Photography

So....I'm not sure why it has been so hard for me to keep up with this blogging thing. Probably because so much has happened and I would like to include everything that I didn't blog about, like our Disney trip, the holidays, our upcoming baby and I just don't know where to start. I guess for now I will just tell myself that I missed my chance and so I need to just move forward with the present. And so I will start with that. Here's to me I guess, and my latest!

I am currently taking my second photography course at Pikes Peak Community College and I'm finally learning the stuff I wanted to learn in my present course! So here are some of my favorite pictures and I hope you like them!

New Years Resolution

HELLO BLOG!!!

I just finished making a book on blurb of our family trip to Disney World and I cannot wait to get it! This made me realize that I haven't even posted about our trip, Isaac's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. In fact, I didn't even make any new years resolutions....uh, WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING???!!! This needs to remedied immediately and so I propose my new years resolution: to make at least posts a month on my blog (one for each family member) so that when I publish my blog in a book I have a family journal of what went on in our sometimes crazy sometimes mundane lives. My family is EVERYTHING to me and I am realizing how quickly my babies are growing and I simply MUST preserve memories of these times that are fleeting. I mean, Ashton has all ready learned to right his name, spell all his family members names and read simple words. Isaac is potty trained and using the cutest sentences and expressions and because I didn't record them immediately, the memories will fade exponentially over time. SAD.

Also, I did get a flip camera for Christmas which I LOVE because it's sooooo much easier for me to upload to the computer. So even though videos won't be in my preserved blog books, they can be available for anyone (especially my kids) to see. So here's to January, the month of goals, resolutions, and faith in ourselves.

Ashton's First Pick up-line

I was shopping at Gymboree yesterday and the store has a little section for kids with a couple of chairs and a TV. Ashton sat down and seconds later a girl sat next to him. This is what overheard.

Ashton: Elephants have trunks you know.

Girl: I know. I'm six. How old are you?

Ashton: I'm three.

I'm not sure what I thought was funnier. Earlier that morning I played a teletubby video in my room (Isaac picked it out at the library) so I could get ready. A few minutes into I asked the kids what they thought. Isaac was GLUED and laughing. I didn't need an answer from him. Ashton on the other hand looked at me and said, "I think this is SCARY!!!".

Stress

I don't know why but I have been stressed out ever since our amazing trip to Disney World. I just feel like since we moved I haven't been on top of things the way I usually am. There is so much I want to do, so many projects I want to finish and books I want to read. I would love to finally get settled into the house (still no pictures up and still some organizing to do). I'm not caught up in my photography class and would love to just sit down and read many unfinished chapters. Not to mention getting pics out to those who have suckered me into taking their pictures. I'm starting a military wives support group and am hosting a dinner at the house next week to kick it off. Stress. Not to mention that Issac is two TODAY (which will get it's own more positive post). I have the party to plan and costumes for Halloween to finish. Young Women in Excellence is less than a week away and I am NOT ready for that either. I'm trying to get the budget all caught up after four months of neglect (our fabulous YNAB program is on the desktop which was in storage for months). Ugh! I just feel like I could drown in all this stuff. I think what I'm most sad about is that I don't do my daily projects with the kids....It's moments like these when I consider how crazy I am for wanting another baby. I can just feel relief all bolstered up and ready to flood in when Tyler finishes his very last week of training TOMORROW. Something about him reigns in my anxiety and fills me with such a positive perspective. And insanely enough I feel slightly better after unloading my brain on this post!

Here's the skinny

We moved into our new home four weeks ago! We LOVE it! It is beautiful and just the right size for us. The owners took great care of the house and especially the lawn, plus we have lots of beautiful parks close to us! I have been busy in Young Womens and am also enjoying a photography class at the community college. I have lots of pics I'd like to post but we'll have to do on another day. Ashton started preschool with an exchange group with members of our church, and Isaac is talking more and more everyday. Tyler got home yesterday after almost 11 straight weeks of out of state training and as for the rest of us, our three days of puke fest are over and we are off to Disney World this afternoon for an amazing week of fun and best of all, being together as a family!!!!

JDRF

For the last couple of years my brothers and their band Studio 7 has played at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk-a-thon fundraiser. They are getting really good and played for several hours. What's crazy is that two of the band members have junenile diabetes, the second one being diagnosed after they first played for JDRF. Anyways, there was a lot of activites, the walk itself, good music and a yummy lunch. It made for a really fun morning. Plus I got to try out my camera skills. I am currently taking a photography class so almost all the pictures I took were a result of my handiwork. So if some of pictures are out of focus or overexposed that's why...I hate to admit it but I lose A TON of pictures to overexposure :(!

The Balloon Classic

Colorado Springs holds an annual Hot Air Balloon Classic over Labor Day Weekend. I loved going as a kid and now that we are here I just HAD to wake my boys up for a special surprise.

Ashton LOVED running to the inflating balloons for a photo shoot. He did it again and again!

Unfortunately it was dangerously windy so the balloons didn't take off but we still had fun and we have been lucky enough to spy a few hot-air balloons since floating new my parents home since!

The Spinning Chair

A couple of weeks ago the boys put on their uncles sweet shades and took turns spinning eachother in my parents study on the computer chair. After several minutes they both climbed on and asked me to spin them...I was a little leery because they had both finished a huge dinner but I thought to myself "kids handle spinning way better than adults do" it was very logical to me! So I spun and spun and they chanted "faster, faster!!!"

Can you see his brother in the reflection of his glasses?
He's THRILLED!!!!

Another several minutes passed and then I was kicked by a spinning leg. I fell over and pretended to be hurt so I could sucker them in for a few hugs and kisses. My plan worked. They scurried off the chair, ran over and jumped on top of me. Isaac came in for the first kiss and as I puckered up I saw his lips seperate and his mouth got wider and wider. It was seriously in slow motion. I began to yell "NO!!!!!" My mouth opened at just the WRONG moment! Vomit came pouring in. I sat up quickly but it kept coming, EVERYWHERE. My hair, down my shirt, on my skirt on the floor...I ran him to bathroom whith Ashton close on our heels. Isaac is almost through when Ashton says "awwwww! There's puke EVERYWHERE!!!" and then he starts hurling....EEEEWWWWW!

Note to parent: Never indulge your kid in a "spinning chair". It's not worth it!

Lazy me....

No posts for me for months now! I guess I have just been down right lazy since we moved from Texas. So for those of you who don't know Tyler finished up his intern year in general surgery the beginning of July and recieved our next assignment as Flight Surgery at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs. So while we are not thrilled at being forced to delay residency we are grateful to be in Colorado Springs with TONS of family :).

Unfortunately we recieved orders so late that the AF was overbooked to move us until the end of July which didn't work for us since we had my brother's wedding to attend mid July. This meant an unepected DITY move (do it yourself). We made arrangments through ABF where we loaded a trailer and they drive it out for you. Would have been perfect if they hadn't given us a broken ramp which ended up crushing Tyler's hand...(torn flesh, broken bones, severed nerves...wonderful!). In any case we had lots of friends and family come to our rescue and left two days after the accident...right on schedule! I have been staying at my in-laws and my parent's house over the last few months for a few reasons. #1- Tyler was sent back to Texas that very same month for a 2 month training and #2 The cute house that we chose to rent wasn't going to be available until Sept. 20. I am very excited to have my family back (for a little while) and hopefully will be able to establish some normal routines again and stop being so LAZY. So rather than try to post what all we have been up to over the last couple of months I will do a couple of entries that will definitely be out of choronological order...

Toddler Talk

Yesterday morning we asked Ashton what he wanted to do that day. He said with a sad face "We can't go to Sea World because we don't have passes....(happily) but we can go to SAM'S!!!!". I didn't know the two were comparable!