Christmas Pictures

I made up my mind a long time ago that I would take my kids pictures myself instead of paying someone else. It's a long and crazy process, but I think I got some pretty good ones.



Batman birthday!

It's hard to believe it, but my baby boy turned 4 years old. He has become such a hilarious and curious kid. He asks questions all the time about anything he can think of. He always has an answer for any question you ask him, and the answers are usually pretty funny. So when we asked him what he wanted the theme for his birthday party to be we had no idea what the answer would be. Well, he chose Batman.

Adam, being the comic book enthusiast that he is, was all too excited when he heard his answer. So, between his nerdiness and my creativity, we gave him a pretty good party...I think. :)

(I've been making their cakes, but Clark was very adamant about getting this one.)

He's growing up so quickly!

Wedding!

Last month I got to witness a beautiful wedding between Alyssa and Austin. Well, I did more than witness it. I captured it forever in photos! I wanted nothing more than to get every detail...every moment and make it where the happy couple had photos they could cherish for the rest of their life. 





The Stay at Home Mom goes to work

Let me start off by saying that being a stay at home mom is the hardest job I have ever had. It is also the most rewarding. I just wish one of those rewards was money. That being said, I have chosen to get a job...that pays...in money. Actually, I chose to search for a job and by some miracle my now employer chose me.

 It took me a long time to find something that was right for me and my family. I desperately wanted to continue staying home but since that wasn't an option, I needed something that would let me be at home with my kids as much as possible. I had interview after interview for jobs that either needed me there 6 days a week, had completely random hours with different days every week, had horrible pay, or were just too far away. It was exhausting and disheartening.

Finally I came across a job post that sounded too good to be true. It was in an office, the pay was great, it was only 30 minutes away, I would only have to be away from the kids 3 days a week(one of which Adam would be home with them), and the babysitter's house was on the way there! I applied immediately, got a call for an interview, and the rest is pretty self explanatory.

I just finished my 2nd week and so far I'm pretty pleased. I enjoy what I do, the feedback I get from the customers tells me that it is a consistently good company, and everybody that I work with seems like good people. There are moments I'm missing with the kids and it puts a little more on Adam's plate but I think that this is the best thing for everybody.

Let's hope that everything keeps going smoothly. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Fall

Fall. Autumn. Whatever you call it, it's my favorite season of the year. I especially like the beginning of Fall when most everything is still green but there are little pieces of red, yellow, orange, and brown popping up all over the place.

(The creek in front of our home)

I love seeing that one tree that's changing it's style before every other tree.

Seeing that one uniquely orange leaf surrounded by it's uniformed green peers.

To me, it's a thing of real beauty.

(Beauty in our back yard)



My big guy

For me, this year has been full of big milestones for my kids. Clark got potty trained, Loralei turned 1, and now Clark has started Pre-K. Being a stay-at-home mom who spends pretty much every minute with her kids, I was a little hesitant toward him going...being away from me...having someone else teach him new things. Even though that overbearing/overprotective voice was in my head I know that it will be good for him to be away from me a little...listening to someone else teaching him. So I embraced it and let Clark participate in all the things we had to do to get ready.

We went to the store to get all of his supplies and he got to pick them all out. He picked out his own backpack and what clothes he would wear on his first day. I was constantly working how fun preschool was going to be into conversations to try to get him excited and ... it all worked!

Adam took the day off and we both walked him to his classroom. When we started saying goodbye Clark got confused and asked where we were going, but that was as far as it went. He went with his teacher to wash his hands and eat his breakfast and we walked out the door. He was such a strong guy but that didn't stop me from crying like a baby when we got to the car. I'm just glad I have 3 more years before Loralei starts!

He comes home talking about his new friends and the fun he has with his teachers. He's growing more and more everyday and I couldn't be more proud.





Divorce

I was watching reruns of Sex and the City (insert laugh here) and Charlotte's soon to be ex-mother-in-law was talking to her about marriage and divorce. I tried and failed to find the exact quote. It went something like this:

I come from a generation where marriage actually meant something. When you said the vows 'til death do us part' you actually meant it. Now it's 'til times get hard.

As much as I love Charlotte, I happen to agree with the old shrew. Marriage should not be something that can be so easily thrown away. Now I know there are certain things that merit divorce, abuse and infidelity being the main 2, but the number one reason listed on divorce papers is 'irreconcilable differences'. I think divorce has gotten so common that people enter their marriage with the thought "if it doesn't work out we can always get divorced". If you enter into it with doubt then that doubt is gonna pop into your head every time a problem comes about.
I guess my question is, do you really want to look back on your life and say
'I altered the life of every member of my family because times got hard and I just felt like giving up'?