Joseph wanted to buy the Classic Monopoly, but I had other ideas…JJ loves swiping the bank card to buy properties and pay rent. This was a fun buy!
PS: JJ did win game #1, haha…she better be glad I wasn’t playing, she would have lost!
Monopoly Ultimate Banking Board Game (Amazon Exclusive)
I have had a love for pictures for a long time! It started with those throw away cameras and getting my Mama to develop the actual pictures after I came home from church camp and then I remember the first digital camera I got, it was about the size of my hand and then I remember my parents getting me another 2 really nice digital cameras over the course of the years. My external hard drive crashed and I lost all those pictures I took in middle and high school. I was literally sick to my stomach! Since then I have started backing up to Amazon Drive and an external hard drive.
Anyways, when I was in college I saved up my money and bought a DSLR and was able to get some really great pictures especially of sports and then capturing those still portraits with that blurred background made me really fall in love with taking pictures.
I learn something new about that camera almost each time I pick it up! I love following photographers while they are taking pictures of my family. I read tutorials and watch YouTube videos to learn about different features of the DSLR.
Joseph may get annoyed at the number of pictures I make him take, but he loves looking back over the ones that I have taken over the years. I love that just as simple as a snapshot in the house looks so high quality!
I’ve had mine for almost 10 years, but this is the next series that replaced mine. There are so many options–the big brands in SLR are Nikon and Canon, I went with Nikon because I had use my friends who had Nikons.
Nikon D3500 W/ AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Black
I also highly recommend the flash that I got to help light up faces when you are indoors.
Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
And then my favorite, most used lens is my 35mm because it blurs the background nicely in a close up picture.
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras,2183,Black
If you are just getting started with taking pictures then don’t feel like you have to buy all the bells and whistles that I have listed here, the camera itself will be enough to start with and give you lots of amazing pictures!
Editing–when I first got into photography, someone told me for every hour of taking pictures, I would spend another hour editing. I needed to start our simple, so I went with Photoshop Elements. There are not too many features allowing me to focus my learning on just a few ways to edit. I love to be able to take items out of background easily so the eyes can focus on the subjects of the picture. And then brightening up the colors is another favorite of mine!
I love this fancy, electric brush that JJ can handle herself and the results are amazing!
Crocs were a bad shoe for JJ when she was little, she would always fall. But Luke and Daddy wear theirs almost daily! And I sometimes slip into Daddy’s Camo pair to walk Rocky, haha.
Crocs Classic Realtree Clog | Camo Men and Women, Khaki, 15
Crocs Kids Coast Clog (Toddler/Little Kid) Black 1 Little Kid M
Teachers if you don’t have a keypad on your laptop then you are going to want to spend some extra dough on this wireless keypad that hooks up to your laptop through a USB adapter.
We have lots of stuff to charge and give power to…2 phones, 2 tablets, sound machine, so this power hub helps me make sure that we don’t leave behind any cords devices-everything is right in one place.
I love this piece of technology for my iPhone and getting pictures easily transferred to my computer for storage on my external hard drive and Cloud spaces. We all know I take lots of pictures and videos and I run out of space on my iPhone backup space so I need to move my cell phone pictures and videos quite often.
SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad – SDIX30C-032G-GN6NN, Black
I didn’t have one issue my first time around with breastfeeding JJ. But Luke’s time around was awful- multiple clogged ducts that were so painful. I quickly bought one of these and was able to work some of the blockages out before it became a real problem like the 1st time I went to the hospital not knowing what in the world was happening to my body!
Might be a good gift for a first time Mama who is going to breastfeed or Mama buy it for yourself just to have in the breastfeeding kit as a JUST IN CASE resource.
We know I take a ton of pictures on my SLR Camera and sometimes I don’t feel like editing on my computer, so this cool little piece of technology allows me to take the pictures from my memory card straight to my iPhone. So convenient!
Another cute pair of shoes gifted by Mama for Christmas! Hey Dudes are not just for guys like I thought…so comfy and cute!
Hey Dude Girl’s Wendy Youth Cheetah, Size 2
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