camera issues

ok people. as some of you know, because you were there, my piece of crap digital camera decided to stop working properly at my cousin's wedding about two weeks ago. see the camera to the left? it's $600 of which i have $348. this is the camera i shall be saving up for. in the meantime, pictures and most likely blogs will be sporadic. sorry. it's hard to blog w/out pics...but hopefully by the summer i shall have the new camera. maybe. we need to build a toddler/dog-safe deck around the pool and replace the fence on our left in the backyard. so we'll see. and there is a trip to san francisco in may for hillary's birthday visiting jordanne (and hopefully lindsey will join us too! sisters wknd!!! woo hoo!). anyways...i'll do what i can. so if i do blog, it may be pictureless. my apologies.

FOR DANAE (our landscape architect)

here it is. hope you can hear me.

new wheels...someday. maybe late spring??

this is a toyota 4runner. it has been my dream car for many many years now. in fact, in 2004 hillary failed to tell me she got one until i saw it in person for fear i'd be crazy jealous. i wasn't, but envy does exist. :)

now i'm going to tell a little story. we, the neills, ventured to eastern oregon for fun in the snow around new years. our friends have two dogs of similar ages to ours and so our doggies were also invited. well...needless to say, the camry is just not the vehicle for such things. sparky was on the lap of the passenger and leo's bum was on the back of the backseat while his head rested on the middle console up front. he's already too big! and he's only due to get bigger.

so...with our standard of living increase we thought we might be able to swing a car/truck payment. initally we were thinking of an actual truck and getting a canopy put on. so we went to find out about the tacoma double cabs. they are an excellent truck. totally feels like a car while driving, spacious, decent gas mileage (for a truck). but....since i do so love the 4runner i wanted to try driving one of those too (well rob did the driving. we dont' own it and i'm not used to the length...). well. they had just happened to have a 2006 4runner being inspected. it wasn't even detailed and cleaned yet. but IT had the moonroof! and the back has a pull out shelf which eliminated my concern of not enough room when camping. plus it was big enough for both dogs and two kids and ice chests and could tow a camper and an additional canopy wasn't needed because its all enclosed. it was beautiful. trouble was it was a v8. gas issue. really want only the v6 (our towing capacity really doesn't need to be that much). it was love.

but we came home and talked about. slept on it. and woke up realizing that we could probably do a $250 car payment but...we wouldn't have money to have fun with the vehicle...so we'll wait and see how things go for me and something part time. but one day in the near future i do hope to be posting pictures of my very own 4runner. maybe even a 2009 which comes with gps and DUAL CLIMATE CONTROL. that would be soo awesome!

dumb dog :)

we saw marley and me yesterday and came home with much love for our doggies. leo must've been feeling the vibe because for about 2 hrs afterwards he was a complete dork chasing his tail and "talking" to us. so here's a snippet. he's so funny. having a younger dog is so different than an old farty one.

our first snow in our new house

leo leo wanted to bring his popsicle baby in...but no. it had to stay outside.

apparently the wind blew. there was snow even on the chairs and table.

it looks so big all white!

view from the front

and yet another view from the front.

the kids were out in it early. two hours was long enough. now we're in for crazy coldness for these parts. looks like this isn't the end of the snow for this week. woo hoo!

these are pictures!!

ah ha ha! finally got film for my old fashioned camera and a sunny day at 3pm in november produces excellent light...

so here are pics worthy of having my name attached to them!

look at sweetie in the corner!

an inside shot that turned out nice

this one is just gorgeous. i LOVE this picture. :)

discovered costco does an excellent job of transferring my film to digital format. so stoked to have found this out! woo hoo! gives me hope that i will indeed survive a bit happier until i can afford a truly awesome digital camera.

our first christmas tree in our new house...

so here it is...our tree (flash off). it's 7 ft tall. our tallest yet...so we don't have enough ornaments.
but we should next year. altho' there is the kitty issue, so no ornaments on the last bit anyhow.
but a squirt of lemon water seems to do the trick. we're still in the learning stage however. :)

and here's our pellet stove all a-glow keeping us toasty warm. so wish i didn't have to use the flash...

and here's leo. just cause he's so cute. :)


we are so excited for our first christmas here! since we have a big enough house we're hosting a christmas party for rob's side of the family (all but my mother in law lives in oregon). its hopefully the first annual family christmas party. we're so stoked we can do it! i have such amazingly fond memories of the carey christmas parties, i feel blessed to begin a similar tradition for my kids.
and since we are having it next week (the 13th), yesterday (the 2nd) was the soonest we have ever purchased a tree. it looks so perfect! we couldn't have found a better one and only $25. next year we'll add lights to the outside. :)