We Joined The Circus

Well, not exactly, but we did enjoy ourselves at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus that came to town here in Colorado Springs. On Saturday night, Rebecca and Genna got to go to the circus while I was working in the Box Office. Here they are during the first half:

Right now, Genna's thinking, "How can I sneak away from mom to go pet that tiger over there?" Well, she never got the chance, but we did get to see the tigers after intermission when I joined them. It was pretty awesome! As you can see, I might have liked them even more than Genna did.

The tigers were the greatest part of the show.

Genna is so tired, she looks dazed.

This is Genna the next day with her elephant. I took Rebecca and Genna to meet the promoter of the show, and she gave us this sweet elephant.

Love Affair with a Banana

I've had this post in my drafts for a few months now, and decided to post it.  As mentioned previously, Genna loves bananas.  Here is a photo essay for you to enjoy.

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It began with mushing, then progressed to slicing. Eventually, she wanted sections or even to bite by herself.

The end.

Cookie Monster

Since she was about 9 months old, Genevieve has been learning a few "baby" signs.  It has been so great to be able to communicate with her, and even better, for her to be able to communicate with us.  (Check out my sister's blog for a video of Genna signing.)

A short list of her current vocab includes: more, all-done, milk, juice, thirsty, hungry, please, thank you, car, dog, Dad, cracker, cheese, and her new favorite - cookie.

Reid and I stopped by the grocery store a few days ago to grab something we needed for dinner.  As soon as we got inside, Genna said and signed, "cookie."  Reid looked at me, and I admited that I often (ok, almost always!) get her a free cookie to nibble on while I am comparing prices and getting awesome deals.  (No, that's not bragging.  It's true!)

Anyway, we were in a hurry, so we grabbed what we needed and headed for the check-out.  Since it was just after 5 pm, the store was very busy, and there were a few people in front of us.  Genna was getting antsy, so Reid decided to just let her walk around, and he would follow her.  I waited in line, quickly reading in a magazine as much of the story about Jon and Kate as I could before it was my turn.  I finished checking out, and they still weren't back.  As I headed for the door, I saw Reid carrying Genna through the produce department, holding something....

Apparently, as soon as Reid set Genna down, she walked directly to the bakery where the free cookies are.  Smart girl, right?  Or maybe we go to the store too much?  In my defense, the store is right around the corner, so we often go more than once a week (I buy what will fit into the stroller bottom).

These pictures are not of the store cookie - she ate that before we could get home to our camera, so this is a cookie I made.  That's right.  I let my daughter eat two cookies in one day.

This is one of the signs that says as well as signs (others are Dad, shoes, car, juice and cracker), so I was hoping I could catch it on video.  No such luck.  As soon as I pressed "record," she gave me this clueless look like, "What are you talking about, Mom?  I don't know anything about any 'cookie'."

"All-done!"

I'm Back!

Well.  It's been over a month, and if I'm being honest, closer to two months.  I can't believe that I missed the entire month of May!  I suppose I have been spending my time focusing on other things, but I miss blogging and I KNOW you all miss me.

Right?

So, I've got a few great blog posts coming up in the next few days, plus (hopefully) some new pictures.  Get excited!

P.S. Does anyone know how to get comments emailed to you?

Genevieve, our Court Jester

As we were sitting around after our delicious Easter dinner tonight (pictures forthcoming!), Genna started laughing hysterically with her tongue sticking out. It was so funny, we just had to take a video. I can see it now...Genevieve, the Class Clown!





P.S. Genna went on her Easter egg hunt today! My dad recorded it, and I'll post an edited video after I get a chance to cut it down from 6 minutes. I think only my sister and possibly Genna's cousin would watch the entire video.

April Showers on My Calendar

April has been and is going to be CRAZY!!! Let's see...we went to Denver to visit Reid's cousins for General Conference, my parents and little brother flew in yesterday and leave Wednesday, Reid's parents fly in Wednesday and leave Sunday, that next week I have something almost every evening (three things that I must plan/prepare for), that Saturday is packed as well, and then the following weekend, Genna and I fly to Utah for Women's Conference and my sister's graduation. Whew - aren't you tired just reading that?

So. I am determined not to let this craziness destroy my renewed determination to stay connected through blogging and commenting (or exercise, but that's another story...). This will just give me more to blog about, right? :)

How do YOU organize your digital photos?

I'm putting out a call to all my blogging and picture-taking friends (and friends of friends):

How do you organize your digital photos? I've been thinking about this for some time now, and decided I should find a better a system while I have only a few thousand photos (almost 5,000) instead of a million. :)

Currently, my photos are basically just organized chronologically, with a folder for each month. But, I don't remember what exciting events happen each month, or even in which month an exciting event happened. We have a Mac, so I use iPhoto (I used Picasa on our old PC, which I also really liked). iPhoto (are you supposed to capitalize the "i" if it's at the beginning of a sentence? Look how Apple has affected our grammar...) automatically creates "events," which can be helpful in some cases. For example, I could have an event titled "Genna's birthday" or "Day at the zoo," which is clearly more descriptive than "May 2007."

But what about random, everyday pictures that are not part of an event? I don't want to create a new event (or folder) every time Genna gets a new outfit or I make a beautiful meal. I can also create labels or keywords for the photos which are searchable, but I guess I haven't yet figured out an efficient way without creating too many labels.

Do you have a separate folder for each person? Do you use labels, and what categories do you use? ("Family" or "Mom" and "Dad," etc.) How do you find the best photos? And what about pictures with more than one person in them? What program do you use?

So, what do you do? Maybe you just throw all your photos into "My Pictures" and never look at them again. If so, perhaps you will get an idea or two from some other comments. :) Please share your tips (Mac and PC alike) for organizing your digital photos. I can't wait to hear all your brilliant ideas.

P.S. Should we have a contest? Maybe the person with the most digital photos should win something! I'll think about some kind of awesome prize, and get back to you. Thanks for sharing!