To the Nice People

I've been pleasantly surprised lately by the niceness of random strangers. I don't live in a city full of friendly people, but apparently there still are some out there. Two days ago I was at Costco loading the trunk after doing some shopping. A greasy mechanic guy came over and lifted the large watermelon and gallons of milk into the car. Wow, I really didn't expect that. If I still lived in Utah I would, but not here. Today I was steering a large cart full of groceries out to the car and realized someone was walking right behind me. Once again a rough, grimy looking man told me he wanted to put the bags in my car for me. I was shocked again. Both times the guys that helped me did not look like friendly people, but I guess that's exactly why we aren't told to judge. My faith in humanity is being restored! Now the question is, are these people really that nice or do I look that large and uncomfortable that people can't help but feel bad for me?

Oh Happy Day

I am so excited to announce that after 2 1/2 months I finally broke down and bought a new camera! Our last camera took it's final pictures at Macie's birthday party (late March) while we were outside hitting the pinata. Sadly it met the pavement with the lens open in a moment of excitement and, well, that was the end of that. Needless to say, our video camera has gotten more use over these last few months than it ever has before, but there are still fun things I wish I could have caught in still pictures.

We prolonged buying a new camera because I wanted a major upgrade: the Canon Rebel XTi. After searching and searching for good deals, I just couldn't bring myself to spend such a large chunk of change. So I settled for a Nikon Coolpix P80, and have been very satisfied since I bought it yesterday. I feel like I got a good bridge between the SLR and a regular point-and-shoot digital camera. A big plus for me is the size; it's not small enough where I'll drop it (hopefully!), yet not too big to carry around everywhere. The quality and features are SO much better than what I've had before too. I'm looking forward to learning about cameras and sharpening my photography skills. All I remember from photography class senior year of high school was showing up late and Anna spending lots of time in the dark room. Go figure, right? I know some of you remember those days!

Of course I had to experiment with the 18x zoom, and my napping husband was the perfect subject.

Growing Up!

I realize I haven't posted any pictures of Macie in a long time. She is finally looking more her age now that we can do different hairstyles. It's long enough for little ponytails and is super curly too. I think she is such a little beauty! I am her mom after all.

We see my parents off and on pretty sporadically. My mom was last here after traveling to Utah for her doctors' appointments earlier in the month. We're expecting to see them again this coming weekend. We usually don't know too far in advance when they're coming so it's always a nice surprise! Macie loves having more people around to play dress up and give her attention, as you can see. We have no shortage of princess accessories at our house.

What cute cousins! Macie and Sadie girl are quite the pair. Even though they are almost a year and a half apart in age they act like sisters. We are going to miss her when they move next month.

Check out those curly piggytails. I love it! We're still working on growing bangs, but at least short bangs are easy to work with.

We get to see my dad even more than my mom because he comes to Vegas for short business trips every now and then. We usually don't know until the week before, and he's usually only here for a day or two. Nonetheless it's still fun! He always gets a rental car when he comes and this last trip he drove up in a minivan. We were laughing about it until we put Macie's carseat in and had room for us all to fit comfortably. Macie was upset when we got to the restaurant because she thought he was taking us to his house. She was kicking and whining saying, "I want to go to Genoa!" Poor girl, she has no concept of distance.

I should have gotten a shot of the back of her head because a little water, gel and hairspray does wonders for Macie's curls in back. She definitely doesn't get the curly hair from me.

I love my silly Macie. I can't imagine life without my little goofy girl.

Getting There

I've definitely noted by now that I am not a consistent blogger. I have had good intentions to update my blog lately, but it just doesn't happen. I'm so tired! And as usual, things are very busy with all the commotion at our house. My sister is finally hitting crunch time for her wedding (June 28th) and we couldn't be happier to start the countdown ourselves! I love Lisa, but wedding planning isn't the funnest thing in the world. Things just haven't been pretty lately trying to get invitations out, details taken care of, etc. I have a feeling this will drag out to the very end. Let's just say my sister is very young and is still learning how to be an adult.

We threw a fun bridal shower brunch for my sister earlier in the month and everything turned out great. I have gotten so bored with the traditional shower games, so we decided to spruce things up a bit and do something new. It included blindfolding the bride and having her put on a bag of clothing and accessories in a certain time frame. You can see some of the result of that in the picture below of me with my Mom and sisters Lisa and Mel. What you may not be able to notice is her reddened face. We also blindfolded people at the shower and had them apply make-up to her face. Not only was it hilarious, but the final result was even a bit scary. I don't have pictures on my computer, but you can imagine I'm sure. Needless to say, we weren't bored with those games! Too bad she cleaned it off before the picture.

My mom showed off her artistic abilites and made a great fruit tray complete with a carved watermelon. Too bad I wasn't blessed with any artistic genes. I couldn't even get the crepe paper to look nice so she had to do the decorations too. I have no creative vision. All in all things went well and we had a great time.