The Stars have Aligned!!!

Miles watching Daddy play football Thanksgiving morning

It's true! The stars have aligned to make this the most fantastic Thanksgiving weekend ever. Last year, if you remember, I was mostly concentrating on keeping the nausea at bay because of little Miles (and all those pies unfortunately made my stomach churn), and therefore spent less time thinking about all that I was grateful for. But this year made up for it entirely. We had a blast putting up Christmas decorations the day before Thanksgiving (because Brian was going to be on-call much of the rest of the weekend), watched Daddy play football in the Turkey Trot game on Thanksgiving morning, had Thanksgiving dinner with friends so wonderful that I sometimes get confused and think they're family, and...

...and - the moment we've all been waiting anxiously for - the moment of all moments - the crowning, shining jewel -

Hooray!!! Do a dance!!! Run around!!! Shout for joy!!! My camera!!!

This awesome, new little piece of my heart has been attached to my eye ever since it came home on Friday! It truly is everything I'd dreamed it to be! And I did dream...in fact, the three nights before Black Friday, I literally lost over an hour and a half of sleep each night because I was too excited to get back to sleep after feeding Miles. I'd lie in bed snapping pictures in my mind, thinking about how I'd carry it around, which lens to get, how I'd get Carson to smile (the little stink has a camera-aversion at the moment)...as I'd drift to that place right between sleep and awake, I'd see little patches of light and get frustrated that I didn't know whether or not good pictures could be taken in it. Yes. You could call me obsessed and you'd probably be right.

Brian was on-call on Black Friday, so there was really no choice but to brave the shopping craze with all three kids in tow. I could hardly push the gas petal hard enough in my van to take me to get my camera, and when the floor employee wrote the tag for me to take to the cashier I seriously had to stop myself from hugging him. *You're an adult, Lindsay. Hugging random men is inappropriate, especially in the middle of a store. Just smile and say thank you. Control your excitement. Control...control...control.* He handed me the slip of paper and I walked briskly to the cash register. I'm fairly certain I looked like an idiot as I took the invaluable box into my arms...I couldn't help but beam with excitement! I even glanced around expecting to see the whole store turned toward me with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, whispering to one another, "Oh, look at her beaming face!" "You can tell she's wanted it for so long," "How lovely," "What a beautiful day." They weren't.

My kids were so wonderful the whole morning as I dragged them through a few more stores. They actually seemed to be having a great time! At the end of it all, I told them that that could each pick something out for $5 at Wal-Mart. McKenzie found a locket and it was seriously love at first sight. She carried it with her the whole way through the store, watched it with dismay when the cashier put it in the shopping bag, and started begging me to let her hold it the second I finished paying. "Just one second, honey," I said. "Let's get out of this crowd first." As soon as we walked outside, I pulled the cart over to the side of the building and began to open her locket. She started jumping up and down, clapping her hands together, with her mouth in a wide, open smile. I found myself beaming again, "I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!" I thought, "I just got a CAMERA!!!"

Here are two of the first pictures I took. McKenzie has had a wiggly tooth for a while now (look at those two bottom teeth!).

It's a good thing I took those pictures when I did...because the very next night:









She was VERY excited!

I still have so much to learn with this camera - - - I've been amazed at how just a tiny change in light affects the whole mood of the picture. I've also been amazed at the ability to take all of the above pictures in my house, at night, with no flash!!! (I think that's probably why some of them are a little grainy...) I can't wait to learn more - - - this is going to be fun. :)

Here are my favorite shots so far:

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!