Happy New Year

Wow another year has gone by!  The older I get the faster time escapes me.  Speaking of older, I will be hitting the bit 2-8 this month.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I feel so young, so it's hard to believe I am almost through with my 20's already! Not to mention this year will mark Ryan and I's 10TH anniversary! WOW! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  We all went through a cold during the holiday so it was both good and bad.  We had 4 separate Christmas get together's with different families.  Unfortunately with everyone's work schedules it was the only way we could see everyone.  My parents put together a really fun Christmas party for the kids and their friends in December, it was so fun!  You can see pictures of that on our smugmug. We recently switched photo storage accounts from photobucket to smugmug.  If you are a family/friend of ours and do not have the link to that please email me and I will get it to you.  It is much more user friendly and easier to navigate, I am really liking it so far.

The kids were SOO spoiled this year.  They got WAY to many gifts, my house is about to burst, I just don't know where to put it all!  Second hand stores can no longer accept toys so I am just at a loss as to what to do with some of the older toys that I'd like to get rid of.   Anyone?

Lydia is really enjoying gymnastics, I believe that will continue through till Spring.  I am not sure she will do another season, she has been telling me she would like to try dance now.  I think we may put her in ballet classes when she starts preschool if time permits.   Her preschool registration starts this Spring for the Trinity Preschool we want to send her too.  I hope to be able to get down and sign her up as soon as that opens.  It is first come first serve! That will start the end of August.   She is very excited but she also says how much she will miss me every time we talk about it.  It is the sweetest thing.. :) 

Jack and Lydia both got new bedroom furniture for Christmas.  Lydia moved up into a twin bed and Jack is now in Lydia's old toddler bed.  Lydia just loves her new room. Jack is having a little trouble transitioning.  We never had any trouble with Lydia that I recall but she was a bit older than Jack when we made the crib to toddler bed switch with her.  Most nights if I go check on Jack I will find him out of his bed and crawled up on the floor with his blankie.  He really likes to roam his room and not stay in his bed.   He is still in the into everything stage and is always climbing things or trying to get into something dangerous.  And he just knows exactly when I leave a room or walk away and he will go for something he knows is off limits.  He is quite the stinker!  He is really taking off with his speech now.  He can count and knows quite a few of his letters! He calls me "Mum" which I think is hilarious. ;)   If I ask him "why?" he says "cuz!" or if I say "Okay Jack?" He says "K".  So cute!  He loves playing with his big sis.  They dance and sing together and like to create forts and houses all over the house with blankets.  Jack got lots of cars, trucks and tools for Christmas, which is right up his alley! 

 Ryan just accepted an offer for a new job.  He starts that January 16th!  We are both excited about it.  It is a good move for him with his career and the direction he wants to go with it.  He will also get a truck to use for work which will enable the kids and I to have the car 24/7 now with will be wonderful!! I am really looking forward to that.

I recently graduated from my 3rd photography class.  I start my next on January 16th.  I have completed a Shooting 101, Shooting 201 & Lightroom 101 along with a few mini sessions on newborns, children, posing & off camera flash photography.  I will be taking Photoshop 101 this month, then I hope to take a natural lighting course this Spring when it becomes available.   Ryan purchased my Christmas present a little early (November) - I got my Nikon D7000.  I absolutely LOVE it!   Two of my sister in laws are expecting this Spring and I am so excited to take their maternity photos and newborn pictures.  I hope they turn out as well as I hope! I am really loving what I am learning and taking pictures of my family.  I just finished ordering all of the photo books for this year!  I was so behind!!  From now on I will try to do one after each event instead of waiting until the end of the year.   I do books for each of the kids birthdays, then an Easter, Halloween & Christmas book (all separate books), as well as photo book for each child with their pictures through out the year.

With the new year I'd like to continue in transitioning my family to a more Paleo/Primal diet. Mainly just more meals that do not contain grain, sugar, gluten, starch etc.  More protein and fruits and veggies. I'd also like to attempt a couch to 5k.  I have never been able to run for very long and I am hoping with this gradual program I can get my body accustomed to it.  I am planning on using this long holiday weekend to get my workout space in order downstairs so I can start soon.   Wish me luck! I will need it!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!  Bring it on 2012!!

19 Months

Our little Jack is 19 months now!

He is saying so many words now and can count from 1-10 (skipping 1, 6&7) haha   He is now saying Mama, FINALLY!  He has been saying Daddy forever!  Here's some new photos of our little man and his horse.  :)

Halloween 2011

Make a digital slideshow

Pumpkin Painting

Last Saturday the kids had a blast painting pumpkins with their cousins at Grandma Becker's house.  They painted, played, had pizza and watched pooh.  :)   Here are some photo's from last weekend.

Finally Fall

It seems like it has been forever since my last blog post.  So much has been happening in the last month!  Our yard is now complete, the only thing left to finish is a few gates.  The grass looks beautiful and I am so happy with how it turned out.  Ryan's garage is almost complete, we are waiting for the garage door to come in that we ordered and then we will be getting the brick put on the front and then Ryan will be painting it.  It will match the houses brick and color scheme.  Ryan hopes to get all that done this month, or at least before we get snow.  Then it will be on to the basement, which will be our winter project.

For some other exciting news my brother Sean and his fiance Miranda are getting married the 28th of this month, and are also expecting their first child in March!  They have asked Lydia to be a flower girl and Ryan to be a groomsman in the wedding.  Lydia is very excited to be in the wedding.  :)   Sean & Miranda find out the sex of their baby tomorrow, we are all so excited to hear what they will be expecting.   This Christmas we will be putting Jack in the toddler bed and getting Lydia a twin so we will be selling all of the nursery furniture to Sean.  I am so glad that someone in the family has use for it.  I am very happy to see it stay in the family.   I will need to buy the kids new dressers for their rooms though, and I am still undecided as to what to get.  I hope I can find something nice for a reasonable price around Christmas time. JCPenney has some cute sets that I am keeping my eye on.

Lydia is in her second month of gymnastics now and she really is enjoying it a lot.  It's not very structured but she still has a lot of fun and gets to meet new kids her age.  She definitely looks forward to it each week.  I do have a video of her during her class, I will try to get that uploaded sometime soon.  She is getting very excited for all the holidays coming up.   Her and Jack's costumes came in the mail last week, and I am so glad they both fit them perfectly.  Jack will be a little wolf and l.ydia is little red riding hood.   We will be carving pumpkins for the first time this year and I think we will try to make some treats to share like we did last year.   I hope the weather is nice, we will be trying to trick or treat around our new neighborhood this year.

I couldn't be happier with our new neighborhood.  It is so nice having my brother and sister in law right around the corner too.  We are able to watch each others kids any time with ease, go on walks or have each other over for dinner at a moments notice - I love that.  Our neighbors directly behind up were a TREMENDOUS help with our yard.  He was over every day that we were raking or laying sod and worked his butt off right along side us until it was done.  We get a long great with all our neighbors and everyone is really friendly.  We have already had a few neighborhood BBQs, a block party and a game night Saturday night on our block.  Just what I hoped for when moving into this neighborhood.  The only downside to this area is there is no park.  I really hope that the city will make an exception for this area as it has and continues to grow so much, and most of the families here have young children, as well as the fact that there are no parks even within bike or walking distance of this neighborhood.

I have been taking photography classes for the last month.  I just completed Rock Your Camera - Shooting 101 on Sunday and today started the next class which is Shooting 201, each class lasts 4 weeks with weekly lessons, assignments, videos and print outs.  I have learned so much already in such a short amount of time.    I really enjoy it a lot and I hope to continue to grow in this new skill.  I would like to take a class every month or every other month until I have taken all those that I would like to.   I am interested in taking an Adobe Lightroom class, Photoshop class, some processing classes, and a lighting course, then hopefully some creativity and composition type classes.   I took this class to learn how to better use my Nikon D40 DSLR camera, now ironically I don't feel like my awesome camera is up to par.. lol    The D40 was a first generation camera for Nikon and as you can imagine in the last 5 years the newer technology has come a long way.   I have the oldest camera in my class and I feel a bit lacking in some aspects with my limited settings.  I am asking for a Nikon D7000 for my 10th anniversary present next year.  ;)

Jack & Lydia are both doing great.  Both are growing like weeds, especially Jack.  I can barely keep up with this child's feet! As soon as I get him new shoes he seems to grow out of them.   He has such a funny personality and just loves to be like Daddy.   He wants to carry around Daddy's tools and wear Daddy's baseball caps.  :)   He knows lots of animal sounds and is surprising us with new words all the time.  No sentences yet.   Jack LOVES ice.  Silly boy.  He could munch ice cubes all day.   He does not share very well and likes to do hid pterodactyl screech when he isn't getting his way with his sister or cousin.  He is a great eater, probably better than his sister until just recently.  I think Lydia is going through a growth spurt too.  Jack loves to read books and make funny faces, but he is probably most known for his serious face and frowny brows.  He is due for his second hair cut soon, we will be taking him in before my brother's wedding for sure.

Lydia loves dressing up and changes into some kind of a dress usually at least once a day.  :)   She likes to pretend to be a ballerina with all seriousness.  When she is in the mood to pay attention she can read simple 2 and 3 letter words and does really well with her reading lessons.  She loves art and does a great job coloring and drawing.  She has been a great help to me with my photography class since her brother will NOT sit still or look at me long enough to get my settings how I want them before taking a picture.  Lydia is so good with her brother and is a great helper to me.  Such a sweet heart!  Both the kids absolutely love the yard and enjoy being outdoors so much.  I am a bit sad we didn't get to get out and go camping or go anywhere fun this year besides Rapid since we were so strapped with the yard for time and finances.  Next year will be a blast though and Jack will be at an age then where he will really be able to enjoy everything I think.

We also celebrated Ryan's parents 25th wedding anniversary last month.  We had a party at a local restaurant with a lot of family.  It was great to see everyone together and I was able to get some nice pictures of the family together.

Here are some photos from the last month.  Enjoy!

1. Back Yard between house and shop.

 2. Back yard

 2. Back Yard - Shop

 3. Back Yard

 Right Side Yard

 Left Yard

 Left Yard

 House & Shop