Early Christmas

So I got my Christmas present a little early this year. We had decided that it was time to replace our failing little digital camera with a nice digital SLR camera. Brian and I did some research and decided on a Nikon D40x, which got delivered a few days ago. We decided against wrapping it up and putting it under the tree so we could make sure it worked (in case we needed to send it back) and also so we could use it for Christmas!

I haven't had time to look at the manual yet or start the big learning curve on what all the features and options can do with this camera, but I did get it out yesterday and just played with it a little taking some random shots of the kids after school.

Here's McKay and Hannah as they walked in the door from getting off the bus:

Some other random shots of the kids...

(And by the way, on the counter there are some pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins -- a new recipe we tried. They turned out pretty good!)

After school, Hannah went over to the table and taped several pieces of paper together which she announced would become her Christmas "wish list":

I asked her why it needed to be so long and she told me there are still lots of days before Christmas to fill it up! She ended up only writing a handful of things on it.

The first on the list is ice skates (first time I've heard that request). Second on the list is a "wife" for Fasty (the name of her scooter). Funny girl. Most of the others are related to Littlest Pet Shop and when I asked her about this (since she doesn't play with all the ones she already has an awful lot), she said it was all she could think of. So I mentioned how she likes the computer (thinking computer games) and she said "Oh! A new laptop!" and promptly added it to her list. Can you tell me have too many computers in our house? :-)

After the wish list was made, Hannah decided to play beauty salon and got out the fingernail polish to paint her and Courtney's nails. She left the polish on the table and a little while later I discovered that Hayley had decided to paint her own nails too. Keeping in mind that she did it totally by herself, she really didn't do a bad job (at least none got on her clothes that I could tell).

She also did her toenails -- you can see that a lot of the toes got painted too!

And a last picture...

This is Courtney riding around the kitchen on Hayley's little bike (yes, even after I said I don't want bikes in the house). Since she got her scooter and also learned how to ride her bike, Courtney has been driving me nuts lately with consantly wanting to be outside riding. It's hard for me because I feel like I should be out watching her and helping watch for cars, etc (since she rides up and down the actual road) but I just have too many other responsibilities to spend my whole day sitting outside (as much as I'd like that). So I've decided (or maybe it's just convinced myself) that she is old enough to be out there on her own, as long as she stays within a few houses of ours (which she does). There are often neighbor kids out (with their moms) so then I don't worry quite so much. I feel like a bad/negligent mom, but I suppose it's better than her just sitting around watching TV all day. And I do go out when Hayley is out there, because she's not old enough yet to be trusted on her own.