Week 52: A Year in Review

Another year is ending.  It's been a good year - full of laughs, tears, hard work, overall craziness, and fun.

I fulfilled some of my resolutions/goals for the year - start and maintain a blog, complete my photography class, try my hand at tutoring, start an etsy business.  Some goals I did ok on - eat at least 3 fruits/veggies per day (pathetic I can't hardly meet that one, I know. . .), 100% visiting teaching, exercise at least 3 times a week, find new activities to do with our son.  Others I failed miserably at - take a picture every day, try at least 2 new recipes a month.  But hey, there's always next year, right? 

 

We still didn't finish the countless little things left to do in the kitchen,

but we did gut the basement and build it up again into a comfortable living space.

Alex went from a crawling, babbling baby boy with only two front teeth,

to a handsome boy who runs around tearing apart the house, demanding juice in fractured sentences. . .and yes, we do believe in good oral hygiene at our house. . . 

We had our struggles with infertility, ventured into the world of adoption, only to be completely surprised to find out that we were expecting.  Being pregnant while taking care of a very active toddler has been. . .challenging to say the least.  I honestly have no idea how women with multiple kids handle being pregnant.  Thank goodness my wonderful husband has been amazing as always and patiently stood by my side, even during those bad hormonal moments when I get mad at him for no particular reason, or when I turn into the Hulk because I haven't eaten anything in the past four hours and I NEED FOOD RIGHT THIS SECOND OR I WILL DIE!! . . .yeah, I'm not the best pregnant woman. . . 

Matt also gave me the best Christmas present ever this year!  He had a scrap piece of granite left over from our kitchen squared up so it will fit in our freezer and bought me some ice cream paddles.  Yeah that's right, I now have the tools to make ColdStone style ice cream at home.  It's pretty awesome!  I have the best husband ever!

Anyway, here's to the New Year!  A clean slate.  A chance to recommit to do a little more and work a little harder.  Here's to being better husbands and wives, parents, sons and daughters, neighbors, and friends.  Here's to strengthening old relationships and hopefully forging new ones.  Here's to creating lasting memories with those that we love most in the coming year.  Here's to finding the courage to take the road less traveled, to do those things that are hard, to stepping outside our comfort zone and maybe not always finding success, but hopefully self esteem, fulfillment, and happiness.  Here's to expanding our minds and improving our bodies.  Here's to becoming a little better physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  Here's to a good 2014!!

Happy New Year and happy photographing!    

Week 51: Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas.

What?!  How did that happen already?

It seemed to come abnormally fast this year.  And since I still have a few neighbor gifts to deliver, I better hurry up before it's too late!  But I will leave you with this:

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911161814001&cid=HPWE121813271

 I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!!

Happy Photographing!

Week 50: Curtains!

Check it out, my latest project.  I finished them today!

Now to finish Christmas presents, make neighbor gifts, tutor, post more items on Etsy, clean the house, finish laundry, keep Alex and baby girl happy, and then maybe one day I can make some throw pillows for the couch.

Happy Photographing!!
    

Week 49: Etsy Store

Hey guess what?  I finally set up my etsy shop!!  There is one whole item up for sale!  Go me!!  Hopefully I'll have more items posted by the end of the week.  Feel free to check it out. . .not that there is much there yet, but there will be soon :) : http://www.etsy.com/shop/ZestyOrangePeel?ref=shop_sugg

I also opened a facebook page.  It doesn't really have anything on it yet either, but hey, we are slowly making progress!

Other than that, I'm not sure I have much else to post.  I didn't even take any pictures this week because I'm a slacker like that.  I finally feel mostly human again - no longer nauseous or completely exhausted - and I've been trying to catch up on all of the house projects and Christmas projects that have been on my list for the last several weeks.  My latest project - more curtains for the downstairs.  Perhaps next week I'll post pictures. . .they will be awesome!

Oh, one other thing!  Matt and I watched a documentary on Nova the other night called "A Walk to Beautiful".  For anyone who is into documentaries - women especially, check it out!  I loved it! The lives of some of the women featured in the show are unbelievable.  It makes all of my problems seem. . .very manageable in comparison. . .and rather pathetic.  I am so incredibly grateful for everything I've been blessed with in my life - a loving husband, supportive family, access to good doctors, a nice house, plenty of food, etc!  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/a-walk-to-beautiful.html

Ok, this post kind of stinks, but Alex is destroying the house and the little girl I tend is getting hungry.  I will try to come up with something more interesting next week!

Happy photographing!

Week 48: Recent Developments

Thanks again for all of the thoughtful comments and well-wishing from last weeks post.  Matt and I are super excited that we are going to have another baby!!  I also apologize if it was a little TMI. . .I debated about how much detail to reveal, but in the end I decided that #1 - in order to truly understand how miraculous it really is, you have to have the background info, and #2 - I know there are at least a couple of you out there struggling with infertility issues and somehow once you're in that boat nothing is too personal, it's always interesting to hear other people's stories.  We really appreciate everything everyone has done for us though - all of the texts, comments, visits, thoughts, and prayers over the past couple months.  We feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives!  

Anyway. . .Thanksgiving came and went far too quickly; far too many calories were consumed (although I still REALLY REALLY want some more turkey), far too much time was spent pouring over Black Friday ads, far too many people were out shopping Friday and for whatever reason I felt the need to join them, but thankfully not too much money was actually spent over the weekend.  (I resisted buying boots and Matt resisted buying that 50" TV he was drooling over. . .)

And Monday it was back to normal life. . .although there were a couple interesting developments:

• I bought a new Christmas tree!  A big fat one!  And the best part?  I found it on KSL for $25.  Oh how I love a good deal!!!
  
  (Ok, it will look a lot better after I decorate it, but still. . .not bad for $25 :) )

• My pants are already getting tight.  This is truly depressing since I didn't have to make any maternity modifications until I was about 6 months along with Alex.  I'm only 14 weeks along and already starting to get a slight baby bump.  Rats.  Oh well, I'm just grateful I am pregnant!

• My baby boy is suddenly all grown up.  We converted his crib into a toddler bed this weekend and surprisingly have had tremendous success.  He has also started doing things for himself - usually they are things that are rather dangerous when I'm not looking, but still.  Yesterday he pushed the stool over to the counter, got out the bread, and made himself two pieces of toast while I was picking up the house.  He also got the gummy vitamin bottle open and helped himself to 10 gummies (thankfully I caught him on that one before he swallowed. . .).  Later that afternoon Alex and his friend managed to climb up on the counter and broke into my chocolate chip stash in the cupboard in the 2 minutes it took his mom and I to follow them upstairs.  Oh that child!  

• Also, I have made it a goal to have my Etsy store up and running by the end of the week.  I've been so tired and nauseous the last month I've had absolutely no motivation to anything.  Now that I'm finally feeling better, I have so many projects I want to catch up on.  If I declare it publicly, I am more likely to follow through. :)  

Happy photographing!