Daylight Saving Time Ends

I got up a little earlier than usual today.  I wanted to straighten my hair, but it's been so long since I have and I wanted to try a new technique and wasn't sure how long it would take...so 4:45 was the magical hour. 

I showered and then straightened my hair...it took me only an hour and a half to straighten it!  Amazing!  In the past, it's taken me 2.5-3 hours for it to look nice and straight, but today it took less time and it looked great...if I do say so myself!  (Now I only wish I had taken a picture of it as soon as I was done!  Oh well!) 

Then I got the girls up.

As I was setting out the girls' outfits, I was running around from room to room...and when I walked into Alegria's room one of the times, Alegria was holding out a toy cupcake to Odette and singing the "Happy Birthday" song to her...and then told her to "blow it out!"  (There's a little candle on the cupcake.)  THEN she proceeded to sing the "Happy Birthday" song to herself!  Lol!  It was so cute and I thought that I had gotten a video of it...but apparently I still don't know how to work the video feature on the camera yet and only got a picture:

Odette is very interested in putting shoes on recently.  However, she's more successful at putting on shoes that are slightly big on her...

And of course, once I've taken a picture of Odette, Alegria wants a picture of herself, too!

After playing in Alegria's room for a little while (and making a big mess of it!), we went to wake Daddy up with hugs and kisses:

We went to church and even got there about 5 minutes early!  Woo-hoo! 

Church was fine.  I was afraid Odette would be fussy since she didn't get the memo on the time change and was up a whole hour early...but she actually did well for being as tired as she was.

When we got home, Cameron put her right down for a nap and she was OUT (she'd been having snacks throughout church, so we were sure she'd be fine and not need to be woken up from the sleepy daze she was in from the car ride to have lunch).

Cameron gave Alegria some lunch and I went to bed.  I was exhausted!  Cameron stayed up with Alegria and watched some football.

Once I woke up, we all just relaxed and then had some dinner. 

We played in Odette's room and I practiced taking pictures on my new camera some more:

I wish this next one would have come out better...without that funny yellowing and blur to it...!

More pics...

Attack!!!

Me.  :)

All in all, it was a wonderful Sunday!

Good night everybody!!!  :)

New Camera!

After six years of taking pictures with my beloved Canon Powershot SD1000:

I have now switched over to a Panasonic Lumix:

Unfortunately, my Canon camera has begun to have a bad pixelated blacked-out portion on the LCD screen.  It still works well, but every time I've used it since the day I saw that, I've been afraid that it will just one day not turn on when there's something I REALLY want to take a picture or video of...

Well, when Cameron was in Iraq, his camera got destroyed and so he decided on this Panasonic Lumix one as his replacement camera.  Had I known that when my Canon died that he'd just give me his (he only got a camera for when he was away...he doesn't really ever take pictures otherwise), I would have steered him towards the camera that I would have preferred.  But I didn't think that far ahead and now I'm stuck.

When I first used the Lumix, I was NOT a big fan of it...different brand, different buttons, different lots of stuff.  Well...as I've been playing around with it, I've come to like it better.  First and foremost, it's got 8x optical zoom and is 14 mega pixels (my Canon was six years old and only 3x optical zoom and 7 mega pixels)...that makes for being able to take crisp pictures from far away!  Love that!  But I'm still getting used to its other features...

Anyway.  Today was the first day that I used the Lumix...

We went to San Antonio today for our monthly trip to the Temple.  We left by 7:25 and arrived by 9:45.  We still had to wait for my parents to get out of their session to leave the girls with them, so in the meantime, we let them stretch their legs and play in the cool morning air:

Odette just HAD to go and do what Alegria was doing...

Abilehi, Sadie and Almalia waiting with us for my parents to arrive:

After our session, we still had to wait for Abilehi and Sadie to join us, so we hung out outside the Distribution Center:

Alegria and her Aunt Almalia...so cute!

Then, as is our tradition, we headed over to Whataburger for lunch.  I just couldn't get enough pictures of Odette while she ate!  Her eyes still look so big in her head!  Gotta love big baby eyes!!!

On our way home, I played around a little more with the camera.

I got a picture of Cameron and me as we waited at a stop light:

And then a few of myself using different camera features:

It's become another tradition of ours to always make a stop at Cabela's on our way home from San Antonio.  Today they had a few new faces in the aquarium!

Cameron and the girls looking at the other displays:

Cute Odette!

Cute Alegria with the moose that she kept insisting we not miss looking at!  And you may notice there's an otter in the background, too...  :)

It was a fun, fun trip, as always!  And to top off our stupendous Saturday...we made it home just in time for the LSU/Alabama game!

Night y'all!!!  :)

Head-Butt!

Today we had preschool again.  On Wednesday we focused more on the letter "J" and the number "10."  Today we focused more on the shape "square" and the color "white," but still incorporated the other two.  The craft today was "Jasper the Juggling Jester."

Since we're studying squares, I used the program "Paint" on my computer to substitute squares instead of circles on this clip art picture I found of a jester juggling.  Then I made it so that the squares were resting on a wheel and I put a slit in the hands of the jester so that the wheel could be slipped through and be turned.  I put ten squares, since we learned the number "10" this week, and that way as the children turned the wheel, they could also count all the way to ten!  I also made up a little story that I read to the children while they colored their jester and squares...to reiterate the letter "J:"

"Jasper the Juggling Jester juggled ten squares joyously while telling jokes to Judy, a Jet-flying jousting judge.  Then Jester and Judy jived in a jerky and jiggly way to the jay-filled jungle. Their lives were jeopardized when javelins jutted down from the rain-jeweled sky.  Jasper and Judy jointingly jumped onto a juniper and sang a jazzy tune while doing a jigsaw to pass the time.  They were in a jam because they were hungry and out of jelly...so they jogged to Jersey and bought a jar of jell-o, put on some jeans, and jaunted away to their jobs.  Jumping Jellyfish!  That journey would have been jiffier in a Jeep!"

They glued the story to the back of their jester.  :)

At snack time the children had juice and juicy fruit snacks in jack-o-lantern containers (that I found for 50% off after Halloween!).

Fruit snacks can stick to your teeth sometimes:

Once snack time was over, we worked on making white snowflakes.  Some children needed more help than others with the use of their scissors, but for the most part, they did pretty well.

After all of the children left, I went to get Odette from her nap.  She was glad that I had saved her a snack:



I dozed a little on the couch while the girls played...

When Daddy got home, he took the girls to the park for an hour so that I could have a little time to unwind and relax.  I took that time to clean up and vacuum.  It felt so nice to get everything back to the way it was before preschool this week!

Daddy came home with Alegria and Odette about an hour later...bearing treats of Dairy Queen sundaes!  YUM! 

Then we all just relaxed and played the rest of the evening.

While we were in Odette's room playing, I got a video of Cameron butting heads with the girls...for some reason, Odette is a head-butter!  I've been trying to get her to "kiss," but instead of using her lips...she instead butts her head against mine...and now that's become her thing!  Haha!  And of course, Alegria wants to join in on the fun!

Once the girls were in bed, Cameron put together a cube puzzle that I had given to the children at preschool today.  It was for them to see that there is a square on each side of a cube and I used it to have them count the sides and corners of the squares and then they got to take one home.  Alegria kept taking hers apart, so I kept putting it back together for her.  Cameron and I both agreed that it looks easier than it actually is!

The finished product:

Then he and I watched some college football.

Now it's off to bed!

G'night!