Where we were and where we're going

Where we've been:

We moved and had a baby and celebrated our first anniversary and Abby started a new school and made new friends and we visited Minnesota (not as often as I would like, but more than I thought we would have time for considering that one: it's hard to travel any distance when you're a billion months pregnant and two: it's hard to travel with a baby - but not as hard as one might think considering he was in MN 4 times in 6 months!). We celebrated a wedding and a college graduation.  We managed to stay gainfully employed in tough economic times and we avoided any major illnesses and broken bones.  We gained a new niece and lost one fine lady.

Through it all we have loved each other and our life with much gusto and passion.

I sat down a couple of nights ago to look through all of the pictures from this year, trying to summarize 2010, and I found that I had so many milestones to document each month that I had far more pictures pulled aside than I was going to have time to edit.  And it would have made for an awfully long blog post!  So, instead, I challenged myself to find one picture from each month that summarized our family the best.

And let me tell you...it. was. hard.  So much happens on a daily basis in our house - the kiddos change pretty much every time I turn around and we were busy this year.  So dang busy.  Some months we crammed more into 4 weeks than should be humanly possible without the aid of science. 

And I would not change any one moment - the good and the bad and the funny and the scary and the exciting and the terrifying - for all of the money in the galaxy.

 

 

 

 

Where we're going:

I am never very good with change.  It makes my stomach hurl and my toes curl.  That being said, I think that the adventures that 2011 holds for us are way beyond my wildest imagination and I am (semi) prepared to embrace the changes that are floating on the wind just beyond our finger tips.

I have some ideas for this blog that I'm going to try to implement this winter (I'm simplifying my own life and dropping a couple of baby pounds, and if I can help you along the way and share some things that work for me...then, hooray!  Because what are we here for if not to make life easier for each other, right?).  I planted some tulips that I'm going to watch bloom this spring and I have plans for a family vacation that will need to be finalized as the snow melts.  I've got a baby turning 1 this summer.  And by the fall, I'll have a girl solidly planted in the final stages of tween-hood and ready to dive into the throes teen-hood (Lord, help me!).   And I have a husband who I think might be easily swayed to take another mini-holiday with me before the year is over (I kind of feel like we started a tradition and I want to go with it.).

Come along for the ride, friends.  I think you're going to like where this is going...

Where we've been:

We moved and had a baby and celebrated our first anniversary and Abby started a new school and made new friends and we visited Minnesota (not as often as I would like, but more than I thought we would have time for considering that one: it's hard to travel any distance when you're a billion months pregnant and two: it's hard to travel with a baby - but not as hard as one might think considering he was in MN 4 times in 6 months!). We celebrated a wedding and a college graduation.  We managed to stay gainfully employed in tough economic times and we avoided any major illnesses and broken bones.  We gained a new niece and lost one fine lady.

Through it all we have loved each other and our life with much gusto and passion.

I sat down a couple of nights ago to look through all of the pictures from this year, trying to summarize 2010, and I found that I had so many milestones to document each month that I had far more pictures pulled aside than I was going to have time to edit.  And it would have made for an awfully long blog post!  So, instead, I challenged myself to find one picture from each month that summarized our family the best.

And let me tell you...it. was. hard.  So much happens on a daily basis in our house - the kiddos change pretty much every time I turn around and we were busy this year.  So dang busy.  Some months we crammed more into 4 weeks than should be humanly possible without the aid of science. 

And I would not change any one moment - the good and the bad and the funny and the scary and the exciting and the terrifying - for all of the money in the galaxy.

 

 

 

 

Where we're going:

I am never very good with change.  It makes my stomach hurl and my toes curl.  That being said, I think that the adventures that 2011 holds for us are way beyond my wildest imagination and I am (semi) prepared to embrace the changes that are floating on the wind just beyond our finger tips.

I have some ideas for this blog that I'm going to try to implement this winter (I'm simplifying my own life and dropping a couple of baby pounds, and if I can help you along the way and share some things that work for me...then, hooray!  Because what are we here for if not to make life easier for each other, right?).  I planted some tulips that I'm going to watch bloom this spring and I have plans for a family vacation that will need to be finalized as the snow melts.  I've got a baby turning 1 this summer.  And by the fall, I'll have a girl solidly planted in the final stages of tween-hood and ready to dive into the throes teen-hood (Lord, help me!).   And I have a husband who I think might be easily swayed to take another mini-holiday with me before the year is over (I kind of feel like we started a tradition and I want to go with it.).

Come along for the ride, friends.  I think you're going to like where this is going...

He's no E-Trade baby, but he's getting close.

A couple of weeks ago, we had some stuff to bring in from the car, so we put Finn in his crib with the mobile on to occupy him for a few minutes while we ran back and forth from the house to the outsides.

Let me clarify.  North to south...we put him in his crib with his little head at the top and his little toes at the bottom and his baby buns on the mattress. And then we left the room to scurry around like mice while he talked to the frog and the parrot and the monkey and listened to some Bach (I'm all about the idea that  classical music grows little brain cells).

When Uriah went to check on him a few minutes later, this is what he found:

Finn had completely turned himself east to west and flipped over on his belly.  Uriah yelled for me to come down the hall, and I, of course, immediately thought that Finn had gotten out of his crib and was surfing the web on the computer in his room (I fancy him the e-trade baby).

I squelched my disappointment that he wasn't trading stocks.  We stared at each other, astonished, because he'd never flipped himself over before regardless of the countless hours of tummy time (read: baby torture if you're somewhat lazy like my boy) that we subject him to on a daily basis.

I guess you have to crawl before you can walk (literally, in Finn's case) so, we'll work on the rolling over skill some more and then we'll move on to manipulating the mouse, perusing the web and trading stocks on the internet.

A couple of weeks ago, we had some stuff to bring in from the car, so we put Finn in his crib with the mobile on to occupy him for a few minutes while we ran back and forth from the house to the outsides.

Let me clarify.  North to south...we put him in his crib with his little head at the top and his little toes at the bottom and his baby buns on the mattress. And then we left the room to scurry around like mice while he talked to the frog and the parrot and the monkey and listened to some Bach (I'm all about the idea that  classical music grows little brain cells).

When Uriah went to check on him a few minutes later, this is what he found:

Finn had completely turned himself east to west and flipped over on his belly.  Uriah yelled for me to come down the hall, and I, of course, immediately thought that Finn had gotten out of his crib and was surfing the web on the computer in his room (I fancy him the e-trade baby).

I squelched my disappointment that he wasn't trading stocks.  We stared at each other, astonished, because he'd never flipped himself over before regardless of the countless hours of tummy time (read: baby torture if you're somewhat lazy like my boy) that we subject him to on a daily basis.

I guess you have to crawl before you can walk (literally, in Finn's case) so, we'll work on the rolling over skill some more and then we'll move on to manipulating the mouse, perusing the web and trading stocks on the internet.

We survived the holidays...

...Did you?

After 6 days of vacation and 19 hours in the car and one round of flu and extra inches of fluffy snow and an epic adventure of baby poop in an Iowa "restroom" and 11 adults, 3 kiddos, and 2 dogs sleeping under one roof, we made it safely back home last night.

Uriah unloaded a car stuffed with all sorts of kid toy-joy and I sorted mountains of laundry (which Abby is going to start for me today in between singing lessons with Selena Gomez via Wii Sing-It.).  There really isn't anything more lovely than falling into your own soft, sweet-smelling bed (because you were thoughtful enough to put clean sheets on before you left - Thank you, Self!) except, maybe, falling back into that soft, sweet-smelling bed at 4 am after the teething baby finally falls back to sleep (For the record, in case you didn't get the memo, teething sucks.).

I have 1.7 million pictures to go through and edit from our week in the Arctic Tundra, and a ton of stories to organize, but for now, let me share with you what Christmas really is all about:

{Christmas Joy | 12.25.10}

 Merry (belated) Christmas!   

...Did you?

After 6 days of vacation and 19 hours in the car and one round of flu and extra inches of fluffy snow and an epic adventure of baby poop in an Iowa "restroom" and 11 adults, 3 kiddos, and 2 dogs sleeping under one roof, we made it safely back home last night.

Uriah unloaded a car stuffed with all sorts of kid toy-joy and I sorted mountains of laundry (which Abby is going to start for me today in between singing lessons with Selena Gomez via Wii Sing-It.).  There really isn't anything more lovely than falling into your own soft, sweet-smelling bed (because you were thoughtful enough to put clean sheets on before you left - Thank you, Self!) except, maybe, falling back into that soft, sweet-smelling bed at 4 am after the teething baby finally falls back to sleep (For the record, in case you didn't get the memo, teething sucks.).

I have 1.7 million pictures to go through and edit from our week in the Arctic Tundra, and a ton of stories to organize, but for now, let me share with you what Christmas really is all about:

{Christmas Joy | 12.25.10}

 Merry (belated) Christmas!   

Arrived

We arrived just in time for the snow to start flying.

Our alarm went off at 4:00 am on Thursday morning and I rolled over and asked Uriah if we could pretty please just sleep for one more hour because my eyes wanted to stay closed.  As excited as I was to get on the road, I did not want either of us to fall asleep at the wheel (technically, I didn't want Uriah to fall asleep at the wheel because it's a stick and I don't drive it.).  It didn't take much arm twisting, so we snoozed a little bit longer and were on the road by 6:30 (after one small detour back home because I left Finn's diaper bag in his room.  Clearly, he woudn't be content to sit in his pee-pants for 600 miles.).

And now we are home (my Mama's house - no matter where I live - will always be home).  Finneaus has been smothered with Grandma-Grandpa-Auntie-Uncle love and is now napping from the shear exhaustion of it all.  Later, he's going to get his first taste of rice cereal...I can hardly wait!  Abby and Dane are outside sledding in the 4 inches of fluffy snow that fell over night.  Uriah is helping my Dad get ready to go ice fishing and I'm going to dig through some old family picutres (circa 1984!).

I love being home.  Love, love, love it!

We arrived just in time for the snow to start flying.

Our alarm went off at 4:00 am on Thursday morning and I rolled over and asked Uriah if we could pretty please just sleep for one more hour because my eyes wanted to stay closed.  As excited as I was to get on the road, I did not want either of us to fall asleep at the wheel (technically, I didn't want Uriah to fall asleep at the wheel because it's a stick and I don't drive it.).  It didn't take much arm twisting, so we snoozed a little bit longer and were on the road by 6:30 (after one small detour back home because I left Finn's diaper bag in his room.  Clearly, he woudn't be content to sit in his pee-pants for 600 miles.).

And now we are home (my Mama's house - no matter where I live - will always be home).  Finneaus has been smothered with Grandma-Grandpa-Auntie-Uncle love and is now napping from the shear exhaustion of it all.  Later, he's going to get his first taste of rice cereal...I can hardly wait!  Abby and Dane are outside sledding in the 4 inches of fluffy snow that fell over night.  Uriah is helping my Dad get ready to go ice fishing and I'm going to dig through some old family picutres (circa 1984!).

I love being home.  Love, love, love it!

Oh Christmas tree, my Christmas tree...

Who takes down their Christmas tree 4 days before Christmas?

This girl does.

It was a lonely looking little Charlie Brown with only lights on it and a tote of ornamnets sitting forlornly next to it.  We will be in Minnesota on Thursday and I know that between now and then we are not going to decorate that tree (because Abby is already with Emily and Jerad and I shopped today and tomororw I have to pack and and do laundry and Uriah has some last minute cooking to do.). 

Who am I kidding...it's still depressing.

Who takes down their Christmas tree 4 days before Christmas?

This girl does.

It was a lonely looking little Charlie Brown with only lights on it and a tote of ornamnets sitting forlornly next to it.  We will be in Minnesota on Thursday and I know that between now and then we are not going to decorate that tree (because Abby is already with Emily and Jerad and I shopped today and tomororw I have to pack and and do laundry and Uriah has some last minute cooking to do.). 

Who am I kidding...it's still depressing.