Cousints

We were in Utah this weekend, hanging with family and watching conference. I had a couple photo sessions too. The wind was SUPER crazy, but we still got some great shots which I will post later. My logo watermark went the way of all the earth when the computer crashed and I have yet to make a new one-- on my to-do list! The kids always have such a fun time with "Cousints" they both call them. We stayed with Marshall and Tiffany and the kids were so good to play together. We had a little "grill party" with Marshall's Raclette and ate way too many Reese's Easter eggs.

Lists...

I don't know why but I have always loved making lists and checking stuff off the lists. Weird, I know. In 2011 I made a list of 52 things to do in 2011. It went well, but a lot of the things weren't things you could "check off" perse. So for 2012 I tried to pick all things that I could check off. Since we are to the end of March and a quarter of the way through the year, I thought I would see how I'm doing on THE LIST!

1. Organize the daily docket into an actual book that I can carry with me
2. Finish decorating the boys room
3. Read at least 1 book a month
4. Make some cool HDR prints
5. Make homemade pasta
6. Give myself/get a pedicure once a month
7. Finish my wedding book - It's coming in the mail any day!!
8. Get a deep freezer My husband is excited for all the food I'm going to fill it with!
9. Save for our family trip to Disneyland in December
10. Make curtains for the dining room
11. Do indexing once per month
12. Make Jacob a big boy blanket
13. Lose 5-8 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight (I'm down 2 lbs!)
14. Get new family pictures taken in the fall
15. Get/make a new apron
16. Read the Bible all the way through
17. Set up blocks on the computer to limit internet use
18. Set up a reward/chore chart for the kids
19. Try 6 new vegan recipes
20. Do a newborn photo shoot with the baby
21. Take hand prints of the kids
22. Hang a decoration on the wall above our bed
23. Set up a hanging system for my backdrops
24. Make a composting bin!
25. Grow my own flowers from seed They are planted!
26. De-clutter the basement
27. Make five crafts I've pinned from pinterest
28. Do 3 service projects
29. Get out my camera and take a picture and video of my kids at least weekly
30. Back up all my files
31. Make a blurb book for 2011
32. Make a list of family activities for 2012 and do them all
33. Find some cute decorations to put by my front door
34. Deep clean once a month
35. Help the kids set and accomplish goals for the New Year
36. Increase food storage
37. Plant grape vines in the garden
38. Make a Christmas calendar of all the things that need to be done before Christmas that I can use every year
39. Use the cash envelope system
40. Try 3 recipes from my Babycakes cookbook
41. Do a Jillian Michael's 30 day shred after the baby
42. Teach Jake all the letter sounds
43. Freeze leftover foods/veggies and turn them into soup
44. Go to Yellowstone Park
45. Make my husband feel special
46. Get a swing set for the backyard
47. Fix the paint in Claire's room
48. Stretch the carpet in the living room
49. Make freezer meals
50. Get a new plate/cup set
51. Think of something awesome to celebrate our 10 year anniversary
52. Do something I've never done before

There are several I am close to finishing. I will be posting a lot of my projects on here.

20 things to do at Christmas

This is number 38. on my "52 things to do in 2012" list. I seem to ALWAYS forget something at Christmas time. Last year I forgot to have the kids decorate gingerbread houses. I have the worst memory! So I made a list of everything I want to remember to do during Christmas time. Hopefully it will help me plan things out a bit better. And I think I need to just start Christmas in September?! You can download it here.

day four of the cleanse...sugar free desserts

I'm going strong on day four of This cleanse and I found a couple of yummy recipes. Both are pinterest finds...gosh I love pinterest!


These blueberry bars were nice for something sweet, but
I wouldn't say the texture is right on.Still yummy.



But boy oh boy were these fudgesicles a huge hit. Jake at this moment is pinching my nose saying chocolate popsicle over and over, unfortunately I only made three. These are SO easy just cocoa, banana and coconut(or other nut) milk. I was thinking I might even freeze some coconut milk in cubes so I could throw it all in the blender to make a smoothie. No sugar, super easy and my kids love it makes them a MUST TRY.

Bless my soul...

I'm doing another one of these cleanses again. No sugar, dairy, meat, or gluten. Which pretty much leaves fruits and veggies! I really want to get below my pre-pregnancy weight and get back in shape!



I'm also doing Jillian Michael's work-out video. I'm on week four of Ripped in 30. I'm definitely seeing a difference, but I have so far to go. I've been doing double workouts. I really need to set a specific deadline to get me really motivated. At this point it's just so I can be presentable and maybe even look GOOD in a bathing suit this summer.

February Pictures

Here is the baby quilt I made to match the boys room. I still need to post pictures of their room, but it's still not exactly how I want it. Will it ever be? But here is the color scheme. It's supposed to have a mid-evil dragon feel, hence the green, but it totally has not turned out like that at all!


I love this picture of the kids. Chris took it while we were sledding. Love those kids, despite how much they can go at it, they sure are good buddies. Claire was praying last night and said please bless that I can be a good example to my two little brothers. Her prayers have been so heart felt lately and they melt my heart. It gives me a quick feeling, and I mean quick that maybe we are doing alright as parents.



And finally the Chevron wall. I love the way this turned out in Claire's room, I mixed the blue/grey color myself.

Updating!

Things are changing around here. First off I have a 6 year old who has got one seriously loose tooth! Strike that! In the last 12 hours when I started this post, she lost it! She was biting into a piece of sausage at breakfast. She is SO excited and already has it under her pillow. I will miss her little perfect smile as she starts to grow into that awkward phase when your grownup teeth are just a bit too big for your face. But she is so excited. We took her 6 year pictures and are finally getting around to posting them because of change number 2.



I got a new computer. FINALLY! Our MAC crashed before Christmas, then we got a new IMAC that came with a broken drive so we had to return that. And it's finally taken me until now to get a new one. Mainly because I had to do some serious soul searching. I love macs. I grew up on macs, I've even converted a few people to macs. But after having SO much trouble to repair/replace those two, plus the fact that we couldn't get hardly any money out of our old mac even if we fixed it, I realized I wanted to try something different.
So now I have a windows laptop. Weird. But it's oh so nice. Plus it has more memory than the Imac AND it was about HALF the cost! It's nice to be back to editing. I have been going through withdrawls because I haven't had photoshop since December.
So with my new computer I feel like I can do all sorts of new things, one of which includes updating my blog. I'm going to go public again. I don't know, there's the whole safety issue, but I kind of feel like if someone really wanted to stalk me, there are plenty of ways they could find out about me or my kids other than the blog. I just feel like my blog hasn't been as much of an outlet as it used to be because I feel like no one reads it, and I want to combine my photography blog with my family blog to make it easier. I want it to be a fun outlet like it used to be. I have always loved writing so there you go. (Plus I might be changing up things with my photography biz)Changes all over the place! Which brings me to this little guy...



Isn't he big! He's huge and so alert and smiling. He ADORES Claire. It's so cute. He is already wanting to use his legs to jump, and he hates to have his carseat covered, he wants to see everything. He is such a sweetheart, he's on a really good schedule right now, sleeping great and happy. Poor thing has the worst excema! I've tried everything and it's still bad I might have to take him in to the Dr.