  When my Grandma's obituary was posted in the paper, the picture of her was from when she graduated nursing school.  I got the link from one of my aunts.  So when I clicked on it I was a bit shocked, because this is what I saw:

Needless to say if anyone has seen my mother, she looks almost identical to this.  And if you know anything about me, you will know that I have always been known as "Little Debbie".  (For those of you who don't know me, Debbie is my mother and I look just like her.)  Well I let Aaron see this picture and I asked him, who does this look like.  He said wow your mom looks  just like her.  I then said to him, "Well now you know you know what I am going to look like when I am 80."  The look on his face was priceless!  

And another thing that made me laugh, in the obituary my great-grandmother's name was listed as Nora.  Well most of you who read this blog know that my daughter is named after my great-grandmother.  My mom saw the name Nora and said they got her name wrong.  My dad looks at her and says well what is it supposed to be?  My mom couldn't help but laugh and say your grand-daughter has the same name.  I love my dad, but he is a goofball sometimes.

Well I guess I have bored you enough with this extremely long post.  I'll get some March posts going soon!!

Ashley G.