Quick question for all of you out there

Jake bought me a fancy Cannon digital SLR camera for Christmas and I have still yet to really capitalize on using it to take great pics and see all the cool things it can do. I have taken a a lot of photos with it but I don't think they have turned out that great because I don't have a photo editing program like Photoshop or anything. I always see pics on other people's blogs and wonder how they get their pics to look so nice and polished. Plus I hear that some photo editing programs can help in doing digital scrapbook type stuff, so I just don't know what to get.

SO.... I am putting my question out into the great blogsphere for help: If you use a photo editing program, which one do you use and why? Also how much did you pay for it and do you think that it was worth what you paid and/or in hindsight do you wish you would have gotten another program?

Any comments and suggestions you can leave me would help me tremendously.......Thanks!

A funny conversation

So I was working today downstairs and my instant messenger pops up and Jake and I had the following conversation:

Jake says:
Do you know why the Oreo cookies are soggy?
Allison says:
they are? Abby got into them earlier but I didn't think she did anything to them. I have no idea how they got soggy though unless she put her mouth on them when I wasn't up in the kitchen.
Jake says:
I think she sucked on several and then put them back!
Jake says:
There are little teeth marks!
Allison says:
I went downstairs to do the laundry and came up and she had Oreo on her face but they were all sealed so I though she just took one out and ate it, that's hilarious!

Jake says:
There are a couple of good ones. Do you care if I eat them?
Allison says:
no go ahead, that stinker we shouldn't have left them out last night, note to self Abby cannot be left alone with cookies apparently, what a funny girl!

This is how we found her the other night when I went in to check on her.......she makes us laugh every day!

Abby-What a girl!

So I have to write these down before I don't forget them. Abby has been talking and singing a TON lately and she is coming up with the funniest things to say, for example:

-When I was scolding her for being naughty and telling her to be nice she says to me, "Mommy, I grumpy, I havin a hard time."

-When I told her not to touch the hose because I was trying to water our tree she came in the house with an excited expression and said, "Mommy I've got idea(I've got an idea), let's play game!" When I asked her what game she wanted to play she said, "with the water!" Like if we played a game of course she would get to play in it.

-When she goes into another room she holds up her hand and says, "Mommy (or Daddy) stay right dere (there)."

-When Abby does something she's not supposed to and I tell her that she wasn't supposed to do that she looks at me and says, "It's OK Mom, it was an assident (accident)."

-When I find Abby getting into things she really isn't supposed to be touching like my jewelry, makeup, etc, and tell her I don't want her touching my stuff she says, "We're sharing Mommy, it's OK." Because I have tried to teach her about sharing her own things apparently she thinks that if she wants anything else she can say we're "sharing" and it's fair game.

-After going to the air show Abby has been infatuated with airplanes and we see them often living near the base. Well we were driving the other day and she says, "Look Daddy, an airpane (airplane).......naah, it's just a birdy.

-I often ask Abby, "what does a ______ say?" Well right now her favorite Disney movies are Toy Story 1 & 2 so I was asking her what Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and Woody say. Well those who know Woody, he says, "There's a snake in my boot." So I asked Abby, "What does Woody say, there's a snake in my.......?" and Abby replied very enthusiastically "Butt!" Not quite, but it made me laugh so hard the rest of the day.

-When she sees letters or numbers on something like a shirt, or billboard she says "Look Mommy, ABC's!" well the other day we were driving and she saw the "U" on the side of the mountain and she said "Look Mom, a yetter (letter)!" I proceeded to tell her that it was the letter "U" and I said, "Yep, that's the letter "U", and my darling daughter replied, "Yep, that's the letter ME!"

-She also loves to sing "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie and "A Camping We Will Go" and the "I Love You" song from Barney, and she must hug and kiss me every time she sings it. According to her aunt Marci she has pretty good pitch, but that's from hearing her sing over the phone. :) When I try to make her sing other songs that she knows she will stop me in the middle of it and say, "No, no, I don't like dat (that) song!"

-So Abby is also talking back quite often these days---nothing like a typical 2 year old of course, so right now I am trying to teach her that she needs to speak nicely to Mommy, so I will say, "Abby, you be nice." and she points her finger right back at me and says, "No Mommy, you be nice!" or when I am frustrated I will say, "Abby, knock it off!" and without missing a beat she says, "No Mommy, you knock it off!" I don't even think she knows what "knock it off" means but our little Abby is a force to be reckoned with. Jake and I have both commented that we hope she has the will and desire to do what is right as she gets older because she has such a strong will that she will want to mow us right over to get what she wants.

Her attempt to put sunscreen on without her Mommy's help, she did it in the other room and then said, "Mommy, I need help with dis (this)!"

-One moment Abby will be lipping off and then the next moment though she will come over and hold onto my leg or hug me and say, "Mommy, I' lobe (love) you." and her new favorite thing to say to Jake is "Daddy, I love you so much." Also when she wakes up in the morning she gets this high pitched and soft voice and says, "Good morning, Mommy," or "Daddy" or "Tate."

-On a grosser note, but I do need to document it; Abby can't stand having a runny nose or "boogies" as she calls it. Whenever she cries and throws a tantrum, she gets more mad because her "nose is runnin" or she says in a sad or upset voice, "I got a boogie Mommy (or Daddy), get it!"

And finally I know that my kid watches me like a hawk because when I want to swear what usually comes out is something like, "shibit" or "sheeba" and we were driving in the car once, and I can't even remember what made her say it but she says, "Aahh shibit." Jake looks at me and says, "I wonder who that came from." But on a better note it's funny to watch Abby say things to Tate that I say to him like "You're a truba maker (trouble maker) or "Tater bug."

We love our Abby, we wouldn't know how to make it through the day without the funny things she says and does!

Abby trying to stay warm with her blankie. Here she is ready for Mardi Gras!

Our Tater Bug

Our little Tate is turning 3 months this week, and I can't believe how big he is getting. At his 2 month appointment his stats were:

Weight: 14 lbs.--90% percentile
Length: 24 inches--85% percentile

He is already in 3-6 month clothes and is our chubby monkey! I have already moved the straps up in our car seat because he is getting longer, and our swing doesn't swing as fast because he's so big. The things that he is doing right now are:

--sleeping almost through the night! About 6-7 hours straight
--cooing and smiling alot
--kicking like crazy
--discovered his hands and likes to lift them in front of his face
--He loves to sleep on his belly (we know that's bad) so we try to make him sleep on his side but he doesn't like it as much.
--He hates to sleep on his back.
--He doesn't like his bouncy chair that vibrates, every time I turn it on he squirms and cries.
--Sleeps well in his car seat and travels really well, we have had a couple of road trips and rhino rides and he has done great.
--Drinking between 6 and 8 oz. each feeding, and he does not like it when you stop feeding him to burp...he cries and fusses until the bottle goes back into his mouth.
--He has had some health problems with blood in his stool, but we think it was the formula he was on and after switching him he is doing much better.

The best thing about Tate is his easy and happy temperament, and he is a total snuggle bug which Jake and I love! Abby was never much for snuggling, and when you hold Tate he snuggles right into you and would probably snuggle all day if we let him. My favorite thing is to have him sleep on my chest. I loved carrying him in my sling because he would cuddle with me while I went about doing tasks but now he is getting too big to carry him like that in my sling.
We just love our little Tater-bug! Everyone told me that I would love having a boy and they were right, he has been such a wonderful addition to our family and brings a neat spirit into our home! Here are some pics of our little man!

Our recent pics

This is what we have been up to in the last couple of months, I can't figure out how to put it in the body of our blog so just click on it and enjoy!

What a week--part 2--Tate in the NICU

Tate was born with a bang on Wednesday, March 4, 2009. He was doing really well, and besides a little jaundice everything was going accordingly. He was nursing well which was encouraging because Abby wasn't much of a nurser. They decided to put him under the fluorescent billirubin lights late in the day on Friday, March 6th because we were going to be there a few more days because of my C-section, we decided it would be good that he could be under the lights and get rid of the jaundice before we left the hospital and then were wouldn't have to worry about having to put him under the lights at home like we did with Abby.

Well on Saturday our pediatrician came to me and said that it looked like we would need to start supplementing Tate with formula because he had lost 1 pound, his billirubin count was still high, and his urine was really brown which was concerning for the pediatrician. Initially I was upset that I had to start supplementing because I was hoping that the nursing thing would go better this time and I wouldn't have to do formula, but I wanted to do what was best for the baby. Because his urine was brown the pediatrician ordered a urine analysis to be done to find out exactly why. The initial analysis looked "dirty" according to the lab, ordered another one to be done via catheter. They told us we would most likely have the results back late Saturday afternoon.

The doctor called us with the results and said he was concerned because again his urine was brown and looked dirty so he called a urologist at Primary Children's to see why that was. The urologist stated that it could possibly be a fistula which happens when the stool mixes with the urine because there are problems with the bowels and rectum. But Tate had already had a few bowel movements and his rectum looked intact so our doctor was perplexed. He told us that we would most likely discharge on Sunday and then take Tate up to Primary Children's on Monday to run some tests to see what was going on.

I was pretty upset and hormonal of course because we didn't really know how serious the situation was and we most likely weren't going to get answers for another day or so. On Saturday night Jake had taken Abby to get something to eat with his family and I had called my sister Katie to tell her what was going on. Being the sweet sister that Katie is she could that I was upset so she decided to come and hang out with me at the hospital and keep me company. She also butted in like most older sisters do and asked my Dad to come over to the hospital to give Tate and I a priesthood blessing for health and comfort which was very thoughtful. I was grateful for my family's concern and support.

The next day on Sunday I went to my discharge class, and in the middle of it my pediatrician came to come and talk to me. He told me that he had been on the phone with more specialists after he had spoken with me the previous night and said that he wasn't convinced that Tate had a fistula and that is why his urine was brown. He said it was more likely that Tate was ultra dehydrated because he hadn't been getting much liquid from me like we thought and then we had him under the billirubin lights for his jaundice. So Dr. Ebherhard said that he was going to admit him to the NICU to be put on some fluids to see if that helped the brown urine. He also said that they would be able to run further tests to make sure everything else was OK. Honestly when he told me that I was relieved that hopefully that was all the problem was. So they admitted him into the NICU, and we weren't able to go home with him which was hard but OK because we felt better that he was getting the care he needed so he would be 100% when he came home. The only other hard thing was that I needed to go to the hospital every 3 hours to feed Tate and I couldn't drive because I had a C-section. I didn't necessarily have to go to the hospital but it was the only time that I would be able to see Tate and hold him, they would allow me 1 hour to feed and hold him and then they had to put him back onto his monitors and under the billirubin lights. In fact one time I went to feed him and they had already fed him with a bottle because he had woken up early and was fussing. When they told me they had already fed him I started to cry (yes the hormones were in full swing.) Luckily my sister Katie was awesome and took me back and fourth to the hospital multiple times while Jake stayed with Abby because children weren't allowed in the NICU, and my parents and Jake's mom also took me. I initially thought that Tate would only have to be in there for a couple of days, but I didn't realize that it would take time to work Tate up to the amount of IV fluids they wanted him on and then it would take time to work his way off them because they wanted to observe how he did through the whole process of coming off the fluids to see if he would be OK without them. I am just grateful it was just a few days and not months that he had to be in the NICU, honestly I don't know how people who have to do that make it through.

So on Wednesday the doctor told me that he was doing really well and after doing a renal ultrasound, a head ultrasound and other lab workups everything was looking normal and he would most likely come home in the next few days. Well I was hoping we would be able to take him home on Thursday and sure enough we got a call from the nurse in the NICU stating that the doctor had discharged him. It was so exciting yet kind of scary because now we were bringing him home and I just didn't want anything else bad to happen. Tate's delivery had been nothing like we had planned or anticipated and it was neat to see how much love and support we had through the whole thing from our family, friends, and ward members.

It's funny how each kid is so different. Tate's pregnancy, delivery, and post-delivery were TOTALLY different and more difficult than our first time around with Abby and I have joked with Jake that he better shape up because he has been a trouble maker from the start. But really he is such a good baby and has been so fun to have in our family.

Here is Jake dressing Tate to get him ready to bring home from the NICU. (Notice the camo outfit for Tate that his Daddy picked out.)